It appears from a despatch from Lord Durham, then governor general of British North America, which we found at Government House in Charlottetown, and which was not published either at the time or subsequently, that Lord Glenelg forwarded this able report, along with other documents bearing on the subject of escheat, in September, 1838, to his lordship, for the purpose of obtaining his special opinion on the subject, for the guidance of the home government. It is scarcely necessary to premise, before giving this important state document, that Lord Durham is considered the highest authority on those colonial subjects of which he treats in his celebrated report,—a document which will stand for successive generations as a lasting monument of his ability as a statesman, and which has been and is now recognized as embodying the most masterly exposition of colonial questions which has ever been published. “Castle of Saint Lewis, Quebec, 8th October, 1836. “My Lord,—I have had the honor of receiving your despatch of the fifth October, whereby you desire that I will express to you my judgment on the whole subject of escheat in the Island of Prince Edward. After perusing the voluminous documents with your lordship’s despatch, I do not feel that it is in my power to add anything to the very full information on the subject which these documents comprise. The information before me is now so ample that upon no matter of fact can I entertain a doubt. Nearly the whole island was alienated in one day by the Crown, in very large grants, chiefly to absentees, and upon conditions of settlement which have been wholly disregarded. The extreme improvidence—I might say the reckless profusion—which dictated these grants is obvious: the total neglect of the government as to enforcing the conditions of the grants is not less so. The great bulk of the island is still held by absentees, who hold it as a sort of reversionary interest which requires no present attention, but may become valuable some day or other through the growing want of the inhabitants. But, in the meantime, the inhabitants of the island are subjected to the greatest inconvenience—nay, the most serious injury—from the state of the property in land. The absent proprietors neither improve the land themselves, nor will let others improve it. They retain the land and keep it in a state of wilderness. Your lordship can scarcely conceive the degree of injury inflicted on a new settlement hemmed in by wilderness land, which has been placed out of the control of government, and is entirely neglected by its absent proprietors. This evil pervades British North America, and has been for many years past a subject of universal and bitter complaint. The same evil was felt in many of the states of the American Union, where, however, it has been