This parliament was prorogued suddenly and unexpectedly, on the 7th of April, 1817. The sudden prorogation was resorted to because the Assembly had, on the 3rd of April, resolved itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration the state of the province. The propriety or expediency of preventing immigration from the United States, was to be discussed; the management of the Post Office establishment was to be examined into; the manner of the disposal of the Crown and Clergy Reserves was to be looked at; and the granting lands to the volunteer flank companies, and the incorporated militia who served during the late war, was to be investigated. It was resolved to present an address to the Lieutenant-Governor, requesting him to inform the Assembly, whether any orders had been received from England, making an allotment of lands to the volunteer and incorporated militia, who served during the war. The Assembly further resolved that an Act had been passed in the reign of George the Second, for naturalizing such foreign protestants as were then or should thereafter be settled in any of His Majesty's colonies in North America; that an Act had been passed in the thirtieth year of the reign of George the Third, for encouraging new settlers in His Majesty's North American colonies; and that these Acts were expressly enacted for facilitating and encouraging the settlement of His Majesty's American dominions. The good resolutions of the Assembly were, however, frustrated by His Excellency the Governor, who, having assented to several bills, and reserved for His Majesty's pleasure, a bill for a Bank and another to enable creditors to sue joint debtors separately, summoned the Commons to the Bar of the Legislative Council, and thus addressed the Parliament:--The session of the legislature has been protracted by an unusual interruption of business at its commencement and your longer absence from your respective avocations must be too great a sacrifice for the objects which may remain to occupy your attention. I come to close the session and so permit you to return home. In accepting the supply for defraying the deficiency of the funds which have hitherto served to meet the charges of the administration of justice, and support of the civil government of this province, I have great satisfaction in acknowledging the readiness manifested to meet this exigence.