revenue. The legality of
their acts was questioned by Chief Justice Belcher, and he was sustained
by the opinion of the English law officers, who called attention to the
governor's commission, which limited the council's powers. The result of
this decision was the establishment of a representative assembly, which
met for the first time at Halifax on the 2nd October, 1758.

Governor Lawrence, whose name will be always unhappily associated with
the merciless expatriation of the French Acadians, had the honour of
opening the first legislative assembly of Nova Scotia in 1758. One
Robert Sanderson, of whom we know nothing else, was chosen as the first
speaker, but he held his office for only one session, and was succeeded
by William Nesbitt, who presided over the house for many years. The
first sittings of the legislature were held in the court house, and
subsequently in the old grammar school at the corner of Barrington and
Sackville Streets, for very many years one of the historic memorials of
the Halifax of the eighteenth century.

At this time the present province of New Brunswick was for the most part
comprised in a county known as Sunbury, with one representative in the
assembly of Nova Scotia. The island of Cape Breton also formed a part of
the province, and had the right to send two members to the assembly, but
the only election held for that purpose was declared void on account of
there not being any freeholders entitled by law to vote. The island of
St. John, named Prince Edward in 1798, in honour of the Duke of Kent,
who was commander-in-chief of the British forces for some years in North
America, was also annexed to Nova Scotia in 1763, but it never sent
representatives to its legislature. In the following year a survey was
commenced of all the imperial dominions on the Atlantic. Various schemes
for the cultivation and settlement of the island were proposed as soon
as the surveys were in progress. The most notable suggestion was made by
the Earl of Egmont, first lord of the admiralty; he proposed the
division of the island into baronies, each with a castle or stronghold
under a feudal lord, subject to himself as lord paramount, under the
customs of the feudal system of Europe. The imperial authorities
rejected this scheme, but at the same time they adopted one which was as
unwise as that of the noble earl. The whole island, with the exception
of certain small reservations and royalties, was given away by lottery