harles Connell. The
legislature having adopted the decimal system of currency in the place
of the pounds, shillings and pence which had been the currency of the
province since its foundation, Mr. Connell, in March, 1860, was
authorized to obtain a new set of postage stamps of the denominations
required for use in the postal service of the province. No person, at
that time, thought that a political crisis would arise out of this
order, but it appears that Mr. Connell, guided by the example of
presidents and postmasters-general of the United States, had made up his
mind that instead of the likeness of the queen, which had been upon all
the old postage stamps of the province, the five-cent stamp, the one
which would be most in use, should bear the impress of his own
countenance. Accordingly the Connell postage stamp, which is now one of
the rarest and most costly of all in the lists of collectors, was
procured and was ready to be used, when Mr. Connell's colleagues in the
government discovered what was going on and took steps to prevent the
new five-cent stamp from being issued. The correspondence on the
subject, which will be found in the journals of 1861, is curious and
interesting; it ended in the withdrawal of the objectionable stamps and
in the resignation of Mr. Connell, who complained that he had lost the
confidence of his colleagues, and in resigning, charged them with
neglecting the affairs of the province. Only a few of the Connell stamps
got into circulation, the remainder of the issue being destroyed. Mr.
Connell's place as postmaster-general was filled by the appointment of
James Steadman.

{RESIGNATION OF MR. FISHER}

In the early part of 1861 a very important event occurred in connection
with the government which produced a lasting effect on provincial
politics. Charges were made by a St. John Conservative paper, _The
Colonial Empire_, in which it was stated that members of the government
and certain Crown lands officials had been purchasing the most desirable
and valuable Crown lands of the province for speculative purposes, and
that in bringing these lands to sale the government regulations had been
violated and the public treasury had suffered. A committee of the House
was appointed to investigate these charges, and inquiry established the
fact that an official of the Crown lands department had purchased some
eight hundred acres. These lands were all bought at public sale, but in
the forms of applicatio