in Scotland and
America, as well as the honours conveyed by the original patent. This
he attempted to prove in an action in the Court of Session, which was
dismissed in 1830, as was also a similar action for a like purpose in
1833.

But, although not officially recognised, he assumed all the imaginary
privileges of his position, granting to his friends vast districts of
Canadian soil, creating Nova-Scotian baronets at his own discretion,
and acting, if not like a king, at least like a feudal magnate of the
first degree. He caused notice after notice to be issued proclaiming
his rights, and the records of the time are filled with strange
proclamations and announcements, to which his name is attached. As a
rule, these productions are far too lengthy to be copied, and far too
involved to be readily summarized. They have all a lamentably
commercial tone, and invariably exhibit an unworthy disposition to
sacrifice great prospective or assumed advantages for a very little
ready money. Take, for instance, his address to the public authorities
of Nova Scotia, issued in 1831. In it, after informing his readers of
the steps which he had taken to assert his rights, and the prospects
which existed of their recognition, he hastens to observe that
"persons desirous of settling on any of the waste lands, either by
purchase or lease, will find me ready to treat with them on the most
liberal terms and conditions;" and throws out a gentle hint that in
any official appointment he might have to make, he would prefer that
"the persons to fill them should rather be Nova Scotians or Canadians,
than the strangers of England." At the same time he issued numerous
advertisements in the journals, reminding all whom it might concern of
his hereditary rights, and warning the world in general against
infringing his exclusive privileges. At length, having succeeded in
gaining notoriety for himself, he aroused the Scotch nobility. On the
19th of March 1832, the Earl of Rosebery proposed and obtained a
select committee of the House of Lords, with a view of impeding "the
facility with which persons can assume a title without authority, and
thus lessen the character and respectability of the peerage in the
eyes of the public;" and the Marchioness of Downshire, the female
representative of the house of Stirling, forwarded a petition to the
Lords, complaining of the undue assumption of the title by Mr.
Humphreys.

It is somewhat remarkable that the extr