declaring that with certain restrictions
slavery did exist in the province and investing the owners with full
property in the slave; and that this chamber should also pass such
laws and regulations in the matter as should be thought advisable.[14]

The petition on motion of Messrs. Papineau and Black was referred to a
committee of five, Papineau, Grant, Craigie, Cuthbert and Dumas. The
committee reported and Cuthbert introduced on April 30, 1800, a bill
to regulate the condition of slaves, to limit the term of their
slavery and to prevent further introduction of slavery in the
province. The bill passed the second reading and was referred to the
Committee of the Whole, but got no further. The next year Cuthbert
introduced a similar bill with the same result, and again in 1803. The
reason for the failure of these attempts was that any legislation on
slavery would in view of the decisions of the courts be reactionary
and change for the worse the condition of the slave.

The most celebrated of these decisions was in the case of Robin,
_alias_ Robert, a black. James Fraser, a Loyalist of the colony of New
York, became the owner of Robin a Negro man in 1773, before the
American Revolution. The colonies were successful and provisional
articles of peace were signed November 30, 1782. Congress proclaimed
them April 11, 1783 and it was almost inevitable that they would
become a permanent and definitive treaty. Article VII provided for the
speedy evacuation by the British forces of territory to be allotted to
the United States of America "without carrying away any negroes or
other property of the American inhabitants." There was allowed full
time for everyone who desired to live under the British flag to leave
New York. James Fraser made up his mind to go to Nova Scotia and
obtained a pass from William Walton, the Magistrate of Police of the
city, for his slave Robin and another, Lydia, September 23, 1783.[15]
Fraser went to Shelborne, Nova Scotia, and the following year in
September he went to "the Island of St. John,"[16] accompanied by
Robin who was and acknowledged himself to be Fraser's property.
Afterwards Fraser brought him to the Current of Saint Mary near the
city of Montreal where Fraser became a farmer. Robin, infected with
the pernicious doctrines of freedom then rather prevalent left Fraser,
March 19, 1799, and went to live with Richard, a tavern keeper in
Montreal. Fraser laid an Information before Charles Blake, a