continued to arrive, until about 5,000 had settled between Parrtown (St.
John) and St. Anne's. The peninsula now occupied by the city of St. John
was then almost a wilderness, covered with shrubs, scrubby spruce, and
marsh. Large numbers of emigrants also arrived at Annapolis, Port
Roseway, and other points; and Governor Parr, in a letter to Lord North
in September, 1783, estimates the whole number that had arrived in Nova
Scotia and the island of St. John (Prince Edward's Island) at 13,000.

"These emigrants included all classes--disbanded soldiers, lawyers,
clergymen, merchants, farmers, and mechanics; all in indigent
circumstances, but willing to build up their own fortunes, and those of
the land of their adoption, by honest labour and industry."[147]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 141: General Description of Nova Scotia. Printed at the Royal
Canadian School, 1825, p. 13.]

[Footnote 142: General Description of Nova Scotia, p. 17.]

[Footnote 143: Bourne's Our Colonies and Emigration, pp. 100, 101.

"The proclamation inviting emigrants to Nova Scotia _guaranteed them the
same form of government and rights as the other colonies_; but owing to
alleged difficulties in the way of electing an Assembly, no Assembly was
chosen, and laws were made and the affairs of the colony were
administered by the Governor and Council, until Chief Justice Belcher
raised the question in 1755, in a letter to the Lords of Trade, as to
the constitutionality of several laws passed by the Governor and Council
without the endorsement of a representative Assembly. The question was
referred to the Attorney and Solicitor-General of England, who decided
that the Governor and Council alone had not the right to make laws, and
that any laws so made were unconstitutional. The Lords of Trade
_advised_ the Governor (Lawrence) to convene an Assembly without delay,
but he objected to it as needless and impracticable; when the Lord of
Trade replied sharply, that he knew their desires on the subject; and as
he did not seem disposed to gratify them, they were obliged to _order
him to do so_; adding, that they knew that many had left the province
and gone to other colonies on account of the discontent at the delay of
calling an Assembly."

In obedience to these instructions, Governor Lawrence brought the
subject before his Council the 20th of May, 1758, and a resolution
(prepared by Chief Justice Belcher the year before) was passed, to the
effect "That a House