ovince. It is said that Fredericton was chosen to be
the seat of government because Albany, the seat of the Legislature of
New York (from which State the great body of the Loyalists came), is
situated many miles up the River Hudson, and is thus removed from the
distracting bustle, the factious and corrupting influences of the great
commercial metropolis at its mouth."[149]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 149: Chap. xxvi., pp. 260-262.]

CHAPTER XLIV.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

_Prince Edward Island_ was first called by the French St. John's Island,
on account of the day on which the French landed on it; but in 1799 its
name was changed, and it was called Prince Edward's Island in honour of
the Duke of Kent, (William Edward) afterward William IV. After the close
of the American Revolution in 1783, a considerable number of the exiled
Loyalists went to Prince Edward's Island and became merchants and
cultivators of the soil.

"In 1763 the island was incorporated with Nova Scotia; but in 1770 it
was made a separate province, in fulfilment of a curious plan of
civilization. It was parcelled out in sixty-seven townships, and these
were distributed by lottery among the creditors of the English
Government, each of whom was bound to lodge a settler on every lot of
two hundred acres that fell to him. The experiment was not at first very
successful, but gradually the shares passed from the original
speculators to men who knew how to use the rich soil and usually healthy
climate of the island."[150]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 150: Bourne's "Our Colonies and Emigration," Chap. viii., p.
105.]

CHAPTER XLV.

LOWER CANADA.

_Lower Canada_ was first possessed by the French, and under the rule of
France the government was purely despotic, though not cruel or harsh. On
the conquest of Lower Canada in 1759, and its final ceding to England by
the Treaty of Paris, 1763, a military government was instituted, which
continued until 1774, when the famous "Quebec Act" was passed by the
Imperial Parliament, known as the 14th George the Third, Chapter 83; or
as "the Quebec Act"--it was introduced into the House of Lords on the
2nd of May, 1774--"for Making more Efficient Provision for the Province
of Quebec." By the provisions of this famous Act, the boundaries of the
province of Quebec were extended from Labrador to the Mississippi,
embracing in one province the territory of Canada, together with all the
country north-west of the O