d bickerings between them. The Committee
subsequently appointed by the Assembly to investigate the subject echoed
the popular sentiment when they reported that "a person long in
possession of land, like the petitioner, ought to have been ejected by
the law of the land, which is ample, when impartially administered, for
securing the rights of property, but the interference of the military,
by such acts of violence, for maintaining supposed or contested rights,
is justly regarded with jealousy in all free countries, and ought to be
seriously regarded in a colony where the most unprecedented outrages
have been perpetrated without prosecution, and even followed by the
patronage of the local Government upon the wrong-doers."[91] The
presence of the civil power on the occasion, in the person of the
Sheriff, had been even an aggravation of the offence, for the Sheriff
had thus been made to lend his countenance to the proceeding. As for the
Lieutenant-Governor's action in the matter, he himself was solely to
blame, for his intentions were not made known to the Executive Council,
or, so far as appears, to any member of that body. It was simply and
solely a barefaced and most impudent abuse of authority, the
responsibility for which rests upon no shoulders but his own.

Forsyth had no success in his appeals to the law. He brought two actions
of trespass, one of which was against Sheriff Leonard and Captain
Phillpotts jointly, for removing the fence and blacksmith's shop; and
the other of which was against Captain Phillpotts alone for removing the
fence the second time. Sir Peregrine instructed Attorney-General
Robinson to defend both these suits, and to vindicate the Crown's title
to the reserved land.[92] To effect the latter object in the most formal
and decisive manner, the Attorney-General filed an information for
intrusion against Forsyth, upon which a verdict was rendered in favour
of the Crown. The plaintiff altogether failed in his action against
Phillpotts and the Sheriff, and the decision in that case rendered it
useless for him to proceed with the action against Phillpotts alone.[93]

[Sidenote: 1828.]

While those suits were in progress, Forsyth, finding that public
opinion, if not in his favour, was at least hostile to the
Lieutenant-Governor, sent in a petition to the Assembly, setting forth
the circumstances, and praying for redress. This was during the session
of 1828. The Assembly entertained the petition, and