e order was given to fire; several persons were killed and twenty
wounded. Among the latter, by great misfortune, was the Rev. Jeremiah
O'Donnell, who had bravely and patiently tried to calm the mob.

The whole incident was unfortunate, but it is impossible to accept the
contention that Sir Alexander Bannerman was guilty of an
unconstitutional exercise of the prerogative in dissolving the
Assembly. It will not seriously be maintained that the representative
of the Queen could have maintained relations with a Minister who
publicly insulted him in his public capacity, and then curtly declined
to explain or withdraw his charges. As to the sequel, it is sufficient
to say that the civil authorities would have been grossly wanting in
their duty if they had failed to call out the soldiers, and that the
mob were not fired upon until the extreme limits of endurance had been
reached. That innocent persons should have been involved in the
consequences is matter of great regret; but association with a lawless
mob, even when the motive is as admirable as that of Father O'Donnell,
necessarily admits this risk.

It cannot be doubted that deep-lying economic causes had much to do
with political discontent. From the first the financial position of
the colony had been unsound. The short prosperity of the winter months
had produced a vicious and widely-spread system of credit. Soon a
majority of the fishermen lived during the winter upon the prospective
earnings of the coming season, and then when it came addressed
themselves without zest to an occupation the fruits of which were
already condemned. In this way a single bad season pauperized hundreds
of hard-working men. Governor Waldegrave in 1797 had been struck by
the failure of the law to provide for the poor, and owing to his
exertions a voluntary system of poor relief was set on foot. By the
time of Governor Gambier, in 1800, these measures had been
discontinued and, indeed, permanence was not to be looked for in a
system which depended upon voluntary support. The difficulty was that
the Crown officers advised Governor Gambier "that the provision of the
Poor Laws cannot be enforced in Newfoundland; and that the Governor
has no authority to raise a sum of money by a rate upon the
inhabitants."

The evil grew worse rather than better, and by the time of the great
Governor Cochrane, in 1825, it had assumed the form of an inveterate
social disease. Many able-bodied applicants for reli