in the voting list settlers who were clearing
their lands, but had not yet received their grants. The
elections were held in November, and lasted for fifteen
days. They passed off without incident, except in the
city of St John. There a struggle took place which throws
a great deal of light on the bitterness of social feeling
among the Loyalists. The inhabitants split into two
parties, known as the Upper Cove and the Lower Cove. The
Upper Cove represented the aristocratic element, and the
Lower Cove the democratic. For some time class feeling
had been growing; it had been aroused by the attempt of
fifty-five gentlemen of New York to obtain for themselves,
on account of their social standing and services during
the war, grants of land in Nova Scotia of five thousand
acres each; and it had been fanned into flame by the
inequality in the size of the lots granted in St John
itself. Unfortunately, among the six Upper Cove candidates
in St John there were two officers of the government,
Jonathan Bliss and Ward Chipman; and thus the struggle
took on the appearance of one between government and
opposition candidates. The election was bitterly contested,
under the old method of open voting; and as it proceeded
it became clear that the Lower Cove was polling a majority
of the votes. The defeat of the government officers, it
was felt, would be such a calamity that at the scrutiny
Sheriff Oliver struck off over eighty votes, and returned
the Upper Cove candidates. The election was protested,
but the House of Assembly refused, on a technicality, to
upset the election. A strangely ill-worded and ungrammatical
petition to have the assembly dissolved was presented to
the governor by the Lower Cove people, but Governor
Carleton refused to interfere, and the Upper Cove candidates
kept their seats. The incident created a great deal of
indignation in St John, and Ward Chipman and Jonathan
Bliss were not able for many years to obtain a majority
in that riding.

It is evident from these early records that, while there
were members of the oldest and most famous families in
British America among the Loyalists of the Thirteen
Colonies, the majority of those who came to Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, and especially to Upper Canada, were people
of very humble origin. Of the settlers in Nova Scotia,
Governor Parr expressed his regret 'that there is not a
sufficient proportion of men of education and abilities
among the present adventurers.'