1034 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V
those principles and to protect those rights by pursuing a
course similar to that which Her Majesty’s present advisers
deem it their duty to pursue’ The former Act was con-
demned as being an Act passed by a majority to throw the
burden of taxation on an unrepresented minority, while the
latter Act gave the proprietors the option of making over
to the tenant the land itself or of making over a sum which
would go beyond the value of the land. In 1858 another
Act (No. 997) was refused sanction, viz. one to resume the
fishery reserves, certain land along the shore, to the Crown,
although they had for years been treated as private pro-
perty, and to transfer them in fact to the tenants. Sir
Edward Lytton urged the Legislature to abandon these
attempts to settle the question, and to put forward a prac-
ticable scheme.! But although a commission was appointed
to consider the question, and two Bills (Nos. 1105 and 1106)
were passed in 1862 to give effect to their recommendations,
the two Bills failed to become law, as the Imperial Government
regarded them as merely new efforts to deprive the owners,
without adequate compensation, of their holdings of land.
The provisions of the Tenants Compensation Bill were re-
enacted in 18712 and again disallowed, but in 18722 it was
re-enacted and then returned for consideration with certain
suggested amendments ; these amendments were accepted,
and then the Act was permitted to come into operation.
In 1863 an Act (No. 1136) of the province to incorporate
the Grand Orange Lodge of the island was disallowed, the
Secretary of State writing — 5
I deeply regret that the Legislature of Prince Edward
Island should have given its sanction to a class of institutions
which all experience has shown to be calculated, if not actually
intended, to embitter religious and political differences, and
which thus must be detrimental to the best interest of any
' Parl. Pap., H.C. 529, 1864, p. 43.
* 34 Vict. ¢, 9; see Parl. Pap., C. 1351, pp. 1-11.
* 35 & 36 Vict. c. 10; Parl. Pap., C. 1351, pp. 11-38.
! 36 Vict, ¢. 24. For subsequent legislation see Parl. Pap., C. 1351.
1487, 2795; Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, pp. 1151, 1164.
# Parl. Pap., H. C, 529, 1864, p. 46.
