64 JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT ON 
understood from the following extract, which gives the opinion of a rabid writer of those 
revolutionary times. “This is the foulest, subtlest, and most enormous serpent ever issued 
from the egg of sedition. I saw the small seed when it was implanted; it was a grain 
of mustard. I have watched the plant until it has become a great tree.” 
In the course of time the province was divided for legislative, judicial and civil pur- 
poses, as follows :— 
1. Divisions or circuits, generally consisting of one or more counties, for purposes 
connected with the courts. 
2. Districts, generally of one or more townships, established, as a rule, for the con- 
venience of the people, who had the privilege conferred upon them of having a court of 
sessions of the peace for the regulation of their internal affairs. 
3. Counties, generally established for legislative purposes. 
4. Townships, which were simply subdivisions of the county intended for purposes 
of local administration or of representation. 
In each county there was a sheriff and justice of the peace, whose jurisdiction 
extended throughout the same. Each district was generally provided with a court house 
which belonged to the county. The townships did not contain any definite quantity of 
land, as was generally the case in Upper Canada. The inhabitants appear, according to 
Judge Haliburton, “to have had no other power than that of holding an annual meeting 
for the purpose of voting money for the support of the poor.”* Up to very recent times, 
the justices in sessions were practically the local governing bodies in the various divisions 
of the province. Even Halifax was not allowed a special act of incorporation as a city 
until 1841, although its people made frequent applications to the legislature for power 
to manage their own affairs. The time of the legislature was taken up with making 
provision for local wants. All the roads and bridges were built and maintained, and 
the public schools supported by the legislature. The system that so long prevailed, by 
which members of the legislature controlled the expenditures for local works, was well 
calculated to demoralize public men and encourage speculation and jobbery. Large sums 
were frittered away by the appointment of road commissioners with reference only to 
political considerations.’ It was one well adapted to stimulate the energies of village 
politicians, and the spirit of party in the counties. 
As respects local affairs, the people had little or no voice. The grand jury, in the 
court of sessions of the peace, annually nominated such number of persons for town 
officers as the justices should direct, and out of them the latter made the appointments. 

' Daniel Leonard, cited by Hosmer, p. 45. ? Haliburton’s Hist., ii. 8, 9. 
® Murdoch, ii. 449. In 1850 Mr. Howe attempted to pass a bill dividing the county of Halifax into townships, 
and conferring certain municipal privileges upon the inhabitants. The people were to have the power to raise 
funds by assessment for the support of education and for other public purposes, and to elect their own township 
officers, including magistrates. Lord Grey, however, took exception to the measure, and the Queen’s assent was 
withheld. Speeches and Public Letters of Hon. Joseph Howe, i. 642. 
*“ According to a report presented to me by Major Head, an assistant commissioner of enquiry whom I sent to 
that colony [Nova Scotia], a sum of £10,000 was, during the last session, appropriated to local improvements ; this 
sum was divided into 830 portions, and as many commissioners were appointed to expend it, giving, on an aver- 
age, a commissioner for rather more than every £12, with a salary of 5s. a day, and a further remuneration of two 
and a half per cent. on the money expended, to be deducted out of each share.” Lord Durham’s Report, p. 29. 
This demoralising and wasteful system lasted until very recently in Nova Scotia. 
