
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 65 
The grand jury had also the power to raise money for certain public purposes within a 
particular division. Of their own knowledge, or on the representation of three freeholders, 
they could make presentments for money for building or repairing jails, court-houses, 
pounds, or for other necessary local purposes. .In the event of their neglecting to act, in 
certain cases the justices in sessions could amerce the county. The officers appointed at 
the sessions were a county treasurer and assessors. The clerk of the peace, as in England, 
was appointed by the custos, as chairman of the sessions; the office of sheriff was a 
government appointment. Practically, in Nova Scotia, as in the other provinces, the 
English county system prevailed. 
If we now turn to the province of New Brunswick, we find that a similar system 
existed until very recently. This province originally formed part of the extensive 
and ill-defined territory known in French times as “ Acadie” For some years it was 
governed by the governor and council of Nova Scotia, until the settlement of a large 
number of Loyalists on the banks of the St. John River brought about a change in its 
political constitution. Then the imperial authorities thought it expedient to create a 
separate province, with a government consisting, in the first instance, of a governor 
and council of twelve members, exercising both executive and legislative powers, and, 
eventually, of an assembly of twenty-six members. 
On the 18th of May, 1785, a charter was granted by Governor Carleton for the incor- 
poration of Parr Town, on the east side of the St. John River, and of Carleton, on the west 
side, as a city under the name of St. John. The inhabitants were given a mayor, recorder, 
six aldermen and six assistants, and the city was divided into six wards. St. John, 
consequently, was the first city incorporated in British North America, and it remained so 
for many years, as Halifax and other towns were refused the same privileges for a long 
while. 
In 1786 the governor, council and assembly passed an act providing that the 
justices of the general sessions of the peace for the several counties of the province should 
annually appoint, out of every town or parish in the same, overseers, clerk, constables, 
clerks of markets, assessors, surveyors, weighers of hay, fence-viewers. It will be seen 
from this and other acts that the divisions for local purposes consisted of counties, 
townships and parishes. In 1786, an act was passed for the better ascertaining and 
confirming of the boundaries of the several counties within the province, and for 
subdividing them into towns or parishes “ for the more convenient and orderly distribution 
of the respective inhabitants, to enable them, in their respective districts, to fulfil the 
several duties incumbent on them, and for the better administration of justice therein.” 
Town and parish appear to have been always synonymous terms in this province. 
In the interpretation clause of a recent act, “parish” is defined as “parish, incorporated 
town or city.”* This designation of one of the civil divisions of New Brunswick is, no 
doubt, so much evidence of the desire of the early settlers, many of whom were from 
Virginia and Maryland,’ to introduce the institutions of their old homes. In all of the 
British colonies, indeed, the town system had long been in use. In the first instance, the 

1 Murdoch, iii. 42, 2 N.B. Cons. Stat., c. 100, s. i. 
* Among the members of the first council of New Brunswick, 1784, were Chief Justice Ludlow, formerly a 
judge of the supreme court of New York ; Judge Israel Allen, of Pennsylvania; Gabriel G. Ludlow, of Maryland; 
Judge John Saunders, of Virginia. Not a few Virginia Loyalists settled in New Brunswick. Murdoch, iii. 42. 
Sec. IL, 1886. 9. 
