[bodrinot] 



BUILDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



13 



" Although he held some of the most lucrative offices within the gift of 

 the Crown in America, yet he left nothing to his posterity but a repu- 

 tation in which his virtues greatly prevailed over his faults — a reputation 

 not surpassed by that of any succeeding governor under the English 

 sovereignty." 



Halifax was founded by Honourable Edward Cornwallis, on the slope 

 of the hill, whose woods then dipped their branches into the very waters 

 of the noble harbour long known asChebuctou, and renamed in honour of 

 the Earl of Halifax, a member of the Montague family, who was at the 



OLD COUNCIL TABLE IN PROVINCE BUILDING. 



head of the Council of Trade and Plantations, which had in those days 

 full control of the administration of colonial affairs. Colonel Cornwallis, 

 a son of the baron of that name — a man of firmness and discretion — 

 entered the harbour on the 2]8t of June, old style, or 2nd July, present 

 style, and soon afterwards assumed his duties as governor of the 

 province \ The members of his first council were sworn on board one of 

 the transports in the harbour. ^ 



The new town was laid out by Mr. Bruce, the military engineer, and 

 Captain Charles Morris, who had made under the orders of Governor 



1 See Appendix C for copy of royal commission to Governor Cornwallis. 



2 In the sm:ill council chamber, adjacent to the legislative library, in the old 

 province building at Halifax, can still be seen the table round which Cornwallis and 

 his council first deliberated on board the "Beaufort," July 14, 1749. I give a 

 sketch in the text. 



