[bourinot] builders OF NOVA SCOTIA 35 



of colonization. Baronets of Nova Scotia were to be created to the num- 

 ber of one hundred and fifty on condition of paying a large fee and 

 settling considerable grants of land attached to the title. ÎSuch a scheme 

 was quite m accordance with the spirit of the age and it might have 

 brought some colonists to the peninsula as well as to Cape Breton, in- 

 cluded in the charter, had Charles of England not handed Nova Scotia 

 back to France in his desire to please her king. ^ The title continued to be 



1 Whilst this work was in the printer's hands, Sir E. MacKenzie-Maunde-Thomp- 

 son of South Yarra, Melbourne, Australia, has kindly sent me a copy of an interesting 

 pamphlet by Major Francis Duncan of the Royal Artillery on " The Royal Province 

 of New Scotland and her Baronets," [1878], from which I make the following extract : 

 " The colonial policy of James I. had in it much of the paternal, as was to be expected 

 in days when the rights of kings were considered divine, but it was also eminently 

 shrewd, far-seeing and commercial. To persuade men to quit their homes, however 

 poor and rough, was in the beginning of the seventeenth century a very different 



thing from what it is now The figuratively mailed hand had to seize 



the land before the naked hand could till in safety. The emigrant to a soil un- 

 settled, uncivilized and without law, dared not go out a lonely pioneer, but must be 

 one of a strong and sympathetic band. Temptation of no ordinary degree was needed 

 to secure a good stamp of emigrants. In the case of New Scotland it took the form 

 of titular honours, combined with prospective possession in a land which a patriotic 

 king had determined should have a special alliance and sympathy with the country 

 of his birth, James I. conceived the scheme ; it was uppermost in his mind when he 

 died ; but it fell to his son to carry it into execution." Three years later than the 

 charter given to Alexander for the colonization of Nova Scotia, " on the 18th October, 

 162i, King James announced to the privy council his intention of erecting the heredi- 

 tary order or dignity of Baro7iet within the kingdom of Scotland for the purpose 

 of advancing the plantation of Nova, Scotia. With some fervour he added that he 

 proposed to make this undertaking, of which he was so hopeful, a work of his own, 

 and he felt confident that from so noble a purpose the ivhole nation would have 

 honour and profit. In their reply i the Lords of the privy council showed that they 

 clearly recognized the king's patriotic motive, for they alluded to ' His Majesty's 

 great affection toward his ancient kingdom of Scotland, and his most judicious con- 

 sideration in making choice of so excellent a means, both noble and fit, for the good 

 of the same.' " 



" On his death-bed, - with plaintive but earnest words, the king again alluded to 

 what was still uppermost in his thoughts, although to his son was to fall the pi-ivi- 

 lege of carrying out his scheme. He spoke of it as a good work, a Royal work, and 

 one for the good of the kingdom in general, as well as for tlie particular interest of 

 every baronet. ' 



" It will thus be seen that King James I. was actuated by pure motives in found- 

 ing this order; that he desired to establish across the Atlantic a country which 

 should be a complement to his old kingdom of Scotland, and which should be knit to 

 it by special ties of commerce and of sentiment, and that he endeavoured by the offer 

 of titular honours, and promises of land, to tempt men to emigrate, whose social 

 position would ensure them a considerable number of followers, and assist them in 

 maintaining their authority as leaders in the distant community which it was pro- 

 posed to form. It is to be regretted that partly through misunderstanding of the 

 original scheme— partly through the vicissitudes of subsequent conquests— the 

 special connection between old and new Scotland, except in the districts of Cape 

 Breton and Pictou, has never been established. The special rights given to 

 the baronets on their creation have long fallen into desuetude, and, except with the 

 consent of the provincial government, could never be revived." 



1 Nov. 23, 1624. - March 24, 1C25. 



