[qanong] historic SITES IN NEW BRUNSWICK 34S 



the Miramichi and other North Shore settlements. Along the St. John 

 came another region too large for a single county, and it was subdivided 

 on the principle of making the county lines cross it at right angles, 

 and, owing to the great curve made by the river, a series of counties 

 was made to radiate from Charlotte. Precisely the same principle con- 

 trolled the formation of the later counties. Kent was established to 

 include the settlements of which Eichibucto is the centre, Gloucester for 

 those centering at ISTepisiguit, and Eestigouche for those about that river, 

 while ISTorthumberland was left to include those of the Miramichi. The 

 later lines separating Carleton, Victoria and Madawaska, like those lower 

 on the river, run at right angles across it. The line between "Westmor- 

 land and Albert is the only exception to the general rule. It is a principle 

 everywhere recognized in civilized countries that boundaries of small 

 divisions should run not through settlements but along uninhabited water- 

 sheds, so that the people of the same or contiguous settlements shall 

 belong to the same political division. In the early days of the province, 

 when all travel was by water, the perfectly natural, and indeed only 

 feasible plan, for county formation was this of centering the counties 

 about the inhabited places and making the lines between them run in 

 uninhabited water sheds, and even to this day that is certainly the most 

 convenient plan. It is necessary that the shire-town shall be readily 

 accessible from all j)arts of the country, and this is much more the case 

 in an arrangement like the present than it would be if our rivers hud 

 been made the county boundaries, as would at first sight seem to be the 

 more natural method. It is easier to cross a river to reach one's shire- 

 town than to cross an uninhabited and M'ilderness water-shed to reach it, 

 as would be necessary to much of the population if the rivers had been 

 made the boundaries. With these facts in mind, we cannot but admire 

 the Avisdom with which Governor Carleton and his council laid out the 

 Loyalist Province into counties, and that wisdom has been justified by the 

 fact that subsequent legislators have had to make but slight changes in 

 the original arrangement, and have ever since followed the same principle 

 when the establishment of new counties became necessary. 



As to the parish lines, many of those were adopted naturally from 

 the township boundaries of the preceding period ; others were deter- 

 mined by the boundaries of some of the greater grants, while yet others 

 depended upon topographical conditions. 



VI. THE POST-LOYALIST PERIOD. 



It is not easy to draw a line between the Loyalist Period and that 

 which followed it, for the one merged almost without break into the 

 other. We may distinguish a period of settlement and adjustment of the 

 Loyalist immigrants, lasting perhaj^s until about HQO, or somewhat later, 



