4i8 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. V]1. 



However, the outcome of the matter was the ordinance of April, 

 1787, making further provision for the administration of the new 

 settlements/ The most important section bearing on our present 

 inquiry is the following, " Whereas, there are many thousands of 

 loyalists and others settled in the upper countries above Montreal, and 

 in the bays of Gaspe and Chaleurs below Quebec, whose ease and con- 

 venience may require that additional districts should be erected as soon 

 as circumstances will permit, it is enacted and ordained by the authority 

 aforesaid, that it may be lawful for the Governor or Commander-in-chief 

 for the time being, with the advice and consent of the Council, to form 

 by patent under the seal of the province, one or more new districts, as 

 his discretion may direct, and to give commission to such officer or 

 officers therein as may be necessary, or conducive to the ease and con- 

 venience of His Majesty's subjects residing in the remote parts of the 

 province." In accordance with the authority granted in this ordinance 

 Lord Dorchester issued a proclamation, dated July 24th, 1788, dividing 

 the western settlements into four districts, named Lunenburg, Mecklen- 

 burg, Nassau and Hesse." On the same day appointments were made 

 to the following offices in each of the new districts : judges of the Court 

 of Common Pleas, justices of the peace, sheriff, clerk of the Court of 

 Common Pleas, and of the Sessions of the Peace, and coroners.^ 



Courts of Quarter Sessions were thus organized, and began their 

 sittings the following year. The first court for the district of Mecklen- 

 burg was held at Kingston on April 14th, 1789,* and the first court for 

 the district of Lunenburg was held at Osnabruck, on June 15th, in the 

 same year.^ 



Except as regards the criminal law, the justices were still required to 

 administer the French system in accordance with the Quebec Act. But 

 as this immediately led to difficulties, the justices of the district of 

 Mecklenburg submitted certain problems to the Government at Quebec. 

 For instance, proclamations to be legal were required to be made at the 

 church doors of the parish, and to be published in the Quebec Gazette. 

 But in the whole of the western settlements there were only two church 

 doors, and no one was known to take the Quebec Gazette. The justices, 

 therefore, made a characteristic suggestion, namely, that as most of the 

 settlers had to go to one or other of the two grist mills of the district, at 



1 Laws of Lower Canada, Vol. L, p. 121. 



2 Canadian Archives, Q. 37, p. 178. 



3 Canadian Archives, Q. 39, pp. 134-139. 



4 Early Records of Ontario, Queens Quarterly, Vol. VIL, p. 55. 



5 Lunenburgh, or the Old Eastern District, by J. F. Pringle, Cornwall, 1890. p. 47. 



