84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. I. 



child born of slave parents after the passing of the Act, should be free at 

 twenty-five, and that the children of those who were thus temporarily slaves 

 should be free from birth. The effect of this law was first to prevent the 

 spread of slavery and secondly to bring about its gradual extinction. 



During the same session an Act was passed " to confirm and make valid 

 certain marriages" which had been contracted irregularly on account of the 

 absence of a Protestant clergy, "and to provide for the future solemnization 

 of marriage in the Province." Besides confirming marriages " publicly con- 

 tracted before any magistrate or commanding officer of a post, or adjutant, 

 or surgeon of a regiment acting as chaplain, or any other person in any 

 public office or employment " before the passing of the Act, the statute pro- 

 vided a method of attestation and registration of marriao;es and births well 

 calculated to remove all uncertainty as to the legitimacy of the children born 

 of such irregular marriages. For the future all marriage ceremonies were 

 to be performed by " Parsons of the Church of England," except when the 

 parties were as much as eighteen miles from the nearest one, in which case 

 they might call in the services of a justice of the peace. The illiberality of 

 this provision was quite in keeping with the provision made in the Consti- 

 tutional Act, 1791, for the establishment and endowment of a Protestant 

 Church. It required nearly half a century of agitation to secure for the 

 clergy of other denominations the right to perform the marriage ceremony. 



During the third session an Act was passed " to authorize the Governor to 

 license practitioners in the law." It suspended for two years the operation 

 of an ordinance of the Legislative Council of Quebec and substituted for its 

 provisions a simple method of licensing by the Governor, the number of 

 practitioners so licensed to be limited to sixteen. Disbarring was provided 

 as the penalty for " malversation or corrupt practice." The license fee 

 was fixed at fortj' shillings and the registration fee at thirteen shillings 

 and four pence. 



During the fourth session an Act was passed " to regulate the practice of 

 physic and surgery." This does not call for anj^ special remark, except that it 

 was the first of a long series of legislative attempts to confine the art of 

 healing to regular practitioners. 



V. LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 



During the second session of the Legislature an Act was passed which 

 provided that " members of the House of Assembly be allowed wages for 

 their attendance thereat, not exceeding ten shillings a day." Another was 

 passed to provide means " for the payment of the salaries of the officers of 

 the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly, and for defraying the 



