THE THIRD ANGLO-FRENCH DUEL 151 



different civil departments, and likewise sold by them as 

 private property.' 1 Colonel Pringle and Major Brady left 

 their names to bridges, paths, and the like ; Colonel Skinner, 

 Major Griffith Williams, Colonel Haly, and Captain Edgell, 

 R.N., turned their bayonets into pruning-hooks and initiated 

 farming; in 1773 military roads were begun between the 

 three forts which dominated St. John's, and these were the 

 first roads in Newfoundland; in 1775 the inhabitants of 

 St. John's petitioned against officers who ' lately enclosed 

 large spots of ground contiguous to their harbour for erecting 

 houses, planting gardens, farms, &c.', and non-fishers were 

 stigmatized as 'a burden to the land'. As in New, South 

 Wales and almost every colony since 1774, military men were 

 in the van as pathfinders, roadmakers, agriculturists, and 

 pastoralists ; and the history of our colonies would have to 

 be re-written if the peaceful exploits of warlike pioneers were 

 expunged from their records. 



Next to the Army came the Church. The Anglican Churches, 

 Church dates from 1699; the Rev. Laurence Coughlan 

 introduced Wesleyanism in 1765 ; and land was given from 

 time to time for Anglican and Nonconformist places of 

 worship. Under Rev. James O'Donel, 1784, Roman Catho- 

 licism became a power in the land; and in 1790 complaints 

 were made by champions of the old order that Irish fisher- 

 men were no longer obliged to return to Ireland for abso- 

 lution as priests were on the spot. In 1796 O'Donel was 

 appointed the first Roman Catholic Bishop for Newfoundland, 

 and, in 1797, he obtained land on a ninety-nine years' lease 

 from the Governor for a Church or Cathedral. In 1799 the 

 first Grammar School was opened by the Rev. L. A. Anspach, 

 the well-known historian of Newfoundland ; so that spiritual 

 everlastings were once for all planted in the earth. 



Popular beliefs recognized the validity of titles to land before landed 



tenures, 



1 Third Report on Newfoundland, 1793, p. 84. See House, of 

 Commons' Reports, 1731-1800, vol. xlii, No. 107 of General Collection. 



