154 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



Court, and it would seem that legal institutions were at last 

 adequate and complete. But this was not quite the case, 



/and permanence was not yet secured. Reeves only stayed in 

 the island during his long vacations, and was succeeded by 

 ex-surgeons, merchants, and customs officials ; moreover the 

 Acts of 1791 and 1792 were only annual Acts, which were 

 renewed at first annually and afterwards triennially, for the 

 annual and triennial habit of mind clung to the land like 

 one of its own fogs. At last in 1809 a perpetual Act was 

 passed, and the extinction of the Admiral Judges was ac- 

 complished ; although their shadow survived their substance, 

 and Surrogate Courts, presided over by a junior naval 

 officer, still officiated in the out-ports. The same Act, which 

 consigned the Admiral Judges finally and for ever to the 

 midden-heap, rejoined Newfoundland to Labrador, where 

 magistrates were appointed for the first time in 1813. 

 and Although the Governor was the earliest political institution, 



Governors ^ was ^ j ast institution which acquired permanence. 



ioho became r 



resident, /During this half-period, though normally triennial and resident 



1817-18, j n p ort Townshend at St. John's, he never spent a whole year 

 owing to J 



the dis- in the colony until 1817-18. At one time it seemed as though 



there were to be a permanent Secretary to the evanescent 

 Governors ; and A. Graham filled that position under many 

 Governors (1779-92), and was always 'a much greater man 

 than his master', 1 but he had no similar successor. At 

 another time it seemed as though the convoy would remain 

 without the Governor who was its captain, and in 181314 

 three ships of war wintered in the island, one at St. John's, 

 one at Placentia, which was then the second largest town, and 

 one at Ferryland, as a defence against the New Englanders, 

 whom bay-ice did not daunt. After 1814 a series of great 

 calamities overwhelmed Newfoundland. The colony had 

 been spoilt by war. The ships of the Royal Navy, besides 

 providing constant customers, towed rich prizes into port, and 

 1 Sic Jeremiah Coghlan, Oct. 25, 1788. 



