BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 577 



The Court of Vice- Admiralty, held by a judge commissary, has 

 had little to do since the last war. It holds cognizance of maritime 

 causes, and causes of revenue. Appeals lie from it to the High Court 

 of Admiralty in England. 



There is a Court of Probate, held by the chief justice and assistant 

 justices, for the probate of wills, and granting letters of administration. 



At St. John's, and at most of the out-harbors, where the population 

 renders it necessary, there is a court of session, held by two magis- 

 trates, who have the same jurisdiction as in England. 



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The Surrogate Courts were, from the beginning, considered at 

 once grievous and exceedingly objectionable, as the judges were no 

 other than the commanders or lieutenants of his majesty's ships on 

 the station, whose pursuits and education could not qualify them, 

 however just their intentions might be, for competent expounders of 

 the intricate labyrinth of commercial laws. At the same time, it is 

 but justice to remark, that the task was by no means agreeable to 

 many of those officers ; and, with few exceptions, if they erred, it was 

 not from the influence of fear or interest, but from an ignorance of 

 matters that no one should expect them to understand. But in this 

 way the jurisdiction of Newfoundland was conducted until 1824, 

 when a bill was passed, entitled, "An act for the better administration 

 of justice in Newfoundland, and other purposes." This act, like all 

 others passed relative to Newfoundland, being experimental, was lim- 

 ited to continue in force only for five years. By the provisions of this 

 act, a chief judge and two assistant judges are appointed, and the 

 island divided into three districts, in each of which a court is held 

 annually. 



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It is certain that none of the British plantations have been worse 

 governed than Newfoundland, nor in any has more confusion pre- 

 vailed. By the constitutions granted to all the other colonies, a 

 clearly defined system of jurisdiction was laid down; but the admin- 

 istration of Newfoundland was, in a great measure, an exclusively 

 mercantile or trading government; which, as Adam Smith very 

 justly observes, " is perhaps the very worst of all governments for 

 any country whatever ; " and a powerless planter, or fisherman, never 

 expected, or seldom received, justice from the adventurers, or the 

 fishing admirals, who were their servants. Mr. Reeves, in his His- 

 tory of Newfoundland, states, " that they had been in the habit of 

 seeing that species of wickedness and anarchy ever since Newfound- 

 land was frequented, from father to son; it was favourable to their 

 old impressions, that Newfoundland was theirs, and that all the plan- 

 tations were to be spoiled and devoured at their pleasure." 



There is no doubt but that so arbitrary an assumption and practice 

 of misrule produced the consequences that severity always generates ; 

 and that the planters soon reconciled themselves to the principles of 

 deceit and falsehood, or to the schemes that would most effectually 

 enable them to elude their engagements with the adventurers. The 

 resident fishermen, also, who were driven from time to time out of 

 Newfoundland, by the statute of William and Mary, generally turned 

 out the most hardened and depraved characters wherever they went. 



