62 



At llie restoration of Cnpe Breton, in 1748, the founding of a capital 

 for Nova Scotia was undertaken as a government measure. " As a sub- 

 stitute" for Louisbourg restored to France, said Mr. Hartley in tlie House 

 of Commons, "you settled Halifax for a place (Tannes, leaving the limits 

 of the province as a matter of contest with France, w^hich could not fail 

 to prove, as it did, the cause of another war. Had you kept Louisbourg, 

 instead of setthng Halifax, the Americans* could not say, at least, that 

 tliere would not have been that pretext for imputing the late war to their 

 account." The new city was named in honor of the Eaid of Halifax, 

 the president of the Lords of Trade and Plantations.! " The site," 

 says Haliburton, "about mid-way between Cape Canseau and Cape 

 Sable, was preferred to several others, where the soil was better, for 

 the sake of establishing in its neighborhood an extensive cod-fishery, 

 and fortifying one of the best harbors in America." Thus, Halifax was 

 designed as a fishing capital, and " as a substitute for Louisbourg." Lib- 

 eral grants of land were made to officers and men who were dismissed 

 from the land and naval service at the close of the war, and Edward 

 Cornwallis was appointed military governor. Horatio Gates, then an 

 officer in the British army, and subsequently the victor at Saratoga, 

 was among the first who landed at Halifax, in 1749. 



The project involved the government in serious difficulties, and the 

 expenditure of enormous sums of money. 



The amount first appropriated was ^40,000. In a few years the cost 

 to the nation was nearly two millions of dollars ! The fisheries were 

 neglected, and the colonists, unable to support themselves, petitioned 

 Parliament for additional relief, even after so large an amount of money 

 had been disbursed for their benefit. 



Omitting details, we may state that five millions of dollars of public 

 money were expended finally in the colonization of Nova Scotia, accord- 

 ing to the plan devised by the Board of Trade and Plantations. 



A letter is preserved in the Collections of the Massachusetts Histori- 

 cal Society, from a resident of Halifax to the Rev. Dr. Stiles, which 

 may afford a partial explanation to this state of things. It is dated in 

 1760. "We have," says the writer, ^^ upwards of one hundred licensed 

 houses, and. perJiaps as many more which retail spirituous liquors without 

 license ; so that the business of one half the town is to sell rum, and of the 

 other half to drink it. You may, from this single circumstance, judge of our 

 morals, and naturally infer that we are not enthusiasts in relioion." 

 Again : " Between this and Cape Sable are many fine harbors, com- 

 modiousk" situated for the cod-fishery ; and the rivers furnish great 

 abundance of salmon." ****'< 'Phe fleets and armies which 

 have been here durino; the war have enriched this town, but have o:iven 

 a mortal blow to industry:" and, he adds, "we have but few people 

 of genius among us ; a9id not one discovers a thirst after knowledge, either 

 useful or speculatice.^'' 



Halifax became a place of note in the war of the Revolution, and as 



* This speech was in 1775. 



t Horace Walpole wrote to Sir Horace Mann, in 1749 : " Half our thoughts are taicen up — 

 that is, Lord Halifax's are — with colonizing Nova Scotia; my fiieud, Colonel Coniwallis,ij 

 going thither commander-in-chief. The Methodists will scarce follow Mm, as they did Ogle- 

 thorpe" to Georgia. 



