1182 MISCELLANEOUS. 



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." Liberal 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 Xova Scotia, 

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



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

 ical 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 perhaps 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 

 religion." Again: "Between this and Cape Sable are many fine har- 

 bors, commodiously situated for the cod-fishery; and the rivers 

 furnish great abundance of salmon." * * * * "The fleets and 

 armies which have been here during the war have enriched this town, 

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

 but few people of genius among us; and not one discovers a thirst after 

 Icnowledge, either useful or speculative." 



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

 the great naval station of the British government. At the peace of 

 1783, Nova Scotia became the home of many thousands of American 

 loyalists, who, under the policy adopted by the winners in the strife, 

 were compelled to abandon their native land. Many of them were 

 persons or elevated moral qualities, of high positions in society, and of 

 great spirit and enterprise ; several were natives of Massachusetts, and 

 graduates of Harvard University. Others had held prominent rank 

 in New York and New Jersey. From this period, we may date a 

 change in the morals of the colony, and note a partial attention to the 

 fisheries. 



Omitting the few fragmentary accounts that are to be found scat- 

 tered through the records which I have examined, we come at once to 

 consider this branch of industry as it exists in our own time. And, 

 singular to remark, attention to the fisheries is still partial. No 

 American visits Nova Scotia without being amazed at the apathy 

 which prevails among the people, and without "calculating ' the 

 advantages which they enjoy, but will not improve. Almost every 

 sheet of water swarms with cod, pollock, salmon, mackerel, herring, 

 and alewives; while the shores abound in rocks and other places 



