Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/272

 Nova Scotia. Its earliest settlements were at the mouth of the St. John River, and, like the settlements at Port Royal, were made by the French. After the American Revolutionary War, thousands of United Empire Loyalists settled in the province; many of them in the neighbourhood of the present city of St. John. These new settlers were dissatisfied because they were not given fair representation in the Legislative Assembly, and petitioned to have a new province formed independent of Nova Scotia. In 1784 the Home Government granted their petition, and the result was the formation of the present province of New Brunswick, with a government similar to that of Nova Scotia. Fredericton became its capital, although its chief town was St. John. The people of this province did not pay the same attention to farming as the settlers of the other provinces, because the very valuable timber and fisheries of the country made it more profitable to engage in lumbering and fishing than in tilling the soil. In 1809, Britain laid a tax on timber brought from the Baltic, and in this way encouraged the timber trade of New Brunswick.

Its ports became noted not only for their timber trade, but also for ship-building. After the war of 1812-14, many disbanded soldiers settled in the province, and, as in Upper Canada, received liberal grants of land. But a: serious disaster in 1825, checked the prosperity of the province. The summer of this year was very hot and dry, and bush fires raged fiercely. On the 7th of October, a terrible wave of fire swept over the country, from Miramichi to the Bay of Chaleurs. Five thousand square miles of forest and farm, village and town, were made desolate, and hundreds of lives were lost. The political atmosphere, too, was troubled for many years. The struggle for Responsible Government took place in this province as elsewhere in British America, and New Brunswick had its Family Compact as well as Upper Canada. But, unlike Upper Canada, its rights were won without rebellion and bloodshed. In 1837, the control of the revenue was given to the Assembly, and in 1848, responsible government was fully conceded. In these struggles for freedom to manage its own affairs, Lemuel Allan Wilmot took a prominent part as a champion of the people. The dispute about the boundary line between Maine and New Brunswick kept the province in a state of alarm and uncertainty for years; and at one time it was