"Gentlemen of both Houses:
"As my Military occupation requires my attendance as early as possible upon the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces to the Westward, and as the Lieutenant Governor is now necessarily employed, and will be for some time to come, upon an enterprise of importance in a distant part of the province, there is not at present an opportunity of entering upon such particulars as might otherwise call for your attention; I am therefore earnestly to recommend to your serious consideration the expediency, or rather the necessity of unanimity and dispatch in the confirmation of such Acts or resolutions of a legislative nature, as the Governor and Council under His Majesty's Royal Instructions have found expedient, before the forming of an assembly and indispensably necessary for promoting the welfare and peaceable Government of this people.
"You may depend upon it, Gentlemen, on my return to the Government you will find me perfectly disposed to concur with you in enacting such further laws, making such amendments to the present ones, and establishing such other regulations as shall appear upon more mature deliberations to be consistent with the honour and dignity of the Crown and conducive to the lasting happiness of His Majesty's subjects where I have the honour to preside.
The House then resolved that the members should all serve without pay for the session. The calling of the Legislature had been delayed till the autumn in consequence of both the Governor and Lt. Governor being absent with the Army at Louisburg. Governor Lawrence came up to Halifax from Louisburg specially to meet the Legislature.
The Governor in his letter to the Board of Trade about this time noticed particularly the serious effects on the settlement of the enormous importation and retail of spirituous liquors, and expressed a hope that the Legislature would check it.
On 2nd July, 1761 (second session) the House voted £50 for a public clock in the Town.
The following year (1759) Halifax was again the rendezvous for part of the fleet and army both before and after the siege of Quebec; not a few of the more enterprising settlers followed the camp and enriched themselves during the war, Admiral Darell with 4 ships of the line arrived in Halifax Harbor in April and left for the St. Lawrence on 5th May.
At the news of the victory, the town was illuminated, and fire works, bonfires and other public entertainments lasted several days.
Between the years 1759 and 1763 the harbor had been the constant resort of the squadrons under Lord Colville and others; the place was enlivened by the presence of a large army and navy, and at the close of the war several gentlemen of condition were induced to become settlers.
Peace having been proclaimed in 1763, the 28th day of December of that year was solemnized at Halifax as a day of thanksgiving on account of the termination of the war. Though the town possessed all the advantages to be derived from the presence of the naval and military forces, the resident population did not increase. From the notitia parochialis of the Rev. Dr. Breynton, the Rector of St. Paul's, the number of inhabitants in the town did not exceed 1300 souls. However, in 1769, six years after, the Doctor makes the following return: Inhabitants in and about Halifax including Garrison, Acadian French and fishermen, by the late public survey 5000 souls, of which 200 are Acadians and 55 protestant dissenters. The number of births that year was 200 and the deaths 190.
Among the local occurrences of the year 1759, was the trial of Thomas Lathum, baker, for the murder of Lieutenant Collins of the Royal Navy. It appeared that Mr. Collins, Captain Sweeney, Doctor Johns, Mr. Fulton and others of the Navy, had been sipping at the house of one John Field, and late in the evening proposed to go out in search of some women with whom one of them had made an engagement. They knocked at the door of one Hewitt, and inquired for Polly. On being refused admission, it appeared that Thomas Lathum, the brother-in-law of Hewitt, who lived in the neighbourhood, hearing the noise, came to his own door and demanded of the gentlemen in the street whether they intended to rob Mr. Hewitt. They replied that they were gentlemen and not robbers. Some further words provoked a scuffle, in which Fulton was dragged by Lathum into his house. The affair terminated in Lathum discharging a gun after the party, and mortally wounding Collins. Captain Sweeny had previously called the guard, who shortly after the affair arrived and took Lathum into custody. Lathum was tried on the 24th April, 1759.
The names of the grand jury, who found the bill of indictment, were Michael Francklin, foreman, Charles Proctor, Abraham Bowyer, Walter Manning, James Quinn, Nathan Nathans, J. Pernette, John Craig, Terrence Fitzpatrick, John Kerby, Jonathan Pierce, James Porter, Henry Sibley, J. Flanagan, Michael Moloney, Robert Cowie, Charles Terlaven, Jonathan Gifford and James Browne.
On the 11th March, 1760, the following gentlemen were appointed Justices of the Peace for the county of Halifax, viz.: The Hon. Jonathan Belcher, Hon. Benjamin Green, Hon. John Collier, Hon. Charles Morris, Hon. Richard Bulkeley, Hon. Thomas Saul, Hon. Joseph Gerrish, William Nesbitt, John Duport, Joseph Scott, John Creighton, Sebastine Zouberbuhler, Edward Crawley, Charles Proctor and Benjamin Gerrish, and on 30th December following, Malachi Salter, Alexander Grant, Johnathan Binney and John Burbidge were added to the number. Messrs. Morris, Duport, Scott, Gerrish and Crawley were appointed Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas.
Governor Lawrence, who had been for 7 days ill, died of inflammation of the lungs on the morning of the 19th October, 1760. The Council were immediately summoned, and Chief Justice Belcher sworn in to administer the Government. A question had arisen on a previous occasion, between Mr. Belcher and Mr. Green, as to the eligibility of the Chief Justice to the office of administrator of the Government, which was decided in favour of the Chief Justice, but some years after, the question was determined by the British Government declaring that the two offices of administrator of the Government and Chief Justice, should never be held by the same person.
It was resolved in Council, that the funeral of the late Governor should be at the public expense, and a monument to his memory was afterwards voted by the Assembly to be placed in St. Paul's Church.37
The funeral of Governor Lawrence took place on the Thursday following, 24th October, at 4 p. m. The procession began from Government House as follows: —
The Troops in Garrison, the Military Officers, two field pieces 6 pounders, the Physicians, the ministers, the corpse in a coffin covered with black velvet, and the pall, to which were affixed escutcheons of His Excellency's arms, supported by the President and the rest of His Majesty's Council.
The Mourners, the Provost Marshall, the House of Assembly, the Magistrates, the Civil Officers, the Freemasons and a number of the inhabitants. The Bearers, Clergy, Physicians and all Officers, Civil and Military had linen and cambric hat-bands.
The corpse was preceded near the church by the orphans singing an anthem. The pulpit, reading desk and the Governor's pew, were covered with black and escutcheons, and a most pathetic Funeral Sermon was preached by the Reverend Mr. Breynton, Rector of the Parish, after which the corpse was interred on the right side of the Communion Table.
Minute guns were fired from one of the batteries, from the time the procession began, until the interment, when the whole was concluded with three volleys from the troops under arms.
The Supreme Court, which began on Tuesday following, was hung in mourning and escutcheons.
The following fulsome eulogium, to the late lamented Governor, appeared in the newspapers of the day: "The Lieutenant Governor was possessed of every natural endowment and acquired, accomplishment necessary to adorn the most exalted station, and every amiable quality that could promote the sweets of friendship and social intercourse of human life.
"As Governor, he exerted his uncommon abilities with unwearied application, and the most disinterested zeal in projecting and executing every useful design that might render this Province and its rising settlements flourishing and happy. He encouraged the industrious, rewarded the deserving, excited the indolent, protected the oppressed and relieved the needy. His affability and masterly address endeared him to all ranks of people, and a peculiar greatness of soul made him superior to vanity, envy, avarice