the registry thereof in the Office of the Secretary and Register of this Province, will more fully appear: And whereas His said Majesty King William the Fourth did, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province, bearing date the twenty fifth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty seven, and in the seventh year of His Reign, also grant to Abraham T. Coburn one rood and eight poles of land, situate in Fredericton, and particularly designated, distinguished, and described by proper metes and bounds in the said grant, reference being thereunto had, or the registry thereof in the Office of the Secretary and Register of this Province, will more fully appear: And whereas Her present Majesty Queen Victoria did, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province, bearing date the third day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty, and in the third year of Her Reign, also grant to James Tibbetts one rood and eight poles of land, situate in Fredericton, and particularly designated, distinguished, and described by proper metes and bounds in the said grant, reference being thereunto had, or the registry thereof, will more fully appear: And whereas also His late Majesty King George the Third did, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province, bearing date the ninth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, and in the fortieth year of His Reign, grant unto the Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestry of Christ Church, in the Parish of Fredericton, and their successors for ever, a lot or tract of land, situate in the Town Plat of Fredericton, and then occupied as a burying ground; and also the lot or piece of ground on which Christ Church, as the Parish Church of Fredericton aforesaid, then stood and now stands, with a space of ground surrounding the same on the tract reserved for a Common, and other public uses, in front of block number eleven, in the said Town Plat, as particularly designated, distinguished, and described by proper metes and bounds in the said grant, reference being thereunto had, or to the registry thereof in the Office of the Secretary and Register of this Province, will more fully appear: And whereas also His Majesty King George the Third did, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province, bearing date the first day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred

and ten, and in the fifty first year of His Reign, grant unto the Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestry of Christ Church, in the Parish of Fredericton, and their successors for ever, three certain lots or blocks of land, containing in the whole ten acres two roods and thirty one perches, more or less, situate, lying, and being near the southwesterly bank of the River Saint John, at the northwest end of part of the Town Plat of Fredericton, in the County of York, and particularly designated, distinguished, and described by proper metes and bounds in the said grant, reference being had thereunto, or the registry thereof in the Office of the Secretary and Register of this Province, will more fully appear: And whereas His Majesty King George the Fourth, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province, bearing date the twenty third day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty, grant to Anthony Lockwood one rood and thirteen perches of land, being particularly designated, distinguished, and described by proper metes and bounds in the said grant, reference being thereunto had, or the registry thereof in the Office of the Secretary and Register of the Province, will more fully appear: And whereas His said Majesty King George the Third did, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province, bearing date the seventeenth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, and in the fifty seventh year of the Reign of His said Majesty King George the Third, grant to Richard Winter one rood and twelve perches of land, being particularly designated, distinguished, and described by proper metes and bounds in the said grant, reference being thereunto had, or the registry thereof in the Office of Secretary and Register of the Province, will more fully appear: And whereas Her present Majesty Queen Victoria did, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province, bearing date the ninth day of January in the present year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty six, and in the ninth year of Her Reign, grant to the Right Reverend John, the Lord Bishop of Fredericton, and his successors, all that piece or parcel of land situate in Fredericton, lying between Brunswick Street and the River Saint John, and commonly called the Church Green, and particularly designated, distinguished, and described by proper metes and bounds in the said grant, for

the purpose of erecting a Cathedral thereon, and with a proviso therein contained, that no other building or erection, other than the said Cathedral, should be erected or set up thereon, reference being thereunto had, or the registry thereof in the Office of the Secretary and Register of the Province, will more fully appear: And whereas the said several pieces and parcels of land contained in the said several grants above mentioned, are all situate in front of the Town Plat of Fredericton, as described in the Grant to Cornelius Akerman and others, and form part of the land reserved for a Common and other public uses: And whereas doubts have recently been started as to the titles of the aforementioned grantees to the lands specified in the said grants, and the right of the Crown to grant any of the land reserved in Fredericton, has been questioned: And whereas common justice to the individual purchasers and their assigns, as well as the peace and quiet of the inhabitants of Fredericton, alike require that all such doubts should be removed, and any question of the validity of their titles for ever set at rest and quieted ;

Be it therefore enacted, &c.-1. The said several grants above mentioned, and each and every of them, shall be good, valid, and effectual for all the purposes therein severally contained, and shall be deemed to operate against all persons whatever, according to the terms and conditions of such grant, and subject alone to the provisoes and conditions therein contained; and all Courts of law and equity shall, and they are required, in all suits, actions, or controversies in any way relating thereto, to presume that the title to the land specified in each and every of the aforementioned grants, was in the Crown at the time of the issuing of such grant, and thereby regularly and legally granted and aliened.

2. This Act shall be construed liberally for the purpose of effecting the objects for which it was enacted.

15th VICTORIA-CHAPTER 68.

An Act to settle and secure the Title to certain Lands in the County of Kent.

Section.

1. Reports, &c., where filed, &c. 2. Title to lands, in whom vested.

Section.

3. What to be evidence.

4. What to be filed, and with whom.

Passed 7th April 1852. WHEREAS by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Province of New Brunswick, dated the sixth day of December in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety three, certain lands now in the County of Kent were granted to Pierre Richard and others as joint tenants: And whereas the occupiers and owners of the said lands, representing themselves to be the owners thereof, during the last Session of the Legislature applied by petition to the House of Assembly for an Act to settle their several Titles, which petition was referred to a Select Committee of the said House, who made a Report, of which the following is a copy, that is to say "The Select Committee to whom was referred the petition of Olivier Richard, Fabien D'Aigle, Fabien Richard, Simeon Thibideau, Joseph Richard, Simeon LeBlanc, and fifty two others, French inhabitants, residing on the south side of the Richibucto River, in the County of Kent, setting forth that in the month of June in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety one, Pierre Richard, Pierre Legere, Paul Babineau, Joseph Richard, Francois Richard, Michael Richard, Jean Baptiste Landry, Jean Richard, Senior, Jean Richard, Junior, Charles Maillet, David Thibideau, Basile Richard, Jean Richard, Joseph Richard, Junior, Pierre Gouelle, and Pierre Arsineau, natives of Canada, the ancestors and original proprietors of the lands on which the petitioners now live, petitioned Sir Thomas Carleton, the then Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Province of New Brunswick, setting forth that they were natives of Canada, and settled there, occupied lands whereon they could not make a living, that they desired to enjoy the priviliges allowed to British subjects in this Province in holding their lands from the King, and having come to Richibucto in search of situations, where they had found lands to accommodate them, prayed His Excellency to grant them lots on the Richicucto River, and to order the same to be laid out for them, as by a copy of the original application annexed to their petition more fully appears; that in the month of October one thousand seven hundred and ninety one it was ordered in Council that such application should be complied with, the lands to be surveyed at the expense of the applicants; that the petitioners were

informed and believed that a survey was made of the outboundings in question by an officer under the control and direction of the then Surveyor General of Crown Lands, and that the applicants being unlearned persons, unacquainted with the law of New Brunswick, or the nature of its Grants, and consequently ignorant of that survey which was requisite to define their respective rights, and implicitly trusting to the wisdom and care of His Excellency and Council, and the Surveyor General, to do what was necessary to ascertain and establish their rights, and to give them their respective lots agreeably to their petition, paid what was demanded of them for survey by the Surveyor General, and accordingly on the sixth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety three, a Grant, including lands to other persons, was issued of the lands in question to the applicants and others, their heirs and assigns, being the forefathers, ancestors, and persons through whom the petitioners now claim the same, containing six thousand four hundred acres, more or less, situate, lying, and being adjoining the Harbour and River of Richibucto, on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, abutted, bounded, and described as in the second tract named in the extract of the original Grant, and a copy of the original Plan in the Crown Land Office, annexed to their petition, more fully appears; that the Grant so issued, as it was afterwards discovered by the grantees, gave no distinct allotments by plan or otherwise to the applicants, in severalty or portions, by metes, bounds, or positions, to enable the respective owners to lay off their lands by the aid of a Surveyor or otherwise, as is usual in such cases; and the original parties entered thereon, occupied, and died without any division lines of their respective rights ever having been made between them; that there are now upwards of fifty families on the said tract, consisting of a population of upwards of five hundred persons, living thereon, being the children. grand-children, descendants, and purchasers of the original proprietors, with no distinct allotment. especially of the wilderness land; that the petitioners are placed in a most embarrassed and unfortunate situation, having no allotments which each individual or family can call its own and whereon to make improvements, or have the security of a home, nor capable of resorting to the