1817  17 Nov  Annapolis  

1058. Nathaniel White to his father. "I am astonished at the condition in which your Country has been allowed to remain with regard to the collection of debts. The Commissioners have been acting on the late wise law in this Country for 3 or 4 months past & so great has been the thronging to it that they have never been able to compleat their business within their legal terms, which is two days." They had nearly two hundred causes on their first docket, more than 200 on their second & so on in almost geometrical proportions until God knows where they will stop. The suitors are very much dissatisfied with the Court & their very summary mode of proceeding, but necessity induces them to resort to it. There is not a doubt but that in civil cases the power is altogether taken from the magistrates & perfectly null & expose them to a prosecution for trespass. In penal cases, however, the remedy is still the same as it was & the magistrates alone have jurisdiction ... The next assembly will, I amagine, bring things back to their old standing again." Holograph

White Family Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 Vol. 953 No. 1058