Cornwallis' administration in Nova Scotia implemented the first constitution in a Canadian colony, establishing both an Executive and Legislative Council. It instituted the first British law courts in Canada (court of General Sessions, County Court, and Supreme Court); erected forts at Grand Pre, Chignecto and Halifax; organized a militia of 840 men; established a public school for orphans; and respected religious diversity through separation of church and state. It also recruited immigrants to Halifax, establishing the first Jewish community (from negotiations with the emigration and colonization committee of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation of London, England), the first ethnic German community, made up of Protestants from Germany and Switzerland, and the first Protestant dissenting congregation in a Canadian colony.