of Great Britain from the said plantations, be strictly complied with in your government. 8. You shall not assent to any act of Assembly, or allow any usage to prevail within your government, which shall be repugnant to the acts of Parliament herein before mentioned, or to any that may hereafter be made, as far as the same relate to our plantations in America. 14. . . . You are to take notice that we consider the good of our plantations, and the improvement of the trade thereof by a strict and punctual observance of the several laws in force concerning the same, to be of so great importance to the benefit of this kingdom, and to the advancing of the revenue of our customs, that, if we shall hereafter be informed that at any time there shall be any failure in the due observance of those laws, and of these present instructions, by any wilful neglect or fault on your part, we shall esteem such neglect to be a breach of the same; And we think proper to apprize you that it is our fixed and determined will and intention to remove you, or our commander in chief for the time being, from your employments for any such offence, and that we shall strictly levy and inflict as well the fine of one thousand pounds, imposed by an act passed in the seventh and eighth of King William the Third, chap. 22d, as all other fines, forfeitures, pains, and penalties, to which you shall for such offence be liable by any acts of Parliament now in force or otherwise—and that you will further, on the same account, receive the most rigorous marks of our highest displeasure. Extract from Instructions of August 30, 1840, to Lord Sydenham, Governor General of Canada, 1839-18411 20. You are to reserve for the signification of our pleasure thereon every bill which you shall consider to be of an extraordinary or unusual nature, or requiring our especial consideration and decision thereupon, particularly such as may affect the property, credit, or dealings of such of our subjects as are not usually resident within our said province, and whereby duties shall be laid upon the shipping of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or upon the produce or manufacture of Great Britain and Ireland. 1 Canadian Archives, Sessional Papers, No. 18, 1906, p. 118. No. 2. TABLE FROM TARIFF OF NOVA SCOTIA OF 1843 (4 W. IV, Prohibited Amunition or utensils of war for every 1007. of the value £ s. d. £ s. d. Col. 5 0 0 17 10 0 7 10 0 22 10 0 5 0 0 20 00 5 0 0 17 10 0 5 0 0 17 10 0 5 0 0 500 7 10 0 Argol Ashes, to wit, Pot or Pearl Ashes, for every £100 of the val. 5 0 0 Duty free Do., not accompanied by the proprietor, but proved to 5 0 0 0 12 0 Prohibited Books, prohibited to be imported into the United Kingdom duty free 0 1 8 0 3 4 duty free 30 0 0 not so prohibited for every £100 value duty free 30 0 0 10 0 0 Boots, Shoes, and Galoshes not of leather or gum for every £100 value elastic or Indian rubber 15 0 0 7 10 0 Bottles empty, of earth or stone for every 1001. value Botargo for every 1001. of the value 500 7 10 0 Box-wood for every 1001. of the value 5 0 0 12 10 0 12 10 0 free 15 0 0 Candles of spermaceti or wax, for every 1007. of the value No. 3. TABLE FROM TARIFFS OF UNITED KINGDOM OF 1842 (5 & 6 Vict., c. 47) SHOWING RATES OF DUTIES ON IMPORTS FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND FROM BRITISH POSSESSIONS TABLE (A) GOODS, WARES, AND MERCHANDIZE IMPORTED—cont. No. 4. WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE'S MEMORIAL OF 1832 TO GODERICH, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES While the citizens of the United States are enabled to trade freely with the Chinese, Upper Canada and Lower Canada are a monopoly of and for the benefit of the East India Company, and compelled to pay a dear price for an inferior quality of tea, purchased by the company at an inferior price in the Chinese market, expressly for the use of Canadians and Nova Scotians. History might have taught England the expediency of adopting another policy. . . . With regard to trade generally, England declines to give the colonists a monopoly of her markets for their produce, and she declines to permit them to supply themselves with such things as they want from abroad at the cheapest market. At the ports of Liverpool and Glasgow, there is no protective duty in favour of a cargo of Canadian flour beyond what is allowed to a cargo of flour from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio ground on the north bank of the St. Lawrence; while should the Canadian owner desire to buy tea in China, or foreign goods in the Union (U.S.A.), he finds a prohibition on the former, and heavy protection by British duties against the latter. Americans carefully exclude the people of Canada from the use of their canals, and grain and produce markets by prohibitory duties; while England orders American produce— wheat, flour, beef, and pork-to be admitted duty free for domestic use and exportation.1 No. 5. A PROTEST IN 1834 FROM THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF UPPER CANADA Acts passed by the legislature of Upper Canada in 1833, affecting the banking system of the province, were disallowed in London. In 1834 an address to the Crown, protesting against this disallowance of the acts, was adopted by the House of Assembly-32 in favour to 1 opposed-an address in which it was affirmed that interference in such matters by the Imperial Government was 'inconsistent with those sacred constitutional principles which are essential to a free government'. A larger and more inclusive claim for the provincial legislature-a claim incidentally for larger freedom in legislation affecting trade-was also advanced in the third paragraph of this address to the Crown. III. We respectfully claim the same rights in behalf of your Majesty's subjects in this province to be consulted in the making of laws for their peace, welfare, and good government which our fellow subjects in Great Britain enjoy in respect to laws to which their obedience is required; and although from the necessity of the case, power must be granted to the head of the Empire of preventing colonial laws being adopted and enforced which are incompatible with treaties between your Majesty's government and foreign states, or with the just rights of any other of your Majesty's colonies, yet within these exceptions, we humbly submit that no laws ought to be, or rightfully can be, dictated to or imposed upon the people of this province, to which they do not freely give their consent through the constitutional medium of representatives chosen by and accountable to themselves.... We, therefore, respectfully and humbly pray your Majesty, taking these matters into your favourable consideration, will be graciously pleased not to disallow these provincial acts, and not to permit your Majesty's ministers to interfere with our internal affairs, but to leave the same entirely to the discretion and control of the legislature of this province.2 1 Memoir left by William Lyon Mackenzie with Viscount Goderich (afterwards Earl of Ripon), Colonial Secretary, 1830-1833, on August 27, 1832. Seventh Report of Committee on Grievances, Journals of Legislative Assembly (Upper Canada), Appendix I, No. 21, p. 87. Journals of Legislative Assembly, 1835, Appendix I, No. 21, p. 76. |