nevertheless it has been persisted in, and recourse has been had to the unusual proceeding of withholding the supplies, except upon conditions which would amount to an acknowledgment of it constitutional validity.

This subject has occupied every session from the first to the last, and is now transmitted to those which shall follow. It has caused incalculable mischief to the province; and now leaves it to struggle under difficulties, while every inhabitant of it must see that the encouraging aid of the legislature is alone wanting to arouse powerful exertions and draw forth those resources, which, without that aid must, in a great measure, be dormant and useless within its reach. But, gentlemen, I see with infinite satisfaction, that notwithstanding these unfavorable circumstances, Canada is powerfully advancing in improvement, and that the differences which continue to disturb the legislature, have not interrupted, in the smallest degree, that general contentment which the people enjoy under the paternal care and protection of his Majesty.

In former years, when the supplies necessary for the support of his Majesty's government and the honor of his crown in this province, were not granted, I averted the unhappy consequences which must have resulted from a strict adherence to the letter of the law; and I trust that my conduct, on these occasions, will be justified and approved, where alone I am responsible: but as my advice has been unavailing to prevent this result at the present period, I shall interfere no further; adhering now to the letter of the law, I shall guide the measures of the executive government by that rule, and according to my best judgment, lamenting that the public must feel those consequences which have so long impended over it, and which I can no longer avert.

Gentlemen of the legislative council,-I feel myself called upon to acknowledge the calm, firm and dignified character of your deliberations and conduct in the discussion of the public business, and I take it upon me, in a sense of duty, to thank you in his Majesty's name, for the support you have uniformly given to the measures I have from time to time recommended to you for the good of the province.

I fervently pray that the wisdom of your proceedings may make a just impression upon the loyal inhabitants of the province, and lead the to that temperate and conciliating disposition which is always best calculated to give energy to public spirit, to promote public harmony, and ensure public happiness; these are the great advantages which result from a wise exercise of the powers and privileges of parliament.

CII

BATHURST TO BURTON

[Trans. Christie, op. cit.]

Downing Street, 4th June, 1825. Sir, I have received your two despatches of the dates of the 24th and 30th March ultimo. In the first of these despatches you state that "you inform me with infinite satisfaction that the differences which have "so long subsisted between the legislative bodies on financial matters, have "been amicably settled, and that I shall perceive by the draft of a bill "which you enclose, that the assembly have decidedly acknowledged the "right of the crown to dispose of the revenue arising out of the 14th Geo. "III," etc'.

I regret to say that it is not in my power to consider this arrangement as in any degree satisfactory. The special instructions which had been given by his Majesty's command to the governor-general, in my despatches of the 11th Sept., 1820, and 13th September, 1821, had imposed on him the necessity of refusing all arrangements that went in any degree to compromise the integrity of the revenue known by the name of the 1 See No. XXVI.

permanent revenue; and it appears to me, on a careful examination of the measures which have been adopted, that they are at variance with those specified and positive instructions.

The executive government had sent in an estimate in which no distinction was made between the expenditure chargeable upon the permanent revenue of the crown and that which remained to be provided for out of the revenues raised under colonial acts. In other words, had the whole revenue been raised under colonial acts there would have been no difference in the manner of sending in the estimates.

The estimate was given at £65,000 sterling, of which the assembly appear to have voted £58,074, as "amount of votes," and £3,537, specially voted by Provincial acts; and they refuse to incur any expenditure for £3,390 for different items. Instead of the king's permanent revenue having certain fixed charges placed upon it, of which the assembly were made cognizant, the revenue was pledged, together with the colonial revenue, as the ways and means of providing for the expenses of the year. The assembly having calculated the amount of the permanent revenue and of the taxes received under colonial acts proceeded to vote, from the unappropriated revenues, "such sum or sums as might be necessary to make up and complete a sum not exceeding £58,074 sterling," and the extent of which must necessarily depend on the amount of the taxes received from the permanent revenue.

The consequence of this arrangement is, that the permanent revenue will not be applied for the payment of such expenses as his Majesty may deem fit, but on the contrary, for the payment of whatever expenses the colonial legislature may think necessary, and the only money to be raised under the king's revenue being thus appropriated, no means remain for the liquidation of those expenses formerly carried on the king's revenue, and many of them specially authorized by his Majesty, which have been rejected by the assembly in this instance. The appropriation of the permanent revenue of the crown will always be laid by his Majesty's command before the house of assembly, as a document for their information and for the general regulation of their proceedings. They will therein see what services are already provided for by the crown, and what remains to be provided for by the legislature; and they will be thus assured that the proceeds of the revenue of the crown, (whether more or less, and from whatever source derived,) will exclusively and invariably be ap plied, under the discretion of the king's government, for the benefit of the province.

With respect to items rejected by the assembly, I shall feel it my duty, after having given attention to each individual article, to give speciai instructions to the governor-general on his return', to direct the payment of those which it may be thought expedient to continue.

As the bill is limited to one year, I shall not think it necessary to recommend to his Majesty to disallow it, but confine myself to instructing his Majesty's representative in the province of Lower Canada, not to sanction any measure of a similar nature.

RESOLUTIONS OF ASSEMBLY OF LOWER CANADA, 1826 [Trans. Christie, op. cit.]

I. That it is the opinion of this committee that it is expedient to adhere to the determination of the house, as recorded in its votes and proceedings on the civil expenditure of the government of this province, in 1810, 1819, 1821, 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825, and during the present session,

1 Lord Dalhousie was absent from the Province from June, 1824, to September, 1825. Lieutenant-Governor Burton was administrator in his absence.

to vote upon all the necessary sums for paying the said expenses, and to renew its resolutions of the 12th March, 1821, 12th Jan., 1822, 7th March, 1823, 2d March, 1824, and 13th March, 1826, in so far as they are opposed to the exclusive application of any part of the public revenue, to particular services, without the consent of this house.

II. That the Statute of the 18th Geo. III, chap. 12', has not conferred any new rights upon the inhabitants of the British colonies, but it is a declaratory act, the enactments whereof recognize and consecrate the constitutional maxim, that the colonies having a representation have an unalienable right not to be taxed without the consent of their representatives, and that to the Legislaure alone appertains the right of distributing all monies levied in the colonies.

III. That the said act as well as a multitude of other acts of the British parliament which announce the same principles, and the acts and constant claims of the British colonies which have enjoyed a representative system, have established a public colonial law, uniform for them all, under which they have prospered, by which their legislatures have annually distributed the revenue and exercised an effectual and necessary controul over the expenses of their administration.

IV. That there is the less reason to maintain that this province ought not to enjoy that right, as it is the only one of all the North American colonies, for which the Imperial Parliament is not every year called upon to vote a great part of the expenses of the civil government. That this house is yet willing, as they have always been, to grant all the sums towards the necessary expenses of the administration of justice, and the support of the civil government provided they have a just controul over the whole revenue.

V. That even assuming as a proposition, which, nevertheless, this house do formally reject, that the revenue applicable to the payment of the expenses of the civil government, and of the administration of justice, may legally be distributed by any other authority than that of the legislature; if they were sufficient to defray the whole of those expenses, the claim set up by the present administration to exemption from the effectual and necessary controul of the assembly, in the distribution of that portion of the public revenue, is by so much the more ungrounded, as in consideration of the acknowledged insufficiency of those funds, the house of assembly being called upon, to supply additional considerable sums, indispensably necessary for covering the whole expenses of the civil government, and of the administration of justice, they have the right of annexing to that grant, such conditions and limitations as the interest of the country appears to them to require.

CIV

LORD DALHOUSIE'S SPEECH PROROGUING THE LEGISLATURE OF LOWER CANADA, 1827

[Trans. Christie, op. cit.]

Gentleman of the legislative council, gentlemen of the assembly,—I come to close this session of the provincial parliament, convinced, by the state of your proceedings, that nothing likely to promote the public interest can be now expected from your deliberations.

To you, gentlemen of the legislative council, who have attended to your duties in this session, I offer my thanks on the part of his Majesty, as an acknowledgment of the regard which, by your presence, you have shown to the welfare of your country, and also of that proper respect which you have manifested for the sovereign, from whom your honours are derived.

Gentlemen of the assembly,-It is painful to me, that I cannot speak 1 See No. XXXIII.

my sentiments to you in terms of approbation and thanks. The proceedings in this session impose upon me a duty, of which, however unpleasing, I will acquit myself as a faithful servant of my king, and a sincere friend to the province.

Many years of continued discussion of forms and accounts have proved unavailing to clear up and set at rest a dispute, which moderation and reason might have speedily terminated. It is lamentable to see, that no efforts or concessions of his Majesty's government have succeeded in reconciling those differences of opinion in the legislature; but it is infinitely more so, that differences on one subject should cause a rejection of every other measure which his Majesty's government recommends to your considration.

The duties expected of you in this session were not difficult; among the first was an examination of the public accounts of last year, and a report upon them, whether of approval or otherwise;-has that duty been done so that your country can know the result?

Have you considered the estimated expenditure for the current year, and granted the supply required in his Majesty's name? or have reasons been assigned for the refusal of them, that can be known and understood by the country?-Have the messages from his Majesty's representative been duly acknowledged, and answered according to the rules and forms of parliament, or according with the respect which is due by each branch of the legislature to the other?

Have the rules or orders of proceeding in the house of assembly been attended to, in so far as they affect and recognize the prerogative rights of the crown?

These are questions, gentlemen, which you are now to ask yourselves individually and answer to your constituents on your return to them.

These are questions which you are to answer to your consciences, as men who are bound by oaths of fidelity to your country and to your king.

In my administration of the government, I have seen seven years pass away without any conclusive adjustment of the public accounts; thus accumulating a mass for future investigation, which must lead to confusion and misunderstanding. In the same years I have seen the measures of government, directly applicable to the wants of the province thrown aside without attention and without any reason assigned. I have seen the forms of parliament utterly disregarded; and in this session a positive assumption of executive authority, instead of that of legislative, which last, is, alone your share in the constitution of the state'.

The results of your proceedings in this session have been, the refusal of the supplies necessary for the ordinary expenses of government, the loss of the militia bill, the failure of all provision for the maintenance of prisoners in your gaols and houses of correction, for the support of the insane and foundlings, and for the establishments of education and charity, and a total obstruction of local and public improvements.

In this state of things, and with the experience of past years, it is now no longer consistent with a proper discharge of the high trust committed to me, to entertain hopes of a return to better reason in the representative branch of this parliament but it is still my duty to call upon you as public men, and to call upon the country, as deeply interested in the result, to consider seriously the consequences of perseverance in such a

course.

I shall conduct the Government with the means in my power, with an undiminished desire to do good; but while I must submit myself to the interruption of all public improvement, under the authority of the civil government, I will declare my deep regret at such a state of things: I think it right to convey to the country, a free and unreserved expression of my sentiments upon these public misfortunes; and I will leave no doubt on the public mind of my determination to persevere firmly in the path

1 This is a concise statement of the whole difficulty.

of my duty, with a faithful regard to the rights of my sovereign with which are also combined the best interests of the province.

It only remains for me now, compelled by existing circumstances, to prorogue this parliament, whatever may be the inconvenience resulting to the province by such a measure.

CV

HUSKISSON'S SPEECH ON CANADIAN AFFAIRS1
[Trans. Christie, op. cit.]

There is, I am sure, none who will not say, that the pretensions of the legislative body to take the whole management of these monies into its own hands, are neither founded in law nor practice. On the other hand, the house of assembly holding the public purse in its own hands, having the complete command of the general revenue, in order to enforce its unreasonable pretensions-for so I must call them, inasmuch as they are contrary to law, inconsistent with, and subversive of all the principles of constitutional government-in order I say to enforce their pretensions, have refused to appropriate any part of the larger revenue, of which they have the command, unless also the appropriation of the permanent crown revenue be given up to them. This, sir, is the state of the controversy between the executive and the legislative body in Canada. The consequences of the agitation of such a question as this, in which both parties have stood upon their extreme rights have been most unfortunate, and such as all who looked dispassionately at the subject, could not but most deeply regret. One of the unfortunate consequences has been, the necessity under which the representative of the king has found himself, of appropriating money for the necessary services of the colony, without the sanction of the colonial legislature. Such a thing as this, in a country with a legislative assembly-in a country that has the least pretence to freedom, can only be justified by the absolute necessity of preventing general confusion, and the subversion of the government. I do not stand here, God forbid that I should! in the British House of Commons, living as I do, in a country where the rights of the popular branch of the legislature to controul the expenditure of the money it raises are so well known and universally acknowledged-to defend the abstract propriety of a governor of a colony appropriating its revenue without the sanction of an act of the legislature, as required by law; but, pressed by necessity, it ought not perhaps to be wondered at, however we may regret the necessity, that a governor should take all the means in his power to maintain the tranquillity of the place committed to his charge.-When principles are pressed to the extreme, a legislature may, no doubt, distress the executive government of a country, and so wear it out by continued opposition, as to have the point in dispute conceded; but what are not in the meantime the unfortunate results to the people? What, in the midst of these conflicts, has been the result to the province of Canada? Nothing was expended of the money raised in this irregular manner, as I must call it, but what was absolutely necessary to carry on the government of the province; all improvement was at a stand, the roads were neglected, education was overlooked, the public buildings were suffered to fall to decay, and the country generally-I will not say reduced to a state of anarchy, because the king's representative properly sustained his government-was brought to such a state that there was not a Canadian whose interests did not suffer. The recurrence of such a state of things it is our

In 1828 matters reached such a crisis that the Extremists under Papineau attacked Dalhousie in terms of abuse. A monster petition condemning him and setting forth grievances was sent to England. A counter-petition from the Eastern Townships followed. On Huskisson's motion the Government appointed a committee to investi. gate Canadian affairs. Extracts from its Report, which, including evidence, runs to four hundred pages, are given in the next document.