franchise, as being generally Britons, whilst to co-heirs, as being chiefly French, the right of voting has been carefully secured.

The qualification of magistrate, of militia officers and of jurors, is made to depend upon real estate; the possession of which, in properties of limited value, is generally confined to Canadians, whilst Britons, whose capitals are more commonly embarked in commercial and manufacturing pursuits, are virtually debarred from those offices and public trusts; thus confining our liberties to the discretion of a body of men, the greater number of whom are devoid of education, and have been taught to regard Britons as their natural enemies.

Their abuse of power and contempt of enlightened public opinion, (confident in the support of an unlettered French majority,) are exemplified by their proceedings in the House of Assembly. We have seen Mr. Christie' expelled from successive Parliaments, despite the remonstrances of the disfranchised electors of Gaspé, and contrary to every principle of a representative government-Mr. Mondelet expelled by a forced construction of an illegal resolution, a construction, from which the framer of the resolution declared his dissent; and contrary to the precedent in the case of Mr. Panet who under like circumstances, was permitted to retain his seat-The West Ward of Montreal, containing a majority of independent British electors, disfranchised for two years-a pretended enquiry into the melancholy riot of the 21st of May, 1832, where individuals were pronounced guilty before the examination of a single witness; and where, in violation of a solemn pledge, and of common justice, the evidence for the prosecution was sent forth to the world without any evidence having been received in defence-public monies misapplied under resolutions of the Assembly, without the assent of the co-ordinate branches of the legislature -the contingent expenses of the Assembly charged with a salary to Mr. Viger, originally of £1000, but gradually increased to £1700 per annum-a sum so disproportionate to the services rendered, as to justify the conclusion, that the vote itself was a convenient pretext for the secret misapplication of Provincial funds and, their daring contempt of all public and constitutional principles during the last session, and on the eve of a dissolution, in attempting to commit a new Parliament to the reimbursement of the expenses attendant upon the convening of public meetings throughout the Province, avowedly for the purpose of influencing the general election.

The laws governing commercial transactions introduced from France, remain as they were at the conquest. Applications to the Assembly for a bankrupt law, and other modifications of the existing jurisprudence, suited to the altered circumstances of the country, have been uniformly neglected, and we continue subjected to the uncertain and ill defined provisions of a body of laws long since repudiated in that France, whence it was originally derived.

The provincial banks called into existence by acts of the Provincial Legislature, and by the terms of their charters, compelled annually to exhibit statements of their affairs, have been openly denounced by Mr. Papineau, late Speaker of the Assembly, and organ of the French party. from no other possible motive than a desire to inflict injury upon com merce, and consequently on Britons, by whom the commerce of the country is chiefly conducted.

The same individual has publicly recommended to the French party to abstain from all intercourse with Britons: an advice which has been acted upon to a considerable extent.

Not satisfied with the powers with which they are constitutionally invested, the French party in the Assembly have been incessantly occupied in attempting to arrogate to themselves supremacy in the concerns of the Province.

Their refusal to pass laws, except of temporary duration, has involved in uncertainty important interests which would require to be regulated by permanent enactments.

1 Christie gives a full account of his expulsion, etc., in his History. For the Mondelet case and the Montreal riot, see pp. 380, 385.

Their claim to pass in review the salaries of all public officers by an annual Civil List, voted by items, would, if acceded to, lead to a disorganization of government, and ultimately render the Judges and other public functionaries, the instruments of their political animosities.

The Legislative Council, a body appointed by the Crown, and where alone British interests are fairly represented, they are endeavouring to replace by an elective Council, which, returned by the same constituency, must, from necessity, be in all respects a counterpart of the Assembly; a measure which would remove the barriers that defend us against French tyranny, and give to a majority, hostile to British interests, a power that would be employed to sever the connexion between Canada and the Empire. Our opposition to this extension of the elective principle, dictated by preservation, has been falsely represented as an opposition to liberal institutions. Accustomed to see in the neighboring States the mild toleration of equal laws, and a constitution in its essential features approximating to our own, we are not of those who startle with alarm at the name of a republic, or view their institutions with jealousy or distrust. With sentiments of generous pride, we recognise the lineaments of kindred blood and national character. Sensible of the benefits derived from our connexion with the parent state, and ardently attached to the land of our fathers, we view with grief and indignation, proceedings, which, if not successfully resisted, will leave us no choice between a change which we deprecate, and a submission to French oppression.

It were an insult to the understanding to dwell upon public opinion, as expressed by a population destitute of the advantages of education, as a mass of the French population in this Province has been shewn to be, and we regard with blended feelings of indignation and contempt, the affectation of the leaders of the French party, of the character of liberals and reformers, whilst they have sedulously fostered a system of feudal exactions and feudal servitude, which invest a privileged class with more arbitrary rights than the nobility of England, without the plea of hereditary claims to legislative honors.

Numbering in our ranks many who, both in Britain and in Ireland, were foremost in the cause of reform; independent in our principles; unconnected with office; of all classes and of all creeds; bound together by the endearing recollection of a common origin, and the powerful sentiment of a common danger, we are prepared to resist to the uttermost the efforts of a party, which, under the specious guise of popular institutions, would sever wisdom from power, and respect from intelligence, and consign us to unendurable bondage.

Cherishing sentiments of becoming respect for His Majesty's government, and correctly appreciating its many efforts to advance our prosperity, the task we have undertaken to perform requires, nevertheless, that we should explicitly declare our opinion, that the evils which oppress us have been aggravated by the various and temporising policy of successive administrations.

The destinies of this important Province have been confided to Colonial Secretaries, ignorant of the state of parties in the Colony. Entering upon office without a competent knowledge of our affairs; relying for information upon a House of Assembly, constituted as that body has been shewn to be; alternately making unwise concessions or attempting to enforce unwise principles, and not unfrequently retiring from office at a time when experience would have enabled them to act with becoming judgment and decision, the tendency of their measures has been to compromise the dignity of the Home Government and to confer a sanction upon the pretensions by which our interests are assailed.

We are not insensible to the just grounds of complaint arising from the inefficiency of the Executive Council, and the feeble claims which that body possesses to the confidence of the community.

We cannot recognize just principles of government in calling to a seat in one of the Councils, a clerk or subordinate officer of the other; and although the Legislative Council, as at present constituted, commands our

respect as possessing a majority of independent members, we consider that it yet contains too many persons holding dependent situations under the Crown and liable to be acted upon by undue influence.

The accumulation of offices in the family and connection of a leading member of the Legislative Council, deserves to be held up to public reprehension.

The irresponsible manner in which the Land Granting Department is conducted, the salary disproportioned to the duties performed, which is attached to the office, and other abuses connected with the Woods and Forests, demand revision.

To the redress of these abuses, and to all other reforms, based upon just principles, we offer the most strenuous support, and we, deliberately and with confidence submit this exposition of our principles and grievances, in order that our fellow-countrymen may be enabled to judge of the sincerity of the respective parties in the Province, by contrasting professions with facts.

The subject of this address cannot fail to suggest important reflections connected with the social and political relations of the country. Of what the future will disclose we can offer no conjecture. Recent events have roused us to a sense of impending danger, and the British and Irish population of Lower Canada are now united for self-preservation, animated by a determination to resist measures, which, if successful must end in their destruction. Shall we, in this, the country of our adoption, be permitted to find a home? or shall we. be driven from it as fugitives?

Strong in the sympathies of our fellow countrymen in the Sister Provinces, injury cannot be inflicted upon us, without affecting them; and the French party may yet be taught, that the majority upon which they count for success, will, in the hour of trial, prove a weak defence against the awakened energies of an insulted and oppressed people.

By order of the Committee appointed at a public meeting of the inhabitants of Montreal, held on the 20th of November, 1834.

(Signed) JOHN MOLSON, Jun.

CXVII

ABERDEEN TO AYLMER

[Trans. Christie, op. cit.]

Downing Street, 11th February, 1835.

My Lord,-In conformity with the pledge given in my despatch of the 8th of January, I can assure Your Lordship that His Majesty's government have not ceased to direct their anxious attention to the discovery of those means which appeared to offer the most reasonable prospect of bringing to a happy termination the existing differences between the House of Assembly of Lower Canada and the Executive government of the Province. This enquiry has been undertaken with a deep sense of the importance of the object to be attained and has been prosecuted with the most zealous and earnest endeavors to arrive at a favorable result; but I cannot disguise from Your Lordship that throughout the investigation I have found myself surrounded by no common difficulties.

Your Lordship will recollect that in the year 1828 a Committee of the House of Commons, was appointed for the purpose of enquiring into the state of the civil government of Canada which, after a laborious and protracted examination, embodied in their report' various suggestions calculated in their opinion for the improvement of the administration of the Province.

This report was declared by the House of Assembly of Lower Canada to be "an imperishable monument of the justice and profound wisdom of 1 No. CVI.

the Committee," and to point out the certain mode of removing all the evils of which the people of Canada had complained. On a future occasion I may endeavour to show, and I hope incontrovertibility, the manner in which the recommendations of the Committee have been carried into full effect. At present I will only observe that notwithstanding the general enthusiasm with which the appearance of the report was hailed by the House of Assembly, a spirit of discontent from whatever cause arising, has continued gradually to increase among the members of that body, until in the last year it has burst forth with a vehemence altogether unparallelled. This spirit was remarkably exhibited in the ninety-two resolutions' passed by the House of Assembly on the 23rd of February, 1834. These resolutions were referred to a Committee of the House of Commons on the 25th April, and occupied their attention for a considerable time. On the 3d July, the Committee closed their labors with a report,' in which they did full justice to the anxiety of the Home Government to carry into execution the suggestions of the Select Committee of 1828; and declared that the endeavors of the Government to that end had been unremitting, and guided, in all cases, by a desire to promote the interests of the Province.

The Committee delivered no opinion upon the subject matter of any one of the resolutions submitted to their consideration, but lamented that mutual misconception appeared to prevail, which they hope might be removed; and finally expressed their persuasion that the practical measures for the future administration of the affairs of Lower Canada might best be left to the consideration of the Government, who were responsible for their adoption and execution.

From that period up to the present day I do not find that any measures have been undertaken in compliance with the recommendation of the Committee of the House of Commons. On the 15th November, the day on which the dissolution of the late administration took place, Your Lordship was apprized by Mr. Spring Rice, that he was prepared to transmit very full instructions on the various important points upon which it was essential for Your Lordship to be informed on the approaching meeting of the Assembly of Lower Canada; but in consequence of the event which had then occurred, he was prevented from making any further communication. Not being aware of the nature and purport of these contemplated instructions, Your Lordship will see that I have thus been deprived of the fruits of the matured reflection of my predecessor; and that on my own accession to office, I find this complicated question very much in the same situation in which it was left by the Committee of the House of Commons, on the 3d July-with this difference however, that the difficulties of its solution have been materially aggravated by the additional delay of six months.

In adverting to this delay, Your Lordship will not understand that it is with the view of imputing blame to any one, but simply for the purpose of expressing my regret that a crisis should now have arrived, in which a prompt decision is rendered indispensable, and that it must be taken at a moment and under circumstances when there exists a peculiar necessity for the most careful review of all that has passed, and for the most deliberate reflection on the consequences of any step that may be adopted.

The painful situation in which Your Lordship has long been placed, and the personal relation in which you have been made to stand towards the House of Assembly form no slight addition to the embarrassments which obstruct the successful termination of the question at issue. It is due, however, to Your Lordship to state that from your first assumption of the Government of Lower Canada, my predecessors in the Department over which I now preside, have signified their general approbation of the conduct you have pursued in the Administration of the affairs of that Province. With satisfaction I add that from an examination of Your 1 No. CXIV.

The Report is in British Parliamentary Papers, 1834, XVIII. The evidence is in Ibid. 1837, VII.

The fall of the ministry in which Aberdeen's predecessor, Spring Rice, was Colonial Secretary.

Lordship's Official correspondence, commencing at the period referred to, I can see no reason to dissent from the accuracy of these opinions. At the same time it must be obvious that the exasperated feelings so prevalent in the Assembly, and the alienation of that branch of the Canadian Legislature from the Executive Government, have rendered Your Lordship's position so extremely difficult as even to forbid the hope that you would be enabled to employ with any good effect the words of conciliation and peace. Looking then at the matter of dealing with the whole of this subject, and bearing in mind the circumstances to which I have already adverted, His Majesty's Government are of opinion that the exigences of the case demand some more decisive and expeditious mode of proceeding than is consistent with an ordinary and regular correspondence. Your Lordship's sentiments have been more than once expressed to the same effect.

The King has therefore been humbly advised to select an individual' possessing His Majesty's entire confidence, who has been unconnected with past Canadian polities, and has had the opportunity by recent personal communication with the members of His Majesty's Government, of ascertaining their views and intentions more fully and unreservedly than could be possible by means of written statements.

This individual in the capacity of His Majesty's Royal Commissioner, will repair to Lower Canada fully instructed to examine, and, if possible, to terminate the various points of discussion, in the hope of composing all those differences which have so long agitated the Province, and which have deeply afflicted His Majesty's loyal subjects.

Without attempting to give Your Lordship even an outline of the instructions of which His Majesty's Extraordinary Commissioner will be the bearer, it may be sufficient to inform you that his mission will not be so much for the purpose of promulgating any new principles of government, as of carrying into effect that system of liberality and justice towards the people of Lower Canada, which His Majesty has long since adopted, and which a committee of the House of Commons recently declared had characterised the policy and conduct of all those by whom the affairs of the Kingdom have been administered during the last six years, although the result which has hitherto attended these efforts might perhaps render our hopes of the future less sanguine, it will not diminish the desire or the determination of the King to satisfy all the just claims and expectations of his Canadian subjects.

They will find that His Majesty is unwearied in his endeavors to cstablish "an impartial, conciliatory and constitutional Government in Canada."-For this end it will be the object of His Majesty to renew an enquiry into every alleged grievance, to examine every cause of complaint, and to apply a remedy to every abuse that may still be found to prevail; for this end there is no sacrifice he would not cheerfully make which should be compatible with the fundamental principles of the Constitution itself, and with the continued existence of the Province as a possession of the British Crown. I am unwilling to believe that the Canadian people can be insensible to feelings so truly paternal, which as Your Lordship well knows have not been recently adopted or on the spur of the occasion, and for which we may reasonably hope that His Majesty will be rewarded by the loyalty and attachment of all classes in the important Province now under your immediate government.

Your Lordship will communicate this despatch to the House of Assembly in the usual manner. Although without any direct information on the subject from Your Lordship, I learn from other sources of intelligence, that the Legislature will have met on the 27th of January-should their sittings have been adjourned, you will take such means as may appear most

1 Lord Gosford, who succeeded Aylmer in 1834, was accompanied by two fellow Commissioners, Sir Charles Grey and Sir George Gipps. They handed in, in 1836, six Reports, which are in British Parliamentary Papers, 1837, XXIV. Out of the sug gestions of their final report emerged The Ten Resolutions of March, 1837 (see No. CXXIV). It is interesting to note in the light of future events that their Reports implied that a suspension of the Constitution seemed better than a continued policy of ineffective conciliation. For the Instructions to Gosford, etc., see No. CXVIII.