into his most serious consideration the question whether there are any amendments in the law on this subject, which it would be fit to propose for the consideration of the Imperial Legislature; and which being founded on the principles, and conceived in the spirit of the Act of 1791, may be calculated to render the practical operation of that statute more conformable to the wishes and intentions of its framers.

73. There is one complaint closely connected with the topic referred to, of which I do not find any notice in the Resolutions of the Assembly. The constitution of Lower Canada consists of various brances or members. To each of which Parliament has assigned such functions as were thought necessary to counterbalance the danger of abuse in the other organs of government. If the balance be disturbed, a counterpoise would be required to rectify the disturbance. It is earnestly maintained by many, that the House of Assembly does not supply a fair representation of the Canadian people; that the constituencies throughout the province are so arranged as to insure the return of a much larger proportion of members in the interest of the Canadians of French descent, than is warranted either by their numbers or their property; and that neither the commercial interest, nor the landholders in the townships, are protected in the popular branch of the legislature with any just regard to their importance, or to the wealth and number of the persons embraced in those classes. The Canadians of British descent have been therefore, it is said, accustomed to look to the Legislative Council for defence against the partiality which they ascribe to the members of the House of Assembly.

74. On the truth and justice of these representations, it is not for me here to pronounce an opinion. But assuming them to be true, it is clear that the existence of such a state of things would throw additional difficulties round an attempt to modify the Legislative Council.

75. It will be necessary for you to inquire into the truth of these allegations. This duty indeed you are bound to perform, with a view to the general interests of the colony, even independently of any reference to its bearing on the construction of the Legislative Council. The number of persons of British or of French birth or origin actually sitting in the Assembly will of course afford a most imperfect criterion of the influence by which their seats may have been obtained, and of the course of policy to which they will habitually incline. The material question respects the national character and prepossessions rather of the several constituencies, than of the different members. Lower Canada must also be viewed as a country in which the limits of settlement and cultivation are continually widening. It requires therefore an elective system, resting on a principle such as shall accommodate itself to changes which are taking place in the circumstances of the electors, with a magnitude and rapidity to which there is no parallel in the communities of Europe.

76. If your inquiries should lead you to the conclusion, that a change in the Law of Election in Lower Canada is necessary or desirable, it will be right that the change should, if possible, be effected, not by an Act of Parliament, but by an Act of the local legislature.

77. The composition of the executive council has also been made the subject of censure. It is maintained that the members of the body are incompetent to the judicial duty with which they are charged, and unfit to act as the confidential advisers of the Governor in their more appropriate office of aiding in the execution of his administrative authority. Hence, it is said, has arisen the habit of appealing, with inconvenient frequency, to the Secretary of State, on many questions which might more advantageously have been disposed of in the province itself. To this practice is ascribed not only much needless delay in the dispatch of public business, but the mischief inseparable from bringing the ultimate and supreme executive authority into needless collision with individuals and with the two Houses of Legislature.

78. So far as these complaints refer to the appellate jurisdiction of the executive councillors, there appears an unanimity so entire amongst all the parties concerned, that the only subject of inquiry is, by what means

that jurisdiction can be most speedily and advantageously transferred to a more appropriate tribunal. But, on the other branch of the subject, there is a wider scope for investigation.

79. I am disposed to doubt whether the number of the members of the executive council might not be reduced with advantage to the community. In the Indian presidencies, as well as in all the new British colonies, the number is limited to three or four. A much larger number would seem scarcely compatible either with promptitude, secrecy, and a due sense of personal responsibility; or with calmness of deliberation, freedom from party dissensions, and exemption from the danger of inconvenient compromise. If three members only had seats at the board, it might at once be reasonable to impose, and possible to enforce, the observance of the rule, that on all questions of importance the Governor should be bound to explain to the board his own opinions, and to receive from them, in return, an explanation of theirs. This, however, is a subject on which His Majesty is not, at the present moment, disposed to act without the aid of your judgment and report.

80. I would not, however, exclude from your consideration any proposal of which it is the professed object to render the Executive Council a more effective instrument of good government. You will therefore report whether there are any practicable amendments which, on the whole, it would be desirable to adopt, either in the mode of convening, of consulting, or remunerating the members of this body, or regarding the tenures of their

seats.

81. The state of education in Lower Canada must engage your most serious attention, with a view to the best means of promoting the more general diffusion of sound learning, religious knowledge, and Christian principle. Of His Majesty's anxiety in regard to these paramount objects, it would be difficult to speak in terms sufficiently emphatic. But the earnest endeavours of my predecessors on this subject have been so repeatedly frustrated, that I suspect the existence of some obstacles of which the Home Government is not aware. Amidst the heat of contention on questions comparatively of slight temporary concern, this momentous and permanent interest of the whole Canadian people may have been overlooked. Sufficient attention, perhaps, has not been given to the essential distinctions between the state of society in this kingdom and in the province. It may have been forgotten that in a new country, pressing forward in the career of agricultural and commercial enterprize, it is far more impolitic than in this kingdom to calculate on the voluntary exertions of those who combine the advantages of wealth and leisure with practical experience in public affairs. If His Majesty's Government have not hitherto addressed themselves with sufficient promptitude to the duty of devising and recommending well-considered plans, for an object so nearly touching the moral and intellectual no less than the social benefit of the Canadian people, it is an error which cannot be too frankly confessed nor too zealously redeemed.

82. You will therefore apply yourselves to the collection of all such intelligence as may be necessary for framing a general system of provincial education, embracing not the mere rudiments of literature, but all that relates to the culture of the minds and the development of the moral and religious principles of youth in the different ranks of society. This is a task, the due performance of which requires so intimate an acquaintance with the character and wants of the people, that I doubt whether, within the time of your residence in Canada, it will be possible for you to be completely prepared to form a deliberate conclusion on a question thus comprehensive. It will, however, be of great value if a commencement can be made, resting on a solid basis, on which, aided by the co-operation of the Governor, a more complete structure may hereafter be erected by the Legislative Council and Assembly. I am sanguine in the hope that such will be the result of your inquiries and your report.

83. The last topic to which I shall refer in my present communication is, the distribution between the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada of duties, levied under Acts of Parliament or Statutes of the Lower Province,

at the ports in the River St. Lawrence. The interposition of Parliament to apportion these funds was dictated and justified by necessity. Between two great dependencies of the empire, at variance on a question of the deepest interest to both, Parliament assumed an autority to mediate, not with a view to any interest exclusively or principally British, but for the sake of objects altogether Canadian. Still it has never been disputed or concealed, that this intervention was accompanied by the exercise of an extreme right, nor have His Majesty's Government ever been slow to seize every opportunity for remitting the decision of this dispute to the legislatures, within whose cognizance the question properly falls. You will make it your business to inquire whether such an adjustment of the rights of the two provinces, satisfactory to them both, can be devised, as would justify the repeal of the Canada Trade Act. If any such project can be matured, His Majesty's Government would be happy to introduce into Parliament the necessary measure for accomplishing that repeal.

84. It appears from the records of this office that my immediate predecessor, the Earl of Aberdeen investigated with great diligence the question whether the recommendations of the House of Commons' Committee of 1828, on Canadian Affairs, had been completely executed. The result of those inquiries his Lordship embodied in a Minute of which I have the honour to enclose a copy for your information. In reliance on the habitual accuracy of Lord Aberdeen, I think myself entitled confidently to maintain with him, that to each of the recommendations of that Committee, the King has given complete effect to the utmost extent of His Majesty's constitutional authority; that in obedience to His Majesty's commands, the most pressing instances have been made to the Legislative Council and Assembly to accomplish every other part of the designs of that Committee to which legislative aid was indispensable; and further, that so frank and cordial was the spirit in which those concessions were made, that on every one of the principal topics included in the Report of 1828, His Majesty spontaneously advanced considerably beyond the limits recommended by its authors.

85. This however, is a general conclusion of so much importance, and cnters so largely into the justification of the policy observed by the King, from the commencement of his reign, towards his Canadian people, that His Majesty is not satisfied that it should rest merely on the revision undertaken by his own confidential servants, of the events of the last seven years. Desiring that it should be brought to the test of the most rigid and impartial inquiry, His Majesty commands me to instruct you, on your arrival in Lower Canada, to ascertain and to report whether the recommendations of the Canada Committee of 1828 have, to the full extent of His Majesty's authority and legitimate influence, been carried into complete effect; or whether there is any, and if any, what part of their advice which it yet remains with his Majesty to execute.

86. I have now adverted to all the topics which it is necessary to comprise in the present communication; I have accompanied them with such observations as the occasion seemed to require. In offering those observations I must again disclaim the remotest intention of fettering your discretion or of restricting in any degree the exercise of your own judgment, either as to the subjects of inquiry or the opinions at which you may arrive. In the course of your investigations new topics will occur to you, and new views of topics already familiar will present themselves. You will not on any occasion, or for any reason, shrink from the explicit declaration of your sentiments. You will not decline any inquiry, the prosecution of which may promise benefit to the colony or to the mother country. You cannot err, either in the selection or in the treating of questions, if you steadily bear in view the purpose for which His Majesty has been induced to entrust you with the execution of this commission, and the obligation under which you are placed to contribute, by every means in your power, to the accomplishment of that gracious purpose. I have, &c.

(Signed) GLENELG.

CXIX

GLENELG TO HEAD'

[Trans. Imperial Blue Books relating to Canada, Vol. VI, 1836.]

Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head.

Sir,

Downing Street, 5 December 1835.

I have the honour herewith to transmit to you, a commission under His Majesty's sign-manual, appointing you lieutenant-governor of the province of Upper Canada.

You have been selected for this office at an era of more difficulty and importance than any which has hitherto occurred in the history of that part of His Majesty's dominions. The expression of confidence in your discretion and ability which the choice itself implies, would only be weakened by any more formal assurance which I could convey to you.

In the following instructions, I shall presuppose your knowledge of many occurrences, the correct understanding of which is essential to the discharge of the duties to which you are called, but which it is unnecessary for me to recapitulate. As, However, a more exact acquaintance with Canadian affairs is indispensable for your guidance in the administration of the government of Upper Canada, I think it right to refer you to those sources of information on which you will be able most safely to rely. Amongst these, the first place is due to the journals of the Legislative Council, and of the House of General Assembly. The appendices subjoined to the annual summary of the proceedings of the two Houses, contain a fund of information on almost every topic connected with the statistics and political interests of the province; and to those reports you will be able to resort with far greater confidence than to any other source of similar intelligence. The Report of the Committee of the House of Commons of the year 1828, with the evidence, oral and documentary, to which it refers, will also throw much light on the progress and the actual state of the questions agitated in the upper province. The correspondence of my predecessors and myself, with the officers who have successively administered the provincial government, will of course engage your careful attention.

In Upper Canada, as in all countries which enjoy the blessing of a free constitution, and of a legislature composed in part of the representatives of the people, the discussion of public grievances, whether real or supposed, has always been conducted with an earnestness and freedom of inquiry of which, even when occasionally carried to exaggeration, no reasonable complaint can be made. The representatives of the Canadian people, if departing at times from the measured style and exact terms in which the investigation of truth may perhaps be most successfully conducted, have yet, even in the agitation of questions the most deeply affecting the interests of their constituents, exhibited a studious respect for the person and authority of their Sovereign, and a zealous attachment to the principles of their balanced constitution. Until the last session of the provincial parliament, the remonstrances of the House were chiefly confined to insulated topics of complaint; discussions, indeed, occasionally arose, and discontent was occasionally manifested; but it may be affirmed, that generally there subsisted a spirit of amicable co-operation between the executive government and the legislature.

The cession by His Majesty of the revenues raised under the statute 14 Geo. 3, c. 88, to the appropriation of the House of Assembly,' was a gratuitous and unsolicited act, and was accepted by that body in a spirit of grateful cordiality.

I will not pause to recapitulate the events which immediately preceded,

1 In this despatch to the new Governor of Upper Canada, Sir Francis Bond Head, Glenelg outlines the methods of dealing with the famous Seventh Report on Grievances which was drawn up by a Committee of the Upper Canadian Assembly early in 1835. 2 See No. CX.

if they did not produce the interruption of this mutual good understanding. It is sufficient for my present object to observe, that the relations which had formerly subsisted between the executive government and the repre sentatives of the people underwent an entire change immediately after the election which took place in the autumn of 1834. The supporters of the local government now for the first time found themselves in a constant minority on every question controverted between them and their political antagonists. A committee of grievances was appointed, by which a report was made impugning the administration of affairs in every department of the public service, and calling for remedial measures of such magnitude and variety as apparently to embrace every conceivable topic of complaint. Having adopted this report, and having directed its publication in an unusual form, the House transmitted through the lieutenant-governor, to the King, an address, in which some of the more considerable of the claims of the committee were urged in terms of no common emphasis. It will be your first duty on the assumption of the government to convey to the House the answer which His Majesty has been advised to return to these representations.

I cannot proceed to explain the terms of that answer without preliminary remark with a view to which the preceding statement has been chiefly made. Whatever may be the justice of the complaints now preferred respecting the general principles on which the public affairs of the province have been conducted, the representatives of the people of Upper Canada are at least not entitled to impute to the confidential advisers of the King any disregard of their remonstrances. The greater part of the grievances detailed by the committee and the House are now for the first time brought by them under His Majesty's notice My predecessor, the Earl of Ripon, in his despatch of the 8th of November 1832, to Sir John Colborne, was commanded by the King to state, that "there was no class of the Canadian people, nor any individual amongst them, to whose petitions His Majesty did not require that the most exact and respectful attention should be given." His Majesty has never ceased to be actuated by the spirit which dictated those instructions, and of course will not deny to the House of General Assembly that careful investigation of the grounds of their complaints, which He graciously pledged himself to bestow on the representation of any individual petitioner. I feel myself therefore entitled, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, to object to any resort on the part of the House to that ulterior measure to which they allude, but which they will feel with me is to be justified only by an extreme emergency.

I now proceed to the consideration of the various topics embraced in the seventh report of the committee of grievances, and in the addresses of the two Houses to His Majesty: and I shall advert to them in the order in which they are pursued in the report itself.

In the following pages, if any subject should appear to be passed over without due regard, you will understand that I have at least been guilty of no intentional omission, but have, in obedience to His Majesty's commands, made it my endeavour to meet every question which the committee and the House have thought it necessary or proper to raise.

1. It is stated that "the almost unlimited extent of the patronage of the Crown, or rather of the Colonial Minister for the time being, and his advisers here, together with the abuse of that patronage, are the chief sources of colonial discontent. Such (it is added) is the patronage of the Colonial Office, that the granting or withholding of supplies is of no political importance, unless as an indication of the opinion of the country concerning the character of the Government, which is conducted on a system that admits its officers to take and apply the funds of the colonists without any legislative vote whatever." The committee then proceed to an enumeration of the various public offices, and the different departments and branches of the public service, over which this patronage is said to extend; and by bringing the whole into one view, they suggest what must be the amount of the authority and influence accruing to the executive government from these sources.