has been pleased to promise, and which it will afford us the most lively satisfaction to see attained.

In the extracts from despatches hereinbefore cited, there are certain passages which induce us to believe that we have not made ourselves understood by your Majesty's Government, with regard to the nature of the control we desire for the Provincial Legislature over the waste lands on the public domain of the Province, and which might cause some apprehension in the opinion of our fellow subjects. We have never claimed to exercise over this portion of the affairs of the Government, any other authority than the parliamentary and constitutional authority which we are cntitled to exercise over all the other affairs of the country in so far as the peace, welfare and good government of the country may be therein concerned. We have also set forth at length our reasons for believing that this authority belongs to us. On this head, as on all others, our wish is that the due execution of the laws may remain in the hands of the Executive authorities, within the limits prescribed by the laws and the constitution, and under the necessary responsibility; but we also wish that the right of the Assembly of the Province to legislate on these subjects, jointly with the other branches of the Legislature, and to exercise in this behalí the other powers of the Commons of the country, may receive its full application.

It remains for us to address your Majesty on this important and extensive subject, the public revenue and expenditure of this Province. We humbly thank your Majesty for the gracious declaration, that your Majesty is disposed to admit the control of the Representatives of the people over the whole public Revenue raised in this Province. We regard the fulfilment of this promise as of the highest importance. In stating explicity in the preceding portions of the Address, the rights which we humbly believe to belong to the Legislature of this Province, with regard to certain parts of this Revenue, we wish to present the subject in its true point of view, in order that no misconception may hereafter retard the desired result. In the proposals which it may please Your Majesty to make to us for the purpose of attaining this result, it is impossible that your Majesty should lose sight of the essential principles of the Constitution, or to the declaratory Act of 1778', to the benefit of which we believe the people of this country are peculiarly entitled. We shall receive with respect, and examine with the most scrupulous attention any communication which Your Majesty may be pleased to make to us, tending to the settlement of the financial questions. We believe, however, that any merely temporary arrangement, made as a matter of expediency, and not carrying with it the recognition of the principles we have supported, could not have the desired effect, but would sooner or later bring back the very difficulties with which we are now contending. We humbly represent to Your Majesty, that the people of this Province, tired of the continued struggle in which they have been so long engaged to obtain the recognition of their rights on the part of the Metropolitan and Colonial authorities, would regard with painful apprehension the possibility of the recurrence of the same state of things, and of the necessity of making new sacrifices for the purpose of laying these complaints before Your Majesty and Parliament. We wish for a Government which shall assure us freedom and security; the unrestricted cffect of Your Majesty's declarations can alone confer it on us; and it will be when we possess it, and can entertain a hope of the removal of grievances and abuses we complain of, that we can properly seek the means of giving effect to Your Majesty's wishes with regard to an appropriation of a permanent nature. With respect to the extension of any appropriation of this nature beyond what we have hitherto thought to be reasonable, it will be impossible for us to take the subject into consideration until after the views of Your Majesty's Government, with regard to the details, shall have been made known to us. We must, however, declare that having represented to Your Majesty our views with regard to the efficiency and 1 See No. XXXIII.

responsibility which we wish to see established in the Provincial Government, we should think we failed in our duty to our constituents if we destroyed that efficiency and that responsibility, by placing, as a general rule, the great public functionaries of the province, beyond the reach of the wholesome action of the constitution. We are not actuated by any merely pecuniary motive; we believe that the largest sums Your Majesty's Government could ask for, would be utterly insignificant in comparison with those for which Your Majesty's servants in this province have been defaulters, or the enormous sums expended out of the public revenue, without the authority of the Provincial Legislature, and even in opposition to the votes of this House; or in comparison with the waste of the public property, by which four millions of acres of land or more, scarcely an eighth part of which has yet been settled, have been monopolized or alienated. But we earnestly desire to preserve the benefit of a just control on the part of the Legislature over the several branches of the Provincial Executive, and we can never consent by renouncing it, to confound all the powers of the state for time to come.

Having thus rendered manifest our opinions on the essential points of the extracts from despatches which have come to our knowledge, we refer on all other points, to our humble petition to Your Majesty and your Parliament of the 1st of March, 1834, and the 21st February, 1835, in which we presevere We beg leave to call Your Majesty's royal attention to the cssential reforms we have pointed out in the former part of this address, and which we believe to be indispensably necessary. Declaring ourselves unsatisfied with the views and intentions of Your Majesty's ministers, we address ourselves to Your Majesty and to your Parliament, in order that our just claims may be listened to, and that Your Majesty's government in this province may forthwith become a constitutional and responsible govcrnment, and one possessing the confidence of your faithful subjects.

We have frequently regretted that the destinies of the inhabitants of this portion of the British Empire should depend almost solely on a Colonial Minister acting on the other side of the ocean, and for the most part on incorrect data and an imperfect knowledge of facts.

We expect full justice from the august tribunal to which we appeal, and we trust that the Provincial Parliament will be so called together, for its next session as to enable us to continue as early as possible our labours for the welfare of the country, and, reassured by the measures we expect, to consider the means of finally arranging the difficulties which subsist in the Government of this Province, and of giving strength, stability and public confidence to Your Majesty's government therein.

Wherefore we respectfully entreat Your Majesty to listen favorably to our humble prayers, and as well by the exercise of the august powers which belong more especially to Your Majesty as jointly with the Parliament of the United Kingdom, to render full justice to your faithful subjects, and to deliver them from the system of oppression and bad government which the Colonial Ministers have long made to press heavily upon them. And by inclination led, as well as by duty bound, we shall ever pray for Your Majesty's sacred person.

CXXI

RESOLUTIONS OF HOUSE OF LOWER CANADA, 1836

[Trans. Christie, op. cit.]

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that this House, in its exertions to procure a redress of the various grievances under which the people of this Province labour, and to introduce a good and responsible system of local government, have, in addition to the other weighty and substantial reasons by which it has been guided, been greatly encouraged by the hope and expectations that any amelioration in the political institu

tions of the colony would be followed, of right, by similar advantages to our brethren inhabiting the sister Provinces of British North America.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the political reforms which this House and the good people of this Province have been for a great many years endeavouring to obtain, have at various epochs been explained by the votes, resolutions and addresses of this House, and by the petitions of the people themselves. That the principal object of those reforms is:-To render the Executive Council of this Province directly responsible to the representatives of the people, in conformity with the principles and practice of the British Constitution as they obtain in the United Kingdom; to extend the principle of election to the Legislative Council, which branch of the Provincial Legislature has hitherto proved, by reason of its independence of the people, and of its imperfect and vicious constitution insufficient to perform the functions for which it was originally designed; to place under the constitutional and salutary control of this House the whole of the revenues levied in this Province from whatcver source arising; to abolish pluralities, or the cumulation in one person of several or incompatible offices; to procure the repeal of certain statutes passed by the Imperial Parliament, in which the people of this Province are not and cannot be represented, which acts are an infringement of the rights and privileges of the Legislature of this colony, and are injurious to the interests of the people thereof; to obtain over the internal affairs of this Province, and over the management and settlement of the wild lands thereof (for the advantage and benefit of all classes of His Majesty's subjects therein without distinction), that wholesome and necessary control which springs from the principles of the Constitution itself, and of right belongs to the Legislature, and more particularly to this House as the representatives of the people; which reforms are specially calculated to promote the happiness of His Majesty's subjects in this Province; to draw more close the ties which attach the colony to the British empire, and can in no way prejudice or injure the interests of any of the sister Provinces.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that it has long been the aim of the enemies of these colonies, by deliberate and unfounded misrepresentations to engender dissensions and bad feelings between the people thereof, in the hope of preventing all union of purpose among the said people, and of thereby preventing the reform of those many abuses and evils of which the people have so frequently complained, and which are connived at or upheld for the advantage of a minority hitherto unjustly possessing, and still endeavoring to maintain, a political ascendency in this Province, contrary to the principles of all good government.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that this House has seen with extreme concern, a speech delivered at the opening of the present session of the Legislature of Upper Canada, by His Excellency Sir John Colborne, late Lieutenant Governor of that Province, at a moment when his sudden recall reflected particularly on the merits of his administration, in which it is stated that the affairs of this Province had exercised an injurious influence on the interests of Upper Canada-had tended apparently to discourage emigration and the transfer of capital to that country, and had acted disadvantageously in respect to the terms on which the large loan authorized by the legislature of the province was recently negotiated in England; that such a statement is calculated to misrepresent the views of this House-to prejudice the people of those Provinces against each otherto disturb that good understanding which ought to prevail, and which has hitherto prevailed between the said people; and in place thereof to sow discord and animosity among the several classes of His Majesty's subjects in these Provinces.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that strong in the rectitude of their intentions and principles, and moved alone by a desire to introduce order and responsibility into their political institutions, in the place of the disorder and abuses which now unhappily prevail, this House and the people who it represents, indignantly repudiate all design to injure the interests or embarrass the exertions of the people of Upper Canada, in

whose welfare the people of this Province feel a lively interest, and for whose patriotic exertions to improve their political and social conditions, this House entertains a sincere respect, and this House is gratified to perceive that the representatives of the sister province have done this house the justice to acquit it of being the cause of any dissensions or embarrassments existing in the country; and this House firmly repeats that those dissensions and embarrassments proceed from the defective constitution of the Legislative Council of these colonies, and from the continued unconstitutional exercise by the same persons of executive, legislative and judicial functions, from which causes have resulted the abuses of which the people have so long and so justly complained.

Resolved, That the Speaker of this House be authorized to transmit copies of the foregoing resolutions to the Speakers of the several Assemblies of Upper Canada1, and of the other sister Provinces, and to express the desire of this house cordially to co-operate with the said Assemblies in all constitutional measures calculated to promote the mutual interests of these colonies.

CXXII

ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF BRITISH AMERICA, 1836 [Trans. Christie, op. cit.]

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,-When an industrious population, after years of suffering are aroused to a sense of danger, by renewed attacks upon their rights and liberties, an appeal to those of kindred blood, ani mated by the same spirit, and allied by a communion of interests, can excite no surprise, and requires no justification.

Long and patiently have the population of British and Irish descent in Lower Canada endured evils of no ordinary description, relying on the interposition of the Imperial Government for relief; deceived in the fondly cherished trust, they are impelled to seek from their own energies, that protection which has been withheld by the power on whose justice they reposed.

For half a century they have been subjected to the domination of a party, whose policy has been to retain the distinguishing attributes of a foreign race, and to crush in others that spirit of enterprise which they are unable or unwilling to emulate. During that period, a population descended from the same stock with ourselves, have covered a continent with the smiling monuments of their agricultural industry; Upper Canada and the United States bear ample testimony of the floodtide of prosperity, the result of unresisted enterprise and of equitable laws, which has rewarded their efforts. Lower Canada, where another race predominates, presents a solitary exception to this general march of improvement. There, surrounded by forests inviting the industry of man, and offering a rich reward to his labour, an illiterate people, opposed to improvements, have compressed their growing numbers almost within the boundaries of the original settlements, and present in their laws, their mode of agriculture, and peculiar customs,a not unfaithful picture of France in the seventeenth century. There also may be witnessed the humiliating spectacle of a rural population not unfrequently necessitated to implore eleemosynary relief from the Legislature of the country.

It were incredible to suppose that a minority, constituting nearly onethird of the entire population, imbued with the same ardour for improvement that honorably distinguishes their race throughout the North American continent, and possessing the undisputed control of all the great interests of the colony, would resign themselves to the benumbing sway

1 This appeal did not produce the desired result. After being entered on the Journals of the House of Assembly in Upper Canada, it was expunged by the suc ceeding Assembly.

of a majority differing from them so essentially on all important points whilst any mode of deliverance was open to their choice. Nor would supineness or indifference on their part, produce a corresponding change in their opponents, or mitigate the relentless persecution with which they have been visited. The deep rooted hostility excited by the French leaders against those of different origin, which has lead to the perpetration of outrages on persons and property, and destroyed confidence in juries who have been taught to regard us as their foes, has extended its pernicious influence beyond the limits of Lower Canada. Upper Canada, repulsed in her endeavours to open a direct channel of communication to the sea, has been driven to cultivate commercial relations with the United States, whose policy is more congenial with her own. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will learn, with indignant surprise, that the destruction of their most important interests is countenanced and supported by the Assembly of this Province.

A French majority in one Province has caused these accumulated evils -a British majority in the United Provinces will compel their removal.

If it be the desire of the French Canadians to isolate themselves from the other subjects of the Empire, by cherishing the language and manners of a country which stands to them in the relation of a foreign power, the effects of such a prejudice will chiefly be felt by themselves, and may be left for correction to the hand of time; but when national feeling is exhausted in an active opposition to the general interests of the British American Provinces, when immigration is checked, the settlement of the country retarded, and the interests of commerce sacrificed, to the visionary schemes of establishing a French power; it becomes the solemn duty of the entire British population to resist proceedings so pregnant with evil. Let it not be said that a million of freemen permitted their rights to be invaded, and their onward course impeded, by a faction which already recoils in alarm from the contest it has rashly provoked.

Connected as are the Provinces of British America by a chain of Rivers and Lakes, affording the means of creating an uninterrupted water communication between their extremities, at a small expense; possessing within themselves the elements of all extensive trade by the interchange of those products which are peculiar to each, and forming part of the same Empire, they have the undoubted right to require that these advantages shall not be sacrificed by the inertness or the mistaken policy of any one state; more especially when, as in the case of Lower Canada, that state, from geographical position, exercises a preponderating influence on the prosperity of all.

The facts which have been made public in two Addresses, emanating from the Association, conclusively establish, the want of education among the French population, their subserviency to their political leaders, and the hostility of those leaders to the population of British and Irish descent. Many additional illustrations of their hostile policy might be adduced.

At a time when men of all political parties in the Sister Province are united in opposing the contemplated change in the timber duties, the Assembly of this Province, far from lending their assistance, have countenanced the attack, by recognizing as their agent in England, an individual who is distinguished by his advocacy of the Baltic interests, and his active opposition to the Colonial trade. To aid in the prosecution of this design, they have not scrupled to appropriate a part of the Provincial funds, (obtained under the pretext of defraying their contingent expenses), to reward their Agent, and to circulate through the British press, statements that are calculated to mislead the public mind; thus gratifying their national animosity, by lending a willing aid to ruin the shipping and mercantile interests of the British American Provinces, and preventing the influx of immigrants from the British Isles, who are brought to the Colonies, at a trifling cost, by the vessels engaged in the timber trade.

Upper Canada is honorably distinguished for works completed and in progress, remarkable for their magnitude and for the extensiveness of their destined utility. The St. Lawrence canal, at this moment in active progress,