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This is a reproduction of a book from the McGill University Library 
 collection. 
 
 Title: An essay on the re-constitution of Her Majesty's government in Canada 
 
 Author: Bliss, Henry, 17977-1873 
 
 Publisher, year: London : E. Wilson, 1839 (London : C. Roworth and Sons) 
 
 The pages were digitized as they were. The original book may have 
 contained pages with poor print. Marks, notations, and other marginalia 
 present in the original volume may also appear. For wider or heavier books, 
 a slight curvature to the text on the inside of pages may be noticeable. 
 
 ISBN of reproduction: 978-1-77096-101-2 
 
 This reproduction is intended for personal use only, and may not be 
 reproduced, re-published, or re-distributed commercially. For further 
 information on permission regarding the use of this reproduction contact 
 McGill University Library. 
 
 McGill University Library 
 www.mcgill.ca/library 
 
AN 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 OF 
 
 HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT 
 
 IN 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 HENRY BLISS, ESQ. 
 
 OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER- AT-LAW. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, 
 18, BISHOPSGATE STREET. 
 
 1839. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 C. ROWORfll AND SONS, BELL YARD, 
 
 FLEET STREET 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 What is to be done for the Peace and Good Go- 
 vernment of Canada? A question of momentous 
 importance to all concerned in the British Northern 
 Colonies, deeply interesting as a problem of po- 
 litical jurisprudence, and which, after two High 
 Commissions sent out to solve it, is now about to 
 be submitted to Parliament. 
 
 However the time for deliberation may have 
 been employed, the moment for action is arrived. 
 Something efficient and conclusive must now be 
 done. No more elusion of the difficulty, pro- 
 crastination of the remedy, coquetting with par- 
 ties, compromising of principles, — no more of this 
 can be admitted. Half measures are out of date. 
 Temporary expedients will no longer answer. 
 Enough has been sacrificed to the chance of 
 events, and the expectation of accidents. The des- 
 tinies of two great colonies require to be immedi- 
 ately and permanently settled. Government must 
 govern ; the legislature give law ; the Imperial 
 
 b 2 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 Parliament must speak out ; or all will betray 
 their office. And, more, the exigency is so in- 
 stant and so urgent, that it behoves even private 
 individuals to come forward, if any, from peculiar 
 opportunity or observation, be enabled to suggest 
 what may appear to deserve consideration ; every 
 good subject seems called upon, by his duty to 
 the crown and the empire, to declare what advice 
 he can offer, or what opinion he has formed, that 
 may profit his country, or serve the present occa- 
 sion. 
 
 A deep sense of this obligation, no less than an 
 attachment to such studies, and a peculiar interest 
 in their present application, have been among the 
 principal motives for the present publication. 
 Safer, undoubtedly, and far less anxious and 
 laborious would be the task, to expect some mea- 
 sure of her Majesty’s Government, and reserve 
 oneself for either alleging the errors, or accusing 
 the absence, of any such bill. That, however, is 
 an office which persons will never be wanting to 
 undertake. But a worthier effort, and one more 
 suited to the emergency of the times, is at once 
 to assume the responsibility of humbly tendering 
 counsel upon a subject, which, had adequate cpun- 
 sel been already possessed, or heretofore adopted, 
 would never have been brought to so momentous 
 a crisis. The attempt, whatever its character or 
 success, may at least serve to attract attention, 
 aid deliberation, and hasten a solution of the 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 question; the further deferring of which would 
 be its most unfortunate result. What then is to 
 be done, for the peace and good government of 
 the Canadas? 
 
 The question is of a complex character, involv- 
 ing a subject of foreign relations as well as of in- 
 ternal legislation. For the former,— the wealth 
 and power of Great Britain are too vast for any 
 opportunity of her dismemberment to pass neg- 
 lected. The rebellions and piracies perpetrated 
 in Canada have undoubtedly received from foreign 
 powers supplies of men, arms, and money. The 
 source of the two former is notorious; but large 
 pecuniary assistance would little suit the means 
 and character of either the people or govern- 
 ment of that country. Yet such assistance must 
 have been given from some quarter, and not 
 sparingly; otherwise those enterprises were too 
 expensive to have been prepared, and too despe- 
 rate to have been undertaken. Their plotters and 
 contrivers must have made money, by so repeat- 
 edly sending others to a peril, ever considered too 
 hopeless for themselves. Russia has been ac- 
 cused, and with too much reason, of interposing 
 by pecuniary at least, if by no other, encourage- 
 ment. The journalism of France has evidently 
 discovered a disposition to interfere, restrained, 
 however, by considerations of public right, and 
 the improbability of success; considerations, which 
 may not for ever prevail, against either her an- 
 
( 0 ) 
 
 tipathy to British dominion, or sympathy for her 
 Canadian descendants. But the United States 
 of America have never even pretended that such 
 considerations could for a moment restrain their 
 citizens from taking, in this contest, such a part 
 as either political animosity, the hope of plunder, 
 or the merest wantonness of outrage and aggres- 
 sion, should at any time suggest. Not for once, 
 nor twice, nor a third, nor a fourth time only, but 
 oftener than can be enumerated with exactness, 
 or remembered with endurance, expeditions have 
 been assembled, equipped, and dispatched from 
 the American territories ; nay, the public arsenals 
 of that country have been repeatedly emptied of 
 their stores, with impunity ; to invade the un- 
 offending dominions of Great Britain, at a moment 
 of profound peace. And when we demand the 
 reason of this, we are told, forsooth, their govern- 
 ment has no power to prevent it ! Is Great Britain 
 still herself? Has she any thing left of that 
 ancient courage, which once would have regarded 
 such an excuse as a mockery and an insult ? Is 
 there a country in Europe that would submit to 
 this ? Is there one other in the world that would 
 dare to inflict, on Great Britain, this grossest out- 
 rage of public law and national rights? How 
 long is the thing to be endured ? How much is 
 this country to tolerate ? What limit is our pa- 
 tience to assume ? That reparation has been de- 
 manded, as is presumed to be the fact, that com- 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 pensation will be exacted, is by no means enough. 
 Prevention is necessary. The foreigner requires 
 again to be convinced that Great Britain will not 
 submit to the slightest wrong. The first affront 
 must in future be resented ; the least aggression 
 repelled. Let the United States be informed that 
 the next expedition they suffer to be equipped 
 and dispatched by their citizens, for the invasion 
 of Canada, shall be regarded by us as an act of 
 hostility. When the seas shall be swept again, 
 as a fish-pond is netted, the Americans will be 
 undeceived in their hope, that we are so simple 
 as to suffer them to have war in Canada, and 
 peace upon the ocean. Let them be forewarned 
 that, if they will have hostility, they must not 
 expect to choose the scene, or limit the object : 
 that insurrection and rebellion is a game at which 
 two may play, though we scorn to begin it in 
 peace, or to allege the impotence of our own go- 
 vernment, or the barbarism of our people, to dis- 
 guise a war. 
 
 Friendship and commerce between ourselves 
 and the United States are unquestionably most 
 desirable for both parties, but this is seldom ren- 
 dered less secure by an attitude imposing respect 
 and exacting just rights. Our amity will only be 
 the more prized in proportion as our hostility is 
 more formidable. The people of this country, 
 though perhaps about to lament that policy of 
 their government, which has made them so de- 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 pendant on one foreign power for the material of 
 a manufacture so important as cotton, will never 
 prefer that or any other trade, to the great cha- 
 racter of the British empire, its national honour, 
 and fame. War is too great an evil to be incurred 
 for any other cause : but, for this, no sacrifice is 
 too large to be braved, and no indignity too slight 
 to be resented. History has by too many ex- 
 amples ascribed this spirit to the English name, 
 for any fear to be now felt lest we should shrink 
 from that policy and renown, to which we are 
 hitherto indebted for all that is noblest and most 
 exalted in our social feelings and relations. 
 
 Persons, however, will no doubt be found, so 
 possessed with the temper of faction or the dog- 
 mas of a theory, so ready to confound insurrec- 
 tion with liberty, or so accustomed to measure all 
 utility by pecuniary economy, as to look barely to 
 the immediate cost of this policy, and compare 
 that with its immediate object, and therefore, as 
 commending the fabled wisdom of the hunted 
 Castor, call upon us to cast off and dismiss a 
 possession which involves so great danger and 
 expense. But is it wise or fair to compute the 
 cost of a territory by the expenditure it requires, 
 if happening to be made the seat of hostility ; or 
 to compare such an amount with the profits of 
 our commerce to that quarter? Is it thus that we 
 estimate the cause of the blood and treasure we 
 have lavished in Portugal or in Spain, or through 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 so many ages in, that great arena of national com- 
 bats, the Netherlands ? Is the battle of Waterloo 
 to be estimated according to our trade with Bel- 
 gium ? The victory of the Nile by its exports for 
 our manufactures ? As well might the importance 
 of such conflicts be judged by the value of the 
 field on which the struggle is decided. No; 
 though of all the dependancies of Great Britain 
 none is more important to her industry and pre- 
 eminence than Canada, for its rich and vacant 
 lands, its forests, fisheries, mines, trade (nearly 
 3,000,000/. of our exports), employment of navi- 
 gation (nearly 700,000 tons annually), and its 
 situation ; yet it is not with these that the cost of 
 its defence is to be compared. Enemies we must 
 always have, and they will find us out upon one 
 side of the water or another. The battle must be 
 fought somewhere. The scene is by no means the 
 cause. The outworks of a fortress are always the 
 first assailed, but do they either weaken defence, 
 or provoke attack ? There is no refuge in little- 
 ness. Without Canada, we should have other 
 dominions. The assault would be soon transferred 
 to them. Without them, the assailants would only 
 commence the nearer to our own doors. There is 
 no mutilation of ourselves that will satisfy the 
 cupidity of our enemies; none that will not 
 weaken our means of defence : and to give 
 more truth as well as a better moral to the apo- 
 logue, the Castor in the fable must have found. 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 that the hunter, to whom it cast its members, 
 continued his pursuit for its skin. No ; the snail 
 may retire to its shell when insects make attack ; 
 at the scream of an eagle hawks will quit the 
 food fished up for their young; vermin counter- 
 feit insensibility to escape destruction; but a rich 
 and mighty empire can only find peace and se- 
 curity by flying to defend the extremest part 
 with the power and energy of the whole. 
 
 The Athenian minister, who boasted that he 
 knew how to raise a single state to the head of a 
 great confederacy, was constrained to own that he 
 could neither tune the lute nor play upon the 
 harp. There is among us a class of politicians, 
 who, if only proficients in music, are every way 
 possessed of accomplishments the converse of 
 Themistocles; for theirs is the science of reducing 
 the head of a great confederacy to the condition 
 of a single state. Certainly, the greatness of the 
 British dominions was founded and acquired by 
 principles the converse of theirs, and by men most 
 unlike themselves. But the people of this country 
 are too high minded, too conscious of their own 
 worth and strength, to confine themselves to the 
 shores of these kingdoms, or even to the sea that 
 surrounds them. And if we will have colonies, as 
 Heaven forbid we should doubt, we can only re- 
 tain them by readiness to resent and repel, with 
 the whole strength of the empire, the first and 
 slightest aggression upon the least and remotest 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 province. It is every way better to do so. It is 
 not only nobler, more honourable, and worthier of 
 the fame, character, and power of Britons, but 
 it is even cheaper. An army of 50,000 men, con- 
 sisting of 15,000 regulars and 35,000 volunteers, 
 is now maintained in Canada, to carry on peace 
 with the United States. War might be carried 
 on to more advantage by such a force. The 
 object of the Americans may be to wear us out 
 by an expenditure made on such unequal terms, 
 and win from us in peace a conquest, they have 
 twice attempted vainly in war. Pure economy 
 requires us to make a demonstration. Honesty 
 is the best policy, and so is courage, and forti- 
 tude, and every virtue, and for communities as 
 well as individuals. Then let this great, rich and 
 fortunate empire assume that attitude of pre- 
 paration and resolution, which may enforce de- 
 nunciations of indemnification for the past and 
 instant reprisals for the future. The proudest 
 nation of the world will pause before it affront 
 this by any injustice. But we have to deal with 
 one of the feeblest. No country is more vulner- 
 able than the United States from Great Britain. 
 From scarce any could Great Britain receive less 
 injury than from the United States. The mo- 
 ment is peculiarly favourable to us, and em- 
 barrassing to them. In that quarter Great Bri- 
 tain was never better prepared; and if, as seems 
 probable, a great conflict of nations be approach- 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 ing, she had better begin it with the only part 
 she left half-finished in the last. Sooner or later 
 the Americans are sure to turn upon us. Is it 
 wise to leave to so subtle an adversary the choice 
 of both the time and scene? Yet far be it from 
 us to require any thing but right. That Repub- 
 lic needs only to be assured that we will not 
 submit to the slightest wrong, and they will cease 
 to inflict it, or to attempt it, or to desire. Sup- 
 ported by the effect of such an attitude on our 
 part, the good and wise and just among them will 
 recover that influence, which their institutions, 
 apportioning authority to numbers, seem at pre- 
 sent to bestow on a very different class ; and the 
 civilized world will no longer be insulted by 
 that apology for piratical invasions of a peaceful 
 country, that the government cannot prevent 
 them : an apology disgraceful to the nation which 
 offers, and not very creditable to the government 
 which accepts. This then, as far as regards fo- 
 reign relations, is an answer to the question — 
 What is to be done for the Peace and Good Go- 
 vernment of Canada ? 
 
 The remaining division of the inquiry needs in 
 like manner a preliminary resolution to front re- 
 sponsibility, and grapple with all its difficulties, 
 in a spirit of energy, courage, and decision. Duty 
 and policy alike require this effort ; the occasion 
 favours it; the future demands; and the past has 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 proved no other means remain. To those, there- 
 fore, who have studied the character and conse- 
 quence of previous events, and are willing to 
 enter upon this inquiry in no spirit of dissent or 
 disposition to cavil and object, but honestly to 
 inquire what is best to be done, or which is the 
 least of necessary evils to be sustained ; to such, 
 (and such only are capable of judging these af- 
 fairs, or even of understanding them,) further pre- 
 face is unnecessary to the following propositions. 
 
 1st. There exists in the two Canadas a class of 
 inhabitants, who are hostile to the British Con- 
 stitution and connexion, and a class who are de- 
 votedly attached to the same. 
 
 2nd. Of the former class, the whole have repu- 
 diated the British Constitution, and a great num- 
 ber have taken arms to dissolve British connexion. 
 The latter class, on the contrary, have never 
 ceased to invoke that Constitution; never wished 
 but to perpetuate that connexion ; never hesi- 
 tated to fly to arms to defend both ; and never 
 failed in that endeavour. 
 
 3rd. The former are not composed of the same 
 parties in the two Provinces, but in each are of 
 different origin, and have different objects. In 
 the Lower Province they are almost entirely of 
 French descent, forming a large majority, and as- 
 piring to establish there a Canadian Republic. 
 In the Upper Province they are an inconsider- 
 able minority, consisting of hot-headed democrats 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 from all quarters, whose purpose is to add Canada 
 to the United States. 
 
 4th. The loyalists are in the Lower Province a 
 minority, but in numbers equal to one-fourth of 
 the whole population, and amply compensating 
 for their deficiency in that respect, by their supe- 
 rior energy and intelligence, industry and resolu- 
 tion. In the Upper Province this class forms an 
 overwhelming majority of the same character, 
 origin, interest, and feeling, as the minority in 
 the Lower Province. Like them, too, they claim 
 the British Constitution and British connexion, 
 for which like them they have gallantly and de- 
 votedly fought, and have conquered. 
 
 5th. The end, therefore, of the measures to be 
 adopted by the Imperial Parliament, should be 
 to establish and secure the British Constitution 
 in those Provinces, and perpetuate their con- 
 nexion with this country. 
 
 6th. The means to that end are, — since the 
 British Constitution is a mixed government, hav- 
 ing one branch of representatives elected by the 
 people, and since the French majority in the Lower 
 Province have refused either to administer that 
 branch, or to obey that Government : — to take 
 from that French majority its ascendancy in the 
 representation, — give the British minority, in con- 
 stituency, an equaltiy in elections, — place both 
 classes permanently on the same footing in the 
 House of Assembly; — nay more, if it be necessary. 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 give the loyal British class a temporary ascen- 
 dancy ; and then unite the Legislatures of both 
 Provinces. 
 
 Such are the general principles of the present 
 proposal, and such their deduction. The details 
 require ampler explication. And in order to give 
 them in the most distinct aspect, and definite 
 shape, they are here submitted in the form of the 
 Bill, which follows, and will be succeeded by 
 some Remarks, as well upon the policy of the 
 whole measure, as its separate clauses. It should 
 however be further premised, that every instru- 
 ment of government is considered to require, as 
 essential ingredients, that it should be practicable 
 in operation, and permanent in its nature, and 
 therefore should be adapted to the people it con- 
 cerns, and contain within itself the means of self- 
 preservation ; and consistently with these requi- 
 sites, should make in existing laws and institutions 
 as little change as possible, beyond the necessity 
 of the case, and the purposes in view. These 
 objects, therefore, have been also consulted in the 
 following Bill; which is here inserted, by no 
 means as an instrument free from objections, but 
 merely as presenting an exact and tangible de- 
 scription of the remedy proposed. 
 
A BILL 
 
 For Uniting the Legislatures of Upper and Lower 
 Canada and making more efficient provision for 
 their Civil Government. 
 
 Whereas by an Act passed in the thirty-first year of the preamble, 
 reign of his Majesty King George the Third, intituled “ An Recites stat. 31 
 Act to repeal certain parts of an Act passed in the fourteenth Geo « 3 > c - 31 - 
 year of his Majesty’s reign, intituled An Act for making 
 more effectual provision for the Government of the Province 
 of Quebec in North America, and to make further provision 
 for the Government of the said Province,” reciting that his 
 said Majesty had signified his intention to divide his said 
 Province of Quebec into two distinct Provinces, to be called 
 respectively the Province of Upper Canada and the Province 
 of Lower Canada, it was enacted, that there should be within 
 each of the said Provinces respectively a Legislative Council 
 and an Assembly, to be severally composed and constituted 
 as in and by the said Act is after described : And whereas by stat. 1 Viet, 
 an Act passed in the last Session of this present Parliament, c * 9. 
 in the first year of her Majesty’s reign, intituled “ An Act 
 to make temporary provision for the Government of Lower 
 Canada,” reciting that in the present state of that Province 
 the Assembly could not be called together without serious 
 detriment to the interests of the said Province, and that it 
 was expedient to make temporary provision for the govern- 
 ment of Lower Canada, in order that Parliament might be 
 enabled after mature deliberation to make permanent arrange- 
 ments for the constitution and government of the said Pro- 
 vince upon such a basis as may best secure the rights and 
 liberties of all classes of her Majesty’s subjects in the said 
 Province, it was enacted, that so much of the said first-men- 
 
 c 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 tioned Act or of any other Act of Parliament as provided or 
 the constitution or calling of a Legislative Council or a Legis- 
 lative Assembly for the Province of Lower Canada, or con- 
 ferred any powers or functions upon either of those bodies, 
 should, until the first day of November in the year 1840, 
 cease and be of no force ; and that it should be lawful for her 
 Majesty to constitute a special council for the affairs of Lower 
 Canada ; and that it should be lawful for the Governor of the 
 said Province, with the advice and consent of a majority of the 
 said councillors, to make laws or ordinances for the peace, wel- 
 fare and good government of the said Province, subject to the 
 conditions, limitations and restrictions in the same Act contain- 
 ed : And whereas it is now expedient to unite the Legislatures 
 of the said two Provinces, and to provide for the immediate 
 tranquillity of the same, and to make such permanent arrange- 
 ments for the constitution of her Majesty’s government therein, 
 as may best secure the rights and liberties of all classes of 
 her loyal subjects, and the more efficient co-operation of the 
 several parts of the said Legislature for the peace and welfare 
 of the said Provinces : May it therefore please your most 
 excellent Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted, 
 by the Queen’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice 
 and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons 
 in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of 
 the same, That from and after the commencement of this Act, 
 as hereinafter provided, so much of the said Acts as in any 
 manner relate to the future summoning, electing and consti- 
 tuting a Legislative Council and Assembly for each of the 
 said Provinces separately, or a Special Council for the said 
 Lower Province, and the power given by the former of the 
 said Acts to the said Legislative Council and Assembly for 
 each of the said Provinces separately, and the power given 
 by the latter of the said Acts to the said Special Council of 
 the Lower Province, to make laws for the peace, welfare and 
 
 good government of each of the said Provinces separately, 
 with the consent of her Majesty or of her Majesty’s Governor, 
 Lieutenant Governor, or person' administering the govern- 
 ment within the same respectively for the time being, shall be 
 and the same are hereby repealed. 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, United legis- 
 that from and after the commencement of this Act as herein- lature - 
 after provided there shall be in and for the said two Provinces 
 
 jointly one united Legislative Council and one united Assem- 
 bly, to be composed and constituted in the manner herein- 
 after described, and that her Majesty, her heirs and succes- 
 sors, shall have power during the continuance of this Act, by Power to make 
 and with the advice and consent of the said united Legislative laws - 
 Council and Assembly of the said two Provinces, to make 
 laws for the peace, welfare and good government thereof, 
 such laws not being repugnant to this Act ; and that all such Not repugnant 
 laws being passed by the said united Legislative Council and t0 ^' s ■^ ct> 
 Assembly of the said Provinces, and assented to by her 
 Majesty, her heirs or successors, or assented to in her Ma- 
 jesty’s name by such persons as her Majesty, her heirs or 
 successors, shall from time to time appoint to be Governor 
 of the said Provinces, or by such persons as her Majesty, her 
 heirs or successors, shall from time to time appoint to adminis- 
 ter the government in chief within the same, shall be and 
 the same are hereby declared to be, by virtue of and under 
 the authority of this Act, valid and binding to all intents and 
 purposes whatever within both the said Provinces. 
 
 III. And be it further enacted, that for the purpose of Composition of 
 
 constituting such united Legislative Counsel as aforesaid for the united Legis- 
 . . , ° _ ,, , , , lative Council ; 
 
 the said two Provinces, all and every such persons as hereto- 
 fore have been summoned and sworn in and at the passing of 
 this Act are members of the Legislative Council of the Pro- of the legisla- 
 vince of Upper Canada under the first herein recited Act, ^Upper^ 111015 
 and all and every such persons as heretofore have been ap- Canada; 
 pointed and sworn in and at the passing of this Act are 
 members of the said Special Council of the Province of Lower and of the exist- 
 Canada under the said secondly herein recited Act, shall be of 
 
 and become and are hereby constituted and made members Lower Canada, 
 of the said united Legislative Council for both the said Pro- 
 vinces for and during the same term, and subject to the same 
 restrictions and conditions, and with the same rights and Their tenure for 
 privileges as enacted and provided in and by the said first llfe * 
 herein recited Act for the members of either of the respec- 
 
 c 2 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 Addition of new tiye Legislative Councils thereby constituted ; and that it 
 members. s ] ia ]] also be lawful for her Majesty, her heirs or succes- 
 sors, from time to time by an instrument under her or 
 their sign manual to authorise and direct the Governor, or 
 person administering the government in chief in the said 
 Provinces^ to summon to the said Legislative Council hereby 
 constituted for the said two Provinces such other person or 
 persons as her Majesty, her heirs or successors, shall think 
 fit, and every person who shall be so summoned shall thereby 
 become a member of the said Legislative Council hereby 
 constituted for the said tvro Provinces, for and during the 
 same term, and subject to the same restrictions and con- 
 ditions, and with the same rights and privileges as herein- 
 before enacted. 
 
 Composition of 
 United Assem- 
 bly from Upper 
 Canada. 
 
 The same num- 
 ber of members 
 and for the same 
 places as now ' 
 for the Upper 
 Canada As- 
 sembly to be 
 memberte of the 
 United Assem- 
 bly. 
 
 IV. And for the purpose of constituting on the part of the 
 said Province of Upper Canada such an United Assembly as 
 aforesaid for both the said provinces jointly, whereas it is ex- 
 pedient to make by this Act no change in either the number 
 of members to be returned or the places returning them as 
 appointed by the existing laws of the said Upper Province ; 
 and whereas the existing Assembly in the said Upper Pro- 
 vince having been in the year 1836 elected for the term of 
 four years under and by virtue of the said hereinbefore first- 
 recited Act may have expired or be about to expire at or 
 soon .after the commencement of this Act as hereinafter 
 
 . ; ) i ;■ ; J ' 
 
 provided; be it therefore enacted, that such and so many 
 members as by virtue of any existing law of the said Upper 
 Province now are or at the commencement of this Act shall 
 be appointed to be chosen by any district, county, riding, 
 circle, town, township, or place within the same, and to be 
 returned as members of the said Assembly as under and 
 by virtue of the said hereinbefore first-recited Act consti- 
 tuted, shair continue and be and are hereby appointed to 
 be chosen ipr and by ea<?h and every the same several dis- 
 tricts, counties, ridings, circles, towns, townships, or places 
 within the said provinces, and to be returned as members of 
 the said United Assembly hereby constituted for both the 
 said provinces jointly, with the same rights and privileges, 
 and subject to the same conditions and restrictions as in and 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 by the said hereinbefore first recited Act is enacted and 
 provided, unless it shall at anytime be otherwise provided by 
 any act of the said United Legislative Council and Assembly 
 assented to by her Majesty, her heirs and successors. 
 
 V. And for the purpose of constituting, on the part of the 
 said Province of Lower Canada, such United Assembly as 
 aforesaid for both the said provinces, whereas the number of 
 members by the laws of the said Lower Province under the 
 said hereinbefore first mentioned Act to be elected and re- 
 turned to the Assembly of Lower Canada, would be more 
 than justly proportionate to the number of members hereby 
 appointed for the part of Upper Canada in the said United 
 Assembly, and that the appointment and distribution of 
 members by virtue of the existing laws of the said Province 
 of Lower Canada to be returned to the Assembly thereof by 
 the several counties and towns or townships of the same 
 province, and the qualification of electors therein established 
 by the said hereinbefore first recited Act have not there 
 proved adequate to the objects for which the said Act was 
 passed, or the peace, welfare and good government of the 
 said province ; and whereas it is expedient so to distribute 
 and appoint the members to be chosen for the several dis- 
 tricts or counties or circles and towns and townships of the 
 said Lower Province as better to protect the rights and liber- 
 ties of all classes of her Majesty’s subjects therein, and esta- 
 blish and secure the power and authority of her Majesty’s 
 government and of the said United Assembly hereby con- 
 stituted within their just limits, and promote the peace an,d 
 welfare of the said province, and the more rapid improve- 
 ment of the same in wealth and population by emigrants 
 from other parts of her Majesty’s dominions; be it therefore 
 enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for her Majesty to 
 authorise the Governor or person administering, the govern- 
 ment in chief of the said provinces to issue a proclamation 
 declaring and appointing the whole number of members to 
 be returned to the said United Assembly on the part of the 
 said Province of Lower Canada, and dividing the said pro- 
 vince into electoral districts, which may and shall consist of 
 
 Till otherwise 
 provided by the 
 United Legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 Composition of 
 the United As- 
 sembly from 
 Lower Canada. 
 Recites — 
 number of 
 Lower Canada 
 members at pre- 
 sent dispropor- 
 tionate, 
 
 and their distri- 
 bution objec- 
 tionable ; 
 
 and qualifica- 
 tion of electors 
 also. 
 
 New electoral 
 districts expe- 
 dient 
 
 for rights of all 
 classes, 
 
 and for preserv- 
 ing the powers 
 of government ; 
 
 and to promote 
 improvement by 
 British settlers. 
 Enacts — 
 
 Her Majesty’s 
 government to 
 settle the pro- 
 portion for 
 Lower Canada, 
 and to appoint 
 
electoral dis- 
 tricts — 
 
 of counties and 
 towns or circles 
 thereof ; 
 to appoint num- 
 ber of members 
 for each — 
 
 and returning 
 officers. 
 
 till otherwise 
 provided by the 
 United Legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 Provided. 
 
 No town to 
 have less than 
 200 electors. 
 
 No town or cir- 
 cle of a town to 
 have above two 
 members. 
 
 Quebec and 
 Montreal to 
 have same as 
 now. 
 
 No county to 
 have more than 
 now — no town 
 less. 
 
 No circle of 
 counties more 
 than such coun- 
 ties now. 
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 either any existing county, town or township, or of any union 
 or circle of such counties or towns or townships within t te 
 said province, and declaring and appointing the number o 
 members to be chosen either by each of the several counties 
 and towns or townships, or by any union or circle of sue 
 counties or towns and towmships ; and that it shall also be law- 
 ful for her Majesty, her heirs and successors, to authorise such 
 Governor or person administering the government in chief 
 from time to time to nominate and appoint proper persons to 
 execute the office of returning officer in each of the said 
 districts or counties, and towns or townships, or circles of 
 the same, respectively ; and that such division of the said 
 province into districts of counties and towns or townships or 
 circles of the same ; and such declaration and appointment 
 of the number of members to be chosen by each of the said 
 districts of counties and towns or townships or circles of the 
 same respectively, and also such nomination of returning 
 officer in the same shall be valid and effectual to all other 
 purposes of this Act, unless it shall at any time be otherwise 
 provided by any Act of the said United Legislative Council 
 and Assembly of the said provinces, assented to by her 
 Majesty, her heirs or successors : provided always, that no 
 declaration and appointment of any member to be chosen by 
 any such town or townships, or by any circle of such towns 
 or townships shall be good or valid under this Act where the 
 whole number of electors qualified as hereinafter directed 
 shall not within any such circle, town or townships or circles 
 of the same exceed two hundred : provided also, that not 
 more than two members shall be so appointed to be chosen 
 by any town or township or circle of the same, except the 
 towns of Quebec and of Montreal, for which the same num- 
 ber of members shall be appointed as are now by the exist- 
 ing laws of the said province appointed to be chosen : pro- 
 vided also, that no greater number of members shall be so 
 appointed to be chosen by any county, and no lesser number 
 of members shall be appointed to be chosen by any town or 
 township than are by the existing laws of the said province 
 appointed for the same; and no greater number of members 
 shall be so appointed to be chosen by any such circle of 
 counties than are now by the existing laws of the said pro- 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 vince appointed to be chosen for all the counties of which such 
 circle may be composed, and that at least one member shall Each county to 
 be appointed to be chosen for every county, except such ber^or belong'to 
 counties as shall be united to any circle for which more than a circle return- 
 one member shall be appointed to be chosen. mg moie * 
 
 VI. And be it further enacted, that the members for the 
 several counties or the circles of the same, in the said Lower 
 Province, shall be chosen by the majority of votes of such 
 persons as shall severally be possessed, for their own use and 
 benefit, of lands or tenements within such county or circle, as 
 the case shall be, such lands being by them held in freehold 
 or by certificate derived under the authority of the Governor 
 and Council of the said Province, and being of the yearly 
 value of forty shillings sterling or upwards, or being by them 
 held in fief or in roture, and being of the yearly value of ten 
 pounds sterling or upwards, over and above all rents and 
 charges payable out of or in respect of the same, or being by 
 them held, whether in freehold or any other tenure whatever, 
 for the unexpired residue, whatever it may be, of any term 
 originally created for a period of not less than twenty years, 
 whether determinable on a life or lives or not, and being of 
 the clear yearly value of ten pounds sterling or upwards, 
 over and above all rents and charges payable out of or in 
 respect of the same, or being by them occupied as tenants at 
 a bond fide yearly rent of twenty pounds sterling or upwards : 
 And that the members for the several towns or townships 
 within the said Lower Province shall be chosen by the 
 majority of votes of such persons as shall either be pos- 
 sessed for their own use and benefit of a dwelling-house or 
 other building, either separately or jointly with any ground, 
 or of any land within such town or township, being by them 
 held in freehold, or by such certificate as aforesaid, and of the 
 clear yearly value of five pounds sterling or upwards, or 
 being by them held in fief or in roture, or being by them 
 held, whether in freehold or any other tenure, for the unex- 
 pired residue of any term originally created for not less than 
 twenty years as aforesaid, and being of the yearly value of 
 ten pounds sterling or upwards, or as having been resident 
 within the said town or township for the space of twelve 
 
 Qualification of 
 electors for 
 counties. 
 
 40s. freeholders 
 and holders by 
 certificate. 
 
 10/. holders in 
 fief and in ro- 
 ture. 
 
 10/. termors for 
 any residue of 
 twenty years. 
 
 and 20/. renters. 
 
 Qualification of 
 electors for 
 towns. 
 
 Freeholders and 
 holders by certi- 
 ficate of 5/. 
 Holders in fief 
 or roture of 10/. 
 Termors of re- 
 sidue of twenty 
 years of 10/. 
 
and 102. renters 
 of houses. 
 
 Proviso for as 
 many partners 
 to vote as mul- 
 tiples of 102. 
 value. 
 
 Power to give 
 one member to 
 the freeholders 
 and the other to 
 the censilaires. 
 
 ( 24 ) 
 
 calendar months next before the date of the writ of summons 
 for the election, shall bond fide have paid or be liable to pay 
 one year’s rent for the dwelling-house in which they shall 
 have so resided, either separately or jointly with any ground 
 or any other building, at the rate of ten pounds sterling per 
 annum or upwards in the whole : Provided always, that where 
 any premises as aforesaid in any such town or township shall 
 be jointly possessed or occupied by more persons than one as 
 owners or tenants, each of such persons so jointly possessing 
 or occupying shall be entitled to vote in the election for such 
 town or township, in respect of the premises so jointly pos- 
 sessed or occupied, in case the clear yearly value of such 
 premises shall be of an amount which, when divided by the 
 number of such occupiers or persons so possessing, shall give 
 a sum of not less than ten pounds for each and every person 
 so possessing or occupying, but otherwise only so many of 
 such persons shall be entitled to vote as such amount of the 
 clear yearly value, so divided by their number, shall give for 
 each a sum of not less than ten pounds. 
 
 VII. And be it further enacted, that in every such county 
 or circle of counties, so to be made and appointed, for which 
 two members shall be appointed to be chosen, and in which 
 there shall be persons so qualified to vote by reason of their 
 being so possessed of lands or tenements held by them in fief 
 or in roture as aforesaid, and also of persons so qualified 
 by reason of their being so possessed of lands or tenements 
 held by them in freehold, or by such certificate as aforesaid, 
 or for any such residue of a term originally created for not 
 less than twenty years as aforesaid, or occupied by them as 
 tenants at a bon& fide yearly rent of twenty pounds sterling 
 as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for her Majesty to 
 authorise the Governor or person administering the govern- 
 ment in chief of the said Provinces to direct and appoint that 
 one only of the members so to be appointed to be chosen for 
 any sqch district, or county or circle, shall be chosen by the 
 persons so possessed of lands or tenements held in fief or in 
 roture, and that the other only of such members shall be 
 chosen by the persons so possessed of lands or tenements 
 held in freehold or by such certificate, or for such residue of 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 a term of twenty years as aforesaid, or occupied at such bond 
 fide yearly rent as aforesaid, and that distinct and separate 
 writs for such respective elections of such members be issued 
 by the said Governor or person administering the government 
 
 in chief of the said Provinces : Provided always, that no such Proviso that 
 appointment of one member to be chosen by persons holding each class?° ° 
 lands or tenements in fief and in roture, and the other mem- 
 
 bers to be chosen by persons holding lands or tenements in 
 freehold, or by such certificate, or for such residue of a term 
 of twenty years, or occupied as aforesaid, shall be valid for 
 any county or circle of counties in which the number of per- 
 sons so qualified by holding in fief and in roture shall not 
 together, in the whole, exceed two hundred, and in Which 
 also the number of persons so qualified respectively, by hold- 
 ing in freehold or by such certificate, or for such residue' of a 
 term of twenty years, or occupied at such bona fide yearly 
 rent as aforesaid, shall not together, in the whole, exceed 
 two hundred. 
 
 VIII. And whereas, in the district of Montreal, within the Power to sus- 
 said Lower Province, divers of her Majesty’s liege subjects ^EelecJons'ia 
 have of late been wickedly and traitorously deluded and se- the district of 
 duced into acts of sedition and open insurrection and rebel- Moutrea1 ’ 
 lion against her person and government, and that the imme- 
 diate exercise of the electoral franchise within such district 
 may not in all places, or by all such classes of her Majesty’s 
 subjects as aforesaid, conduce to the peace, welfare, and good 
 government of the said provinces, for remedy thereof be it 
 therefore further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful fbr 
 her Majesty to authorise the Governor or person adminis- 
 tering the government in chief of the said Provinces, by his 
 proclamation for that purpose made, to suspend the issuing 
 of any writ for the election of any member for any of the 
 counties, or towns or townships, or circles of the same within 
 the said district of Montreal, and in lieu of such writ to any 
 such county) or town or township, or circle of the same, and 
 in order also to preserve the just proportion of members for 
 the said Lower Province, it shall and may be lawful for her and to issue like 
 Majesty to authorise the Governor or person administering p|^ s t0 ot ^ er 
 the government in chief, by such proclamation or otherwise, 
 to appoint and to issue a like writ for the election of an equal 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 number of discrete and proper persons by any other county 
 or town or township, or circle of the same, in the said dis- 
 trict of Montreal, or in any other district or part of the said 
 Province, and to appoint a proper person to be returning 
 officer for the execution of such writ, and every per»on who 
 shall by virtue of such writ be chosen and returned to the 
 said United Assembly shall thereby become a member of the 
 same to all intents and purposes, and for the same term, and 
 with the same rights and privileges, and subject to the same 
 conditions and restrictions as if such persons had been elected 
 and returned for such district or county, or circle, and town 
 or township for which such writ shall have been so suspend- 
 Provided places ed : Provided that no such appointment shall be made and 
 
 wriTs^issu^have wr * t ^ ssue< ^ to an y tovvn or township, or circle of the same, 
 200 electors. within which the whole number of persons so qualified as 
 herein provided to choose such member shall not amount to 
 two hundred. 
 
 Two members 
 of the Assembly 
 and two mem- 
 bers of the Le- 
 gislative Council 
 to be in the 
 Executive 
 Council. 
 
 Power to sum- 
 mon five mem- 
 bers of the As- 
 sembly to the 
 Legislative 
 Council for each 
 Session. 
 
 IX. And whereas it is expedient to provide for the mu- 
 tual good understanding and co-operation of the said United 
 Legislative Council and Assembly, as well with each other 
 as with the Governor or person administering the govern- 
 ment in chief, for the peace and welfare of the said Provinces, 
 be it therefore further enacted, that the Executive Council 
 of the said Governor, or person administering the govern- 
 ment in chief, shall be composed and consist of at least two 
 members of the said United Assembly, and two members of 
 the said United Legislative Council, and of such other per- 
 sons as her Majesty, her heirs, or successors shall from time 
 to time think fit to appoint ; and such members of the said 
 Legislative Council and Assembly, on being so appointed to 
 the said Executive Council by the Governor or person ad- 
 ministering the government in chief, shall, unless sooner su- 
 perseded, continue such members of the Executive Council 
 until the dissolution or expiration of the United Legislative 
 Assembly from which they were so appointed, or until they 
 shall cease to be members of the same ; and that it shall and 
 may be lawful for her Majesty to authorise the Governor, or 
 person administering the government in chief, at the com- 
 mencement of every session of the said United Legislative 
 Council and Assembly, to appoint and summon any members. 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 not exceeding five in number, duly elected and returned to 
 the said Assembly, to be members of the said Legislative 
 Council during the session then being holden, and from and 
 after such appointment and summons every such member of 
 the said Assembly shall cease to sit or vote in the said As- 
 sembly, and shall thereby be and become a member of the 
 said Legislative Council to all intents and purposes during 
 the said session : Provided always that no vacancy shall in Proviso, no va- 
 the meantime, by reason of such appointment and summons ? ai ^y 
 to either the said Executive or the said Legislative Council, bly. 
 be taken or adjudged to have been made in the said Assembly, 
 nor shall any new writ be issued for the election of another 
 member of the said Assembly in lieu of the person so ap- 
 pointed or summoned, and that after the prorogation of the 
 said United Legislative Council and Assembly every such 
 member so appointed and summoned to the said Legislative 
 Council shall again revert to all his rights and duties as mem- 
 ber of such Assembly, and cease to be a member of such 
 Legislative Council. 
 
 X. And be it further enacted, that her Majesty’s Attorney The Attorneys 
 General for the Province of Lower Canada, or her Majesty’s or Solicitors^ 
 Solicitor General for the same Province, and her Majesty’s t wo Provinces, 
 Attorney General for the Province of Upper Canada, or her or two members 
 Majesty’s Solicitor General for the same Province for the ° ive Council, to 
 time being, or any such two of them, or any two such mem- have seats and 
 bers of the said Executive Council as her Majesty may autho- sembly. the S " 
 rise the Governor or person administering the government to 
 appoint from time to time, shall by virtue of such office and 
 appointment, and during the continuance thereof, be and con- 
 tinue successively, and are hereby made members of the said 
 United Assembly to all intents and purposes, with the same 
 rights and privileges and subject to the same conditions and 
 restrictions, and to the jurisdiction and authority of the said 
 Assembly, in the same manner as any other of its members. 
 
 XL And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be Two members 
 lawful for the said Legislative Council, by a resolution to be ^^Co^ncTl^" 
 passed at the commencement of every session, to nominate nominated 
 and empower any two members of the said Legislative Coun- tlieiel)y t0 have 
 
seats in the As- 
 sembly for any 
 session. 
 
 Legislative 
 Council to con- 
 sist of thirty at 
 least. 
 
 Ten a quorum. 
 
 Assembly to 
 consist of not 
 over one hun- 
 dred and thirty 
 five. 
 
 Twenty a 
 quorum. 
 
 Neither body to 
 adjourn for 
 more than two 
 days, except by 
 authority of the 
 Governor. 
 
 Qualification of 
 
 Legislative 
 
 Councillors. 
 
 One thousand 
 acres of land, 
 or four thou- 
 sand pounds 
 sterling. 
 
 Qualification of 
 members of 
 Assembly. 
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 cil to be members of the said Assembly during the sessions 
 then hblden, and from and after the passing of such reso u 
 tion and the communicating the same to the said Assem y, 
 each person so nominated shall cease to sit or vote in the sai 
 Legislative Council, and shall thereby be and become a mem- 
 ber of the said Assembly to all intents and purposes, and with 
 the same rights and privileges, and subject to the same con- 
 ditions and restrictions, and to the jurisdiction and authority 
 of the said Assembly, in the same manner as any other of its 
 members during the said session, and after the termination 
 thereof by prorogation shall again revert to all his rights and 
 duties as member of Legislative Council, and cease to be 
 such member of the said Assembly. 
 
 XII. And be it further enacted, that the said United Le- 
 gislative Council shall consist of not less than thirty members, 
 of whom not more than ten shall be required to be present to 
 form a quorum for the dispatch of business. And that the 
 said United Assembly shall not consist of more than one 
 hundred and thirty-five members, of whom not more than 
 twenty shall be required to be present to form a quorum for 
 the dispatch of business. And that neither the said United 
 Legislative Council nor the said United Assembly respectively 
 shall have power to adjourn for a longer period than two days 
 at a time during any session, except by the consent of the 
 Governor or person administering the government in chief, 
 and by his authority. 
 
 XIII. And be it further enacted, that no person shall be 
 capable of being summoned to the said Legislative Council, 
 except such persons as shall be so summoned from the said 
 Assembly, being members thereof as hereinbefore provided, 
 who shall not at the time of his being so summoned be seised 
 or possessed in fee, or for the term of his own or of some other 
 life, or for a term of not less than twenty years, of one thou- 
 sand acres of land free from any incumbrance, or seised and 
 possessed of real and personal estate of the clear and bene- 
 ficial value of four thousand pounds sterling within the said 
 Province ; and no person shall be capable of being elected to 
 the said United Assembly or of sitting or voting therein, except 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 such persons as shall become members thereof under the 
 provisions of this act, as being members of the said United Except Execu- 
 Legislative Council or of the said Executive Council, or her i^fve^ounciE 
 Majesty’s Attorney and Solicitor General for either of the lors, and Attor- 
 said Provinces, so authorised to sit and vote in the said United G^nerate 01 '^^ 
 Assembly as aforesaid, who shall not be and continue seised 
 or possessed in fee, or for the term of his own or some other 
 life, or for not less than twenty years, of five hundred acres Five hundred 
 of land free from any incumbrance, or of real and personal thousand 
 estate of the clear and beneficial value of two thousand pounds sterling, 
 pounds sterling within the said Province. 
 
 XIV. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be p] ace 0 f hold- 
 lawful for her Majesty, her heirs or successors, to authorise the ing the sessions. 
 Governor or person administering the government in chief of 
 the said Provinces, to fix the place or places of holding any 
 session of the said United Legislative Council and Assem- 
 bly in either of the said two Provinces, or in each of them 
 alternately, as may be found most convenient for the dis- 
 patch of business and the peace, welfare, and good govern- 
 ment of the said Provinces. 
 
 XV- Provided always, and be it further enacted, that p rov iso. 
 the said provision hereinbefore contained for empowering the Editing to five 
 Governor or person administering the government in chief of suspending^ 
 of the said Provinces, under such authority as aforesaid from writs in the 
 her Majesty, her heirs or successors, to suspend the issuing Montreal, and 
 of any writ for the election of any member for any of the issuing them 
 counties or towns, or townships or circles of the same, within ’ 
 
 the said district of Montreal ; and in lieu thereof to issue a 
 like writ to such other county or town, or township or circle 
 of the same, as he may appoint, for the election of an equal 
 number of proper persons to be members of the United 
 Assembly, shall remain and continue in force for the term df 
 five years from and after the commencement of this Act, as 
 hereinafter provided, and no longer ; but subject never- unless sooner 
 theless to be sooner repealed or varied, or further continued, ^ e e r g^’ or 
 by any Act of the United Legislative Council and Assembly continued by 
 of the said Provinces, assented to by her Majesty, her heirs legislature 
 or successors. 
 
Proviso. 
 
 During con- 
 tinuance of 
 such power 
 to suspend 
 writs. 
 
 The members 
 from Upper 
 Canada to 
 have a negative 
 on Acts 
 relating to 
 Upper Canada 
 exclusively ; 
 
 or imposing 
 oi altering any 
 tax, rate, &c. ; 
 
 or any duty on 
 importation 
 inland ; 
 
 or repealing or 
 altering any 
 law of Upper 
 Canada. 
 
 Powers of 
 impeachment. 
 
 Assembly may 
 impeach 
 any officer 
 subordinate 
 to, and 
 appointed by, 
 the Governor. 
 
 ( 30 ) 
 
 XVI. Provided also, and be it further enacted, that so long 
 as the said provision hereinbefore contained, foi empo g 
 the Governor or person administering the governmen in 
 chief of the said Provinces, under such authority as aforesaid 
 from her Majesty, her heirs or successors, to suspen t e issu 
 ing of any writ for the election of any member for any of the 
 counties or towns, or townships or circles of the same, within 
 the said district of Montreal, and in lieu thereof to issue a 
 like writ to such other county or town, or township or circle 
 of the same, as he may appoint, for the election of an equal 
 number of proper persons to be members of the United As- 
 sembly, shall continue and remain in force, no act or law re- 
 lating exclusively to the Provice of Upper Canada, or where- 
 by any tax, rate, or assessment shall be repealed, or altered, 
 or imposed and collected, in the said Upper Province, or 
 whereby any duty upon any article imported by inland 
 navigation or conveyance into the said Upper Province from 
 any foreign country, shall be laid, increased, or lessened, or 
 whereby any existing act or law of the said Province shall be 
 altered, continued, or repealed, shall be made or passed by 
 the said United Assembly, unless such Act or law, and every 
 amendment of the same, shall have been referred to, and 
 received the assent of, a majority of a Special Committee of 
 the said Assembly, to consist of all the members from the 
 said Upper Province present in the said Assembly, and no 
 other member of the same. 
 
 XVII. And whereas it is expedient to make provision 
 for the impeachment and trial, for high crimes and mis- 
 demeanours, of persons holding any office subordinate to, 
 and appointed by, the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or 
 person administering the government in chief of either of the 
 said Provinces : be it therefore further enacted, that it shall 
 and may be lawful for the said United Assembly to pass and 
 present, at the bar of the said Legislative Council, any 
 articles of impeachment against any person holding such 
 office as aforesaid, for any high crime or misdemeanour 
 relating to the duties of such office : and the said Legislative 
 Council shall thereupon appoint by ballot a High Committee 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 of twenty-two members, of whom five may be struck off by Legislative 
 
 the party so impeached, and five by the managers of the said ^am^High 
 
 impeachment for the Assembly, and the remaining twelve, Committee of 
 
 together with the Speaker of the said Legislative Council, or twenty-two. 
 
 such other member thereof as the Governor, or person ^ c . ( ; use< ^. t ° 
 
 r strike oft five ; 
 
 administering the government, shall appoint to preside, shall Assembly five. 
 
 hear and examine into the evidence for and against such The remaining 
 
 articles, according to the usage and practice of the Common ^s^ent^ 
 
 Law in the High Court of Parliament, and shall record such named by 
 
 evidence and proceedings, and shall report thereupon, for Governor * 
 
 her Majesty in Council, to the Governor, or person admi- 
 
 nistering the government in chief, as well the facts found by report. 
 
 the said High Committee, or the major part thereof, as their Governor to 
 
 opinion and judgment thereupon, and the Governor, or j^°‘ 
 
 person administering the government in chief, shall transmit her Majesty in 
 
 the said record and report to her Majesty, her heirs and ( -' ouncil ‘ 
 
 successors ; and it shall and may be lawful for her Majesty, 
 
 her heirs and successors, to refer the said record and report Reference to 
 
 to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, to be finally (joJ^ftteifof 
 
 examined and determined after the course and practice of the Privy 
 
 the said Judicial Committee, upon appeals from her Majesty’s Council > 
 
 possessions abroad, according to the form of the statute 
 
 passed in the third and fourth years of the reign of his late 
 
 Majesty, King William the Fourth, intituled, “ An Act for according to 
 
 the better Administration of Justice in his Majesty’s Privy m 41. 
 
 Council;” provided always, that no such articles of impeach- p Ioviso> 
 
 ment shall be so presented or proceeded upon unless the Articles of 
 
 same shall have been assented to, and passed by, a majority, impeachments 
 
 1 . 1 to be passed in 
 
 consisting of at least twelve more than a moiety ol the whole t h e Assembly 
 
 number of members present after a call of the whole by a^majonty 
 
 Assembly, and after having summoned the party so to be after a call of 
 
 impeached, and heard him, if he appear and desire to be d»e House and 
 
 heard before the said Assembly; provided always, that no p arty? § 6 
 
 pardon under the great seal of the United Kingdom, or of n 0 pardon to 
 
 either of the said Provinces, shall be pleadable in bar to any bar sucb 
 
 impeachment. 
 
 such impeachment. 
 
 XVIII. And whereas also it is expedient to unite the Revenues of 
 
 funds and revenues of the said two provinces, and whereas bot . h provinces 
 
 7. . united, and 
 
 also certain loans have been heretofore made and debts in- 
 
subject to the 
 debts of either. 
 
 The Civil List. 
 Preamble re- 
 cites 
 
 expedience. 
 
 Civil list in 
 Upper Canada. 
 
 Want of one in 
 Lower Canada. 
 
 Her Majesty 's 
 revenues of 
 crown lands, 
 royalties, &c. 
 
 ( 32 ) 
 
 curred for the Province of Upper Canada in forming and 
 executing therein canals arid other improvements of common 
 behefit to the trade arid industry of both provinces; be it 
 therefore enacted, that all the duties, rates, funds, revenues, 
 and monies whatsoever paid or payable for her Majesty s use 
 within either of the said provinces to the Treasurers or Re- 
 ceivers-General thereof respectively by virtue of any act or 
 law heretofore made with the consent of the Legislative 
 Council and Assembly of dither province, under the autho- 
 rity of the said hereinbefore first recited Act, or hereafter to 
 be made with the consent of the said United Legislative 
 Council and Assembly under the authority of this Act, shall 
 front and after the commencement of this Act constitute one 
 joint fund and revenue for both the said provinces, and shall 
 be subject to all the debts, liabilities, charges, and appropria- 
 tions heretofore made by any act, law or ordinance passed 
 with the consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly 
 of either of the saidprovinees under the authority of the said 
 hereinbefore first recited Act, or of the said Special Council 
 of the’ said Lower Province under the said hereinbefore se- 
 condly recited Act, or hereafter to be made by any act or law 
 passed with the assent of the said United Legislative Council 
 and Assembly under the authority of this Act. 
 
 XIX. And whereas it is expedient for the peace and welfare 
 of the said provinces that a proper provision for the support of 
 the civil government thereof should be made permanently or 
 during the life of her Majesty (whom God long preserve) for 
 the expenses of the civil government of the said provinces ; 
 and' though such provision has been most freely and dutifully 
 made by the Legislative Council and Assembly of the said 
 Upper Province, yet for want of such provision in the said Pro- 
 vince of Lower Canada the necessary administration of justice 
 and of her Majesty’s government there has been rendered im- 
 practicable withdttt the interposition of the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment : and whereas her M ajesty is seised and possessed in right 
 of her crown as well of large and extensive lands, territories, 
 demesnes, woods, forests, mines, minerals, and royalties as of 
 casual and territorial revenues, and also of seigneurial quints, 
 lods and ventfcs, arid other rights, dues and profits within 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 tlie said provinces : and whereas by an act passed in the 
 eighteenth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George 
 the Third, intituled “An Act for removing all doubts and 18 Geo. 3, c. 12, 
 apprehensions concerning Taxation by the Parliament of Which fives 
 Great Britain in any of the Colonies, Provinces and Planta- laturetheri^ht 
 tions in North America and the West Indies, and for re- of appropriating 
 pealing so much of an Act made in the seventh year of the levied, 
 reign of his present Majesty as imposes a duty on tea im- 
 ported from Great Britain into any colony or plantation in 
 America or relates thereto,” it was declared “ that the King 
 and Parliament of Great Britain will not impose any duty, 
 tax or assessment whatever payable in any of his Majesty’s 
 colonies, provinces and plantations in North America or tjie 
 
 West Indies, except only such duties as it may be expedient 
 to impose for the regulation of commerce, the net produce of 
 such duties to be always paid and applied to and for the use 
 of the colony, province or plantation, in which the same shall 
 be respectively levied, in such manner as other duties col- 
 lected by the authority of the respective general courts or 
 general assemblies of such colonies, provinces or plantations 
 are ordinarily paid and applied.” And whereas also by a cer- 
 tain act made and passed in the fourth year of the reign of 
 his late Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An Act 4 Geo. 3, c. 15, 
 
 for granting certain duties in the British Colonies and Plan- Which levies in 
 . . ° . . the colonies 
 
 tations in America ; lor continuing, amending and making certain duties 
 
 perpetual an Act passed in the sixth year of the reign of his a° e d\^Parra 
 late Majesty King George the Second, intituled ‘ An Act. for me nt. 
 the better securing and encouraging the trade of his Majesty’s 
 Sugar Colonies in America for applying the produce of such; 
 duties and of the duties to arise by virtue of the said act 
 towards defraying the expenses of defending, protecting and 
 securing the said colonies and plantations ; for explaining an 
 act made in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King 
 Charles the Second, intituled ‘ An Act for the Encouragement 
 of the Greenland and Eastland Trades, and for the better 
 securing the Plantation trade and for altering arid disal- 
 lowing several drawbacks on exports from this kingdom, and 
 more effectually preventing the clandestine conveyance of 
 goods to and from the said colonies and plantations, and im- 
 proving and securing the trade between the same and Great 
 
 D 
 
6 G. 3, c. 52, 
 Which levies 
 in the Colonies 
 further duties to 
 be appropriated 
 by Parliament. 
 
 14 G. 3, c. 88, 
 Which levies in 
 Canada certain 
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 Britain,” certain duties were imposed upon certain articles im- 
 ported into any colony or plantation in America which then 
 was or thereafter might be under the dominion of his said 
 Majesty, his heirs or successors ; and it was thereby fur- 
 ther enacted, that the monies which should arise from the 
 said duties, except the necessary charges of raising, collect- 
 ing, levying, recovering, answering, paying, and accounting 
 for the same, should be paid into the receipt of his Ma- 
 jesty’s Exchequer, and should be entered separate and 
 apart from all other monies paid or payable to his Majesty, 
 his heirs or successors, and should be there reserved, to be 
 from time to time disposed of by Parliament towards defray- 
 ing the necessary expenses of defending, protecting and 
 securing the British colonies and plantations in America. 
 And whereas, also by an act passed in the sixth year of the 
 reign of his said Majesty King George the Third, intituled 
 “ An Act for repealing certain Duties in the British Colo- 
 nies and Plantations granted by several Acts of Parliament, 
 and also the Duties imposed by an Act made in the last ses- 
 sion of Parliament upon certain East India Goods exported 
 from Great Britain, and for Granting other Duties instead 
 thereof, and for further encouraging, regulating, and securing 
 several branches of the Trade of this Kingdom and the British 
 Dominions in America,” certain other and further duties were 
 imposed upon certain articles imported into any colony or 
 plantation in America which then was or thereafter should be 
 under the dominion of his said Majesty, his heirs and suc- 
 cessors, and it was thereby further enacted, that all the 
 monies which should arise by the said duties, except the 
 necessary charges of raising, collecting, levying, recovering, 
 answering, paying, and accounting for the same, should be 
 paid into the receipt of his Majesty’s Exchequer, and should 
 he entered separate and apart from all other monies paid or 
 payable to his Majesty, his heirs or successors, and should 
 be there reserved, to be from time to time disposed of by Par- 
 liament towards defraying the necessary expenses of defend- 
 ing, protecting, and securing the British Colonies and Plan- 
 tations in America. And whereas by an act passed in the 
 fourteenth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George 
 the Third, intituled “ An Act to establish a Fund towards 
 further defraying the charges of the Administration of Jus- 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 tice and support of the Civil Government within the Province 
 of Quebec in America,” certain other and further duties 
 were imposed on certain articles imported into the said Pro- 
 vince of Quebec, and it was thereby further enacted, that 
 the monies arising from such duties, except the necessary 
 charges of raising, collecting, levying, recovering, answering, 
 paying, and accounting for the same, should be applied to- 
 wards defraying the expenses of the administration of jus- 
 tice and the support of the Civil Government in the said Pro- 
 vince, by warrant under the hand or hands of the Lord High 
 Treasurer or the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty’s Trea- 
 sury, and that the residue of the said duties should be re- 
 served for the future disposition of Parliament. And where- 
 as by an act passed in first and second years of the reign of 
 his Majesty King William the Fourth, intituled “ An Act to 
 amend an Act of the fourteenth year of his Majesty King 
 George the Third, for establishing a fund towards defraying 
 the charges of the administration of justice and the support 
 of the Civil Government within the Province of Quebec,” 
 after reciting the said last recited Act passed in the fourteenth 
 year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the 
 Third, and that since the enactment of the same the said 
 Province of Quebec had been divided into the two Provinces 
 of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, it was enacted, that it 
 should and might be lawful for the Legislative Councils and 
 Assemblies of the said Provinces of Lower Canada and Up- 
 per Canada respectively, by any acts to be by them from 
 time to time passed and assented to by his Majesty, his heirs 
 and successors, or on his or their behalf, to appropriate in 
 such manner and to such purposes as to them respectively 
 should seem meet, all the monies that should thereafter arise 
 by or be produced from the said duties, except so much of 
 such monies as should be necessarily defrayed for the charges 
 of raising, collecting, levying, recovering, answering, paying, 
 and accounting for the same. And whereas also by an act 
 passed in the third and fourth years of his late Majesty 
 King William the Fourth, intituled “ An Act to regulate the 
 Trade of the British Plantations in America,” certain other 
 and further duties were imposed upon certain articles im- 
 ported into any of his said Majesty’s possessions in America, 
 
 d 2 
 
 other duties to 
 be appropriated 
 by the Treasury 
 for the Civil 
 Government of 
 those Provinces. 
 
 1 & 2 W. 4, c. 
 23. 
 
 Which gives the 
 Colonial Legis- 
 lature the power 
 of appropriating 
 the duties last 
 recited. 
 
 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 
 59. 
 
 Which levies in 
 the Colonies 
 certain other 
 duties to be ap- 
 propriated by 
 the Colonial 
 Legislature. 
 
5 G. 3, c. 25. 
 Which levies in 
 the Colonies 
 certain rates of 
 Postage to be 
 appropriated by 
 Parliament, 
 
 4&5W.4,e.7. 
 Which gives the 
 proceeds of the 
 Colonial Post 
 Office revenue 
 to <he appro* 
 priated and dis- 
 tributed among 
 the several Pro- 
 vinces. 
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 and it was thereby further enacted, that the produce of such 
 duties siiould be paid into the hands of the Treasurei oi Re- 
 ceiver General, or other proper- officer authorised to receive 
 the isame in the colony in which the same should be levied, 
 to be applied' to such uses as should be dneeted by the local 
 legislatures of such colonies respectively. And whereas by 
 an act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his late Ma- 
 jesty King, George the Third, intituled “ An Act to alter 
 certain rates of postage and to amend, explain, and enlarge 
 several provisions in an Act made in the ninth year of the 
 reign of Queen Anne, and in other Acts relating to the Re- 
 venue of the Post Office,” certain rates or sums were esta- 
 blished for the post or conveyance of letters and packets 
 passing .between London and the British dominions in Ame- 
 rica, and between places within the said dominions, and it 
 ivas thereby enacted, that all the monies arising by the rates 
 aforesaid, except the monies which should be necessary to 
 defray such expenses as should be incurred in the collection 
 and management of the same, and all other expenses attend- 
 ing the said office, and the due execution of the Acts relating 
 thereto, should he appropriated and applied to such and the 
 same uses to which the then existing rates of postage were 
 respectively theretofore by law appropriated and made appli- 
 cable. Ahd whereas by an Act passed in the fourth and fifth 
 years of the reign of his Majesty King William the Fourth, 
 intituled,. “ An . Act to repeal at the period within mentioned 
 so much of an Act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his 
 late Majesty King George the Third, intituled, an Act to 
 alter certain rates of Postage, and to amend, explain, and 
 enlarge several Provisions in an Act made in the ninth year 
 of the reign of Queen Anne, and in other Acts relating to the 
 Revenue of the Post Office, as authorises the taking of certain 
 Rates of Inland Postage within his Majesty’s Dominions in 
 North America,’’ it was enacted, that from and after his Ma- 
 jesty’s asSent, should be do signified as thereinbefore directed 
 to such Acts of Colonial or Provincial Legislatures as there- 
 inbefore /mentioned, all the revenues which may arise from 
 the collection of the rates of inland postage within the said 
 respective Colonies or Provinces, (after deducting the ex- 
 penses of collection, and of the establishment and management 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 of the post office within and throughout the said respective 
 Colonies or Provinces under the direction of his* Majesty's 
 Post Master General or his Deputies,) should and might, in- 
 stead of being remitted as heretofore- to the General Post 
 Office in London, as part of the general revenue of the Post 
 Office, be appropriated, applied, and distributed to and among 
 the said respective Colonies and Provinces, in proportion to 
 the gross amount of the rates and duties of postage, which 
 should be raised, collected, and received within eaeh. and every 
 such respective Colonies or Provinces, unless and until the 
 said Colonies or Provinces should d>y Bills or Acts of their 
 respective Legislatures, to which his Majesty’s consent should 
 in the usual form be signified, unite and agree in directing 
 any other mode in which such surplus shoidd be applied and 
 disposed of. And whereas also by divers Acts heretofore Divers provin- 
 passed by the Legislative Council and Assembly of the «aid revenue^n' 5 * 0 ^ 
 Lower Province, with the royal assent, under and by virtue Lower Canada, 
 of the said herein first mentioned - Act, certain duties, rates, 
 and other aids and supplies have been permanently raised and 
 granted, and the monies arising from the same have in some 
 instances been appropriated and applied to the support so far 
 of the civil government of the said Lower Province, but. in 
 other instances such monies have long remained and still are 
 unappropriated by any permanent law of the said Province. 3 G. 4, c. 119. 
 And whereas by a statute made and passed in the third year of ^^pro^nc^r 
 the reign of his late Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled, acts and duties 
 “ An Act to regulate the Trade of the Provinces of Lower until repeated 
 and Upper Canada, and for other purposes » relating to the v ided. 
 said Provinces,” it was enacted, that all and every the duties 
 which at the time in the said Act mentioned were payable 
 tinder any Act or Acts of Lower Canada, on the importation 
 of any goods, wares, or commodities, into the said-Provirtbe 
 of Lower Canada, except such as may have been imposed for 
 the regulation of the trade, by land or inland navigation be- 
 tween the said Province and the United States of Amencu, 
 should be payable, and should be levied according to the 
 Provisions contained in any such Acts, until any Act or Acts 
 for repealing or altering the said duties, or any part thereof 
 respectively, should be passed by the Legislative Council and 
 Assembly of the said Province of Lower Canada; and until 
 
Enacts — 
 
 On Civil List 
 being granted 
 for her Majesty’; 
 life or perma- 
 nently, 
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 such Act or Acts repealing or altering such duties should, 
 after a copy thereof had been transmitted to the Governor, 
 Lieutenant Governor, or person administering the govern- 
 ment of the Province of Upper Canada, be laid before both 
 Houses of the Imperial Parliament, according to the forms 
 and provisions contained in the said Act passed in the thirty- 
 first year of the reign of his said late Majesty King George 
 the Third ; and that no act of the Legislature of the Province 
 of Lower Canada, whereby any additional or other duties 
 should be imposed on articles imported by sea into the said 
 Province of Lower Canada, and whereby the Province of 
 Upper Canada should in any respect be directly or indirectly 
 affected, should have the force of law, until the same should 
 have been laid before the Imperial Parliament, as provided 
 in certain cases by the said Act passed in the thirty-first year 
 of his said late Majesty’s reign, and the royal assent thereto 
 published by proclamation in the said Province of Lower 
 Canada, a copy of such Act having within one month from 
 the time of presenting the same for the royal assent in the 
 said Province been transmitted by the Governor, Lieutenant 
 Governor, or person administering the government of the 
 Province of Lower Canada, to the Governor, Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor, or person administering the government of the Pro- 
 vince of Upper Canada : Provided always nevertheless that 
 it should not be necessary to transmit any such Act to be 
 laid before the Imperial Parliament, if before the same should 
 have been presented for the royal assent within the said Pro- 
 vince of Lower Canada, the Legislative Council and House 
 of Assembly of the said Province of Upper Canada should, 
 by address to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or person 
 administering the government of the Province of Upper Ca- 
 nada, pray that their concurrence in the imposition of the 
 duties intended to be imposed by such Act might be signified to 
 the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or person administering 
 the government of the said Province of Lower Canada. 
 Be it therefore enacted, that as soon as the said United Legis- 
 lative Council and Assembly shall have made and granted to 
 her Majesty, either for the life of her Majesty, whom God 
 long preserve, or permanently to her Majesty, her heirs and 
 successors, a proper and sufficient provision for the support 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 of the Civil Government of her Majesty in the said Lower 
 Province, and her Majesty shall have been graciously pleased 
 to assent to any Act or Law for that purpose to be made, it 
 shall and may be lawful for her Majesty, her heirs and suc- 
 cessors, either by such Act or Law or otherwise, from time 
 to time, to surrender and place at the disposal of the said 
 Legislative Council and Assembly all her Majesty’s interest 
 in the net proceeds arising as well from any sale or rent of 
 her Majesty’s said lands, territories, demesnes, woods, forests, 
 mines, minerals, and royalties, as from her Majesty’s said 
 territorial and casual revenues, seigneurial quints lods and 
 ventes, and other seigneurial dues and profits within the said 
 Province of Lower Canada, and also the monies and pro- 
 ceeds arising and paid within the said Lower Province from 
 each and every of the said rates and duties imposed and paid 
 by virtue of any of the hereinbefore recited Acts of Parlia- 
 ment, or of the said Legislative Council and Assembly of the 
 said Lower Province, except as in and by each of the said 
 Acts respectively is excepted, and except the necessary ex- 
 pense of managing and administering the said lands, territo- 
 ries, demesnes, woods, forests, mines, minerals and royalties, 
 and of collecting, paying and accounting for the said casual, 
 territorial and seigneurial revenues, and the said monies and 
 proceeds may and shall thereafter be appropriated and dis- 
 posed of by any Act to be passed by the said United Legis- 
 lative Council and Assembly, with the assent of her said 
 Majesty, her heirs and successors, during the continuance of 
 such Act or Law, for such support of her Majesty’s said Civil 
 Government; and that from and after the passing of such Act 
 or Law so much of the said herein-recited Act, passed in the 
 third year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the 
 Third, as restrains the passing of any Law in the said Lower 
 Province to repeal any of the duties in the said Act men- 
 tioned, or to impose any duties whereby the said Upper 
 Province may be affected, shall cease and determine and be 
 thereafter hereby repealed. 
 
 her Majesty 
 may surrender, 
 
 the net proceeds 
 of sales of lands, 
 rents, &c., and 
 her Majesty’s 
 revenues, ca- 
 sual, territorial, 
 and seigneurial; 
 
 and monies paid 
 under the recited 
 statutes ; 
 
 and Acts of 
 Lower Canada. 
 
 To be appro- 
 priated by Uni- 
 ted Legislature. 
 
 Repeal of the 
 recited part of 
 3 G. 4, c. 119. 
 
 XX. And be it further enacted, that whenever the said Like provision 
 provision already made as aforesaid by the Legislative Coun- 
 cil and Assembly of the said Upper Province for the support Canada. F 
 of her Majesty’s Civil Government therein shall expire, or be 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 otherwise determined, it shall and may be lawful for her Ma- 
 jesty, her heirs or successors, upon a proper and sufficient 
 provision for the support of the said Civil Government in the 
 said Upper Province being made in like manner as herein- 
 before mentioned for the said Lower Province, in like manner 
 also from time to time to surrender and place at the like dis- 
 posal of the United Legislative Council and Assembly all her 
 Majesty’s interest in the net proceeds arising from the sale or 
 rent of her Majesty’s said lands, territories, demesnes, woods, 
 forests, mines, minerals and royalties within the said Upper 
 Province, and all her Majesty’s casual, territorial and seigneu- 
 rial revenues, and all other her dues and profits being or 
 accruing within the said Upper Province, and all the monies 
 and net proceeds arising from any duties imposed by the said 
 herein recited Acts, and paid and collected within the said 
 Upper Province ; and all and every of the terms and provi- 
 sions herein contained relating to the appropriation of the 
 monies and proceeds arising and paid as well from her Ma- 
 jesty’s lands and revenues as from any duties within the said 
 Lower Province, shall in like manner and upon the same 
 conditions be hereby extended to the said Upper Province. 
 
 On Civil List 
 expiring her 
 Majesty to re- 
 vert to all rights 
 as heretofore. 
 
 XXI. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that on 
 the expiration of any such Act or Law for such support of 
 her Majesty’s said Civil Government in either of the said 
 Provinces, all and singular her Majesty’s said revenues, royal- 
 ties and rights so surrendered during the continuance of such 
 Act or Law as aforesaid, shall revert to and be and remain 
 again at the disposal of her said Majesty, her heirs and suc- 
 cessors, in the same manner as before the making of such 
 law and surrender, and all and singular the said monies and 
 proceeds arising from each and every of the rates and duties 
 imposed by any of the said Acts of Parliament, or of the said 
 Lower Province, which may be then continuing in force, shall 
 thereafter be appropriated and applied as before the making 
 of such surrender. 
 
 Civil List may XXII. Provided also, and be it further enacted, that in 
 
 be granted either making such proper and sufficient provision for the sunDort 
 in a gross sum, rr 
 
 or by separate °* the said Civil Government of her Majesty, her heirs or 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 successors, in either of the said Provinces, it shall and may items, for each 
 he lawful for the said United Legislative Council and Assem-, dlstinc ^ sa l ar y 
 
 ° or service * 
 
 bly either to grant a gross sum of money for the same, upon but in the’ latter 
 
 an estimate of the several and respective services and salaries ? as . e 
 
 , , _ . , • , , . , lative Council 
 
 or charges to be ior that purpose submitted to the said tohaveasepa- 
 
 United Legislative Council and Assembly by the Governor rate and distinct 
 , . . , i decision upon 
 
 or person administering the government in chief of the said eac h item. 
 
 Provinces, or to grant a specific salary or supply for each 
 respective service, office or charge, so submitted by the said 
 estimate : provided always, that in such case as well the said 
 Legislative Council as the said Assembly shall have a sepa- 
 rate and distinct decision upon each such respective service, 
 or office and salary or charge. 
 
 XXIII. Provided also and be it further enacted, that after After such civil 
 such provision for her Majesty’s civil government in the said j^fes'tcfhold 6 
 Lower Province shall have been so made as aforesaid, the office for life, 
 commissions, or tenure of office, of the Judges of the Queen’s 
 Bench of the several districts of Lower Canada and of the 
 Province of Upper Canada shall be made quam dm se bene 
 gesserint, and their salaries ascertained and established inde- 
 pendently of fees, but nevertheless upon the address of both 
 the said Legislative Council and Assembly, or upon impeach- 
 ment and conviction in the manner hereinbefore provided, it 
 may be lawful to remove any of the said J udges. 
 
 XXIV And whereas it is expedient to make provision for Clergy reserves, 
 the religious instruction and consolation of all classes of her Preamble recites 
 Majesty's subjects in the said Provinces; and whereas in and c> 3 2 , s. 36, 37 , 
 by the said hereinbefore first recited Act it was enacted, 38, by which 
 that it should and might be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs ^Crownhnds 
 and successors, to authorise the Governor or Lieutenant-Go- was reserved for 
 vernor of each of the said Provinces respectively, or the per- 
 son administering the government therein, to make from and 
 out of the lands of the Crown within such Provinces such 
 allotment and appropriation of lands for the support and 
 maintenance of a Protestant clergy within the same, as might 
 bear a due proportion to the amount of such lands within 
 the same as had at any time been granted by or under the 
 authority of his Majesty, and that whenever any grants of 
 
And govern- 
 ment was em- 
 powered to 
 endow rectories 
 of the Church 
 of England with 
 any portion of 
 such lands ac- 
 cording to the 
 circumstances 
 of each town- 
 ship. 
 
 Great number 
 and diversity of 
 religious persua- 
 sions in the 
 Provinces. 
 
 ( 42 ) 
 
 lands within either of the said Provinces thereafter should be 
 made by or under the authority of his Majesty, his heirs or 
 successors* there should at the same time be made in respect 
 of the same a proportionable allotment and appropriation of 
 lands for the above-mentioned purpose within the township 
 or parish to which such lands so to be granted should apper- 
 tain or be annexed, or as nearly adjacent thereto as circum- 
 stances would admit, and that such lands so allotted and 
 appropriated should be, as nearly as the same could be esti- 
 mated at the time of making such grant, equal in value to the 
 seventh part of the lands so granted ; and it was further 
 enacted in and by the said Act, that all and every the rents, 
 profits and emoluments which might at any time arise from 
 such lands so allotted and appropriated as aforesaid, should 
 be applicable solely to the maintenance and support of a Pro- 
 testant clergy within the Province in which the same should 
 be situated, and to no other use or purpose whatever ; and it 
 was in and by the said Act further enacted, that it should and 
 might be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to 
 authorise the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of each of 
 the said Provinces respectively, or the person administering 
 the government therein, from time to time, with the advice of 
 the Executive Council within such Province for the affairs 
 thereof, to constitute and erect within every township or 
 parish which then was or thereafter might be formed, consti- 
 tuted and erected within such Province, one or more par- 
 sonage or rectory, or parsonages or rectories, according to 
 the establishment of the Church of England, and from time 
 to time, by an instrument under the great seal of such Pro- 
 vince, to endow every such parsonage or rectory with so 
 much or such part of the lands so allotted and appropriated 
 as aforesaid, as such Governor, Lieutenant-Governor or person 
 administering the government, should, with the advice of the 
 said Executive Council, judge to be expedient under the 
 then existing circumstances of such township or parish : And 
 whereas, owing to the great number and diversity of religious 
 rites and persuasions within the said Provinces, all of the 
 said provisions are not adequate to the propagation of piety 
 and good morals among all classes of her Majesty’s subjects 
 within either of the said Provinces : Be it therefore enacted, 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 that so much of the said Act as enables her Majesty, her 
 heirs and successors, to authorise the Governor or Lieutenant- 
 Governor or person administering the government of each of 
 the said Provinces, to endow any parsonage or rectory ac- 
 cording to the establishment of the Church of England within 
 any township or parish of each of the said Provinces, with so 
 much or such part of the lands so allotted and appropriated 
 in respect of the lands within such township or parish as 
 aforesaid as such Governor, Lieutenant-Governor or person 
 administering the government of each of the said Provinces 
 shall, with the advice of the said Executive Council, judge to 
 be expedient under the then existing circumstances of such 
 township or parish ; and so much of the said Act as provides 
 that the said lands so allotted and appropriated, and the 
 rents, profits and emoluments thereof, shall be applicable 
 solely to the maintenance and support of a Protestant clergy, 
 and to no other use or purpose whatever, be and the same 
 are hereby repealed. 
 
 XXV And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be 
 lawful for her Majesty, her heirs and successors, to authorise 
 the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or person administering 
 the government of each of the said Provinces, to sell, grant 
 and convey, or to hold, retain and apply, the whole or any 
 part of the said lands, and the proceeds, rents, profits and 
 emoluments thereof so allotted and appropriated as aforesaid 
 within the Province in which the same shall be situated, to and 
 for the use, maintenance and support of all such clergy of all 
 Christian denominations within each Province, as the said 
 Governor, or Lieutenant Governor, or person administering 
 the government of the same, shall with the advice of the Exe- 
 cutive Council judge to be expedient under the then existing 
 circumstances of the whole of each of the said Provinces 
 respectively : Provided always, that of the said lands so al- 
 lotted and appropriated, and of the proceeds, rents, profits 
 and emoluments thereof, not less than one-fifth shall be applied 
 for the endowment, use, maintenance and support of such 
 parsonages, rectories, or clergy of the Church of England 
 within the said Provinces respectively, and not more than one- 
 fifth shall be applied for the use, maintenance and support of 
 
 Enacts repeal of 
 so much of sec- 
 tions 38 & 37 of 
 31 Geo. 3, c. 31, 
 as authorises 
 government to 
 endow rectories 
 so extensively, 
 and appropriates 
 such reserves 
 for Protestant 
 clergy exclu- 
 sively. 
 
 Clergy reserves 
 to be applicable 
 to support of 
 clergy of all 
 denominations 
 according to the 
 circumstances 
 of each Pro- 
 vince. 
 
 Provided 
 
 Not less than 
 one-fifth for the 
 Church of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Not more than 
 one-fifth to 
 Church of Scot- 
 land. 
 
One-fifth to the 
 Methodist con- 
 nexion. 
 
 And one-fifth to 
 other Protest- 
 ants. 
 
 Not more than 
 one-fifth to the 
 Roman Catho- 
 lics. 
 
 U nless hereafter 
 otherwise pro- 
 vided by the 
 United Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Price of lands 
 sold to be in- 
 vested for the 
 same purposes. 
 
 Commencement 
 of the Act from 
 its being pro- 
 claimed in the 
 Colonies. 
 
 Powers, rights 
 and restrictions 
 of other Acts 
 applied to the 
 United Legis- 
 lature hereby 
 constituted. 
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 such ministers or clergy of the Church of Scotland within the 
 said Provinces respectively, and not more than one-fifth for 
 the use, maintenance and support of such ministers or cleigy 
 of the Methodist connexion within the said Provinces re- 
 spectively, and not more than one-fifth for the use, mainte- 
 nance and : support of such ministers or clergy of any other 
 denomination of Protestants within the said Provinces re- 
 spectively, and not more than one-fifth for the use, mainte- 
 nance and support of such secular priests or ministers of the 
 Roman Catholic Church within the said Provinces respec- 
 tively, as the said Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or person 
 administering the government within each of the said Pro- 
 vinces shall from time to time, with the advice of his Execu- 
 tive Council, endow or appoint to receive, have and enjoy the 
 same ; unless it shall at any time hereafter be otherwise pro- 
 vided by any act or law to be passed by the said United Legis- 
 lative Council and Assembly with the assent of her Majesty, 
 her heirs and successors : Provided also, that the capital sums 
 for which any such lands may be sold and aliened shall be 
 invested for the purposes of this Act in such securities and in 
 the name of such Commissioners as her Majesty, her heirs 
 and successors, may be pleased for that purpose to appoint, 
 and only the interest or dividends of such investments be 
 applied for the objects and in the manner hereinbefore di- 
 rected. 
 
 XXVI. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may 
 be lawful for her Majesty to authorise the Governor, or person 
 administering the government in chief of the said Provinces, 
 therein to proclaim this Act, and to appoint and declare the 
 day of the commencement of the same, and this Act shall 
 commence to take effect from such day within the said Pro- 
 vinces. 
 
 XXVII. And be it further enacted, that all and singular 
 the provisions, powers, rights, restrictions, limitations, and 
 conditions in and by the said first mentioned Act passed in 
 the thirty-first year of the reign of his late Majesty King 
 George the Third, or by any of the herein-mentioned, or any 
 other Act of Parliament enacted and provided, relative to the 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 authority of her said Majesty, her heirs and successors, or to 
 the Governor or person administering the government of 
 either of the said Provinces, or to the Legislative Councils 
 and Assemblies by the said hereinbefore first recited Act 
 constituted in each of the said Provinces* shall be and the 
 same hereby are continued and applied to her Majesty, her 
 heirs and successors, and to the Governor or person adminis- 
 tering the government in chief, and to the United Legislative 
 Council and Assembly hereby constituted for both the said 
 Provinces, except so far as the same are repealed or altered 
 by or are in any manner inconsistent with the provisions of 
 this Act. 
 
 XXVIII. Provided always and be it further enacted by 
 the authority aforesaid, that during such interval as may 
 happen between the passing of this Act and the first meeting 
 of the said hereby constituted United Legislative Council 
 and Assembly after the commencement of this Act as here- 
 inbefore provided, it shall and may be lawful for the Gover- 
 nor or person administering the government of the said Pro- 
 vince of Lower Canada, with the advice and consent of the 
 major part of such special councillors as shall be or have been 
 appointed by her Majesty for the affairs of such province 
 under and by virtue of the said hereinbefore secondly recited 
 Act, and for her Majesty by and with the advice and consent 
 of such Legislative Council and Assembly of the said Pro- 
 vince of Upper Canada, as may be called and held under and 
 by virtue of the said hereinbefore first recited Act, to make 
 temporary laws and ordinances for the good government, 
 peace and welfare of such provinces respectively, in the 
 same manner and under the same restrictions as such laws 
 and ordinances might have been made by virtue respectively 
 of the above hereinbefore first mentioned act of the thirty- 
 first year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the 
 Third, and of the above hereinbefore secondly mentioned act 
 passed in the last session of this present Parliament, and in 
 the first year of her Majesty's reign, and that such tempo- 
 rary laws or ordinances shall be valid and binding within 
 such provinces respectively until the expiration of six months 
 after the United Legislative Council and Assembly of the 
 
 The present se- 
 parate legisla- 
 tures may make 
 temporary laws 
 until the com- 
 mencement of 
 this Act. 
 
Laws in either 
 province at the 
 commencement 
 of this Act not 
 to be thereby 
 affected, except 
 as herein ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 said provinces shall have been first assembled by virtue of 
 and under the authority of this Act ; subject nevertheless to 
 be sooner repealed or varied by any law or laws which may 
 be made by her Majesty, her heirs or successors, by and 
 with the advice and consent of the said United Legislative 
 Council and Assembly. 
 
 XXIX. And be it further enacted, that all laws, statutes 
 and ordinances which shall be in force on the day to be fixed 
 in the manner hereinbefore directed for the commencement 
 of this Act, within the said provinces or either of them, or in 
 any part thereof respectively, shall remain and continue to be 
 of the same force, authority and effect in each of the said 
 provinces respectively as if this Act had not been made, ex- 
 cept in so far as the same are expressly repealed or varied by 
 this Act, or in so far as the same shall or may hereafter by 
 virtue of or under the authority of this or of any other Act, 
 be repealed or varied by her Majesty, her heirs or successors, 
 by and with the advice and consent of the said United Legis- 
 lative Council and Assembly of the said provinces, or in so far 
 as the same may be repealed or varied by such temporary 
 laws or ordinances as may be made in the manner hereinbe- 
 fore specified. 
 
REMARKS UPON THE BILL. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The Repeal of the existing Rowers of separate 
 Legislation in either Province. 
 
 This, being a necessary preliminary, requires 
 no particular observation. The separate Legisla- 
 tures are by this clause to cease from and after the 
 commencement of the act, and till then are by a 
 subsequent clause, the twenty-seventh, empow- 
 ered to make temporary laws. By the twenty- 
 fifth clause the act is to commence from the Go- 
 vernor’s proclamation for that purpose. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 The Union of the Legislatures of Upper and Lower 
 
 Canada. 
 
 Reasons for this measure — 
 
 1st. The whole country of Upper and Lower 
 Canada, lying upon one vast river, and having no 
 other communication with the ocean than the 
 sestuary and gulph formed by the St. Lawrence 
 from its numerous tributaries and immense basins, 
 seems so necessarily to require the control of one 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 and the same government, that nature herself may 
 be said to have almost prescribed the union of legis- 
 latures now introduced. It is difficult to consider 
 the geographical relations of both Provinces with- 
 out perceiving, that there can be no peace between 
 the two, nor prosperity with either, unless the 
 regulation of trade external as well as internal, 
 and the necessary improvements of communica- 
 tion, (as canals, railroads, the post-office, harbours, 
 and lighthouses), be made the joint concern of 
 both Provinces, or the paramount care of the Im- 
 perial Government. By the constitution and po- 
 licy of the British empire, the care of the Imperial 
 Government is not equal to the whole of this exi- 
 gency; which therefore can only be effectually 
 answered by an union of these two Colonial 
 Legislatures. 
 
 2nd. The foregoing reasons, conclusive as they 
 are from the natural and political relations of the 
 country, have been verified by experience. The 
 gigantic improvements, undertaken by the Upper, 
 though productive of benefit common also to the 
 Lower, Province, have not only been left to the 
 unequal and almost unaided efforts of the former, 
 but rendered in a great measure nugatory, by the 
 neglect or refusal of the latter to continue from its 
 border such undertakings downward to the sea. 
 An united legislature will be able to wield and 
 direct the resources of both Provinces to these 
 objects, of a magnitude indeed too great for either 
 alone, but of an usefulness in which almost every 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 British subject there and numbers elsewhere will 
 participate. 
 
 3rd.. A great portion' of theProvinciali revenues 
 
 is, and for obvious . reasons > must 'continue to -be. 
 
 • ^ 9 ' 
 
 raised by. duties on articles imported .by*, sea. 
 These duties, as Upper Canada -has no i sea port, 
 are all collected in uthe -Lower Province ; and- the 
 division of the proceeds between the two Colonies 
 is at present a source of*almost interminable con- 
 tention. The. expedient of an .arbitration, en- 
 forced by the statute 3 Geo. 4, c. 119, does not 
 nor can ever produce a very satisfactory isettler 
 ment ; while the provision of the same statute (see 
 ante, p. 38) prohibiting the Legislature of the one 
 Province from altering these duties without the 
 consent of the other, is little j more, than a parlia- 
 mentary acknowledgment of the necessity fonan 
 union, without means however to accomplish the 
 end, or measures to obviate the cause. 
 
 4th. The Canadas under an united government 
 would be more powerful and defensible in military 
 operations. The militia could then be marched 
 to any quarter of either Province, and the whole 
 would be immediately interested in ^repelling 
 attacks in any part. This; advantage is the more 
 desirable as it seems the only way to countervail 
 the superiority possessed in other respects by the 
 contiguous territories of the United States. Their 
 side of the frontier is far more populous, but being 
 divided into six different States or Provinces 
 
 E 
 
( 50 ) 
 
 (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, 
 Ohio, and Michigan), and having a general govern- 
 ment of limited authority, remote organs, and 
 feeble resources, — the separate attempts of those 
 States would be defied, and their united attacks 
 better encountered, by our making up in extent 
 and combination of territory what we want in 
 population, and by endeavouring to present, along 
 the entire frontier of these six separate republics, 
 the singleness and energy of one great united 
 colony ; which, if not equal to the six combined, 
 will at least be superior to any one alone, and 
 which is more likely to measure its strength with 
 some one single-handed, than with the whole 
 together. 
 
 5th. The union of the Canadas with each other 
 will tend to strengthen and perpetuate the con- 
 nexion of both with Great Britain. Upper 
 Canada is united by the Lower Province with 
 the sea, and by the sea with the mother country. 
 The distance between us will be, in a manner, 
 abridged by this act, and one degree of separa- 
 tion, the interposition of another Province, of 
 distinct government and different origin, will be 
 removed. The colonists on Lake Huron will con- 
 sider the gulph shore as their own, and its inha- 
 bitants as themselves. That feeling of wonder 
 and interest towards the western states of Ame- 
 rica, so influential from their comparative wealth 
 and neighbourhood, will be changed in the United 
 Canadas by the contemplation of their own great- 
 
( 51 ) 
 
 ness, and diverted to the parent country by its 
 more immediate propinquity and uninterrupted 
 communication. At the same time the hope of 
 independence in the French Canadians of the 
 Lower Province will be annihilated, by the con- 
 viction that they can never expect, either to sepa- 
 rate the two Provinces, or to govern both. The 
 Upper Canadians will cease to apprehend the 
 establishment of a French Republic between them 
 and the sea ; and the Lower will renounce the 
 vain, foolish, and mischievous ambition of preserv- 
 ing what they call their nationality, or of invok- 
 ing a reconquest by the country of their origin. 
 The miserable policy of rendering Lower Canada 
 inhospitable to emigrants, of retarding its improve- 
 ment, and counteracting its resources, for fear 
 British subjects should settle there, will give way 
 to the general demand of all its inhabitants for 
 commerce, and industry, and every amelioration. 
 
 6th. Though to constitute the government of a 
 colony, with a view to its independence, would 
 be an absurdity, and an inversion of means to 
 counteract their end, yet it is but just, both 
 to the parent state and the dependancy, to 
 provide, that during their connexion no insti- 
 tution be adopted which may be injurious to 
 either party in case of separation. The union 
 of the two Canadas together will prevent both 
 from falling into the power of the United States, 
 should either be separated from Great Britain. 
 
 e 2 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 There is little doubt that such would be the des- 
 tiny of those provinces, if severed from the British 
 Empire, unless at the moment of separation from 
 us an union could be accomplished between them- 
 selves. As that moment however would of all 
 others be the least, so is the present the most, fa- 
 vourable for the measure. The whole power of 
 the American Government would then be exerted 
 to prevent it : now, they have neither the right, 
 nor the interest, nor the disposition, nor the abi- 
 lity, to interfere. 
 
 7th. In the same view of the remote and ultimate 
 consequences of this measure, may be added, that 
 the proposal of combining the whole of our North 
 American Colonies into one government, a pro- 
 posal at present impracticable and premature, as 
 shall hereinafter be shewn, would be best prepared 
 for and promoted, and more likely to be success- 
 fully introduced at its proper occasion, by this 
 previous union of Upper and Lower Canada. 
 These two Provinces would form together the nu- 
 cleus of a power whose magnitude might attract 
 and attach the four lesser colonies within its 
 sphere. This is the great advantage, of which 
 the existence has alone preserved the integrity 
 of the British Empire, and the absence so much 
 endangers the American confederacy. And as 
 the feeble coherence of the latter is not inaptly 
 displayed in the stars which are pictured in its 
 banner, and the position of which therein per- 
 plexes the taste and ingenuity of that nation, 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 and the comprehension of all others ; so were we 
 disposed to exchange the devotion of a religious, 
 for the vanity of a celestial, or the pedantry of 
 an astronomical emblem, the solar system itself 
 would in a measure represent the principle and 
 policy of the British dominions : and as the satel- 
 lites ol Jupiter could not preserve their station in 
 the universe without the attraction of their pri- 
 mary, so may the four Colonies, New Bruns- 
 wick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward’s Island, and 
 Newfoundland, in the event of independence, be 
 held together by the influence of the great Ca- 
 nadian union, and that mightiest of planets with 
 its four moons become the type and cognizance 
 of the whole united Provinces : and till then 
 also, as it is by the influence of those satellites 
 that their primary keeps its present place in the 
 solar system, no less may these four provinces, 
 while separate, tend to retain Canada in closer 
 dependance on Great Britain. 
 
 8th. The formation of this junction of the two 
 Provinces, and the prospective accession of the 
 other four, would produce a salutary influence 
 on the intellect, the enterprise, and affection of 
 the whole Northern Colonists. Something would 
 be offered to satisfy their ambition of excellence, 
 and desire of distinction : something to raise the 
 standard of comparison, and the qualifications 
 for eminence: something to repress its ill-founded 
 pretensions, to expose spurious desert, enlighten 
 prejudice, awaken talent, create a public opinion, 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 and elevate and instruct, and sanction its judg- 
 ments. The spirit, the knowledge, and the manners 
 of a people are always influenced by the impor- 
 tance of the society to which they immediately 
 belong. The supremacy and protection of Great 
 Britain has no doubt in this respect a most bene- 
 ficial effect upon the colonial mind, gratifying in 
 the highest degree that craving in the human 
 heart for national pride, historical notice, and 
 universal relations; that noble assertion, yet 
 generous expansion, of one’s self towards all 
 countries of the present, and all ages of the past : 
 still the narrowness of the immediate community 
 in colonies may sometimes have an unfavourable 
 influence upon their ideas, principles, and energies. 
 Information may be supplanted by self-esteem, 
 obscurity lower the standard of morality, and 
 poverty cramp their enterprise. For want of 
 those worthier objects, which are only to be 
 found in grander scenes and on an ampler stage, 
 all the zeal and invention of the community are 
 in danger of being confined to two themes, reli- 
 gion and politics ; the former of which is apt to 
 degenerate to fanaticism, and the latter to local 
 controversies, fictitious patriotism, discontent and 
 disaffection. These are evils inseparable perhaps 
 from early colonization, and by no means into- 
 lerable in infant Provinces ; but in two grown to 
 the magnitude of either Canada, an union of both 
 would immediately lessen these evils by one- 
 
( 55 ) 
 
 half, and soon remedy their consequences, and 
 eradicate their cause. 
 
 9th. The distinction and distribution of the in- 
 habitants of Canada, with reference to descent 
 and origin, afford another argument in favour of 
 the proposed union. There exists in the Lower 
 Province a large and turbulent majority of French 
 extraction, together with a minority of British, 
 most formidable for wealth, energy, and num- 
 bers. In the Upper Province this condition is 
 inverted, to a British majority full of industry 
 and enterprise, and a very inconsiderable yet 
 peaceable French minority. The effect of the 
 present Bill would bring together the deputies of 
 both races into one and the same Assembly ; 
 where, though a decided preponderance would 
 be given to the British, the French would still 
 preserve so large and respectable a minority, as 
 to be secure from any of that oppression or 
 grievance or even neglect, to which the weaker 
 class has been hitherto exposed in either Pro- 
 vince, and which has befallen them so heavily in 
 one. True, the Act of 1792 (31 Geo. 3, c. 31,) 
 was founded on the contrary principle; and events 
 have proved with what success. That, which 
 was then foreseen by the opponents of the divi- 
 sion of Canada, has been verified by experience, 
 and may now be cited with twofold evidence by 
 the advocates of reunion. 
 
 10th. The feelings of the British inhabitants of 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 both Provinces are generally favourable to this 
 measure. In Lower Canada, the expression of 
 such a sentiment has been loud, earnest, and 
 almost universal, among that class. In the Upper 
 Province, a resolution to this effect was moved 
 and carried through the House of Assembly in 
 its last session, and though opposed by a ma- 
 jority of the Legislative Council, and many others 
 in that Colony, still their opposition is not of a 
 nature to render doubtful their ultimate acqui- 
 escence and willing obedience, to what will 
 assume a far higher authority when sanctioned 
 by the Imperial Government, and what may also 
 be expected to win by its own merits when in 
 fair operation. 
 
 11th. The last, and most cogent reason to be 
 offered, is founded on the exigency and necessity 
 of the case. The object in view is the good govern- 
 ment of both Provinces, by a free and efficient 
 British constitution. To establish this in the 
 Lower Province separately is now impracticable. 
 Parliament has declared it so; events have proved 
 it; no discreet person can doubt it. The former 
 constitution, though approved by the experience, 
 and cherished by the affections, of every other 
 British Colony, and of the minority of Lower Ca- 
 nada, was so little suited to the majority of that 
 Province, that having long perverted the power 
 granted by that constitution, they ended by re- 
 fusing any longer to administer its functions. The 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 leaders of that party having demanded a change, 
 which Parliament decided could not be granted, 
 raised, and several counties joined, the standard 
 of rebellion, to establish an independent republic. 
 The loyal minority took arms for the Crown, and 
 with its powerful assistance the insurrection has 
 been twice defeated. The loyalists now invoke the 
 Constitution, but acknowledge its impracticabi- 
 lity, except by an union with the Upper Province. 
 They do not desire an arbitrary government. 
 Their name of distinction is Constitutionalists. 
 They demand the British Colonial constitution. 
 How is the British Colonial constitution to be ad- 
 ministered in Lower Canada without an union 
 with the Upper Province ? 
 
 12th. Such a measure would make the least 
 possible change adequate to the evil and its cure. 
 The powers of the government, their distribution, 
 and exercise will remain the same under this Bill 
 as under the Act of 1792, and as under the 
 constitution of every other Colony having a legis- 
 lative assembly. The alterations proposed, whe- 
 ther relative to the union of the two legislatures, 
 or to the composition of its different branches, 
 are principally such as are well known, or substan- 
 tially analogous, to British usages and examples, 
 as well in the United Kingdom, as in its distant 
 dependancies. The union of England and Scot- 
 land, or Great Britain and Ireland, may indeed 
 be thought less pertinent to the question, — but 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 the two Canadas themselves formed originally but 
 one Province, till divided by the Crown ; — Labra- 
 dor has also been severed from the Lower Pro- 
 vince, and re-annexed to it again; and Nova 
 Scotia and the Island of Cape Breton, having been 
 divided and separately governed by distinct legis- 
 lative councils and assemblies, similarly to Upper 
 and Lower Canada, for a very considerable period, 
 have recently been re-united, and are now admi- 
 nistered under one legislature. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 The Composition of the United Legislative Council. 
 
 The two main principles of the Bill are : 1st, The 
 union of the two Provinces ; and 2dly, The estab- 
 lishment of a British Majority in the United Le- 
 gislative Assembly. The former has already been, 
 the latter is hereinafter to be discussed. The 
 present section relates to details, upon which 
 there can probably be no great difference of opi- 
 nion. The question of an elective Council has 
 been decided in the negative. The question of 
 no Legislative Council whatever has indeed been 
 moved, but was never even seconded. A council 
 nominated by the Crown, for life, or during plea- 
 sure, exists in every British colony having a legis- 
 lative assembly. Such a body is strictly analogous, 
 as nearly as circumstances permit, to our own House 
 of Lords, not only in form, authority, and creation, 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 but in usefulness also, and even in respectability, 
 and of course the analogy admits of no exception 
 in point of occasional odium and censure, which, 
 in both instances, are at times greatest when that 
 usefulness and respectability are the highest. By 
 continuing all the legislative councillors of Upper 
 Canada, and preserving to them the same func- 
 tions in the united legislature, an important body, 
 the majority of which has been hitherto opposed 
 to the union, may find some of their objections 
 removed. And it has been a principle of the Bill 
 throughout, to make as little change as possible, 
 particularly in Upper Canada. The reasons are 
 sufficiently obvious for preferring the present spe- 
 cial, to the late legislative, councillors of Lower 
 Canada. The power of the Crown to add further 
 appointments, will supply all omissions. A further 
 modification, introducing an important element 
 in the composition of this body, will be found 
 and discussed under section ninth. 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 Composition of the United House of Assembly on the 
 part of Upper Canada. 
 
 The same Number of Members , and for the same 
 Places , as ought , by the existing Laws of that 
 Province , to be returned to its present Assembly. 
 
 This provision is founded on the same reasons 
 as the last, viz., to recommend the measure to the 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 present Legislature of Upper Canada, and make 
 in that Province the least possible change ade- 
 quate to the objects of the Bill. The existing 
 House would expire so soon after, if not before, 
 the probable commencement of the Act, that a 
 new election was indispensable. 
 
 Section V 
 
 Composition of the United Assembly on the part of 
 
 Lower Canada. 
 
 The object of this clause and the three follow- 
 ing should be explicitly avowed to be nothing 
 less, than to transfer the legislative power of the 
 House of Assembly from the French to the British 
 class of inhabitants, and permanently place both 
 classes on a footing of nearly perfect equality 
 with respect to the representation of the Lower 
 Province, that they may be so in all other rights. 
 This is conceived to be both just and necessary, 
 for the following reasons. 
 
 1st. The French majority in the Lower Pro- 
 vince, after having long abused their power given 
 by the constitution, in withholding supplies not 
 for the purpose of removing any grievance against 
 the constitution, but for the purpose of abolishing 
 the constitution itself, the purpose of extorting 
 from the Crown new institutions contrary to the 
 Act of Parliament by which the Assembly was 
 created, and by which any legislation of that na^ 
 
( 61 ) 
 
 ture was expressly prohibited : — after having en- 
 deavoured for such a purpose to paralyse the 
 executive government, usurp its functions, deny 
 its undoubted rights and authority, dispute even 
 the title to property held by royal grants, arrest 
 the administration of justice, and thus dissolve 
 the very bond of order and society in the colony: 
 —the French majority in that Assembly, notwith- 
 standing the frequent appeal vainly made by the 
 Crown to their constituents, solemnly and repeat- 
 edly refused any further to administer the con- 
 stitution established by the Act of 1792, 31 Geo, 
 3, c. 31, and declared that they never would pro- 
 ceed to the consideration or dispatch of the le- 
 gislative affairs of the Province, unless their de- 
 mands were complied with for such new institu- 
 tions, as were contrary to that statute, and as 
 both Houses of Parliament had agreed in advising 
 the Crown ought not to be conceded. 
 
 2nd. The leaders of the French majority, with 
 many others of its members and constituents, 
 have thus excited such discontent and disaffection 
 among the French inhabitants, and so far aliened 
 and depraved their principles and duties, that in 
 the course of the last two years rebellions have 
 been raised and open war levied against the Crown, 
 for the avowed object of introducing a republican 
 form of government, and establishing the inde- 
 pendence of Lower Canada. 
 
 3rd. Though, therefore, the whole French ma- 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 jority have thus abdicated, and rendered imprac- 
 ticable by their means the constitution of 1792, 
 and a great number of that majority have forfeited 
 not only that but every other law ; yet the Bri- 
 tish inhabitants, who have ever supported and 
 now gallantly fought for that constitution, ought 
 not to be deprived of its privileges; nor even 
 should the innocent of the French inhabitants be 
 excluded from its protection. 
 
 4th. The only way to meet this exigency is, 
 to invite the British population to administer 
 those legislative powers, which they desire, and 
 have ever cherished, and will usefully apply, and 
 which the French have abandoned and betrayed. 
 Yet this measure should be a moderate and even 
 a generous one. The French should still have a 
 share and an ample one in the representation. 
 Though they long oppressed the British minority, 
 the British minority should not have the power, 
 as indeed they cannot have the interest or desire, 
 to become in their turn the oppressors of the 
 French. Let the two races be put upon a per- 
 manent equality, but with a temporary superi- 
 ority in favour of the British, in the representa- 
 tion of Lower Canada. The French will still 
 by their large minority in the United Assembly 
 have ample power to defend themselves from any 
 wrong or even from any contumely ; which also 
 the royal prerogative will have the means to 
 forbid, and no disposition to allow. That class 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 will only forego the power of disturbing the coun- 
 try and preventing its settlement; a power, which 
 ministered but to the idle vanity of their leaders, 
 and was most pernicious to every one else. 
 
 Such being the object — what are the means 
 proposed? The whole number of members in 
 Upper Canada is sixty- two. The Lower Province 
 at present has about ninety. Assume that each 
 Province should return either an equal number, or 
 a number proportionate to the population of each, 
 and it will be necessary, in Lower Canada, to 
 recast the electoral districts at present established. 
 This may be so done that those settled by British 
 inhabitants shall return a number of members 
 equal to the French, and at the same time with- 
 out altering any boundary of either county or 
 town, and without disfranchising any, leaving the 
 unfairness of the existing division of counties, 
 so extremely unfavourable to the British popula- 
 tion, to be remedied in another way by a subse- 
 quent provision in the seventh section. The Bill, 
 therefore, re-enacts the 14th section of the act 
 of 31 Geo. 3, c. 31, but with numerous restric- 
 tions. The electoral districts are to be composed 
 of the existing counties and towns, or circles of 
 the same. No county to return more members 
 than at present — no town less — no town more 
 than two, except Quebec and Montreal, which 
 are to return the same number as now. Every 
 county to have at least one member, or to belong 
 
to a circle of counties returning more than one. 
 No circle of- counties to return more than such 
 counties clo at present. No town or circle of 
 towns to return a member unless the number of 
 votes there exceed two hundred. 
 
 A House thus constituted and elected would 
 be perfectly free, and would more nearly resem- 
 ble our own Commons in point of constituency 
 and franchise, than does the existing Assembly 
 of the, Province. The .influence of the Crown in 
 colonial elections is nothing. And an equal dis- 
 tribution of members according to population has 
 been ever less regarded in British institutions, 
 thandhe selection of well-informed and well-af- 
 fected constituencies. 
 
 Section VI. 
 
 The Qualification of Electors. 
 
 ) n The changes here introduced are not very ex- 
 tensive) | in their operation, and are principally 
 borrowed from the English Reform Act. The 
 suffrage for counties is given to the 40,?. free- 
 holders and holders by certificate, the 10/. tenants 
 in fief and in roture, the 10/. holders for the resi- 
 due of a term of twenty years, and the 20/. yearly 
 renters* „ By this two new classes, the two last, 
 are added to the constituency, and the qualifica- 
 tion of the tenants in fief and in roture is raised 
 from 40s. to 10/. This, as far as regards tenants 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 in fief, will be wholly inoperative, and as respects 
 tenants in roture they will be placed on the 
 same footing as copyholders in England, to whose 
 tenure they bear most resemblance. Still the 
 great objects of this change are far higher in in- 
 terest and policy, first, to diminish the French 
 and add to the English voters in the constitu- 
 encies ; and, secondly, at the same time impose 
 some disadvantage on a tenure which more than 
 any thing prevents the settlement of the country 
 by British emigrants ; and as that tenure may at 
 any time be converted into free and common so- 
 cage, that disadvantage will in some measure be 
 voluntary. Whenever the French are induced 
 from such or any other consideration to resort to 
 that conversion, the British will lose less in po- 
 litical power this way, than they will gain or 
 compensate by having the whole province thrown 
 open to their settlement. 
 
 For the same reasons, in the qualification of 
 voters for towns, instead of continuing the fran- 
 chise in the proprietors of houses in whatever 
 tenure of the value of 51. yearly, and tenants at 
 the rent of 10/. as at present, the freeholders of 
 land as well as houses of the value of 51. a year, 
 tenants in fief and roture of the value of 10/., 
 termors of a residue of twenty years, in whatever 
 tenure, of the value of 10/., and yearly renters of 
 houses as well as land together of the value of 
 10/„ are endowed with the right of voting, and as 
 
 F 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 many partners in such terms are to be electors as 
 there may be multiples of 10/. in the value. 
 The last provision is in abrogation of a provincial 
 law carried by the French to defeat the British 
 constituents in Quebec and Montreal, for each of 
 which, in one division at least, British members 
 would else have been returned. 
 
 Section VII. 
 
 Power to give one Member to the Freeholders , and 
 one to the Censitaires, separately, in any County 
 having above 200 Voters of each class. 
 
 By the existing division of counties in Lower 
 Canada, the freeholders or British voters have 
 been so united to or included within districts 
 having a majority of censitaires or French voters, 
 that the influence of the former has in several in- 
 stances been entirely annihilated. For remedy of 
 this a new division of counties has been elsewhere 
 suggested, but as the only object of that would be 
 to give more members to the British population, 
 the object had perhaps be better effected directly 
 than by an obliquity, which would also involve 
 much inconvenience in other respects. It will of 
 course be objected, that this is a new institution, 
 and unfair to the French voters ; but, be it ever re- 
 membered, the circumstances are extraordinary, 
 and the exigency most urgent ; and the avowed 
 principle of the Bill being to place both classes 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 of the Colony on an equal footing in the repre- 
 sentation, if the end be admitted the means ought 
 not to be rejected for their novelty, and cannot be 
 accused of unfairness. The immediate operation 
 of the measure would apply only to three or four 
 counties. British constituencies must be found 
 for British members, and why should it be more 
 objectionable to select them thus as a class out 
 of counties, than take them collectively in towns ? 
 This clause also will prove a further inducement 
 for the French seigniors and censitaires to agree 
 in converting their tenures. 
 
 Section VIII. 
 
 Power to suspend Writs for Elections in the District 
 of Montreal, and issue such Writs to any other 
 County or Town in the Province having 200 
 Voters. 
 
 If in England a place may be deprived of the 
 franchise for bribery and corruption, why may not 
 the franchise be suspended in Canada for treason 
 and rebellion ? It is a less violent measure than 
 to diminish the number of representatives for the 
 French population, and rests for expediency and 
 justice upon the same reasons hereinbefore given 
 for the principle of the Bill. The result of this, 
 coupled with the following, fifteenth, clause may 
 indeed be to give to the British colonists a tem- 
 
 f 2 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 porary majority in the representation of Lower 
 Canada for five years, or during two parliaments ; 
 a period, which cannot be accounted long, con- 
 sidering that for several years past the French 
 have done their utmost to destroy, and the British 
 to preserve, her Majesty’s government and the 
 constitution of the Colony. 
 
 The Governor can select no town or township, 
 nor compose any circle of them, containing 200 
 electors, in which his personal and official in- 
 fluence combined, or all the power of the crown 
 added, could determine the election of a single 
 niember. Wherever made, the choice of the people 
 will be perfectly free from the influence of go- 
 vernment. The only power given it by this Bill 
 will be to decide, for a time, in a single district, 
 between a disaffected and a loyal constituency. 
 Has the peace and good government of the Colony 
 any thing to fear from such a power ? It may 
 not be necessary to exercise it, but in launching 
 a new constitution like the present, it seems es- 
 sential for its self-preservation that it should 
 contain within itself the means of withstanding a 
 scarcely yet extinguished insurrection. The re- 
 storing an insurgent population, that has scarcely 
 yet laid down arms, to a share in the representa- 
 tion 'proportionate to numbers, would be neither 
 just to the loyal inhabitants, nor safe for the peace 
 and welfare of the Colony, nor even compatible 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 with the administration of a government thus 
 constituted. 
 
 Section IX. 
 
 Two Members of the Legislative Council, and Two 
 Members of the Assembly, to be in the Executive 
 Council ; and Five Members of the Assembly to 
 be transferred to the Legislative Council for each 
 Session. 
 
 The former of these provisions is certainly a 
 limitation of the prerogative, but of a nature alike 
 useful to the government and the governed, as 
 the experience of all Colonial administrations 
 may attest, and as the recent practice of the 
 Colonial department seems to evince. It would 
 perhaps be better, if this were understood in 
 usage, as at home, rather than declared by any 
 statute ; — but on the occasion of settling the con- 
 stitution of a great Colony, this would appear for- 
 gotten, if passed without notice; and as the ad- 
 vantages of the measure are so many and obvious, 
 that its adoption in practice can scarce be avoided, 
 such an insertion in the Bill would be no great 
 restriction upon the Crown, and far more satis- 
 factory to the Colonists. The measure would not 
 then be more necessary by law, than now by cir- 
 cumstances. Besides it may thus be accepted as 
 an act of concession or conciliation to the many 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 complaints made by almost all parties against 
 the present composition of Executive Councils; 
 and further, as something in the nature of an 
 equivalent for the provision following in this and 
 the two next sections. 
 
 The power, to be vested in the Governor, of 
 transferring as many as five members of the As- 
 sembly to the Legislative Council for each ses- 
 sion, presents many and important considerations. 
 
 1st. It places in the hands of the executive a 
 check, long desiderated in every popular assem- 
 bly, upon the overweening influence of their 
 favourites or leaders; who may be thus trans- 
 ferred from the place where their authority is dan- 
 gerous, and added to a body in which this infusion 
 may be not only innoxious, but even salutary. 
 
 2nd. It meets, to a certain extent, and con- 
 ciliates the wishes of those who desire that the 
 Legislative Council should be elective ; while at 
 the same time the power of nomination by the 
 Crown is nothing impaired. Both principles are 
 reconciled; the objects of both attained; and there 
 results from the combination, a third consequence, 
 more important than either. 
 
 3rd. In conjunction with the former provision 
 in this section, and the provisions in the two sec- 
 tions succeeding, this measure will effect that 
 communication and interchange of influences and 
 mutual checks among the three branches of the 
 
( 71 ) 
 
 Legislature, so generally received in the theory, 
 and so necessarily, though often indirectly, ad- 
 mitted in the practice of every mixed govern- 
 ment. The aristocratic branch will be made more 
 popular; the popular more monarchical; and the 
 monarchical more aristocratic and more popular. 
 
 4th. In most governments, whether democrati- 
 cal or mixed, ancient or modern, examples may 
 be found, either of the existence of such an execu- 
 tive control, or of attempts to supply its absence, 
 or of fatal consequences from its want. Though 
 it would be most interesting and instructive to 
 investigate such instances further, two only need 
 be here referred to. The compulsory “ absorption ” 
 of the French Constitution in 1799, rejected in- 
 deed by that people in the commencement, but 
 welcomed at the close, of its republican experi- 
 ments; and, secondly, the voluntary operation of 
 a similar device, in this country, by the peerage ; 
 which perhaps has by no means been the least 
 advantageous to the public and government in 
 those cases, where the individual thus elevated 
 has dashed the patent to the floor, or inquired 
 vainly at the Herald’s College for the means of 
 renouncing an empty honour, which short-sighted 
 ambition had acquired by the sacrifice of real 
 power. 
 
 5th. The expedient here proposed will be far 
 more moderate in degree, and more adequate in 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 effect, than any elsewhere used, for an evil every 
 where felt. The peerage with us is strictly ana- 
 logous, except in respects where its operation is, 
 for this purpose, less convenient, viz. the perma- 
 nency of the rights and privileges thereby re- 
 ceived, and the consent required of the receiver. 
 
 6th. Neither the interest, nor the authority, 
 nor even the vanity of the people, are to be grati- 
 fied by the overweening influence of a demagogue, 
 whose dupes they are sure to become without, or 
 whose victims with, a revolution. Yet the crea- 
 tion of such an influence is a necssary evil of po- 
 pular and elective assemblies. Some provision, 
 however, may be made for mitigating or remedy- 
 ing what can never be prevented. The present 
 suggestion, besides effecting that, has collateral 
 advantages. It gives the people a new influence 
 in the Upper Chamber of the Legislature; infringes 
 no right ; and lessens no authority, but that of de- 
 magogues alone ; nor theirs, but where dangerous 
 to society, and even injurious to themselves, unless 
 they love their own power better than their 
 country’s safety and improvement. 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 Section X. 
 
 Tw° Law Officers of the Crown , viz. the Attorney 
 and Solicitor General, of Upper or Lower Canada, 
 or Two Members of the Executive Council, to be 
 appointed by the Governor, to have Seats and vote 
 as members of the United Assembly . 
 
 No evil in the present colonial constitution is 
 of greater inconvenience, than the want of an 
 organ for the executive to be heard in the House 
 of Assembly. The Attorney and Solicitor Gene- 
 ral commonly are, and always should be, persons 
 of character for talent, acquirements, and inte- 
 grity, the first in the colony. Their presence in 
 the Assembly will be of no less advantage to the 
 public, than assistance to the executive. The 
 increase to the power of the crown by placing two 
 ex officio members among 124 or 135, elected 
 without a shade of any such influence, though of 
 course an objection, scarce needs an answer, when 
 compared with such countervailing advantages, 
 and the more than equivalent compensation of 
 the preceding section. The authority of these 
 law officers however might become too great, but 
 for the provision of substituting in their stead any 
 two executive councillors. When the power of 
 publicly debating was taken from the legislative 
 body in France and vested in the tribunate and 
 the executive, a most refined analysis of the au- 
 thority of government was exhibited, which, had 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 not the personal rather than the legal influence 
 of that executive deprived the tribunate of the 
 means of sustaining itself, might have proved 
 better suited to that country than has any other 
 constitution. But accidents only, in a manner un- 
 foreseen, and by consequences never considered, 
 have deprived the colonial executive of this au- 
 thority ; which is peculiarly suited to British insti- 
 tutions, feelings, and habits ; and which it is the 
 object of the present Bill to restore. 
 
 Section XI. 
 
 Two Members of the Legislative Council to be ap- 
 pointed by that Body to have Seats and vote as 
 Members of the United Assembly. 
 
 The intention of this and the preceding section 
 is not to constitute a colonial ministry in the As- 
 sembly, but to create therein for the other two 
 branches of the legislative the means of commu- 
 nication, an organ of explanation, and that mo- 
 derate influence and check, so far at least as can 
 be effected by the opinions and abilities of these 
 four members. The effect of their votes may 
 probably be unimportant, but their voices may 
 have a most useful impression upon the delibera- 
 tions of the Assembly, or on the public opinion of 
 its constituents. The influence of debating, great 
 by its own nature, has been vastly increased and 
 extended by education and the press. Of this 
 source of influence the executive may by the pre- 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 sent colonial constitution be entirely deprived ; 
 and the legislative council is reduced to defend 
 itself and its measures, in one place, against com- 
 plaints made in another ; and the people judge of 
 parties, one of whom is unheard, the other unan- 
 swered. This and the preceding section will be- 
 stow on these two branches of the legislature an 
 opportunity of being heard, where they are sure 
 to be arraigned, in the third, the Assembly. The 
 opponents of government, who will always be 
 found there, will be met and answered in their 
 own arena, and with their own weapons, the power 
 of debate, and the influence of the press. The 
 public will be enlightened, and truth and reason 
 prevail. 
 
 Section XII. 
 
 The Legislative Council to consist of not less than 
 Thirty Members, of whom Ten to form a Quorum. 
 The Assembly to consist of not more than 135 
 Members, of whom Twenty to form a Quorum. 
 Neither body to adjourn itself for longer than 
 Two Days at a time during any Session. 
 
 The limitations as to the whole number of 
 members in the two branches, and the quorum 
 of each, are such as seem requisite, no less for the 
 convenient dispatch of business, than for the pro- 
 per restriction and balance of powers in a mixed 
 legislature. In a body exceeding thirty, and 
 
( 76 ) 
 
 which will probably amount to forty or fifty 
 members/ appointed for their lives, the personal 
 influence of the executive would soon cease to be 
 unduly felt, while their authority over public 
 opinion would proportionately increase. On the 
 other hand a popular assembly is generally found 
 to be turbulent, precipitate and unreasonable, 
 accordingly as its numbers exceed a certain 
 amount. The specification of the quorum in each 
 body is to ensure the protection of the minority, the 
 due attendance of members, and their attention 
 to business. The prohibition of adjournment for 
 longer than two days has the same effect. The 
 late Assembly of Lower Canada having fixed its 
 own quorum at so high a number as forty, equal 
 to the quorum of the House of Commons of 625 
 members, was enabled to effect its fatal resolution 
 of transacting no public business, and even to 
 insult the government with threats of permitting 
 no session to be held. 
 
 Section XIII. 
 
 Qualification required for Members of the Legislative 
 Council and Assembly , viz. for the former, an 
 Estate for not less than Twenty Years in 1000 
 Acres of Land, free from Incumbrance, or Real 
 and Personal Property together worth 4000/. ; for 
 the latter the like Estate in 500 acres of Land or 
 2000 /. 
 
 As legislative councillors have their seats for 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 life, their qualification is required to exist only at 
 the time of their appointment. The crown may 
 be trusted with the care of guarding against a fic- 
 titious qualification, and where that has once 
 existed, the permanence of the tenure ought not 
 to be affected by the instability of fortune. In 
 the Assembly, the members are chosen for four 
 years only, and therefore the continuance of their 
 qualification may be required less inconveniently, 
 in order so far to prevent its fictitious commence- 
 ment. 
 
 Section XIV. 
 
 Power to hold Sessions of the United Legislature in 
 either Province, or in each alternately. 
 
 This is designed to propitiate the local preju- 
 dices or preference of the people of Upper Canada, 
 who, it is to be hoped, will soon acknowledge the 
 inconvenience of a shifting seat of the legislative 
 government, and agree to fix the capital of both 
 Provinces permanently at Montreal. 
 
 Section XV. 
 
 Limits to Five Years the Power given by Section 
 Eighth to the Governor of suspending Writs in the 
 District of Montreal. 
 
 This has been already commented upon in the 
 note to section 8. 
 
( 78 ) 
 
 Section XVI. 
 
 During the continuance of the Power to suspend 
 Writs in the Distinct of Montreal, a negative 
 is given to the Members from Upper Canada 
 in the United Assembly, upon any Act relating to 
 that Province exclusively, or imposing or altering 
 any Tax, or Duty levied therein on Inland Im- 
 ports fi'om a Foreign Country, or Repealing or 
 Altering any Law of that Colony. 
 
 Another guarantee for the safety of Upper 
 Canada ; and after the miserable state to which 
 the French majority have brought the Lower Pro- 
 vince, too many securities can scarce be required 
 that an union with the Upper shall in no manner 
 compromise its peace and prosperity. The continu- 
 ance of this negative is made to depend upon the 
 power of suspending writs, because the duration 
 of that too depends upon the United Legislature, 
 and will not probably be discontinued till the 
 tranquillity of the disturbed districts, and the con- 
 solidation of the union, shall have rendered this 
 negative also no longer requisite. 
 
 Section XVII. 
 
 Powers of Impeachment. 
 
 A defect, acknowledged by all parties, and all 
 persons in colonial institutions hitherto, has been 
 the want of a more defined and expressly regu- 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 lated power of impeaching the public officers of 
 the Colony, for the illegal administration of their 
 duties. The consequence has been, that some- 
 times the accused have found entire impunity, at 
 other times the accusers have usurped also the 
 power of judges, and the innocent have been sa- 
 crificed through the weakness of the executive. 
 The Colonial Department has nearly lost or aban- 
 doned the power of defending the guiltless, and 
 should never possess means of screening the 
 guilty. For the sake of public servants there- 
 fore in the Colonies, no less than for the purity 
 of their employments, an independent tribunal 
 should be established, to which all such causes 
 of complaint may be referred, where crime may 
 meet with justice, and integrity with protection. 
 For this purpose it is here suggested, that the 
 Assembly may impeach any officer subordinate 
 to and appointed by the Governor, for any high 
 crime or misdemeanor relating to the duties of 
 such office ; but as such impeachment may ori- 
 ginate or be carried from party intemperance, a 
 majority of twelve is required, upon analogy to 
 the common law principle of grand juries, the 
 other votes being here considered as neutralized 
 by their equality ; and the accused is first to be 
 heard if he desire it. The articles of impeach- 
 ment are to be presented at the bar of the Legis- 
 lative Council, who will nominate a High Com- 
 mittee of twenty- two members, from which five 
 
( 80 ) 
 
 are to be struck offi by the accused, and five by 
 the Assembly, .and the .remaining twelve, together 
 with a President, to be appointed by the Go- 
 vernor, are to try, record, and report upon the 
 charge, to the Governor, for her Majesty in 
 Council. The whole proceedings ai’e then to be 
 transmitted, and referred to the judicial com- 
 mittee , of the Privy Council, according to the 
 statute. 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 41, to be finally exa- 
 mined and; determined by that body. This 
 course combines the advantage of a trial in the 
 colony, with the right of appeal to the Crown in 
 Council, a right allowed where property of any 
 considerable amount is concerned, and in pro- 
 ceedings of this character more peculiarly re- 
 quisite, for the satisfaction of both accusers and 
 the accused, A provision follows, copied from 
 the Bill of Rights, that no pardon shall be plead- 
 able in bar of such an impeachment. 
 
 Sect. XVIII. 
 
 The Revenues of both Provinces united and sub- 
 jected to the Debts of either . 
 
 The debt incurred by Upper Canada for its 
 canals ,and other improvements of communica- 
 tion, seems scarcely less for the common benefit 
 of Lower Canada, than of any part of the Upper 
 beyond the immediate neighbourhood of these 
 improvements; some of the most expensive of 
 
( «1 ) 
 
 which are on the confines of the two Provinces, 
 and nearer a latger population of the Lower than 
 of the Upper. Besides, the main object of the 
 Bill being an union, all causes likely to disturb 
 or embarrass it should be carefully provided for, 
 and none would be more likely than separate 
 debts and distinct revenues. Indeed the diffi- 
 culties resulting from the latter 1 have proved one 
 of the chief reasons that render an union ne- 
 cessary. The interest on the debt of Upper 
 Canada now amounts to about 40,000/. per annum ; 
 but as the capital has been chiefly expended 
 upon objects, which, it is believed, will eventually 
 not only repay both principal and interest, but 
 produce a considerable revenue besides, the bur- 
 then upon the revenues of Lower Canada will be 
 temporary, and may result in ultimate advantage, 
 in point of finance, as the outlay immediately and 
 certainly will in promoting industry and com- 
 merce. 
 
 Section XIX. 
 
 Provisions for the Settlement of the Civil List of 
 
 Lower Canada . 
 
 The immediate instrument of the French ma- 
 jority, in destroying the late constitution of Lower 
 Canada, was the refusal to provide for the Pro- 
 vincial Civil Government. By practice no less 
 than in theory also, an essential part of the Bri 
 
 G 
 
( 82 ) 
 
 tish constitution is, that such a provision as is 
 necessary for the keeping up the bond of society, 
 by the civil administration of its laws, should be 
 placed beyond the reach of differences between 
 the several branches of the legislature. Indeed, 
 without such a provision, a mixed government 
 of several branches were an impracticable chi- 
 mera. In the United Kingdom, certain per- 
 petual and hereditary revenues have immemo- 
 rially been assigned to the Crown for that 
 purpose, and are now always surrendered at the 
 commencement of each reign, in exchange for a 
 parliamentary grant of a civil list during the 
 monarch’s life. In the Colonies also certain re- 
 venues in a similar manner belong to the Crown, 
 some by the Common Law, and others by Act of 
 Parliament, the appropriation of which revenues 
 is exclusively a prerogative right. These ought 
 therefore, by the justest analogy, to be surren- 
 dered on every change of succession, and com- 
 muted for a Colonial Civil List during the reign. 
 In this the constitutional point of view, little 
 importance belongs to the question, whether the 
 amount of these prerogative revenues be greater 
 or less than that of the Civil List to be granted. 
 In some of our Colonies it is greater, as in New 
 Brunswick ; yet the Crown has not therefore 
 either refused to make such a commutation, or 
 demanded a larger supply, than the fair support 
 of its necessary officers justly required. In the 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 case of Lower Canada, the prerogative revenues 
 are undoubtedly at the moment less than the 
 Civil List would demand. But these may not 
 improbably be much increased, when the mineral 
 sources of productiveness come to be explored ; 
 and even at the present, the difference is not so 
 great, as to merit on either part any thing like 
 standing out for a bargain. 
 
 But the present Bill does nothing to enforce 
 the settlement of the Civil List question. Only 
 the way is opened, impediments are removed, 
 and the principle is declared. The adoption is 
 confided to the united legislature. For induce- 
 ments to their consent, every source of revenue, 
 either in the Crown by prerogative and by pro- 
 perty, or created by pre-existing statutes, all of 
 which are enumerated in the preamble, is offered 
 to the Assembly, on condition of granting an 
 adequate supply for the civil government, either 
 permanently, or during each successive reign. 
 Of course the surrender is to continue in opera- 
 tion so long only as the grant for the Civil List 
 shall continue. Though that term may by the 
 Bill be either perpetual, or for the life of each 
 sovereign successively, and though her Majesty’s 
 Government have in other Colonies proposed as 
 a third alternative, a period of ten years certain, 
 there are some urgent reasons for preferring a 
 grant for the sovereign’s life to either of the 
 other two. 
 
 g 2 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 1st. A permanent Civil List must necessarily 
 become ill adapted to the condition of a Colony, 
 whose population is doubled every twenty years, 
 and whose circumstances in other respects are 
 changed no less within even shorter periods. 
 Some offices would in time become useless, and 
 others of a different nature be required. The 
 former might be turned into sinecures, the latter 
 be either, unprovided for, or made dependant on 
 the uncertainty of an annual vote. 
 
 2nd. A Civil List for a term of ten years 
 would , indeed , avoid these objections, but would 
 be liable, to others no less inconvenient. The 
 period being shorter than the average duration of 
 a reign, less certainty and security would be 
 afforded to the establishment and support of the 
 Government, The question of the principle and 
 details of the grant would be a recurring theme 
 of discussion, after too short an interval. Every 
 other House of Assembly elected for four years 
 only would be called to decide upon this sup- 
 ply: and the time of that decision being exactly 
 foreseen, would be anticipated by the intrigues 
 and. cabals of a faction, which must always 
 exist in the Colonies, as well as in the United 
 Kingdom, being the necessary consequence of a 
 representative Assembly; a faction, whose duty is 
 to watch and check the executive, but whose 
 employment will ever be abused to assail the 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 power, embarrass the administration, and inveigh 
 against the officers, of the crown. 
 
 3rd. The life of the sovereign seems, there- 
 fore, the most advisable period for the grant of a 
 Civil List. The uncertain duration of that term 
 gives it the effect of a permanence beyond the 
 average length of reighs. The termination not 
 being foreseen cannot be anticipated t! by intrigue 
 or cabal. The accession of a new monarch is an 
 epoch most favourable for renewing the 1 grant! 
 The demise of one sovereign, and the succession 
 of another, and commonly a younger and more 
 popular prince, renews and reinvigorates • in the 
 people a feeling of loyalty and duty, by some of 
 the profoundest principles and sympathies, as well 
 as the most interesting events and pageants', be- 
 longing to the social system; the impersonation 
 of which in a single individual, never perhaps ex- 
 cites more the attachment of the whole commu- 
 nity, nor combines more vividly the abstractions 
 of allegiance with the existence of their represen- 
 tative. Besides, as there belongs to the preroga- 
 tive revenues surrendered, no less than to all 
 other rights of the crown, something of a personal 
 as well as a political character, it is perhaps 
 rather preferable that no monarch should bind 
 his successor by any arrangement for commuta- 
 tion. 
 
 4th. And lastly, a Civil List for the sovereign’s 
 life is more consistent with the constitution and 
 
( 86 ) 
 
 usage of the mother country, whose institutions 
 would ever be most imperfectly copied, and often 
 most perversely applied, unless also the manner 
 and spirit with which they are administered be 
 at the same time transferred and maintained. 
 
 The latter part of this section repeals so much 
 of the statute 3 Geo. IV. c. 116, as prevents the 
 legislature of the Lower Province from repealing 
 or altering any of the duties mentioned in that 
 act, or imposing any that may affect the Upper 
 Province. A provision made necessary by the 
 division, but superseded by the re-union, of the 
 two Canadas. 
 
 Section XX. 
 
 Makes Provision for a similar Civil List, on the ex- 
 piration of the present in Upper Canada . 
 
 Section XXL 
 
 Merely expresses, that on the Expiration of such 
 Civil List, the Crown is to revert to all its former 
 Rights, and the Revenues so surrendered are to he 
 appropriated as heretofore 5 
 
( 87 ) 
 
 Section XXII. 
 
 7 he Grant for the Civil List may be, either in a 
 gross Smn, or by distinct Items of Appropriation 
 for each separate Salary or Service ; but in the 
 latter case the Legislative Council to have a sepa- 
 rate and distinct decision on each Item. 
 
 This is a provision for the settlement of a con- 
 stitutional question long agitated in Lower 
 Canada, and in other colonies, and here placed 
 upon a basis of conciliation, reasonable in itself, 
 and consistent with parliamentary principles and 
 practice. By the 1 Will. IV c.25, the Civil List, 
 so far as granted to support the personal dignity 
 and household of the sovereign, is voted in one 
 gross sum ; but so far as made for the support of 
 the civil officers of government, the grants by the 
 2&3 Will. IV c. 116, are distinctly appropriated 
 by distinct items for separate salaries and services. 
 There exists no reason why the Civil List in the 
 Colonies should not be granted in a similar 
 manner. Its permanent nature will admit little 
 influence from personal feeling for or against any 
 officer of the crown ; motives, which render an 
 annual grant so objectionable. And the nega- 
 tive of the Legislative Council, being preserved 
 according to Colonial usage, to be exercised dis- 
 tinctly upon each item of the grant, no control 
 by the legislature over the expenditure of the 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 executive can be more effectual, or ought to be 
 more satisfactory to all parties. 
 
 Section XXIII.' 
 
 That after such a Settlement of the Civil List the 
 Judges ,sh all hold Office for , Life. 
 
 Another i provision taken -from* the Bill j of 
 Rights.-: This also will be*an additional induce- 
 ment for i passing the Civil List, and will be a 
 most * satisfactory one f to >ithe > Colonies, whose 
 rights and, liberties sneed but this security to be 
 established > on I tthe same foundation as in the 
 mother i country. > There are, however, undoubt- 
 edly some evils resulting from the independence 
 ofu the Judges, i which are < already felt in this 
 country also, but which are at present unacknow- 
 ledged, and whenever discussed will probably be 
 found more tolerable than those of ,the other al- 
 ternative. Perhaps the French system of mak- 
 ing their -judicature irresponsible, indeed, to the 
 government, but responsible to -every ■ suitor' of 
 the community, by giving each an action against 
 the judge Tor any (wrong decision, might, with 
 certain limitations of costs, and indemnity against 
 vexatious or unsuccessful suits, be > made the 
 most, efficient means of deterring. -incompetent 
 persons (from accepting or continuing in that 
 office, and of enforcing care, patience, study, and 
 equanimity upon such ras are competent. But 
 
( 89 ) 
 
 this latter speculation is somewhat foreign to the 
 immediate purpose. 
 
 Section XXIV. 
 
 Of the Clergy Reserves. 
 
 Here is a question so full of difficulties, that 
 perhaps no one has considered it without wishing 
 heartily there were no such property to cause 
 them. And truly, if the number and importance 
 of the perplexities besetting a subject were suf- 
 ficient reasons to decline legislating upon it, not 
 only this clause, but the whole Bill would be left 
 to the consequences its abandonment may pro* 
 duce. But of what use then is a government, or 
 why do ministers or parliament take upon them- 
 selves the destinies of a great empire, if they 
 want either the courage to grapple with, or the 
 ability to compose, the embarrassments of a single 
 colony ? 
 
 In a light purely political, and abstracted from 
 any theological views, few persons can consider 
 the question, whether, in a well regulated society, 
 any provision should be made for religious in- 
 struction ? — and resolve to exclude from their sys- 
 tem, or abandon to accident, one of the most 
 profound, agitating, and universal, principles of 
 human conduct. Neither the duty nor the policy 
 of a government can leave religion to voluntary 
 guidance and support. Nor is there any example 
 
( 90 ) 
 
 of such institutions, except perhaps in some por- 
 tion of the United States, where the experiment 
 has been too brief, and the success too ambiguous, 
 for discrediting the test of all other history, and 
 the conclusions deducible from the character of 
 mankind. 
 
 The next step is, no doubt, to desire, and if 
 possible to effect, the entire singleness of reli- 
 gious opinions and observances ; because, by this, 
 a strict bond of political union is substituted for 
 the most implacable, bitter, and general cause of 
 dissension ; and the religious and moral instruc- 
 tion of the people may also thus be more effec- 
 tually and economically conducted. This object, 
 however, as all history informs us, is either un- 
 attainable, or to be approached only by means 
 infinitely more objectionable than their end is 
 desirable. The force of circumstances and events 
 has, indeed, exhibited in our own country the 
 experiment of a middle course of policy, — 'the 
 establishment of a Protestant Church with the 
 toleration of dissent. This system must neces- 
 sarily be ever in danger of failing, for want of the 
 means of self-preservation ; means, which indeed 
 were once supplied by the exclusion of all adver- 
 saries from political power, but which, even in 
 that mitigated form, were too severe a penalty 
 for either the temper of the church they estab- 
 lished, or the character of the people they con- 
 cerned. The permanence, therefore, of such an 
 
( 91 ) 
 
 establishment must now depend entirely upon the 
 voluntary adherence of its members: and as long 
 as they continue most numerous, its wealth also 
 contributes to uphold it ; but wherever numbers 
 shall have turned against it, its wealth too appears 
 changeable to spoil, exciting invasion, and accele- 
 rating dissolution. 
 
 There remains but one resource. To retreat 
 from the attempted union of religious opinions and 
 observances, attempted hitherto too minutely to 
 be attainable, and retire upon some abstraction, 
 which shall embrace the whole variety of sects, 
 and making the establishment consist of a para- 
 mount principle, leave its combination with rites 
 and less important doctrines to the voluntary 
 adoption of the community; taking care only so 
 to enlighten their teachers by education, and at- 
 tach them to the government by protection and 
 provision, that there shall be the least possible 
 danger of society’s being corrupted in its morals, 
 or embarrassed in the administration of its affairs. 
 This principle must of course be the Christian 
 faith, of which, upon all points essential in a 
 political view at least, all sects are agreed. Let 
 government then, instead of vainly endeavouring 
 to impose its favorite modes of worship on the 
 people, take those of the people on itself. Let 
 the ministers of all persuasions come within the 
 pale and provision of the colonial establishment. 
 Their office is so useful to the community, and 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 their influence so general, that neither ought the 
 former to be left wire numerated, nor the latter 
 unregarded, by the government. 
 
 These considerations afe, of course, here sug- 
 gested with reference only to the Canadas, and 
 form the preliminary reasons for the present clause. 
 The 36th, 37th, and 38th sections of the Constitu- 
 tional Act'of 1791, 31 Geo. 3, c. 31, so far recog- 
 nized and acted upon such principles, that not only 
 the clergy of the Church of England, but of the 
 Church of Scotland also, as has been decided, 
 and, as is contended with scarce less reason, the 
 clergy of other Protestant denominations, are ad- 
 missible 1 to the profits of the reserves in question. 
 The Catholic clergy, however, were clearly ex- 
 cluded. For that exclusion there existed reasons 
 then, which now do not apply. The Catholic 
 Church in Lower Canada was amply endowed, 
 having, besides other resourses, above two mil- 
 lions of acres of land. In Upper Canada few 
 Catholics then resided, and their increase was 
 either not foreseen, or not to be anticipated and 
 invited by any such provision. At present they 
 are numerous, powerful, and well affected, and 
 for their services in the late piratical invasions, 
 have added to every other claim, that of grati- 
 tude, upon the government and the empire. That 
 clause of exclusion, therefore, is proposed to be 
 repealed. 
 
 There are in Upper Canada fifty-six rectories 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 of the Church of England, twenty-five clergymen 
 of the Church of Scotland, twelve of the United 
 Synod of that Province, thirty of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Church, and perhaps as many, if not more, 
 of the Methodist connexion, and scarcely fewer 
 of the Baptists. 
 
 The division of the Clergy Reserves, as pro- 
 posed by the present Bill, among all these deno- 
 minations is, not less than one-fifth to the Church 
 of England ; not more than one-fifth to the Church 
 of Scotland ; not more than one-fifth to the 
 Methodists; not more than one-fifth to all other 
 denominations of Protestants; and not more than 
 one-fifth to the secular clergy of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Church. This may not be exactly accord- 
 ing to the relative numbers, but the inequality, if 
 very objectionable, is less important ; as the 
 measure is not enforced upon, but left to the 
 future deliberation and decision of, the united 
 legislature. The main object of the clause is to 
 declare the constitutional principle, leaving its 
 application to the Provincial Parliament. Yet, 
 in any future apportionment of this division, the 
 example of the present statute would, no doubt, 
 have great authority. The designation of the indivi- 
 dual clergyman in any of these denominations, who 
 is to enjoy the endowment, must of course rest 
 in the hands of government. Such appointments, 
 however, should be made for life, because thus 
 their influence is sufficient for the government. 
 
( 94 ) 
 
 most honourable for the individual, and salutary 
 for society. Of all ties, none is so effectual, per- 
 manent, and universal, as gratitude. 
 
 Section XXV. 
 
 The Act to commence from after being 'proclaimed by 
 the Governor in Canada. 
 
 Section XXVI. 
 
 All Powers, Rights, Restrictions, Limitations, and 
 Conditions of all other Acts relative to the Separate 
 Legislatures applied to the United hereby consti- 
 tuted. 
 
 Section XXVII. 
 
 The present separate Legislatures may make tempo- 
 rary Laws until the Meeting of the first United 
 Legislature after the Commencement of this Act. 
 
 Section XXVIII. 
 
 Laws of either Province in Force at the Commence- 
 ment of this Act to continue except repealed. 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 ON 
 
 THE FUTURE UNION AND DESTINY 
 
 OF 
 
 ALL THE B. N. A. COLONIES. 
 
 A rumour has been for some time circulated, 
 by what authority indeed is unknown, and with 
 what favour or countenance is equally uncertain, 
 but the report is too frequently repeated not to 
 have some foundation and deserve remark, that a 
 plan is in preparation for the union of ail the 
 North American colonies in what is termed a fe- 
 deral system of government. The meaning of 
 which is presumed to be, to leave to each colony 
 its legislature, and give the whole together ano- 
 ther superior convention, composed of deputies 
 from each Province. Of this we look in vain for 
 any example in our own dominions, and the near- 
 est precedent in foreign countries is one of no 
 favourable omen to British colonial power, the 
 Congress of the United States of North America. 
 Without any intention therefore to pass a censure 
 on the institutions of that country, or to make an 
 offensive comparison with our own, but solely 
 because theirs are now and often on other occa- 
 sions held up as a model for our imitation, it be- 
 comes necessary to examine the nature of the 
 American system with views to its fitness for 
 colonial dominions. 
 
( 96 ) 
 
 It is in this country a common mistake, to sup- 
 pose that the admiration, which some among us 
 here profess for American institutions, must be 
 felt stronger, in proportion to the neighbourhood, 
 among our colonies adjoining that republic. But 
 it is often with communities as with individuals, 
 where there is a motive of difference so exciting to 
 the passions as national and political distinctions, 
 juxtaposition is a cause of antipathy and repug- 
 nance more frequently and more powerfully than of 
 conciliation or imitation. And it was observed du- 
 ring the late rebellion and piratical invasions, that 
 no persons seemed to have turned out to war for 
 the Crown more readily, cheerfully, or effectually, 
 than the immediate settlers on the very confines 
 of the States and colonies. And as far as regards 
 the predilections of the great majority of our 
 loyal fellow-subjects in those Provinces, no one 
 acquainted with them can doubt, that a constitu- 
 tion could not come to them recommended by a 
 pattern less to their liking, than one borrowed 
 from their immediate neighbours. Why should 
 they desire an imitation of a government, from 
 the original of which the fathers of many of them 
 formerly sought asylum, some in the grave of the 
 battle-field, and others in the still remaining co- 
 lonies ; and which the descendants of such parents, 
 together with all other the colonists, have repeat- 
 edly driven from them with arms? No; the Ameri- 
 cans have mocking birds that will imitate their na- 
 tional hymn ; their slaves may copy and scarcely 
 
burlesque their social fashions ; but the old loyal- 
 ists and their children, and the emigrants who 
 have joined them, have too much pride and fide- 
 lity, too bitter recollections of the past, and too 
 high a resolve for the future, to take their politics 
 from such a source. What^th^y see to covet in 
 the United States is the thrift, industry, and en- 
 terprise of the people, their abundant capital, and 
 the facility with which they can increase it by 
 credit from this country to an almost illimitable 
 extent. To attribute to the form of government 
 the result of these advantages in a genial soil and 
 climate, may suit the designs of faction or errors 
 of party spirit in remote countries, but closer ob- 
 servation, whether of the theory of American fe- 
 deralism or of its practical operation, must find the 
 former but an absurdity and the latter an acci- 
 dent : an absurdity, which nothing but their ex- 
 cessive admiration of themselves could applaud ; 
 and an accident, which the caprice of any district 
 may interrupt. A people of one order with a 
 government of three — a democracy with three 
 distinct bodies to represent it, two collective 
 chambers and a single executive — each of the 
 three delegated by the same whole — checking 
 itself — neutralizing its own will — exhibit in each 
 Provincial Legislature inconsistencies only intelli- 
 gible from the history of a nation, whose invention 
 seemingly was constrained to imitate the very sys- 
 tem they had superseded. A reproduction of the 
 
( 98 ) 
 
 same constitution forms the federal union ; a so- 
 vereignty of sovereignties ; of which the powers 
 are liable to constant dispute, and when disputed 
 are without sanction; with a judicature superior 
 to the legislatures of each State and even of the 
 whole combined; with another latent organization 
 still more paramount, called a convention ; and 
 another principle equally incoherent, called nul- 
 lification; and a third power without principle 
 or organization, but alone more paramount than 
 either, called mob ; — one chamber representing 
 the sovereign people, another the sovereign States 
 which that people form ; and what gives indeed 
 the semblance of a reason, but in its queerest 
 and rarest shape, one chamber representing the 
 sovereign people numerically, the other according 
 to the number of the sovereign States consisting 
 of the same people unequally so divided ; — a 
 chief who, at once both officer and servant, 
 unites in his own hands the whole power and 
 patronage of the executive and administrative 
 functions, without a council, without ministers of 
 any authority, without influence in either cham- 
 ber, but co-ordinate with both as the people’s repre- 
 sentative, and often at variance with each ; com- 
 municating with them by pamphlets ; responsible 
 in name, but placed with his ministers beyond the 
 scene of interrogation : — these, and the like con- 
 tradictions and inconsequences, which it would 
 be long to pursue, are sufficient to evince, that if 
 such an instrument of government has existed 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 through a single generation, the extraordinary 
 permanence has been owing less to the vaunted 
 wisdom of the institution, than its good fortune in 
 being almost isolated from the contiguity of any 
 but the orderly and industrious colonies of that 
 just and peaceable nation, whose constitution has 
 been so travestied. Little has the prosperity of 
 the Americans arisen from the inherent merit of 
 their political system. It is their personal quali- 
 ties and habits, their energy, frugality, activity, 
 and labour, in almost all, and in some places their 
 simplicity of manners and singular decency of 
 morals, it is to these that they are indebted for 
 that continuance of wealth and happiness in 
 which they were left by their colonial connexion. 
 But in politics they have been great imitators, 
 and of a single model. Such was their poverty 
 of invention and servility of repetition, that hav- 
 ing established the simplest of all governments in 
 principle, the will of a majority, they assigned it 
 organs so complex and separate as only to obscure 
 its expression, and gave it a machinery the most 
 inconsistent and counteracting ; they reproduced 
 and reduplicated the same anomalies in their fe- 
 deral government ; copying throughout the exact 
 forms of the British colonial constitution, even to 
 its dependance on the mother country. The mis- 
 application of some parts, and substitutions for 
 others, have made the whole illogical, incoherent, 
 and contradictory. 
 
 h 2 
 
( 100 ) 
 
 But if the organization of the American State 
 Governments be wholly irreconcilable with its 
 principle, and their general government no less 
 inconsistent with both ; the application of such a 
 federalism to the North American Colonies would 
 be still more incomprehensible and incompatible. 
 As far as practicable and intelligible, such a fe- 
 deration already exists, in their dependance on 
 the imperial authority; a bad imitation of which 
 is hardly to be substituted for the reality, or su- 
 perinduced, to embarrass its operation. The Co- 
 lonies have always possessed the substance of 
 what the Americans have created a shadow and 
 semblance, a mixed Legislature of three orders 
 for local purposes, and a paramount Government 
 of similar composition for general and national 
 supremacy. Here is the constitution of an em- 
 pire, the theory of which will stand criticism, as 
 the practice has stood the test of centuries ; a 
 constitution, which in either respect may well 
 challenge comparison with the example of pure 
 democracy aping the three orders of a mixed mo- 
 narchy, and sovereign States counterfeiting Co- 
 lonial dependance. Singular as is the paralogy 
 of those politicians, who, reasoning after the event, 
 mistake its cause for whatever best suits their 
 own opinions, that the rapid improvement of the 
 United States has ever been imputed to their in- 
 stitutions of Government, or that its every form 
 has not been acknowledged an act of homage to 
 the very system they discarded, and the empire 
 
( 101 ) 
 
 from which they sprung : yet the paralogy Would 
 be still stronger to prefer or annex to the older, 
 the more philosophical, and practicable constitu- 
 tion, the copy of its infant, illogical, self-repreg- 
 nant and incompatible counterfeit. 
 
 And what would be the powers, what the ob- 
 ject, of a federative Legislature in these Colonies? 
 There is no vacant or unoccupied ground for their 
 sphere of action. The whole authority of the 
 social system has there been long since divided, 
 and the limits of the distribution are well known. 
 The federal Legislature, therefore, to have any 
 powers, must take them, either from those of the 
 Imperial Parliament, or those of the Provincial 
 Assembly. Which of the two is prepared to give 
 them up? If the former, dependance is sacri- 
 ficed : if the latter, local legislation. 
 
 Do the Colonists themselves desire it ? Has 
 any class or party there proposed it ? The sug- 
 gestion did not originate on that side of the water. 
 Yet it has been made to them, been considered, 
 and been rejected by the most unanimous expres- 
 sions of public opinion. The proposal has no 
 friends or supporters in any quarter of the Co- 
 lonies. On the contrary, it is deprecated as an 
 utter mistake, at variance with their wants and 
 wishes, inconsistent with their relations to each 
 other, and to the parent Kingdom, and' involving- 
 repugnancies and embarrassments fatal to any 
 practical purpose. 
 
 Were the measure less objectionable in its na* 
 
( 102 ) 
 
 ture, the time is unfavourable for its application. 
 The quiet, sober, and contented people of New 
 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward s 
 Island would be extremely averse to be involved 
 and mixed up with the political disputes of Lower 
 Canada, and by endeavouring to accomplish its 
 tranquillity, compromise their own. Even the in- 
 habitants of Upper Canada require for induce- 
 ments to that danger, nothing less than the im- 
 perative necessity already explained. As far as 
 the other Provinces are concerned, there could 
 not be perpetrated a more signal violation of the 
 axiom “ leave ivell alone." 
 
 Nor would it at present be advisable for either 
 the Imperial Government or for those three its 
 nether and nearer Provinces, if their existing de- 
 pendance be valued on either part, as it is on 
 both, to consent to such a scheme of federation. 
 Whatever may be our hold upon Canada, the Co- 
 lonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince 
 Edward’s Island, are in every way, in situation, 
 affection, interest, and condition, bound to this 
 country by far stronger and closer ties of attach- 
 ment, which, without a union with Canada, may 
 long survive its connexion with us, and would 
 render that separation more difficult, and that in- 
 dependence less injurious. A glance at the map 
 of North America will explain the reasons ; and 
 it is necessary but to add, that the shores of those 
 Provinces only of the whole American coast cover 
 inexhaustible mines of the best bitumenous coal. 
 
( 103 ) 
 
 and the consequence of their becoming the seat 
 of naval arsenals for France or the United States, 
 instead of Great Britain, will seem sufficiently 
 important, without reference to the fish and oil 
 of those waters, or the tall forests of the land. 
 
 But then it may be urged, the North American 
 Colonies cannot always be dependant on this 
 country, whose policy therefore should be betimes 
 to combine them together, that they may not 
 merge in a republic already too extensive. No 
 doubt, such a separation should be anticipated by 
 some combination : but that the separation is pro- 
 bably so near as to require immediately any pre- 
 paratory measure, or that a federative union would 
 be the wisest mode of combination, is doubted — is 
 denied. Recent events in those Provinces have 
 proved any thing but the probability of their se- 
 verance from us. A more prompt, gallant, and 
 devoted spirit of loyalty and attachment to the 
 Crown and mother country was never witnessed 
 throughout all her dominions, or recorded in all 
 her annals, than has been exhibited during the 
 last two years in those Colonies. And shame and 
 utter confusion should cover the false prophets, 
 who have so long reiterated their calumnious pre- 
 diction of the contrary ! as scorn and execration 
 should pursue the false lips, and remorse gnaw 
 their foul hearts, whose counsels and efforts have 
 ever tended to verify what their ignorance fore- 
 told ! — who at first exulted over the calamities, 
 and now mourn at the suffering instruments of a 
 
( 104 ) 
 
 rebellion, the guilt of which could have no truer 
 cause, nor the punishment a juster object, than 
 their heads, whose folly instigated a conflict their 
 prudence declined to share. But the loyalty of 
 the Colonies has confounded the assertions, and 
 spurned the advice and assistance, of such their 
 false friends. Why then should we now legislate 
 with a view* to that separation, which seems more 
 than ever remote, and which nothing apparently 
 but such legislation could tend to produce ? 
 
 Whenever the epoch of such a separation shall 
 be -at hand, that is, whenever the North American 
 Colonies shall have the disposition to dissociate 
 themselves from the British Empire, and the 
 power to maintain a place among the nations 
 as an independent sovereignty ; whenever the 
 wealth and revenues of the whole shall render 
 this practicable, and the wishes of a decided ma- 
 jority shall have pronounced it desirable ; then, 
 no doubt, it will be the endeavour of both the 
 mother Country and those Provinces, as it will 
 assuredly be the interest of both, to prepare for 
 that event by combining the whole of those do- 
 minions into one community and government. 
 But it by no means follows as of course, that even 
 then a federal union should be the mode of com- 
 bination. Instead of a mere imitation of the Ame- 
 rican constitution and federation, - which contain 
 within themselves so many -seeds of dissolution, 
 and so little of the philosophy of politics in the 
 adaptation of the machinery to the principles of 
 
( 105 ) 
 
 their government; an imitation, which has proved 
 so disastrous to other republics of that continent, 
 the United Provinces of Canada and Acadia may 
 probably discover a worthier preference for the 
 institutions of their parent country, and a pro- 
 founder comprehension of political science, by 
 still adhering to the essential as well as the formal 
 parts of the British constitution, and by adopting 
 a legislative union. The eminent success of that 
 measure with England, Scotland and Ireland, 
 will deserve all the attention which a brilliant, 
 fortunate and kindred example never fails to in- 
 spire; and the modern improvements in communi- 
 cation and instruction, necessarily preceding and 
 already contemplated throughout the whole of 
 those dominions, will have made their remotest 
 extremes less apart from and unknown to each 
 other, than those now are in the smallest of the 
 Provinces. Thus, the advantage of local legis- 
 lation will not be compromised, the evil of exces- 
 sive legislation will be avoided, the superior in- 
 telligence of assemblies from an enlarged multi- 
 farious and single sovereignty will be gained, to- 
 gether with the only means of compensating and 
 countervailing the riches and population of the 
 most turbulent, quarrelsome and covetous neigh- 
 bours to which ever country was exposed, the 
 means of a single, combined, united power, the 
 whole energies and resources of which may be 
 exerted, to their utmost, by one will, for self* 
 defence, along any point of their borders. 
 
( 106 ) 
 
 It would here be premature to speculate far 
 upon what modification of the British Constitu- 
 tion might be required for those Colonies by the 
 change to be made on their separation from us. 
 Until then, the present constitutional act would 
 be no less applicable to uniting the rest of their 
 legislatures, whenever hereafter that measure may 
 be expedient for, and desired by, the Provinces 
 of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward’s 
 Island, and Newfoundland. But after the ques- 
 tion of separation and independence shall have 
 arisen and been adopted, little ingenuity will be 
 required to constitute the three branches of an 
 united legislature on principles purely British. 
 Those principles of our government, like those 
 also of our laws, are but the more perfect ex- 
 hibition of the same, which the experience of the 
 Roman commonwealth and the philosophy of its 
 sages taught the human race ; though in both in- 
 stances the identity is more apparent in an ab- 
 stracted resemblance, than in either the mode of 
 combination or the vestiges of tradition. Nor can 
 we better seek assistance for whatever modifica- 
 tion those principles may require in being applied 
 to new circumstances, than by resorting to the 
 fount and origin of primitive derivation. The 
 three orders of monarchy, aristocracy, and de- 
 mocracy, in some shape more or less distinct, are 
 in their nature inherent in every civilized society; 
 where an executive power must exist, and can 
 
( 107 ) 
 
 not be exercised by many, and where the distri- 
 bution of wealth, wisdom, and virtue can never 
 long be equal. To form a legislature of those 
 three estates, analysing the powers of the first, 
 and carefully adjusting the control of the two 
 others, has been the common boast of British and 
 of Roman institutions ; and never was there a 
 system of government more successful than either. 
 But though few nations may be able to adopt it 
 in the same phase or image, all may develope its 
 essence or principle, for that is innate in all, and 
 unless developed in some direct and ostensible 
 organ is sure to be felt in some covert and oblique 
 operations destructive of its exclusion. What is 
 aristocracy but the influence of property ? and 
 what difficulty can there be in having a lower 
 house representing the people according to their 
 number, and an upper house representing them 
 according to their property ? Any amount, how- 
 ever small, might be taken as an unit, and by 
 giving each person as many votes as he possesses 
 multiples of that amount, the result would return 
 a council of proprietors, very nearly representing 
 the wealth of the community, and probably ex- 
 hibiting the education, conduct, and feelings with 
 which wealth is generally attended. This would 
 indeed be but applying the modern improvement 
 of representation to something like a combination 
 of the ancient Comitia Centuriata and Comitia 
 Tributa of the Roman Commonwealth, in which 
 
( 108 ) 
 
 those different classifications of the people pre- 
 sented a mode of tempering the democratieal by 
 the aristocratical power, scarcely less efficiently 
 than by the senate itself. But though elections may 
 be very well employed in the aristocratical prin- 
 ciple, they are by no means essential there as in 
 the democratieal. Other modes of constituting a 
 Chamber of proprietors may probably be preferred. 
 The means of appointment are of far less conse- 
 quence than the tenure and term. Provided 
 these be for life, such a body, however nominated, 
 will possess independence, and answer the pur- 
 pose. The British peerage and Roman senate were 
 designated in very different modes, yet agreed 
 nearly in this, that during life or good behaviour 
 each member was irremovable ; a principle, which 
 has lately received also the adhesion of France, 
 in politics the most philosophical and the most 
 experienced nation of any in the present age. A 
 much more difficult task would be to designate 
 the person who is to exercise the powers, and sus- 
 tain the impersonation, of the executive authority. 
 And here it is curious to remark the different ex- 
 pedients adopted for this purpose by the Roman 
 institutions and the American. The former after 
 the expulsion of kings analysed the power of 
 their office, and distributing its divisions to several 
 persons, guarded against abuse by the minuteness 
 of the division as well as by the frequent change 
 in the depositories of authority. But as the 
 
( 109 ) 
 
 American revolution had its true origin in no 
 abuse of the royal office, so their substitution for 
 its exercise was marked by no anxiety to guard 
 against its future perversion, but with a shallow 
 and vulgar abhorrence of the name, and a strange 
 inconsideration that the substance must exist 
 somewhere, and the only security depended upon 
 the analysis, distribution, and term of these 
 powers, — the United States expressly accumu- 
 lated the whole administrative and executive 
 authority with its undivided patronage in a single 
 individual, contenting themselves with only an 
 abridgement of his term of office. Thus, they 
 trusted entirely to what in no history has long 
 proved a barrier to ambition or protection to 
 liberty, and utterly overlooked that division of the 
 monarchical authority, which all antiquity had ap- 
 proved, and of which so signal an instance existed 
 in the parent country. A more refined and suc- 
 cessful mode, than with us, has never been wit- 
 nessed of separating, distributing, and limiting 
 the monarchical power ; — investing in one chief, to 
 be designated by descent, which alone could ex- 
 clude competition, all the dignity of impersonated 
 sovereignty, and placing him beyond responsi- 
 bility, and thus securing his inviolability, deprive 
 him of all positive power, except by the instru- 
 mentality of his ministers ; who being dependant 
 on him for appointment and continuance in office, 
 and responsible for its exercise to the two other 
 
( 110 ) 
 
 estates, divide among themselves the administra- 
 tion and patronage, and unite the councils, of the 
 executive. 
 
 There does not, nor probably can there for 
 many years exist, in any new country, a person 
 or family capable of attaching or uniting to itself 
 the opinions and suffrages of the people, suf- 
 ficiently for elevation to the supreme rank, and 
 its hereditary descent. The designation, there- 
 fore, of the chief of the state must, till then, de- 
 volve upon the other two orders, or the two 
 chambers representing them or their principles. 
 But, as the frequent recurrence of such a desig- 
 nation has undoubted evils, and as the only ad- 
 vantage that offers in checking the abuse of power 
 may be better attained by its analysis and limi- 
 tation, according to the British constitution, the 
 success of that example may, perhaps, be suffi- 
 cient to induce the Colonies, at such an epoch, to 
 make less of the abridgment of the term, than of 
 those other securities, of a sage and just adminis- 
 tration, viz. the inviolability of their chief, the limi- 
 tation of his power to the choice of ministers, their 
 division of his authority, and responsibility for its 
 exercise. With such provisions, the designation 
 of his person might be wisely left to the Lower 
 House, out of several to be selected and pre- 
 sented by the Upper; and the term of his office 
 might be safely made coextensive with his life. 
 The unity and steadiness, the permanence and 
 
( 111 ) 
 
 energy, of such a government would prove the 
 powerful means of sustaining the United Pro- 
 vinces against the encroachments and seductions 
 of their nearest neighbours ; whose attempts, 
 however, would undoubtedly require the addi- 
 tional barrier of a guarantee by Great Britain 
 against further aggrandisement of those neigh- 
 bours, at least in the north. 
 
 But, as before observed, such speculations are 
 altogether premature, and have beguiled pursuit 
 too far. The minds of the Colonists are utterly 
 unprepared to enter upon any such discussions, 
 as they are equally undesirous of the preliminary 
 implied, a separation from Great Britain. The 
 idea of independence, before having the wealth 
 and population necessary to support it, is too ab- 
 surd for any but the shallow and hot-headed re- 
 volutionists, who attempted to extort without 
 power, what they would have administered with- 
 out talent, and lost without courage. The idea 
 of transferring those Provinces to the United 
 States, has as yet been avowed by no party, and 
 is undoubtedly most repugnant to the feelings 
 and interests of almost the whole population; 
 and, still more, is an event which Great Britian 
 would put forth the whole strength of the empire 
 to forbid. 
 
 Such a resolution must long since have been 
 taken by the government of this country, and by 
 men of all parties, who are not too much en- 
 
( 112 ) 
 
 grossed with the intrigues of their own faction to 
 elevate and expand their minds adequately to 
 the magnitude and policy of the immense empire 
 transmitted to their charge. But the moment 
 has come when that resolution ought to be de- 
 clared. Some demonstration should be made to 
 show that such a position has been irrevocably 
 assumed. The Americans cannot too soon be 
 convinced, that whomever Canada belong to, it 
 can never be theirs. The balance of power in 
 the new world has become of no less moment 
 than in the old. Nay, the latter, instead of being 
 redressed, may be destroyed by inattention to the 
 former. A barrier, on the north at least, must 
 be kept up for ever against the aggrandisement 
 of that republic. Let them be assured that 
 they can get nothing further from us, without a 
 struggle ; and if they think of that, let them 
 prepare to cover the land with their armies, and 
 with their navies the sea; for every heart in these 
 dominions is fired with the words of their great 
 captain, that “ Great Britain will have no little 
 war." No; — the power that arms 50,000 men in 
 the west for the sake of peace, and marches 
 100,000 in the east to prevent hostility ; the 
 power, which found in one of its smallest islands 
 room enough for the mighty empire of Napoleon ; 
 the power, which discomfited the world in war- 
 fare, when to the confederated attack of every 
 nation in Europe, the Americans chose the oppor- 
 
( 113 ) 
 
 tunity to add their enmity, — and if then they 
 never entered Canada but to fatten it with their 
 blood, even more than they impoverished by 
 their pillage; the power which has seldom failed 
 to dictate peace to Europe, and which, alas, 
 though dictating has been duped in every treaty 
 with America; the power, in fine, which wants 
 nothing in her means, no, not even a master mind 
 to direct them, — or wants but one thing, which, if 
 Heaven has not all forsaken us, she cannot want 
 long, that master’s mind in her councils, — will 
 enter upon the third American war in a manner 
 equal to her might, and worthy her renown. If 
 the United States prefer this to peace, they must 
 have it; but if, as is hoped and believed, they 
 think peace more desirable, they must fulfil its obli- 
 gations. It is too much for the Americans to expect 
 the advantages, and forego the duties, of amity; 
 and leave us to the danger and expense of hosti- 
 lity without the chance of its acquisitions, or even 
 hope of its cessation. Our Colonies must be let 
 alone. Though Florida was gained by bullying, 
 and Texas is attempted by piracy; if Spain in its 
 decrepitude thought it cheaper to cede Colonies 
 than to protect them ; and Mexico in its infancy has 
 imitated the constitution of the United States till 
 fit only to become their prey ; Great Britain is still 
 herself; and neither has dissension so depraved her 
 councils, nor economy so debased her spirit, nor 
 fidelity to engagements so impaired her re- 
 
 i 
 
( 114 ) 
 
 sources, but when she rouses in such a cause, 
 arms, men, and money enough will be found, to 
 convince her enemies she knows her own power, 
 and can make her provinces respected. 
 
 But to return from this digression to the prin- 
 cipal subject, and conclude it — a glance at the 
 future destinies of the North American Pro- 
 vinces was requisite only to show, that the insti- 
 tutions here suggested would be beneficial both 
 to the Colonies and the mother country, in every 
 event which prudence could foresee. The legis- 
 lative union of Upper and Lower Canada, under 
 such a constitution, promises the two-fold advan- 
 tage of maintaining their dependance on this 
 country as long as desirable, and their independ- 
 ence of all countries ever after. 
 
 Such a settlement may reasonably be expected 
 to prove the harbinger of peace and prosperity to 
 both those vast, rich, and beautiful Provinces. 
 The United Assembly will instantly engage in 
 developing the resources, perfecting the commu- 
 nications, emancipating the industry, and enfran- 
 chising the property, of the country. Even the 
 French population, convinced at last that they 
 cannot govern, and guided by their faithful and 
 contented clergy, will abandon the 'idea of 
 nationality, and prefer in future the real improve- 
 ment of the Colony, to the vanity or flattery of 
 its demogagues. The tide of emigration will re- 
 turn to the St. Lawrence. The 50,000 emigrants 
 
( 115 ) 
 
 that have been received there in one year, may 
 be doubled annually. British capital will ac- 
 company a British population. The wealth and 
 industry, the energy and intelligence, of the 
 United Kingdom will, by rapid degrees, cover 
 those territories with the arts of peace, and all 
 the conveniences and enjoyments of civilization; 
 until every parish, and almost every family, at 
 home, will count some of their members among 
 the Colonial population. The distance between 
 will be half annihilated by steam navigation. The 
 Colonies will become thoroughly British. Pri- 
 vate and personal interests, feelings, and recollec- 
 tions will be added to those that are historical and 
 political. And our Provinces in North America 
 will be regarded, both here and there as no less 
 the integral and essential members of the British 
 empire, than the Western Province of Ireland, the 
 Northern districts of Scotland, or even the Mid- 
 land counties of England. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 C. nOWORTH AND SONS, BELL YARD, 
 FLEET STREET.