Page:Address of the Hon. L.J. Papineau to the electors of the West Ward of Montreal.djvu/18

 dying of hunger on the fertile soil which they cultivate with industry and skill,—they who have seen thousands upon thousands of men forced to expatriate themselves, to regret, to the last day of their existence, the remembrance of the enchanting scenes which surrounded their cradles, to deplore the loss of property, which providence in its bounty had prodigally showered all over the country which they were obliged to flee in order not be slaves on the soil on which they ought to command. British affections and feelings ought not be greater nor stronger in Ireland nor in Canada than Irish or Canadian affections and feelings in Great Britain. The love of one's native or adopted country is the first of duties, the finest of virtues in a citizen. This duty commands him never to make the happiness of the country subservient to the consideration of the happiness of the country he has left. Let the Irish be the united and warm friends of Ireland—Canadians, native or adopted, be the warm and united friends of Canada as the British are of Britain. One nation can never govern another. The affections of the British for Ireland and the Colonies has never been any thing else than the love of the pillage of Ireland and the Colonies, abandoned to the cutting and carving of the British Aristocracy and its creatures. The people of Great Britain have, by the Reform Bill, destroyed the usurpation of their nobles, repossessed themselves of their rights, and authorize us by their example and their principles, to expect that they cannot avoid restoring to us our rights. A local, responsible and national Government for each part of the Empire as far as the regulation of local interests, with a superintending authority in the Imperial Government to decide on peace and war and commercial relations with the stranger—that is what Ireland and British American demand—and this is what, before a very few years, they will be sufficiently strong to take, if others are not sufficiently just to give it to them.

In the meantime I will repeat the advice given by the Committee of the Convention in the course of last summer:—

"You have, without, declared enemies of the rights and wished of the majority. Mr. Stanley represent them (Mr. Spring Rice is their representative to-day.) You have internal enemies—the minority who makes itself so well known by placarding its antipathies to Reformers. Let the enemies of the people have more to fear and to suffer from the discontents of the people, than to gain by the corruptions of the Government. The English people have an interest opposed to that the of the Minister who finds it advantageous to make a nursery of the Colonies, for the purpose of transplanting thither and nourishing here in luxury, to which they were accustomed, a large number of the most imbecile members of privileged families. The mass of Emigrants depend on their labour for that comfort which was ravished from them in their native country by those same privileged classes which they will find in their adopted country, if the maxims of Mr. Stanley continue to be put in practice here. But they will not allow themselves to be stript and expatriated a second time. They will say to the producers in England, that it is the comfort and general consumption of produce, better encouraged by popular institutions than by aristocratic salaries, which render the Colonies useful possessions. They will interest the producing classes—the greater number—to oppose the disastrous plan which can be profitable only to the smaller number. If Mr. Stanley engage the Parliament to appropriate your revenue, interest the British Public to put an end to the usurpation.

Restrict your consumption of British produce as generally as possible. Be proud of clothing yourself with the fleece of your own flocks, and with the products of your own fields. The cloth and linen which you manufacture yourselves, will give you clothes more durable that those brought from abroad, and you will thereby interest those who will perceive a diminution in the consumption of goods to make common cause with you, against the Minister who wishes to oppress you. The revenues which your enemies want to withdraw from your controul, are raised principally off strong liquors. What multiplied motives are there to stop this deadly source of revenue! The crops would be more plenty—the farmers would be more rapidly enriched, if there were in each Country a Distillery & a Brewery where he could dispose of the greatest quantity of small grain that he must raise, to bring his land back by a rotation of crops to their ancient fertility.

of all languages and origins, you are much more than ten against one. Your sentence of death against the present constitution of the Legislative Council is irrevocable on your part. Your enemies are not numerous enough to injure you. You are sufficiently numerous to injure them. Every where in your county that you have a Doctor, a Notary, a Merchant, a Surveyor, &c, who range themselves along side of your enemies, you have ten who make common cause with you. Break all connexion in business and interest with those who separate their affections and interests from yours. Pardon the ignorant who is mistaken. Chastise the rogue who deceives. Let those who are so presumptuous as to prefer their own opinions and will to that of the public, learn, that whatsoever be their titles to favors from the administration, they have no claim to the confidence of the people. Bow not your heads to those who insult you. Let all those who have business with you, whether they be Governors, place-men, newspaper writers, or private individuals know, that the measure of their respect for you must be the measure of your respect for them. Read in the detail of the evils which the Legislative Council has produced, the detail of the evils which it is preparing for you, if you relax an instant in telling the British Government that it has not been reformed—in repeating constantly and unanimously that you repose neither faith nor confidence in the plans of Reform which extend not, by means of Election, to constitute it by the country and for the country—in making those who attacked it in 1827 and defend it in 1834, feel that you do not attach any credit to their political integrity, since they approve to day of measures more direful, of men more perverse, of an administration more vile and basely intriguing, than even were the measures, the men, the administration whom they prosecuted and whose disgrace they obtained.

By the efficacious control which the Commons possess over the public Revenue, the people have a guarantee that the men and the abuses which they denounce will be checked.