Page:Letter from L. J. Papineau and J. Neilson, Esqs., Addressed to His Majesty's Under Secretary of State on the Subject of the Proposed Union of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.djvu/10

 that the security of the person and property of the subject depends on the established Constitution of a country, and that the very existence of ideas of sudden and important constitutional changes, particularly without the participation, consent, or even knowledge, of those who are to be chiefly affected thereby, is destructive of their quiet and of the general welfare.

The measure proposed by the Bill is nothing less than the annihilation of two local incorporations, established by Act of Parliament, with authority to make by-laws within the limits assigned to them; for the purpose of forming one similar incorporation, the sphere of whose legislation is to extend throughout the whole limits, at present assigned to the two, while for every other purpose of Government the former limits and distinct interests are to remain.

It is obvious that it is essential to the utility of local and subordinate Legislatures, that their limits be not too extensive; the necessity of their establishment, indeed, arises solely from the local circumstances and wants of the place for which they are constituted. Local knowledge is an indispensable qualification of the members of such bodies. The Aldermen and Common Councilmen of London, it is presumed, would form but a very indifferent local Legislature for Dublin, and vice versa; the members of the two corporations,