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/17

 its population; by the operation of the Upper Canada Act, 60 Geo. III., which is confirmed by the 7th clause, the representation of that Province has been increased to Forty, while that of Lower Canada has remained at Fifty, and every attempt to increase it, has been frustrated in the Lower Province. By the operation of the same Upper Canada Act, continued by the said clause, a regular increase of the representation of that Province, proportionate to the population, is provided for, which would soon carry it to an amount equal to that of Lower Canada, unless the Governor chooses to increase the latter to 60; and even with that increase, the representation of Upper Canada would soon be equal to that of Lower Canada, and it is provided by the 9th Clause, that the number of Representatives shall not be altered, should a minority of one-third of the Members present refuse their assent at either the second or third reading of the Bill.

At the time of the Union between Scotland and England, or Great Britain and Ireland, had the population of England been told that Scotland or Ireland, or both together, were to have a number of Members in the House of Commons equal to that of England, and with such a restriction, it is probable that an alarm fully as great as that which this Bill has excited in Lower Canada, would have prevailed in England.

The present population of Upper Canada has been