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/21

 hazard: for although restrictions, in certain cases, are imposed upon the infringement of these guaranteed rights, they are not all protected in the same way. They would find it very difficult to vindicate those peculiar privileges, if they were once invaded by an Act of the Colonial Legislature; their property and their persons might for a time be at the disposal of a prejudiced or self-interested minority of the population, having the power of a majority of the representative Assembly, and the support of the whole Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary Authority.

These are chiefly remarkable for the qualification, to the value of 500l. sterling in real estate, required of the Members of the Assembly, none being necessary by the existing constitutional act. This qualification has been objected to, both by the petitioners for and against the bill, in Upper Canada, as too high. In Lower Canada, where no qualification in property ever existed, it has not been mentioned in the petitions against the bill: in truth, there has hardly ever been a Member in the Assembly of Lower Canada who was not much more than qualified, according to these clauses. The Members having no pay, and disbursing upon an average from 30l. to 50l. each Session, generally without the most distant prospect