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/60

 The Petition of the Inhabitants of Lower Canada

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY,

THE Petition of the undersigned Seigneurs, Magistrates, Members of the Clergy, Officers of Militia, Merchants, Landholders, and others, Inhabitants of the Province of Lower Canada,

Humbly Sheweth,

That your Petitioners have learnt, with the most profound grief and the greatest alarm, that a Bill was introduced, with the sanction of your Majesty's servants in the Honourable the House of Commons, at the last Session of the Parliament of the United Kingdoms, for making changes in the Constitution of the Government of this Province, as by the Statute 31st Geo. III., chapter 31st, happily established therein.

That inasmuch as by reason of the near approach of the time when Parliament may be assembled, the Legislature of this Province may be deprived of the opportunity which the Commons, in their wisdom and justice, proposed to afford to the People of this Province, of submitting to your Majesty and to the two Houses of Parliament their sentiments on this momentous subject; your Petitioners conceive it to be their duty to your Majesty and to themselves, most humbly and wit the least possible delay, to lay their representations on the subject of the Bill at the foot of your Majesty's throne.

That no alteration in the aforesaid Statute had, at any time, been publicly prayed for, but any of the Authorities constituted under it, or by any portion of your Majesty's subjections residing in this Province; but, on the contrary, all classes and descriptions of the people therein, have uniformly expressed their inviolable attachment to the said Constitution, and have, but recently, cheerfully hazarded their lives and fortunes in defense of your Majesty's Government as established by the said statute in this Province.