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/61



That the said statute was granted to your Majesty's subjects in this Province, conformable to the Royal promise contained in the Proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763, after various Petitions for and against the proposed measure from the different descriptions of persons whose interests were to be affected thereby, after a Royal message to Parliament, recommending the division of the Province; and after bearing at the Bar of the Honourable House of Commons, whereby the said Act was received and justly regarded by all your Majesty's subjects in these parts of your dominions, as a solemn compact, forming by the highest authority in the British empire, the legal and permanent guarantee of their liberty, their property, and dearest rights.

That the said statute, modelled upon the Constitution of the parent state, by some of the best and wisest of her statesmen, provides sufficient powers for the remedying of abuses, redressing of grievances, allaying discontents, and promoting the general welfare of the Province, without the necessity of those legislative interferences on the part of the supreme Government, which, in similar cases, have been found so pernicious by transforming discontent, purely local and temporary, into dangerous misunderstandings between the Colonies and the Mother Country.

That notwithstanding various obstacles and difficulty which the powers and operation of the Constitution, established by the said statute, are gradually removing, the population of the Province has been progressive, in a ratio fully equal to that of the United States of America, without a proportionate increase from emigration; the public revenue has proved nearly sufficient to cover all necessary Colonial expenditure, and Trade and Agriculture, notwithstanding the extraordinary pressure of the present times, have, in the aggregate, greatly improved.

That your Petitioners, under the foregoing circumstances, cannot but feel, that, if the said Bill, which was introduced without the knowledge of the inhabitants of the Province, and in a direct opposition to their wishes, were to pass into a law,