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/9

 that it is essential to the connexion and welfare of the British Dominions, that the supreme Legislative Authority should exist at the sent of empire, subject to the restrictions which it has itself imposed; the inhabitants of Lower Canada have supported this authority when every other British Colony in North America was in successful rebellion against it. The distance at which the Colonies are placed deprives them of all direct participation in the representative branch of the supreme Legislature, and the differences between the state of property, of society, and local circumstances, in Great Britain and the Colonies, render it very difficult for a Legislature, solely constituted in the Mother Country three thousand miles distant, to legislate for the internal affairs of the Colonies with advantage. In cases where changes of their established constitutions are contemplated, it surely cannot be expedient to proceed the almost unanimous and humble Petitions of all ranks and descriptions of men in an avowedly loyal colony.

But in such a case it would at least be necessary for those who propose such changes, to show to the Government and Parliament some very strong grounds for interference, founded in actual evils resulting from the existing Constitutions; instead of alleging contemplated advantages, which woeful experience has proved to be seldom realized. It ought, it is presumed, never to be forgotten