80 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



privilege and a dangerous attack upon the rights and liberties of His 

 Majesty's subjects in this province. Tliis defiant motion, Craig con- 

 sidered it prudent to ignore. " As however, it may be considered an 

 abstract proposition," he said, " which I could contend did not apply 

 to the case, as by including in it the other branch of the Legislature, it 

 was completely generalized, (if I may use the term), and as it was not 

 presented to me or followed up by, any other proceedings whatever, I 

 did Jiott think myself called upon to take any notice of it." 



A bill rendering tlie judges ineligible to sit in the Assembly, which 

 was solely aimed at H(m. P. A. de Bonne, who, like Panet and Pierre 

 Bedard, enjoyed the distinction of having been a member of the House 

 since 1792, but had incurred the hostility of the dominant party by his 

 steady supporti of government measures, was passed and sent up to the 

 Legislative Council, by whom it was amended so as not to come into 

 effect until the dissolution of the existing Assembly. This provoked the 

 majority of the House to propose a resolution declaring that the " Hon. 

 Pierre Amable de Bonne, one of the judges of the Court of King's Bench, 

 cannot sit or vote in this House as one of the members for the County 

 of Quebec." This was an exactly similar motion to that by which 

 Ezekiel Hart had been expelled and the Governor- G enei-al seems to have 

 believed that if they were penuitted to pass it they might some day de- 

 clare that no English-speaking person or British-bom resident was com- 

 petent to occupy a seat in the Assembly, and accordingly on the follow- 

 ing day he again prorogued and dissolved the House, in order, he said, 

 tiiat the whole question might be referred to the people. On arriving 

 at and leaving the Council Chamber he was loudly cheered by the crowd 

 which had assembled in the streets. His next step was the publication of 

 a long address to the public, justifying his conduct. Congratulatory 

 addresses approving of the dissolution were soon presented to him from 

 the city and county of Quebec, the city of Montreal, tlie town of Three 

 Rivers, the borough of William Henry, the counties of Wanvick and 

 Orleans, the parish of Terrebonne and other places. Le Canadien re- 

 torted by such vehement attacks upon tJie Government and the British 

 population who were designated as " choyens," " intrus," " étrangei-s," 

 and "anti-Canadiens," that Craig determined to suppress that paper 

 and arrest the principal persons concerned in its publication upon a 

 charge of fomenting sedition. 



•* A violent and numerous democratic party," ho informed Lord 

 Castlereagh, " has long been busily employed in sowing their pernicious 

 principles among the truly ignorant, credulous people, and as unfortun- 

 ately no sufficient means of counteraction have been found they have 

 succeeded in disseminating among them a strong spirit of jealousy, dis- 



