fiO Our Cvlunies : QJui-v, 



only entitled to a species of veto, and has no initiative or deliberative voice in 

 the enactments ; nor, indeed, can human wisdom be adequate to devise such 

 a system of revenue upon imports, while the provinces shall remain separate, 

 as will not give unfair and unequal advantages to the one or the other, and oi' 

 necessity produce irritation and enmity." 



The second petition comes also from Lower Canada, and is signed by 

 87,090 persons, inhabitants of the French Seigneuries. It is founded 

 upon a series of resolutions which were adopted at a public meeting held 

 at Malhiot's Hotel, Quebec, on the 13th of December, 1827 ; and the 

 complaints and charges which it contains are of a much more serious 

 nature than the other. It is couched in terms of great respect and 

 loyalty to the king and constitution of this country ; but the language in 

 which the conduct of the governor is spoken of, and the complaints of 

 the people are stated, breathes a spirit of bitterness, the justice of which 

 depends wholly on the truth of the accusations. Without repeating any 

 of those terms of acerbity, which could answer here no good purpose, 

 and to which no reply on the part of the governor (whatever he may 

 be prepared with) has yet been made public, the complaints of the 

 Frencli Canadians are, generally, that the governor. Lord Dalhousie, has 

 exercised the powers with which his office invests him, arbritrarily ; that 

 he has applied the public money to various purposes without the vote or 

 sanction of the legislature ; that he has prorogued and dissolved the 

 parliaments without sufficient cause, and in a manner contrary to the 

 spirit of the constitution; and that by means of the influence he exer- 

 cises over the Legislative Council, the greater part of the members com- 

 posing which, hold offices under government, and are removable by him 

 at pleasure, he has procured the rejection of certain bills which they had 

 proposed as laws for the welfare and good government of the colony.* 

 One of their heaviest complaints is, that ]\Ir. Caldwell, who held the 

 office of Receiver-General, and who had of necessity large sums of the 

 public money in his hands, was permitted to perform the functions of 

 that office without having given sufficient security ; that when he after- 

 wards became a defaulter, he was maintained in the exercise of his 

 functions for some years after his insolvency was known to the govern- 

 ment. They complain also that their rights have been injured by Acts 

 ofthe Imperial Parliament, particularly by that called the Canada Trade 

 Act, which revives and continues certain temporary Acts of the Provin- 

 cial Legislature, levying duties witliin the province, and by the Act of 

 the 0th Geo. IV. c. 59, affecting the tenures of land, both of which were 

 passed without the knowledge of the inhabitants, and particularly 

 without the knowledge or consent of the proprietors more immediately 

 interested in the last mentioned Acts. 



The object ofthe petition from Upper Canada is chiefly that the lands 

 set apart to form a revenue for the clergy may be applied to the main- 

 tenance of the Protestant clergy generally, and not exclusively to those 

 who profess the doctrines of the Church of England, and to the pur- 

 poses of general education. 



• These bills were for limiting and regulating the expenditure of tlie civil government 

 — the fees of certain offices, the assessments in townships, the formation and services of 

 juries, building gaols, regulating the oflice of justices of the peace, and tlie militia of the 

 province; increasing the representation of the House of Assembly, particularly in respect of 

 the new townships and settlements ; for securing the public money ; for making the judges 

 independant,; for providing for the trial of impeachments; and for appointing an authorised 

 agent for the province, to reside in England, and attend to its interests there. 



