188 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



remonstrances. In 1835 a select committee of the House of Assembly on 

 grievances, of wliicli William Lyon Mackenzie was chairman, presented a 

 report setting forth The administrative abuses of which the public com- 

 plained, the following paragraph of which indicates how the absolute con- 

 trol of the executive over the expenditure of a large and increasing portion 

 of the public revenue rendered the Government completely independent of 

 the people's representatives : 



"The almost unlimited extent of the patronage of the Crown, or rather 

 oi the Colonial Minister for the time being and his advisers here, together 

 with the abuse of that patronage are the chief sources of colonial discon- 

 tent. Such is the patronage of the Colonial Office that the granting or 

 withholding of supplies is of no political importance unless as an indication 

 of the opinion of the country concerning the character of the Government, 

 which is conducted upon a system that admits its officers to take and apply 

 the funds of the Colonists without any legislative vote whatever." 



An agitation on similar lines was meanwhile going forward in Low'er 

 Canada and obtained such headway that in 183'5 the Earl of Gosford, Sir 

 Charles Edward Grey and Sir George Gipps were appointed as commission- 

 ers for the investigation of grievances in Lower Canada. Among the list of 

 complaints presented to this body the question of the control of the revenue 

 occupied a foremost place. The demands made by the House of Assembly 

 of Lower Canada were thus summarized in the instructions forwarded by 

 Lord Glenelg to the commissioners under date of July 17th, 1835. 



"After the several gradations through which this question has passed, 

 it has at length assumed the following shape : 



The Claims of the Legislature. 



"As representatives of the people of Lower Canada the House of Assem- 

 bly claims the right of appropriating to the public service, according to 

 their own discretion, the whole of the revenues of the Crown accruing within 

 the Province. The claim extends to the proceeds of all parliamentary and 

 provincial statutes, whatever may have been the original conditions of these 

 grants; to the funds drawn from the sale of timber and of the waste lands 

 of the Crown; to all fines and forfeitures, and to the income derived from 

 the Seigniorial rights inherited by the King from his royal predecessors. 

 In fine the authority of the Local Legislature over the income and expendi- 

 ture of the Province is declared to be so extensive, as to embrace everv part 

 of that receipt and outlay, and so inalienable as to supersede even the con- 

 cessions deliberately made in preceding times by the former representatives 

 of the Canadian people." 



On January 30th, 1836, Sir Francis Bond Hend. who had a short time 

 before assumed the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada, laid before the 

 House of Assembly the instructions received on his appointment, embody- 

 ing the answer of the Home Government to the representations made by 

 the House as to the grievances requiring redress. This document in refer- 

 ence to the question of the control of territorial and casual revenues stated 

 that claims precisely identical had been preferred by the Assembly of Lower 

 Canada, and that in the instructions to the Commissioners of Enquiry who 

 visited that Province the views of the Home Government had been already 

 set forth. 



The instructions to the Commissioners were therefore appended to the 

 despatch as outlining a basis for the settlement of the question in both Pro- 

 vinces. In this paper the whole subject is treated very fully, the position 

 taken by the Colonial Office being that it was necessary to secure the inde- 



