APPENDIX 197 



of the House of Commons. Perhaps Your Excellency will allow us 

 to repeat what Lord Elgin said to the men of Glengarry, in reply to 

 their address: 'I recognize in it evidence of that vigorous under- 

 standing which enables men of the stock to which you belong, to 

 prize, as they ought to be prized, the blessings of well-ordered free- 

 dom, and of that keen sense of principle which prompts them to 

 recoil from no sacrifice which duty enjoins.' 



"Your Excellency will observe that those citizens whom we 

 represent, are striving to ensure the continuance of what Lord 

 Elgin described as 'well-ordered freedom.' 



"We do not ask that Your Excellency will take action out- 

 side the lines of constitutional practice. At present we desire 

 only to keep you informed of the increasing difficulties which appear 

 to affect injuriously the privileges which belong to the citizens 

 through the House of Commons. 



"We beg to state to Your Excellency that we are aware that 

 certain objections in connection with prescribed forms of approach 

 may be cited against the course we have taken. But we are also 

 well assured that in times like these, it is good counsel rather than 

 appeals to form which should prevail. 



"We beg respectfully to add that, in conveying with all con- 

 venient speed to those who have authorized us to act, the informa- 

 tion of our reliance upon Your Excellency's beneficient intentions to 

 all the loyal people of Canada, we are rendering a service to the 

 unquestionable stability of Parliamentary freedom which all 

 British citizens must desire to be maintained at home while it is being 

 defended abroad." 



(Signed) C. W. GURNEY, 



J. N. KERNIGHAN. 



