“The history of Kings County, Nova Scotia, heart of the Acadian land”

Governor Cornwallis initiated courts of justice based on English common law in 1749, leading to the establishment of County Courts and a General Court. This book asserts that in January 1757 (as do others), Nova Scotia took its first steps in transitioning from being ruled solely by the Governor and Council to establishing a Representative Assembly, comprising twelve members for the province and additional representatives for various townships, including Dartmouth. Members and voters were required to be Protestant, above twenty-one years old, and possess a freehold estate in their district. The first Assembly convened in October 1758 (this time without a representative for Dartmouth), followed by adjustments to representation in subsequent years.

Over time, the judicial system evolved, with the introduction of Circuit Courts and changes in court jurisdictions. The New England town meeting model influenced local governance, coexisting with courts to address various civic matters, including poor relief. Dartmouth held town meetings until its incorporation as a town. The narrative also explores the growth of Baptist communities, the role of the clergy, and the social and political dynamics during the American War. Additionally, it mentions the formation of Light Infantry companies and the challenges faced by Governor Legge in maintaining loyalty during the conflict.

Following this overview, the subsequent text comprises brief biographies of prominent figures and families who are connected to Dartmouth in some capacity.


“Until January, 1757, the Governor and Council ruled alone in Nova Scotia, at that time, after long debate, it was decided that a Representative Assembly should be created, and that there should be elected for the province at large, until counties should be formed, twelve members, besides four for the township of Halifax, two for the township of Lunenburg and one each for the townships of Dartmouth, Lawrencetown (both in Halifax County), Annapolis Royal, and Cumberland. The bounds of these townships were described, and it was resolved that when twenty-five qualified electors should be settled at Piziquid, Minas, Cobequid, or any other district that might in the future be erected into a township, any one of these places should be entitled to send one representative to the Assembly and should likewise have the right to vote in the election of representatives for the province at large.

Members and voters must not be “Popish recusants”, nor be under the age of twenty-one years, and each must have a freehold estate in the district he represented or voted for. The first Assembly met in Halifax on Monday, October 2, 1758, when nineteen members—six “esquires”, and thirteen “gentlemen”, were sworn in. At a meeting of the Council in August, 1759, soon after the dissolution of the second session of the first Assembly, the Council fixed the representation of the township of Halifax at four members, and of Lunenburg, Annapolis, Horton, and Cumberland, at two each. For the newly formed counties of Halifax, Lunenburg, Annapolis, King’s, and Cumberland, there were to be two each.”

County Government, Public Officials:

“When Governor Cornwallis came to Nova Scotia in 1749, one of his earliest acts was the erection and commissioning of courts of justice for the carrying out of the principles of English common law. In pursuance of his orders from the crown he at once erected three courts, a Court of General Sessions, a County Court, having jurisdiction over the whole province, and a General Court or Court of Assize and General Jail Delivery, in which the Governor and Council for the time being, sat at judges. In 1752, the County Court was abolished, and a Court of Common Pleas similar to the Superior Courts of Common Pleas of New England erected in its place. In 1754, Jonathan Belcher, Esq., was appointed the first Chief Justice of the province, and the General Court was supplanted by a Supreme Court, in which the Chief Justice was the sole judge.

In 1829 Judge Haliburton wrote: “There is no separate Court of Common Pleas for the Province, but there are courts in each county, bearing the same appellation and resembling it in many of its powers. These courts when first constituted had power to issue both mesne and final process to any part of the Province, and had a concurrent jurisdiction with the Supreme Court in all civil causes. They were held in the several counties by Magistrates, or such other persons as were best qualified to fill the situation of judges, but there was no salary attached to the office, and fees, similar in their nature, but smaller in amount than those received by the Judges of the Supreme Court, were the only remuneration given them for their trouble. As the King’s bench was rising in reputation, from the ability and learning of its Judges, these courts fell into disuse, and few causes of difficulty or importance were tried in them. It was even found necessary to limit their jurisdiction, and they were restrained from issuing mesne process out of the county in which they sat.

The exigencies of the country requiring them to be put into a more efficient state, a law was passed in 1824 for dividing the Province into three districts or circuits and the Governor was empowered to appoint a professional man to each circuit, as first Justice of the several courts of Common Pleas within the District, and also as President of the courts of sessions. In 1774 an act of the Legislature was passed, first establishing the circuits of the Supreme Court. At Halifax the terms were fourteen days, liberty, however, being allowed for longer terms if the number of cases to be tried demanded an extension of time. No less than eighteen or twenty acts of the legislature relative to the times of holding the courts in the province, were passed between 1760 and 1840. In 1824 an act was passed changing the constitution of the courts of Common Pleas, and dividing the province into three Judicial Districts: the Eastern District, to comprise the county of Sydney, the districts of Pictou and Colchester, and the county of Cumberland; the Middle District, the counties of Hants, King’s, Lunenburg, and Queens; the Western District, the counties of Annapolis and Shelburne. In 1841, by an act of the legislature, the Inferior Courts of Common Pleas were abolished and the administration of law was generally improved.

With the advent of the New England planters to the county, came the introduction of New England’s time honoured institution, the Town Meeting.

[An institution on the radar of those in Dartmouth long before being enacted in law in Dartmouth township, a practice which continued for the first few decades of its existence as an incorporated Town. Martin indicates the last of the “old style” (New England) Town meetings in Dartmouth was held in 1902].

“The New England town meeting was and still is”, says Charles Francis Adams, “the political expressions of the town”, and many writers have spoken of the influence the institution has had in developing and conserving that spirit of independence and sense of liberty which have been characteristic of the New England colonies and colonies sprung from New England. In all the New England settlements in Nova Scotia, the Town Meeting was from the first, in conjunction with the Court of Sessions, the source of local government. The Court of Sessions was composed of the magistrates or justices of the peace, the chairman of which was the Gustos Botulorum, and its secretary, the Clerk of the Peace. By this court, the constables, assessors, surveyors of highways, school commissioners, pound keepers, fence viewers, and trustees of school lands, were appointed. In the Town Meeting the rate-payers met to discuss freely all local affairs, not the least important matter under its jurisdiction being always the relief and support of the poor and the appointment of overseers and a clerk of overseers for carrying out the provisions for the needy the Town Meeting made. For many years it was customary for certain rate-payers to “bid off” one or more poor men, women, or children, for stipulated sums to be paid weekly by the town. In these cases, where it was possible, the rate-payers made the poor whom they bid off, useful in their homes [“parties in need of domestic servants will now have no difficulty in supplying themselves.”]; for such service, and for the sum they received, giving the unfortunates, board, lodging, and clothes. Many persons also, who became town charges were “farmed out” to men who made their living wholly or in part by boarding them. See also “The Great Awakening in Nova Scotia, 1776-1809”, Armstrong, Maurice Whitman] .

Up to 1790, and how much later we do not know, the Town Meetings of Cornwallis were held in the Meeting-House, but after that they were held in some other convenient place. In 1839 an act was passed to enable the inhabitants of Cornwallis to provide a public Town House for the holding of elections in that township. For this building the township was to be assessed in a sum not to exceed two hundred pounds. In 1879 the three townships of the county were united in a central government, and the Town Meeting and Court of Sessions became things of the past. In place of the three townships now arose the Municipality of King’s County, the sole governing body of which is the Municipal Council. Under this new system the county is divided into fourteen wards, twelve of which elect one councillor each, and two, two councillors, for a term of two years. The Council as a whole then elects a Warden, who corresponds to the Custos Rotulorum, of the old Court of Sessions, and whatever other officers it was the duty of the Court of Sessions to elect. Under the Municipality’s control thus came all the interests that formerly pertained to both the Town Meeting and the Court of Sessions. The change of the county to a Municipality was affected at a meeting held at the court house on Tuesday, January 13, 1879, pursuant to a notice by the then Sheriff, John Marshall Caldwell.”

“Before 1888 the only towns in the Province incorporated, besides Halifax, were Dartmouth, Pictou, Windsor, New Glasgow, Sydney, North Sydney, and Kentville.”

“Barristers and Attorneys in King’s County: … James Ratchford De Wolf (long Medical Superintendent of the Insane Hospital at Dartmouth, N. S.)”

“The next rector of Aylesford was the Rev. Richard Avery, son of John and Elizabeth (Simmons) Avery, who was bom at Southampton, England, and educated there, at Warminster, and at Oxford, his brothers, the Rev. John S. Avery, M. A., and the Rev. William Avery, B. A., being chiefly his tutors. Passing the Clerical Board of the S. P. G. in London, Mr. Avery was sent out as a Deacon to Nova Scotia, and by Bishop John Inglis was given the curacy of Lunenburg. In the spring of 1842 he was called as assistant to St. Paul’s Church, Halifax, and Christ Church, Dartmouth”

“In 1827, the Rev. George Struthers, also of the Established Church of Scotland, who afterwards (the Rev. John Martin of Halifax officiating), January 28, 1830, married Mr. Forsyth’s eldest daughter, Mary, and the Rev. Morrison were sent from Scotland by the Lay Association as missionaries to Nova Scotia. At once Mr. Struthers came to Horton, Mr. Morrison going to Dartmouth, which place he afterwards left for Bermuda.”

“The Baptist body in Nova Scotia had its birth in a general religious Revival, and its growth may largely be traced through later similar revivals. Of these revivals King’s County has had always its share, and out of them have come undoubtedly a great deal of deep, continuing religious life.

In 1809 the members of the Cornwallis Baptist Church numbered sixty-five, in 1810 fifty-six, in 1811 sixty-three, in 1812 seventy-three, in 1813 sixty-five, in 1814 sixty-eight, and in 1820 a hundred and twenty-four.

Mr. Manning’s pastorate of the Church lasted until his death, which occurred, as we have said, on the 12th of January, 1851. In 1847, on account of his failing health, the Rev. Abram Spurr Hunt, a young graduate of Acadia College of 1844 (and master of arts of 1851), was chosen to assist him. “When Mr. Manning died Mr. Hunt succeeded to the pastorate, and in this office remained until November, 1867, when he resigned and removed to Dartmouth, the well known suburb of Halifax.”

“On the breaking out of the American War in 1775, Light Infantry companies were ordered by the Governor to be formed in the various townships of King’s and other counties. The number of the King’s County contingent was to be fifty men at Cornwallis, fifty at Horton, and fifty at Windsor, Newport, and Falmouth, together. Fearing sympathy on the part of the Nova Scotians who had come from New England with their rebellious kinsmen in the New England colonies, Governor Legge further ordered that all grown men in the several townships should take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. … Among the men sent from England to govern the province of Nova Scotia during nearly a century and a quarter, not one ever showed such ill-temper as Governor Legge, the incumbent of the governorship at the outbreak of the war. His charges of disloyalty towards England included, not only the inhabitants of the province who had recently come from New England, but the staunchest members of the Council at Halifax as well. As early as January, 1776, he writes disparaging letters concerning the New England settlers to the British Secretary of State. A law has been passed, he says, to raise fresh militia troops, and he has been endeavouring to arm the people, but he has just been informed from Annapolis and King’s counties that the people in general refuse to be enrolled. Though Governor Campbell ‘s report to Lord Hillsborough in 1770 had stated that he did not discover in the people of Nova Scotia any of that “licentious principle” with which the neighbouring colonies were infected, it is a well known fact that in Cumberland, in 1776, the greatest disaffection towards England did prevail. That it would have been perfectly natural if the people of the midland counties of Nova Scotia had sympathized with New England in her protest against the abuse of power on the part of the British Government from which she had long suffered must be freely admitted, that among the inhabitants of Annapolis, King’s, and Hants such sympathy was outwardly shown, remains yet to be proved.

It is a well known fact that the King’s Orange Rangers, a Loyalist corps raised in Orange County, New York, through the efforts of Lieut.-Col. John Bayard in 1776 and ’77, in October, 1778, were sent to reinforce the King’s troops in Nova Scotia, and that until the disbandment of the corps in 1783 they were employed chiefly in garrison duty in Halifax. The statement of the writer of the manuscript in question is that in King’s County symptoms of rebellion strongly showed themselves, one of these being that certain King’s County people were even preparing to raise a liberty pole. This seditious spirit in King’s being reported to the government at Halifax by Major Samuel Starr, a detachment of the Orange Rangers stationed at Eastern Battery, Halifax, was ordered to Cornwallis, under command of Major Samuel Vetch Bayard.”


Biographies:

“JAMES Fillis AVERY, M. D. Dr. James Fillis Avery, son of Cap.t. Samuel and Mary (Fillis) Avery, was born in Horton, May 22, 1794, and for three years studied medicine with Dr. Almon in Halifax. He then went to Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1821. After graduation he spent six months in the Hospital of the Royal Guard at Paris, under the superintendence of the noted Baron Larrey, the first Napoleon’s principal medical adviser. Dr. Avery practised medicine in Halifax and also founded there, in George Street, the noted drug firm, which for many years he personally conducted. From this firm, in time, sprang the firms of Messrs. Brown Brothers, and Brown and “Webb. In later life he retired from business, and for some time travelled in Europe. He was an early governor of Dalhousie College, was an elder in St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church, on Pleasant Street, and was interested in many philanthropic institutions. Among the business enterprises that he took substantial interest in was the Shubenacadie Canal, from Dartmouth to the Bay of Fundy. The first (and probably only) vessel that ever went through that canal, it is said, was called for him. The Avery. For many years, until his death. Dr. Avery’s residence was on South Street, adjoining that of Mr. George Herbert Starr, who had married his niece, Rebecca (Allison) Sawers. Dr. Avery died unmarried, universally respected, Nov. 28, 1887, and was buried near his parents at Grand Pre.

ALFRED CHIPMAN COGSWELL, D. D. S. Alfred Chipman Cogswell, son of Winckworth Allen and Caroline Eliza (Barnaby) Cogswell, was born in Upper Dyke village, Cornwallis, July 17, 1834. He married, Oct. 8, 1858, Sarah A., dau. of Col. Oliver and Sarah A. Parker, born in Bangor, Me., Oct. 10,1830, and had two sons. His residence for many years was in Halifax and in Dartmouth. Dr. Cogswell studied for two years at Acadia College, and then on account of ill health abandoned his college course. His studies in dentistry were later pursued in Portland, Me., and his first practice was in Wakefield, Mass. In 1859 he removed to Halifax, N. S., where he formed a partnership with Dr. Lawrence B. Van Buskirk. Some years later he graduated as D. D. S. at the College of Dentistry in Philadelphia. For many years Dr. Cogswell was a successful and skillful practitioner in Halifax, where he was also an elder in St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church. The younger of his sons, Arthur W., in 1884 received the degree of M. D., and was appointed Surgeon of the Halifax Provincial and City Hospital.

HON. THOMAS ANDREW STRANGE DeWOLF, M. E. G. Hon. Thomas Andrew Strange DeWolf, M. P. P., M. E. C, fourth son of Judge Elisha and Margaret (Ratchford) DeWolf, born April 19, 1795, married December 30, 1817, or March 26, 1818, his first cousin, Nancy, daughter of Col. James and Mary (Crane) Ratchford, born June 1, 1798. Mr. DeWolf represented the County of Kings from 1837 until 1848. He was made a member of H. M.(first) Executive Council, February 10, 1838, and was subsequently Collector of Customs. When a qualification bill authorizing the election of non-resident members was introduced in the legislature as a government measure, he resigned from the Executive Council. He died at “Wolfville, September 21, 1878 ; his widow died at Dartmouth, March 10, 1883. Hon. T. A. S. DeWolf had fourteen children, the most important of whom was James Ratchford DeWolf, M. D., L. R. C. S. E. and L. M., of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

THE REV. ABEAM SPURR HUNT, M. A. Eev. Abram Spurr Hunt, though not a native of King’s County, was for many years, as Rev. Edward Manning’s immediate successor, pastor of the Cornwallis First Baptist Church. He was born at Clements, Annapolis county, April 7, 1814, grad. at Acadia in 1844 (its second class), and on the 10th of Nov. of that year, was ordained over the newly formed Baptist Church at Dartmouth, N. S. In 1844 also, he married Catharine Johnstone, eldest surviving daughter of Lewis Johnston, M. D., and niece of Hon. Judge James William Johnstone, and in 1846, removed to Wolfville, where for a winter he studied theology under the Rev. Dr. Crawley. In 1847 he became assistant pastor to Rev. Edward Manning at Cornwallis, and in 1851, at Mr. Manning’s death, succeeded to the pastorate. Until 1867 he continued pastor of the Cornwallis Church, his ministry being in every sense a successful one. His field of labour, however, was so wide and his duties so arduous that at last he was obliged to seek an easier parish. When he determined to remove from Cornwallis, the Dartmouth Church recalled him, and to that Church he continued to minister till his death, which occurred, October 23, 1877. In 1870 he was also made Superintendent of Education for the Province, and the duties of this office he also discharged until his death. Mr. Hunt’s children were: Eliza Theresa, married as his 2nd wife, to the Hon. Judge Alfred William Savary, of Annapolis, so well known as a jurist and historian (see among other writings, the Calnek-Savary “History of Annapolis,” and the “Savary Family”); Lewis Gibson, M. D., D. C. L., of London, England ; James Johnstone, D. C. L., Barrister of Halifax; Aubrey Spurr; Ella Maud, m. to the Rev. Arthur Crawley Chute, D. D., Professor in Acadia University ; Rev. Ralph M., a clergyman, who died young, deeply lamented. Mrs. Abram Spurr Hunt, a woman of high breeding and exalted Christian character, survived her husband between seventeen and eighteen years. She died in Dartmouth, Halifax, May 29, 1895.

MAJOR GEORGE ELEANA MORTON Major George Eleana Morton was one of King’s County’s most excellent and enterprising sons. He was a son of Hon. John and Anne (Cogswell) Morton, was born at Upper Dyke village, Cornwallis, March 25, 1811, and was one of the pupils of the Rev. William Forsyth. Going to Halifax at about eighteen years of age he entered a drug store on Granville Street, which business he afterward purchased. In 1852 he erected the stone building at the corner of Granville and George Streets, long known as “Morton’s Comer,” where for many years he conducted a wholesale and retail drug business, at that time the largest in the province. He was the first business man in Halifax to send out a commercial traveller. About 1870 he closed his drug business and opened a book and periodical store, and a lending library of current literature. He retired from business in 1888, and died as the result of an accident, Mar. 12, 1892, and was buried in Dartmouth. Mr. Morton was a man of great intelligence, and of distinctly literary tastes, and his contributions to the press, both in prose and verse, were numerous. In 1852 he published, in conjunction with Miss Mary J. Katzmann, The Provincial, a monthly magazine. Later he published a satirical magazine called Banter. In 1875 he wrote and published the first “Guide to Halifax,” and in 1883, a “Guide to Cape Breton.” His newspaper articles appeared chiefly in the Guardian, the British Colonist, and other newspapers. He was unusually well read in English literature, and his writings contain many quotations from classical authors. He was an accomplished letter writer, and for many years kept up an interesting correspondence with friends abroad, especially with his cousin. Dr. Charles Cogswell. He was one of the original members of the N. S. Historical Society, and was always actively interested in the work of that Society. In religion he was a Presbyterian, his membership being in St. Matthew’s Church. In politics a Conservative, he was for many years a personal friend of Messrs. Johnstone, Tupper, Parker, Holmes, Marshall, and other Conservative leaders. He was an ardent supporter of confederation, and had great faith in the future of the Dominion. Nov. 23, 1859, he was appointed 1st Lieut, in the 2nd Queen’s Halifax Regt. ; Sept. 23, 1862, he was appointed Captain. On the reorganization of the militia by the Dominion Government he was retired with the rank of Major. He was one of the promoters of the N. S. Telegraph Company, was original shareholder of the N. S. Sugar Refinery, and shortly after the discovery of gold in 1860, became interested in gold-mining. He held mining claims at Waverly, Montagu, Elmsdale, and Lawrencetown. George Elkana Morton married in Halifax, in March, 1849, Martha Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Christian Conrad Casper and Martha (Prescott) Katzmann, bom Apr. 2, 1823, died Apr. 6, 1899. He had children: Annie, born Dec. 13, 1850, died Mar. 29, 1855; Charles Cogswell, born Aug. 14, 1852, married Apr. 27, 1905, Winifred, daughter of Leonard and Lucy Leadley, of Dartmouth, N.S., and now resides in Kentville. For the Katzmann Family, see the Prescott Family Sketch.”

“Of the Bishop families of Horton many members have occupied positions of trust and many have attained prominence in the communities where they lived. Such have been … Watson Bishop, of Dartmouth, N. S., Superintendent of Water Works for that town”

“THE KEMPTON FAMILY The Rev. Samuel Bradford Kempton, D. D., now of Dartmouth, N. S., but for many years the honoured third pastor of the Cornwallis First Baptist Church, in succession to the Rev. Abram Spurr Hunt, is the son of Stephen and Olivia Harlowe (Locke) Kempton, and was b. at Milton, Queen’s county, Nov. 2, 1834. He received his early education at Milton Academy, and in 1857 entered Horton Academy. In 1862 he graduated, B. A., at Acadia University. He then spent a year at Acadia under the instruction of Rev. John Mockett Cramp, D. D., in post-graduate work. In 1833 he was ordained pastor of Third Horton Baptist Church, and in 1867 became pastor of the First Cornwallis Baptist Church. In that position he remained until 1893, when he removed to Dartmouth, as pastor of the Dartmouth Baptist Church. Dr. Kempton received his M. A., from Acadia University in 1872, and the honorary degree of D. D. in 1894. Prom 1878 to 1907 he was one of the governors of Acadia, and in 1882 was appointed a member of the Senate of the University. His ministry at Cornwallis was laborious and faithful, he had six preaching stations and was obliged to travel many miles every week. He married in Horton, Oct. 1, 1867, Eliza Allison, dau. of Abraham and Nancy Rebecca (Allison) Seaman, and had two children : Rev. Austin Tremaise, b. Feb. 6, 1870, m. June 7,1893, Charlotte H. Freeman; William Bradford, b. May 29, 1885, d. July 17, 1893. Of these sons, Rev. Austin Tremaise Kempton graduated at Acadia University in 1891, and received his M. A. in course in 1894. He was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Milton, Queen’s county, N. S., in 1891, later studied at Newton Theological Seminary, and has since held pastorates in Sharon, Boston, Pitchburg and Lunenburg, Mass. He has also been a successful lecturer, his lectures on the “Acadian Country” having done much to make the charms of King’s County known throughout New England.

Of one, at least, of the Orpin grantees, and the family from which he sprang, a writer in the Halifax Herald of January 25, 1899, gave the following interesting account: Among the enterprising pioneers who first came to this part of the country to make of the wilderness a fruitful field, was Joseph Moore Orpin and his wife, Anna Johnson Orpin. Mr. Orpin ‘s father, Edward Orpin, was one of the founders of the city of Halifax. He first took up land on the Dartmouth side of the harbor, and employed men to subdue and clear it of a forest of trees and a heavy crop of stone.

One day while he was on his way with a lad, sixteen years old, named Etherton, carrying dinner to the men working on his land, he was surprised and captured by the [Mi’kmaq]. They compelled silence and began their march with their captives in the direction of Shubenacadie. They had not gone far when one of the [Mi’kmaq] gave the boy a heavy blow, felling him to the ground. Instantly his crown was scalped and he was left for dead. After travelling some distance, Mr. Orpin found that one of his shoes was unbuckled. He stopped and pointed it out to the [Mi’kmaq] walking behind him. As he stooped down to buckle it the [Mi’kmaq] stepped ahead of him. Orpin saw his chance, caught up a hemlock knot, and as quick as lightning gave the [indigenous man] a blow which brought him to the ground. He had confidence in his own fleetness of foot. Instantly he was flying for liberty.

As soon as the [Mi’kmaq] in advance discovered the trick, and recovered from their surprise, they gave him chase. But Orpin was too fleet for them. He escaped and reached home in safety. Strange to relate the boy returned to the city soaked from head to foot in his own blood. The doctors of the city did what they could to heal his scalp wound. They succeeded only in part. Directed by them a silversmith made a silver plate, which the young fellow wore over his unhealed wound. After a time he returned to England.

In the same year Mr. Orpin had still another adventure with the [indigenous] neighbors of the young colony. On this occasion, too, he was on his way to the place where his men were at work, carrying them their dinners. Again he was seized by the skulking [Mi’kmaq] , and hurried away toward Shubenacadie. After reaching one of the lakes, the [Mi’kmaq] stopped to take a meal. For a special treat, Mr. Orpin was carrying a bottle of rum to his men with their dinners. At the lake the [Mi’kmaq] drank the whole of it, and it made them helplessly drunk. This was good fortune for the captive. He reached Halifax again with the scalp safe on his head. This last experience made him more cautious for a long time. The stony ground in Dartmouth, and his trouble with the [Mi’kmaq], induced him to give up his Dartmouth lot and commence anew on the Halifax side of the harbor. Some years later, he went to the North West Arm. He never returned. Diligent and thorough search was made for him; but he could not be found. The belief at the time was the [Mi’kmaq] caught him again and took secret revenge on him in torturing him to death at their leisure.”

“…the Katzmann family of Halifax county demands notice. Lieut. Christian Conrad Casper Katzmann, b. in Eimbeck, Hanover, Prussia, Aug. 18, 1780, came to Annapolis Royal, N. S., as ensign (he is also called adjutant, 3rd Battalion) of H. M. 60th Regt. He m. (1) in Annapolis Royal (by Rev. John Millidge), June 11, 1818, Eliza Georgina Fraser (who had a sister, Mrs. Robinson, and a brother, James Fraser, Jr., Postmaster at Augusta, Georgia), who d. shortly before April 5, 1819. He m. (2), April 6, 1822, by Bishop Inglis, Martha, dau. of John and Catharine (Cleverley) Prescott, of Maroon Hall, Preston, Halifax county, and retiring from the army, bought Maroon Hall. His children by his 2nd marriage were Martha Elizabeth, b. April 2,1823, m. to George Eleana Morton ; Mary Jane (the authoress), b. Jan. 15, 1828, m. to William Lawson, of Halifax; Anna Prescott, b. Sept. 25, 1832, d. unm.. May 31, 1876. Lieut. Katzmann and his family are buried in Dartmouth, N.S. Mr. and Mrs. John Prescott are probably buried at Preston.”

“THE PYKE FAMILY The Pyke family in King’s County is descended from John Pyke, who came to Halifax with Governor Cornwallis in 1749, it is said as his private secretary, and was killed by Indians in Dartmouth, in August of the next year. His wife was Anne Scroope, b. in 1716, her grandfather or his brother, it is believed, being a baronet in Lincolnshire. Precisely how long before he came to Halifax John Pyke married, it is impossible to say, but his son (and only child, so far as is known), John George, was born in England in 1743. After her first husband’s death, Anne (Scroope) Pyke was married to Richard Wenman, another of the company that came with the Cornwallis fleet, and to her second husband she bore three daughters: Susanna, married to Hon. Benjamin Green, Treasurer of the Province; a daughter m. to Captain Howe, of the Army; another daughter m. to Captain Pringle of the army. Mrs. Anne Wenman died May 21, 1792 ; her husband, Richard Wenman, was buried Sept. 30, 1781.”

Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton. The history of Kings County, Nova Scotia, heart of the Acadian land. Salem, Mass., The Salem press company, 1910. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/10025852/

Joseph Howe to Lord John Russell

My Lord,-The business of factious demagogues of all parties is to find fault with everything, to propose nothing practical, to oppose whatever is suggested, Lo misrepresent and to defame. The object of honest and rational politicians ought to be to understand each other-to deal frankly, abhorring concealment, that mistakes may not be made about facts, terms or intentions; to deal fairly, giving credit for a desire to elicit truth, and a wish to weigh in a just balance both sides of every question. Having put before you such evidence as I hope will lead your Lordship’s mind to the conclusion that the system by which the North American Colonies are at present governed, must be abandoned, it is not improbable that your Lordship may inquire what it is that we are desirous to substitute for that system? The demand is a reasonable one. The party who seek this change are bound to prove that they have a safe and intelligible remedy for the evils of which they complain. If I cannot show your Lordship that, without endangering the authority of the mother country over her Provinces, weakening the constitutional powers of the Crown, or trenching on the high privileges and wide range of duty assigned to the Imperial Parliament, a better form of government than that which I am anxious to overturn-one more nearly conforming to the practice and spirit of the Constitution, as understood at home-to the wants and peculiar situation of these Colonies, and less repugnant to the feelings and prejudices of Englishmen everywhere, can be established, then I must quit the field of argument, and cannot complain if your Lordship adheres to your own opinions. From what has been already written, it will be seen that I leave to the Sovereign, and to the Imperial Parliament, the uncontrolled authority over the military and naval force distributed over the Colonies; that I carefully abstain from trenching upon their right to bind the whole empire, by treaties and other diplomatic arrangements, with foreign states; or to regulate the trade of the Colonies with the mother country, and with each other. I yield to them also the same right of interference which they now exercise over Colonies and over English incorporated towns; whenever a desperate case of factious usage of the powers confided, or some reason of state, affecting the preservation of peace and order, call for that interference. As the necessity of the case, the degree and nature of this interference, would always be fully discussed by ail parties concerned, I am not afraid of these great powers being often abused, particularly as the temptations to use them would be much lessened if the internal administration were improved. The Colonial Secretary’s duties should be narrowed to a watchful supervision over each Colony, to see that the authority of the Crown was not impaired, and that Acts of Parliament and public treaties were honestly and firmly carried out; but he should have no right to appoint more than two or three officers in each Province, and none to intermeddle in any internal affair, so long as the Colonial Government was conducted without conflict with the Imperial Government and did not exceed the scope of its authority. This would give him enough to do, without heaping upon him duties so burdensome and various that they can not be discharged with honour by any man, however able; nor with justice or safety to the millions whose interests they affect. His responsibility should be limited to the extent of his powers; and as these would be familiar to every Englishman, exposure and punishment would not be difficult, in case of ignorance, incapacity or neglect. I have shown, in the illustration drawn from the city of Liverpool, that most Governors come out to Colonies so ignorant of their geography and topography, climate, productions, commerce, resources and wants; and above all, of the parties, passions and prejudices which divide them; and of the character, talents and claims of the men by whom the population are influenced and led, that for the first six or twelve months they are like overgrown boys at school. It is equally clear, that while the business of government must move on, and the administration commence from the day on which the new Governor arrives, the schoolmasters, from whom all his facts are derived-from whom he gathers his views of internal affairs, and his impressions, not only of different parties, but of individuals in each party,-are the irresponsible Executive Councillors, whom the present system cals around him; and who, possessed of such advantages, rarely fail, before he can by any possibility escape from their toils, to embroil him with the popular branch of the Legisiature, and the mass of the people by whom it is sustained. Now let us suppose, that when a Governor arrives in Nova Scotia, he finds himself surrounded, not by this irresponsible Council, who represent nothing except the whims of his predecessors and the interests of a few families (so small in point of numbers, that but for the influence which office and the distribution of patronage give them, their relative weight in the country would be ridiculously diminutive), but by men who say to him: ” May it please your Excellency, there was a general election in this Province last month, or last year, or the year before last, and an administration was formed on the results of that election. We, who compose the Council, have ever since been steadily sustained by a majority of the commons and have reason to believe that our conduct and policy have been satisfactory to the country at large.” A Governor thus addressed, would feel that at all events he was surrounded by those who represented a majority of the population; who possessed the confidence of an immense body of the electors, and who had been selected by the people who had the deepest interest in his success, to give him advice and to conduct the administration. If he had doubts on this point-if he had reason to believe that any factious combination had obtained office improperly, and wished ,to take the opinions of the country; or if the Executive Council sought to drive him into measures not sanctioned by the charter; or exhibited a degree of grasping selfishness which was offensive and injurious, he could at once dissolve the Assembly and appeal to the people: who here, as in England, would relieve him from doubt and difficulty; and, fìighting out the battle on the hustings, rebuke the Councillors if they were wrong. This would be a most important point gained in favour of the Governor; for lie is now the slave of an irresponsible Council, which he cannot shake off; and is bound to act by the advice of men, who, not being accountable for the advice they give, and having often much to gain and nothing to lose by giving bad advice, may get him into scrapes every month, and lay the blame on him. Tie Governors would, in fact, have the power of freeing themselves from thraldom to the family compacts, which none of them can now escape by the exercise of any safe expedient known to our existing Constitutions. It will be seen, too, that by this system, whatever sections or small parties might think or say, the Governor could never, by any possibility, become, what British Governors have of late been everywhere, embroiled with the great body of the inhabitants over whom he was sent to preside. The Governor’s responsibility would also be narrowed to the care of the Queen’s prerogative, the conservation of treaties, the military defence, and the execution of the Imperial Acts; the local administration being left in the hands of those who understand it, and who were responsible. His position would then be analogous to that of the Sovereign-he could (o no wrong in any matter of which the Colonial Legislature lad the right to judge; but would be accountable to the Crown, if he betrayed the Imperial interests committed to his care. Executive Councillors now are either heads of departments, or members of the two branches who are generally favourable to the policy of these, and disposed to leave their emoluments intact. One or two persons, of more independent character, and slightly differing from the others upon a few points are sometimes admitted; but a vast preponderance in favour of the views of the official compact, is always, as a matter of course, maintained. The heads of departments are always very well paid for their trouble in governing the country, by the enormous oflicial salaries they receive; their colleagues are either looking for office, or have means of providing for their relatives and friends; while, if it should so happen, that such a thing as a Colonial Executive Councillor can be found for any length of time, in office, who has not served himself or his friends, the title, and consciousness of possessing for life the right to approach and advise every Governor, and give a vote upon every important act of administration, without a possibility of being displaced or called to account for anything said or done, is no mean reward for the small amount of labour and time bestowed. Formerly, these people, in addition to other benefits, obtained for themselves and their friends immense tracts of crown land. This resource is now cut off, by the substitution of sales for free grants; but, looking at the Executive Council, or Cabinet, as it exists in any of the North American Provinces at present, we find a small lot of individuals, responsible neither to the Queen, the Secretary of State, the Governor nor the people; who owe their seats to neither, but to their relatives and friends through whose influence and intrigues they have been appointed; and who, while they possess among them some of the best salaries and nearly all the patronage of the country, have a common interest in promoting extravagance, resisting economy, and keeping up the system exactly as it stands. It will be perceived, that such a body as this may continue to govern a Colony for centuries; like the Old Man of the Mountain, who got upon Sinbad’s back, ordinary exertions cannot shake it off. To understand more clearly how un-English, how anti-constitutionally how dangerous this body is, it is only necessary to contrast it with what it ought to resemble, but never does. In England, the government of the country is invariably carried on by some great political party, pledged to certain principles of foreign or domestic policy, which the people for the time approve; but the cabinet in a Colony is an official party, who have the power for ever to keep themselves and their friends in office, and to keep all others out, even though nineteen out of every twenty of the population are against them. What would the people of England say, if some twenty families, being in possession of the Treasury, Horse Guards, Admiralty, Colonial Office, lad the power to exclude Whigs, Tories, and Radicals; to laugh at hostile votes in the Commons, and set the country at defiance; to defend each other against the crown and the people; to cover ignorance, incapacity, corruption, and bad faith? Would they bear such a state of things for a week? And yet your Lordship seems to think that we should bear it, for an indefinite period, with patience. Now for this body I propose to substitute one sustained by at least a majority of the Electors; whose general principles are known and approved; whom the Governor may dismiss, whenever ,they exceed their powers; and who may be discharged by the people whenever they abuse them; who, instead of laying the blame, when attacked, upon the Governor, or the Secretary of State, shall be bound, as in England, to stand up and defend, against all comers, every appointment made and every act done under their administration. One of the first results of this change would be to infuse into every department of the administration a sense of accountability, which is now nowhere found-to give a vigorous action to every vein and artery now exhibiting torpidity and languor-and to place around the Governor, and at the head of every department of public affairs, the ablest men the Colony could furnish; men of energy and talent, instead of the brainless sumphs, to whom the task of counselling the Governor, or administering the affairs of an extensive department, is often committed under the present system. In England, whether Whigs, Tories or Radicals are in, the Queen is surrounded, and the public departments managed, by some of the ablest men the kingdom can produce. But suppose a mere official faction could exclude all these great parties from power, how long would the government possess the advantage of superior abilities to guide it? Would it not at once fall far below the intellectual range which it now invariably maintains? But, it may be asked, would not the sudden introduction of this system work injustice to some who have taken offices, in the expectation of holding them for life? Perhaps it might, but even if this were unavoidable, the interests of individuals should give way to the public good. The Borough mongers had the same objections to the Reform Act, recorders and town-clerks to that which cleansed the corporations. This, like all minor difficulties, might easily be provided for; and I am sure that there are but few of those seeking to establish responsible government who desire to overturn even a bad system in a spirit of heartless vindictiveness. The Colonies, having no hereditary peerage, the Legislative Council has been constructed to take its place. From the difficulty of making it harmonize with the popular branch, some politicians in Lower Canada-and it was said that the Earl of Durham, at first, inclined to the opinion-thought it might be abolished. I think there is no necessity for this; first, because it would destroy the close resemblance which it is desirable to maintain between our Institutions and those of the mother country; and again, because a second legislative chamber, not entirely dependent upon popular favour, is useful to review measures and check undue haste or corruption in the popular branch. Besides, I sec no difficulty in maintaining its independence, and yet removing from it the character of annual conflict with the representative body, by which it has been everywhere distinguished. The main object of the Executive Council being the preservation of a system by which they enjoy honours, office and patronage, uncontrolled and uninfluenced by the people; and they having the nomination of Legislative Councillors, of course, they have always selected a majority of those whose interests and opinions were their own, and who could help them to wrestle with, and fight off the popular branch. Hence the constant collision, and general outcry against the second chamber. The simply remedy for all this appears to be, to introduce the English practice: let the people be consulted in the formation of the Executive Council; and then the appointments to the Legislative will be more in accordance with the public sentiment and general interest, than they are now. I should have no objection to the Legislative Councillors holding their seats for life, by which their independence of the Executive and of the people would be secured, provided they were chosen fairly by those to whon, from time to time, the constituency, as at home, entrusted the privilege; and not as they are now selected, to serve a particular purpose, and expressly to wrangle, rather than to harmonize with the popular branch. The House of Lords includes men selected by all the administrations which the people of Britain have called into power. The Houses of Lords, in the Colonies, have been created by ail the administrations which the people never could influence or control. Some members of the second branch should, of course, have seats in the Executive Council, because in that Chamber also, the acts and the policy of the government would require to be explained; but here, as in England, though very desirable, it would not be essential that the administration should always be sustained by a majority in the Upper House. One of the first effects of a change of system would be a decided improvement in the character of all the Colonial Assemblies. The great centre of political power and influence would in the Provinces, as at home, be the House of Commons. Towards that body the able, the industrious, the eloquent, and the wealthy, would press with ten times the ardour and unanimity which are now evinced; because then, like its great prototype in Britain, it would be an open and fair arena, in which the choice spirits of the country would battle for a share in its administration, a participation in its expenditure, and in the honour and influence which public employment confers. Now a bon vivant, who can entertain an aide-de-camp; a good looking fellow, who dances with a Governor’s lady; or a cunning one, who can wheedle a clerk or an under-secretary in Downing Street, may be called to take a part in governing a Province for the period of his natural life. Then, these disreputable and obscure channels of advancement would be closed; and the country would understand the reason, and feel the necessity for every such appointment; and the population would be driven to cultivate those qualities which dignify and adorn our nature rather than debase it. Now, any wily knave or subservient fool feels that his chance is as good as that of the most able and upright man in the Colony; and far better if the latter attempts to pursue an independent course; then, such people would be brought to their proper level, and made to win their honours fairly before they were worn. Another improvement would be the placing of the government of a Colony as it always is in England, in a majority in the Commons, watched, controlled, and yet aided by a constitutional opposition. Under the present system, the government of a colony is the opposition of the Commons and often presents in that body the most unseemly and ridiculous figure. Numberless instances might be given of this. The three Executive Councillors who sit in the Assembly of Nova Scotia have been resisting, in miserable minorities, on a dozen divisions during the last two sessions, votes by which the Commons recorded a want of confidence in them and their party; and, in fact, the government, instead of taking the lead in public measures with the energy and ability which should belong to a government, cannot take a single step in the Assembly without the sanction of its opponents. Every emergency that arises and for which an administration ought to be secure of a majority, presents some absurd illustration of the system. When the border difficulties with the State of Maine occurred last winter, the Government of Nova Scotia had not the power to move a single man of the militia force (the laws having expired), or to vote a single shilling, until the majority came forward, as they always have done, in the most honourable manner, and, casting aside all political differences, passed laws for embodying the militia, and granted £100,000 to carry on the war. But, will your Lordship believe, will it be credited in England, that those who voted that money; who were responsible to their constituents for its expenditure, and without whose consent (for they formed two-thirds of the Commons) a shilling could not have been drawn, had not a single man in the local cabinet by whom it was to be spent, and by whom, in that trying emergency, the Governor would be advised? Nor are things better when the Legislature is not in session. In consequence of the establishment of steam navigation, a despatch was sent out this spring, after the House was prorogued, requiring the Governor of this Province to put the main roads in thorough repair. Of course he had no means to accomplish the object, nor could his Executive Council guarantee that a single shilling thus expended would be replaced or that a vote of censure would not be passed upon him if he spent one; and to obviate the difficulty, they were seen consulting and endeavouring to propitiate the members of the majority, whose places, upon such terms, they were contented to occupy and to which, as far as I am concerned, if such humiliations are to be the penalty, they are heartily welcome. It has been objected to the mode proposed, that it would lead to the rotation of office, or extensive dismissals of subordinates, practised in the United States. But no person abhors that system more than myself, nor has it found any favour in the Colonies, where the British practice is preferred, of removing the heads of departments only. To those who are afraid of the turmoil and excitement that would be produced, it is only necessary to say, that if upon the large scale on which the principle is applied at home, there is no great inconvenience felt, how much less have we to fear where the population is not so dense, the competition not so active, nor the prizes so gigantic. A ministry that in England lasts two or three years is supposed to fulfil its mission; and a quadrennial bill is considered unnecessary, because Parliament, on the average, seldom sits longer than three or four years. As, under a systen of responsibility, the contest for power would be fought. out here as it is in England, chiefly on the hustings; an administration would, therefore, last in Nova Scotia until the quadrennial bill was passed, for six years certainly-two years more than the Governor, unless specially continued, is expected to hold his appointment; and if it managed judiciously, there would be nothing to prevent it from holding the reins for twenty or thirty years. Of course, an Executive Council in the Colonies should not be expected to resign upon every incidental and unimportant question connected with the details of government; but, whenever a fair and decisive vote, by which it was evident that they had lost the confidence of the country, was registered against them, they should either change their policy, strengthen their hands by the accession of popular talents and principles, or abandon their seats and assume the duties and responsibilities of opposition. If there was any doubt as to what the nature of such votes should be, the Parliamentary usage would be the guide on this as on all minor matters. One of the greatest evils of the present form of government is, that nothing like system or responsibility can be carried into any one branch of the public service. There are, exclusive of military and road commissions, nearly nine 4 hundred offices to be filled, in the Province of Nova Scotia alone; ail essential to the administration of internal affairs, not one of them having anything to do with Imperial interests. And will it be believed in England, that the whole of this patronage is in the hands of a body whom the people can never displace? that the vast majority in the Commons have not the slightest influence in its distribution? while the greatest idiot who gives his silent and subservient vote in the minority, is certain of obtaining his reward? But the evil does not stop here. It is utterly impossible for the people either to bring to punishment or to get rid of a single man of the whole nine hundred, if the local government chooses to protect him. Perhaps the most cruel injury that the system inflicts on the Colonists, arises from the manner in which they are compelled to conduct their internal improvements. This has been noticed by Lord Durham. But perhaps his Lordship did not fully comprehend the reasons which render the mode-however anomalous and injurious-in some degree acceptable to the constituency, in order that other evils may be prevented, which might be a great deal worse. It will be perceived that the nine hundred offices already referred to, are generally distributed by the irresponsible official party in such a way as to buy their peace or to strengthen their influence in the country3 Let us see how this operates in practice. Suppose a county sends to the Assembly four representatives, all of whom support the local government; the patronage of that county is of course at their disposal, to strengthen their hands, and to keep down all opposition; but should the whole be hostile to the compact, then it is used to foster opposition and create a party to displace them. If there is a division of sentiment among the members, those who support are always aided in mortifying and getting rid of those who attack the Government. Though but one of the four is an adherent of the compact, every man in the county knows, that his influence is worth much more than that of the other three; that, while one can obtain any favour that he wants for a friend or partisan, the others cannot, unless by the barter of a corrupt vote or the sacrifice of principle, even obtain justice. Now, if besides these nine hundred offices, about five hundred commissions for the expenditure of the surplus revenues of the country upon roads, bridges and internal improvements, were given over to be disposed of in the same way, the hands of the compact would be so nuch strengthened that it would be still more easy to create a party in a county, to endanger the seat of any member who ventured to give an independent vote. To obviate this risk, which was seen at an early period to menace the independence of the Commons, it was determined that the members from each county should recommend the commissioners for the expenditure of moneys within it; and this, being acquiesced in by the Governors for some time before its political bearing was much regarded lby the compact, has grown into usage which they have not ventured openly to attack; although, as they still contend that the right of appointment is in the Executive they seldom fail to show their power and vent their feelings, by petty alterations almost every year. The advantages of this arrangement are that the majority of the constituency-and not the minority, as in every other case-distribute the patronage under this branch of expenditure; and, as the members who name commissioners have a great deal of local knowledge, and are, moreover, responsible to the people, they can be called to account if they abuse this trust. But still, from the very nature of things, it is liable to abuse. Road commissions may be multiplied and sums unwisely expended to secure votes at the next election; or to reward, not a good road maker but a zealous partisan. The Executive has not the control it would have if these men were selected by the Government; and the legislative power, which should be used to unmask corruption, is sometimes abused to afford it shelter. The remedy which our compacts always suggest, like all their remedies for political discrepancies, aims at the extension of their own influence and the irimer establishment of their own power. They are loud, upon all occasions, in denouncing the corruption of the road system. The minority in the Assembly are cloquent on the same theme; while, through the columns of some newspaper in their pay, they are always pouring forth complaints, that the roads are wretchedly bad and that they will never be better until the expenditure is placed in their hands. It will be perceived, however, that to follow their advice, would be to make what is admitted on all hands to have its evils, a great deal worse; because, if these nominations are taken from those who posesss local information, and given to men who have little or none, who will not be advised by those who have, and who can be called to account by no power known to the Constitution ;- besides a great deal more of blundering being the result, the partial responsibility, which now makes the system barely tolerable, would be entirely removed. Political partisans would still be rewarded; but, instead of ail parties in the country sharing the patronage (for members of the minority, as well as of the majority, make these appointments), it would be confined only to those who supported the compact; and who, however imbecile, ignorant or corrupt, would then be, as every other officer in the Colony is now, independent of any description of public control. If any doubt could be entertained as to whether the public would lose or gain by the change, evidence enough might be gathered; for some of the vilest jobs and most flagrant cases of mismanagement that disgrace the history of the road service in Nova Scotia, have been left as monuments of the ignorance or folly of the compact, whenever they have taken these matters into their own hands. But, make the Governor’s advisers responsible to the Assembly, and the repre- sentatives would at once resign to them the management of such affairs. It would then be the business of the Executive, instead of leaving the road service to the extemporaneous zeal or corrupt management of individuals, to corne prepared, at the commencement of each session, with a general review of the whole system; and, supported by its majority, to suggest and carry a compre- hensive and intelligible scheme, embracing the whole of this service, accounting for the previous year’s expenditure and appointments, and accepting the sug- gestions of mermbers as to the plans of the current year. We should then have an Executive to which every commissioner would be directly accountable; to which he could apply for instructions from January to December; and which, being itself responsible, would be careful of its proceedings; and yet, being more independent than individual members are in dealing with their own constituents, would be more firm and unyielding where it was right. This is the simple, and I am satisfied the only safe remedy for the abuses of the road system. To take the distribution of commissions from fifty men, possessed of much local knowledge ,and partially responsible, to give it to twelve others having less information and subject to no control, would be an act of madness. Fortunately, in this, as in all other cases, we have no occasion to seek for new theories, or try unsafe experiments; let us adopt the good old practices of our ancestors and of our brethren; let us “keep the old paths,” in which, while tiere is much facility, there is no danger. My Lord, there is an argument used against the introduction of Executive responsibility, by Sir Francis Head, which it may be well to notice, because it has been caught up by shallow thinkers everywhere, and is often urged with an air of triumph, that, to those who look beyond the surface, is somewhat ridiculous. It is said, that if this principle had been in operation, Papineau and Mackenzie would have been ministers in the respective Provinces they disturbedi But, do those who urge this objection ever stay to inquire whether, if there had been responsibility in the Canadas, either of these men could have assumed so much consequence as to be able to obstruct the operations of Government and to create a rebellion in a British Province? Nothing made a dictator tolerable in ancient Rome but a sense of common danger arising out of some unusual and disastrous posture of affairs, which rendered it necessary to confide to an individual extraordinary powers-to raise one man far above all others of his own rank-to substitute his will for the ordinary routine of administration, and to make the words of his mouth the laws of the land. When the danger passed away, the dictator passed away with it. Power, no longer combined in one mighty stream, the eccentric violence of which, though useful might be destructive, was distributed over the surface of society, and flowed again through a thousand small but well-established channels, everywhere stimulating and refreshing, but nowhere exciting alarm. In political warfare, this practice of the ancients has been followed by the moderns with good success. O’Connell in Ireland, and Papineau and Mackenzie in Canada grew into importance, from the apparent necessity which existed for large masses of men to bestow upon individuals unlimited confidence, and invest then with extraordinary powers. I wish that the two latter, instead of provoking the maddest rebellions on record, had possessed the sound sense and consummate prudence which have marked every important step in the former’s extraordinary career. But, who believes, that if Ireland had had “justice” instead of having it to seek, that ever such a political phenomenon as the great agitator would have appeared to challenge our admiration and smite the oppressors with dismay? And who dreams that, but for the wretched system upheld in all the Colonies, and the entire absence of responsibility, by which faction or intrigue were made the only roads to power, either of the Canadian demagogues would ever have had an inducement, or been placed in a position to disturb the public peace? I grant that even under the forms that I recommend, such men as Papineau and Mackenzie might have existed; that they might have becone conspicuous and influential; and that it is by no means improbable that they would have been Exccutive Councillors of their respective Provinces, advising the Governors and presiding over the administration of their internal affairs. But suppose they had; would not even this have been better than two rebellions-the scenes at Vindsor, St. Charles and St. Eustache-the frontier atrocities-and the expenditure of three million sterling, which will be the cost before the accounts are closed? Does any man in his senses believe, if Mackenzie or Bidwell could have guided the internal policy and dispensed the local patronage according to the British mode, that either of them would have been so mad as to dream of turning Upper Canada into a Republic; when, even if they succeeded, they could only hope to be Governors for a few years, with powers very much more restricted and salaries not more ample than were theirs for life or as long as they preserved their majority? Possessed of honours and substantial power, (not made to feel that they who could most effectually serve the Crown, were excluded by a false system fron its favour, that others less richly endowed might rise upon their ruins), would these men have madly rushed into rebellion with the chances before them of expatriation or of an ignominious death? You well know, my Lord, that rebels have become exceedingly scarce at home, since the system of letting the majority govern has become firmly established; and yet they were as plentiful as blackberries in the good old times, when the sovereigns contended, as Sir Francis Head did lately, that they only were responsible. Turn back and you will find that they began to disappear altogether in England about 1688, and that every political change that makes the Executive more completely responsible to the Legislature and the Legisiature to the country at large, renders the prospects of a new growth, “small by degrees and beautifully less.” And yet, my Lord, who can assure us, that if the sovereigns had continued, as of old, alone responsible; if hundreds of able men all running the same course of honourable ambition, had not been encouraged to watch and control each other; and if the system of governing by the minority and not by the majority, and of excluding from power all who did not admire the mode, and quarrelled with the court, had existed down to the present day ;-who, I ask, will assure us, that Chatham and Fox, instead of being able ministers and loyal men, might not have been sturdy rebels? Who can say that even your Lordship, possessed of the strong attachment to liberty which distinguishes your family, might not,-despairing of all good government under such a system,- instead of using your influence to extend by peaceful improverents the happiness of the people,-be at this moment in the field at their head and struggling, sword in hand, to abate the power of the Crown? So long as the irresponsibility principle was maintained in Scotland, and the viceroys and a few bishops and courtiers engrossed the administration, there were such men as Hume and Lindsay, and such things as assembles in Glasgow, general tables in Edinburgh, and armed men in every part of that noble country, weakening the Government, and resisting the power of the Crown; and up to the period when Lord Normanby assumed the government of Ireland and it became a principle of administration that the minority were no longer to control the majority and shut them out from all the walks of honourable ambition, what was the attitude in which Mr. O’Connell stood towards the Sovereign? Was it not one of continual menace and hostility, by which the latter was degraded and the former clothed with a dangerous importance? And what is his attitude now? Is it not that of a warmhearted supporter of the Queen, whose smiles are no longer confined to a faction but shed over a nation, every man of which feels that he is free to obtain, if he lias the ability and the good fortune to deserve, the highest honours in her power to bestow? Daniel O’Connell (and perhaps it may be said that his tail suggested a comparison) is no longer a political cornet blazing towards the zenith and tilling the terror-stricken beholders with apprehensions of danger and a sense o! coming change; but a brilliant planet revolving in an orbit with the extent of which all are familiar, and reflecting back to the source of light and honour the beams which it is proud to share. Who any longer believes that O’Connell is to shake the empire and overturn the throne? And who doubts, had he despaired of justice, but he too might have been a rebel; and that the continued application to Ireland of the principles I denounce, would have revived the scenes and sufferings through which she passed in 1798? If, my Lord, in every one of the three great kingdoms from which the popula- tion of British America derive their origin, the evils of which we complain were experienced and continued until the principles we claim as our birthright became firmly established, is it to be expected that we shall not endeavour to rid ourselves, by respectful argument and remonstrance, of what cost you open and violent resistance to put down? Can an Englishman, an Irishman or a Scotchman, be made to believe, by passing a month upon the sea, that the most stirring periods of his history are but a cheat and a delusion; that the scenes which he has been accustomed to tread withi deep emotions are but mementoes of the folly, and not, as he once fondly believed, of the wisdom and courage of his ancestors; that the principles of civil liberty, which from childhood he has been taught to cherish and to protect by forms of stringent responsibility, must, with the new light breaking in upon him on this side of the Atlantic, be cast aside as useless incumbrance? No, my Lord, it is madness to suppose that these men, so remarkable for carrying their national characteristics into every part of the world where they penetrate, shall lose the most honourable of them al, merely by passing from one part of the empire to another. Nor is it to be supposed that the Nova Scotians, New Brunswickers and Canadians-a race sprung from the generous admixture of the blood of the three foremost nations of the world-proud of their parentage and not unworthy of it, to whom every stirring period of British and Irish history, every great principle which they teach, every phrase of freedom to be gleaned from them, are as familiar as household words, can be in haste to forget what they learnt upon their parents’ knees; what those they loved and honoured clung to with so much pride, and regarded as beyond ail price. Those who expect them thus to belie tleir origin, or to disgrace it, may as soon hope to see the streams turn back upon their fountains. My Lord, my countrymen feel, as they have a riglit to feel, that the Atlantic, the great highway of communication with their brethren at home, should be no barrier to shut out the civil privileges and political rights, which more than anything else, make thiem proud of the connection; and they feel also, that there is nothing in their present position or their past conduct to warrant such exclusion. Whatever impression may have been made by the wholesome satire’ wherewith one of my countrymen has endeavoured to excite the others to still greater exertions; those who fancy that Nova Scotians are an inferior race to those who dwell upon the ancient homestead or that they will be contented with a less degree of freedom, know little of them. A country that a century ago was but a wilderness and is now studded with towns and villages, and intersected with roads, even though more might have been done under a better system, affords some evidence of industry. Nova Scotian ships, bearing the British flag into every quarter of the globe, are some proofs of enterprise; and the success of the native author, to whom I have alluded, in the wide field of intellectual competition, more than contradicts the humorous exaggeration by which, while we are stimulated to higler efforts. others nay be for a moment misled. If then our right to inherit the Constitution be clear; if our capacity to maintain and enjoy it cannot be questioned; have we done anything to justify the alienation of our birthrighit? Many of the original settlers of this Province emigrated from the old Colonies when they were in a state of rebellion-not because they did not love freedom, but because they loved it under the old banner and the old forms; and many of their descendants have shed their blood, on land and sea, to defend the honour of the crown and the integrity of the empire. On some of the hardest fought fields of the Peninsula, my countrymen died in the front rank, with their faces to the foe. The proudest naval trophy 2 of the last American war was brought by a Nova Scotian into the harbour of his native town; and the blood that flowed from Nelson’s death wound in the cockpit of the Viclory mingled with that of a Nova Scotian stripling’ beside him struck down in the same glorious fight. Am I not then justified, my Lord, in claiming for my countrymen that Constitution, which can be withheld from them by no plea but one unworthy of a British statesman-the tyrant’s plea of power? I know that I am; and I feel also, that this is not the race that can be hoodwinked with sophistry, or made to submit to injustice without complaint. Ali suspicion of disloyalty we cast aside, as the product of ignorance or cupidity; we seek for nothing more than British subjects are entitled to; but we will be contented with nothing less. My Lord, il has been said, that if this system of responsibility were established, it would lead to a constant struggle for office and influence, which would be injurious to the habits of our population and corrupt the integrity of the public iien. That it would lead to the former I admit; but that the latter would be a consequence I must take leave to deny, until it can be shown, that in any of the other employments of life, fair competition has that effect. Let the bar biecome the bar only of the minority, and how long would there be honour and safety in the profession? Let the rich prizes to be won in commerce and finance 1e confined to a mere fragment, instead of being open to the whole population; and I doubt whether the same benefits, the same integrity, or the same satisfaction would grace the monopoly, that now spring from an open, fair and rnanly comipetition, by which, while individuals prosper, wealth and prosperity are Lrathered to the State. To be satisfied that this fair competition can with safety and the greatest advantage be carried into public as well as into private affairs, it is only necessary to contrast the example of England with that of any Continental nation where the opposite system has been pursued. And if, in England, the struggle for influence and olice has curbed corruption and produced examples of consistency and an adherence to principle extremely rare in other countries, and in none more so than in the Colonies, where the course pursued strikes at the very root of manly independence, why should we apprehend danger from its introduction or shrink from the peaceful rivalry it may occasion? But, my Lord, hiere is another view that ought to be taken of this question. Ought not British statesmen to ask themselves, is it wise to leave a million and a half of people, virtually excluded from all participation in the honourable prizes of public life? There is not a weaver’s apprentice or a parish orphan in England, that does not feel that lie may, if ho has the talent, rise through every grade of office, municipal and national, to hold the reins of government and influence the destinies of a mighty empire. The Queen may be hostile, the Lords may chafe, but neither can prevent that weaver’s apprentice or that parish orphan from becoming Prime Minister of England. Then look at the United States, in which the son of a mechanic in the smallest town, of a squatter in the wildest forest, may contend, on equal terms, with the proudest, for any office in twenty-eight different States; and having won as many as content him, may rise, through the national grades, to he President of the Union. There are no family compacts to exclude these aspirants; no little knot of irresponsible and self-elected councillors, to whom it is necessary to sell their principles, and before whom the manliness of their nature must be prostrated, before they can advance. But, in the Colonies, where there are no prizes so splendid as these, is it wise or just to narrow the field and 1onine to little cliques of irresponsible politicians, what prizes there are? No, my Lord, it is neither just nor wise. Every poor boy in Nova Scotia (for we have tie feelings of pride and ambition common to our nature) knows that he has the saine right to the honours and emoluments of office as lie would have if he lived in Britain or the United States; and lie feels, that while the great honours of the empire are almost beyond his reach, he ought to have a chance of dispensing the patronage and guiding the administration of his native country without any sacrifice of principle or diminution of self-respect. My Lord, I have done. If what has been written corrects any error into which your Lordship or others may have fallen, and communicates to some, either in Britain or the Colonies, information upon a subject not generally understood, i shall be amply repaid. Your Lordship will perhaps pardon me for reminding you, that, in thus eschewing the anonymous and putting my name t, an argument in favour of Executive responsibility for the North American colonies, I am acting under a sense of deep responsibility myself. i well know that there is not a press in the pay of any of the family compacts, that will not misrepresent my motives and pervert my language; that there is not an over-paid and irresponsible official, from Fundy to the Ottawa, whose inextinguishable hostility I shall not have earned for the remainder of my life. The example of your Lordship will, however, help me to bear these burdens with patience. You have lived and prospered, and done the State good service, and yet thousands of corrupt borough mongers and irresponsible corporators formerly misrepresented and hated you. Should I live to sec the principles for which I contend, operating as beneficially over British North America, as those immortal acts, which provoked your Lordship’s enemies, do in the mother country, I shall be gratified by the reflection, that the patriotic and honourable men now contending for the principles of the British Constitution, and by whose side, as an humble auxiliary, I am proud to take my stand, whatever they may have suffered in the struggle, did not labour in vain.-I have the honour to be, with the highest respect, your Lordship’s humble admirer, and most obedient servant, JOSEPH HOWE.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Joseph Howe to Lord John Russell

My Lord, The next passage of the Speech of the 3rd of June, which I am bound to notice, is that in which you say:- “The Governor might ask the Executive Council to propose a certain measure. They might say that they could not propose it unless the members of the House of Assembly would adopt it, but the Governor might reply that he had received instructions from home commanding him to propose that measure. How, in that case, is he to proceed ? Either one power or the other must be set aside; either the Governor or the House of Assembly; or else the Governor must become a mere cipher in the hands of the Assembly, and not attempt to carry into effect the measures which he is commanded by the Home Government to do.” This objection is based upon the assumption, that the interests of the mother country and those of the colonies are not the same; that they must be continually in a state of conflict; and that there must be some course of policy necessary for the Imperial Government to enforce, the reasons for which cannot be understood in the colonies, nor its necessity recognized. This may have been the case formerly in the West Indies, where the conflict was one between the ideas engendered by a state of slavery and a state of freedom; but it is not true of the North American Provinces, to the condition and claims of which my observations are chiefly confined. Of all the questions which have agitated or are likely to agitate Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, of Prince Edward Island, how few, when rightly understood, can be said to involve any Imperial interests; or trench upon any principle dear to our brethren at home, or the concession of which could disturb the peace of the Empire? Have any of these colonies claimed the right to regulate the foreign trade or foreign policy of the Empire? lave they ever interfered, except to carry out the views of 1-er Majesty’s Government, with any of the military or naval operations? Have they exposed a grievance, the continued existence of which is indispensable to the well-being of the British Islands; or demanded a right, the concession of which would not be serviceable to themselves, without doing the least injury to the people of Britain? For what have they asked? For the control of their own revenues and the means of influencing the appointment and acts of the men who are to dispense them; and who are, besides, to distribute hundreds of petty offices, and discharge functions manifold and various within the Colony itself? The people of England have no knowledge of these matters, nor any interest in them, to give them the right to interfere. Interference does much mischief to the Colonists, and can do no good to their brethren across the water. If British statesmen would let these things alone-and it is over these only that we claim to enforce responsibility and confine themselves to those general arrangements affecting the whole Empire, of which we admit them to be the best judges, and in the conduct of which we never asked to take a part, it would be impossible to conceive how such a case could arise as that supposed by your Lordship, or how the Governor could be charged with “a measure which his Executive Council would not dare to propose.” Admitting that there might be some subjects requiring discussion in the Provinces, but which the Colonists were not prepared to adopt, surely an Executive Councillor could be got, even if he were opposed to the views of the ministers, to submit the measure and explain those views to the popular branch; or might there not be ” open questions” in the Colonies as at home? The conclusion at which my mind arrives, then, after the best attention that I can give to this branch of the subject, is, that if the duties and responsibilities of government are fairly and judiciously divided between the Imperial and Colonial authorities, no such case as that assumed by your Lordship can occur; and, if it should, surely the good sense of all parties concerned may safely be trusted, to avoid any violent or unpleasant collision. But did it never occur to your Lordship to inquire, whether the very evil anticipated, as an insuperable objection to the new system, does not disfigure and annually occur under the old? What else were the Executive Councillors in Upper and Lower Canada doing for a series of years but “proposing certain measures,” to be as certainly rejected by the popular branch? What else are they about now in Newfoundland? What but this were they doing in New Brunswick, down to the close of Sir Archibald Campbell’s Administration? In all these Provinces a state of constant collision between the Executive and the popular branch, which could by no possibility arise under the system I contemplate, would answer the objection, even if the difficulty suggested could be fairly taken into account. If it be said that the Councillors now do not refuse to propose measures, I answer, But if the Legislatures invariably reject them, does government gain anything, or is public business advanced by the system? What a figure did the Executive cut in Nova Scotia, in 1838, when the Councillor who brought down from the Governor a grave proposition, led the opposition against it? And how stand things in this Province now? Are not all the Councillors selections from a lean ninority of the commons, in which body almost every debate terminates in a vote of implied want of confidence in them; and where the Governor they surround bas, on several occasions, only been saved from an insulting vote of censure by the good temper and moderation of the majority? This is a state of things too ridiculous to be long continued. To me it seems essential that, Her Majesty, in every colony, should be represented by an Executive not only willing “to attempt” but ” able to carry” any measures that it may be necessary to propose. The next objection taken by your Lordship to the introduction of Provincial responsibility, one eminently calculated to have weight with the body you addressed, and to alarm the timid everywhere, was drawn from an application of the principle, to the management of foreign affairs. ” If,” says your Lordship, ” the Assembly of New Brunswick had been disposed to carry the point in dispute with the North American States hostilely, and the Executive Council had been disposed to aid them, in my opinion the Governor must have said that his duty to the Crown of this country, and the general instructions which he had received from the minister of the Crown, did not permit him to take that course, and, therefore, he could not agree with the Executive Council to carry into effect the wish of the Assembly. That is allowed. Does not, then, its very exception destroy the analogy you wish to draw, when, upon so important a point as that of foreign affairs, it cannot be sustained?” Your Lordship, in delivering this passage, of course, was not aware that, without the alteration of a single syllable, you answered the very objection that yourself had raised. If the Executive Council of New Brunswick advised Sir John Harvey to declare war upon the State of Maine, “he must have said that his duty to the Crown and his instructions did not permit him to take that course.” Most certainly lie would, if a measure so ridiculous had been attempted in New Brunswick, which nobody, who knows anything of that Province, could for a moment imagine. I do not believe that there are ten men in it, certainly there are not fifty in all the lower Provinces put together, who do not know that the Sovereign alone lias the right to declare war upon foreign powers; and who are not willing that, upon all the relations of the Colonies with these, and with each other, the Imperial Government shall decide. A few of the New Brunswickers blamed Sir John Harvey for not acting upon Her Majesty’s instructions to maintain exclusive jurisdiction over the disputed territory, notwithstanding the advice received from the Minister at Washington; but, if those instructions had not existed, and had not been positive, no one would have been idiot enough to suppose that Sir John Harvey would have been bound to make war, on a point of honour or policy newly discovered by his Executive Council, and upon which ler Majesty’s government had had no opportunity to decide. Suppose, when Parliament was granting a charter to Hull, it was objected that the Mayor might be advised to make war upon Sweden (and, in the case of an elective officer, Lhe danger would be greater than if lie were appointed by the Crown,) would not the same louse of Commons that thought it unsafe to let a Colony manage its internal affairs for fear it would engage in foreign wars, laugh at the possibility of such an absurdity being committed by any body of Englishmen out of Bedlam? Why then should it be taken for granted that we are not English in our habits and opinions, our education and training, our capacity to discern the boundaries of authority; and that therefore it would be unsafe to depend upon our wisely exercising powers, which, in the British Islands, millions exercise for their own security and without danger to the state? In the case of Hull, if the objection were gravely urged, the ready answer would be, “No greater powers can be exercised than are granted in the bill; and if there is the least danger of the city authorities doing anything so ridiculous, put in a clause that shall restrain them.” And I say-after soberly protesting that the very suspicion of such an attempt is an insult to the understanding, and an imputation upon the character of our population, which they do not deserve-that if you wish “to make assurance doubly sure,” put a clause into the bill which concedes the principle of responsibility so far as relates to domestic affairs, and by which all such belligerent Councillors shall be expressly restrained. Whether this point were or were not thus defined, that any Executive Council, merely because they were responsible to the people, would, after receiving such an answer as your Lordship admits a British Governor must give, proceed in defiance of his authority, to levy war upon a friendly state, I cannot for a moment believe. If they did, they would certainly so completely fail, and render thenselves so supremely ridiculous, that the attempt would not be likely to be repeated, at least for a century to come. Let us suppose the case to have occurred in New Brunswick: that the Executive Council being responsible, had advised Sir John Harvey to proceed hostilely; and that, on his declining, they had levied war. In the first place, as all the regular troops were at Sir John’s disposal, as Commander-in-Chief within the Province, and not merely as civil Governor, they not only could not have moved a soldier, but would have had the whole military force of that and the adjoining Provinces against them. As the Gover- nor’s order to the colonels and officers commanding the militia is indispensable before a single step can be taken, under the laws by which that force is embodied, of course no hostile order would have been given, nor could those laws have been inodified or changed without Sir John’s assent. And if it be urged, that volunteers would have flocked to the aid of the Executive Council, may I not inquire where tiey would have obtained arms and ammunition, when all the military munitions and stores were deposited in military warehouses, under the care of commissaries and officers of ordnance responsible only to the Crown ? Oh! no, my Lord, whatever effect such imaginary cases as these may have on men at a distance, unacquainted with the state of society in British America and the general intelligence which prevails; here they are laughed at, as the creations of a fertile imagination taxed to combat political improvements that were feared without being understood. If, even under the federative government of the United States, in which each state is much more independent of the central authority than any Colony would be under the system I contemplate, this right of private war has only been once asserted, by a single State, in more than half a century, and then was scouted all over the Continent, is it to be supposed that British subjects will pay less respect to the authority of their Queen than do republican Americans to that of their President? There is one bare possibility, which your Lordship bas not suggested, in opposition to the new system, and yet it is scarcely more ridiculous than some that have been urged; that the Colonial Councillors might claim the control of the squadron upon the North American coast, as well as of the land forces, in their anxiety to engage in foreign wars. The danger in this case would be nearly as great as in the other; for, in modern warfare, a fleet is nearly as necessary as an army; and yet, it is certain that the admiral upon the station would know how to treat such a claim, should it be preferred by a Council, who, in the wanton exercise of authority, were disposed to transgress all bounds. The next objection which i am bound to notice, is given in the report: “Let us suppose that an officer of the militia in Upper Canada, after an action, was to order that the persons taken in that action should be put to death on the field. I can conceive it possible, in a state of exasperation and conflict with the people of the neighbouring States, that the Assembly might applaud that conduct, and might require that it should be the rule and not the exception,-that all invaders of their territory should be treated in that manner, and that the parties should be put to death without trial. Supposing that to be the case; could the Government of this country adopt such a rule? Could the Secretary of State for the Colonies sanction such a rule, and not decide, as my honourable friend the under-secretary has done, that the practice should meet with his decided reprehension?” Now, my Lord, admitting that such a case might occur once in half a century, under the new system, let me remind your Lordship that it has already occurred under the old. If it is to have any weight, the fact of its occurrence in a Province in which the Executive Council is irresponsible and the Colonial Secretary is in the exercise of his full powers, makes in favour of my argument; while I have a right to deny, until proof is furnished, that it could occur, if matters were more wisely ordered, and a more rational system established, by which all temptations to foreigners to make inroads into British Provinces, speculating upon the disaffection of the people, would be removed. But, my Lord, life bas been taken under your system-” death” has been inflicted “without trial,” illegally, as you infer-and has any punishment followed? Have the laws been vindicated? No! Then why not? Simply, I presume, because your beautiful mode of government has produced such a state of things in a British Province, that the ministers of the Queen dare not bring the man charged with this high offence to trial. Under a system of responsibility, by which the population were left to manage their domestic affairs, I hold that no such violation of law would be likely to occur, and that, if it did, investigation would be as safe, and punishment as certain, as though a crime had been committed in Middlesex, or Surrey. I have thus disposed, my Lord, of the military questions; and, as I have left Her Majesty and her representatives in full control of the army and navy and of the militia force of British America, and have asserted no claim of the Colonists to interfere with foreign treaties and diplomatic arrangements affecting the empire at large; I think, if peace be not maintained with foreign states, the punishment for offences strictly military be not awarded, the blame will not rest with the Executive Councillors, who are to exercise no jurisdiction over these matters, and cannot be responsible if others fail in their duty. Let me now turn to another class of objections, arising out of our Colonial and foreign trade. “Again,” says your Lordship, “neither could this analogy be maintained with regard to trade between Canada and the mother country, or Canada and any other country. How then can you adopt a principle from which such large exceptions are to be made? If you were to do so, you would be continually on the borders of dispute and conflict; the Assembly and the Executive, on the one hand, requiring a certain course to be pursued, while the Governor, on the other hand, would be as constantly declaring that it was a course he could not adopt; so that, instead of furnishing matter of content and harmony in these Provinces, you would be affording new matter for dispute and discontent if you were to act upon this supposed analogy.” Now, my Lord, i feel it my duty to state, that you may take from any part you please to select, of England, Ireland, or Scotland, two hundred thousand persons, and among them you will not find a larger number than are to be found in Nova Scotia, well informed as to the degree of authority in matters of trade, which, for the good of the whole empire and the preservation of the advantages in which all are to participate, it is necessary to confide to the care of the Sovereign and the wisdom of the Imperial Parliament. The great corporations of London, of Bristol, and of Liverpool, do not presume to interfere with these, except by petition and remonstrance, neither do we. Each of these cities bas the right to levy small duties within their own limits, for matters of internal regulation, or to aid public improvements; and these rights they exercise, in common with us, when they do not contravene any British statutes necessary for the protection of the trade of the empire. But, if it can be shown that a law bears unequally upon London or Halifax, and that a flagrant case of hardship exists; or if the industry of any portion of the people, either in England or the Colonies is taxed, while no corresponding advantage is reaped by any other portion; or that, if reaped, it is an unfair and illegitimate advantage,-an appeal is made to Parliament. We have hitherto been contented, although not directly represented in that Assembly, to abide the result of that appeal; or to pass bills, taking our chance of their being assented to in England. The same thing would occur, even if the Executive Council was responsible; for, upon this point, there is no part of our population prepared to set up absurd or irrational claims. If Parliament should undertake to legislate directly against our interests; to cut up our commerce, and prevent the growth of domestic industry; and, after fair notice and ample proof of injury, were to persist in such a course; why then a state of things would arise, which similar policy produced elsewhere, in other times, and upon the results of which either responsible or irresponsible Councils would exercise but little influence. But, as political economists at home are every day becoming convinced that the more liberty they afford to the Colonist to conduct his commercial operations the greater will be his demand for British manufactures; and as, under the guidance of this enlightened policy, the laws of trade and navigation are annually becoming less restrictive, it is not probable that difficulties, which were never insuperable, will all of a sudden admit of no rational remedy; or that the boundaries of Colonial and Imperial authority, now so well understood, and the recognition of which is so easily enforced, will often be called in question on either side. If the Colonists assert rights which do not belong to them, and persist in their contumacy, disturbing solemn treaties and setting acts of Parliament at naught; why then they have broken the social compact: it is a case of rebellion and they must be put down. Let us reduce the difficulty to practice, for the purpose of illustration. Suppose that both branches of the Legislature pass a law by -which a heavy duty is laid on British broadcloths, and those from the United States are admitted duty free; and that the Executive Council, being responsible, advise the Lieutenant Governor to assent to it. Such an absurd piece of bad faith as this could never be attempted in the lower Provinces; for public opinion would never sanction any interference with the general laws not intended to remedy abuses, or that struck at Colonial without promoting British prosperity; nor would any changes be popular which violated the fraternal comity by which British subjects everywhere are bound to encourage and protect each other. But I have supposed the law passed and presented. The Governor would say in this case, as he now invariably says-as your Lordship admits he must say, if urged to provoke a foreign war: “Gentlemen, you are exceeding your powers. To legislate for your own advantage is one thing; to legislate directly against your brethren at home, for the advantage of foreigners, is another. This bill must be either modified or rejected, or reserved for Her Majesty’s assent, before it can go into operation.” If the parties urging it persisted, a dissolution might be tried; and an appeal to British subjects, in a case where the Governor was clearly right and his advisers wrong, would never be made in vain; particularly when aided by the Constitutional opposition, which, under a system of responsibility and manly competition, would exist in every Colony. But if it failed; and such an almost impossible thing were upon the cards, as that a majority could be found in Nova Scotia to sustain such an act, or anything bearing a resemblance to it, then a case would have occurred for the interference of the Imperial authorities, who should say to us frankly: If you will come into unnatural and hostile collision, the weakest has the most to fear. Had your Lordship been as familiar with the mode of dealing with such subjects as most Colonists are who have watched the proceedings of Colonial Assemblies, you would have been satisfied that no danger was to be apprehended from violent collisions about matters of trade. When a new duty is proposed in Nova Scotia or a reduction suggested, the first question asked on all sides is, Will the proposition violate the letter or does it even run counter to the spirit of the Imperial Acts? If it does, in eight cases out of ten, the person bringing the measure forward drops it, on being assured of the fact. In the ninth case, where a doubt exists as to the policy and wisdom of Imperial legislation is found, on inquiry, that the clause which seemed to press upon us, originated in a wide view over the whole field of commerce, which British statesmen, often better than others whose positions afford fewer advantages, are enabled to take and that its repeal would inflict an injury and not confer a benefit. The tenth case is perhaps one in which the Imperial Parliament, either from haste, or prejudice, or insuflicient information, has committed an error in political economy, or inflicted a wound upon Colonial without benefiting British industry. In this case (and they only occur once in a great while) no one ever dreams, that, as your Lordship expresses it, the Imperial Legislature is to be “overruled” by that of the colony. We never doubt but that an appeal to the good sense and the justice of our brethren over the water will be successful. A bill is passed, perhaps, to meet the difliculty; and an explanation of the facts and reasoning in which it originated, is sent with it, in the form of an address to the throne, and in most cases is found to be successful. This is the mode at present. What reason is there to suppose that it would be much changed, if we had an Executive Council, whose powers and responsibilities did not extend to matters of general commerce, already provided for by Imperial legislation? If we are so fond of violent conflicts and factious opposition, what hinders us from indulging our propensities now? Shall we be less considerate the more kindly we are treated? Shall we have less respect for Imperial legislation, when we see that it leaves us the entire management of our domestic affairs and only deals with those great interests which transcend our authority and are beyond our control? Suppose twelve Nova Scotians, who are not responsible to any authority under Heaven, are made accountable to the rest of their countrymen, shall we have a man the more for forcible resistance than we have now or a gun, a pike, a bomb, or a barrel of powder? I have thus, my Lord, gone over the arguments urged by your Lordship in the speech of the 3rd of June. I have omitted none that appear to me to have the slightest bearing upon the great question at issue, and I trust I have given to each a fair and satisfactory answer. I have written not only under a solemn sense of duty, but with a full assurance that sophistry, woven around this question, either on one side of the Atlantic or the other, would be torn to shreds in the conflict of acute and vigorous minds now engaged in its discussion. Had your Lordship, in announcing the decision of the Cabinet, forborne to state the reasons upon which that decision was founded, 1 might, like counsel at the bar under similar circumstances, have felt myself compelled to acquiesce in a judgment, neither the justice nor the policy of which I could fathom. But when the arguments were stated, and when I saw a question involving the peace and security of six extensive Provinces, and the freedom and happiness of a million and a half of British subjects, disposed of by a mode of reasoning which I knew to be deceptive and unsound,-when I saw, in fact, that the parties claiming their rights were to be turned out of court, with all the arguments and ail the evidence on their side, I felt that to remain silent would be to deserve the social and political degradation which this unjust decision was to entail on my countrymen and myself; to earn the Helot mark of exclusion from the blessings of that Constitutional freedom, which our forefathers struggled to bequeathe; and which we should never cease to demand, as a patrimony that runs with our blood, and cannot be rightfully severed from our name…. JOSEPH HOWE.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Joseph Howe To Lord John Russell

My Lord,

-I have read the speech delivered by your Lordship on the 3rd of June, as reported in The Morning Chronicle, several times; and beg your Lordship’s attention to what I conceive to be the rational solution of the difficulties raised in that speech to the concession of the principle of local responsibility. Had your Lordship been more familiar with the practical workings of the existing colonial constitutions, and with the feelings of the people who smart under the mischiefs they produce, you would not, perhaps, have fallen into some errors by which that speech is disfigured; nor have argued the question as one in which, the obvious, manifold, and vital interests of the colonists were to be sacrificed to fear of some vague and indefinite injury that might be sustained by imperial interests, if executive power were taken from the ignorant and given to the wellinformed-if it passed from the hands of officers to whom but a nominal responsibility can attach, into those of men subject to constant scrutiny, and, whenever they fail in their duty, liable to exposure and disgrace. Lord Durham recommends that the English rule, by which those who conduct public affairs resign when they have lost the confidence of the Commons, should be applied to the Executive Councillors in North America. Your Lordship denies the existence of the analogies upon which Lord Durham’s views are based:- “It does not appear to me that you can subject the ExecutiVe Council of Canada to the responsibility which is fairly demanded of the ministers of the executive power in this country. In the first place, there is an obvious difference in matter of form with regard to the instructions under which the Governor of the colony acts. The Sovereign in this country receives the advice of the ministers, and acts by the advice of those ministers; and indeed there is no important act of the Crown for which there is not some indîvidual minister responsible. There responsibility begins, and there it ends. But the Governor of Canada is acting, not in that high and unassailable position in which the Sovereign of this country is placed. -le is a Governor receiving instructions from the Crown on the responsibility of a Secretary of State. Here then, at once, is an obvious and complete difference between the executive of this country and the executive of a colony.” 1 Now, my Lord, let me beg your Lordship’s attention to a few of the reasons why I conceive that such an argument as this ought not to stand in the way of the permanent peace, prosperity, and happiness of a million and a half of human beings. “The Sovereign in England receives the advice of the ministers and acis by the advice of those ministers;”-but are there no limits assigned by law, within which those advisers are bound to keep ?-and is not the Sovereign bound to know and to apprise the country when they over-step them? What is the question at issue now between the Whigs and Tories? Is it not, whether, according to the spirit and practice of the Constitution, Sir Robert Peel had or had not a right.to advise the changes in ler Majesty’s household, upon which he insisted, before he would consent to form an administration? Suppose the present Cabinet were to advise 1-er Majesty to cut off Sir Robert’s ears, or to bombard the city of London, would she obey, or would she not say, “Gentlemen you are exceeding vour powers, and unless you conduct yourselves with more discretion, you must resign?” It is plain, therefore, that there are bounds beyond which even in the mother country, neither the advisers nor the monarch can pass; and none who seck colonial responsibility are so mad as to require that corresponding restrictions shall not be binding here; that there shall not be a limit beyond which no Executive Councillor can pass, and over which no representative of Her Majesty will consent to be driven? These bounds must be clearly defined in the Act of larliament which establishes the new system, or in the instructions sent to the Governors, to be communicated to the Legislatures; and which they may, if they sce fit, embody in a bill, which, so long as it exisis, shall be, to all intents and purposes, the Constitution of the Colony. But, your Lordship says:-” The Governor is acting, not in that high and unassailable position in which the Sovereign of this country is placed.” Why should he not occupy a position nearly as independent; and be perfectly unassailable, so long as he does not interfere (as the Sovereign would not dare to do) with rnatters for which others are responsible; nor allow himself, or his Council, to overstep those boundaries which British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic, for the protection of their mutual rights and interests, have established; and for a jealous recognition of which he, in case bad advice be given him, is alone responsible? The Queen’s position is unassailable only so long as she does no act which the Constitution does not permit to be done. The Governor, if assailed, would in like manner turn to the Constitution of the colony committed to his care; and show that on the one hand he had neither trenched upon the rights essential to the security of colonial liberty, nor, on the other, timorously yielded aught which the laws for the protection of imperial interests made it criminal to yield. Your Lordship is mistaken, therefore, in supposing that the Sovereign is divested of all responsibility; although I admit it is much more difficult to call him or her to an account than it would be the Governor of a colony. If the Queen were to deprive Sir Robert Peel of his ears or open a few batteries upon London, an émeute or a revolution would be the only remedy; but a Governor, if he consented to an act which shut out British manufacturers, or was tempted to levy war upon a friendly state, could be called to account without difficulty or delay; and, hence, I argue, that the facility and certainty of inflicting punishment for offences of this sort would prevent their commission; and operate as a sufficient guard to the imperial interests, which your Lordship seems so anxious to protect. If it be said that the people in a colony may sustain councillors who give unconstitutional advice, my answer is, that the same thing may·occur in England. When it does, a peaceful modification of the Constitution, or a revolution follows; but these cases are not so frequent as to excite alarm, nor is there any reason to believe that they will be more so in the colonies, whose power to enforce improper demands is so questionable. “He is a Governor receiving instructions from the Crown, on the responsibility of a Secretary of State.” This passage suggests some reflections which I feel it my duty respectfully to press upon your Lordship’s attention. One of the evils of the existing system, or rather haphazard mode of government, devoid of ail system, is the various readings given to the medley of laws, usages, and Colonial Office despatches, by which we are at present ruled. An excellent illustration of the difliculty of obtaining an interpretation of these, about which there can be no mistake-which he who runs may read-rnay be furnished by contrasting the views put forth by your Lordship with those acted upon by Sir Francis Head; 1 and which, after a bloody rebellion, brought on to prove the value of his theory, he stîll avows in every succeeding edition of his Narralive, with a consistency and complacency worthy of ail praise. “The responsibility,” says your Lordship, “resis on ihe Secreiary of Stale.” “The responsibility,” says Sir Francis -lead, in every act of his government and in every page of his book, “resis on me.” From the moment of his entering into Upper Canada, he threw overboard ail the instructions from the Colonial Secretary (who according to your Lordship ought to have been obeyed, for lie was alone responsible); he struck out a course of policy entirely new; commenced “putting the padlock on the mind,” to be followed by some hundreds of handcuffs on the wrists, and padlocks on the body. His language to Lord Glenelg throughout was, ” You must support me,”-“The fear is that I will not be supported at the Colonial Office.” In fact, from-first to last, Sir Francis gave instructions to, instead of receiving them from, the Secretary of State; and finding that Lord Glenelg would not permit him to try his experiments in government, and combat the fiery dragon of democracy in the bosom of a British Province, at the cost of a good deal of blood and treasure, and the prospects of a foreign war, without occasionally offering a little advice, the worthy Baronet resigned; and has ever since been publishing his complaints to the world and claiming its sympathy, as a sufferer for conscience’ sake, in upholding the only correct reading of colonial constitutions, and whicli the Secretary of State, and the Whig Government of which lie was a member, did not understand. The doctors in this case differed; and the patient was left prostrate, mangled, bleeding and exhausted, listening to tlieir altercations, but suffering from every gash made to convince each other at her expense; and there she lay, until recently; when, beginning to suspect that both had been talking nonsense and trying absurd experiments, she lifted lier languid head, stretched out ber wounded limbs, and began to fix her eyes upon the only remedy by which health could be restored. Let us, in order to convince ourselves that the conclusion to which Upper Canada is coming after ail lier sufferings is a sound one, examine the two prescriptions and modes of treatment; and ascertain whether either contains anything which oughît to rescue it from the oblivion that invariably closes over the nostrums by whichî the science of politics, like the science of medicine, is often disfigured for a time. A colony where the Governor is alone responsible is Sir Francis Head’s interpretation of the system under which we live. It is one very much affected by colonial Governors everywhere. Unlimited power within a wide Province is a beautiful idea for an individual to indulge, especially when it is attended with but little risk and only nominal responsibility. Of ail the British colonial Governors who have wielded this vast authority; plumed themselves upon the possession of these plenary powers; and, in the exercise of them, vexed, distracted, and excited to disaffection one Province after another, how many have been tried and punished ? How many have met with even a reprimand from the ministry, or a cold look from the Sovéreign whose authority they had abused? I leave your Lordship, whose historical reading has been much more extensive than mine, to point out the instances; I have searched for them in vain. It is truc that debates in Parliament occasionally arise upon sucli subjects; but these, judging by their practical effect, can hardly be taken into account. A Governor knows well that, so-long as he holds office, the ministry by whom he was appointed will defend hin; that their majority in the Commons precludes the possibility of a vote of censure being passed against him; that the Duke, under whom lie probably served, having a majority in the Upper House, lie is perfectly safe, so long as he commits no act so flagrant as to outrage the feelings of the nation; and which, coming borne to the heart of every man and woman in Eng iand, would make it unsafe for any parliamentary combination to attempt to protect him. Thus fenced in during his administration, what are his perils when lie retires? The colonists, too happy when rid of the nuisance to be vindictive, and hoping better things from a successor, of whom they are unwilling to suspect any evil, cease to complain; his Excellency is removed to another Province, with a larger salary, to act the same farce over there; or retires to his estates in the mother country, to form one of that numerous body of ex-Governors who live upon the consciousness of having, once within their lives at least, wielded powers within a wide range and over the destinies of many thousands of their fellow-beings, such as are never permitted to be wielded by any individual, however high his rank or widely extended his influence, without full and ample responsibility, within the British Islands themiselves. These men, whether they go into Parliament or not, always sympathize with Governors abroad acting upon their darling theory; and, as they are often consulted by ministers who know perhaps a little less than themselves, they are always at hand to stifle the complaints of the colonists when appeals are made to England. Your Lordship will perceive, therefore, that when a Governor declares, as did Sir Francis Head, that the responsibility rests on him, he merely means that he is about to assume extensive powers, for three or four, perhaps for eight or ten years, without the shadow of a chance of his ever being called to account for anything lie may do or leave undone. To enable you to form some idea of the peace, prosperity and satisfaction likely to, be diffused over a Province, by a Governor acting upon these principles and exercising these powers, let me request your Lordship to imagine that, after twenty or thirty years of military service, by which I have become disciplined into a contempt for civil business and a fractious impatience of the opinions of all beneath me in rank, Her Majesty has the right, and graciously deigns to exercise it, of making me Mayor of Liverpool. Fancy that, up to the moment when the information is conveyed to me, though I have heard the name of that city several times and have some vague notion that Liverpool is a large commercial port in England; yet that I neither know on what river or on which side of the island it is situated, nor have the least knowledge of its extent, population, requirements or resources; the feelings, interests, prejudices or riglts of its inhabitants. Within a month, having had barely sufficient time to trace out the situation of the place upon a map, read a book or two about it, hear an under-secretary talk an hour or two of what neither lie nor I understand; receive a packet of instructions-of which half-a-dozen different readings may be given-and become thoroughly inflated with my own consequence, I find myself in Liverpool; and feel that I am the great pivot upon which all its civil administration, its order and defence, its external relations with the rest of the empire and the rest of the world turns: the fountain from which its internal patronage is to flow; and to which all, for a long period of years, must look for social and political ascendency, if they have no merit; and, if Lliey have, for a fair consideration of their clains. Your Lordship will readily believe, that a man thus whisked away from the pursuits which have occupied his thoughts for years and plunged into a new scene, surrounded by human beings not one of whose faces he ever saw before; called to the consideration of a thousand topics, with almost any one of which the assiduous devotion of half a life would be required to make him familiar; and having to watch over vast interests, balance conflicting claims, decide on the capacity of hundreds, of whose characters, talents and influence lie is ignorant; to fill offices, of the duties of which lie has not the slightest conception; -that a man so situated, must either be very vain or very able, if he is not appalled at the extent of the responsibility lie has assumed; and must be an angel of light indeed, if lie does not throw the good city of Liverpool into confusion. This, my Lord, is no fancy sketch; no picture, highly coloured to produce effect, but which on close examination, an artist would cast aside as out of drawing; it is a faithful representation of what occurs in some British colony almost every year. But iL may be said, all this is granted, and yet there is the Legislature to influence and instruct. Liverpool shall still serve for illustration, and we will presently see to what extent the representative branch operates on the conduct of a gentleman who assumes the responsibility and is placed in the circumstances described. Let us suppose that the city charter gives me for my advisers, from the moment I am sworn in, ten or a dozen individuals, some of them heads of departments, enjoying large salaries and much patronage; others, perhaps, discarded members of the popular branch; and not a few selected by no rule which the people can clearly understand, but because they happened to flatter the vanity of one or other of my predecessors, or to be connected with the families, or favourable to the views or interests of some of those by whom they were advised. This body, be it observed, by usage never departed from, hold their situations as Councillors for life; the people have no control over them, neither have I; they are sworn not to inform upon each other, nor is it necessary that they should; because, as I have assumed the responsibility, and they for their own interest favour the theory, if anything goes wrong they can lay the blame on me. This body, then, which owes no allegiance to the people of Liverpool; whicli often, in fact, bas an interest the very reverse of theirs; which, suspected of usurpation and improper influence, pays back the imputation with unmeasured contempt; and hardly one-fifth of whose number could, by any possibility, be thus honoured if their seats depended on popular slection; this body I am compelled to call around me in order that my administration may commence, for without some such assistance, I am unable to take a single step. They come; and there sit, at the first council board, the responsible Mayor, vho knows nothing and nobody, and his irresponsible advisers, who, if they do not know everything-and they are seldom greater witches than their neighboursknow their friends, a lean minority of the citizens, from their enemies, the great majority; and are quite aware that, for their interest, it is necessary that I should be taught, as soon as possible, to despite the latter and throw myself into the arms of the former. Will any sensible man, calmly viewing the relative situations, opportunities and powers of the parties, believe that any act of administration donc, or any appointment made for the first six months, is my act or my appointment? I may choose between any two or three persons whose names are artfully set before me, when an office is to be filled, and if determined to show my independence may choose the worst; but I must choose from the relatives and friends of my advisers, or fromn the small minority who support them in the hopes of preferment; for to that section the whole of the city patronage must be religiously confined; and it is of course so managed, that I scarcely know or have confidence in anybody else. Can your Lordship believe that such a state of things would give satisfaction to the citizens? Would they not begin to grumble and complain, to warn, to remonstrate, and to expose the machinations and manoeuvres of the monopolists? It would be very odd, and they would be very strange Englishmen if they did not. But as I have come to Liverpool to demonstrate the beauties of this system of city government, which I highly approve; as I have assumed the whole responsibility and become inflated with the consciousness of my extensive powers; and, above all, as I am taught by my advisers to look upon every complaint of the syslem as a libel upon my judgment and an insult to my administration-I very soon begin to dislike those who complain; to speak and write contemptuously of them in private and in public; to denounce any who have the hardihood to suggest that some alterations are required, by which the opinions and rights of the majority shall be respected, as men dangerous to the peace of the city and disaffected towards Her Majesty’s person and government; until, in fact, Liverpool becomes very like a town, in the olden time, in which the inhabitants generally being hostile to their rulers, the latter retire to the citadel, from which they project every sort of missile and give every species of annoyance. By-and-by the time arrives for the legislative branches of the city governîment to assemble. One of these being elected at short periods, under a low franchise, which includes the greater body of the independent citizens, may be taken as a fair reflection of all their great interests, their varied knowledge, passions and prejudices; the other is a body of life legislators, selected by my advisers from among their own relatives and friends; with a few others, of a more independent character, to save appearances, but in which they always have a, majority of faithful and determined partisans. The business commences; the great majority of members in the representative branch-speaking the matured opinions of the people-complain of the system and of the advisers it has placed around me; expressing the fullest confidence in me, whom they cannot suspect of wishing to do them harm, but asking ny co-operation towards the introduction of changes withoutwhich, they assure me, the city never can prosper. But my advisers having a few of their adherents also in this body, they are instructed to declare any change unnecessary; to throw every obstruction in the way; to bully and defame the most conspicuous of those who expose the evils of the existing system; and to denounce them all as a dangerous combination, who, with some covert design, are pressing, for factious objects, a series of frivolous complaints. Of course, as the minority speak the sentiments which I have imbibed and put themselves forward as my personal champions on all occasions, they rise in my esteem exactly in the same proportions as the other party are depressed, until they become special pets; and, from their ranks, as opportunities occur, all vacancies are supplied, either in the list of irresponsible advisers who in my naine carry on the government, or in the number of life legislators, who do their bidding in the upper branch. I respectfully beg your Lordship to ponder over these passages, which I assure you are true to nature and to experience; and ask yourself, after bringing home such a state of affairs to the bosom of any British city, how long it would be uncomplainingly endured? or how long any ministry, duly informed of the facts, would wish it to continue? Look back, my Lord, and you will find in every rotten corporation, swept away by the immortal act of which your Lordship was one of the ablest defenders, a resemblance to our colonial governments as they at present stand, too strong to be mistaken; and let me venture to hope, that the man who did not spare corruption so near the national centre of vitality, who did not hesitate to combat these hydra-headed minorities, who swarming over England, everywhere asserted their right to govern the majorities, will not shrink from applying his own principles-the great principles of the Constitution-to these more distant, but not less important portions of the empire. Your Lordship will, perhaps, urge that Sir Francis Head succeeded in pleasing the people and getting the majority on his side. Admitting the full force that the worthy Baronet gives to this case, it is after all but the exception to the general mie. The true history of events in Upper Canada, I believe to have been this: A small but desperate minority had determined on a violent revolution; this party might have contained some men so wicked that a love of mischief and a desire for plunder were their governing principles, and others, moved by an attachment to republican institutions; but smal.l as it was, the greater number of those found in its ranks had been driven there by the acts of another equally small and equally desperate minority, who had long monopolized,-and, under the present system, may and will monopolize for a century to come-the whole power and patronage of the government, dividing among them the revenues of the country. The great mass of the people of Upper Canada belonged to neither of these bands of desperadoes. They were equally determined with the one, to uphold British connection; and as equally determined with the other, to get rid of a wretched system of irresponsible administration, under the continuance of which they well knew the Province could never prosper. When Sir Francis Head arrived, he entered the colony-if we are to believe his own account of the matter-almost as ignorant as my imaginary Mayor of Liverpool. Sir Francis admits his ignorance, but denies the consequences that must be deduced from it: that he was led and influenced, in the first acts of his administration, until the compact found him ripe for their own purposes and embroiled even with the moderate men on the other side. Then commenced that extraordinary flight of proclamations, addresses and declamatory appeals; wlhich, winged with the ready pen of a professional author and shot from the long bow of the family compact, created so much false excitement, and carried so much misrepresentation into every corner of the Province. In these the great question at issue in Upper Canada-which was one between the interests of the farnily compact and the principles of the British Constitution-was winked out of sight; and the people, not only of that, but of the surrounding colonies, were made to believe that they were to choose between British and republican institutions; that Sir Francis and the family compact (Archdeacon Strachan with the Clergy Reserves, oneseventh of the Province; and Attorney-General Hagerman, with the corrupt patronage and influence of administration, under their arms) represented the former; and Mackenzie, and his band of desperadoes, the latter. Thus appealed to, the British population everywhere, as the cunning men at Sir Franci!’ elbow well knew they would, said, with one voice: “If that is the question, then we are for the British Constitution; and hurrah for Sir Francis Headi’. Mackenzie was an outlaw in a week; his small band of desperadoes was scattered by the energy of the people, the great mass of whiom never dreamed of breaking the connection with the mother country. Then came the period in which the compact glorified themselves and Sir Francis; the fever of loyal excitement in which the miserable minority of officials–feeling strong in the success of their manoeuvres and still stronger in the strength of British-thousands profusely spent, regiments of militia to be officered, equipped and paid-began to wreak their vengeance upon every man who had been known to be hostile to their monopoly; and to identify opinions, not more extreme when thoroughly understood, than those held by the most moderate section of the Whigs in England, with “privy conspiracy and rebellion.” But the period was fast approaching when this unnatural excitement was to subside; when hundreds of thousandsof British subjects, looking steadily through the mists that had been raised around them were to ask of eaci other: “1Has this case been decided upon the true issue? Was that the question? ” For evidence of the solemnity with which this inquiry bas been put and the allpervading unanimity with which it bas been answered, I refer your Lordship to the meetings which have been held in every section of the Province; to the opinions boldly expressed by every newspaper-with a few, chiefly venal exceptions-printed in Upper Canada; to thie bold and determined stand taken by many of the bravest and ablest men who crushed Mackenzie’s rebellion and beat back the sympathizers on the frontier; to the extraordinary union of Orangemen and Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Churchmen and Presbyterians; whose watchwords are British connection and British responsibility, and down with the compact, and the absurd idea cherished by Sir Francis Head, of a government in which the whole responsibility rests on the Governor. If your Lordship doubts the utter explosion of your theory, even in this Province, where for a time I admit it seemed to flourish, the approaching general elections will furnisi evidence enough, and even Sir Francis, if he were to come out again with another sheaf of proclamations and addresses, and preach this unitarian doctrine of responsibility, would no longer be listened to by the Upper Canadians, who have embraced a higher and purer faith. Having, as I conceive, then, shown your Lordship that the idea of a colony in which nobody is responsible but the Governor, while bis responsibility is only nominal, however delightful it may appear in the eyes of those who have been or hope to be Governors, is one that never can be a favourite with the colonists and bas been repudiated and rejected by those of them among whom, for a limited period and under a system of delusion, it seemed to flourish; let me turn your Lordship’s attention for a few moments to the doctrine maintained by Lord Glenelg against Sir Francis Head and now put forth by your Lordship in opposition to the Earl of Durham-that the Colonial Secretary is alone responsible, and that the Governor is an agent governing the Province by instructions from him. Whatever new readings may be given of our unwritten constitutions, this is the one which has always been and always will be the favourite with Colonial Secretaries and under-secretaries, and by which every clerk in Downing Street even to the third and fourth generation yet to come, will be prepared to take bis stand. And why ? Because to deprive them of this much-talked-of responsibility, which means nothing, would be to deprive them of the power to which they cling; and of the riglit of meddling interference with every petty question and every petty appointment in thirty-six different colonies. While things remain as they are, the very uncertainty which reigns over the whole colonial system invests the Secretary of State with a degree of power and influence, the dim and shadowy outline of which can scarcely be rneasured by the eye; but which, from its boundless extent and multiform and varied ramifications and relations, possesses a fascination which few men have been born with patriotic moderation to resist. Though a Secretary of State may occasionally have to maintain, in a particular Province, a doubtful struggle for the whole responsibility and the whole of the power, with some refractory Governor like Sir Francis Head; yet even there he must exercise a good deal of authority and enjoy a fair share of influence; while in all others bis word is law and bis influence almost supreme. A judge, a crown officer, a secretary, or a land surveyor cannot be appointed without his consent; a silk gown cannot be given to a lawyer without bis sanction; while bis word is required to confirm the nomination of Legisiative Councillors for life and irresponsible Executive Councillors, in every Province, before the Queen’s mandamus is prepared. The very obscurity in which the real character of colonial constitutions is involved of course magnifies the importance and increases the influence of the gentleman who claims the right to expound them. More than onehalf the colonists who obtain audiences in Downing Street are sent there by the mystifications in which the principles of the system are involved; while the other lalf are applicants for offices, which under a system of local responsibility would he filled up, as are the civic offices .in Manchester and Glasgow, by the party upon whose virtue and ability the majority of the inhabitants relied. Adopt Lord Durham’s principle, and above ail, give to each colony a well-defined constitution based upon that principle and embodied in a bill, and “the office” will become a desert. The scores of worthy people with spirits weary of the anornalous and cruel absurdities of the system and sincerely laboring to remove them, now daily lingering in the ante-rooms, would be better employed elsewhere, in adorning and improving the noble countries which gave them birth, and whose freedom they are labouring to establish; while at least an equal number of cunning knaves, whose only errand is to seek a share of the plunder, had much better be transferred to the open arenas in which, under a system of responsibility, public honours and official emolument could only be won. But then the office of Colonial Secretary would be shorn of much power, which, lowever unwisely exercised, it is always delightful to possess; and the dim but majestic forms of authority which now overshadow half the world would be chastened into reasonable compass; with boundaries, if less imposing and picturesque, for all practical purposes more simple and more clearly delined. Nor would under-secretaries and clerks have so many anxious and often fawning visitors, soliciting their patronage, listening to their twaddle, wondering at their ignorance, and yet struggling with each other for their smiles. The mother country would, it is true, hear less of colonial grievances; Parliament would save much time now devoted to colonial questions; and the people of England would now and then save a few millions sterling, which are required to keep up the existing system by force of arms. But these are small matters compared with the dignity of a Secretary of State. lere, then, my Lord, you have the reason why your reading of our constitutions is the favourite one in Downing Street. Let us see now whether it is more or less favourable to rational freedom and good government in the colonies, than that advocated by Sir Francis Head. Your authority and that of Lord Glenelg is with nie in condemning his, which I have done, as deceptive and absurd; he will probably join me in denouncing ‘yours, as the most impracticable that it ever entered into the mind of a statesman to conceive. The city of Liverpool shall again serve us for the purposes of illustration. Turn back to the passages in which I have described a Mayor, ignorant of everything, surrounded by irreponsible but cunning advisers, who for their own advantage, embroil him with a majority of the citizens, while his countenance and the patronage created by the taxes levied upon the city are monopolized by a niserable minority of the whole; and insulted and injured thousands, swelling with indignation, surround him on every side. After your Lordship has dwelt upon this scene of heartburning and discontent-of general dissatisfaction among the citizens-of miserable intrigue and chuckling triumph, indulged by the few who squander the resources and decide upon the interests of the many, but laugh at their murmurs and never acknowledge their authority-let me beg of you to rellect whether matters would be made better or worse, if the Mayor of Liverpool was bound, in every important act of his administration, to ask the direction of, and throw the responsibility on another individual, who never saw the city, who knows less about it than even himself, and who resides, not in London, at a distance of a day’s coaching from him, but across the Atlantic, in Halifax, Quebec, or Toronto, and with whom it is impossible to communicate about anything within a less period than a couple of months. Suppose that this gentleman in the distance possesses a veto upon every important ordinance by which the city is to be watched, lighted and improved~-by which docks are to be formed, trade regulated, and one-third of the city revenues (drawn from sources beyond the control of the popular branch) dispensed. And suppose thaLt nearly all, whose talents or ambition lead them to aspire to the higher offices of the place, are compelled to take, once or twice in their lives, a voyage across the Atlantic to pay their court to him-to solicit his patronage and intrigue for the preferment, which under a better system would naturally result from manly competition and eminent services within the city itself, Your Lordship is too keen-sighted and I trust too frank, not to acknowledge that no form of govern- ment could well be devised more ridiculous than this; that under such no British city could be expected to prosper; and that with it no body of Her Majesty’s subjects, within the British Islands themselves, would ever be content. Yet this, my Lord, is an illustration of your own theory; this is the system propounded by Lord Normanby 1 as the best the present Cabinet can devise. And may I not respectfully demand why British subjects in Nova Scotia, any more than their brethren in Liverpool, should be expected to prosper or be contented under it; when experience has convinced them that it is miserably insufficient and deceptive, repugnant to the principles of the constitution they revere, and but a poor return for the steady loyalty which their forefathers and themselves have maintained on all occasions? One of the greatest evils of the colonial constitution as interpreted by your Lordship is, that it removes from a province every description of responsibility, and leaves all the higher functionaries at liberty to lay every kind of blame at the door of the Secretary of State. The Governor, if the colonists complain, shrugs his shoulders and replies that lie will explain the difïiculty in bis next despatch, but in the meantime his orders must be obeyed. The Executive Councillors, who under no circurnstances are responsible for anything, often lead the way in concentrating the ire of the people upon the Colonial Secretary, who is the only person they admit their right to blame. It is no uncommon thing to hear them, in Nova Scotia, sneering at him in public debate; and in Canada they are accused of standing by while Lords Glenelg and Melbourne were hanged in effigy and burned in the capital, encouraging the populace to pay this mark of respect to men, who, if your Lordship’s theory is to be enforced, these persons at all events should have the decency to pardon, if they cannot always defend. I trust, my Lord, that in this letter I have shown you that in contemplating a well-defined and limited degrce of responsibility to attach to Executive Councillors in North America, I have more strictly followed the analogies to be drawn from the constitution, than bas your Lordship, in supposing that those officers would necessarily oversLep all bounds; that in divesting the Governor of a vague and deceptive description of responsibility, which is never enforced, and of a portion of authority which it is impossible for him wisely to exercise, and yet holding him to account for what does fall within the scope of bis character as Her Majesty’s representative-the constitutional analogy is still preserved, his dignity left unimpaired, and the difficulties of bis position removed. I trust also that I have proved to your Lordship that the colonial constitutions, as they at present stand, are but a medley of uncertainty and confusion; that those by whom they are administered do not understand them; and lastly, that whether Sir Francis Head’s interpretation, or your own be adopted, neither offers security for good government; the contest between them merely involving a difference of opinion as to who is to wield powers that neither governors nor secretaries can usefully assume, and which of these officers is nominally to bear the blame of blunders that both are certain to commit.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Instructions to Governor Sir James Henry Craig, Aug 29th, 1807

ORDERS AND INSTRUCTIONS to Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Sir James Henry Craig Knight of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath Our Captain general and Governor in Chief in and over Our Province of Nova Scotia Our Islands of Prince Edward and Cape Breton and the Territories thereunto belonging or in his absence to the Lieutenant Governors or Commanders in Chief for the time being of the said Province and Islands respectively. Given at Our Court at Saint James’s the Twenty-ninth day of August 1807 In the Forty-Seventh year of Our Reign.

Sir. Jas. Hy Craig K.B.
Trade Instructions.

1st. You shall inform yourself of the several Laws relating to the Plantation Trade and for the Encouragement of the Trade and Navigation of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and shall take the Oath ordained by Law to do your utmost that all the Clauses Matters and Things therein contained or which shall be enacted in any Act of Parliament hereinafter to be made relating to Our Colonies or Plantations or to the Trade and Navigation of Our said Kingdom be punctually and bona fide observed according to the true Intent and Meaning thereof and in particular you are to take especial Care that the several Acts of Parliament of Great Britain for allowing the Importation and Exportation of certain Goods Wares and Merchandizes into and from Our Kingdom of Ireland from and to Our Colonies and Plantations in America in like manner as the same are exported and imported from and into Our Kingdom of Great Britain from the said Colonies and Plantations be strictly complied with in your Government.

2nd. And Whereas an Act was passed in the Twenty sixth year of Our Reign Intituled “An Act for the further Increase and Encouragement of Shipping and Navigation” It is Our Will and Pleasure that you do cause the Provisions of the said Act to be strictly enforced within your Government And you are to be particularly attentive to such Duties as are therein required to be done and performed by you so that the Regulations thereby made and enacted be punctually complied with. 3rd. And Whereas in pursuance of the Power vested in Us by an Act made in the Twenty third year of Our Reign Intituled “ An Act for preventing certain Instruments from being required from Ships belonging to the United States of America ” and to give His Majesty for a limited Time certain Powers for the better carrying on Trade and Commerce between the Subjects of His Majesty’s Dominions and the Inhabitants of the said United States “the Provisions of which said recited Act have been continued and enforced by other Acts since passed We by several Orders passed by Us in Our Council have made such Regulations and given such directions for regulating the Trade between Our Dominion and the United States of America as the Interest and Welfare of Our Subjects and the preservation and Encouragement of the Trade and Navigation of Our Kingdoms have from time to time made necessary and expedient it is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that you do in all Things conform yourself as well to the Provisions of the above mentioned Acts of Parliament as to the regulations and direction contained in Our said Orders in Council or such further Regulations and Directions as may be contained in any future Order or Orders made by Us in Council for the purposes aforesaid And that you do give the proper Orders to the several Officers concerned that due Obedience be paid thereunto.

4th. You shall take care that the Naval Officers within Your Government do give such Security to the Commissioners of Our Customs for the true and faithful performance of their Duty as is by Law required.

5th. And Whereas it is necessary for the greater convenience of Merchants and others that the Naval Officers and the Collectors of the Customs should reside at the same Ports or Towns you are therefore to take care that this Regulation be observed and to consult with the Collector of the Customs in what Places it may be most convenient to have the Custom House fixed for the Despatch of Business if the same shall not have been already done and to take care that the Collector and Naval Officer reside within a convenient distance of the Custom House.

6th. You shall every three Months or oftener as there shall be opportunity of Conveyance transmit to the Commissioners of Our Treasury or Our High Treasurer for the time being and to the Commissioners of Our Customs in London a List of all Ships and Vessels Trading in your Government according to the Schedule hereunto annexed together with a List of the Bonds taken in pursuance of the several Acts hereinbefore mentioned and you shall cause demand to be made of every Master at his Clearing of an Invoice of the Contents and Quality of his Lading &c. according to the Schedule hereunto also annexed and you shall moreover direct the several Naval Officers within your Government to furnish you with Quarterly Lists of such Ships and Vessels together with the Tonnage and Names of the Masters and Owners thereof and of the Cargoes according to the Schedule before mentioned which you are to transmit to Us through One of Our Principal Secretaries of State by the first opportunity that shall offer after expiration of each Quarter And it is Our Will and Pleasure that you be particularly attentive to Our directions in this respect and that you do take due care that the several Naval Officers do strictly comply therewith.

7th. You shall give Directions that the Collector of the Customs within your Government be permitted to have recourse to the said Bonds as well as to the Book or Books in which they are or ought to be entered and to examine as well whether due Entry be made as whether they are regularly taken and discharged And where it shall appear that Bonds are not regularly discharged you are to order that such Bonds be put in Suit.

8th. “I ou shall not assent to any Act of Assembly or allow any Usage to prevail within your Government which shall be repugnant to the Acts of Parliament hereinbefore mentioned or to any that may hereafter be made as far as the same relate to Our Plantations in America.

9th. You shall be aiding and assisting to the Collectors and other Officers of Our Customs appointed or who shall hereafter be appointed by the Commissioners of Our Customs in this Kingdom by and under the Authority and Direction of the Commissioners of Our Treasury or Our High Treasurer for the time being and also to the Officers of the Court of Vice Admiralty in your Government appointed or who shall hereafter be appointed by Our High Admiral of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland or the Commissioners for executing the Office of High Admiral or by you or Our Commander in Chief for the time being as Vice Admiral within your said Government in putting in Execution the several Acts of Parliament before mentioned and you shall cause due prosecutions of all such Persons as shall any way resist or hinder any of the said Officers of Our Admiralty or Customs in the Performance of their Duty.

10th. Whereas the Commissioners appointed for collecting the Six pence per month from Seamen’s Wages for Our Royal Hospital at Greenwich pursuant to the Act of Parliament for that purpose have given Instructions to their Receivers in Foreign Parts for their Conduct therein It is Our Will and Pleasure that you be aiding and assisting to the said Receivers in your Government in the due execution of their Trusts.

11th. You shall take care that upon any actions suits and Informations that shall be brought commenced or enter’d in any Court within your Government upon any Law or Statute concerning Our Duties or Ships or Goods to be forfeited by reason of any unlawful Importation or Exportation there be not any Jury empannelled but of such as are Natives of Great Britain and Ireland or some of Our Plantations and entitled by Law to the Privileges of British Subjects.

12th. You shall from time to time advise the Commissioners of Our Customs in London of all Frauds Neglects and Misdemeanours of any of the Officers of Our Customs within your Government and shall also communicate to them all Occurrences which you may think necessary for their Information relating either to any of the Acts hereinbefore mentioned or to Our Revenue under their Management.

13th. If you shall discover that any Person claiming Right or Propriety in any Island or Tract of Land within your Government by Charter Letters Patent or other Grant shall at any time hereafter alien sell or dispose of such Right or Propriety other than to Our Natural born Subjects of Great Britain Ireland or Our Plantations in America without the Licence or consent of Us Our Heirs and Successors signified by Our or Their Order in Council first had and obtained you shall give notice thereof to Us through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State and to the Commissioners of Our Treasury or Our High Treasurer of Great Britain for the time being.

14th. And Whereas notwithstanding the many good Laws made from time to time for preventing Frauds in the Plantation Trade it is manifest that very great Abuses have been and still continue to be practised to the prejudice of the same which Abuses must needs arise either from the insufficiency or Insolvency of those Persons who are accepted as Securities in Bonds required by Law or from the remissness or Connivance of Our Governors who ought to take due care that those Persons who execute such Bonds should be sued for breaches of the Conditions of such Bonds you are to take notice that We consider the Good of Our Plantations and the Improvement of the Trade thereof by a strict and punctual observance of the several Laws in force concerning the same to be of so great Importance to the Benefit of this Kingdom and to the advancing of the Revenue of Our Customs that if We shall hereafter be informed that at any time there shall be any failure in the due observance of those Laws and of these present Instructions by any Wilful Neglect or Fraud on your part We shall esteem such Neglect to be a Breach of the same and We think it proper to apprize you that it is Our fixed and determined Will and Intention to remove you or Our Commander in Chief for the time being from your Employments for any such Offence and that We will strictly levy and inflict as well the Fine of One Thousand Pounds imposed by an Act passed in the seventh and eighth of King William the 3rd Cap. 22 as all other Fines Forfeitures Pains and Penalties to which you shall for such Offence be liable by any Acts of Parliament now in force or otherwise and that you will further on the same account receive the most rigorous Marks of Our Highest Displeasure.

C. O. Despatch Entry Book, 1801-1811. (In Secretary of State’s dispatch No. 1, 31 Aug Aug. 1807).


INSTRUCTIONS to Our Trusty and Well beloved Sir James Henry Craig Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath Our Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over Our Province of Upper Canada or in his Absence to Our Lieutenant Governor or Commander in Chief of Our said Province for the time being Given at Our Court at Saint James’s the 29th day of August 1807 in the Forty seventh Year of Our Reign.

Sir Jas. Hy. Craig K.B.
Instructions

These Instructions corrected by subsequent ditto to Prevost, &c.1st. With these Our Instructions you will receive Our Commission under Our Great Seal of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland constituting you Our Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over Our Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada bounded as in Our said Commission is particularly expressed in the execution therefore of so much of the Office and Trust We have reposed in you as relates to Our Province of Upper Canada you are to take upon you the Administration of the Government of the said Province and to do and execute all things belonging to your Command according to the several Powers and Authorities of Our said Commission under Our Great Seal of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland And of the Act passed in the 31st Year of Our Reign therein recited and of these Our Instructions to you and according to such further Powers and Instructions to you as you shall at any time hereafter receive under Our Signet and Sign Manual or by Our Order in Our Privy Council.

2d. And you are with all due Solemnity before the Members of Our Executive Council to cause Our said Commission to be read and published which being done you shall then take and also administer to each of the Members of Our said Executive Council the several Oaths and subscribe the declaration therein required.

3d. You shall also administer or cause to be administered the oaths mentioned in Our said Commission to all Persons except as hereafter mentioned that shall be appointed to hold or exercise any Office or Place of Trust or Profit in Our said Province previous to their enté ring on the Execution of the duties of such Office and you shall also cause them to make and subscribe the aforesaid declaration but in case where any such Office Place of Trust or Profit in Our said Province of Upper Canada shall be conferred on any of Our Subjects who may profess the Religion of the Church of Rome, You shall, so often as any such person shall, or may be admitted in any such Office, Place of Trust or Profit, administer, or cause to be administered to him the Oath prescribed in, and by an Act of Parliament passed in the 14th year of Our Reign, Intituled “ An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in ÿorth America ” and also the usual Oath for the Execution of such Office, Place of Trust or Profit, in lieu of all other Tests and Oaths whatsoever.

4th. Whereas We have thought fit that there should be an Executive Council for assisting you or Our Lieutenant Governor, or Person administering the Government of Our said Province of Upper Canada for the time being, We do by these Presents nominate, and appoint the undermentioned person, to be of the Executive Council of Our said Province.

And Whereas by an Ordinance passed in the Province of Quebec, the Governor and Council of the said Province, were constituted a Court of Civil Jurisdiction for hearing and determining Appeals in certain cases therein specified, and Whereas, by An Act passed in the 31st year of Our Reign, It is declared that the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or Person administering the Government of the said Province, together with such Executive Council, shall be a Court of Civil Jurisdiction within Our said Province for hearing and determining Appeals within the same in the like cases and in the like manner, and form and subject to such Appeal therefrom, as such Appeals might have been before the passing of the above recited Act, heard and determined by the Governor and Council of Quebec. In order therefore to carry the said Acts into Execution, Our Will and Pleasure is, that you do, in all Civil Causes on Application being made to you for that purpose permit and allow Appeals from any of the Court of Common Law, in Our said Province, unto you, and the Executive Council of the said Province of Upper Canada, in manner prescribed by the above mentioned Act, And you are further for that purpose, to issue a Writ, as nearly in the accustomed manner before the passing of the above mentioned Act in respect of such Appeals, as the case will admit, returnable before yourself and the Executive Council of the said Province, who are to proceed to hear and determine such Appeal, wherein such of the said Executive Council as shall be at that time Judges of the Court from whence such Appeal shall be so made to you, Our Captain General and to Our said Executive Council, as aforesaid, shall not be admitted to vote upon the said Appeal but they may nevertheless be present at the hearing thereof, to give the reasons of the Judgment given by them in the Causes wherein such Appeal shall be made ; Provided nevertheless, that in all such Appeals the sum or Value appealed for, do exceed the Sum of Three Hundred Pounds Sterling, and that Security be first duly given by the Appellant to answer such Charges as shall be awarded, in case the first Sentence be affirmed : and if either Party shall not rest satisfied with the Judgement of you, and such Executive Council as aforesaid, Our Will and Pleasure is that they may then Appeal unto Us in Our Privy Council, provided the Sum or Value appealed for unto Us, do exceed Five Hundred Pounds Sterling, and that such Appeal be made within fourteen days after Sentence, and good Security be given by the Appellant that he will effectually prosecute the same, and answer the Condemnation as also Pay such Costs and Damages as shall be awarded by Us in case the Sentence of you, and the executive Council be affirmed ; Provided nevertheless, where the Matter in Question relates to the taking, or demanding any Duty payable to I is, or to any Fee of Office or Annual Rents, or other such like Matters, or Things, where the Rights in future may be bound, In all such Cases, you, and the said Executive Council are to admit an Appeal unto Us in Our Privy Council, tho’ the immediate Sum, or Value appealed for be of a less Value : and it is Our further Will and Pleasure, that in all Cases, where, by your Instructions, you are to admit Appeals unto Us in Our Privy Council, execution shall be suspended until the final determination of such Appeal, unless good and Sufficient Security be given by the Appellee to make ample restitution of all that the Appellant shall have lost by means of such Decree, or Judgment, in case, upon the determination of such Appeal, such Decree or Judgment should be reversed and restitution ordered to the Appellant, You and Our Executive Council are also to admit Appeals unto Us in Our Privy Council, in all Cases of Fines imposed for Misdemeanours provided the Fines so imposed, amount, to or exceed the Sum of One Hundred Pounds Sterling, the Appellant first giving good Security that He will effectually prosecute the same, and answer the Condemnation if the Sentence by which such Fine was imposed in your Government shall be confirmed.

5th. And that We may always be’informed of the Names and Characters of Persons fit to supply the Vacancies which may happen in Our said Executive Sbuncil, you are, in case of any Vacancy in the said Council, to transmit to Us, thro’ One of Our Principal Secretaries of State, the Names and characters of such three Persons, Inhabitants of Our said Province of Upper Canada whom you may esteem the best qualified for fulfilling the trust of such Executive Councillor.

6th. And in the choice and selection of such persons proposed to till such Vacancy in Our said Executive Council as also of the Chief Officers, Judges, Assistants, Justices of the Peace, and other Officers of Justice, you are always to take care that they be Men of Good Life, well affected to Our Government and of Abilities suitable to their Employments.

7th. And Whereas We are Sensible that effectual care ought to be taken to oblige the Members of Our Executive Council to a due attendance It is Our Will and Pleasure in order to prevent the many inconveniences which may happen for want of a Quorum of the Council to transact Business as occasion may require that if any of the Members of Our said Executive Council residing in Our said Province, shall hereafter wilfully absent themselves from the Province, and continue Absent above the Space of six Months together, without leave from you first obtained under your hand and seal, or shall remain absent for the space of One year without Our Leave, given them under Our Royal Signature their places in the said Executive Council shall immediately thereupon become Void, And We do hereby Will and require you that this, Our Royal Pleasure be signified to the several Members of Our said Executive Council, and that it be entered in the Council Books of the said Province as a standing Rule.

8th. And to the end that Our said Executive Council may be assisting to you in all Affairs relating to Our Service, you are to communicate to them such, and to many of these Our Instructions wherein their advice is mentioned to be requisite, and likewise all such others, from time to time, as you shall find it convenient for Our Service to be imparted to them.

9th. You are also to permit the Members of Our said Executive Council to have and enjoy freedom of Debate and Vote in all Affairs of Public concern which may be debated in the said Executive Council.

10th. Whereas by the aforesaid recited Act passed in the 31st Year of Our Reign it is provided that the Seats of Our Members of Our Legislative Council shall become vacant in certain cases mentioned in the said Act, It is Our Will and Pleasure, that if any Member of Our said Legislative Council shall at any time leave Our said Province and reside out of the same, You shall report the same to Us by the first opportunity thro’ One of Our Principal Secretaries of State and you are also in like manner to report whether such Member of the said Council is absent by your permission, or by the permission of Our Lieutenant Governor, or Commander in Chief of the said Province for the time being ; and you are also, in like manner to report, if it shall come to your knowledge that any such Member shall at any time take or have taken the Oath of Allegiance or obedience to any foreign Prince or Power or shall be attainted for Treason in any Court of Law within any of our Dominions, that We may take such Measures thereupon as We shall think fit And you are to take especial care that the several Provisions in the said Act respecting the several Cases in which Persons may or may not be entitled to receive Writs of Summons to the said Legislative Council, or to hold their places therein shall be duly executed.

11th. And for the Execution of so much of the Powers vested in you by Our said Commission, and by virtue of the said Act as relates to the declaring that you assent, in Our Name, to Bills passed by the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, or that you withhold an assent therefrom, or that you reserve such Bills for the signification of Our Royal Pleasure thereon. It is Our Will and Pleasure that you do carefully observe the following Rules, directions and Instructions, vizt

That the Style of enacting all the said Laws Statutes and Ordinances, be by Us Our Heirs and Successors by and with the advice and Consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Our Province of Upper Canada, constituted and assembled by virtue and under the Authority of an Act passed in the Parliament of Great Britain Intituled An Act to repeal certain parts ot An Act passed in the 14th year of His Majesty’s Reign Intituled “ An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America, and to make further Provision for the Government of the said Province,” and that no Bill in any other form shall be assented to by you in Our Name.

That each different Matter be provided for by a different Law, without including in One and the same Act such things as have no proper relation to each other.

That no Clause be inserted in any Act or Ordinance which shall be foreign to what the Title of it imports, and that no perpetual Clause be part of any temporary Law. That no Law or Ordinance whatever be suspended, altered, continued, revived or repealed by General Words, but that the Title and Date of such Law or Ordinance shall be particularly mentioned in the enacting part.

That in case any Law or Ordinance respecting private Property shall be passed without a saving of the Right of Us, Our Heirs and Successors and of all Persons or Bodies Politic or Corporate except such as are mentioned in the said Law or Ordinance, you shall declare that you withhold your Assent from the same ; and if any such Law or Ordinance shall be passed without such Saving, you shall in every such Case declare that you reserve the same for the Signification of Our Royal Pleasure thereon.

That in all Laws or Ordinances for levying Money or imposing Fines, Forfeitures or Penalties, express mention be made that the same is granted or reserved to Us, Our Heirs and Successors for the Public uses of the said Province, and the support of the Government thereof, as by the said Law shall be directed, and that a Clause be inserted declaring that the due Application of such Money, pursuant to the directions of such Law, shall be accounted for unto Us, thro’ One of Our Own Secretaries of State for the time being, in such manner and form as We shall direct,

12th. And Whereas We have by Our said Commission given you full Power and Authority, subject as therein is specified, and to these Our Instructions, in that Behalf to issue Writs of Summonses and Election, and to call together the Legislative Council and Assembly of Our said Province of Upper Canada, and for the purpose of electing the Members of the Assembly of Our said Province of Upper Canada, have also given you full Power and Authority to issue a Proclamation dividing the said Province of Upper Canada into districts and Counties, or Circles and Towns, or Townships and” declaring and appointing the Number of Representatives to be chosen by each of such districts or Counties, or Circles and Towns or Townships, Now Our Will and Pleasure is that You shall issue such Proclamation as soon as may be, allowing nevertheless a reasonable time between the issuing thereof, and the time of issuing the Writs of Summons and Election above mentioned.

13. That all Laws assented to by you in Our Name, or reserved for the signification of Our Royal Pleasure, thereon shall, when transmitted by you, be fairly abstracted in the Margins, and accompanied with very full and particular observations upon each of them, that is to say whether the same is introductory to a new Law, declaratory of former Law, or does repeal a Law then before in being. And you are also to transmit, in the fullest manner, the reasons and occasion for proposing such Laws, together with fair Copies of the Journals and Minutes of the Proceedings of the said Legislative Council and Assembly, which you are to require from the Clerks, or other proper Officers in that behalf of the said Legislative Council and Assembly.

14th. And Whereas in the said Act it is provided that, in certain cases Acts passed by the Legislative Council and Assembly of the Province shall, previous to any signification of Our Assent thereto, be laid before both Houses of Our Parliament of this Kingdom, And Whereas it is also provided in the said Act that in certain cases Provision may be made by the Acts of the Legislative Council and Assembly of the Province, assented to by Us, Our Heirs and Successors, (thereby reversing the Power of giving such Assent to Us, Our Heirs and Successors, only) you are to take especial care that in every such Case, you are to declare that you reserve such Bills for the signification of Our Pleasure thereon and you will likewise reserve for such signification every other Bill which you shall consider of an extraordinary or unusual Nature, or requiring Our special consideration and decision thereupon, particularly such as may affect the Property, Credit and Dealings of such of Our Subjects as are not usually resident within the said Province or whereby duties shall be laid upon British or Irish Shipping, or upon the products or manufactures of Great Britain and Ireland.

15. And Whereas Laws have formerly been enacted in several of Our Plantations in America, for so short a time, that Our Royal Assent or Refusal thereof could not be bad before the time for which such Laws wore enacted did expire, you shall not Assent in Our Name to any Law that shall be enacted for a less time than two years, except in Cases of imminent necessity or immediate temporary expediency ; and you shall not declare your Assent to any Law containing Provisions which shall have been disallowed by Us without express leave for that purpose first obtained from Us upon a full representation by you to be made to Us, thro’ One of Our Principal Secretaries of State, for the reasons and necessity for passing such Law.

16. Whereas We have thought fit by Our Orders in Our Privy Council to disallow certain Laws passed in some of Our Colonies and Plantations in America for confirming the Privileges of Naturalization on Persons being Aliens, and for divorcing persons who have been legally joined together in Holy Marriage, And Whereas Acts have been passed in others of Our said Colonies to enable Persons who are Our Liege Subjects by birth or Naturalization to hold and execute Lands, Tenements and real Estates, Although such Lands, Tenements and real Estates had been originally granted to, or purchased by Aliens antecedent to Naturalization, It is Our Will and Pleasure that you do not upon any pretense whatsoever give your Assent to any Bill or Bills that may hereafter be passed by the Legislative Council and Assembly of the Province under your Government, for the Naturalization of Aliens nor for the divorce of Persons joined together in Holy Marriage, nor for establishing a Title in any Persons to Lands Tenements and real Estates in Our said Province, originally granted or purchased by Aliens antecedent to Naturalization.

17. You are to give Warrants under your hand for the issuing of Public Monies for all Public Service and We do particularly require you to take care that regular Accounts of all receipts and Payments of Public Monies be duly kept, that the same from time to time be Audited by Our Executive Council, and that copies thereof, attested by you, be transmitted every half Year or oftener if there should be occasion to Our Commissioners of Our Treasury, or to Our High Treasurer for the time being, and Duplicates thereof by the next Conveyance in which Accounts shall be specified every particular sum raised or disposed of, to the end that We may take such Measures as We may deem necessary for the examination of the said accounts And that We may be satisfied of the right and due application of the Revenues of Our said Province of Upper Canada and with the probability of the Increase or diminution of it under every head and Article thereof.

18th. Whereas by An Act of Our Parliament of Great Britain passed in the 4th year of Our Reign Intituled “ An Act to prevent Paper Bills of Credit hereafter to be issued in any of His Majesty’s Colonies or Plantations in America from being declared to be a legal Tender in payment of Money and to prevent the legal Tender of such Bills as are now subsisting from being prolonged beyond the periods limited for calling in and sinking the same ” it is enacted that no Paper Bills, or Bills of Credit should he created or issued by any Act, Order Resolution or Vote of Assembly in anyof Our Colonies or Plantations in America to be a legal Tender in payment ; and that any such Act, Order, Resolution or Vote for creating or issuing such Paper Bills, or Bills of Credit, or for prolonging the legal Tender of any such then subsisting and current in any of the said Colonies or Plantations, should be null and void : And Whereas by Another Act of Our said Parliament, passed in the 13th year of Our Reign, Intituled “ An Act to explain and amend the above recited Act passed in the fourth year of Our Reign as aforesaid,” It is enacted that any Certificates, Notes, Bills or Debentures which shall or may be voluntarily accepted by the Creditors of the Public within any of the Colonies in America as a security for the payment of what is due and owing to the said Public Creditors may be made and enacted by the general Assemblies of the said Colonies respectively to be a Tender to the Public Treasurers in the said Colonies for the discharge of any Duties, Taxes or other debts whatsoever due to à payable at or in the said Public Treasuries of the said Colonies, in virtue of Laws passed within the same, and in no other case whatsoever, It is Our Will and Pleasure that you do in all things conform yourself to the Provisions of the said recited Acts, both with respect to the not assenting to any Bills which may be presented to you for the purpose of issuing or creating Paper Bills or Bills of Credit to be a legal Tender in payment, and the assenting to any Bills by which Certificates, Notes or Debentures which may be voluntarily accepted in payment by the Public Creditors, shall be made a legal Tender to the Treasury for Taxes, Duties and other Payments to the Public Treasury.

19th. You shall not remit any Fines or Forfeitures whatsoever above the Sum of Ten Pounds, nor dispose of any Forfeiture whatsoever until upon signifying unto the Commissioners of Our Treasury, or Our High Treasurer for the time being, the nature of the Offence, and the occasion of such Fines and Forfeitures with the particular sums or value thereof (which you are to do with all speed), you shall have received Our directions thereon, but you may in the mean time suspend the payment of the said Fines and Forfeitures.

20th. And you are on every occasion to transmit to Us thro’ one of Our Principal Secretaries of State with all convenient Speed, a particular Account of all new Establishments of Jurisdiction, Courts, Offices and Officers Powers, Authorities Fees and Privileges granted and settled within Our said Province of Upper Canada, as likewise An Account of all the Expenses (if any) attending the Establishment of the said Courts and Offices.

21st. It is Our further Will and Pleasure that all Commissions to be granted by you to any Person or Persons to be Judge, Justice of the Peace or other necessary Officer be granted during Pleasure only.

22nd. You are not to suspend any of the Members of Our said Executive Council, or to suspend or displace any of the Judges, Justices, Sheriffs or other Officers or Ministers within Our said Province of Upper Canada without good and sufficient Cause, and in case of such Suspension or Removal, You are forthwith to transmit your reasons for the same to One of Our Principal Secretaries of State.

23rd. And Whereas frequent Complaints have been made of great delays and undue proceedings in the Courts of Justice in several of Our Plantations, whereby many of Our good Subjects have very much suffered, and it being of the greatest Importance to Our Service, and to the Welfare of Our Plantations that Justice be everywhere speedily and duly administered, and that all disorders, delays and other undue practices in the Administration thereof be effectually prevented, We do particularly require you to take especial care, that in all Courts where you are authorized to preside, Justice be impartially administered, and that in all other Courts established within Our said Province All Judges and other Persons therein concerned, do likewise perform their several duties without delay or partiality.

24th. You are to take care that no Courts of Judicature be adjourned but upon good Grounds, as also that no Order of any Court of Judicature be entered, or allowed, which shall not be first read & approved of by the Justices in open Court. Which Rule you are in like manner to see observed with relation to all Proceedings of Our Executive Council of Upper Canada, and that all Orders there made be first read and approved in such Council before they are entered upon the Council Books.

25th. You are to take care that all Writs within Our said Province of Upper Canada be issued in Our Name.

26th. You shall take care, with the Advice and Assistance of Our Executive Council, that such Prisons as may at any time be necessary, be erected, and that the same, or any other already erected, be kept in such a Condition as may effectually secure the Prisoners which now are, or may hereafter be confined therein.

27th. You shall not suffer any Person to execute more Offices than one by Deputy.

28th. You shall not by Colour of any Power or Authority hereby or otherwise granted or mentioned to be granted unto you, take upon you to give, grant or dispose of any Place or Office within Our said Province which now is, or shall be granted under the Great Seal of this Kingdom, or to which any person is, or shall be appointed by Warrant under Our Signet and Sign Manual, any further than that you may, upon the Vacancy of any such Office or Place, or upon the Suspension of any such Officer by you as aforesaid, put in any fit Person to officiate in the Interval, till you shall have represented the Matter unto Us thro’ One of Our Principal Secretaries of State, which you are to do by the first opportunity ayd till the said Office or Place is disposed of by Us Our Heirs or Successors under the great Seal of this Kingdom, or until some Person shall be appointed thereunto under Our Signet and Sign Manual, or until Our further directions be given therein, And It is Our express Will and Pleasure, that you do give reasonable support unto the Patent Officers in the enjoyment of their legal and established Fees Rights Privileges and Emoluments according to the true Intent and Meaning of their respective Patents.

29th. And Whereas several Complaints have been made by the Officers of Our Customs in Our Plantations in America that they have frequently been obliged to serve on juries and personally to appear in Arms whenever the militia is drawn out and thereby are much hindered in the Execution of their several Employments, Our Will and Pleasure is, that you take effectual Care, and give the necessary directions, that the several Officers of Our Customs be excused and exempted from serving on any Juries or personally appearing in Arms in the Militia, unless in cases of absolute necessity, or serving any parochial Offices, which may hinder them in the Execution of their duties.

30th. And Whereas nothing can more effectually tend to the speedy settling of Our said Province of Upper Canada, the Security of the Propeity of Our Subjects and the advancement of Our Revenue than the disposal of such Lands as are Our Property upon reasonable Terms and the establishing of a regular and proper Method of Proceeding with respect to the passing of Grants of such Lands It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that all and every Person and Persons who shall apply for any grant or Grants of Land shall previous to their obtaining the same, make it appear that they are in a Condition to cultivate and improve the same and in case you shall upon a consideration of the Circumstances of the Person or Persons applying for such Grants think it adviseable to pass the same ydu are in such Case to cause a Warrant to be drawn up directed to the Surveyor General or other Officers empowering him or them to make a faithful and exact Survey of the Lands so petitioned for and to return the said Warrant within Six Months at farthest from the date thereof With a Plot or description of the Lands so surveyed thereunto annexed And when the Warrant shall be returned by the said Surveyor or other proper Officer the Grant shall be made out in due form and the Terms and Conditions required by these Our Instructions be particularly and expressly mentioned therein And It is Our Will and Pleasure that the said Grants shall be registered within Six months from the date thereof in the Register’s Office and a Docket thereof be also entered in Our Auditor’s Office Copies of all which Entries shall be returned regularly by the proper Officer to Our Commissioners of Our Treasury.

31st. And for the further Encouragement of Our Subjects It is our Will and Pleasure that the Lands to be granted by you as aforesaid shall be laid out in Townships and that each inland Township shall as nearly as circumstances shall admit consist of Ten Miles Square and such as shall be situated upon a navigable River or Water shall have a front of Nine Miles and be Ten Miles in depth and subdivided in such manner as may be found most advisable for the accommodation of the Settlers and for making the several reservations for Public Uses and particularly for the Support of the Protestant Clergy agreeable to the above recited Act passed in the Thirty first Year of Our Reign.

32nd. And Whereas great Inconveniences have heretofore arisen in many of the Colonies in America from the granting excessive quantities of Land to particular Persons who have never cultivated or settled the same and have thereby prevented others more Industrious from improving such Lands. In order therefore to prevent the like Inconveniences in the future It is Our Will and Pleasure that you observe the following directions and regulations in all Grants to be made by you as aforesaid that is to say

That no Town Lot shall be granted to any one Person being Master or Mistress of a Family in any Township to be laid out as aforesaid which shall contain more than One Acre of Land.

That no Park Lot shall be granted to any one Person being Master or Mistress of a Family in any Township so to be laid out which shall contain more than Twenty-four Acres.

That no Farm Lot shall be granted to any one Person being Master or Mistress of a Family in any Township so to be laid out which shall contain more than two hundred Acres.

It is Our Will and Pleasure and you are hereby allowed and permitted to grant unto every such Person or Persons such further quantity of Land as they may desire not exceeding One Thousand Acres over and above what may have heretofore been granted to them and in all Grants of Land to be made by you as aforesaid you are to take care that due regard be had to the Quantity and comparative Value of the different parts of Land comprised within any Township so that each Grantee may have as nearly as may be a proportionable Quantity of Lands of such different quantity and comparative Value as likewise that the Breadth of each Tract of Land to be hereafter granted be one third of the Length and that the Length of such Tract do not extend along the Banks of any River but towards t.he main Land that thereby the said Grantee may have such a convenient share of what accommodation the said River may afford for Navigation or otherwise.

33rd. And as a further Encouragement to our Subjects who shall become Settlers as aforesaid It is Our Will and Pleasure that the said Townships and the respective Allotments within the same together with the Lands to be reserved as aforesaid shall be run and laid out by Our Surveyor General of Lands for the said Province or some Skilful Person authorized by him for that purpose which Surveys together with the Warrants and Grants for the respective Allotments shall be made out for and delivered to the several Grantees free of any Expense or Fees whatever other than such as may be payable to the different Officers according to the Table of Fees established upon Grants of Land made in the said Province.

34th. And in order to prevent any persons disaffected to Us and to Our Government from becoming Settlers in Our said Province of Upper Canada It is Our Will and Pleasure that no Warrants for Surveying Lands be granted by you or the Lieutenant Governor or person administering the Government for the time being unless the Person or Persons applying for the same do at the time of making such Application besides taking the Usual Oaths directed by Law also make and subscribe the following declaration in your or his presence of such Person or Persons as shall by you or him be appointed for that purpose that is to say I “ A B do promise and declare that I will maintain and defend to the Utmost of my power the Authority of the King in His Parliament as the Supreme Legislature of this Province.”

35th. Whereas the reserving such Bodies of Land within Our said Province of Upper Canada where there are considerable Growths of Timber fit for the use of Our Royal Navy is a Matter of the Utmost Importance to Our Service It is Our Will and Pleasure that no Grants whatever be made of Lands within any district or Tract in Our said Province of Upper Canada until Our Surveyor General of Woods or his Deputy lawfully appointed shall have surveyed the same and marked out as reservations to Us Lur Heirs and Successors such Parts thereof as shall be found to contain any considerable Growth of Masting or other Timber fit for the use of Our Royal Navy and more especially upon the Rivers and you are hereby instructed to direct Our Surveyor General of Lands in Our said Province from time to time with all due diligence to complete the Surveys and mark out the Reservations as aforesaid in the most convenient parts of the said Province And you are from time to time to report the number, extent and situation of such Reservations and you are further to direct Our Surveyor General not to certify any Plots of Grounds ordered and surveyed for any Person or Persons whatever in order that Grants may be made out for the same until it shall appear to him by a Certificate under the hand of Our Surveyor of Woods or his Deputy that the land so to be granted is not part of or included in any District marked out as a Reservation for Us Our Heirs and Successors as aforesaid for the purpose herein before mentioned and in order to prevent any deceit or Fraud from being committed by the persons applying for Lands in this respect It is Our Will and Pleasure that in all Grants to be hereafter made for Lands in Our said Province of Upper Canada the following Proviso and Exception be inserted that is to say “ and provided also that no part of the Parcel or Tract of Land hereby granted to the said _______ and his Heirs be within any reservation heretofore made and marked for Us Our Heirs and Successors by Our Surveyor General of Woods or his lawful Deputy in which Case this Our Grant for such part of the Land hereby given and granted to the said _____ and his Heirs forever as aforesaid and which shall upon a Survey thereof being made be found within any such reservation shall be Null and void and of none effect anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

n contained to the contrary notwithstanding. 36th. And Whereas it is necessary that all persons who may be desirous of Settling in Our said Province should be fully informed of the Terms and Conditions upon which such Lands will be granted within Our said Province of Upper Canada in manner prescribed in and by the said Act passed in the 31st Year of Our Reign you are therefore as soon as possible to cause a Publication to be made by Proclamation or otherwise as you in your discretion shall think most advisable of the said Terms and Conditions respecting the granting of Lands in which Proclamation it may be Expedient to add some short description of the natural advantages of the Soil and Climate and its peculiar Conveniences for Trade and Navigation.

37th. And It is Our further Will and Pleasure that all the foregoing Instructions to you as well as any which you may hereafter receive relative to the passing Grants of Lands in conformity to the said Act passed in the Thirty first year of Our Reign be entered upon Record for the information of all parties whatever that may be concerned therein.

38th. And Whereas it hath been represented to Us that many parts of Our Province under your Government are particularly adapted to the Growth and Culture of Hemp and Flax It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that in all Surveys for Settlements the Surveyor be directed to report whether there are any or what Quantity of Lands contained within such Survey fit for the production of Hemp and Flax.

39th. And Whereas it hath been represented to Us that several parts of Our Province of Upper Canada have been found to abound with Coals, It is Our Will and Pleasure that in all Grants of Land to be made by you, a Clause is inserted, reserving to Us Our Heirs and Successors all Coals and also all Mines of Gold Silver Copper Tin Iron and Lead which shall be discovered upon such Lands.

40th. You shall cause a Survey to be made of all the considerable Landing Places and Harbours of our said Province in Case the same shall not have already been done and report to Us by One of Our Principal Secretaries of State how far any fortifications be necessary for the Security and advantage of the said Province.

41st. And Whereas it appears from the representations of Our late Governor of the District of Trois-Rivières that the Iron Works at Saint-Maurice in that District are of great Consequence to Our Service It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that no part of the Lands upon which the said Iron Works were carried on or from which the Ore used in such Iron Works was procured or which shall appear to be necessary or convenient for that Establishment either in respect of a free passage in the River Saint Lawrence or for producing a necessary supply of Wood Corn and Hay or for Pasture of Cattle be granted to any private person whatever and also that as large a District of Land as Conveniently may be adjacent to and lying round the said Iron Works over and above what may be necessary for the above purposes be reserved for Our Use to be disposed of in such manner as We shall direct and appoint.

42nd. Whereas the Establishment of proper Regulations in Matters of Ecclesiastical concern is an object of very great importance it will be your Indispensable Duty to take care that no Arrangements in regard thereto be made but such as give full satisfaction to Our New Subjects in every point in which they have a right to any Indulgence on that head always remembering that it is a Toleration of the free Exercise of the Religion of the Church of Rome only to which they are entitled but not to the Powers and Privileges of it as an Established Church that being a preference which belongs only to the Protestant Church of England.

43rd. Upon these Principles therefore and to the end that Our just Supremacy in all Matters Ecclesiastical as well as Civil may have its due scope and Influence It is Our Will and Pleasure.

First that all appeals to or correspondence with any Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of any nature or kind soever be absolutely forbidden under very severe Penalties.

Secondly that no Episcopal or Vicarial Powers be exercised within Our said Province by any person professing the Religion of the Church of Rome but such only as are essentially and indispensably necessary to the free exercise of the Romish Religion and in those Cases not without a Licence and Permission from you under the Seal of Our said Province for and during Our Will and Pleasure and under such other limitations and restrictions as may correspond with the Spirit and Provisions of the Act of Parliament of the Fourteenth year of Our Reign for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec And no person whatever is to have Holy Orders conferred upon him or to have the Cure of Souls without a Licence for that purpose first had and obtained from you.

Thirdly that no person professing the Religion of the Church of Rome be allowed to fill any Ecclesiastical Benefice or to have and enjoy any of the Rights or Profits belonging thereto who is not a Canadian by Birth (such only excepted as are now in possession of any such Benefice) and who is not appointed thereto by Us or by or under Our Authority and that all Right or Claim of Right in any other person whatever to nominate present or appoint to any Vacant Benefice other than such as may lay Claim to the Patronage of Benefices as a Civil Right be absolutely abolished no person to hold more than one Benefice or at least not more than can reasonably be served by one and the same Incumbent.

Fourthly—That no person whatever professing the Religion of the Church of Rome be appointed Incumbent of any Parish in which the Majority of the Inhabitants shall solicit the appointment of a Protestant Minister In such Case the Incumbent shall be a Protestant and Entitled to all Tythes payable within such Parish but nevertheless the Roman Catholicks may have the use of the Church for the free Exercise of their Religion at such times as may not interfere with the Religious Worship of the Protestants and in like manner the Protestant Inhabitants of every Parish where the Majority of the Parishioners are Roman Catholics shall notwithstanding have the free use of the Church for the Exercise of their Religion at such times as may not interfere with the Religious Worship of the Roman Catholics.

Fifthly, That no Incumbent Professing the Religion of the Church of Rome appointed to any Parish shall be entitled to receive any Tythes for Lands or Possessions Occupied by a Protestant but such Tythes shall be received by such persons as you shall appoint and shall Ire reserved in the hands of our Receiver General as aforesaid for the support of Our Protestant Clergy in Our said Province to be actually resident within the same and not otherwise according to such directions as you shall receive from Us in that behalf and in like manner all growing Rents or Profits of a Vacant Benefice shall during such Vacancy be reserved for and applied to the like Uses.

Sixthly That all persons professing the Religion of the Church of Rome who being under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec shall hold their respective Benefices during their good behaviour subject however in Case of any Conviction for Criminal offences or upon due proof of Seditious attempts to disturb the Beace and tranquillity of Our Government to be deprived or suspended by you.

Eighthly That such Ecclesiasticks as may think fit to enter into the Holy State of Matrimony shall be released from all Penalties to which they may have been subjected ln such Cases by any Authority of the See of Rome.

Ninthly, That freedom of the Burial of the Dead in the Churches and Church yards be allowed indiscriminately to every Christian Persuasion.

Tenthly That the Royal Family be prayed for in all Churches and Places of Public Worship in such manner and form as is used in this Kingdom and that Our Arms and Insignia be put up not only in all such churches and Places of Holy Worship but also in all courts of Justice and that the Arms of France be taken down in every such Church or Court where they may at present remain.

Eleventhly That the Society of Romish Priests called the Seminaries of Quebec and Montreal shall continue to possess and occupy their Houses of Residence and all other Houses and Lands to which they were lawfully entitled on the thirteenth of September 1759 and it shall be lawful for those Societies to fill up Vacancies and admit New Members according to the Rules of their Foundations and to Educate Youth in Order to qualify them for the Service of Parochial Cures as they shall become Vacant. It is nevertheless Our Will and Pleasure that not only those Seminaries but all other Religious Communities so long as the same shall continue be subject to Visitation by you Our Governor or such other person or persons as you shall appoint for that purpose and also subject to such other Rules and Regulations as you shall with the advice and consent of Our said Executive Council think fit to establish and appoint.

Twelfthly_It is also Our Will and pleasure that all other Religious Seminaries and communities (that of the Jesuits only excepted) do for the present and until We can be more fully informed of the true state of them and how far they are or are not essential to the free Exercise of the Religion of the Church of Rome as allowed within our said Province remain upon their present Establishment but you are not to allow the admission of any New Members into any of the said Societies or Communities (the Religious Communities of Women only Excepted) without our express orders for that purpose that the Society of J esuits be suppressed and dissolved and no longer continued as a Body Corporate or Politic and all their Rights Possessions and Property shall be Vested in Us for such purposes as We may hereafter think fit to direct and appoint but We think fit to declare Our Royal Intention to be that the present Members of the said Society as Established at Quebec shall be allowed Sufficient Stipends and Provisions duripg their natural lives that all Missionaries amongst the Indians whether Established under the Authority of or appointed by the Jesuits or by any other Ecclesiastical Authority of the Romish Church be withdrawn by Degrees and at such times and in such manner as shall be satisfactory to the said Indians and consistent with the Public safety and Protestant Missionaries appointed in their Places. That all Ecclesiastical Persons whatever of the Church of Rome be inhibited upon pain of deprivation from influencing any person in the making of a Will from inveigling Protestants to become Papists or from tampering with them in Matters of Religion and the Romish Priests be forbidden to inveigh in their Sermons against the Religion of the church of England.

44th. It is Our Will and Pleasure to reserve to you the granting the Licences for Marriages Letters of Administration and Probates of Wills as heretofore Exercised by you and your Predecessors and also to reserve to you and all others to whom it may lawfully belong the Patronage and Right of Presentation to Benefices but It is Our Will and Pleasure that the person so presented shall be Instituted by the Bishop or his commissary duly authorized by him.

45th. You are to permit liberty of conscience and the free Exercise of all such Modes of Religious Worship as are not prohibited by Law to all persons who inhabit and frequent the Province of Upper Canada provided they be contented with a quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same without giving offence or Scandal to Government.

46th. You are to take especial Care that God Almighty be duly and devoutly served throughout your Government That the Lord’s day be duly kept and that the Services and Prayers appointed by and according to the Book of Common Prayer be publicly and solemnly performed and read throughout the year.

47th. You are to be careful that the churches which are or may be hereafter Erected in Our said Province of Upper Canada be well and Orderly Kept.

48th. You shall recommend to the Legislative Council and General Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada to Settle the Order of Parishes in such a manner as shall be deemed most convenient.

49th. You are to use your best endeavours that every Minister be constituted one of the Vestry in his respective Parish and that no Vestry be held without him except in Case of Sickness or that after Notice given of a Vestry he omit to come.

50th. It is Our Will and Pleasure that you recommend to the Legislative Council and Assembly to make due provision for the Erecting and maintaining of Schools where Youth may be Educated in competent learning and in knowledge of the Principles of the Christian Religion.

51st. And It is Our further Will and Pleasure that no person shall be allowed to keep a School in the Province of Upper Canada without your License first had and duly obtained in granting which you are to pay the most particular attention to the Morals and proper Qualifications of the persons applying for the same and in all cases where the School has been founded Instituted or appointed for the Education of Members of the Church of England or where it is intented that the School Master should be a Member of the Church of England you are not to grant such Licences except to persons who shall first have obtained from the Bishop of Quebec or one of his Commissaries a Certificate of their being properly qualified for that purpose.

52nd. And It is Our further Will and Pleasure that in Order to suppress every Species of Vice Profaneness and Immorality you do forthwith cause all Laws already made against Blasphemy Profaneness Adultery Fornication Polygamy Incest Profanation of the Lord’s Day Swearing and Drunkenness to be strictly put in Execution in every part of the Province of Upper Canada and that for this purpose you do direct that the Constables and Church Wardens of the several Parishes do make Presentment upon Oath of any of the Vices above mentioned to the Justices of the Peace in their Session or to any of the other Temporal courts and you are earnestly to recommend to the Legislative Council and Assembly to provide effectual Laws for the restraint and Punishment of all such of the aforementioned Vices against which no Laws are as yet provided and in Case where the Laws already made are found to be insufficient and in order to discountenance Vice and promote the practice of Virtue to the utmost of your power We do hereby strictly command and enjoin you to appoint no person to be a Justice of the Peace or to any Trust or Employment whose Notorious 111 life and Conversation may occasion Scandal.

53rd. You are not to present any Protestant Minister to any Ecclesiastical Benefice within our said Province by Virtue of the said Act passed in the Thirty first year of Our Reign and of Our Commission to you without a proper Certificate from the Bishop of Quebec or his Commissary of his being conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the church of England.

54th. And you are to take especial Care that a Table of Marriages Established by Canons of the Church of England be hung up in all places of Public Worship according to the Rites of the Church of England.

55th. It is Our Royal Intention that the Peltry Trade of the Interior Country shall be free and open to all Our Subjects Inhabitants of any of Our Colonies who shall pursuant to what was directed by Our Royal Proclamation of 1763, obtain Trading Licences from the Governor of any of Our said Colonies under Penalties to observe such Regulations as shall be made by Our Legislative Council of Our Province of Upper Canada for that purpose—These Regulations therefore when established must be made Public throughout all Our American Possessions and they must have for their object the giving every possible facility to that Trade which the nature of it will admit and which may be consistent with fair and just dealing towards the Native Indians with whom it is carried on The fixing stated times and places for carrying on the Trade and adjusting Modes and settling the Tariffs of the Prices of Goods and Furs and above all the restraining the sale of Spirituous ‘ Liquors to the Indians will be the most profitable and effectual means of answering the ends proposed.

56th. The Fisheries on the Coast of Labrador and the Islands adjacent thereto are objects of the greatest Importance not only on account of the Commodities they produce but as Nurseries of Seamen upon whom the strength and security of Our Kingdom depends.

57th. Justice and Equity demand that the real and actual possession and Property of the Canadian subjects which existed at the time of the Cession of the said Province on that Coast should be preserved entire and that they should not be molested or hindered in the Exercise of any Sedentary Fisheries they may have established there.

58th. These Claims however extend to but a small District of the Coast on the greatest part of which district a Cod Fishery is stated to be impracticable.

59th. On all such parts of the Coasts where there are no Canadian Possessions and more especially where a valuable Cod Fishery may be carried on It will be your Duty to make the interest of Our British Subjects going out to Fish there in Ships fitted out from Great Britain the first object of your Care and as far as Circumstances will admit to Establish on that Coast the Regulations in favour of Brtish Fishing Ships which have been so wisely adopted by the Act of Parliament passed in the Reign of King William the Third for the Encouragement of the Newfoundland Fishery and by the several Acts passed in the Fifteenth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-Eighth, and Twenty-Ninth years of Our Reign for that purpose and you are on no account to allow any Possessions to be taken or Sedentary Fisheries to be Established upon any parts of the Coast that are not already private Property by any persons whatever except only such as will produce Annually a Certificate of their having fitted out from some Port in Great Britain.

60th. Whereas it will be for the general benefit of our Subjects carrying on the Fishery in the Bay of Chaleur in the Province of Upper Canada that such part of the Beach and Shore of the said Bay as is ungranted should be reserved to Us Our Heirs and Successors It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that you do not in future direct any Survey to be made or Grant to be passed for any part of the ungranted Beach or Shore of the said Bay of Chaleur except such parts thereof as by Our Orders in Council dated the Twenty-ninth of June and Twenty-first of July 1786 were directed to be granted to John Shoolbred of London Merchant and to Messrs Robin Pipon and Company of the Island of Jersey Merchants but that the same be reserved to Us Our Heirs and Successors together with a Sulficient quantity of Wood Land adjoining thereto necessary for the purpose of carrying on the Fishery the limits of such Wood Land so to be reserved to be determined upon and ascertained by you aud Our Executive Council of Our said Province of Upper Canada in such manner as from the most authentic information shall appear to you and them most Convenient and proper for that purpose It is nevertheless Our intention and We do hereby Signify to you Our Will and Pleasure that the free use of such Beach or Shore and of the Wood Land so to be reserved shall be allowed by you or any person or persons authorized by you to such of Our Subjects as shall resort thither for the purpose of carrying on the Fishery in such Proportions as the Number of Shallops We or they shall respectively Employ shall require Provided that if any Fisherman who shall have permission to occupy any part of the said Beach or Shore and Land for the purpose of the said Fishery shall not during an)’ one season continue so to occupy and employ any part of the said Beach and Shore and Wood Land so allotted to him you or any person authorized by you as above may and shall allow the Use of such part to any other Fisherman who shall apply for the same for the purpose of carrying on the Fishery And Whereas it may be necessary to establish local Regulations to prevent abuses as well as disputes and misunderstandings between the Fishermen resorting to the said Beach or Shore It is Our Will and Pleasure that you by and with the Advice and Consent of Our said Executive Council do frame such Regulations from time to time as to you shall appear necessary to answer those salutary purposes and that you transmit the same to Us thro’ one of Our Principal Secretaries of State for Our Pleasure therein and Copies thereof to Our Committee of Our Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations by the first opportunity.

61st. And Whereas It is expedient for Our Service that We should from time to time be informed of the State of the Trade and Fisheries as well as of the Population of Our said Province of Upper Canada It is Our Will and Pleasure that you do transmit to us thro’ one of Our Principal Secretaries of State and to our committee of Our Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations for their Information Yearly and every Year a full and particular Account of the state of the Fur and Peltry Trade the nature and extent of the several Fisheries carried on by Our Subjects or others either on the Coasts Lakes or Rivers of the said Province the State of the Cultivation particularly specifying the quantity of Grain Hemp and Flax Produced and of every other Important branch of Trade which may in your Opinion lie advantageously under-taken and carried on by Our Subjects the number of Our Inhabitants distinguishing them under different Heads of Men Women and Children inserting in such account the number of persons Born Christened and Buried and any Extraordinary Influx or Emigration from Our said Province specifying at the same time the number of Slaves and the number of Our Subjects capable of bearing Arms in the Militia the Number and Tonnage of Shipping and Craft Employed upon the Lakes or Rivers in or Contiguous to the Province of Upper Canada and of the Number and Tonnage of the Shipping entering Inwards and clearing Outwards from the Ports of Our Province of Upper Canada together with any other Information on these or any other points of the like nature which may be proper to be communicated to Us.

62nd. And Whereas for some years past the Governors of some of Our Plantations have seized and appropriated to their own use the produce of Whales of several kinds taken upon these coasts upon pretence that whales are Royal Fishes which tends greatly to discourage that branch of Fishery in our Plantations and to prevent persons from settling there It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that you do not pretend to any Claim nor give any manner of discouragement to the Fishery of Our Subjects upon the Coasts of the Province under your Government but on the contrary that you give all possible Encouragement thereto.

63rd. And Whereas you will receive from Our Commissioners for executing the office of Our High Admiral of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and for the Plantations a commission Constituting you Vice Admiral of Our said Province of Upper Canada you are required and directed carefully to put in Execution the several Powers thereby granted you.

64th. And Whereas We are desirous that Our Subjects in the Plantations should have the same ease in obtaining the condemnation of Prizes there as in this Kingdom you are to signify Our Will and Pleasure to the officers Of our Admiralty Court in Upper Canada that they do not presume to demand or exact other Fees than what are taken in this kingdom which amount to about Ten pounds for the condemnation of each Prize according to the List of such Fees.

65th. And there having been great Irregularities in the manner of granting Commissions in the Plantations to Private Ships of War you are to govern yourself whenever there shall be Occasion according to the Commissions and Instructions granted in this Kingdom but are not to grant commissions of Marque or Reprisal against any Prince or State in Amity with Us to any person whatsoever without Our especial Command.

66th. Whereas Commissions have been granted in Our Colonies and Plantations for trying Pirates in those parts Pursuant to the several Acts for the more effectual suppression of Piracy and a Commission will be prepared empowering you as Our Captain General and Governor in Chief of Our Province of Upper Canada with others therein mentioned to proceed accordingly in reference to the said Province Our Will and Pleasure is that in all Matters relating to Pirates you govern yourself according to the Intent and Meaning of the said Acts.

67th. Whereas it is absolutely necessary that We be exactly informed of the State of Defence of all our Plantations in America as well in relation to the Stores of War that are in each Plantation as to the Forts and Fortifications there and what more may be necessary to be built for the’defence and Security of the same you are from time to time to transmit an Account thereof with relation to Our said Province of Upper Canada in the most particular manner and you are therein to express the present State of the Arms Ammunition and other Stores of War belonging to the said Province either in any Public Magazines or in the Hands of Private persons together with a State of all Places either already Fortified or that you may judge necessary to oe Fortified for the Security of Our said Province and you are to transmit the said Accounts to Us by One of Our Principal Secretaries of State and also Duplicates thereof to Our Master General or Principal Officers of Our Ordnance which Accounts are to express the Particulars of Ordnance Carriages Balls Powder and all other sorts of Arms and Ammunition now in Our Public Stores and so from time to time of what shall be sent to you or bought with the Public Money and to specify the time of the disposal and Occasion thereof and other like Accounts Half yearly in the same manner.

68th. And in Case of distress of any other of Our Plantations you shall upon application of the respective Governors thereof to you assist them with what Aid the condition and safety of Our said Province under your Government can spare.

69th. If anything shall happen which may be of advantage or Security to Our Province under your Government which is not herein or by your Commission provided for We do hereby allow unto you with the advice and consent of Our said Executive Council to take order for the present therein Provided nevertheless that what shall be done be not repugnant to Our Commission and Instructions and to the said Acts passed in the Fourteenth, and Thirty-first years of Our Reign giving unto Us by One of Our Principal Secretaries of State speedy Notice thereof that you may receive our Ratification if We shall approve the same Provided always that you do not by Colour of any Power or Authority hereby given you commence or declare War without Our knowledge and particular commands therein except it be for the purpose of preventing or repelling Hostilities or unavoidable Emergencies wherein the consent of Our Executive Council shall be had and speedy Notice given thereof to Us by one of Our Principal Secretaries of State.

70th. You shall as often as you shall judge it Expedient Visit the other parts of your Government in Order to Inspect the Management of all Public Affairs and thereby the better to take Care that the Government be so administered that no disorderly practice may grow up contrary to Our Service and the welfare of Our Government.

71st. And Whereas We have made sufficient provision for the support of Our Lieutenant Governor of Our said Province of Upper Canada for the time being It is Our Will and Pleasure when it shall appear that you shall be absent from Our said Province that no part of the Salary or any Perquisites and Emoluments which are due unto you, shall during the time of your absence be claimed by or paid and satisfied to such Lieutenant Governor and it is Our further Will and Pleasure that if Our Lieutenant Governor of Our said Province of Upper Canada should happen to die during your Absence and the administration of the Government thereby or otherwise devolve on the President or Senior Member of Our Executive Council or on such other Executive Councillor as by Virtue of this our Commission in that behalf shall be appointed by you under the Great Seal of Our Province to the Administration of the Government thereof such President or Councillor shall during his Continuing in the said Command receive the Salary or Allowance hereby provided for Our Lieutenant Governor and no other allowance Perquisite or Emolument whatever.

72nd. And Whereas great prejudice may happen to Our Service and the Security of Our said Province by the absence of you Our Governor in Chief or Our Lieutenant Governor for the time being you shall not upon any pretence whatever come to Europe without having first obtained leave for so doing from Us under Our Sign Manual and Signet or by Our Order in Council.

73rd. And Whereas We have thought fit by Our Commission to direct that in Case of your Death or Absence from Our said Province and in Case there be at that time no person commissioned or appointed by us to be Our Lieutenant Governor, or Appointed by Us to administer the Government within the Province in the Event of the Death or absence of you and of Our Lieqtenant Governor of the said Province the Senior Member of the Executive Council who shall be at the time of your death or Absence residing within Our said Province of Upper Canada subject to such other Nomination and appointment by you under the Great Seal of Our said Province as in Our said Commission is in that behalf mentioned Shall take upon him the Administration of the Government and execute Our said commission and Instructions and the several I owers and Authorities therein contained in the manner thereby directed It is nevertheless Our express Will and Pleasure that in such Case the person administering the Government shall forbear to pass any acts but what are immediately necessary for the welfare of the said Province without our Particular Order for that purpose and that he shall not take upon him to dissolve the Assembly then in being nor to remove or suspend any of the Members of Our said Executive Council nor any Judges Justices of the Peace or other officers Civil or Military without the advice and consent of the majority of the said Executive Council and he is by the first opportunity to transmit to Us by One of Our Principal Secretaries of State the reasons for such alterations signed by him and the Council And Our Will and Plea-sure is that the above Instructions with respect to such Senior Counsellor shall also be equally observed by and binding upon such other Executive Councillor as may be nominated and appointed by you under the Great Seal of Our said Province by Virtue of Our said Commission in that behalf.

74th. And Whereas by our different Commissions We have appointed you to be Our Governor and Commander in Chief of Our Province of Upper Canada and of Our Province of Nova Scotia Our Islands of Prince Edward and Cape Breton as well as of Our Province of New Brunswick And it is Our Intention that the Lieutenant Governors Commanding in the said Provinces of Upper Canada Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and the Islands of Prince Edward and Cape Breton should have and enjoy the full Salaries Perquisites and Emoluments granted to them and arising from the respective Governments in as full and ample a manner as if the said Governments were under distinct Governors in Chief—It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that you shall not at any time or times when you shall be resident and Commanding in Chief in either of Our said Provinces of Upper Canada Nova Scotia and New Brunswick or the Islands of Prince Edward and Cape Breton have or receive any part of the said Salaries Perquisites or Emoluments but that the same shall continue* to be paid and satisfied to the Lieutenant Governors of the said Provinces and Islands respectively in like manner as they usually are during your absence therefrom.

75th. And you are upon all Occasions to send to Us by one of Our Principal Secretaries of State a Particular Account of all your Proceedings and of the Condition of Affairs within your Government.

C. O. (Despatch Entry Book) 1801-1811. In Secy of State’s despatch No. 1, of 31 August, 1807.

Joseph Howe’s Letters To Lord John Russell. Sept. 18, 1839

My Lord,-I beg your Lordship to believe that no desire to seek for notoriety beyond the limited sphere in which Provindence has placed me, tempts me to adress these letters to you. Born in a small and distant Province of the empire, and contented with the range of occupation that it affords, and with the moderate degree of influence which the confidence of some portion of its population confers, I should never have thought of intruding upon your Lordship, had not the occupations of my past life, and the devotion to them of many days of toil and nights of anxious inquiry led me to intertain strong opinions upon a subject which your Lordship has undertaken recently to discuss; and which, while it deeply concerns the honour and the interests of the empire, appears to be, by Her Majesty’s present ministers, but little understood. Whether or not the Anglo-Saxon population, upholding the British flag on this side of the Atlantic, shall possess the right to influence, through their representatives, the Government under which they live, in all matters touching their internal affairs (of which their fellow-subjects living elsewhere know nothing and with which they have no right to interfere) is a question, my Lord, that involves their happiness and freedom. To every Nova Scotian it is no light matter that the country of his birth, in whose bosom the bones of a hardy and loyal ancestry repose, and whose surface is possessed by a population inferior in none of the physical, moral, or mental attributes which distinguish his race, to any branch of the great British family, should be free and happy. I share with my countrymen their solicitude on this subject; I and my children will share their deep disgrace, if the doctrines decently attributed to your Lordship are to prevail to the utter exclusion of us all from the blessings and advantages of responsible government, based upon the principles of that Constitution which your Lordship’s forefathers laboured to establish and ours have taught us to revere. To the consciousness of social and political degradation which must be my portion, if the future government of North America is arranged upon the principles recently avowed by the ministry, I am reluctant that the reflection should be added that the colonists were themselves to blame in permitting a great question, without ample discussion and remonstrance, to ·be decided upon grounds which they knew to be untenable and untrue. In addressing your Lordship on such a topic, it is gratifying to reflect that your past life is a guarantee that the moment that you are satisfied that a greater amount of freedom and happiness can be conferred on any portion of your fellow-subjects than they now enjoy, without endangering the welfare of the whole-when once convinced that the great principles of the British Constitution can be more widely extended, without peril to the integrity of the empire-you will not hesitate to lend the influence of your great name and distinguished talents to the good old cause “for which Hampden died in the field and Sidney on the scaffold.”

Lord Durham’s Report on the affairs of British North America appears to have produced much excitement in England. The position which his Lordship occupies as a politician at home naturally draws attention to whatever he says and does; and the disclosures made in the Report must appear so strange to many and the remedies suggested so bold and original to many more, that I am not surprised at the notice bestowed by friends and foes on this very- important document. From what I have seen, however, it is evident that his Lordship is payink the penalty of party connection; and that his opinions on Canadian affairs, instead of being tried on their merits, are in many cases applauded or opposed, as his views of British or Irish politics happen to be relished or condemned. It is almost too much to expect that my feeble voice will be heard amidst the storm of praise and censure that this Report has raised; and yet there may be some, who, disliking this mode of estimating a state paper, or distrusting the means of judging possessed by many who express opinions, ·but whose practical experience of the working of colonial constitutions has been but slight-if indeed they have had any-may feel disposed to ask, What is the thought of the Report in the colonies? Are its leading features recognized as true to nature and experience there? Are the remedies suggested approved by the people whose future destinies they are to influence and control?

The Report has circulated for some months in the colonies, and I feel it a duty to state the grounds of my ·belief that his Lordship in attributing many if not all of our colonial evils and disputes to the absence of respon- sibility in our rulers to those whom they are called to govern, is entirely warranted by the knowledge of every intelligent colonist; that the remedy pointed out, while it possesses the merits of being extermely simple and eminently British,-making them so responsible, is the only cure for those evils short of arrant quackery; the only secure foundation upon which the power of the Crown can be established on this continent, so as to defy internal machination and foreign assault.

It appears to me that a very absurd opinion has long prevailed among many worthy people, on ·both sides of the Atlantic, that the selection of an Executive Council, who, upon most points of domestic policy, will differ from the great body of the inhabitants and the majority of their representatives, is indispensable to the very existence of colonial constitutions; and that if it were otherwise, the colony would fly off, by the operation of some latent principle of mischief, which I have never seen very clearly defined. By those who entertain this view, it is assumed, that Great Britain is indebted for the preservation of her colonies, not to the natural affection of their inhabitants-to ·their pride in her history, to their participation in the benefit of her warlike, scientific or literary achievements,- but to the disinterested patriotism of a dozen or two persons, whose names are scarcely known in England, except by the clerks in Downing Street; who are remarkable for nothing above their neighbours in the colony, except perhaps the enjoyment of offices too richly endowed; or their zealous efforts to annoy, by the distribution of patronage and the management of public affairs, the great body of inhabitants, whose sentiments they cannot change.

I have ever held, my Lord, and still hold to the belief, that the popula· tion of British North America are sincerely attached to the parent State; that they are proud of their origin, deeply interested in the integrity of the empire and not anxious for the establishment of any other form of government here then that which you enjoy at home; which, while it has stood the test of ages and purified itself by successive peaceful revolutions, has so developed the intellectual, moral, and natural resources of two small Islands, as to enable a people, once comparatively far behind their neighbours in influence and improvement, to combine and wield the energies of a dominion more vast in extent and complicated in all its relations than any ether in ancient or modern times. Why should we desire a severance of old ties that are more honourable than any new ones we can form? Why should we covet institutions more perfect than those which have worked so well and produced such admirable results? Until it can be shown that there are forms of government, combining stronger executive power with more of individual liberty; offering nobler incitements to honourable ambition, and more security to unaspiring ease and humble industry; why should it be taken for granted, either by our friends in England, or our enemies elsewhere, that we are panting for new experiments; or are disposed to repudiate and cast aside the principles of that excellent Constitution, cemented by the blood and the long experience of our fathers and upon which the vigorous energies of our brethren, driven to apply new principles to a field of boundless resources, have failed to improve? This suspicion is a libel upon the colonist and upon the Constitution he claims as his inheritance; and the principles of which he believes to be as applicable to all the exigencies of the country where he resides, as they have proved to be to those of the fortunate Islands in which they were first developed.

If the conviction of this fact were at once acknowledged by the intelligent and influential men of all parties in Britain, colonial misrule would Speedily end and the reign of order indeed commence. This is not a party question. I can readily understand how the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel may differ from your Lordship or the Earl of Durham as to whether measures should be carried, which they believe would impair, and you feel will renovate, the Constitution; but surely none of these distinguished men would wish to deny the Constitution itself to large bodies of British subjects on this side of the water, who have not got it, who are anxious to secure its advantages to themselves and their children ; who, while they have no ulterior designs that can by any possibility make the concession dangerous, can never be expected to be contented with a system the very reverse of that they admire; and in view of the proud satisfaction with which, amidst all their manly struggles for power, their brethren at home survey the simple machinery of a government, which we believe to be, like the unerring principles of science, as applicable to one side of the Atlantic as to the other, but which we are nevertheless denied.

Many persons, not familiar with the facts, may wonder how this occurs, and may be disposed to doubt the correctness of my assertion. It seems strange that those who live within the British Empire should be governed by other principles than those of the British Constitution; and vet it is true, notwithstanding. Let me illustrate the fact, by a few references to British and Colonial affairs. In England the government is invariably trusted to men whose principles and policy the mass of those who possess the elective franchise approve and who are sustained by a majority in the House of Commons. The Sovereign may be personally hostile to them; a majority of the House of Lords may oppose them in that august assembly; and yet they govern the country until, from a deficiency of talent, or conduct, or from ill fortune, they find their representative majority diminished, and some rival combination of able and influential men in conc;lition to displace them. If satisfied that the Commons truly reflect the opinions of the constituency, they resign; if there is any doubt, a dissolution is tried, and the verdict of the country decides to which party its destinies are to be confided. You, in common with every Englishman living at home, are so familiar with the operation of this system, and so engrossed with a participation in the ardent intellectual competition it occasions, that perhaps you seldom pause to admire what attracts as little attention as the air you breathe. The cabman who drives past St. Paul’s a dozen times a day, seldom gazes at its ample outline or excellent proportions; and yet tney impress the colonist with awe and wonder and make him regret that he has left no such edifice in the west.

As a politician, then, your Lordship’s only care is, to place or retain your party in the ascendant in the House of Commons. You, never doubt for an instant that if they arc so, they must influence the policy and dispense the patronage of the Government. This simple and admirable principle of letting the majority govern, you carry out in all your corporations, clubs, and public companies and associations; and no more suspect that there is danger in it or that the minority are injured when compelled to submit, than you see injustice in awarding a cup at Epsom or Doncaster to the horse that has won rather than to the animal which has lost the race. The effects of this. system are perceptible everywhere. A peer of France, under the old regime, if he lost the smiles of the court suffered a sort of political and social annihilation. A peer of England, if unjustly slighted by the Sovereign, retires to his estate, not to mourn over an irreparable stroke of fortune, but to devote his hours to study, to rally his friends, to co;mect himself with some great interest in the state, whose accumulating strength may bear him into the counsels of his Sovereign, without any sacrifice of principles or diminution of self-respect. A commoner feels, in England, not as commoners used to feel in France, that honours and influence are only to be obtained by an utter prostration of spirit, the foulest adulation, the most utter subserviency to boundless prerogatives, arbitrarily exercised,~but, that they are to be won in open arenas, by the exercise of those manly qualities which command respect; and by the exhibition of the npened fruits of assiduous intellectual cultivation, in the presence of an aumiring nation, whose decision ensures success. Hence there is a self-poised and vigorous independence in the Briton’s character by which he strangely contrasts with all his European neighbours. His descendants in the colonies, notwithstanding the difficulties of their position, still bear to John Bull, in this respect, a strong resemblance; but it must fade if the system be not changed; and our children, instead of exhibiting the bold front and manly bearing of the Briton, must be stamped with the lineaments of low cunning and sneaking servility, which the practical operation of colonial government has a direct tendency to engender.

From some close observation of what has occurred in Nova Scotia and in the adjoining colonies, I am justified in the assertion, that the English rule is completely reversed on this side of the Atlantic. Admitting that in Luwer Canada, in consequence of the state of society which Lord Durham has so well depicted, such a policy may have been necessary; surely there is no reason why the people of Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, should, on that account, be deprived of the application of a principle which is the corner-stone of the British Constitution the fruitful source of responsibility in the Government and of honourable characteristics in the people. If the Frenchmen in one Province do not understand, or cannot be entrusted with this valuable privilege, why should we, who are all British or of British descent, be deprived of what we do understand and feel that we can never be prosperous and happy without?

Your Lordship asks me for proofs. They shall be given.

Looking at all the British North American Colonies, with one single exception, so far as my memory extends, although it has sometimes happened that the local administration has secured a majority in the Lower House, I never knew an instance in which a hostile majority could displace an Executive Council, whose measures it disapproved; or could, in fact, change the policy or exercise the slightest influence upon the administrative operations of the Government. The case which forms the exception was, that of the Province of New Brunswick; but there the struggle lasted as long as the Trojan war-through the existance of several Houses of Assembly; and was at length concluded by an arrangement with the authorities at home after repeated repeals and two tedious and costly delegations to England. But the remedy applied, even in that case, though satisfactory for the time, can have no application to future difficulties or differences of opinion. Let us suppose that a general election takes place in that Province next year and that the great body of the people are dissatisfied with the mode in which the patronage of the Government has been distributed and the general ·bearing of the internal policy of its rulers. If that colony were an English incorporated town, the people would have the remedy in their own hands; if they were entrusted with the power which as British subjects of right belongs to them, they would only have to return a majority of their own way of thinking; a few men would change places; the wishes of the majority would be carried out, and by no possibility could anything occur to bring the people and their rulers into such a state of collision as was exhibited in that fine Province for a long series of years. But under the existing system, if a hostile majority is returned what can they do? Squabble and contend with a executive whom they cannot influence; see the patronage and favour of Government lavished upon a minority who annoy, but never outvote them; and, finally, at the expiration of a further period of ten years, appeal by delegation to England; running the hazard of a reference to a clerk or a secretary whose knowledge of the various points at issue is extremely limited-who has no interest in them, and who, however favourably disposed, may be displaced by some change in the position of the parties at home before the negotiations are brought to a close.

In 1836, a general election took place in Nova Scotia; and when the Legislature met for the despatch of business, it was found that the local government had two-thirds of the members of the representative branch against them. A fair-minded Englishman would naturally conclude that the local cabinet, by a few official changes and a modification of its policy, would have at once deferred to the views and opinions of so large a majority of the popular branch. Did it do so? No. After a fierce struggle with the local authorities, in which the revenue bills and the appropriations fer the year were nearly lost, the House forwarded a strong address to the foot of the throne, appealing to the Crown for the redress of inveterate grievances, the very existence of which our colonial rulers denied, or which they refused to remove.

To give your Lordship an idea of the absurd anomalies and ridiculous wretchedness of our system up to that time, it is only necessary to state, that a Council of twelve persons administered the government, and at the same time formed the upper branch of the Legislature, sitting invariably with closed doors. Only five of these twelve gentlemen were partners in on private bank, five of them were relations, two of them were heads of dt’.partments, and one was the Chief Justice, who in one capacity had to administer the law he had assisted to make, and then in a third to advise the Governor as to its execution. To heighten the absurdity of the whole affair, it is hardly necessary to add, that only nine of these twelve men were members of a particular Church, which, however, useful or respectable only embraced one-fifth of the whole population of the Province. To the passage of certain measures for the regulation of our currency, the derangement of which was supposed to be profitable to those who dealt in money, the bankers were said to have opposed their influence. Any attempt at reduction of the expense of the revenue departments, the heads of which sat at the board, was not likely to prevail; while the patronage of the Government was of course distributed by the nine Churchmen, in a way not very satisfactory to the four-fifths of the people who did not happen to belong to that communion. Such a combination as this never could have grown up in any colony where the English principle of responsibility had been in operation. Indeed, there was something so abhorrent to British feeling and justice in the whole affair that Lord Glenelg at once decided that it was “too bad”; and, while in Her Majesty’s name he thanked the Commons for the representation they had made, he directed the Governor to dissolve the old Council and form two new ones free from the objections which the Assembly had urged.

Had the instructions given been fairly carried out, there is little doubt that in Nova Scotia, as in New Brunswick, the people and their representatives would have been contented for a time; and would have felt that, in extreme cases, an appeal from their local rulers to the Colonial Secretary w mid be effectual. The existing machinery of government might have been supposed to be adequate to the necessities of the country, with perhaps an entire revision and repair at the hands of the master workmen at home once in ten years, or whenever the blunders of subordinates in the colony had completely clogged its operations.

But mark the result. The Governor was instructed to call into the new Councils those who “possess the confidence of the country.” Now, you in England are simple enough to believe, that when the Whigs have, in a house of six hundred and sixty-eight members, a majority of eight or ten, they possess the confidence of the country; and if their majority should happen to be double that number, you would think it droll enough if they were excluded from political influence, and if the new creations of peers and selections for the Cabinet should all be made from the ranks of their opponents. Tl}is would be absurd at home, and yet it is the height of wisdom in the colonies. At the time these commands were sent out, the party who were pressing certain economical and other reforms in Nova Scotia were represented by two-thirds of the members of the popular branch. The relative numbers have occasionally varied during the past three sessions. At times, as on the recent division upon a delegation, the reformers have numbered thirty-three to eleven, in a House of forty-six. On some questions the minority has been larger, but two-thirds of the whole may be fairly taken as the numerical superiority on all political questions, of the reformers over their opponents. It will scarcely be believea, then, in England, that in the new appointments, by which a more popular character was to be given to the Councils, six gentlemen were taken from the minority and ·but two from the ranks of the majority. So that those who had been thanked for making representations to the Queen and who were pressing for a change of policy, were all passed over but two; while those who had resisted and opposed every representation, were honoured by appointments and placed in situations to render any such change utterly hopeless. The Executive Council, the local cabinet or ministry, therefore, contained one or two persons of moderate views, not selected from the House; one from the majority, and eight or ten others, to render his voice very like that of the “man crying in the wilderness.” He held his seat about half a year and then resigned; feeling that while he was sworn to secrecy and compromised by the policy he had not approved he had no influence on the deliberations of the Cabinet or the distribution of patronage. Things were managed just as much in accordance with the royal instructions with respect to the Legislative Council. The pack was shuffled, the game was to remain the same. The members of the majority, as I have said before, were all omitted in the new creation of peers, but one; while from the House and beyond it some of the most determined supporters of old abuses were selected; and among them, a young lawyer who had shown a most chivalrous desire to oppose everything Her Majesty so graciously approved; and who, in the excess of his ultra zeal, had, upon the final passage of the address to the Crown, when almost all his friends deserted him, voted against the measure in a minority of four.

Here, then, your Lordship has a practical illustration of the correctness of Lord Durham’s observations, and may judge of the chance the present system offers of good colonial government, even when the people have the Queen and the Colonial Secretary on their side. Such policy would wither all hope in the Nova Scotians, if they did not confide in the good sense and justice of their brethren within the four seas. We do not believe that the Parliament, press, and the people of England, when rightly informed, will allow our local authorities “to play such tricks before high heaven” or force us to live under a system so absurd, so anti-British, so destructive of every manly and honourable principle of action in political affairs. The House of Assembly, as a last resort, after ample deliberation, determined to send two members of that body as delegates to England, to claim the rights of Englishmen for the people of this country. Your Lordship’s declaration tells me, that on this point they will be unsuccessful; but patient perseverence is a political characteristic of the stock from which we spring.

You ask me for the remedy. Lord Durham has stated it distinctly: the Colonial Governors must be commanded to govern by the aid of those who possess the confidence of the people, and are supported by a majority of the representative branch. Where is the danger? Of what consequence is it to the people of England, whether half-a-dozen persons, in whom that majority have confidence, but of whom they know nothing and care less, manage our local affairs; or the same number, selected from the minority, and whose policy the bulk of the population distrust? Suppose there was at this moment a majority in our Executive Council who think with the Assembly, what effect would it have upon the funds? Would the stocks fall? Would England be weaker, less prosperous or less respected, because the people of Nova Scotia were satisfied and happy?

But, it is said, a colony being part of a great empire must be governed by different principles from the metropolitan state. That, unless it be handed over to the minority it cannot be governed at all; that the majority, when they have things their own way, will be discontented and disloyal; that the very fact of their having nothing to complain of will make them desire to break the political compact, and disturb the peace of the empire. Let us fancy that this reasoning were applied to Glasgow, or Aberdeen, or to any other town in Britain, which you allow to govern itself. And what else is a Province, like Nova Scotia, than a small community, too feeble to interfere with the general commercial and military arrangements of the Government; but deeply, interested in a number of minor matters, which only the people to be affected by them can wisely manage; which the ministry can never find leisure to attend to, and involve in inextricable confusion when they meddle with them? You allow a million of people to govern themselves in the very capital of the kingdom; and yet Her Majesty lives in the midst of them without any apprehension of danger, and feels the more secure, the more satisfaction and tranquillity they exhibit. Of course, if the Lord Mayor were to declare war upon France, or the Board of Aldermen were to resolve that the duties on brandy should no longer he collected by the general revenue officers of the kingdom, everybody would laugh, but no one would apprehend any great danger. Should we, if Lord Durham’s principles be adopted, do anything equally outre, check us, for you have the power; but until we do, for your own sakes-for you are as much interested as we are-for the honour of the British name, too often tarnished by these squabbles, let us manage our own affairs, pay om own officers, and distribute a patronage, altogether beneath your notice, among those who command our esteem.

The Assembly of Nova Scotia asked, in 1837, for an elective Legislative Council, or for such other reconstruction of the local government as would ensure responsibility. After a struggle of three years we have not got either. The demand for an elective upper branch was made under the impression, that two Houses chosen by the people would sufficiently check an Executive exempt from all direct colonial accountability. From what has occurred in the Canadas; from the natural repugnance which the House of Peers may be supposed to entertain upon this point; from a strong desire to preserve in all our institutions the closest resemblance to those of our mother country ,a responsible Executive Council, as recommended by Lord Durham, would be preferred. Into the practicability of his Lordship’s plan of a union of all the colonies under ‘on e government, I do not intend to enter; that is a distinct question; and whenever it is formally propounded to the local Legislatures, will be gravely discussed upon its own merits; but whether there be union or not, the principle of responsibility to the popular branch must be introduced into all the colonies without delay. It is the only simple and safe remedy for an inveterate and very common disease. It is mere mockery to tell us that the Governor himself is responsible. He must carry on the government by and with the few officials whom he finds in possession when he arrives. He may flutter and struggle in the net, as some well-meaning Governors have done, but he must at last resign himself to his fate; and like a snared bird be content with the narrow limits assigned him by his keepers. I have known a Governor bullied, sneered at, and almost shut out of society, while his obstinate resistance to the system created a suspicion that he might not become its victim; but I never knew one, who, even with the best intentions and the full concurrence and support of the representative branch, backed by the confidence of his Sovereign, was able to contend on anything like fair terms, with the small knot of functionaries who form the Councils, fill the offices, and wield the powers of the Government. The plain reason is, because, while the Governor is amenable to his Sovereign, and the members of Assembly are controlled by their constituents, these men are not responsible at all; and can always protect and sustain each other, whether assailed by the representatives of the Sovereign or the representatives of the people. It is indispensable, then, to the dignity, to the independence, to the usefulness of the Governor himself, that he should have the power to shake off this thraldom, as the Sovereign does if unfairly hampered by faction; and by an appeal to the people, adjust the balance of power. Give us this truly British privilege, and colonial grievances will soon become a scarce article in the English market.

The planets that encircle the sun, warmed by its heat and rejoicing in its effulgence, are moved and sustained, each in its bright but subordinate career, by the same laws as the sun itself. Why should this beautiful example be lost upon us? Why should we run counter to the whole stream of British experience; and seek, for no object worthy of the sacrifice, to govern on one side of the Atlantic by principles the very reverse of those found to work so admirably on the other. The employment of steamers will soon bring Halifax within a ten days’ voyage of England. Nova Scotia will then not be more distant from London than the north of Scotland and the west of Ireland were a few years ago. No time should be lost, therefore, in giving us the rights and guards to which we are entitled; for depend upon it the nearer we approach the mother country, the more we shall admire its excellent constitution, and the more intense will be the sorrow and disgust with which we must turn to contemplate our own.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Sydney To Dorchester, September 3, 1788

My Lord,

Your Lordship will have seen, by the proceedings which took place in Parliament in the course of the last Session, the Arguments which were made use of on the Introduction of the Petition brought by Mr. Lymburner from Quebec, for a Change of the present Constitution of the Province, and the reasons which occurred to His Majesty’s Ministers for avoiding any decision upon that very important Subject.

It will, however, be absolutely necessary that it should be resumed very shortly after the next meeting, and it will, of course, be a matter of great importance to His Majesty’s Servants, that they should be previously prepared to enter into a full discussion of the business, and to propose such arrangements as may be found to be expedient for removing every just and reasonable cause of complaint that may exist among His Majesty’s Subjects, of any description whatsoever, who are Inhabitants of that Province.

The variety of applications which have from time to time been transmitted from thence upon this business, of so opposite a tendency to each other, render it extremely difficult to fix upon any Arrangements calculated to satisfy all the Parties interested in, or connected with it; His Majesty’s Servants however, are desirous to give the matter a full consideration, and that they may be the better enabled to form a competent judgment of the steps adviseable to be taken, they are solicitous of obtaining from Your Lordship a full and impartial account of the different Classes of Persons who desire a Change of Government, as well as of those who are adverse to the Measure, specifying, as nearly as it can be ascertained, the Proportion of Numbers and Property on each side in the several Districts; and, That your Lordship at the same time should state in what manner, either the interests, or influence of the latter, might be affected by any alteration, and what is the Nature and grounds of their apprehensions from the Introduction of a greater Portion of English Law, or of a System of Government more conformable to that established in other British Colonies.

In particular, They wish to be informed from what Causes the objection of the old Canadian Subjects to an House of Assembly chiefly arises: Whether, from its being foreign to the Habits and Notions of Government in which they have been educated, or, from an apprehension that it would be so formed as to give an additional Weight to the New Subjects, and lead to the introduction of Parts of the English Law which are obnoxious to them; or, from an idea that being invested with a Power of Taxation, it would eventually subject their Property to Burthens from which they are at present exempted; In like manner, whether the Objections which appear to exist to a farther Introduction of Trial by Jury, arise either from Prejudices against the Nature and Mode of such a decision, or from the difficulty of finding Jurors properly qualified, and the inconvenience to Individuals of the necessary Attendance; or from the Notion of this species of Trial being necessarily coupled with Modes of Proof and Rules of Law, different from those to which they are accustomed.

Though several of these points have already been noticed by Your Lordship in some of your Letters to me, and in the Papers which accompanied them, yet His Majesty’s Servants do not think that they are sufficiently explicit to enable them to form a decided opinion.

The anxiety of His Majesty’s Servants to be perfectly informed with regard to all these matters as soon as possible, has induced them to send out an Extraordinary Packet Boat, and they are in hopes of receiving from Your Lordship upon her return, a full communication of the Sentiments entertained upon these several heads of enquiry, and which communication they wish to be made in a manner that may be proper to be laid before Parliament at the next meeting.

I find, upon an examination of the Plans submitted by Your Lordship’s predecessor, that the most considerable part of the disbanded Troops and Loyalists who have become Settlers in the Province since the late War, have been placed upon Lands in that part of it which lie to the Westward of the Ceders, and beyond those Lands (excepting only Detroit and its Neighbourhood) which are granted in Seigneurie; as these People are said to be of the number desirous of the Establishment of the British Laws, It has been in Contemplation to propose to Parliament a division of the Province, to commence from the Boundary Line of the Seigneurie granted to Monsieur de Longueil, and to take in all the Country to the Southward and Westward in the manner described in the inclosed paper. But, before they take any step towards the execution of this measure, they are desirous of receiving the advantage of Your Lordships opinion how far it may be practicable or expedient; or, whether any other line or mode of separation would be preferable. Your Lordship will however understand, that it is The Kings intention that the New Settlers in that part of the Province who now hold their Lands upon Certificates of Occupation, shall, at all events, be placed upon the same footing in all respects, as their Brethren in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by having their Lands granted to them in free and Common Soccage, with a Remission of Quit Rents for the first Ten Years; and Instructions will be prepared accordingly, as soon as Your Lordship’s opinion upon the plan abovementioned shall be obtained.

With a view to the execution of the Plan in question, it will be necessary for you to consider, previously to your Report upon it, what sort of Civil Government ought to be formed for its internal arrangement, & whether the Number and description of the Inhabitants and other Circumstances are such as do, or do not, make the immediate Establishment of an Assembly within this district, practicable and adviseable. At all events It will be natural, as the greatest Part of these New Settlers are attached to the English Laws, that that System should be introduced as the general Rule, with such Exceptions or Qualifications as particular and local Circumstances may appear to require; At the same time Your Lordship will attend to the situation to which the Old Canadian Settlers at Detroit would be reduced, provided it may be found expedient, in consequence of the Information which the King’s Servants expect to receive from Your Lordship, (and by which you will understand they mean in a great degree to be guided) to resist the Application for any Change of the Constitution of the remaining part of the Province; and, Your Lordship will also consider, in case of such a determination, in what part of the Province within the reserved limits, the Settlers at Detroit, if they should desire to be removed, might be accommodated with Lands the best suited to their advantage.

I am &c., SYDNEY

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Royal Proclamation, October 7th, 1763

George II. WHEREAS WE have taken into Our Royal Consideration the extensive and valuable Acquisitions in America, secured to our Crown by the late Definitive Treaty of Peace concluded at Paris, the 10th day of February last; and being desirous that ail Our loving Subjects, as well of our Kingdom as of our Colonies in America, may avail themselves with all convenient Speed, of the great Benefits and Advantages which must accrue therefrom to their Commerce, Manufactures, and Navigation, We have thought fit, with the Advice of our Privy Council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation, hereby to publish and declare to all our Ioving Subjects, that we have, with the Advice of our Said Privy Council, granted our Letters Patent, under our Great Seal of Great Britain, to erect, within the Countries and Islands ceded and confirmed to Us by the said Treaty, Four distinct and separate Governments, styled and called by the names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida and Grenada, and limited and bounded as follows, viz.:

First-The Government of Quebec, bounded on the Labrador Coast by the River St. John, and from thence by a Line drawn from the Head of that River through the Lake St. John, to the South end of the Lake Nipissim; from whence the said Line, crossing the River St. Lawrence, and the Lake Champlain, in 45 Degrees of North Latitude, passes along the High Lands which divide the Rivers that empty themselves into the said River St. Lawrence from those which fail into the Sea; and also along the North Coast of the Baye (les Chaleurs and the Coast of the Gulph of St. Lawrence to Cape Rosieres, and from thence crossing the Mouth of the River St. Lawrence by the West End of the Island of Anticosti, terminates at the aforesaid River of St. John.

Secondly-The Government of East Florida, bounded to the Westward by the Gulph of Mexico and the Apalachicola River, to the Northward by a Line drawn from that part of the said River where the Chatahouchee and Flint Rivers meet, to the source of St. Mary’s River, and by the course of the said River to the Atlantic Ocean; and to the Eastward and Southward by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulph of Florida, including ail islands within Six Leagues of the Sea Coast.

Thirdly-The Government of West Florida, bounded to the Southward by the Gulph of Mexico, including all Islands within Six Leagues of the Coast, from the River Apalachicola to Lake Pontchartrain; to the Westward by the said Lake, the Lake Maurepas, and the River Mississippi; to the Northward by a line drawn due East from that part of the River Mississippi which lies in 31 Degrees North Latitude, to the River Apalachicola or Chatahouchee; and to the Eastward by the said River.

Fourthly-The Government of Grenada, comprehending the Island of that name, together with the Grenadines, and the Islands of Dominico, St. Vincent’s, and Tobago.

And to the end that the open and free Fishery of our Subjects may be extended to and carried on upon the Coast of Labrador, and the adjacent Islands, We have thought fit, with the advice of our said Privy Council, to put all that Coast, from the River St. John’s to the Hudson’s Straights, together with the Islands of Anticosti and Madelaine, and all other smaller Islands lying upon the said Coast under the care and Inspection of our Governor of Newfoundland.

We have also, with the advice of our Privy Council, thought fit to annex the Islands of St. John’s and Cape Breton, or Isle Royale, with the lesser Islands adjacent thereto, to our Government of Nova Scotia.

We have also, -with the advice of our Privy Council aforesaid, annexed to our Province of Georgia, all the Lands lying between the Rivers Alatamaha and St. Mary’s.

And whereas it will greatly contribute to the speedy settling our said new Governments, that our loving subjects should be informed of our Paternal care, for the security of the Liberties and Properties of those who are and shall become Inhabitants thereof, We have thought fit to publish and declare, by this Our Proclamation, that We have, in the Letters Patent under our Great Seal of Great Britain, by which the said Governments are constituted, given express Power and Direction to our Governors of our Said Colonies respectively, that so soon as the state and circumstances of the said Colonies will admit thereof, they shall, with the Advice and Consent of the Members of our Council, summon and call General Assemblies within the said Governments respectively, in such Manner and Fort as is used and directed in those Colonies and Provinces in America which are under our immediate Government; and We have also given Power to the said Governors, with the consent of our Said Councils, and the Representatives of the People, so to be summoned as aforesaid, to make, constitute, and ordain Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances for the Public Peace, Welfare and good Government of our said Colonies, and of the People and Inhabitants thereof, as near as may be agreeable to the Laws of England, and under such Regulations and restrictions as are used in other Colonies; and in the mean time, and until such Assemblies can be called as aforesaid, all Persons Inhabiting in or resorting Io our Said Colonies may confide in our Royal Protection for the Enjoyment of the Benefit of the Laws of our Realm of England; for which Purpose We have given Power under our Great Seal to the Governors of our said Colonies respectively to erect and constitute with the Advice of our said Councils respectively, Courts of Judicature and public Justice within our said Colonies for hearing and determining all Causes, as well Criminal as Civil, according to Law and Equity, and as near as may be agreeable to the Laws of England, with Liberty to all Persons who may think themselves aggrieved by the Sentences of such Courts, in all Civil Cases, to appeal, under the usual Limitations and Restrictions, to Us in our Privy Council.

We have also thought fit, with the advice of our Privy Council as aforesaid, to give unto the Governors and Councils of our said Three new Colonies, upon the Continent full Power and Authority to settle and agree with the Inhabitants of our said new Colonies or with any other Persons who shall resort thereto, for such Lands, Tenements and 1-lereditaments, as are now or hereafter shall be in our Power to dispose of; and them to grant to any such Person or Persons upon such Terms, and under such moderate Quit-Rents, Services and Acknowledgements, as have been appointed and settled in our other Colonies, and under such other Conditions as shall appear to us to be necessary and expedient for the Advantage of the Grantees, and the Improvement and settlement of our said Colonies.

And Whereas, We are desirous, upon all occasions, to testify our Royal Sense and approbation of the Conduct and bravery of the Officers and Soldiers of our Armies, and to reward the same, We do hereby command and impower our Governors of our said Three new Colonies, and all other our Governors of our several Provinces on the Continent of North America, to grant without Fee or Reward, to such reduced Officers as have served in North America during the late War, and to such Private Soldiers as have been or shall be disbanded in America, and are actually residing there, and shall personally apply for the same, the following Quantities of Lands, subject, at the Expiration of Ten Years, to the same Quit-Rents, as other Lands arc subject to in the Province within which they are granted, as also subject to the same Conditions of Cultivation and Imuprovement, viz.:

To every Person having the Rank of a Field Officer 5,000 Acres

To every Captain 3,000 Acres

To every Subaltern or Staff Officer . 2,000 Acres

To every Non-Commission Officer . . 200 Acres

To every Private Man . 50 Acres

We do likewise authorize and require the Governors and Commanders in Chief of all our said Colonies upon the Continent of North America to grant the like Quantities of Land, and upon the same conditions, to such reduced O1ilcers of our Navy of like Rank as served on board our Ships of War in North America at the time of the Reduction of Louisbourg and Quebec in the late War, and who shall personally apply to our respective Governors for such Grants.

And whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to our Interests, and the Security of our Colonies, that the several Nations or Tribes of Indians with whom We are connected, and who live under our Protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such Parts of our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them, or any of them, as their Hunting Grounds.–We do therefore, with the Advice of our Privy Council, declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure, that to Governor or Commander in Chief in any of our Colonies of Quebec, East Florida, or West Florida, do presume, upon any Pretence whatever, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass any Patents for Lands beyond the Bounds of their respective Governments, as described in their Commissions; as also that no Governor, or Commander in Chief in any of our other Colonies or Plantations in America do presume for the present, and until our further Pleasure be known, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass Patents for any Lands beyond the Heads or Sources of any of the Rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the West and North West, or upon any Lands whatever, which, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us as aforesaid, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them.

And we do further declare it to be Our Royal Will and Pleasure, for the present as aforesaid, to reserve under our Sovereignty, Protection and Dominion, for the use of the said Indians, all the Lands and Territories not included within the Limits of Our said Three new Governments, or within the Limits of the Territory granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company, as also all the Lands and Territories lying to the Westward of the Sources of the Rivers which fall into the Sea from the West and North West as aforesaid;

And We do hereby strictly forbid, on Pain of our Displeasure, all our loving Subjects from making any Purchases or Settlements whatever, or taking Possession of any of the Lands above reserved, without our especial leave and Licence for that purpose first obtained. And, We do further strictly enjoin and require all Persons whatever who have either wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any Lands within the Countries above described, or upon any other Lands which, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such settlements.

And whereas great Frauds and Abuses have been committed in purchasing Lands of the Indians to the great Prejudice of our Interests and to the great Dissatisfaction of the said Indians; in order therefore, to prevent such Irregularities for the future, and to the end that the Indians may be convinced of our Justice and determined Resolution to remove ail reasonable Cause of Discontent, We do, with the Advice of our Privy Council, strictly enjoin and require, that no private Person do presume to make any Purchase from the said Indians of any Lands reserved to the said Indians, within those parts of our Colonies where, We have thought proper to allow Settlement; but that, if at any Time any of the said Indians should be inclined to dispose of the said Lands, the same shall be Purchased only for Us in our Name, at some public Meeting or Assembly of the said Indians, to be held for that Purpose by the Governor or Commander in Chief of our Colony respectively within which they shall lie; and in case they shall lie within the limits of any Proprietary Government, they shall be purchased only for the Use and in the name of such Proprietaries, conformable to such Directions and Instructions as we or they shall think proper to give for that Purpose; And we do, by the Advice of our Privy Council, declare and enjoin, that the Trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our Subjects whatever, provided that every Person who may incline to Trade with the said Indians do take out a License for carrying on such Trade from the Governor or the Commander in Chief of any of Our Colonies respectively where such Person shall reside, and also give Security to observe such Regulations as We shall at any Time think fit, by ourselves or by our Commissaries to be appointed for this Purpose, to direct and appoint for the Benefit of the said Trade:

And we do hereby authorize, enjoin, and require the Governors and Commanders in Chief of all our Colonies respectively, as well those under Our immediate Government as those under the Government and Direction of Proprietaries, to grant such Licences without Fee or Reward, taking especial Care to insert therein a Condition, that such Licence shall be void, and the Security forfeited in case the Person to whom the same is granted shall refuse or neglect to observe such Regulations as We shall think proper to prescribe as aforesaid.

And we do further expressly enjoin and require all Officers whatever, as well Military as those Employed in the Management and Direction of Indian Affairs, within the Territories reserved as aforesaid for the use of the said Indians, to seize and apprehend all Persons whatever, who standing charged with Treason, Misprisions of Treason, Murders, or other Felonies or Misdemeanors, shall fly from Justice and take Refuge in the said Territory, and to send them under a proper guard to the Colony where the Crime was committed of which they stand accused, in order to take their Trial for the same.

Given at our Court at St. James’s, the 7th Day of October, 1763, in the Third Year of our Reign.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Treaty Of Paris, February 10, 1763

The definitive Trealy of Peace and Friendship between His Britannick Majesty, the-Most Christian King, and the King of Spain. Concluded ai Paris the 10th day of February, 1763. To which the King of Portugal acceded on the same day. [Only those articles of the Treaty have been printed which are essential to Canadian history]

Article I. There shall be a Christian, universal, and perpetual peace, as well by sea as by land, and a sincere and constant friendship shall be re-established between their Britannick, Most Christian, Catholick, and Most Faithful Majesties, and between their heirs and successors, kingdoms, dominions, provinces, countries, subjects, and vassals, of what quality or condition soever they be, without exception of places or of persons: So that the high contracting parties shall give the greatest attention to maintain between themselves and their said dominions and subjects this reciprocal friendship and correspondence, without permitting, on either side, any kind of hostilities, by sea or by land, to be committed from henceforth, for any cause, or under any pretence whatsoever, and every thing shall be carefully avoided which might hereafter prejudice the union happily re-established, applying themselves, on the contrary, on every occasion, to procure for each other whatever may contribute to their mutual glory, interests, and advantages, without giving any assistance or protection, directly or indirectly, to those who would cause any prejudice to either of the high contracting parties: there shall be a general oblivion of every thing that may have been done or committed before or since the commencement of the war whicli is just ended.

II. The treaties of Westphalia of 1648; those of Madrid between the Crowns of Great Britain and Spain of 1667, and 1670; the treaties of peace of Nimeguen of 1678, and 1679; of Ryswick of 1697; those of peace and of commerce of Utrecht of 1713; that of Baden of 1714; the treaty of the triple alliance of the Hague of 1717; that of the quadruple alliance of London of 1718; the treaty of peace of Vienna of 1738; the definitive treaty of Aix la Chapelle of 1748; and that of Madrid, between the Crowns of Great Britain and Spain of 1750: as well as the treaties between the Crowns of Spain and Portugal of the 13th of February, 1668; of the 6th of February, 1715; and of the 12th of February, 1761; and that of the 11th of April, 1713, between France and Portugal, with the guaranties of Great Britain, serve as a basis and foundation to the peace, and to the present treaty: and for this purpose they are all renewed and confirmed in the best form, as well as all the general, which subsisted between the high contracting parties before the war, as if they were inserted here word for word, so that they are to be exactly observed, for the future, in their whole tenor, and religiously executed on all sides, in all their points, which shall not be derogated from by the present treaty, notwithstanding all that may have been stipulated to the contrary by any of the high contracting parties: and all the said parties declare, that they will not suffer any privilege, favour, or indulgence to subsist, contrary to the treaties above confirmed, except what shall have been agreed and stipulated by the present treaty.

IV. His Most Christian Majesty renounces all pretensions which he has heretofore formed or might have formed to Nova Scotia or Acadia in all its parts, and guaranties the whole of it, and with all its dependencies, to the King of Great Britain: Moreover, his Most Christian Majesty cedes and guaranties to his said Britannick Majesty, in full right, Canada, with all its dependencies, as well as the island of Cape Breton, and all the other islands and coasts in the gulph and river of St. Lawrence, and in general, every thing that depends on the said countries, lands, islands, and coasts, with the sovereignty, property, possession, and all rights acquired by treaty, or otherwise, which the Most Christian King and the Crown of France have had till now over the said countries, lands, islands, places, coasts, and their inhabitants, so that the Most Christian King cedes and makes over the whole to the said King, and to the Crown of Great Britain, and that in the most ample manner and form, without restriction, and without any liberty to depart from the said cession and guaranty under any pretence, or to disturb Great Britain in the possessions above mentioned. Hiis Britannick Majesty, on his side, agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholick religion to the inhabitants of Canada: he will, in consequence, give the most precise and most effectual orders, that his new Roman Catholick subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Romish church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit. His Britannick Majesty farther agrees, that the French inhabitants, or others who had been subjects of the most Christian King in Canada, may retire with all safety and freedom wherever they shall think proper, and may sell their estates, provided it be to the subjects of His Britannick Majesty, and bring away their effects as well as their persons, without being restrained in their emigration, under any pretence whatsoever, except that of debts or of criminal prosecutions: The term limited for this emigration shall be fixed to the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratification of the present treaty.

V. The subjects of France shall have the liberty of fishing and drying on a part of the coasts of the Island of Newfoundland, such as it is specifled in the XIIIth article of the treaty of Utrecht; which article is renewed and confirmed by the present treaty, (except what relates to the island of Cape Breton, as well as to the other islands and coasts in the mouth and in the gulph of St. Lawrence): And His Britannick Majesty consents to leave to the subjects of the Most Christian King the liberty of fishing in the gulph of St. Lawrence, on condition that the subjects of Franco do not exercise the said filshery but at the distance of three leagues from all the coasts belonging to Great Britain, as well those of the continent as those of the islands situated in the said gulph of St. Lawrence. And as to what relates to the fishery on the coasts of the island of Cape Breton, out of the said gulph, the subjects of the Most Christian King shall not be permitted to exercise the said fishery but at the distance of fifteen leagues from the coasts of the island of Cape Breton; and the fishery on the coasts of Nova Scotia or Acadia, and every where else out of the said gulph, shall remain on the foot of former treaties.

VI. The King of Great Britain cedes the islands of St. Pierre and Macquelon, in full right, to his Most Christian Majesty, to serve as a shelter to the French fishermen; and his said Most Christian Majesty engages not to fortify the said islands; to erect no buildings upon them but merely for the conveniency of the fishery ; and to keep upon them a guard of fifty men only for the police.

VII. In order to re-establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subject of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America; it is agreed, that, for the future, the confines between the dominions of His Britannick Majesty and those of his Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi, from its source to the River Iberville, and from thence, by a line drawn along the middle of this river, and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea; and for this purpose, the Most Christian King cedes in full right, and guaranties to His Britannick Majesty the river and port of the Mobile, and every thing which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the River Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and the island in which it is situated, which shall remain to France, provided that the navigation of the River Mississippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain, as to those of France, in its whole breadth and length, from its source to the sea, and expressly that part which is between the said island of New Orleans and the right bank of that river, as well as the passage both in and out of its mouth: It is farther stipulated, that the vessels belonging to the subjects of either nation shall not be stopped, visited, or subjected to the payment of any duty whatsoever. The stipulations inserted in the IVth article, in favour of the inhabitants of Canada, shall also take place with regard to the inhabitants of the countries ceded by this article.

VIII. The King of Great Britain shall restore to France the islands of Guadaloupe, of Mariegalante, of Desirade, of Martinico, and of Belle-isle; and the fortresses of these islands shall be restored in the same condition they were in wrhen they were conquered by the British arms, provided that His Britannick Majesty’s subjects, who shall have settled in the said islands, or those who shall have any commercial affairs to settle there or in other places restored to France by the present treaty, shall have liberty to sell their lands and their estates, to settle their affairs, to recover their debts, and to bring away their effects as well as their persons, on board vessels, which they shall be permitted to send to the said islands and other places restored as above, and which shall serve for this use only, without being restrained on account of their religion, or under any other pretence whatsoever, except that of debts or of criminal prosecutions: and for this purpose, the term of eighteen months is allowed to His Britannick Majesty’s subjects, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty; but, as the liberty granted to His Britannick Majesty’s subjects, to bring away their persons and their effects, in vessels of their nation, may be liable to abuses if precautions were not taken to prevent them; it has been expressly agreed between his Britannick Majesty and his Most Christian Majesty, that the number of Englisht vessels whiclh have leave to go to the said islands and places restored to France, shall be limited, as well as the number of tons of each une; that they shall go in ballast; shall set sail at a fixed time; and shall make one voyage only; all the effects belonging to the English being to be embarked at the samte time. It has been farther agreed, that his Most Christian Majesty shall cause the necessary passports to be given to the said vessels; that, for the greater security, it shall be allowed to place two French clerks or guards in each of the said vessels, which shall be visited in the landing places and ports of the said islands and places restored to France, and that the merchandize which shall be found therein shall be confiscated.

IX. The Most Christian King cedes and guaranties to his Britannick Majesty, in full right, the islands of Grenada, and the Grenadines, with the same stipulations in favour of the inhabitants of this colony, inserted in the IVth article for those of Canada: And the partition of the islands called neutral, is agreed and fixed, so that those of St. Vincent, Dominico, and Tobago shall remain in full right to Great Britain, and that of St. Lucia shall be delivered to France, to enjoy the same likewise in full right, and the high contracting parties guaranty the partition so stipulated.

XVII. His Britannick Majesty shall cause to be demolished all the fortifications whiich bis subjects shall have erected in the bay of Honduras, and other places of the territory of Spain in that part of the world, four months after the ratification of the present treaty: and bis Catholick Majesty shall not permit his Britannick Majesty’s subjects, or tlieir workmen, to be disturbed or molested under any pretence whatsoever in the said places, in their occupation of cutting, loading, and carrying away logwood; and for this purpose they may build without hindrance, and occupy, without interruption, the houses and magazines necessary for them, for their families, and for their effects: and his Catholick Majesty assures to them, by this article, the full enjoyment of those advantages and powers on the Spanish coasts and territories, as above stipulated, immediately after the ratification of the present treaty. XVIII. His Catholick Majesty desists, as well for himself as for his successors, from all pretension which he may have formed in favour of the Guipuscoans, and other his subjects, to the right of fishing in the neighbourhood of the island of Newfoundland. XIX. The King of Great Britain shall restore to Spain all the territory which lie lias conquered in the island of Cuba, with the fortress of the Havannah; and this fortress, as well as all the other fortresses of the said island, shall be restored in the same condition they were in when conquered by bis Britannick Majesty’s arms, provided that bis Britannick Majesty’s subjects who shall have settled in the said island, restored to Spain by the present treaty, or those who shall have any commercial affairs to settle there, shall have liberty to sell their lands and their estates, to settle their affairs, recover their debts, and to bring away their effects, as well as their persons, on board vessels which they shall be permitted to send to the said island restored as above, and which shall serve for that use only, without being restrained on account of their religion, or under any other pretence whatsoever, except that of debts or of criminal prosecutions: And for this purpose, the term of eighteen months is allowed to bis Britannick Majesty’s subjects, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty: but as the liberty granted to bis Britannick Majesty’s subjects, to bring away their persons and their effects, in vessels of their nation, may be liable to abuses if precautious were not taken to prevent them; it has been expressly agreed between his Britannick Majesty and lis Catholick Majesty, that the number of English vessels which shall have leave to go to the said island restored to Spain shall be limited, as well as the number of tons of each one; that they shall go in ballast; shall set sail at a fixed time; and shall make one voyage only; all the effects belonging to the English being to be embarked at the same time: it has been farther agreed, that his Catholick Majesty shall cause the necessary passports to be given to the said vessels; that for the greater security, it shall be allowed to place two Spanish clerks or guards in each of the said vessels, which shall be visited in the landing places and ports of the said island restored to Spain, and that the merchandize which shall be found therein shall be confiscated.

XX. In consequence of the restitution stipulated in the preceding article, bis Catholick Majesty cedes and guaranties, in full right, to bis Britannick Majesty, Florida, with Fort St. Augustin, and the Bay of Pensacola, as well as all that Spain possesses on the continent of North America, to the East or to the South East of the River Mississippi. And, in general, every thing that depends on the said countries and lands, with the sovereignty, property,- possession, and all rights, acquired by treaties or otherwise, which the Catholick King and the Crown of Spain have had till now over the said countries, lands, places, and their inhabitants; so that the Catholick King cedes and makes over the whole to the said King and to the Crown of Great Britain, and that in the most ample manner and form. His Britannick Majesty agrees, on bis side, to grant to the inhabitants of the countries above ceded, the liberty of Catholick religion: be will, consequently, give the most express an e most effectual orders that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Romish church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit. His Britannick Majesty farther agrees, that the Spanish inhabitants, or others who had been subjects of the Catholick King in the said countries, may retire, with all safety and freedom, wherever they think proper; and may sell their estates, provided it be to his Britannick Majesty’s subjects, and bring away their effects, as well as their persons, without being restrained in their emigration, under any pretence whatsoever, except that of debts, or of criminal prosecutions: the term limited for this emigration being fixed to the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty. It is moreover stipulated, that his Catholic Majesty shall have power to cause all the effects that may belong to him, to be brought away, whether it be artillery or other things. XXII. Ali the papers, letters, documents, and archives, which were found in the countries, territories, towns and places that are restored, and those belonging to the countries ceded, shall be, respectively and bond fide, delivered, or furnished at the same time, if possible, that possession is taken, or, at latest, four months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, in whatever places the said papers or documents may be found.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Extract from a letter of Governor Lawrence to Lords of Trade. Halifax, December 26th, 1758.

I have now the honor to acquaint your Lordships, that the assembly met according to appointment on the 2nd of October, and passed a number of laws, a list of which are enclosed and I have reason to hope from their proceedings hitherto, that we shall get through the whole business in good time, and with less altercation than (from the seeming disposition of the people) I was heretofore apprehensive of. Whenever the session is closed I shall take particular care that your Lordships have fair copies of the laws at large, under the Seal of the Province as directed by His Majesty’s Instructions together with transcripts of the Journal and Proceedings of the Council and Assembly during their session.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Page 2 of 10
1 2 3 4 5 10