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 mtiiion 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
 
 OP 
 
 ST, JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND, 
 
 TO 
 
 THE QUEEN'S 
 
 ftm 
 
 1838« 
 
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 TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT 
 MAJESTY. 
 
 THE HUMBLE PETITION OP THE CHAM- 
 BER OP COMMERCE, Of ST. JOHN'S, 
 NEWFOUNDLAND. 
 
 May it Please Your Majesty: 
 
 We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal sub- 
 jects, the Chamber of Commerce of St. John's 
 in (he Island of Newfoundland, approach Your 
 Majesty with feelings of the most sincere devo- 
 tion to Your Majesty's Throne and Person. 
 
 We are imfjressea' with the conviction that no 
 part of Your Majesty's widely-spread Dominions 
 is too remote or insignificant to prevent Your 
 Majesty regarding with concern the grievances 
 of Your loyal subjects therein, and affording that 
 redress which the nature of their complaints re- 
 quire. 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce of St. John's is 
 composed of thirteen Mercantile men, elected 
 by ballot from the General Commercial Society 
 
 1 
 
 lVcS\^\ 
 
of the place; ami is intended to represent the- 
 Trade, and to foster and protect its interests. 
 
 Though established for many years, the Cham- 
 ber has sedulously avoided all interference with, 
 or the expression of any opinion upon, the Civil 
 Government of the Island, or its political affairs ; 
 ■ — but the perils to which the best interests of the 
 Colony are now exposed, and which threaten with 
 ruin its trade and prosperity, compel Your Pe- 
 titioners to depart from their accustomed course, 
 and with the unanimous and express concurrence 
 of the Society at large, to lay before Your Royal 
 Council, with earnest entreaties for relief, the 
 almost intolerable wrongs they endure. 
 
 May it Please Your Majesiy: 
 
 "We do not arrogate too much for Newfound- 
 land, when we assert that the immense importance 
 of its Commerce to the Mother Country — its 
 situation, so nearly approximating to the conti- 
 nent of America — and the invaluable and almost 
 inexhaustible resources which its hardy sons af- 
 ford to Your Majesty's Navy, claim from Your 
 Majesty a ready sympathy for its wrongs, and a 
 speedy redress of them. 
 
 The value of the annual imports into St. John's 
 alone, amounts to from Four to Five Hundred 
 Thousand Pounds sterling ; the largest portion 
 of which is for the manufactured goods of Great 
 Britain. The Trade and Fisheries give employ- 
 ment to a numerous body of hardy and expert 
 seamen, competent and ready at a moment's warn- 
 ing, to man the Fleets of Great Britain ; and at 
 the Custom House of this Port alone, nearly 
 
 ^¥- 
 
 h 
 
5 
 
 *-¥ 
 
 eight hundred vessels, exceeding- on an average 
 100 tons burthen each, annually clear. 
 
 The soil of the country, though capable of cul- 
 tivation to an extent which renders its produce a 
 valuable auxiliary to the fisheries, is, and ever 
 must be, incapable of supporting even the num- 
 ber of its present inhabitants. Upon its Trade, 
 therefore, and upon it alone, does the very exist- 
 ence of the Colony, and its value to the Crovi^n of 
 Great Britain, depend. And when we assure 
 Your Majesty that the interest of the Merchant 
 and Fisherman are so inseparably interwoven as 
 to amount almost to identity — that nothing can 
 occur to damnify the one without entailing ruin 
 on the other. Your Majesty will consider what 
 weight is due to the representations of Your 
 Petitioners, upon a subject which so deeply in- 
 volves their own prosperity and that of the whole 
 Colony. 
 
 In this Country there are not, as there are 'in 
 most others, any persons of education residing 
 unconnected with business, and none therefore 
 from whom a large sacrifice of time fcr i\\e public 
 good can reasonably be expected, — nor do many 
 in the lower grades of l!<o settle here for the pur- 
 poses of agriculture, — its population, therefore, 
 with the exception of the learned professions, 
 consists entirely of the Merchant possessing capi- 
 tal and the means of giving employment to the 
 fisherman— and the Fisherman, whose Avealth 
 consists in his labour— who is not attached to the 
 soil by any tie of family or possessions — and who is 
 prepared to migrate to the United States of Ame- 
 rica upon the first symptoms of a depression in the 
 Trade, or upon the first suggestions of caprice : 
 
 -ail- 
 
ie exception of (lie Native Inhabitants, thoneb 
 igh!) honourable to them, is not sufficienllv 
 
 The 
 h 
 
 important to alTect the general principle. 
 
 fficienlly 
 
 The influx of immigration to this Country, has 
 of late years, been chiefly from the Southern and 
 Western parts of Ireland, and has supplied a po- 
 pulation of Roman Catholics- peaceable and well- 
 disposed when left tothemselves— but for the most 
 part uneducated and bigoted, and consequently as 
 completely under the dominion of their Priests- 
 no less in their temporal than in their spiritual af- 
 airs— as if they were so many automata. 
 
 To a Population so composed, a Colonial Le- 
 gislature was accorded by Your Majesty's revered 
 Predecessor, in 1832. 
 
 By that Constitution the only qualification pre- 
 scribed for a Member of the House of Assembly 
 was the occupancy of a Tenement of any descriiA 
 tjon for two years— and that required for the 
 Elector, the occupancy of a similar Tenement for 
 one year. It was feared that with such a fran- 
 chise— in a society constituted as that of New- 
 foundland is— the whole Representative power 
 Avould centre in the Roman Catholic Clergy and 
 that individuals unfVivourable to the good of the 
 Colony would be selected bv them to fill the 
 feeats in the Assembly. -The worst fears which 
 the most timorous entertained have been more 
 than realised. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Clergy, quickly perceiving 
 how useful an engine the House of Assembly 
 might be made for their purposes, lost no time ia 
 adopting a line of proceeding calculated to secure 
 
tlie return ofa nifljority of Members of thoir ovn 
 nomination, rrevious to the Election, the Can- 
 didates whom they desire to see returned are 
 named hy the Pnests, or publicly patronized by 
 them; all of their own persuasion who refuse to 
 v«jle ff^r their nominees, are denounced in the 
 Umpel as persons opposed to the authority of 
 their Church, and hostile to their Priests— tho 
 Cong^regations are warned not to deal or hold anr 
 intercourse with them-they are branded with 
 contumelious epithets, even by the Priests from 
 tiie very altar, and with blasphemous maledictions 
 T.i r?."^ t« P"'^'*^ detestation ; those offices 
 ot their Church which are regarded by them as 
 most sacred, are refused them - the very Dead are 
 denied Christian burial, when the deceased, or 
 even a member of his family, had been what thev 
 designate «' a mad dog." By these and such lik« 
 means,, the Koman ..Catholic Priesthood have suc- 
 ceeded m completely monopolizing the represen- 
 tation of the Country ; and, of consequence, the 
 Members of the present House of Assembly with 
 only one or two exceptions, are persons possess- 
 ing but httle property, hardly any education, and 
 no standing in Society, and were selected solely 
 because they would be passive tools in the hands 
 of the Priesthood. Nor is it the least mischievous 
 part of this baneful system, that, although in a few 
 of the Districts the power of the Priesthood 
 IS not so omnipotent as to prevent the return of 
 respectable men, no person possessing the edu- 
 cation and the feelings ofa gentleman, will enter 
 the Assembly to be associated with the individuals 
 he would there meet. 
 
 And here we intreat Your Majesty to observe 
 that the evils we complfin of are not speculative 
 
8 
 
 —ihey liave all occurred. We speak from 
 bitter experience, and in proof of every state- 
 inent wo have now made, ^oUminoas evidence 
 lias been transmitted to the O/Iice of Your 
 JVJajesty's Secretary of State for the Colonial De- 
 partment. 
 
 In whatever dependency of Your Majesty's 
 dominions Lnglish Law is faithfully adminis- 
 tered, there will protection lo the lives and 
 properties of Your Majesty's subjects be sure- 
 Jy attained ; and although evils may exist in 
 Its Government, and as large a portion of hap- 
 piness may not be enjoyed by its inhabitants as 
 under an unproved system of policy might reason- 
 ab y be expected, still the ark of British Justice 
 Will float amidst the troubled waters of discord 
 and aftord a safe and certain refuge in the hou^ 
 ot need. 1 he preservation therefore oftheadmi- 
 nistration of justice from all pollution and con- 
 tempt, IS the object nearest the hearts of those 
 who wish well to their Country, for neither life 
 iior property cau be secure, nor the Government 
 held in respect where the Judges are men who 
 would be capable of tampering with law for the 
 purpose either of conciliating the Crown, or of 
 pandering to the nassions of the people. I„ 
 JSewloundland, however, the systematic exertions 
 of the House of Assembly for the last few years 
 have been nnintermittingly directed to pollute the 
 fountain and obstruct the free course of justice 
 throughout the Colony. Not content with perse 
 cuting by slar.ders and false accusations those 
 Judges and public officers whose impartialitv and 
 vigour rendered them formidable opponents to 
 oppression and outrage -and finally succeeding 
 by a system of falsehood seldom equalled an§ 
 
never surpassed, in getting removed from tlic 
 Bench a most admirable and experienced Chief 
 Justice— they have brought the whole weight of 
 their influence to bear upon the Magistracy and 
 police force of the Csland. They have interfered 
 with the duties of the Executive by appropriating 
 to individuals, byname, the most trifling Salaries 
 —depriving one Constable altogether of his sti- 
 pend—lessening that of another— increasing that 
 of a third— and this, too, without any complaint 
 being made against the sufferer, or any recom- 
 mendation in favour of the one benefited, but 
 solely and notoriously because the individuals 
 aflected by their votes were either opposed or 
 iavourable to the Members of the Assero' y at 
 their election, or did or did not approve of their 
 subsequent conduct. However contemptible such 
 conduct may appear, the evil efl*ects of it are 
 daily felt more extensively and seriously than we 
 can describe. The peace officers, who are poor 
 and mainly depending for subsistence on their 
 salaries, are naturally deterred from independent- 
 ly doing their duty; and we fear the evil is not 
 confined to these, the lower functionaries. 
 
 We feel confidently assured that the same 
 spirit actuates Your Majesty whick influenced 
 one of Your Majesty's most glorious and beloved 
 Predecessors, and which drew from him the cele- 
 brated declaration, "that he looked upon the 
 independence and uprightness of the Judges aa 
 essential to the impartial administration of Justice 
 - as one of the best securities of the rights and 
 liberties of his subjects— and as most conducive 
 to the honour of the Crown,-" and we doubt not 
 the same principles are equally applicable to the 
 minor departments of Justice, 
 
1 
 
 We most earnestly adjure Your Majesly not to 
 believe that these our representa'' jns are the 
 emanations of Party spirit — there are no le- 
 gal distinctions aflfectinff any class of Your Ma- 
 jesty's subjects here ; there is only that differ- 
 ence which should, and we hope ever will, exist 
 where the cause does, between those who de- 
 sire to see peace and happiness prevail— to have 
 their lives and properties shielded by the power of 
 Ihe Law ; and those whoseek to paralyze that Law, 
 and to arrogate to themselves a poweV superior to 
 it. Amongst the latter class must the House of 
 Assembly be ranked ; and their acts within the 
 last few months manifest Jiow unquestionable is 
 their title to the distinction. 
 
 Tn August last, a private quarrel occurred in 
 the public streets of St. John's, betwen a respect- 
 able medical Gentleman and a Member of the 
 House of Assembly ; the dispute had no reference 
 whatever to the proceedings of that body. 
 
 The Medical Gentleman was, however, with- 
 out being permitted to deny the charge, or to 
 offer evidence in his defence, voted guilty of 
 having committed a Breach of Privileges, and 
 was instantly committed by the Assembly to 
 prison, and kept in close custody for four days. 
 Upon his being brought before one of Your Ma- 
 jesty's Judges of the Supreme Court, on a writ of 
 Habeas Corpus, he was discharged : his impri- 
 sonment being adjudged illegal, and a gross 
 infraction on the liberty of the subject. 
 
 The order for the discharge of (he Prisoner was 
 diiectcd to the High Sheriff, whose duty it is to 
 
 ■t 
 
1 
 
 ■t 
 
 n 
 
 obey the mandates of the Judges ; and it was. ?n 
 the usual course of business, carried into effect. 
 
 Tmmediately upon the release of their victim 
 being made known, the Assembly hesitated not to 
 outrage the Bench of Justice itself; and having 
 pent a number of their retainers, they arrested 
 the venerable Judge who had thus incurred their 
 displeasure, and, with brutal violence, literally 
 dragged him from his Chambers where he was en- 
 gaged with counsel. This excellent man, and 
 the respected High Sheriff of the Island, were, 
 in the face of day, paraded through the public 
 streets like common malefactors, were com- 
 mitted to close custody, and were confined up- 
 wards of two days, until the Governor, by pro- 
 roguing the Legislature, obtained their release. 
 Well did Your Majesty's Privy Council express 
 their marked disapprobation of the conduct of 
 the Assembly, upon the former occasion of their 
 shewing wilful disrespect to the Judges of the land, 
 and endeavouring to bring the Law and its Ad- 
 ministrators into contempt ! 
 
 Had Your Majesty's Petitioners, and other 
 orderly and respectable persons, obeyed the dic- 
 tates of their indignant feelings, and by the 
 piompt interposition of physical force, vindicated 
 the respect due to the Bench and the liberty of 
 Your Majesty's subjects, little surprise could 
 have been excited, and no blame could have been 
 attached to them ; but, desirous of settino- an 
 example c^" forbearance, and of shewing our re- 
 liance upon Your Majesty and Your Govern- 
 ment, to procure us ample redress, we repressed 
 our indignation, and now appeal to Your Gracious 
 Majesty lor the abatement of those grievances 
 
 4 
 
J2 
 
 which none possessing the feelings of men can 
 tolerate. 
 
 On the occasion of the election of Members to 
 serve in Ihe first House of Assembly, the system 
 of oppression and intimidation, which has lately 
 been in full exercise here, had not been organised, 
 and several competent gentlemen were returned. 
 During the existence of that House, the Colony 
 was preserved free from debt — the public service 
 was better performed than it has been since, and 
 a few hundred pounds were all that were required 
 to defray the salaries of their officers, and all their 
 expenses. Now, the Colony is considerably in 
 debt ; in every Session Acts are passed adding to 
 thatdebt, — ^and yet the contingencies of the House 
 of Assembly annually increase, and this year 
 have engrossed no less than one-sixth of the en- 
 tire net local Bevenue of the Colony ! ! Surely 
 it is too much to ask any man to bear that fifteen 
 individuals shall commit all descriptions of evils 
 and outrages upon the community, and be allowed, 
 whilst so engaged, to help themselves as extra- 
 vagantly as they please out of the funds of the 
 Colony, and support themselves, their families, 
 and friends, at the public expense ! 
 
 To the Inhabitants of this Island, in general, 
 the stigma of disloyalty cannot, with truth, at- 
 tach ; they have, as a body, ever been most true 
 to their Sovereign, and obedient to the Laws, (and 
 if uncorrupted will, we hav*^ no doubt, so con- 
 tinue). It remained for its House of Assembly 
 to produce, and by its countenance to foster, the 
 first symptoms of disaffection amongst its people 
 
 Some of the most active propagators of those 
 principles which have led to the defilement of the 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 4^ 
 
 -f 
 
4 
 
 
 13 
 
 fttir face uf Your Majesty's neighbouring Pro- 
 vinces, by the detestable crime of Rebellion — 
 cruel, unprovoked. Rebellion — have been in open 
 correspondence with some of the leading mem- 
 bers of our House of Assembly ; this correspon* 
 dence was disseminated throughout the Couritry 
 by means of a Newspaper of this town, publicly 
 acknowledged to be the organ of the Priests' 
 Party, and the Editor and Printer of which is the 
 favoured servant of the said Assembly. 
 
 Even after the sanguinary outbreak in Canada 
 had taken place — whilst its plains were still reek- 
 ing with the blood of Your Majesty's faithful and 
 murdered subjects there — a fervent prayer waf 
 offered up through the columns of the same 
 Newspaper, to the God of Battles, solemnly in- 
 voking His aid to the Rebel cause ! ! ! 
 
 On behalf of ourselves, and the people of New- 
 foundland in general, we abjure such infamous 
 and disloyal sentiments and proceedings, and pro- 
 fess ourselves ready to shed, were it necessary, 
 our best blood in defence of Your Majesty's 
 Gracious Person and Throne. But if such a 
 body as the House of Assembly of Newfoundland, 
 as at present constituted, be suffered to continue 
 amongst us, we cannot say how long the good 
 principles of Your Majesty's faithful subjects 
 here may remain proof against the contaminating 
 influence of its example. 
 
 Your Petitioners have anxiously watched the 
 course of public events for the last few years ; 
 they have sought to discover if there is any pre- 
 tence for believing, or hoping, that the evils they 
 have witnessed and described, are imputable 
 
 -i 
 
14 
 
 vnthor to the abuse of a <i^ood sysfom, tliaii to the 
 natural operations oC tliu .system itself; and that 
 public opinion would, at future eleclitins, vindi- 
 cate? itself, and by an expression of unequivocal 
 indicrnation, mark its reprobation of the conduct 
 of the present t^ouse; but we solemnly assure 
 Your Majesty of our matured and fixed convic- 
 lion—a conviction ccpially entertained by nine- 
 teen-twentieths of all in the Colony who are 
 capable of judging-— that no conduct of the mem, 
 bers of the Assembly, however unprincipled and 
 atrocious -not even such as we have recently 
 witnessed— would render their return again a 
 matter of the least doubt ; and that with a popu- 
 lation such as ours.notiiiug; but an immediate and 
 total abrogation of the present Colonial Legisla- 
 ture can restore peace to the Colony, and pros- 
 perity to its Trade. 
 
 Before a general Assembly was conferred 
 upon Newfoundland, its Commerce flourished— 
 its inhabitants were united and happy — no politi- 
 cal adventurers sought refuge on its shores, and 
 support from unrighteous agitation ; nor were 
 British feeling and justice outraged by acts of 
 Eastern Tyranny. With the laws fairly adminis- 
 teied, and the Local Government desirous to do 
 right, and not to be intimidated from doing it, (he 
 aHUirs of the Colony prospered ; but in an evil hour 
 a Representative Government was granted to it, 
 simply because the want of«owe power to make local 
 Regulations was felt— although that want could 
 have been well supplied by an extended Council 
 selected by the Crown and aiding the Governor 
 A miniature imitation of the British Parliament 
 was inflicted upon us, and an elective franchise 
 conlerred upon a people, the mass of whom felt 
 
 
r- 
 
 15 
 
 ho interest In the enjoyment of it, and possessed 
 not tlio necessary intelligence to exercise it 
 
 aright. 
 
 Jf any additional proof were necessary to con- 
 vince Your Majesty of tho inahility of the 
 nivijority of (he Roman Catholics here to exercise 
 political power independently, we need only 
 state the fact which the experience of more than 
 one occasion warrants us in asserting", that if it 
 were thought practicahle to shake the credit of 
 tliis or of any other Pef'tion, hy a contradiction 
 of every fact contained in it, the Priests could 
 obtain, in the course of a few hours, some thou- 
 sands of signatures, to be used as occasion nn'ght 
 require, — attach them afterwards to such a docu- 
 ment as they might prepare -support their state- 
 ments by oaths — and send them forth to the world 
 as the deliberate opinions of its subscribers. Al- 
 ready has the value of property been depreciated in 
 this country — the rate of insurance on it has been 
 increased — its safety is becoming more insecure 
 - and if the present system be continued, those 
 who have the ability and means of benefiting the 
 Colony by their presence and fortunes, will seek 
 a home in some other Country, the Govern- 
 ment of which will be more congenial to the tastes 
 and habits of Englishmen. 
 
 In desiring to get rid of our present unsuitable 
 form of Government, we do not wish to avoid the 
 payment of such taxes as may be necessary to 
 defray the civil expenditure of the Colony — we 
 are willing that the same amount of taxation 
 which at present exists be continued, and the 
 proceeds thereof be appropriated to die purpo- 
 ses of supporting its Civil Institutions, and to 
 
16 
 
 the general improvement of the Country ; but we 
 do not desire, nor can we patiently endure, that 
 Persons who have no property in the Country, 
 and who contribute nothing to its Revenues, 
 shall exercise unlimited power over, and rule with 
 •a rod of iron, those who do possess property, and 
 who mainly contribute to the support of its Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 We do therefore most earnestly intreat Your 
 GracioQs Majesty, as you value the peace and 
 prosperity of this Your Majesty's oldest Depen- 
 dency, and the happiness of your loyal Subjects 
 therein, that Your Majesty will be graciously 
 pleased to use your Royal influence in procuring 
 an immediate abolition of our present Colonial 
 Legislature, and conferring upon the Governor, 
 and an enlarged Council, to be appointed by 
 Your Majesty, the power of enacting such 
 Laws and Ordinances as may be necessary for the 
 good government of the Colony, in such a manner, 
 and under such restrictions as to Your Majesty's 
 wisdom may seem meet. 
 
 And Your Majesty's Petitioners, as in duty 
 bound, will ever pray. 
 
 HEjrRY WIMTON, GBNERAL JPWNIING OFFICE, ST. J0HN'«