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V. - -***y 4 ^ 1^' 1 t^. •^■: s. to the HdnotllraUe thlb BIMshito, dftlkditil vhJSL But- gestfes, tlie Oommolis oif the imited 2lhidoitt of iareat Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assem- bled. TKE HUMBi^E PETITION OF TfiK UNDERSIGNED MEk- JBERS ELECTEb TO SERVE IN THE ASSEMBLY OF LOWER-eANADA, A^b OF THfi MERlBER^ VORMING THE MINORITY OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Wm PARTAKE THE OPINIONS OF THE PEOPLfe— t > SHEWETH : That during tlie last Session of the Imperial Parliament, the Commons of Lower-Canada, in the naine of the People, whom, they represent, ap- proached your Honourable ttouse, by Petition, date4 from Quebec, on the first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, setting forth the grievances which the t»eople of the s&id Provpce suffered, arising out of the vicious principles upoh wHich their Poli tical Institutions are based, ag- gravaievould invi'e the attention of your Honourable floiiae to tHfe fact, that Mis fixpellency Mj^thew Lord Aylijier iii still coiitihued in the Government of this Province, after having been for- mally accused, in the aforesaid Petition, of " illegal, unjust, and unconstitu* tional conduct," and afler having borne himself towards the Representatives of the People of Lower-Canada, in a manner insulting to a ' ^ody, and des- tructive of the respect which should be due to His Majesty's Representative. That i.ifc acts of the Governor in Chief, of which the People of this Province still have to complain, were, for the most part, enumerated in the aforesaid Petition to your Honourable House *, that since that time, the vin- dictive and bitter feelings, together with the arbitrary and unbecoming con- duct which his Excellency has displayed towards the People of this Pro- vince, have created an universal feeling of discontent towards His Excel- lency's Administration. That among the just subjects of complaint against the present Adminis- tration of this Province, the system which is exhibited in the distribution of offices necessarily holds a conspicuous place j that the chief recommenda- tion to office continues to be a display of marked and bitter animosity to- wards the majority of the People of this Province ; that it is seldom men of French Canadian origia find their way into office under any circumstances, but when they are appointed, it is not until they have alienated themselves from the sympathies of the People, and allied themselves with the factious minority opposed to the wishes and interests of the country -, and that even the sacred character of justice has been recently polluted in its source, by the appointing to the high office of Judge of the King's Bench, for the Dis- trict of Montreal, a man who was a violent and decided partisan of the Ad- ministration of the Earl of Dalhousie, and the declared enemy of the laws which he is sworn to administer ■, and also by the appointment of a great number of Commissioners, for the trial of small cauoes in different parts of the country, intentionally selected on the eve of a General Election, from among the notorious partisans of the present Administration. That another cause of complaint which has arisen since the aforesaid Petition of the Commons of Lower-Canada, to your Honourable House, is the culpable indiffi^rence betraye d bv the Governor-in-rhipf nr^ th^ g^TVJfffft of the frighttul ravages committed by the Asiatic Cholera during the last summer. That a few days after the existence of the dreadful scourge in the City of Montreal was ascertained, the Corporation of the said City, in accord- ance with its strict line of duty^ passed a series of Resolutions authorising an application to the Governor-in-Chief for an extension of the Quarantine Regulations to the Port of Montreal ; and for an aid for the purpose of for- warding the destitute Emigrants to their destination ; that the answer of the Governor was more than a bare refusal — it was marked by coldness and in- sult ; that your Petitioners are firmly of opinion that the virulence which the disease subsequently assumed in the said City of Montreal, would have been considerably mitigated, had the Head of the Administration complied with the prayer of the Corporation j and that the People of the Country general- ly, and more especially the surviving relatives of the one thousand three hundred victims who died in Montreal, and of the thousands in the Pro- vince, who have fallen victims to the disease, look upon the conduct of His Excellency as one of the principal causes of their suffering and bereavement. That since the aforesaid Petition of the Commons of Lower-Canada, your Honourable House, in whose deliberations, be it remembered, the People of this Province have no voice, have sanctioned the sale of lands belonging to this Province, to several individuals, using the title of the " British North American Land Company," and thereby have taxed this Colony, contrary to the most important and indisputable of ihe birth-rights of British subjects, which were more particularly acknowledged and confirm- ed to Colonies with local Legislatures by the faith and honor of the British Parliament, pledged by the Declaratory Act of 1778, the violation of which principle recognized in said Act, led to the rightful and successful resist- ance of the former British Colonies and dismemberment of the British Em- ■f I pire. That your Petitioners, viewing with alarm such an encroachment up- on their political privileges, would fain believe that it has been made with- out considering their Constitutional Rights and the provisions of the said Declaratory Act; that your Petitioners, nevertheless, solemnly protest against this violation of the most sacred rights of the People of Lower-Cana- da, and pray for the immediate repeal of the Act passed in favour of the said Land Company. That your Petitioners have reason to believe that the said tax is now being paid into the Colonial Chest of this Province, for the dis- posal of the Executive, without the sanction and indefia.iceof the express- ed will of the Commons of Lower-Canada ; that your Petitioners anticipate with fear, as a consequence thereof, a frightful increase of corruption in this Province ; that in addition to the fears generated by this unconstitutional taxation, and the equally unconstitutional application of the said tax, your Petitioners foresee, as arising out of the peculiar powers conferred on the Company in question, the destruction of the political independence of the people, who may unfoi lunately become subject to its control, and who will be rendered basely subservitnt to the said Company. That the continued dilapidations of the Revenues of the Province, in direct violation of the Constitution, are another source of alarm to Hi3 Ma- jesty's Canadian subjects •, that after the abandonment of the late Colonial Secretary's project to seize upon the said Revenues by suspending an Act which did no more than confirm to the Commons of Lower Canada a right previously recognized, without conferring any new privileges, His Majesty's Canadian subjects did not expect to be so soon called upon to resist similar unconstitutional encroachments and dilapidations -, yet very recently the in- disputable piivileges of the Assemblj have been again violated by the pay- ment of the Public Servants without the sanction or cognizance of the only body authorized to give such sanction. That the people of the old Colonies, now the United States of North America, however much they were aggrieved by attempts at unconstitution- ffi ^^y»«w.n h n^} r»npV^ 1p«» tn r^yplain of. on the score of Exegutivejaurjia; ^ tion, than the Pe )ple of this Province •, the Assembly having repeatedly declared its fixed determination not to sanction that which it must^ever con- sider a tyrannical violation of its rights, and which the people of this Pro- vince regard as a virtual dissolution of the Constitution, and for the conse- quences of which your Petitioners cannot answer. „. « . That under these circumstances your Petitioners claim for His Majes- ty's Canadian subjects, the protection of your Honourable House agamst these and similar acts ot pillage. That your Honourable House may and ought at once to ascertain, in order to bring to just pumshment those who autliorized so criminal an assumption of power. That inasmuch as no Session of the Provincial Parliament has inter- vened since the date of the aforesaid Petition of the Commons of this Pro- vince to your Honourable House, your Petitioners abstain from alluding at any length to the insuperable differences and the ever widening biveach be- tween the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council of this Provmce -differences springing out of the very constitution of the latter body : ne- vertheless, your Petitioner, cannot avoid reminding your Honourable House that the aforesaid Petition contained a prayer that the Legislative Council, as al present constituted, be abolished, and that the People of this Province be inipowered to elect the second branch of the Legislature mfuture, as the only means of producing OiE.t harmony, without which internal peace and good government cannot exi^t.- .. . ^ • xi. 'That as an evidence that the people at large fully participate m the opinions of the majority of the House of Assembly, your Petitioners take leave to refer your Honourable House to the result of the recent Elections . . ., « • _<•? ,«-.nona^t». «, . ,. , " i. • approval or the disapproval of the Elective principle, and which result is almost unanimously in favour of the said principle. Wh feT'g fer e , y'^ur Petitioners, expreissing the Bcntinrenta of (ho ma- jority of the inhabitants of Lower-Canada, pray your Honourablie Hoase to comply with the prayer of the aforesaid Perition of the Commons of Lowt?r Canada, dated on the first of March last, and hIso with that of the present Petition, by removing the abuses and grievances set forth therein, so that full justice be rendered to the House of Assembly and to the People whom it repre mt», and your Petitioners will ever pray. Lower-Canada, December, 1834. Sighed, L. J. Papineaut P. i>. Debartzeh, P. tie ttiiirhean, I^. G. D« Tonnaneonr, J. B. Mellleiir, Amable Dionne, P. E. Taseherean, J, B. Fortin, L. M. Vlgfer, J. BonftHrA, A. C. Taselierviiii J. B. Beaudoln, L. T. BeMerer, Ed. Barnard, X. MalMot, Pierre Anilot, J. Dellgnif, Alexis Moniieaa, V. Gnillet, it. J. tClmber, Al. Trndel, Fie;rr6 Biitmb, P« B. Vlgrer, P. A. Dorlon, E. Bedlaira, H. 8. Hao«, X. Tessler, J. Blanebet, P. C. Marquis, J. pessaules, jr. Leslie, 1a. H. liUfontiiliie, Jniioh Dewttt, J. M. Raymond, L. R. Blanehard, A. "S. Moria, JdS. Roy, Rbbt. Nelson, C. 8. Cherriei', J. Pie%el, C Ov. Ferranlt, tl. fi. O^Calla^han, Sab. De Blenir, J. B. Taselieir ^. B. '*ronlz, Hd. I'ooniey, J. t»ol4<^ii, J. Botithilller, J. T. Drolet, E. E. Rodier, C. Coorteau, C. Lattoeque, L». B6nrdagea, J. J. Girouard, W. H. Scott, S. Bone, J. M. Rochoh,^ L. Lacoste, J. N. Cardinal, C. Archambcanlt, C. II. O. Cote, M. Ilotehklss, Pierre Bureau, Mareus Ciiild, jjp. X. Lame