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We, His Majestjr's dutiful and loyal Subjects, inhabitants of the District of Gore, express our aatisfactiou. that Youi; Excellency has been cho< sen to represent His gracious Majesty in the Go- vernment of this Province ; and we beg leave to congratulate Your Excellency thereupon. The recent occurrences upon the question of the civil rights of certain inhabitants of this Pro- vince, gave rise to a practical manifestation of His Majesty's gracious disposition towards his Canadian people, which has not failed to impress us with a due sense of gratitute, and to encour- agr- us in the belief, that whenever we suffer un> der misrule, we have only to lay our complaints at the foot of the Throne in order to obtain re- dress. We accept the pledge in the conciliatory spirit in which we presume your Excellency has been sent among us, and have not noticed, with- out a proper measure of pleasing anticipation, your first efforts in recommending to our Provin- cial Legislature the repeal of that odious law, the 44lh of the late King; your recommendation of improvements in the system of education, and the amelioration of the public roads ; nor are the measures in favour of emigration, and the refor- mation of the Legislative Council, contemplated by your Excellency, leftst in the scale of impor- tance for the promotion of our future prosperity. Much indeed should we have been gratified, had we perceived the co-operation of the Legislative Council with your Excellency in those valuable and important objects, which have long been counteracted by the policy of the late adminis- tration, and which objects, unless embarrassed by those still unhappily forming the Councils of your Excellency, will, in their consummation, restore confidence in the administration of the Government: for it cannot be denied, that public opinion had lost both faith and hope in the past management of our public affairs. We avail ourselves of this opportunity of ad- dressing your Excellency to express our abhor- rence and indignation at the late base transac- tion which occurred at the Town of Hamilton, and evidently intended to bring the people of this District, if not of the Province, into disre- pute with your Excellency, and at the same time, to gratify the personal resentment of the perpe- trator of the outrage, who, from the most power- ful, circumstantial, and presumptive, evidence, is still reiterating the mosf libellous Editorial productions in the Gore Gazette, tending seri- ously to impair the character and interests of the Province, as will be seen by the New- York Albion of the fourteenth February last, wherein it is represented, upon his autbory, as being in a state of treason and incipient rebellion. It is only within these very few years, from the noxious accession of some individuals to our So- ciety, aided by the circulation of a paper from a prostituted local Press, and the assimilation of • portion of the magistracy to persons whose habits of life are destructive of the good order of any community, that dissentions. Jealousies, and persecutions, have risen to a height unpa- ralleled in any British Colony. We had hoped, that the accession of your Ex- celleacy to this Government would have afforded a restraint upon the abuses which have so long Erevailed with impunity, and to which we have itherto submitted with a patience that has evi- dently made the existing evils more and more inveterate. if it be true, that Magistrates, acting judicially, are not amenable to tlie Court of King's Bench for their misconduct, however exceptionable that conduct may be, we can see no hope of redress, unless your Excellency will interpose in cases of glaring injustice between the people and those abusing the power with which they are entrusted over them. And we respectfully inform your Excellency, that Magistrates have hitherto been appointed to favor particular political views, with too little regard to fitness of temper, character, and conduct. The proceedings so discreditable to the ad- ministration of justice, which took place in the April Quarter Sessions at Hamilton in this Din- trict, in the yesr one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-eight, and which resulted in an ap- !>lication for the removal of Mr. George Rolph i-om the office of the Clerk of the Peace, were submitted in a series of affidavits to his late Ex- cellency Sir Peregrine Maitlaiul, and are within the knowledge of your Excellency. We had hoped, that it was only necessary (or such facts to be laid before the Executive Government to put a stop to such outrageous scenes in our Courts of Justice; but, it was with pain and nior- tification, that we found the Magistrates sheltered by the power which we hoped would have been exercised for the correction of their abuses; for, notwithstanding the disclosure of the corruption so publicly witnessed on the above occasion by a crowded Court House, and since established upon oath, and become notorious in the Country, the same Magistrates continue in autliority. This impunity has operated as an encouragement, and rendered injustice and oppression so much more dangerous and daring amongst us, that the same Magistrates, with others of recent appointments enlisted under them, have engraAed upon those shameful transactions above alluded to, the fur- ther proceedings, of the late Court of Quarter Sessions, when a number of the Magistrates com- bined to remove Mr. George Rolph from the office of Clerk of the Peace in a manner vio- lently repugnant to what we believe to be law, and know to be justice. The principle of injustice which has marked Mr. Rolpli's fate the other day may be applied to ourselves to-morrow, and it has therefore be- come necessary for us to make common cause in struggling against the further abuse of power and violation of the plain rules of justice with impu- nity. Out of those proceedings in the April Court of General Quarter Sessions, in one thou- sand, eight hundred and twenty-eight, an appli- cation was, for the first time, inade to bis late Excellency by some of the Magistrates of this District for the removal of Mr. George Rolph, as Clerk of the Peace. Failing in this attempt, the Magistrates, in the late Court of Quarter Ses.sions, inA)pen Court, read a document (a copy whereof is annexed to this petition) contaiuMig certain charges against Mr. George Rolph, as nander 1 tenant ve so long h we have at has evi- and more judicially, ig's Bench nable that [)f redress, ill cases of and those entrusted form jrour lerto been 'iews, with character, o the ad- ace in Uie n this Din- It hundred in an ap- irge Rolph !ace, were is late Ex- are within We had such facts srnment to les in our n and hior- s sheltered have been buses; for, corruption iccasion by established le Country, irity. This ement, and much more it the same pointments upon those ;o, the fur- of Quarter trates com- I from the lanner vio- to be law, as marked be applied jrefore be- in cause in power and with iropu- the April 1 one thou- , an appli- lo his late tes of this rge Rolph, is attempt, of Quarter 3iit (a copy conlniiiMig Rolph, as •? '•\ Clerk of the Peace, some of which cbargeii were known to be untrue, and all of which, we believe, would have been proved to be false, had the Magistrates attempted to prove them to be true. These charges were not preferred by any mem- ber of the community unconnected with the Court, but were got up by the Magistrates themselves, in private and clandestine meetings held for the purpose. Upon reading the charges, it was agreed that the accused should not be heard in his defence, that no proof should be received of the truth of the charges, but that he should be at once convicted, condemned, and dismissed. It is against this mode of administering justice that we offor our humble remonstrance, and pray, that your Excellency will be pleased to enquire what Magistrate- have been guilty of this unjust, malicious, and oppressive conduct. If this conduct rested on a doubtful point of law, we, your petitioners, would readily admit of any extenuation, but when we repeatedly see them violate those plain maxims of Justice, which God has written in the heart of every honest man, we should, by conceding an excuse, give villiany a retreat into which it never could e pursued and punished. Some of these Magistrates who seem to have been active in this conspiracy, we learn, are themselves, and by their friends, applicants for the office ; and that some of the Magistrates, of recent appointment, acted upon the charges without any proof or knowledge of their truth. Thus these judges voluntarily made themselves accusers upon charges of their own creation, wiiich charges, these accusers themselves, pro- ceeded summarily to punish as olTences by dis- pensing with any proof or anp^ defence; when men will stoop so to act judicially, we trust your Excellency will not think them longer lit to be our Judges. We feel the full conviction, from our personal observation in the Court of Quarter Sessions in this District, that this unprecedented conspira- cy to deprive Mr. George Rolph of his office, is deeply connected with the atrocious act of barbarity committed by a number of persons calling themselves the gentry of Gore, upon his premises and person, as already before your Ex- cellency. We refer your Excellency to the names of applicatits for Mr. Rolph's vacated situitiuii, for the real motives that actuated m iiiy of them in their zeal for his dismissal. — It would weary and disgust your Excellency were we to enumerate all the various insults to which miiiy of us bav0 seen Mr. George Rolph subjected at the court of Quarter Sessions, and the licehce and impunity t^fTorded to those who assailed him, with the most opprobrious epithets and the most ensnaring interrogatories. We can all testify our belief, and many of us our knowledge, that Mr. George Rolph, as Clerk of the Peace, has faithfully demeaned himself in bis office, for nearly fourteen years, with credit to tiirnselfand always with respect to the court; add we trust that your Excellency, as a friend to erjual justice, will discountenance with your Excellency's displeasure, these unjust attempts by such partial and unjust proceedings to injure the rights and interests of a puldic officer. In the late pretended magislerial enquiry into th" Hamilton Effigy, respectable individuals were insuiied, illegal proceased issued, great unneces- sary expense incurred, false imprisonments com» mitted, without the hope of redress, the grossest partiality betrayed, a female of decent charac< ter taunted w^|^^ the most bare-faced lewd in- decency, and a subpcena issued and executed, and the person examined as a witness, in a court held at a Tavern, on the Sabbath day. It is impossible for us to detail the continual and increasing abuses, partiality, and injustice, which mark the proceedings of too many of the Magistrates; but we do pray, that upon reasonable proof of the injustice, malice, ana oppression of their proceedings, they may be dismissed, and that out of those wealtbT and intelligent farmers whose long tried worth and integrity of life, have justly gained to them the esteem and con- fidence of the country, others may be appointed for the purpose of administering justice amongst us, and not to strengthen a political faction which has long been systematically opposed to the real v/ishes and interests of the country. The reformation of the magistracy by your Excellency, will conduce not only to the better and more creditable administration of justice and to the confidence of the public in it, but also essentially improve the condition and ap- propriation of our District funds, and realize from a more just and economical management of their sufficient resources for the completion of ob- jects of local improvement, more beneficially direct the divisions for Statute labour, satis^ the reasonable wishes of the public, give a bet- ter tone to the state of society, and restore peace to a District which has lately been distracted by so many outrages. Connected with these growing evils and ren- dering them more oppressive, is the appoint- ment of our juries ; with reference to which we only briefly notice, that the Grand Jury at the Assizes is composed chiefly of the Magistrates of whom we complain; and at a late court of Quarter Sessions, the menial servant of a Magis- trate was returned as a Grand Juror, at the ve- ry court at which he was expected to be indicted for an assault and battery, and in whose favour a letter was addressed to the Grand Jury ; and still more recently George Gurnett was returned as a Grand Juror, when he was notoriously ex- Eected to be indicted for a violent assualt and attery upon one Paoli Brown, a man of colour, and who had become particularly obnoxious to the public from his conduct upon the Hamilton outrage, and who had avowed himself unable to give evidence without criminating himself in the shameful night attack upon the premises and person of Mr. George Rolph. Much could we wish to see your Excellency exercising what we deem to be the intention of the British Goveroment by dispensing a general amnesty to all whom party rage throughout the Province, has made tne victims of the resent- ment of the former administration, and ardently do we wish to see your Excellency as much be« loved by the inhabitants of Canada as was your predecessor, the immortal General Brock. In thus exercising our rights as British sub- jects we humbly offer to your Excellency the earnest assurance of our attachment to His Ma- jesty's person and government, and of our grati- tude to your Excellency for the interest your Excellency has expressed for the prosperity of the Province.