"For appointing and providing for an authorised Agent for the province, to reside in England, and attend to its interests there; "It is with the most profound grief that we find ourselves compelled to represent to your Majesty, that, during several years past, the incomes derived from real estate in this province, the profits of trade and industry, and the wages of labour therein, have greatly diminished, and still continue to diminish; that, under these circumstances, it would not be equitable to impose taxes or new duties on its inhabitants for the public uses; and that there exists no other resource which can reasonably be depended upon, to aid in the diffusion of knowledge, and facilitate the exertions of individual industry, than the proceeds of the existing revenues levied within the province. "Nevertheless, more than one-half of the gross amount of all its public revenues has been applied, for several years past, in payment of salaries, emoluments, and expenses of the officers of the civil government, exclusive of the usual and indispensable special appropriations; and our anxiety is the greater, as these salaries, and emoluments, and expenses have been greatly increased, without the consent of the Legislature; and have, in some instances, been paid to persons who do not reside in the province, or have rendered no service therefore; and in other cases the said salaries, and emoluments, and expenses are excessive, when compared with the incomes derived from real estate in this province, and the usual recompense obtained therein by individuals of talent, character, and industry, equal to those possessed by the persons to whom the said salaries and emoluments are paid out of the public revenue of this province; and, lastly, in addition to those unnecessary and excessive salaries and expenses, your Majesty's subjects of this province are also burdened with various and increasing fees paid to the officers of the civil government, which are grievous to the subject, diminishing the protection of the laws, the benefits of government, and the resources of the country for its necessary wants. "We are convinced that, besides the most perfect security of person and property, one of the most efficacious means of promoting the public prosperity, and preventing its decline, is to aid in the diffusion of useful knowledge, and the free exercise of individual industry and enterprise; and we have witnessed, with satisfaction and gratitude, that our Provincial Legislature has appropriated very large sums of money for these objects, since the close of the last war with the United States of America; but we have to perform the painful duty. of humbly representing to your Majesty, that the monies thus appropriated and applied, under the direction of the Provincial Executive, have not produced the beneficial results that were to be expected from a legal and judicious application of them, and have been tardily or insufficiently accounted for. "It is with the utmost pain that we are compelled to represent to your Majesty, that in this province of the British Empire, large sums of public money of the revenue levied within this province have been applied, year after year, by. warrant of the Executive Government, without any appropriation by the Legislature of the province (at a time when the necessary appropriations were rejected in the said Legislative Council) in payment of alleged expenses of the civil government, and other expenses for which no services were. rendered to the province, or for new and increased salaries and allowances never recognised by the Legislature. Were we to refrain from complaining of such an enormous abuse, we should co-operate in consolidating our slavery, and we humbly implore your Majesty's justice. "Alike negligent in the preservation of the public monies and prodigal in their expenditure, the Executive Government of this province has not only suffered the dissipation of large sums of money in the hands of the Receiver-General, and other depositaries thereof, then and still under its superintendence and control, but has appointed other officers in the stead of these faulty depositaries, without taking any sufficient security for the future; and having advanced, to different persons, large sums of money appropriated by the Legislature, the neglect of the Executive Government, in this respect, has been such, that several of those persons have not accounted at the time when they ought to have accounted; some have insufficiently accounted, or not rendered any account; and, notwithstanding their negligence and default, some of these persons have been appointed by the Executive Government to offices of trust, honour, and profit; and we most humbly represent to your Majesty, that the Executive Government of the province, by its negligent conduct in these respects, has exposed your Majesty's subjects in this province to heavy and grievous losses, dissipated and endangered the resources of the province, and subjected its inhabitants to unnecessary burdens. "Your Majesty's faithful subjects, in this province, have already forwarded humble representations to your Majesty's Government, on the subject of the college and estates heretofore in the possession of the late Order of Jesuits in this province; and while we deplore the unfavourable result of our past endeavours, we, nevertheless, continue to entertain the most perfect confidence, that, so soon as the truth shall be fully known to your Majesty, justice will be rendered unto us; and we humbly represent that, as the said Order was never the proprietor of the said college and estates, but merely the depositary thereof, for the education of the youth of Canada, the extinction of that Order could not confer on the Sovereign any other rights on that property than were possessed by the said Order; and that your Majesty succeeded to the possession of those estates, subject to their being applied to the education of the youth of this province, conformably to their primitive destination; and it is with the most profound grief that we find ourselves still deprived of the benefits which were formerly derived from the actual application of that property to these objects under the direction of the Jesuits, while education is languishing amongst us for want of those rescurces. "The settlement of the waste lands in this province, the importance of which has already, at various times, occupied the attention of your Majesty's Imperial Government, has been neglected in the most unaccountable manner by the Executive Government of the province, so that large portions of the said lands, granted or reserved by the crown, have been long held, and continue to be held in the midst of, or in the immediate vicinity of actual settlements, without the owners or possessors thereof having been compelled to perform the duty of settlement upon which said lands were granted by the Crown, or any other duty in relation to the said lands, to the grievous burden of the actual inhabitants, the discouragement of new settlers, and the obstruction of the general increase and prosperity of the province. "But of all the abuses of which the inhabitants of this province have to complain, the most afflicting to your petitioners is, that, during the prevalence of the afore-mentioned and various other abuses and grievances, false representations and repeated attempts have been made by divers officers of the Provincial Executive, possessing the confidence of your Majesty's Government, to obtain from your Majesty's Government in England and the Parliament of the United Kingdom, various alterations in the constitution of the government of this province as established by law, without the knowledge of your Majesty's faithful subjects in this province, in contempt of their most sacred rights and dearest interests; and this at a time when a majority of executive councillors, judges, and other officers in the Legislative Council, prevented the inhabitants of the province from having an authorised agent in England to watch over and support their interests, and enable them to be heard by the government of the mother country; and it is under these circumstances that the Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 4th Geo. IV., cap. 6, reviving or continuing certain temporary Acts of the Provincial Legislature levying duties within this province, and the Acts affecting the tenure of lands therein, were passed, without the knowledge of its inhabitants, to the subversion of their rights and dearest interests, and particularly without the knowledge or consent of the proprietors more immediately interested in the lastmentioned Acts. It is with the most afflicting sensations that we have witnessed the intrigues which have been in operation to despoil your Majesty's faithful subjects in this province of the rights and benefits which were granted and guaranteed to us by the supreme authority of a powerful and generous nation, under the auspices of its most illustrious citizens. "We most humbly implore your Majesty to take this our petition into your most gracious consideration, to exercise your royal prerogative, so that your Majesty's faithful subjects in this province be relieved from the aforesaid abuses and grievances, and justice be done in the premises, that your petitioners may be maintained and secured in the full enjoyment of the constitution of government, as established by the Act passed in the thirty-first year of the reign of our late Sovereign, your royal father, without any alteration thereof whatsoever. "And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. "December, 1827. "[N.B.-The petitions to the Lords and Commons are the same as the above, with only the necessary change of style.]" "Recapitulation of Signatures to the above Petition :"County of Cornwallis Part of Buckinghamshire Ditto Hampshire Quebec 3,583 |