6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 PETITION OF THE LONDON MERCHANTS.1 To the Kings most excellent Majesty. The humble Petition of your Majesty's most dutiful Subjects, the Merchants and others now residing in London Interested in and trading unto the Province of Canada in North America, on behalf of themselves and others trading to and Interested in the said Colonys by way of Supplement to the Petition hereunto annexed Intitled the humble Petition of your Majesty's most faithful and Loyal Subjects British Merchants and Traders in behalf of themselves and their fellow Subjects Inhabiting your Majesty's Province of Quebec MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, We whose names are hereunto subscribed do most humbly certify to your Majesty that Several of us have in our possession a Variety of Original Letters from divers of our Friends and correspondents now residing in Canada and whose names are not subscribed to the Address annexed which confirm the truth of the several Allegations contained in the said Address. We do verily believe the said Allegations to be true and doubt not but in due time shall be enabled to prove the same when your Majesty in your great wisdom shall think proper to direct. And from the said Original Letters in our possession we do likewise believe that the said Address would have been signed by almost all your Majesty's British as well as French subjects in Canada but for fear of incurring the displeasure and resentment of such of your Majesty's Officers and Servants as may deem themselves reflected upon thereby. We therefore most humbly join with our fellow Subjects of Canada in their Petition to your Majesty and further most humbly pray. That the Government of those your Majesty's Dominions may be at least put upon the same footing with the rest of your Majesty's American Colonies or upon any other footing that may be thought Essential for the preservation of the Lives Liberties and Properties of all your Majesty's most faithfull Subjects as well as for the increase and support of the Infant Commerce to and from that Part of the World. And Your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray. &c. &c. &c. - Capel & Osgood Hanbury, John Buchanan, David Barclay & Sons Bissons & Metcalfes, Crafton & Colson Wal' Jenkins & Co, Pooley & Fletcher, Wakefield Willett & Pratt. John Cartwright, Mauduit Wright & Co 1 Canadian Archives; vol. B 8, p. 10. James Bond, Gregory Olive Neate & Pigon, John Strettell Isidore Lynch & Co. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18 REPORT OF ATTY. AND SOL. GEN. RE STATUS OF ROMAN CATHOLIC SUBJECTS.1 To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS, In Obedience to your Lordships Commands Signifyed to me by M' Pownall's Letter of the 7 Instant, directing us to consider, and Report to your Lordships our Opinion, whether His Majesty's Subjects, being Roman Catholicks, and residing in the Countries, ceded to His Majesty, in America, by the Definitive Treaty of Paris, are, or are not subject, in those Colonies, to the incapacities, disabilities, and Penalties, to which Roman Catholicks in this Kingdom, are subject by the Laws thereof; We have taken M' Pownall's Letter into our Consideration, and are humbly of Opinion, that His Majesty's Roman Catholick Subjects residing in the Countries, ceded to His Majesty in America, by the Definitive Treaty of Paris, are not subject, in those Colonies, to the Incapacities, disabilities, and Penalties, to which Roman Catholicks in this Kingdom are subject by the Laws thereof. All which is humbly submitted to Your Lordships Consideration Lincolns Inn 10th June 1765 J FL NORTON Endorsed :-Copy of the Attorney and Sollicitor Generals Report REPRESENTATION OF THE BOARD OF TRADE, TO THE MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, Our Predecessors in Office having in a Report to the Lords of the Committee of Your Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council of the 30th of May last, submitted to their Lordships consideration, a Plan for the Regulation of Ecclesiastical affairs in Quebec, and we having in a like Report to their Lordships of this Day's Dates submitted Our Opinion and Propositions in respect to the Constitutions of Judicature, and other Civil Establishments in that Province, it appears to us that their Lordships have now before them, for their Consideration and decision, all those matters regarding the Constitution and form of Government, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, *which are of the greatest Importance in the present State of that judicial in. B. of T. Canada Colony, and upon which the Welfare of Government and the Happiness of Your Majesty's Subjects there depend. N 15. 3 Two great and important Considerations do yet however remain to be submitted to Your Majesty; Viz' First, The Propriety of calling a General Assembly, consisting of the Governor, the Council, and a House of Representatives, of which third Estate the situation and Circumstances of the Colony have not hitherto been thought to admit. 1 Canadian Archives, Dartmouth Papers; M 383, p. 69. 2 Canadian Archives; B8, p. 12. The marginal notes refer to variations in the text in other copies of this document in the Public Record Office. * The special report here referred to does not accompany this document, nor has it yet been found elsewhere. Its character may be gathered from the recapitulation and discussion of its chief recommendations in the report of Yorke and De Grey. See p. 174. B. T. 15. 6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 Secondly, The repeated Complaints made by many of Your Majesty's Subjects there, and by the Principal Merchants trading to that Colony here, of Oppression and Misconduct in Your Majesty's Governor. Upon the first of these Propositions, the only Objection to which, as we conceive, must arise out of the Present State of the Province, the Bulk of the Inhabitants of which being Rom in Catholicks cannot, under the *Regulation in Regulations* of your Majesty's Commission, be admitted as Representatives in such an Assembly; We beg leave to represent, that if the whole Province was to be divided into three Districts or Counties, of which the Cities of Quebec and Montreal, and the Town of Trois Rivieres were to be the Capitals, We apprehend there would be found a sufficient number of Persons in each County qualified to serve as Representatives, and in the Choice of whom all the Inhabitants of such County might join; seeing that we know of no Law by which Roman Catholicks, as such, are disqualified from being Electors. *Power in B. T. 15. *Estate in Haldimand copy. *to in Haldimand copy. Such a Measure would, we submit give great Satisfaction to your Majesty's New as well as the Natural-Born Subjects; every Object of Civil Government, to which the limited Powers of the Governor and Council cannot extend, would be fully answered; and above all, that essential and important one, of establishing by an equal Taxation a permanent and Constitutional Revenue, answering to all the exigencies of the State,* upon such an Estimate as your Majesty, shall, with the Advice of your Servants, direct to be laid before them. As to what regards the Complaints exhibited against Your Majesty's Governor, they relate to such a Variety of Circumstances and Facts, of which we neither have, nor can have sufficient Information here, and do* refer themselves so much to the General State of Publick Measures there. that we are humbly of Opinion, that it will be most advisable, as well in regard to the Publick Interest, as in Justice to all Parties, that the said Complaints should be transmitted to Your Majesty's Governor, with Directions to return to this Kingdom, in order to give Your Majesty an Account of the State of the Colony; and that in the mean time a proper person should be authorized to administer Government there, under the Character and with the appointment of Lieutenant Governor Which is most humbly submitted. An ORDINANCE, To alter and amend an Ordinance of His Excellency the Governor and His Majesty's Council of this Province, passed the Seventeenth Day of September 1764. Whereas by an Ordinance of His Excellency the Governor and His Majesty's Council of this Province, made and passed the Seventeenth Day of September, 1764, Intitled, An Ordinance for regulating and establishing the Courts of Judicature in this Province; His Majesty's has most graciously been pleased to signify His Royal Will 1 On Oct. 24th, 1765, General H. S. Conway, who had succeeded the Earl of Halifax as Secretary of State for the Southern Department, July 12th, 1765, wrote to Murray that, in consequence of represen tations of disorders in the colony, he was to prepare to return to give an account of the Province, On April 1st of the following year he was formally recalled. He departed from Canada on the 28th of June, 1766, leaving Col. P. Aemilius Irving, President of the Council, as acting Governor until the arrival of Cel. Guy Carleton. See Canadian Archives, Q2, p. 464, and Q 3, pp. 14 & 173. 2 "Ordinances, made for the Province of Quebec, by the Governor and Council of the said Province, &c." Quebec, 1767. p. 72. Given also in Canadian Archives, Q 62 A 2, p. 515. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18 and Pleasure therein, by an additional Instruction' to His said Excellency the Governor, "That the Welfare and Happiness of His loving Subjects in this Province, which will ever be Objects of His Royal Care and Attention, do require that the said "Ordinance should be altered and amended in several Provisions of it, which tend to restrain His Canadian Subjects in those Privileges they are intituled to enjoy in common with his natural born Subjects:" And therefore it is His further Royal Will and Pleasure, That it should be declared, And by His Honour the President of His Majesty's Council, by and with the Advice, Consent.aud Assistance of His Majesty's Council of this Province, and by the Authority of the same, It is hereby Ordained and Declared, That all His Majesty's Subjects in the said Province of Quebec, without Distinction, are intituled to be impannelled, and to sit and act as Jurors, in all Causes civil and criminal cognizable by any of the Courts or Judicatures within the said Province. And for the more equal and impartial Distribution of Justice, Be it further Ordained and Declared, by the Authority aforesaid, That in all civil Causes or Actions between British born Subjects and British born Subjects, the Juries in such Causes or Actions are to be composed of British born Subjects only: And that in all Causes or Actions between Canadians and Canadians, the Juries are to be composed of Canadians only; and that in all Causes or Actions between British born Subjects and Canadians, the Juries are to be composed of an equal Number of each, if it be required by either of the Parties in any of the abovementioned Instances. And be it further Ordained and Declared, by the Authority aforesaid, That His Majesty's Canadian Subjects shall and are hereby permitted and allowed, to practice as Barristers, Advocates, Attornies and Proctors, in all or any of the Courts within the said Province, under such Regulations as shall be prescribed by the said Courts respectively for Persons in general under those Descriptions. And be it further Ordained and Declared, by the Authority aforesaid, That this Ordinance shall continue in Force until His Majesty's Pleasure be further known Lerein; and that so much of the said Ordinance of the said Seventeenth of September, 1764, as is not hereby altered and changed, shall and is hereby declared to be temporary only. GIVEN by the Honorable PAULUS EMILIUS IRVING, Esq; President of His Majesty's Council, Commander in Chief of this Province, and Lieutenant-Colonel of His Majesty's Army, at the Castle of Saint Lewis, in the City of QUEBEC, this 1st Day of Jaly, in the Sirth Year of His Majesty's Reign, and in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seren Hundred and Sixty-six. By Order of the Commander in Chief of the Province, P: EMIS. IRVING. The additional instruction here referred to runs as follows:- Additional Instructions to Our sty and well beloved the Honorable James Murray Esquire, Our Captain General & Governor in Chief and over Our Province of Quebec and the Territories depending thereon in America. Given at Our Court at St. James's the Day of "We having taken into Our Royal Consideration the Ordinance enacted & published by you, on the 17th day of Sept 1764 for Establishing Courts of Judicature in Our Province of Quebec; & it appearing Us that the Welfare and Happiness of Our loving Subjects there, which will ever be Objects of our Care & Attention, do require, that the said Ordinance should be altered & amended in several Provisions of it, which tend to restrain' Our Canadian Subjects in those Privileges they are entitled to enjoy in common with our Natural born Subjects; It is therefore Our Royal Will & Pleasure, & you are hereby directed & quired, forthwith upon the Receipt of this our Instruction, to Enact and Publish an Ordinance, declaring at all Our Subjects in our said Province of Quebec, without Distinction, &c." The remainder is given in the ordinance. This instruction was approved in Council, 17th Feb., 1766. See Canadian Archives, Dartmouth Papers, M. 383, p. 152. 6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 66 An ORDINANCE, In Addition to an Ordinance of His EXCELLENCY the Governor and Council of this Province, of the Seventeenth of September, 1764, intituled, “An "Ordinance for regulating and establishing the Courts of Judicature in this Province." WHEREAS it has been often complained of, That there being no more than two Terms in the Year, appointed for holding His Majesty's Supreme-Court of Judicature, and Courts of Common Pleas within this Province, is a Delay in obtaining Justice, and a great Prejudice to publick Credit; for Remedy whereof, Be it Ordained and Declared, by His Honour the President and Commander in Chief of this Province, by and with the Advice, Consent and Assistance of His Majesty's Council, and by Authority of the same, It is hereby Ordained and Declared, That a new Term is by Virtue of this Ordinance established and added to the two former Terms, called Hillary and Trinity Terms, which said new Term shall be called Michaelmas Term, and shall commence and be held yearly, for the Dispatch of publick Business in the said Supreme Courts and Courts of Common Pleas respectively, on every Fifteenth Day of October, with the same Number of Return Days therein as is practised in the said two other Terms, called Hillary and Trinity Terms, with the same Liberty of appealing from the Judg ments therein to be given, and all other Rights and Privileges as is and are established by an Ordinance of His Excellency the Governor and Council of this Province, of the Seventeenth of September, 1764, Intituled, "An Ordinance for regulating and estab"lishing the Courts of Judicature in this Province," or by any other Ordinance in Addition to or in Amendment or Explanation thereof: And all Writs and Process whatsoever hereafter to be lawfully and regularly sued out of any of the said Courts, and made returnable the first or any other Return-Day of the said Term, called Michaelmas, by this Ordinance established, are hereby declared to be good and valid. GIVEN by the Honorable PAULUS ÆMILIUS IRVING, Esq; President of His Majesty's Council, Commander in Chief of this Province, and Lieutenant-Colonel of His Majesty's Army, at the Castle of Saint Lewis, in the City of QUEBEC, this 26th Day of July, in the Sixth Year of His Majesty's Reign, and in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-six. By Order of the Commander in Chief of the Province, P: ÆMIS. IRVING. REPORT OF ATTORNEY AND SOLICITOR GENERAL REGARDING THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC.2 To The Right hoñble the Lords of the Committee of Council for Plantation affairs. MY LORDS,-In humble obedience to your Order of the 19th of Novem' last wherein it is recited, that his Majesty having been pleased, to refer to your Lordships several memorials and Petitions from His Majesty's Subjects in Canada as well British as French, complaining of several of the Ordinances and proceedings of the Governor and Council of Quebec, and of the present Establishment of Courts of Judicature, and other Civil Constitutions; Your Lordships had on that Day, taken the said paper into your Consideration, together with a Report made thereupon by the Lords Commrs for Trade and plantations dated the 24 Sept last and finding that the said Lords Commrs had proposed another System of Judicature to be substituted in lieu of that which is now subsisting You thought it proper to Order, That the said Memorials Petitions, and Reports (which were thereunto annexd) should be referr'd to Us, to consider and Report Our Opinion, and observations thereon, together with such alterations to be made in what is proposed in the said Report of the Lords Commrs for Trade and plantations, 1 "Ordinances, made for the Province of Quebec, &c." 1767. p. 79. Given also in Canadian Archives, Q. 62 A pt. 2, p. 518. 2 Canadian Archives, Dartmouth Papers, M 383, p. 170. 3 See note 3, p. 171. |