Dear Sir

XLIX

FINLAY TO NEPEAN

[Trans. Shortt and Doughty.]

Quebec, 9th february, 1789.

The great question, whether a House of Assembly would contribute to the welfare of this Province in its present state? has been so fully discussed that the subject is entirely exhausted-both old and new subjects here, who have openly declared their sentiments, now_composedly wait the decision of the British Parliament with respect to Canadian Affairs. It was, in my humble opinion, a wise measure to endeavour to draw from every quarter as much information as could possibly be had-there has not been any restraint on the people-they have said all they had to say. The petitions and counter petitions to His Majesty, (which have no doubt ere now reached the foot of the Throne) have been published in our Gazette.

I am ignorant of Lord Dorchester's way of thinking relative to a house of the representatives of the people; I do no believe that he has confided his opinion on that head to any person on this side of the Atlantic.

Every thing considered relative to the present situation of this Province, I confidently believe that a constitution founded on the 12th Article of His Majesty's instructions to the Governor General', would be the fittest for this Country in its actual state.

We might make the people entirely English by introducing the English language. This is to be done by free schools, and by ordaining that all suits in our Courts shall be carried on in English after a certain number of years.

I have never been able to perceive why the Laws of England should not be the rule for the decision in all cases of personal actions grounded upon debts, promises contracts and agreements whether of a mercantile or other nature, and also of wrongs proper to be compensated in dammages. Nor have I been able to see that it would be expedient to alter the Laws Customs and usages that have hitherto in Canada governed in all controversies respecting Titles of lands, and the tenure, descent, alienation, incumbrances, and settlements of real Estates, and the distribution of per¡ sonal property of persons dying intestate.

The advocates for a House of Assembly would say that this Plan stands on too narrow a bottom: nothing short (say they) of Power to Tax can ever give a spur to Trade, or rouse the indolent habitant to in!dustry—and as England holds her Colonies for the sole purpose of extending her Commerce, the power to raise money must be granted to the people in this Province to render it of real utility to the Parent State.

Some people remark that the Canadians were not consulted before the Criminal Law of England was introduced into this Province-it was given them for their good: it may therefore (they conclude) be well left to the wisdom of a British Parliament to make all the changes in the Constitution of this Country now become necessary from the acquisition of so many thousands of His Majesty's natural born subjects as settlers among us.

The Mass of the Canadians are not yet qualified to Judge of the matter-they could not reason on the proposed change: they'll be happy under any well regulated Government, and perfectly contented whilst they remain exempted from Taxes, provided no alarm shall be sounded to rouse apprehensions_touching the safety of their religion.

The Seigneurs, I presume, will ever oppose proposals tending to alter the present System, as I believe that they conceive their consequence depends on the support of that System: but of what consequence can a Canadian Seigneur be in an English commercial Province! He enjoys no particular privileges in the Society-He has no legal command over his 1 See No. XLII.

tenants, nor are they in general look'd up to for their superior knowledge. Their fortunes are for the most part but very slender: yet you may have seen by their late publications here that they pretend to a consequence which but few (not of that class) are willing to allow them.

Among the number there's sensible well informed Gentlemen who are in estimation with all ranks of the people, but it would be as hard to root out the prejudices of an Englishman in favour of the British Constitution, as it will be to undo the predilection that a Canadian gentleman has for that form of Government which we found established here at the conquest of the Country.

A Canadian Seigneur speaks thus: "The Laws, ancient usages, and "customs of our Province would soon be abolished if the King's natural "born subjects should succeed in their application for a House of Assem"bly. We wish to preserve our Laws in full force to the end of time. We "have an undoubted claim to share all places of honor or profit in the "service of Government in proportion to our numbers. That we have uni"formly adhered to these demands, let our addresses' of 1784 and 1788 "bear testimony."

On these remarks, I will Just observe, that as the house of Representatives would be composed of a Majority of Canadian free-holders, they would not alter the Laws without being fully satisfied that they stood in need of alteration.

The King makes no distinction between a man born in Canada and one born in middlesex-we are all His Majesty's subjects-He is the fountain of honor-His Royal favor will extend to the worthy, be they new or be they natural born subjects.

I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, Your obliged and very faithful servant. HUGH FINLAY.

L

My Lord,

GRENVILLE TO DORCHESTER

[Trans. Shortt and Doughty.]

Whitehall, 20th Octr., 1789.

The public dispatches of this date will inform your Lordship of the intention of His Majesty's Servants, with respect to the plan to be proposed in Parliament for altering the present Constitution of Canada.—1 feel that it is due to your Lordship, that I should inform you of the grounds on which this resolution has been adopted, in a more particular manner than the nature of a public dispatch appears to admit; and, for that purpose, I inclose to your Lordship in confidence, a paper containing the heads of those suggestions, on which the present measures are founded. I am persuaded that it is a point of true Policy to make these Conces-sions at a time when they may be received as matter of favour, and when it is in Our own power to regulate and direct the manner of applying them, rather than to wait 'till they shall be extorted from us by a necessity which shall neither leave us any discretion in the form, nor any merit in the substance of what We give.

I am ignorant how far your Lordship's Opinion coincides with the ideas stated in the inclosed paper. One point I observe, and have alluded to in my public Letter, on which you have stated Objections; but I think. they are such as apply to the present state of the Province, rather than to what it would be under a different form of Government.

With regard to the remainder, it would certainly give me great satis

1 See No. XL and XLI.

2 See No. LI. William Wyndham Grenville, afterwards Lord Grenville, succeeded Sydney as Secretary for the Home Department in June, 1789.

faction if I could find the opinions which I entertain confirmed by your Lordship's experience and knowledge of the Subject.

But, in all events, I have not the smallest doubt of your Lordship's wish to co-operate in carrying into execution, in the most advantageous manner, that Plan which Parliament shall ultimately adopt, on a subject which has been so long before them; and I trust you will see the importance in this point of view, of your delaying your visit to this Country, 'till after the new Government shall have been put in motion.

There is one subject adverted to in the paper which I now enclose, of which no mention is made, either in the Bill' now transmitted to your Lordship, or in the dispatch which accompanies it. What I mean is, the suggestion relative to the possibility of making such reservations of Land adjacent to all future Grants, as may secure to the Crown a certain and improving Revenue.-A Measure, which, if it had been adopted when the Old Colonies were first settled, would have retained them to this hour in obedience and Loyalty. I confess that I am very particularly anxious to find myself sufficiently informed to be able to recommend to His Majesty, the adoption of some system of this nature, in His remaining Colonies, and I should therefore feel myself obliged to your Lordship, if you would consider it with attention, and state to me your Sentiments, both as to the general principle, and as to the best mode of carrying it into effect, in the different Provinces under the King's Government in North America.

Your Lordship will perceive, by the different accounts, which you will receive from Europe, that the state of France is such, as gives Us little to fear from that quarter in the present moment. The opportunity is therefore most favourable for the adoption of such measures as may tend_to_consolidate Our strength, and increase our resources, so as to enable Ourselves to meet any efforts that the most favorable event of the present troubles can ever enable her to make.

I am, &c.,

W. W. GRENVILLE.

My Lord,

LI

GRENVILLE TO DORCHESTER

[Trans. Shortt and Doughty.]

Whitehall, 20th Octr., 1789.

It having been determined to bring under the consideration of Parliament early in the next Session the propriety of making farther provision for the good government of the Province of Quebec, I enclose to your Lordship the draught of a Bill' prepared for this purpose.

His Majesty's Servants are desirous, before this Plan shall be proposed to Parliament, to avail themselves of such observations upon it as your Lordship's experience and local knowledge may suggest. It is probable that Parliament may not meet till towards the end of January next, and that there will therefore be full time for me to receive your Lordship's answer to this dispatch with such remarks as may occur to you on the proposed Bill, and with such information as may be necessary to enable me to supply those particulars of detail which are now left in blank.

Your Lordship will observe that the general object of this plan is to assimilate the Constitution of that Province to that of Great Britain, as nearly as the difference arising from the manners of the People and from the present Situation of the Province will admit.

In doing this a considerable degree of attention is due to the prejudices and habits of the French Inhabitants who compose so large a proportion of the community, and every degree of caution should be

1 The first draft of the Constitutional Act of 1791. It is given in Shortt and Doughty, p. 667.

used to continue to them the enjoyment of those civil and religious Rights which were secured to them by the Capitulation of the Province, or have since been granted by the liberal and enlightened spirit of the British Government.

This consideration has had a great degree of weight in the adoption of the plan of dividing the Province of Quebec into two Districts which are to remain as at present under the administration of a Governor General, but are each to have a Lieut. Governor and a separate Legislature.

The King's Servants have not overlooked the reasons urged by your Lordship against such a separation', and they feel that while Canada remained under its present form of Government great weight would have been due to those suggestions; but when the resolution was taken of establishing a Provincial Legislature, to be constituted in the manner now proposed, and to be chosen in part by the People every consideration of policy seemed to render it desirable that the great preponderance possessed in the Upper Districts by the King's antient Subjects, and in the lower by the French Canadians should have their effect and operation in separate Legislatures; rather than that these two bodies of People should be blended together in the first formation of the new Constitution, and before sufficient time has been allowed for the removal of antient prejudices, by the habit of obedience to the same Government, and by the sense of a common interest.

With respect to the intended Boundaries of these Provinces a blank is left in the Bill in order that your Lordship may, with the assistance of the Surveyor General, who is now in Quebec, consider of such a description of those Boundaries as may be sufficiently intelligible and certain, so as to leave no room for future difficulties on that subject. The division between the two Provinces is meant to be the same as is mentioned to your Lordship in Lord Sydney's Letter of 3d Sept., 1788, with the alteration suggested by your Lordship in your Letter of the 8th November following.

There will however be a considerable difficulty in the mode of describing the Boundary between the District of Upper Canada and the Territories of the United States. As the adhering to the Line mentioned in the Treaty with America would exclude the Posts which are still in His Majesty's Possession, and which the infraction of the Treaty on the part of America has induced His Majesty to retain, while on the other hand the including them by express words within the Limits to be established for the Province by an Act of the British Parliament would probably excite a considerable degree of resentment among the Inhabitants of the United States, and might perhaps provoke them to measures detrimental to Our Commercial Interests. Possibly the best solution for this difficulty might be to describe the Upper District by some general words such as "All the Territories, &c., &c., &c., possessed by and subject to His Majesty, and being to the West or South West of the Boundary Line of Lower Canada, except such as are included within the present Boundaries of the Government of New Brunswick.

In settling this point of the Boundaries it will also be a question, whether the Fishing Settlement in Gaspé may not with advantage be annexed to the Government of New Brunswick rather than to be left as a part of that of Lower Canada under the system now proposed to be estabished particularly as the local Circumstances of that District might render a representation of it in an Assembly at Quebec extremely difficult if not impracticable.

The Legislature in each of the Two Provinces is intended, as your Lordship will observe from the draught of the Bill, to consist of His Majesty represented by His Governor, or Lieutenant Governor, a Legislative Council, and a House of Assembly.

It is intended to separate the Legislative from the Executive Council 1 See No. XLVIII.

2 See Nos. XLVII and XLVIII.

and to give to the Members of the former a right to hold their Seats during their Life and good Behaviour, provided they do not reside out of the Province, or attach themselves to any Oath of allegiance or Obedience to the United States, or to any other Foreign Power.

It is the King's farther intention to confer upon the Persons whom he shall distinguish by calling them to His Legislative Council some mark of Honour, such as a Provincial Baronetage either personal to themselves, or descendible to their Eldest Sons, in lineal Succession.

A great accession of wealth to the Provinces might probably induce his Majesty at a future period to raise the most considerable of these Persons to a higher degree of Honour, but this could certainly not be done with propriety under the present Circumstances.

The Object of these regulations is both to give to the Upper branch of the Legislature a greater degree of weight and consequence than was possssed by the Councils in the Old Colonial Governments, and to establish in the Provinces a Body of Men having that motive of attachment to the existing form of Government, which arises from the possession of personal or hereditary distinction.

It will be very necessary that great attention should be paid to the choice of those Persons who are to be placed in this situation in the first instance, and of those whom His Majesty may be advised from time to time to add to that number; and as your Lordship's long knowledge of the Province and of the Individuals who compose the higher classes of the Community, must render your Lordship more particularly competent to such a Selection, I must desire that your Lordship will consider this point with that degree of attention to which its importance entitles it, and that you will state to me the names of those Persons whom you may think fit objects of the King's favor in this respect, in each of the Two Provinces intended to be formed.

In the draft of the Bill which I enclose, a blank is left for that which is to be fixed as the smallest number of which the Councils are respectively to be composed. It is certainly desireable that this number should not be made too large in the first instance, as it would be easy for His Majesty to add to it whenever it may be found expedient, while on the other hand the calling improper Persons to the Council, in order to make up the number required by the Bill would under the system now proposed be productive of permanent inconvenience and mischief to His Majesty's Government.

Of this point also your Lordship must unquestionably be the best Judge, and I shall be anxious to learn your Sentiments upon it. My present idea, founded, however, rather on conjecture than on any satisfactory information, would be that the Legislative Council in Upper Canada should not consist of less than six Members, and in lower Canada of not less than Twelve; and that the selection of these Persons should be made with a view to encreasing the number by some addition at no very distant period, as a mark of His Majesty's favor to those Persons whose Conduct may be found to entitle them to it.

Your Lordship will also state to me for His Majesty's information, the number and names of those Persons whom you may think proper to recommend to His Majesty for Seats in the Executive Council.

It is by no means intended that the Members of the Legislative Council should be excluded from this Body, or that it should on the other hand be wholly composed of Persons of this description. It may be adviseable that some of the Persons named to the Executive Council in one of the Districts, should also be admitted to the same distinction in the other.

In providing for the establishment of a House of Assembly in each of the Two Provinces, the first question of detail which occurs is that of the Numbers of which these Bodies should consist, and of the manner in which they should be elected; particularly with respect to the division of the Provinces into Counties or Districts, and to the relative proportior of Representation to be allowed to the Towns.