orming a seasonable and wholesome check upon
extravagance and inconsiderate legislation in the Lower House, it
contributed to the impoverishment of the Provincial revenue by assisting
to keep the control of public affairs in the hands of selfish and
unprincipled men. Instead of preserving the "happy balance of our
glorious Constitution"--a phrase constantly placed in the mouths of
Lieutenant-Governors, and embodied in their addresses to our Canadian
simulacrum of the House of Lords--it tended to keep the balance all on
one side, and that side was the one most prejudicial to the public good.
It became a mere stop-gap interposed by the Government between itself
and the Assembly. The Assembly passed measure after measure with careful
deliberation, only to find that their time had been thrown away, for
upon reaching the Upper House these measures were ignominously thrust
aside. One who had himself been a member of the Assembly, and who had
had personal experience of the evils whereof he wrote, has left the
following description of the manner in which Bills from the Lower
Chamber were treated in the Upper: "Sitting for a short time each day,
the Bills of the Assembly are despatched under the table with unexampled
celerity. Deputations, conveying up popular measures, no sooner have
their backs turned than the process of strangulation commences. Bills
that have undergone discussion for days in the other House, and that
have been amended and perfected with the greatest care, no sooner arrive
in their august presence than their fate is sealed."[32] He adds: "Of
those who attend to their duties, two-thirds are dependent on the
Government for either salaries or pensions. It is not harsh to say that
they become the willing tools of the hand that feeds them, instead of
looking to the interests of those from whom they indirectly derive their
support. Such gratitude may be very amiable, but it is no qualification
for an independent legislator."[33] These lines were written as late as
the year 1837, and their author informs us that within the preceding
eight years the Council had rejected no fewer than three hundred and
twenty-five Bills passed by the Assembly, being an average of more than
forty for each session[34]--a statement which is fully confirmed by
reference to the official journals of the respective Houses.

Such a method of procedure, leading to inevitable conflicts between the
two Houses, caused the public business to be imp