this State should boldly
break the obligations of neutrality, the governor of the State has no
power to restrain at to punish. It must be admitted, that a
proclamation of neutrality issuing from our State executive seems to be
over-stepping the proprieties of the office, and should be exercised, if
at all, only in case of a general and glaring violation of the laws of
nations; and even then it may reasonably be questioned whether the
ordinary process of law would not be sufficient, and whether gratuitous
advice to the people on the one hand, and gratuitous interference with
the exclusive functions of the general government on the other, would
become pertinent by being stamped with the official Seal of State. We
are not aware of any express authority in our constitution or laws for
the exercise of this novel mode of addressing the people; and it can
only be justified on the ground, that the chief magistrate has something
of fact or doctrine of importance to communicate, of which the people
are supposed to be ignorant. In neither point of view is there any
thing striking in this otherwise extraordinary document.

"No facts are set forth before unknown to the public, except that a
representation has been made to his Excellency that `_hostile forces had
been organised within this State_,' of which organisation our citizens
are _profoundly ignorant_.

"To the doctrine of this proclamation,--that the declaration of martial
law, by Lord Gosford, changes the relations between the United States
and Canada, we cannot assent. Our relations with Great Britain and her
colonies rest upon treaties, and the general law of nations, which, it
is believed, her Majesty's Governor in Chief of Lower Canada can neither
enlarge nor restrict.

"To assume that our citizens are ignorant of their rights and
obligations as members of a neutral independent power, is to take for
granted that they have forgotten the repeated infractions of those
rights which have so often agitated our country since the adoption of
Federal Constitution, which led to the late war with Great Britain, and
which have given rise to claims of indemnity that are still due from
various powers of Europe. Every page of the history of our country
portrays violations of her neutral rights by the despotic and haughty
powers of Europe, among whom _England has ever been foremost_. Your
committee do not deem it necessary to enlarge upon this subject."

After the report came