grants of lands, one
seventh part of those lands shall be appropriated to the Protestant
Clergy." In all grants of lands made to Catholics, and a majority of
the inhabitants of Canada were of that persuasion, one seventh part of
those grants was to be appropriated to the Protestant clergy, although
they might not have any congregation to instruct, nor any cure of
souls. If the Protestant clergy of Canada were all of the Church of
England, he would not be reconciled to the measure, but the greatest
part of the Protestant clergy in Canada were Protestant dissenters, and
to them one seventh part of all the lands in the province was to be
granted. A provision of that kind, in his opinion, would rather tend to
corrupt than to benefit the Protestant clergy of Canada. The Bill,
while it stated that one seventh of the land of Canada should be
reserved for the maintenance of a Protestant clergy, did not state how
the land so set aside should be applied. With regard to the Bill, as it
related to the regulation of Appeals, he was not satisfied. Suitors
were, in the first instance, to carry their complaints before the
Courts of Common Law in Canada, to appeal, if dissatisfied, to the
Governor and Council, to appeal from their decision to the King in
Council, and to appeal from His Majesty's decision to the House of
Lords. If the Lords were a better Court of Appeal than the King, the
Lords ought to be at once appealed to. By such a plan of appealing,
lawsuits would be rendered exceedingly expensive, and exceedingly
vexatious. He did not like the division of the Province. It seemed to
him inexpedient to distinguish between the English and French
inhabitants of the province. It was desirable that they should unite
and coalesce, and that such distinctions of the people should be
extinguished for ever, so that the English laws might soon universally
prevail throughout Canada, not from force but from choice, and a
conviction of their superiority. The inhabitants of Lower Canada had
not the laws of France. The commercial code of laws of the French
nation had never been given to them. They stood upon the exceedingly
inconvenient "_Coutume de Paris_." Canada, unlike the West Indies, was
a growing country. It did not consist of only a few white inhabitants
and a large number of slaves. It was a country increasing in
population, likely still more to increase, and capable of enjoying as
much political freedom, in its utmost extent, as any other