such conduct, that the continuance of peace seemed to
depend less on the high sounded resentment of America, than on the
moderation with which His Majesty might be disposed to view the
treatment he had met with; he felt it to be unnecessary to urge
preparation for any event that might arise from such a condition of
things; he persuaded himself that in the great points of security and
defence one mind would actuate all; he assured the country of the
necessary support of regular troops should hostilities ensue, which
with the "interior" force of the country would be found equal to any
attack that could be made upon the province; the militia would not be
unmindful of the courage which they had displayed in former days,
(when, of course, they behaved worse, with the exception of a few
individuals, than any people ever did![12]) the bravery of His
Majesty's arms had never been called in question; he congratulated the
legislature on the capture of Martinique, and triumphantly alluded to
the battle of Talavera, which had torn from the French that character
of invincibility which they had imagined themselves to have possessed
in the eyes of the world. He recommended the renewal of those Acts
which were designed to enable the Executive to discharge its duty
against dangers, which could not be remedied by the course of common
law; he drew attention to the numerous forgeries of foreign bank notes,
and recommended a penal statute for their suppression; and he remarked
that the question of the expediency of excluding the Judges of the
King's Bench from the House of Representatives had been, during the two
last sessions, much agitated, and that, although he would not have
himself interdicted the judges from being selected by the people to
represent them in the Assembly, had the question ever come before him,
he had been ordered by His Majesty to give his assent to any proper
bill, concurred in by the two Houses, for rendering the judges
ineligible to a seat in the Assembly.

[12] Sir James' letter to Lord Liverpool.

The Assembly, very naturally, entertained the opinion that the Imperial
government had not approved of the conduct of Sir James Craig in
dissolving the previous Parliament. Indeed, even before taking the
speech from the throne into consideration, the Assembly resolved that
every attempt of the executive government and of the other branches of
the legislature against the House of Assembly, whether in dictating or