James Craig's attempts at
maintaining a balance of power were the chief causes of all his
blundering. He did not himself know the proper balance of power between
himself and the governed. He could not possibly perceive when his
balance-beam was out of its centre, and if he had seen a slight leaning
to one side, and that side not his own, he could not have conceived
that the scales of justice would have been very much affected. It never
occurred to him that the displacement of it, only to the extent of
one-sixteenth half of an inch, on the side of Government and Council,
would weigh a quarter of a century against the Assembly, the people and
progress. But so it was. The beam with which Sir James Craig would have
and did weigh out justice, was one-sided, and, to make matters still
worse, the Governor threw into the adverse scale a host of his own
prejudices, and of the prejudices of his secret councillors. He would
have been glad, had the House expelled Mr. Bedard, one of its members,
on the plea that it was prejudicial to its dignity that a
representative of the people should be kept in durance, while the House
was in session, and still more discreditable that that member should be
charged with treason. Hardly had he delivered his speech, and the
Assembly returned to their chamber, when the Governor sent a message to
the House intimating that Mr. Bedard, who had been returned to
Parliament, as the representative of Surrey, was detained in the common
gaol of Quebec, under the "Preservation Act," charged with treasonable
practices. The House most politely thanked the Governor-in-Chief for
the information. The House resolved that Mr. Bedard was in the common
gaol of Quebec. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard was, on the 27th
day of March, returned to Parliament, as one of the Knights
Representative of Surrey. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard, was
then one of the members of the Assembly, for the existing Parliament.
The House resolved that the simple arrest of any one of His Majesty's
subjects did not render him incapable of election to the Assembly. The
House resolved that the Government Preserves Act, guaranteed to the
said Pierre Bedard, Esquire, the right of sitting in the Assembly. And
the House resolved to present a humble address to His Excellency,
informing him that his message had been seriously considered, that
several resolutions had been passed, which they conceived it to be
their duty to submit to His Exc