ttention. The Assembly replied in the usual way and immediately
afterwards appointed the committees. There was a grand committee of
grievances, a committee on courts of justice, a committee on
agriculture and commerce, and a special committee of five members to
keep up a good understanding between the two Houses, hitherto
antagonistic. Immediately after these committees had been named, a
message was received from the Governor, intimating that the Regent of
the United Kingdom and of the Empire had been pleased to assent to the
bill granting a salary of L1,000 a year to the Speaker of the Assembly.
The House then voted L14,216 to relieve the distressed parishes, with
the view of making good the advances made by the Governor, and also
voted the additional sum of L15,500, with the same view, and L20,600
more, for the purchase of seed grain, for distribution among such as
could not otherwise procure it, to be repaid at the convenience of the
recipients. This business being settled, Mr. Cuvillier presented to the
House articles of impeachment against Mr. Foucher, a Judge of the
King's Bench, at Montreal, for malversation, corrupt practices, and
injustice. A committee was appointed to examine into these charges, and
having reported adversely to the judge, the House prepared and adopted
an address to the Regent, asking for Mr. Foucher's removal from office,
and that justice should otherwise be done. The House further requested
the Governor-in-Chief to suspend Mr. Foucher, while the charges made
against him were pending. The Governor complied with the request of the
House, by desiring Mr. Foucher to abstain from taking his seat upon the
Bench, until the will of the Regent should have been ascertained. The
Legislative Council were most indignant. They remonstrated against the
suspension of Mr. Foucher. Every public officer was by the assent given
to the act of the Assembly, liable to be put to the expense of going to
England before he could even get a hearing, if at the mere dictation of
the Assembly, a public officer was to be suspended. The Assembly
replied that, if suspension could not take place, offenders, out of the
reach of ordinary courts of justice, could not be brought to trial, and
that an illegal, arbitrary, tyrannical, and oppressive power, over the
people of the province, would be perpetuated. And so the suspension did
take place. The judges were in very bad odour in those days. They were
between two fires. If they th