hem shalom_," "peace
be unto you,"--"with you be peace." His Grace was not slow in
submitting the estimates of the expenses of the civil government for
the year 1819. Instead of L73,646 currency, as before, the estimate was
now L81,432. The House could not understand the sudden increase. Was it
necessary to pay L15,000 extra for a Duke? That was gracious goodness
to an appreciable extent! The estimate was referred to a select
committee, who were to make as ostensible as possible the necessity for
the increased demand, and if that could not be done, to say why not.
The committee reported that the interests of the country would best be
served by making an unqualified reduction of those sinecures and
pensions, which, in all countries had been considered the reward of
iniquities, and the encouragement of vice, and which had been and still
were subjects of complaint in England, and would, in Canada, lead to
corruption, and that too while the estimates contained the item of
L8,000 sterling a year, to be placed at the disposal of His Majesty's
representative, for rewarding provincial services, and for providing
for old and reduced servants of the government and others. Mr. Ryland
had already been in correspondence with the Duke's Secretary, Colonel
Ready, and hence the provision in the civil list for decayed servants
of the government. When this manoeuvre failed, an attempt was made to
obtain a permanent provision for the civil government of the province,
during the reign of the sovereign, and that failing, another was made
to vote the civil list money _en bloc_; but the Assembly would
only listen to one proposition, however democratic it might be, and
that was to vote the civil list annually, item by item, so that the
House might increase or diminish particular salaries at will. The
Assembly then went through the civil list, affixing to each office a
salary, and passing over without any appropriation such offices as were
either positive sinecures or little else. A bill was introduced and
carried through the third reading, granting to offices particularly
specified, particular salaries. It was sent to the Legislative Council
for concurrence, and was there at once rejected. The Council looked
upon the mode adopted by the bill of granting a supply to His Majesty
as unprecedented and unconstitutional, as an assumption of the
prerogative of the Crown, as calculated to prescribe to the Crown the
number and description of its servant