n trade. That was the mistake, and it was one, which the
Assembly even had endeavored to remedy when perhaps it was too late.

There were still some other matters of finance meriting legislative
attention. The "Canada Trade Act" of the imperial parliament had
wonderfully deranged the siege operations of the House. The Assembly
was now on the defensive, the governor of the province having been very
considerably re-inforced by the energetic measures of the imperial
authorities. It was not even considered prudent to make further zigzag
approaches. The Assembly resolved upon keeping within their own lines
and to defend themselves as well as they could from the vigorous
sorties of the enemy, led on by Mr. Ryland. They requested that copies
of any addresses to His Majesty by the Legislative Council of Lower
Canada or by the Parliament of Upper Canada to the King, or his
representative in Lower Canada, might be laid before them. The Governor
sent to them an able report of a joint committee of the Legislative
Council and Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, alluding to the
fruitless negotiations, which had been carried on between the duties'
commissioners of the two provinces, a document which had had such
weight with the imperial parliament as to have led to the passage of
the Canada Trade Act. The Assembly scanned the paper carefully but did
nothing. They only said that the Act would receive their most serious
attention in the next session of the parliament. They were rather
inclined to do business on a more liberal scale than they had
manifested at the previous session. An Act was passed to enable the
province to commence the construction of a canal between the town of
St. Johns, in Canada East, and the village of Chambly, which the
company, incorporated in 1818, had been unable, for want of funds to
commence. Fifty thousand pounds were appropriated for this purpose.
They voted also twelve thousands pounds as an additional appropriation
towards the construction of the Lachine Canal; two thousand one hundred
pounds for the encouragement of agriculture; eight hundred and fifty
pounds were granted to the Montreal General Hospital Society; two
hundred pounds were awarded to the Education Society of Quebec; Chief
Justice Monk was pensioned in the sum of five hundred and fifty pounds
sterling a year; and Mr. Justice Ogden was voted a retiring annual
pension of four hundred and fifty pounds sterling. The House then
applied to the