difficulties with
Upper Canada. Lord Dalhousie was pestered with considerable ingenuity.
The Assembly of Lower Canada were rapidly becoming conservative or
non-progressive. They reported against any attempt being made to
abolish the seigniorial tenure, or change any of the institutions of
the country, the continuance of which was granted by the capitulations
of the colony. They were liberal enough in matters which did not
peculiarly interest the French-Canadian population. The Church of
Scotland, in Canada, having applied for a proportion of the lands
reserved for the clergy of the protestant churches, which had hitherto
been exclusively claimed by the clergy of the Church of England, in
Canada, the Assembly at once consented and addressed the king on the
subject. They were strongly of opinion that even protestant dissenters,
from the Churches of England and Scotland had an equitable claim, if
not an equal right to enjoy the advantages and revenues to arise from
the reserves in proportion to their numbers and their usefulness. The
Church of England, in Canada was wroth. It was a pretty thing, indeed,
for a Roman Catholic House of Assembly, to presume to represent to the
King of Great Britain, and the head of their church, that the word
"Protestant" was not exclusively the property of the Church of England.
It was high time to close the session, and accordingly, the
Governor-in-Chief went down to the Council Chamber, on the 9th of
March. He was not pleased. He said, in his prorogation speech, that he
did not think the session would prove of much advantage to the public.
He would most respectfully tell both Houses his sentiments upon the
general result of their proceedings. A claim had been made to an
unlimited right, in one branch of the legislature, to appropriate the
whole revenue of the province according to its pleasure. Even that
portion of the revenue raised by the authority of the imperial
parliament and directed by an Act of that parliament to be applied to
the payment of the expenses of the administration of justice, and of
the civil government of the province, the Assembly claimed the control
of. By the other two branches of the legislature that claim had been
denied, but it had, nevertheless, been persisted in by the Assembly,
and recourse had been had to the unusual course of withholding the
supplies, except on conditions, which would amount to an acknowledgment
of its constitutional validity. The stoppage of