roposes to transfer future legislation on this subject from the
Provincial to the Imperial Parliament! The authors of this bill are, it
seems, afraid to trust the inhabitants of Upper Canada to legislate on a
subject in which they themselves are solely concerned; nay, they will
environ themselves and the interests they wish to promote behind the
Imperial Parliament! The measure itself, containing the provisions it
does, is a shameful deception upon the Canadian public--is a wanton
betrayal of Canadian rights--is a disgraceful sacrifice of Canadian, to
selfish party interests--is a covert assassination of a vital principle
of Canadian constitutional and free government--is a base political and
religious fraud which ought to excite the deep concern and rouse the
indignant and vigorous exertion of every friend of justice, and freedom,
and good government in the country.

My language may be strong; but strong as it is, it halts far behind the
emotions of my mind. Such a measure, I boldly affirm, is not what the
people of Upper Canada expected from the members of the present Assembly
when they elected them as their representatives; it is not such a
measure as, I have reason to believe, a majority of the present members
of the Assembly gave their constituents to understand they would vote
for when they solicited their suffrages. Honourable gentlemen, if I can
be heard by them, ought to remember that they have a character to
sustain, more important than the attainment of a particular object;
they ought to remember that they act in a delegated capacity; and if
they cannot clear their consciences and maintain the views and interests
of their constituents, they ought, as many an honest English gentleman
has done, to resign their seats in the legislature; they ought to
remember to whom and under what expectations they owe their present
elevation; above all, they ought to remember what the equal and
impartial interests of their whole constituency require at their hands.

If, however, every pledge or honourable understanding should be
violated; if every reasonable hope should be disappointed; and if the
loyal and deserving inhabitants of Upper Canada should be deceived, and
disappointed, and wronged by the passage of this bill into a law,
petitions ought to be circulated in every part of the province to Her
Majesty the Queen to withhold the royal assent from the bill; and I
hereby pledge L50 (if I have to sell my library to obtain t