set forth in those resolutions. The independence
of the judges was demanded; and Lord Ripon, then colonial-secretary, had
fully concurred in its reasonableness, and had suggested a method for
carrying it into effect. The house of assembly, however, instead
of following out that suggestion, tacked to the law by which the
independence of the judges was to be secured, certain provisions
relating to the hereditary revenues of the crown, and to the
establishment of a court of impeachment for the judges. Then as regarded
the subject on which the widest difference between the assembly and the
imperial government had existed, no opposition had been offered to
the terms of the assembly's resolutions. The judges were informed,
instantly, that, with the exception of the chief-justice, it was no
longer desirable that they should sit in the legislative council; and
a number of persons were added to that body totally independent of the
crown, and giving a great majority in the council to those who were
unconnected with the government. Of the forty members in the council,
indeed, not less than eighteen were French Canadians: many of the
members of English origin had quitted the province, and but seven
remained in official connexion with the government. Another grievance
related to the crown and clergy reserves; and Lord Ripon had declared
it was time to put an end to the old system; and only differed from the
assembly in wishing to prevent an undue facility from being afforded
to poor and improvident purchasers of waste lands. Concessions had also
been made with reference to the property of the Jesuits, which had
been ordered to be applied to educational purposes; and on the
much-contested, question of the duties collected under the earlier acts,
and which the crown had, according to law, the right of appropriating.
The Canadians, however, made but a poor return for these concessions. In
1833, a supply-bill, containing the most unusual conditions, passed
the house of assembly; and in the following year the assembly adopted a
course which had led to the present difficulties. It passed
ninety-two resolutions, some of grievance, some of eulogy, and some
of vituperation, and amounting in the whole to a long and vehement
remonstrance; and after spending an entire session in framing it, it
separated without having passed any bill of supply. Since that time no
supplies had been voted. The demeanour of the house of assembly in the
following ye