The next and most important matter was the state of the township. Mr. Alexander McNab, one of the Laird's martyrs, had just arrived from the west. He first addressed the meeting in a fiery speech, replete with vengeance and vindictiveness, urging the people to take up arms, bring him before the meeting at once, try him, and execute him on the spot. He cited the case of Charles I. and Louis XVI as examples. Mr. John Forrest then arose, and in a mild and sensible address urged upon the people to use pacific measures, and try all constitutional means to obtain redress. Mr. D. C. McNab and others followed in the same strain, and it was finally resolved to send Mr. D. C. McNab as a special delegate to Lord Sydenham at once, with a petition signed by all the settlers; that a sum sufficient to defray expenses should be immediately subscribed and paid; and that the delegate after returning from Perth should proceed to Toronto. A sum of fifty dollars was collected on the spot, and more promised, to carry out the views of the meeting. The writer drafted the celebrated petition for the meeting, which is worded as follows:-- To the Right Honorable, His Excellency Charles Poulett Thompson, Governor-General of British North America, etc., etc., etc. The Humble Petition of the Settlers in the Township of McNab, RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH:-- That your Petitioners approach Your Excellency with feelings of loyalty to Her Majesty, our most gracious Queen, and with sentiments of the utmost respect towards Your Excellency as Her Majesty's representative. That your Petitioners sincerely hope that the object of Your Excellency's great mission to Canada may be speedily and successfully accomplished. That for the last fifteen years your Petitioners, as settlers under the Laird of McNab, have been persecuted, harassed with law-suits, threatened with deprivation of their lands, and subjected to threats by the McNab, of being driven from their present locations by the Government, for disobedience to the Chief. That the said Chief has impoverished many families, and completely ruined those of Alex. McNab, Peter and John McIntyre, whom he brought out to Canada. That there are now sixteen families still remaining in the township whom his friends sent out to Canada as settlers under him, who are willing to pay to the Chief any reasonable sum as passage-money, that Your Excellency in Council may deem just to impose; but on the other hand your Petitioners have hitherto resisted, and will continue constitutionally to resist any attempts to impose the feudal system of the Dark Ages upon Your Petitioners or their descendants.