My object in thus acting, _is to preserve the true principles of the free and happy constitution of the Province_." He turned with peculiar satisfaction from lecturing to the Assembly, to offer his acknowledgements to the gentlemen of the Legislative Council, for their unanimity, zeal, and unremitting attention to the public business, manifested in their proceedings. They were not to blame for the waste of time and for the little that had been done for the public good. The Assembly were surprised. It never entered the head of a single member that Sir James Craig, who, on first meeting a Canadian Parliament, had been so courteous, would have been so abruptly censorious. A prorogation was anticipated, when the Usher of the Black Rod commanded, by order of His Excellency, their presence at the Bar of the Upper House, but the possibility of a dissolution of Parliament never occurred to any one. The constitution, boasted so much of, was certainly a happy one. The representatives of the people were suddenly sent back to their constituents as unfitted for their business. And for some time, the country, tickled with the bluntness of the Governor, applauded the act. Had Sir James desired to be absolute, the country, before it had had time to consider, would have assisted His Excellency in a _coup d'etat_. It was not until the _Canadien_ had taken the matter up energetically that any of the discarded legislative materials could obtain a hearing from their constituents. After the _Canadien_ had criticised the speech from the throne, and had commented on the Bill of Rights, in allusion to the Governor's measures, with respect to the Assembly, and as applicable to the existing circumstances of the Province--"_Nos institutions_, _notre langue_, _et nos lois_,"--public opinion gradually turned round in favor of the Assembly.