The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1Roger, Charles
History
The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1
Roger, Charles
Canada -- History
On the 10th of December, Parliament again met. The House of Assembly
re-elected Mr. Panet to the Speakership, and the Governor approved of
his election. In his speech from the throne, Governor Craig had never
doubted the loyalty and zeal of the parliaments which had met since he
had assumed the administration of affairs. He was confident that they
were animated by the best intentions to promote the interests of the
King's government and the welfare of the people. He looked for such a
disposition in the tenor of their deliberations. He called their
attention to the temporary Act for the better preservation of His
Majesty's government, and for establishing regulations respecting
aliens or certain subjects of His Majesty, who had resided in France.
No change had taken place in the state of public affairs, that would
warrant a departure from those precautions which made the Act
necessary. He did not mean that it should be supposed that he meant to
divide the interests of His Majesty's government from the interests of
the public, for they were inseparable. But the preservation of His
Majesty's government was the safety of the province, and its security
was the only safeguard to the public tranquillity. He therefore
recommended those considerations together with the Act making temporary
provision for the regulation of trade between Canada and the United
States to their first and immediate consideration. He entreated them to
believe that he should have great satisfaction in cultivating that
harmony and good understanding which must be so conducive to the
prosperity and happiness of the colony, and that he should most readily
and cheerfully concur, in every measure, which they might propose,
tending to promote those important objects. And he further intimated
that the rule of his conduct was to discharge his duty to his
sovereign, by a constant attention to the welfare of his subjects, who
were committed to his charge, and these objects he felt to be promoted
by a strict adherence to the laws and principles of the constitution,
and by maintaining in their just balance the rights and privileges of
every branch of the legislature. Sir James Craig's attempts at
maintaining a balance of power were the chief causes of all his
blundering. He did not himself know the proper balance of power between
himself and the governed. He could not possibly perceive when his
balance-beam was out of its centre, and if he had seen a slight leaning
to one side, and that side not his own, he could not have conceived
that the scales of justice would have been very much affected. It never
occurred to him that the displacement of it, only to the extent of
one-sixteenth half of an inch, on the side of Government and Council,
would weigh a quarter of a century against the Assembly, the people and
progress. But so it was. The beam with which Sir James Craig would have
and did weigh out justice, was one-sided, and, to make matters still
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