Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

fellow-subjects in the United King dom can reasonably expect as respects the imports from a colony situated at such a distance from the mother country, and with ports closed to commerce for so large a portion of the year. And we the more confidently appeal to your Majesty's justice upon this point, as the relief we seek in this particular is in strict accordance with the very principles upon which the charges that we deprecate are based, as well as to the assurance received through your Majesty's Secretary of State, that it is the desire of your Majesty's Government that the trade of Canada should, in all respects, approach as nearly to perfect freedom as the wishes of the inhabitants and the exigencies of the public revenue may permit.

"While the subject that we have thus brought under the notice of your Majesty embraces other points requiring the gravest deliberation, and calling for the most favourable consideration on the part of the Imperial authorities, your Majesty's faithful Commons have felt it to be their duty to your Majesty, to the Imperial Parliament, and the mother country, and to their own constituents, to lose no time in at once approaching your Majesty with the declaration of their views upon that part of it embraced in their present Address, and to which, renewing their assurance of devoted attachment to your Majesty's person and Government, they earnestly entreat your Majesty's most gracious and favourable consideration.

[ocr errors][merged small]

Even if these gloomy forebodings are not realized, it is impossible not to admit that Canada had just reason for alarm and complaint. The measure of the British Government was a bold departure from the principles of all former legislation as regards our colonies, and however much the experiment, so loudly clamoured for by the free-traders in the mother country, might benefit the manufactures there, it was difficult to see how it could operate otherwise than as a heavy blow and great discouragement to the interests of Canada. We may be permitted to express our doubts as to the wisdom of thus alienating the good-will of our colonial dependencies, for, whatever may be the commercial result of free-trade measures, the political effect undoubtedly has been to weaken the bonds which attached Canada to England.

On the 9th of June, Lord Cathcart closed the Session, and prorogued the Provincial Parliament to the 18th of July. He delivered the following Speech :"Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly,

"At this advanced period of the season I could scarcely have entertained any reasonable expectation, that the present Session of Parliament could be sufficiently prolonged to enable you to dispose of the various measures submitted to your deliberation with the attentive consideration due to the highly important interests which many of them involved.

"Your indefatigable attention to the laborious duties which have been imposed upon you has, however, enabled you to consider and

to perfect the business with which you have been occupied in a manner that, while it affords gratifying evidence of the cordial and united efforts of the several branches of the Legislature, will, I have no doubt, prove highly beneficial to the best interests of the province.

"Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly,

"I thank you in the name of Her Majesty for the liberality with which you have provided the necessary supplies, which shall be expended with the utmost economy consistent with the efficiency of the public service.

"I shall immediately take the necessary measures for raising the loans authorized by you for the prosecution and speedy completion of the public works.

"Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly,

"The truly loyal and patriotic spirit in which you have passed the Militia Bill claims my warmest acknowledgments, and proves how confidently our gracious Sovereign may always rely upon the attachment of her Canadian subjects, and the promptitude and energy with which they would at all times be ready, should circumstances require it, to come forward in defence of their country, and in support of their connection with the parent state.

"I have had the satisfaction of assenting, in the Queen's name, to the greater part of the enactments which you have passed.

"In regard to the bills which have been reserved for the decision of Her Majesty's Government, that course has in each case been

required by imperative reasons over which I could exercise no control.

"The several addresses which you have voted to the Queen have been duly forwarded through the proper department, to be laid at the foot of the throne.

66

In returning to your homes, where your presence is so much required, gentlemen, I doubt not that you will use your utmost influence to inspire confidence in your respective districts by encouraging that spirit of loyalty for which the Canadian people have always been distinguished, and by promoting, branches of useful and productive as far as may be in your power, those industry, as well as of commercial

enterprize, upon which the welfare For they may be assured that, of the colony so mainly depends. however unfavourable the aspect of affairs may have appeared to them, there exists sufficient power and energy in this noble province, if well directed, to make the most of the resources it unquestionably possesses, that will, under the blessing of Divine Providence, create new sources of wealth and prosperity, should those upon which they have hitherto relied be found ultimately to fail them."

The public acts of chief importance passed during the Session were the following :—

The Militia Act.

The Upper Canada School Act, amending the Act of 1843.

To amend the Bankrupt Laws. Elementary instruction in Lower Canada, in lieu of the Act passed at the preceding Session.

The Duties of Customs and Distillers' Acts.

To amend the Laws for Board of Works.

Improvements in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

NOVA SCOTIA.-On the 10th of January, Lord Falkland opened the Legislative Session with the following Speech :---

"Mr. President and Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council; Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

"The necessity which exists for devising means to alleviate the distress and privation to which there is but too much reason to apprehend that a portion of the rural population of this province will shortly be exposed, in consequence of the almost general failure of the potato crop, joined to a desire to consult the convenience of many amongst you, has induced me to call you together at an earlier period of the year than I have hitherto done, and I feel every confidence that you will readily afford me the best advice and assistance you can give to enable me to meet a conjuncture of unforeseen difficulty.

"It is gratifying to me to be able to state that the harvest, with the exception of the potato crop, has been, in most of the province, rather more than usually abundant. "I regret, however, to inform you that the fisheries have been less productive than for several years past, although the decrease is not to be attributed to causes likely to be permanent in their nature, or calculated to excite anxiety for the future success of this branch of industry.

"Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

"The public accounts, and the estimates for the expenses of the current year, shall be submitted to

you with the least possible delay. Assured of the generous sympathy of the people of Nova Scotia for their suffering fellow-subjects in Canada, I did not hesitate, on the occasion of the late extensive fires at Quebec, to appropriate a portion of our abundant resources to the relief of those who had been visited by such dire calamity -convinced that, in so doing, I but anticipated the wishes of those whom you represent, and that the measure would meet with your approbation and concurrence.

"Mr. President and Honourable

Gentlemen of the Legislative Council; Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

"I am happy to acquaint you that the public revenue still continues in a prosperous state.

"I have received from the Governor of Barbadoes a letter expressive of his grateful appreciation of your liberality in granting 4,000 dollars for the succour of those amongst the population of Bridgetown who were reduced to distress and destitution by the conflagration which took place there in February last; and a copy of a joint resolution, passed by the Council and Assembly of that island, which I am sure you will be proud to place on your journals.

66

The Queen has been graciously pleased to instruct me to signify to the Provincial Parliament Her Majesty's willingness to relinquish the casual and territorial revenues of the Crown in the colony in exchange for a civil list on certain conditions, of which I will hereafter apprise you.

"I have the pleasure to announce to you that a correspond

ence, in which I have been recently engaged with the Secretary of State for the Colonies, has terminated happily for the interests of this country, which are so deeply involved in the protection of the fisheries on its coasts-further privileges sought by the American Government, the concession of which would have affected the prosperity of Nova Scotia, having been withheld by her Majesty.

"I strongly recommend to your favourable and deliberate consideration a project for the construction of a railroad from Halifax to Quebec and Montreal, which has lately much engaged the public attention, and the execution of which, should it turn out to be practicable under present circumstances, cannot be otherwise than beneficial in its consequences to the British North American colonies, by facilitating their intercourse with each other, and affording at all seasons an outlet through British ports for the productions of the British Canadian dominions. I have thought it necessary to address Her Majesty's Government on the subject of this great enterprise; and I have endeavoured to obtain such statistical and other information as may assist your deliberations, both as to the feasibility of the contemplated work, and the extent to which pecuniary aid should be afforded to promote the undertaking, should you deem it expedient to apply to that purpose any part of the public income. The information thus collected shall be imparted to you at the first convenient opportunity.

"I have been unable to carry into effect the intentions of the Le

gislature expressed in the act passed during the last Session, entitled, An Act relating to the Funded

Debt of the Province,' but I must remind you that it will be necessary to make provision for the immediate liquidation of that portion of it borrowed in 1836, payable in doubloons, early in the present year; and I rely on your bestowing on this, as on all other matters of deep public concern, that grave and dispassionate consideration which their importance so imperatively demands.

On the 20th of March, the Session was brought to a close, and the Governor addressed the Legislative Council and House of Assembly as follows:

"It is gratifying to me, in closing the Legislative Session, to have it in my power to express to you my satisfaction at the general results of your labours, and at the unanimity with which your joint efforts have been directed to the advancement of the public interests.

"Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,—

"In Her Majesty's name I thank you for the grants you have made for all public purposes.

"I regret that you have not decided to accept the control of the casual and territorial revenues of the Crown on the terms offered by Her Majesty, because I am convinced that your prompt acquiescence in the proposition, which I submitted to you by the Queen's command, would have been highly advantageous to the province.

66

"The readiness with which you have adopted every means to ensure the efficiency of the militia force, the liberal grants you have so considerately placed at my dis103al with that object, and the disposition you have so laudably and unanimously manifested to aug

ment such grants, should circumstances make it necessary, demand those cordial acknowledgments which, in Her Majesty's name, I have the pleasure to render.

"Mr. President and Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council; Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

"I congratulate you on the enactment of several useful laws to which I have just assented. Among them I regard with especial gratification that by which the various acts affecting the finances of the country are amended and consolidated.

"You will, I am assured, consider it your duty, on returning to your counties, to cherish and encourage in your fellow-subjects those sentiments of loyalty and devotion to your Sovereign by which your own proceedings have been guided, and for which the people of Nova Scotia have heretofore been so honourably distinguished."

BORNEO. The enterprizing spirit of an individual Englishman has aroused public attention, and directed it to this remote region of the earth, where events have recently occurred which demand a brief notice in our pages. In the year 1838, Mr. James Brooke fitted out from his own funds, unassisted by Government or the public, a schooner of 142 tons, for the purpose of visiting the shores of Borneo. He had previously sailed in the Chinese seas, and his benevolent mind had conceived the idea that the magnificent islands which lie to the south-east of the Straits of Malacca, and which have so long been abandoned to the half

savage tribes, whose pirate prahus infest the waters and paralyze commerce, might be reclaimed to the uses of civilized existence; and that the blessings of Christianity might be poured over that dark quarter of the globe. To accomplish this object it was first necessary to obtain more accurate knowledge than we possessed of the geography as well as the condition of those islands: and Mr. Brooke's voyage might be considered as one of discovery, having the specific ends in view of civilizing some portion, if not the whole of Borneo, suppressing piracy, and establishing commercial intercourse between that island and Singapore. He arrived at Sarawak, which is on the north-west coast of Borneo, in the month of August, 1839, and was well received by Rajah Muda Hassim, the uncle of the Sultan of Borneo, and under him the Governor of Sarawak. At that juncture Muda Hassim was engaged in a war with some rebellious subjects in the interior, which he was unable to bring to a satisfactory termination. Mr. Brooke stayed some time at Sarawak, making himself quainted with the country and its inhabitants, and inspiring the Rajah with feelings of friendly confidence. He afterwards sailed to Singapore, but soon returned to Sarawak, where he found the civil war still raging; and Muda Hassim solicited his assistance, offering to invest him with the government of Sarawak, if he succeeded in putting an end to the rebellion. Mr. Brooke availed himself of this opportunity for carrying out his philanthropic views. He joined the Rajah against the rebels, who were, after a protracted contest, vanquished

ac

« AnteriorContinuar »