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(that of the kirk of Scotland). He conceived setting aside a seventh part of the lands granted for the maintenance of the Protestant clergy, was too great an allotment, and that the idea of sending a bishop of the established church of England to sit in the Legislative Council, was in every point of view unjustifiable.

Mr. Duncombe was of opinion that setting aside a seventh of the lands granted for the maintenance of the clergy, was too much.

Mr. Ryder, by way of explanation, said, that the meaning was, when his Majesty granted six acres in any of the new townships, an acre was to be set aside for the clergyman presented by the Governor to the parsonage or rectory; for the first year or two, as the clergyman would have the ground to clear and cultivate, he probably would be greatly underpaid.

Mr. Fox still censured the whole plan, and reminded the House that Mr. Dundas had two evenings since boasted that the security of the kirk of Scotland was its being erected on the rock of poverty: according to the professions of the bill, Mr. Fox said, even the clergy of the kirk would have larger incomes in Canada than in Scotland.

Mr. Dundas gave an historical detail of the mode of proceeding, by which the clergy in Scotland were supported. The fund out of which they were paid, he said, was created in the last century; when the whole tithes of Scotland, as they then stood, were sold, and the money they produced vested for the purpose. There were, he said, about 900 parishes in Scotland, and their clergy had, he believed, one with another, between eighty and ninety pounds a year; and when their income, from circumstances, was too small, it was made up to a certain amount to such individuals whose pittance was too scanty, by the Assembly of the Kirk, who managed the fund. He lamented, that in consequence of an error in the original

proceeding, viz.: the vesting the sum which the sale of the tithes had produced in a fund, instead of laying it out in the purchase of land, and dividing that land so purchased into allotments for the clergy, the latter was not sufficiently provided for. Had the plan he had stated been adopted, the land would have risen in value in proportion to its improvement as other land had, and the incumbents would consequently have had the benefit of its increased production.

Mr. Pulteney, Lord Carysfort, and other gentlemen, took part in the conversation; and at length, the blanks being all filled up, the House adjourned at twelve o'clock.

Monday, 16th May.

Mr. Hobart having brought up the Report of the Quebec Bill,

Mr. Fox said, that after the discussion which the clauses had received, he did not again mean to trouble the House: there were only two points on which he intended to divide the House, and they were those which related to hereditary nobility, and the number of the Assembly in Lower Canada.

Mr. Powys remarked, that with regard to hereditary nobility, he had only one objection: it was at present customary in Canada to give only one moiety of property to the eldest son. This certainly would much tend to scatter the property. But as we were now to make a constitution not for the present moment, but for posterity, he thought it desirable that there should be something similar to our House of Peers, and therefore he would vote with the right honourable gentleman who brought in the bill.

Colonel Simcoe spoke in favour of the bill, and having pronounced a panegyric on the British constitution, wished it to be adopted in the present instance, as far as circumstances would admit,

Mr. Fox said, that the hereditary nobility, as proposed to be established in Canada, could never be upon the footing of the British House of Peers. By this bill the power of the King was not limited in conferring hereditary nobility, or only nobility for life.

The House then divided upon the amendment of leaving out the clause of hereditary nobility.

Ayes 39: Noes 88.-Majority 49.

On the clause fixing the number of the Assembly of Lower Canada at thirty, Mr. Chancellor Pitt proposed, as an amendment, that the word fifty should be substituted in the place of thirty; but afterwards withdrew it to make room for the amendment of Mr. Fox, who proposed to enlarge the number to one hundred.

Divided upon the amendment of Mr. Fox.

Ayes 40: Noes 91.-Majority 51.

The amendment of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was then put and carried.

Mr. Sheridan made some objections to the power that assumed, after the government had been divided into two separate, independent legislatures, of regulating their commerce and internal intercourse. He, at the same time, intimated his intention to bring the subject into consideration on a future stage of the bill.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed, and read a third time on Wednesday.

The House adjourned.

Wednesday, 18th May.

The Quebec Bill having been read a third time, Lord Sheffield presented a petition against it from Mr. Limeburner, agent for the province of Canada, stating that the people there had been refused, upon application, a copy of

that bill by which their government was to be regulated, and praying that it might not pass.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt said, that the principles of the bill had been so long under consideration, and the impossibility that its regulations should meet the sentiments of all was so evident, that it was now the business of the House to consider whether the objections that had been stated were sufficient grounds for delaying the bill.

Mr. Alderman Watson moved, "That the debate should be adjourned till to-morrow."

The motion was negatived, and the Bill passed.

NOTE.

The ACT of 31st George 3d, Chapter 31, giving a Constitution to Canada, will be found in the Appendix, together with the other British Acts of Parliament relating to the same, viz. the ACT of 14th George 3d, Chapter 83; the ACT of 14th George 3d, Chapter 88; and the ACT of 43d George 3d, Chapter 138..

SIMCOE'S GOVERNMENT.

GENERAL Simcoe being appointed LieutenantGovernor of Upper Canada, carried out with him, to the province, the Constituting Act; and having called Parliament together, delivered the following speech.

TUESDAY, 18th SEPTEMBER, 1792.

Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly.

I have summoned you together, under the authority of an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, past last year, which has established the British Constitution, and all the forms which secure and maintain it, in this distant country.

The wisdom and beneficence of our most gracious Sovereign and the British Parliament, have been eminently proved, not only in imparting to us the same form of government, but also in securing the benefit, by the many provisions that guard this memorable act: so that the blessings of our invaluable constitution, thus protected and amplified, we may hope, will be extended to the remotest posterity.

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