m well, but, as for the Canadians, they
might stop the supplies. The Assembly waited upon His Excellency with
their addresses. They requested that His Excellency would be pleased to
lay them before His Majesty's ministers for presentation. Sir James
hesitated. The addresses were so peculiarly novel as to require a
considerable degree of reflection. The constitutional usage of
Parliament, recognised by the wisdom of the House of Commons of the
United Kingdom, forbade all steps on the part of the people towards
grants of money which were not recommended by the Crown, and although
by the same parliamentary usage all grants originated in the Lower
House, they were ineffectual without the concurrence of the Upper
House. There was no precedent of addresses to the House of Lords, or
Commons, separately, by a single branch of the Colonial Legislature. He
conceived the addresses to be unprecedented, imperfect in form, and
founded upon a resolution of the House of Assembly, which, until
sanctioned by the Legislative Council, must be ineffectual, except as a
spontaneous offer on the part of the Commons of Canada. The resolutions
were premature. He regretted that he could not take it upon himself to
transmit these addresses to His Majesty's ministers. In his refusal he
was impressed by a sense of duty. But, besides the sense of duty, His
Majesty's ministers, unless commanded by His Majesty, were not the
regular organs of communication with the House of Commons. Even were he
to transmit those addresses, he could not pledge himself for their
delivery, through that channel. He would have felt himself bound upon
ordinary occasions to have declined any addresses similar to those then
before him, under similar circumstances. He would on the present
occasion transmit to the King his own testimony of the good
disposition, gratitude, and generous intentions of his subjects. He
thought it right that His Majesty, "by their own act," should be
formally apprised of the ability and of the voluntary pledge and
promise of the province to pay the civil expenditure of the province
_when required_. He then engaged to transmit the King's address to His
Majesty, with the understanding that no act of his should be considered
as compromising the rights of His Majesty, of his Colonial
Representative, or of the Legislative Council. He significantly hoped
that the House of Assembly might not suppose that he had expressed
himself in a way that might carry wit