Common with natives of His Majesty's Dominions to partake freely in every Act of legislative and Executive power, they deny the obligation to maintain an absolute, perpetual and undivided Allegiance to the Sovereign. Such a feeling has indeed been openly avowed by some of those who are most active in prejudicing persons against the Bill, but Your Lordship will readily conceive that if I could suppose it did by any means pervade the mass of the people who have come from the United States, I could never on any consideration have felt myself justified in the endeavour I have made to have civil rights conferred upon them with out reserve. Of these people many have lived from twenty to thirty years in the Province sustaining during that time good characters as peaceful, obedient and loyal subjects. A great proportion of them are of Dutch and German descent; these with Numbers of Quakers, chiefly from Pennsylvania, have formed flourishing Settlements; their industry and steady habits have been conspicuous; their religious scruples have prevented their bearing Arms, but in all respects their conduct generally has deserved the favour and good opinion of the Government. Of the others many were during the last War as active and as devoted to the defence of the Country as any other inhabitants of the Province. With the knowledge of these facts, I regret exceedingly that the busy misrepresentations of a few persons of whose claim upon the Government, but little could be said, should have any tendency to place the great body of these people in any other light than that which a long course of good conduct has deserved. That during the last war there were exceptions to the meritorious conduct I have spoken of cannot with truth be denied. It was natural there should be, and in no other Country and among no other people similarly circumstanced would it have been otherwise. A knowledge of this fact most probably induced His Majesty's Government, so long ago as 1815, to convey particular instructions to restrain the indiscriminate admission of American Settlers. From this moment began in this Province the agitation of a question which circumstances have not called into discussion in other Colonies-and which I trust will now be finally and at once set at rest. I beg to call Your Lordship's particular attention to the annexed Copy of a despatch from Your Lordship to Mr. President Smith so long ago as the year 1817, with the report of the Attorney General of this Province upon it: and these documents with the correspondenee which has at various times passed on this subject, and particularly my despatch of the 15th March last with its enclosures, in which the progress of this question has been reviewed, will show, I am convinced, most satisfactorily the unwearied attention with which the Government has ever applied itself to the protection of the American Settlers. They will serve also to show that even before the late solemn decisions in England with respect to the rights of Ameri can Citizens, a correct view was taken of their situation by the Government, and every means in their power employed to avert the inconvenience to which they appeared to be exposed. I will add that if in the bill now passed there is anything which Your Lordship can consider unjust or anything which ought to be looked upon with repugnance by the persons whom it is intended to serve I should rather great inconvenience were suffered than that any such measure should be confirmed, but if Your Lordship sees no reason to believe that the measure recommended by His Majesty and acceded to by the Legislature is either imprudent or improper, it is really of pressing necessity that it should be returned assented to with the least possible delay. Until this security is afforded the proprietors of real Estates are liable to have their titles questioned, as indeed they have been in Civil Actions, and decisions may pass against them which could not be constitutionally reversed-and the recurrence of a general Election to the Assembly which must take place soon would probably if the matter continues unsettled occasion no small ferment, from the objections which might be raised to the qualifications of Candidates and Voters. It may throw light upon the character of the opposition which has been raised to this measure when I inform Your Lordship that the bill having after much discussion been rejected in the Assembly in one of its stages, it was, against the vote of those who had supported it, and upon the motion of the most vehement opposers of it, restored to the order of the day and passed at last without an amendment the latter being evidently unwilling to meet the responsibility they had unexpectedly incurred by endangering the final passing of the Bill. And it is just towards the people also to state that many have been deluded to sign petitions by the most absurd statements:-They had been told that tithes will follow-that the Government means to take their lands away-And that if they go back to the United States they will be hanged for treason. The only argument against the measure which appears to me to have any weight is that while it is declared by the Bill that the American Settlers will be deemed to have renounced all Allegiance to any foreign State if they apply for all the privilges of natural born subjects under the proposed Act, they will yet not in truth be on the same footing as natural born British subjects, inasmuch as they will have the privileges of subjects only in the Province. Of course the Colonial Legislature could confer nothing more, but I should be happy, because I think it just that the Imperial Parliament would pass an Act giv ing to all persons naturalized in any Colony the rights of Subjects throughout the Empire, with the exceptions specified in the 13, Geo. 2nd, Cap. 7, in respect to the United Kingdom. If Your Lordship had not been previously made acquainted with the circumstances of the Colony the tenor of this communication might lead Your Lordship to suppose that it is only with respect to Settlers from the United States of America that the provisions of the bill in question require to be considered. But there are, in truth, in the Province many persons who have emigrated from Germany, and many discharged Soldiers of foreign Corps lately in His Majesty's Service, who, having been born Aliens have never been legally naturalized. These persons have not only been received as Settlers by the Government but have been placed and maintained for a time at the public charge upon lands granted by the Crown. If therefore an invitation to become Settlers here could give claim to any description of our Inhabitants not to be made subjects, but to be declared subjects when they are not, as strong a case at least coull be stated in their favour as in behalf of those about whom so much discussion has taken place. That so little occasion has been found to allude to this class of our Inhabitants arises from the fact that they appear to rely with entire confidence upon the kind intentions of the Government towards them. And Your Lordship I am sure will not feel that their situation calls on that account the less urgently for immediate attention. The whole object and extent of the Bill are apparent and it is scarcely necessary to remark that it makes no change in the law, takes away no persons right, and decides upon no man's case. Any individual who, before the passing of this Act required no law to naturalize him cannot be affected by this Act and has nothing to do with any of its provisions. If, on the other hand, he is not now a subject, he has it in his power to become so with but little trouble and at no charge. And if he is in doubt of his own case the means are before him of overcoming all question, and there seem to be little reason to complain when he may avail himself of these means or decline them at his option. I have the honour to be, My Lord, Your Lordship's Most obedient Humble Servant. The EARL BAthurst, K. G., &c., &c., &c. NOTE C.-No. 9.-PETITIONS OF INHABITANTS OF JOHNSTOWN. (Archives, Series Q., Vol. 344-1, p 84.) To His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland, K. C. B., Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, and Major General Commanding His Majesty's forces therein, &c., &c., &c. The Petition of Sundry Inhabitants of Johnstown District. Humbly Sheweth: That your Petitioners with many others born in the United States of America emigrated to this Province with the desire of becoming British Subjects, but from their inability to comply with all the provisions of the naturalizing laws of this Province, the right of some of them, together with many others in the Province to be regarded as British Subjects is liable to be questioned. Your Petitioners therefore pray that Your Excellency will be pleased to recommend to the two Houses of the Legislature to pass a general Act (in conformity to the late imperial law authorizing them to do so) naturalizing all persons whatsoever now resident in this province who were born in the United States of America, who shall within twelve months after the passing of such Act, enrol their names in a book to be provided and kept for that purpose by the Clerk of the Peace in each and every district, which name such Clerk of the Peace shall be required to enrol upon the production of a certificate of a Commissioner for taking the Oath of Allegiance, that such applicant has taken and subscribed such Oath or that in case no such general act shall be passed, we humbly request that Your Excellency will be pleased to recommend a private one naturalizing your petitioners upon the same terms, and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. Signed by J. K. Heartwell and sundry other persons. NOTE C.-No. 10.-JONATHAN SEWELL ON THE ALIEN BILL. CONNAUGHT SQR., SIR,-I have had the honour to receive your letter of 2nd Inst enclosing the Upper Canada Alien Bill and desiring me to point out any objections which the most sensitive colonist ought to have against it. I am too little acquainted with the state of Upper Canada to venture any but the most general observations. It is stated in the petition to Parliament that the question for receiving the report of the Bill as amended was four times negatived by the casting voice of the Speaker, and that the question for its passing after a third reading was once negatived in a like manner, that it yet again was put on the orders of the day and finally passed, if the matter here stated be fact the Bill of course must be disallowed. According to the preamble, the Bill comprehends all persons who are born in the late Colonies now the United States of America, and left them at any time after the Peace of 1783, so that the Loyalists who emigrated from the States at that period, who were born British Subjects, and continued faithful in their Allegiance. during the whole of the Rebellion, are thus declared to be Aliens, which, the state of Upper Canada considered, appears to be impolitic. This Act appears also to be at variance with the Act of George III, which naturalises all foreigners after seven years residence in the Colonies upon Certain conditions and with 30th Geo III, cap 27, by which persons resident in the United States are encouraged to become Settlers in the Colonies as British Subjects. I may add that the Act may have many retroactive effects as to persons and property which merit consideration. I have the honour to be sir Your most obedient servant, NOTE C.-No. 11.-NATURALIZATION BILL AS INTRODUCED BY MR. ROLPH. (Archives, Series Q., Vol. 345-2, p. 330.) Whereas there are many persons resident in this Province holding lands and enjoying civil rights therein, whose rights and titles are questioned; and whereas it is expedient that all such persons should be confirmed and quieted in the possession of their estates and the enjoyment of their civil rights:-Be it therefore enacted &c.— That all persons domiciled in this province shall be, and are hereby declared to be His Majesty's lawful subjects; and shall within this province have all the rights, privileges, and legal capacites of natural born subjects of His Majesty, and shall be deemed adjudged & taken to be such, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever as if they and every one of them had been, or were, born within this province; and that no estate of any kind or nature, purchased, inherited or acquired by, or granted or descended to them, or any of them, in this province, shall be subject to forfeiture, avoidance or impeachment of title, on the ground of their having been Aliens. And be it, &c.-That all persons who have at any time heretofore been resident in this province or possessed of or claiming to be entitled to any real estate whatover therein by grant thereof from the Crown, or otherwise, shall be considered and adjudged to be, and have been, natural born subjects of His Majesty, so far as respects their capacity to take, hold, claim, recover, convey, devise or transmit such real estate; and that neither their title nor claim to any such real estate, nor the title or claim of any person or persons claiming the same under them or any of them, by assignment, purchase, descent, devise or otherwise, shall be liable to be forfeited, defeated or in any manner impeached on the ground of their being, or having been aliens. Provided nevertheless, and be it, &c.-That this Act, or anything therein contained shall not operate, or be construed to repeal or affect the act of the Provincial Legislature, passed in the 54th year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third, entitled "An Act to declare certain persons, therein described Aliens, and to vest their Estates in His Majesty ;" or to annul any proceeding under that act, or any act in addition thereto; nor to repeal or interfere with any act of the Provincial Legislature prescribing the qualifications of persons entitled to be elected or to vote in the election of members of the Provincial Assembly. Provided also, and be it, &c.-That if any alien now resident in this Province shall within six calendar months from the passing of this act, by a writing under his or her hand and seal executed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, one of whom shall be a justice of the peace, signify his or her desire of not being included in the number of those affected by this Act, and shall cause the same to be registered by the clerk of the peace in the district in which he or she may reside (and which such clerk of the peace, upon the payment of two shillings lawful money of Upper Canada, is hereby required to enter in a book to be by him kept for that purpose, a certified copy of which registry he shall give, if required, to such Alien upon payment of the like sum) then such alien, upon the registry of his written signification as aforesaid, shall thereupon cease to be included in or in any manner affected by, this act, or anything herein contained, as fully as if the same had never been passed. 1818. January 6, Treasury. 1824. January 22, Quebec. January 22, January 22, February 2, February 3, STATE PAPERS, LOWER CANADA. Gov. LORD DALHOUSIE, LT.-GOV. FRANCIS BURTON, 1824. Q. 168-1. Harrison to Goulburn. of 3rd February, 1824. Enclosed in Dalhousie to Wilmot Horton Dalhousie to Wilmot Horton. Calls attention to the claim by Upper Canada for a proportion of the duties in accordance with the expenditure. The danger of acceding to this claim as it would lead to an emulation between the two provinces in regard to the expenditure. Page 1 Enclosed. Hale to Cochran, 3rd September, 1823. The claim of Upper Canada to a proportion of duties in accordance with expenditure and not in proportion to the estimated consumption in each province of the articles on which duties are levied. Sends papers relative to the subject. 3 Dalhousie to Bathurst (No. 156). Recommends that the claim of the Royal Institution for the advancement of learning to the ground, &c., devised by McGill for a college be supported by government if the case should come to appeal. 6 The same to the same. Sends information as to the value of Crown reserves which vary from six dollars to half a dollar an acre. The conditions of cultivation, &c., in the grants are as imperative as they can be made, the difficulty of escheating was owing to the nature of the laws; has asked the legislature to amend these. 8 Dalhousie to Wilmot Horton. In reference to letter from the Duke of Wellington respecting surplus and unserviceable surplus stores of Ordnance, he had disposed of them in the manner most conducive to the public benefit. By letters from the secretary of the Ordnance these sales were sanctioned. 10 Same to the same. Sends memorandum respecting the water communication between Upper and Lower Canada by the La Chine and Grenville Canals. The memorandum errs in stating that one of the canals is in Upper Canada, both being in Lower Canada. Description of the works. For the La Chine Canal, the legislature voted in 1823 £12,000 in addition to the £46,000 and it was expected there would be a further vote of £20,000. Urges the Government to proceed with the Grenville Canal; its importance; the benefit it has already produced, a steamer running from the head of the canal to Hull every second day during summer. 12 Enclosed. Memorandum, unsigned, relative to the water communication between Upper and Lower Canada. 15 Harrison to Goulburn, 6th January, 1818. If the legislative authorities in Canada will provide for half the expenditure on the La Chine Canal, the Treasury will not object to sanction payment of the rest. 18 Report of the progress made with the Grenville Canal for the year 1823, signed by du Vernet. February 17, 19 Dalhousie to Wilmot Horton. Has received copy of instructions from the Treasury relative to the Receiver General's affairs. Sends report of a committee of the Assembly with final resolution of the House on |