Louis-Joseph Papineau, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada

“ And this House further states, as its intimate conviction, that even if the Colonial Administrations had, by making more judicious selections, succeeded in quieting the alarm, and allaying for a time the profound discontent which have prevailed, that form of Government would not be less essentially vicious which makes the happiness or misery of a Country depend on an Executive over which the people have no influence, and which has no permanent community of interest with them. ”

“ We believe that the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom will be disposed, both from inclination and from a sense of duty, to support the accusations brought by this House, to watch over the preservation of its rights and privileges, which have been so frequently and violently attacked, more especially by the present Administration, — and so t act, that the people of this Province may not be forced by oppression to regret their dependence on the British Empire and to seek elsewhere a remedy for their afflictions. ”

“ The vicious system which has been so carefully maintained, is as contrary to the wishes of Parliament, as that would have been, which in order to resist the wishes of your Honorable House and of the people of England for Parliamentary Reform, should have called into the House of Lords a number of men notorious for their factious opposition to that great measure. In fact, the majority of the said Council is composed of men who have irretrievably lost the confidence of the Country, by encouraging the acts of violence committed under the Administration of Lord Dalhousie ”

“ This House and the People whom it represents do not wish or intend to convey any threat; but relying as they do on the principles of Law and Justice, they are and ought to be politically strong enough not to be exposed to receive insult from any man whomsoever, or bound to suffer it in silence. ”

“ We are, then, certain that we shall not be misunderstood with regard to the independence which it is our wish to see given to the Legislative Council, when we say that His Majesty's Secretary of State is mistaken if he believes that the exclusion of a few salaried Officers would suffice to make that body harmonize with the wants, wishes and opinions of the People, as long as the Colonial Governors retain the power of preserving in it a majority of Members rendered service by their antipathy to every liberal idea. ”

“ That as the Grand inquest of the Province, it is the duty of this House to inquire concerning all grievances and all circumstances, which may endanger the general welfare of the inhabitants of the Province, or be of a nature to excite alarm in them, with regard to their lives, their liberty, or their property, to the end that such representations may be made to our Most Gracious Sovereign, and to His Parliament, or such Legislative measures introduced, as may lead to the redress of such grievances, or tend to allay such alarm ”

“ We are of opinion that no violation of the rights of the People could, so long as it should exist, be attended by a willing and affectionate obedience on their part, but would merely command an obedience founded on fear and constraint. We think it our duty to express the same opinion with regard to any administrative measure of the same tendency. ”

“ His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonial Department acknowledges in his Despatches, that it has frequently been admitted that the people of Canada ought to see nothing in the Institutions of the neighbouring States which they could regard with envy, and that he has yet to learn that any such feeling now exists among His Majesty's subjects in Canada; with regard to which we beg leave to represent to your Honorable House, that the neighbouring States have a form of Government very fit to prevent abuses of power, and very effective in repressing them ”

“ This House, has nevertheless, the satisfaction of seeing that the great majority of that class of the Majesty's subjects in this Province who are of British origin, (whether their number be that mentioned in the said Address of the Legislative Council, or, as the truth is, amounts to about half that number,) are every day becoming more and more convinced, that their interests and wants are identical with those of their fellow subjects who are of French origin and speak the French language; the one class love the Country of their birth, the other that of their adoption ”

“ Among the Councillors appointed under the present Provincial administration, there are in manifest violation of the Constitution many persons who were born in the United States, or are natives of other foreign Countries, and who at the time of their appointment had not been naturalized by Acts of the British Parliament ”

“ In addition to its wicked and calumnious address, the Legislative Council, after its pretended reform, has proved how little community of interest it has with the Colony, by the fact, that nearly one half of the bills which have been sent up to it, have been rejected, or amended in a manner contrary to their spirit and essence ”

“ Prompted by these considerations, and guided by the rules of justice and of the law of nations, the British Parliament enacted, that "in all matters of controversy, relative to property and civil rights, resort should be had to the Laws of Canada." ”

“ Your Honorable House cannot fail to observe that the political world in Europe is at this moment agitated by two great parties, who in different Countries appear under the several names of Serviles, Royalists, Tories and Conservatives on the one side, and of Liberals, Constitutionalists, Republicans, Whigs, Reformers, Radicals, and similar appellations, on the other ”

“ When Parliament afterwards departed from the principle thus recognized, firstly, by the introduction of the English Criminal Law, and afterwards by that of the Representative system, with so much of the Constitutional and Parliamentary Law as was necessary to its perfect action, it did so in conformity to the sufficiently expressed wish of the Canadian People ”

“ The obstacles unjustly opposed by an Executive, friendly to abuses and ignorance, to the establishment of Colleges endowed by virtuous and disinterested men for the purpose of meeting the growing desire of the people for the careful education of their Children ”

“ That this statement does not exhibit the whole disproportion which exists in the distribution of the public money and power; the latter class being for the most part appointed to the inferior and less lucrative offices, and most frequently obtaining even these only, by becoming the dependents of those who hold the higher and more lucrative offices. ”