Page:Letter from L. J. Papineau and J. Neilson, Esqs., Addressed to His Majesty's Under Secretary of State on the Subject of the Proposed Union of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.djvu/18

admitted on the part of Upper Canada, and by the late Canada Trade Act, to be only one fifth of that of Lower Canada; the proportion which the number of qualified Electors in each Provinces bears to the whole population is about the same; almost every father of a family in both Provinces being a freeholder; and the relative wealth in each Province, compared with the population, is in favour of Lower Canada. By the scheme of this Bill, a distinct Province, in reality possessed of distinct interests, of only one-fifth the population of the other (certainly only one-fifth of the qualified Electors,) and of less than one-fifth the wealth, is to have an equal power in levying the taxes, and in appropriating the proceeds to the local expenditures. This is what appears on the face of the Bill, and by the Canada Trade Act passed last Session. But, in reality, the situation of Lower Canada, under this Bill, would be worse than appears even by these documents. The ten Members, which the Governor is empowered by the 8th clause to add to the representation of Lower Canada, may, or may not, be added at his pleasure; if he does so add them, it seems to be intended that they should be given exclusively to the townships erected in continuation of the American settlements in Lower Canada along the frontiers of the United States. These settlements still continue, in part, to be separated by a