abstain from placing Petitioners in a situation so perilous, so contrary to their wishes, and (as they fear) so destructive of their best interest; and that your Honourable House would forbear passing the said or nay other Bill of a like nature into a law for uniting the Legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada, at any future Session of the Imperial Parliament.
And your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.
Petition of the county of Stormont, in the Eastern District of the Province of Upper Canada
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the County of Stormont, in the Eastern District of the Province of Upper Canada,
Most respectfully sheweth,
That your Petitioners have observed, through the medium of the public prints, with feelings of deep interest not unmingled with anxious concern, that a Bill was introduced into your Honourable House during the last Session of Parliament, having for its object the Union of the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, and they have felt some degree of surprise that it should have been unhesitatingly stated in support of that measure, that it would meet with the unqualified approbation of His Majesty's subjects in these Provinces. Your Petitioners are well aware that such an assertion was not hazarded without strong reasons for supposing it well founded; they deem it, however, their duty to undeceive your Honourable House in this respect, and to state the unquestionable fact, that
