Provided nevertheless, that all disorders and misdemeanors committed on shore by any Captain, Commander, Lieutenant, Master, Officer, Seaman, Soldier, or other person whatsoever, belonging to any of our ships of war, or other vessels acting by immediate commission or warrant from our Commissioners for executing the office of High Admiral of Great Britain, or from our High Admiral of Great Britain, for the time being, under the seal of our Admiralty, may be tried and punished according to the laws of the place, where any such disorders, offences, and misdemeanors shall be committed on shore; notwithstanding such offender be in our actual service, and borne in our pay on board any of our ships of war, or other vessels acting by our immediate commission, or warrant from our Commissioners for executing the office of High Admiral of Great Britain, or from our High Admiral of Great Britain, for the time being, as aforesaid, so as he shall not receive any protection for the avoiding of justice for such offences committed on shore from any pretence of his being employed in our service at sea.

And our further will and pleasure is, that all public moneys raised, or which shall be raised, by any act here-after to be made within our said Province, be issued out by warrant from you, by and with the advice and consent of our Council, as aforesaid, for the support of the Government, and not otherwise.

And we likewise give and grant unto you full power and authority, by and with the advice and consent of our said Council, to settle and agree with the inhabitants of our said Province, for such lands, tenements, and hereditaments, as now are, or hereafter shall be in our power to dispose of, and them to grant to any person or persons upon such terms and under such moderate quit-rents, services, and acknowledgments to be thereupon reserved unto us, as you, with the advice aforesaid, shall think fit; which said grants are to pass, and be sealed by our public seal of our said Province, and being entered upon record by such officer or officers as shall be appointed thereunto, shall be good and effectual in law against us, our heirs, and successors.

Provided the same be conformable to the instructions herewith delivered to you, or to such other instructions as may hereafter be sent to you under our signet and sign manual, or by our order in our Privy Council; which instructions, or any articles contained therein, or any such order made in our Privy Council, so far as the same shall relate to the granting of lands as aforesaid, shall from time to time be published in the Province, and entered on record in like manner as the said grants are hereby directed to be entered.

And we do hereby give you, the said James Murray, full power and authority to order fairs, marts, and markets; and also such and so many ports, harbours, bays, havens, and other places for the conveniency or security of shipping, and for the better loading and unloading of goods and merchandises, in such and so many places, as by you, with the advice and consent of our said Council, shall be thought fit and necessary.

And we do hereby require and command all officers and ministers, civil and military, and all other inhabitants of our said Province to be obedient, aiding, and assisting unto you, the said James Murray, in the execution of this our commission, and of the powers and authorities therein contained; and in case of your death or absence from our said Province and Government, to be obedient, aiding, and assisting, as aforesaid, to the Commander-in-chief for the time being, to whom we do therefore by these presents give and grant all and singular the powers and authorities herein granted to be by him executed and enjoyed, during our pleasure, or until your arrival within our said Province.

And in case of your death or absence from our said Province our will and. pleasure is, that our Lieutenant Governor of Montreal or Trois Rivieres, according to the priority of their commissions of Lieutenant Governor, do execute our said commission with all the powers and authorities therein mentioned, as aforesaid. And in case of the death or absence of our Lieutenant Governors of Montreal and Trois Rivieres from our said Province, and that there shall be no person within our said Province appointed by us to be Lieutenant Governor or, Commander-in-chief of our said Province, our will and pleasure is, that the eldest Counsellor, who shall be, at the time of your death or absence, residing within our said Province, shall take upon him the administration of the Government, and execute our said commission and instructions, and the several powers and anthorities therein contained, in the same manner and to all intents and purposes, as other our Governor or Commander-in-chief should or ought to do, in case of your absence, or until your return, or in all cases until our further pleasure be known.

And we do hereby declare, ordain, and appoint, that you, the said James Murray, shall and may hold, execute, and enjoy the office and place of our Captain General and Governor-in-chief, in and over our said Province of Quebec, and all the territories dependant thereon, with all and singular the powers and authorities hereby granted unto you, for and during our will and pleasure.

In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent.

Witness ourself at Westminster, the twenty-first day of November, in the fourth year of our reign.

By writ of Privy Seal.

(Signed)                         YORKE & YORKE.

The Order of the Day, for the second reading of the Bill, being read,

Mr. T. Townshend said, the very deplorable situation of the Canadians ever since the late peace, has been a matter, I confess, which has repeatedly engaged my attention. Without law, without regulation, or any protection whatever, I must own, I often pressed that they should be put under some form of Government, or left to themselves, to choose a mode of regulation suited to their immediate wants; but little did I think that my solicitude was pressing on to a measure of so extraordinary a nature as the present; little did I think, that a country as large as half Europe, and within the Dominions of the Crown of Great Britain, was going to have the Romish religion established in it, as the religion of the State.

Little did I think, that so many thousand men, entitled and born to the rights of Englishmen, settling on the faith of the King's proclamation, should, contrary to that assistance, contrary to every idea of the constitution, be subjected to French Papists, and French laws. Little did I think, that when the noble Lord opposite me was frequently applied to, session after session, in this House, to restore order and regulation, in a country where nothing for full twelve years had prevailed but anarchy and confusion; and that his Lordship assured us, that the Crown Officers in that country, the Crown Officers over the way (Solicitor and Attorney General,) the sages learned in the law*, the first great law officer under the Crown in the other House, nay, even the Lord President of the Council, had been consulted, and had turned their closest attention to this subject; little did I think, I say, that any measure like the present could have been the united result of so many great, wise, grave, and learned men. Standing as I do, and astonished as I am, I call upon the noble Lord to answer and tell to which of those sages does the nation, do the Canadians, stand indebted for this extraordinary act of legislation. Is it to the Lord President, to the first law officer in the other House? Is it to the very able and learned gentleman over the way? or to his Majesty's law servants in Canada? But let it have originated where it might, I rise not only to condemn the several clauses, but the very principle of the Bill, and shall be therefore against its being read a second time.

The Bill establishes a despotic Government in that country, to which the Royal Proclamation of 1763 promised the protection of the laws of England. I call it despotic; for so in fact it is, as the Council of Seventeen or Twenty-three is, with the Governor, the legislative authority of the Province. This Council the Governor can appoint, suspend, and turn out, at his pleasure: there is no quorum appointed; for what purpose omitted, no one can tell. Now, Sir, this is rendering the Governor securely absolute; you had much better have made him literally so, and then he would not have had a Council to screen him: he is responsible in England, if he acts tyrannically; but by means of this convenient Legislative Council, he can do any thing with impunity.

Well, Sir, not content with constituting this Legislative Council, the mere creature of a Governor, who must ne-