Page 71 [71]
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you represent all the advantages which the Munici¬
pal Act is intended and expected to afford, I can¬
not doubt, and great as these advantages may be,
extending as they must the blessings of civil and
religious liberty, with peace, confidence and content¬
ment throughout the land. It is only by a faithful
performance of your duty in carrying out in their
true sense and spirit the provisions of the law that
any of these important blessings need be looked for.
If the people of this part of the Province have at
any time had reason to complain of the manner in
which the magistracy disbursed the District revenue,
you have now an opportunity of improving the
former system and of removing all real cause of
dissatisfaction on that head.
The extensive scope of the statute which called
this Council into existence, and the powers with
which you are clothed in promoting education, by
another act of the same session, will give you ample
opportunity to suggest and mature measures for
the amelioration of the condition of your fellow
subjects. If, under the authority of these laws,
conferring privileges and powers greater than ever
were possessed by British colonists before, we fail
to realize the expectations of the people and the
hopes of a benign government, which has embraced,
with parental solicitude, every opportunity to protect
and cherish us, the fault must lie with ourselves ;
and a remedy for the evils which have of late years
afflicted this once happy people, can alone be looked
for, under the Divine blessing, in the good example
which you and other persons in authority set before
them, and in your endeavors to frame such wise and
wholesome by-laws as may ensure to all classes of
the community the benefits of a sound moral and
religious education. .
Besides numerous other duties which will devolve
on the Council in the cause of your deliberations,
the more special power entrusted to you by the
Statute will be understood by consulting the 39th
Section of it; and this gives me the opportunity of
adverting to the groundless fears of many individuals
respecting your authority to levy assessments for the
various objects specified in that clause.
Any alarm that may have been felt that you would
impose oppressive burthens on the inhabitants must
upon a moments reflection, appear to be needless.
For what motive could induce you to injure those
whose prosperity and welfare, as well as your own,
you are sent here to promote? And, if it is their
Present be made than the existing laws direct, no
b, rf |
some public improvement by. local assessment, you
will as readily comply with their request.
The corrective, could you be supposed capable of
enacting by-laws injurious to the true interests of
the county, is possessed by the people themselves,
to the fullest extent, for in such circumstances, they
would undoubtedly resort with promptitude to their
annual constitutional check upon the municipal
council.
Should it appear to you expedient to continue
the ancient method of performing statute labor on
the highways, rather than direct a rate of commuta¬
tion to be paid in money, permitted, as you are, by
the Statute to adopt either mode, Iam persuaded
you will not think of any important alteration in a
matter in which every one has a direct personal
interest, without first ascertaining the opinion of
your constituents, so that their concern in that
respect need no longer exist.
It ought not to create wonder that the provisions
of the Act in question, as well as those of other
Statutes lately passed, should be but imperfectly
understood, and that in the discussion of the various
requirements and duties which they enjoin, misap¬
prehension has existed. A wise discretion on your
part, in carrying those laws into operation will soon
quiet the fears of the misinformed, and command the
support and approbation of every well-wisher of his
country ; and I take this opportunity to assure you
that as long as I have the honor to hold the office of
Warden of this District, I shall not cease to exert
every faculty of my mind in assisting you to dis¬
charge those high obligations to your country which
devolve upon you, and which, if zealously and pru¬
dently performed, will not only redound to your
own honor, but will confer lasting happiness on the
whole body of the people.
The first proceeding to which you are directed by
the Statute is the nomination of three fit and proper
persons to be submitted to His Excellency the
Governor-General, one of whom will be appointed
District Clerk. It is therefore important that you
name persons who are well qualified by respectability
of character, intelligence, industrious habits, and
suitable education ; for without the aid of such an
individual as Clerk of this Council, the public
business cannot be satisfactorily carried on.
of the Common School Act, with the view of dividing
the several townships into convenient school districts
and of taking such steps as you may deem advisable
to secure to the inhabitants of the District generally
a due proportion of the funds provided by the
Legislature for the encouragement of education.
This subiect, of all others, is important to the well