Document Information

Date: 1866-07-19
By: Fenwick Williams
Citation: Despatch from Lieutenant-Governor Fenwick Williams to the Earl of Carnarvon (19 July 1866) in UK, Parliament, Correspondence respecting the Proposed Union of the British North American Provinces (London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1867).
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No. 24.

COPY of a DESPATCH from Lieut.-Governor Sir W. F. WILLIAMS, Bart., K.C.B., to the Right Hon.the Earl of CARNARVON.

(No.63.)

Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 25, 1866.
(Received […])
(Answered […])

MY LORD,

I […] with […] […] and in the […] address, I have the honour to forward the accompanying […][…][…] of the […] the county of Kings to […][…].

I have, &c.

(Signed) W.F. WILLIAMS.

The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P.,
&c. &c. &c.

Enclosure in No. 24

Port Medway, July 13th, 1866

To His Excellency Sir W. F. Williams.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,

At a public meeting of about 500 electors, held at Port Medway in the county of Queen’s on the 7th of June 1866, the enclosed address to Her Majesty the Queen was adopted unanimously.

I have been required by Capt. William Mortimer, J. P., chairman of the meeting, to forward the within petition to your Excellency, with the request that you will be pleased to transmit the same to Her Majesty, together with a copy of the minutes of the meeting at your earliest possible convenience.

I remain, &c.

E. MORINE,
Secretary of the Meeting,

WILLIAM MORTIMER,
Chairman.

Sub-enclosure in Enclosure No. 24

To the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty.

THE petition of the people of Queen’s county, in the Province of Nova Scotia.

Humbly showeth, —

[…] Queen’s county contains a population of 12,000, principally engaged in lumbering, fishing, and navigation : can equip three regiments of enrolled militia, and owns about 15,000 tons of shipping, bearing the flag of England.

That the county has sent representatives to the Provincial Parliament for upward of a century, and its people for more than […] years have enjoyed the blessings of civil and religious liberty, personal security, and temporal prosperity, under a system of responsible Government, which modelled after that of England leaves them nothing to desire but its undisturbed continuance.

That they have witnessed with apprehension and regret the effects of a small party in this Province to unsettle a condition of […] which has worked so satisfactorily, by sweeping away their free Constitution, by subjecting this people, their revenues, resources, and independence, to the virtual domination of another Colony, and to the […] issue of an experiment known as the “Quebec Scheme Of Confederation.”

That even were the proposed as likely to be beneficial, as in the judgement of Your Majesty’s petitioners it is certain to be […] […] […] of the Maritime Province, […] means employed to force it upon the country without an […] to the poele, and with full knowledge of their intense dislike of the […][…][…][…] the hands of a Sovereign whose ambition it is to live in the […][…] of her […] subjects.

The prayer of the people of Queen’s country […][…] is that Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to withhold your Royal Assent from any measure […] relations of this Province to the sister Colonies until, […][…] the people of Nova Scotia in reference to this most important subject may be […] reflected in their Legislature.

WILLIAM MORTIMER,
Chairman.