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Date: 1865-05-25
By: Samuel Leonard Tilley
Citation: Despatch from Samuel Leonard Tilley to the Provincial Secretary (25 May 1865) in Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of New Brunswick (1866).
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Fredericton, May 25, 1865.

SIR,—In reply to the enquiry contained in your communication of this day’s date, I beg to state for His Excellency’s information, that shortly after my return from Canada in November last, I received a letter from the Honorable Mr. Galt, asking information relative to the duty collected on timber and lumber exported from New Brunswick, and the reasons why the Delegates to the Quebec Conference from this Province insisted upon the authority being given to the Local Legislature to impose such duty after the Union.

On the 1st December he wrote me acknowledging the receipt of my reply to these enquiries, and in that letter he asked me if there was not a mistake in the wording of the 24th Resolution, in the record signed by Members of the Conference at Montreal, leaving to the Local Legislatures the power of determining the electoral limits of the Confederate Legislature. I find this letter on file, but I cannot now remember whether or not I answered it; if I did, I have not kept a copy.

By my Minutes taken when the subject referred to was under discussion, I conclude it was the intention of the Conference to give the Local Legislatures the power named, but to be limited to the election of the Members of the first Parliament.

If I replied to Mr. Galt, it will be found that such was the opinion I then expressed.

My opinion as to the intention of the Conference was asked-; but not my consent to a change in their decision.

I have, &c. (Signed) S. L. TILLEY.