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To which his Excellency was pleased to reply:

Honourable Gentlemen, and Gentlemen,

I shall lose no time in transmitting your joint Address on a subject so materially interesting to this country, to his Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, in order to its being laid before his Majesty.

To his Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland, Knight Commander of the Most Hon. Military Order of the Bath, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, and Major-General commanding his Majesty's Forces therein, &c. &c. &c.

May it please your Excellency,

We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of the province of Upper Canada, in provincial Parliament assembled, beg leave to inform your Excellency that we have agreed upon an Address to his Majesty respecting the application of the Officers and Staff of the late regiment of Incorporated Militia of this province to his Majesty for half-pay.

We humbly beg to express our hope that your Excellency may be pleased to strengthen the same with your favourable recommendation, and to transmit it to be laid at his Majesty's feet.

To which his Excellency replied:

Hon. Gentlemen, and Gentlemen,

I shall have great pleasure in recommending to his Majesty's favourable consideration your joint Address on behalf of the late regiment of Incorporated Militia of this province, in compliance with your request.

To his Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the

Bath, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper
Canada, and Major-General commanding his Majesty's
Forces therein, &c. &c. &c.

May it please your Excellency,

We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Upper Canada in provincial Parliament assembled, having resolved that an humble Address be presented to his Majesty, on the subject of certain Commercial Restrictions existing in Great Britain with respect to imports from Canada, humbly beg leave to pray that your Excellency will be pleased to transmit the same to his Majesty.

To which his Excellency replied:

Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

I shall take the earliest opportunity of forwarding your Address upon subjects so highly important to this Province, for his Majesty's favourable consideration.

His Excellency closed the session as follows: (14th April.) Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

The public business no longer demanding your attention, it gives me great satisfaction to close this long session of Parliament, in order that you may be at liberty to attend to your private affairs, which must, at this advanced season, require in a particular manner your superintendence.

I cannot allow you to separate, without expressing to you the satisfaction I have felt on observing the temper, diligence, and regard for the interests of this province, by which your proceedings have been governed.

The variety and importance of the matters which have been under deliberation, and your attention to subjects of public moment, afford satisfactory proofs that your time has not been misemployed.

I have no doubt that your provisions for incorporating a Provincial Bank, and for establishing an uniform Currency throughout the province, will prove beneficial to the commercial and general interests.

The Bill for appointing Commissioners to ascertain and report on the improvements which can be effected in the Internal Navigation, may be considered as the commencement of an important undertaking, eminently calculated to advance the prosperity and greatness of Upper Canada.

Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

I thank you on behalf of his Majesty, for the supplies you have granted in aid of the Civil List, which you must be convinced, are not more than the exigencies of the public service compelled me to require.

The appropriation you have made to assist in opening the road from the Ottawa through Richmond and Perth to Kingstown, though small in amount, will be regarded as a sufficient proof of your desire to add to the liberal appropriation made by his Excellency the Commander of the Forces for that object, when it is remembered that it is almost the only grant you have been enabled to make for any public purpose.

I participate with you in the regret which I am assured you feel, that the state of our finance has not permitted you to continue for a further period, the increase which had been made to the Militia Pension List, by a former temporary Act. The provisions you have enacted for the examination of the different pensioners, and the means you have adopted to ensure the liquidation of the arrears, fully manifest your desire to do justice to the revenue, and at the same time to relieve those whose just claims upon it have remained so long unsatisfied.

Honourable Gentlemen, and Gentlemen,

Having characterized this session of Parliament, the first since the late augmentation in your respective bodies, by

great unanimity in the discharge of your important duties, you will, I trust, carry into your several counties, a disposition which will lead you to cultivate a spirit of harmony and good will among all classes and descriptions of their inhabitants.

Let me recommend that you should also instil into the minds of your fellow-subjects the duty of a ready and conscientious discharge of those local services which the laws require for the general advantage and convenience, and that you should give by your countenance and support all the weight in your power to the authorities appointed for the enforcement of obligations so important.

In those parts of the country with which you are severally connected, you will, I doubt not, render your presence an additional security against the progress of misrepresentation on matters of public concern; of which, in whatever cause it may originate, experience has sufficiently demonstrated the injurious tendency. The superior information you naturally possess on subjects of general importance, and your nearer acquaintance with the views and principles of the Government, will at all times enable you, by means of honourable and manly exertion, such as you, I am persuaded, would employ, to expose effectually any delusions which might be otherwise calculated to mislead the judgment of the unwary. You must be sensible that such a just discernment of their real interests, as recently influenced the great mass of this loyal people, must ever be in the highest degree important for the undisturbed enjoyment of your full rights and liberties; and that it must prove the best security for a permanence of that tranquillity which is so essential to the diffusive existence of private happiness, and the healthful growth of those advantages which in their maturity constitute the greatness and felicity of a country.

The honourable the Speaker of the Legislative Council then signified his Excellency's pleasure that the Parliament be prorogued until the 22d of May.

In consequence of different applications which had been made to the Lieutenant-Governor by individuals having direct claims on his Majesty's government, which appeared to his Excellency to have been improperly submitted to the board appointed to investigate and report upon the losses occasioned by the enemy during the late war, his Excellency was pleased to direct a selection to be made from the general report of the commissioners, of all such claims as appeared, by the vouchers accompanying them, to be of the former description; in order that he might refer them for the especial consideration of his Majesty's government.

The Lieutenant-Governor has now great satisfaction in being enabled to state, that his Majesty has been graciously pleased to intimate, that he has directed the payment of the above-mentioned claims.

The claims referred to are of the following descriptions, viz.

1st. Claims for supplies, when actually furnished by order; due evidence having been produced thereof.

2d. For rent for premises occupied by government; due testimony existing of a contract for such rent.

3d.-Compensation for premises destroyed, by superior order, to meet some military object; the necessary testimony having been exhibited.

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4th. Where the government had actually entered into contracts for the restoration of property to the owners in a state of repair equally good as when taken possession of, and where such property has been either materially damaged by his Majesty's troops, or destroyed whilst in their occupation; due testimony of the contract, as also of the extent of the damage and value of the property, having been produced.

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