We are bound to carry it to the foot of the
Throne, and ask there from Her Majesty, according to the first
resolution of the Address, that she will be graciously pleased to
direct legislation to be had on this subject. We go to the Imperial
Government, the common arbiter of us all, in our true Federal
metropolis--we go there to ask for our fundamental Charter. We hope, by
having that Charter, which can only be amended by the authority that
made it, that we will lay the basis of permanency for our future
government. The two great things that all men aim at in free
government, are liberty and permanency. We have had liberty enough--too
much, perhaps, in some respects--but, at all events, liberty to our
hearts' content. There is not on the face of the earth a freer people
than the inhabitants of these Colonies. But it is necessary there
should be respect for the law, a high central authority, the virtue of
civil obedience, obeying the law for the law's sake; for even when a
man's private conscience may convince him sufficiently that the law in
some cases may be wrong, he is not to set up his individual will
against the will of the country, expressed through its recognized
constitutional organs. We need in these Provinces, and we can bear, a
large infusion of authority.
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