OCR Text |
Show 434. Bars RELATING Part. III: was the defect, in the weaknefs of govern-ment; and here only the remedy {houldhave been applied. The fame firength which would have fufiiced to fupprefs the public meetings, would have fufliced to give ac- Se&.VIl. TO THE COLONIES; 435 Had it indeed been confined to the metropolis, it might have been faid, that the governor was always at hand, always acceflible; that it would be eai‘y to explain tivity to the new council; and had the to him the bufinfs intended to be done at the meeting, and if that bulinefs Were con- new council been able to aft, there would fiitutional, he would certainly confent to have been nothing to fear from the public meetings. it; but the faCt is, that the provifions ex- In general, that government mull: be very weak, or very arbitrary, which has any thing to fear from public meetings 3 or which makes a point of fupprefling them. tend to all the towns and tliihiéls in the province. Now thefe towns are fome of them at one, two, or even three hundred miles diflance from the capital. Almofl: all the municipal bufinefs is regularly done at thefe town-meetings. Is it not peculiarly hard, that all the municipal huiinefs It is farther enacted, that at the annual meetings for elections, no other bufinefs of thefe towns fliould be at a Hand, 'till {hall be done than that of the elections; and difpatches can be fent to his cxcellcney the that at occafional meetings, no other bufi- governor, explaining the circumi'tances of each particular bulinefs to be canvali‘ed; nefs {hall be done, except the bufinefs exprelTed in the leave given by the governor to convoke fuch aflemblics. This provi- fion appears to me to be as little confonant tojuliice, or to policy, as the former; and withal impracticable. Had '* Wherever the word goon-nor is ufed in the re- marks on this ad}, it is tiled to mean. the perfon who fmflz/rr in the province for the time being; whether governor, or lieutenant governor. The provihons of the 2:8; being {0 extended. F r2 till |