Extract from the Speech of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, on presenting the Money Bills to the Governor-in-Chief, 23rd March, 1815.
"Superior to prejudices which had but too generally prevailed, your Excellency has derived from the devotion of that brave and loyal, yet unjustly calumniated people, resources sufficient for disconcerting the plans of conquest, devised by a foe at once numerous and elate with confidence. Reinforcements were subsequently received; and the blood of the sons of Canada has flowed mingled with that of the brave soldiers sent to its defence. Multiplied proofs of the efficacious and powerful protection of the mother country, and of the inviolable loyalty of the people of this province, strengthen their claim to the preservation and free exercise of all the benefits which are secured to them by their existing constitution and laws."
Addresses to Sir Geo. Prevost, from the Inhabitants of Quebec and Montreal, 31st March.
To His Excellency Sir George Prevost, Bart. Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief, in and over the Provinces of Lower Canada, &c. &c. &c.
"May it please your Excellency,
"We the inhabitants of the city of Quebec, most respectfully approach your Excellency, at the moment of your departure for England, to express the sentiments which we entertain, of a most profound regard for your Excellency's person and character, and a lively gratitude for the benefits, which, in common with our fellow subjects throughout the province, we have derived from your Excellency's administration.
"At the period of your Excellency's arrival in this country, on the eve of a war with America, you found the majority of its inhabitants irritated by the unfortunate effects of misunderstandings of a long duration. Your Excellency, consulting only the general welfare by a strict adherence to justice and a well-timed confidence, soon allayed every discontent, and rallied the whole population for the common defence. Under the happy influence of harmony thus restored, the militia was assembled and trained, and an exhausted treasury replenished. The additional means which you thereby derived from the colony committed to your particular care, enabled your Excellency to extend the handful of British troops at your disposal, to the most distant parts of the Upper Province, where the long meditated attacks of the enemy were met at the onset, and his forces repeatedly overthrown with disgrace—the happy precursor of the fate which awaited all his attempts on this province.
"If the smallness of the regular army with which your Excellency was left to withstand the whole efforts of the United States for two years, and the insufficiency of the naval force on the Lakes, have exposed His Majesty's arms to some reverses, it is nevertheless, true, that under the auspices of your Excellency, the British arms have acquired new laurels, amidst circumstances of extraordinary difficulty, unprecedented in European warfare; the name of the people of this country has been rendered illustrious, and a vast extent of territory protected from the ravages of war and preserved to the empire.
"Your Excellency's name and services will ever be held in veneration and grateful remembrance by the inhabitants of Quebec. The whole province has assured you of its gratitude; and the imperishable evidences of your Excellency's merits, though they could not appease, will easily overcome your enemies.