Voices of the People

Nova Scotia House of Assembly Petitions and Correspondence

14 January 1808

Draft of the address of the House to the Assembly in reply to the Secretary’s letter of 8th January concerning the Annapolis and Sydney County elections. They express "their alarm at the disclosure of principles and expressions of claims in the Secretary’s letter, which tend directly to the subversion of one of the best established rights and privileges of the House, on the maintenance of which the Independence and even the Existence of this Branch of the Legislature depend." House declare "by the principles of the Constitution, the general Law of Parliament, and the uniform and hitherto undisputed practice of the House of Assembly of this province since its first formation the privilege of judging and deciding the rights of Electors and Elected and on all questions relating to Elections, was and is solely and exclusively vested in the House of Assembly, without appeal or reference to the ulterior judgement of any authority whatsoever." They demand a writ for Sydney County. "in the name and behalf of the people of Nova Scotia, with all due respect, but with that freedom which becomes this Assembly when claiming their undoubted rights." With regard to the Annapolis township writ "the Assembly lament that your Excellency should have been induced by any advice whatever to adopt a measure by which the Freeholders of that Township have been so long deprived of their right of representation, more especially as the advice proceeded from those who, in another capacity have made repeated attempts to invade the privileges of the Assembly"…they await with confidence the determination of the Home Government on the subject. (Also in Vol. 287, no. 166). (See Assembly Journal, pp. 63, 64)

Reference: Nova Scotia House of Assembly Nova Scotia Archives RG 5 Series A volume 15 number 19