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{{title|Appeal to the Justice of the State<br /><br />''Epistle to the Canadiens'' | {{title|Appeal to the Justice of the State|[[Pierre du Calvet]]|1784<br /><br />'''Epistle to the Canadiens'''}} | ||
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This is a translated excerpt of the ''Épitre aux Canadiens'' (Epistle to the ''Canadiens''), central piece of the collection of letters entitled ''Appel à la justice de l'État'' (Appeal to the Justice of the State) by Pierre du Calvet, published in London in 1784. You can read the original French language edition [[biblio:Appel_à_la_justice_de_l'État_(Lettre_aux_Canadiens)|here]]. | |||
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[[Image:Appel.jpg|thumbnail|''Appel à la justice de l'État'' by Pierre du Calvet, printed in London June-July 1784]] | [[Image:Appel.jpg|thumbnail|''Appel à la justice de l'État'' by Pierre du Calvet, printed in London June-July 1784]] | ||
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<blockquote>''The person of the governor of Quebec is justiciable to the laws of the province.''</blockquote> | <blockquote>''The person of the governor of Quebec is justiciable to the laws of the province.''</blockquote> | ||
[[Image:Haldimand.jpg|thumbnail|Portrait of Frederick Haldimand, Governor | [[Image:Haldimand.jpg|thumbnail|Portrait of Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Quebec from 1778 to 1786]] | ||
When laws can be avenged, it is then that they are respected: without this revenge, they must fall in discredit and opprobrium: but it is time, ''Messieurs'', to come to the branded item, the glaring piece, that must almost complete the philosopher's stone of your freedom, and to give to your new government a consistency which despotism, after that, would vainly conspire to shake. To lay your provincial felicity on such a solid and durable foundation, there must be between the governor and the peoples, a mediate body, furnished with enough provincial consequence to always be able to balance, moderate, restrain even, the power of the first in the various degrees of his [[Wikipedia:exertion|exertion]] on the last. Today, what is each [[Wikipedia:citizen|citizen]]? A simple individual, isolated, reduced, by a government, to himself, and his unity of inconsequent individuality. And what is the governor by the very content of his [[Wikipedia:Letters patent|royal patent]]? A public figure, supported by all the prerogatives of the [[Wikipedia:crown|crown]], amplified and outraged even, since he is in fact armed with the arbitrary power of the most ambitious despotism; he crushes us of the sole weight of his gigantic double power balanced by no counterweight in our favour. Eh, wait! we had and we still have to expect it, for as long as, in a conflict with him, a citizen will offer himself with such a monstrous disparity of advantages and force; but reinforce the inequality of the weapons of the weak and badly equipped combatant; wrap him with all the authority, all the protection, of a legislative and public body, which representing all the individuals of the province, is for this reason responsible to take care of the observance of the laws, under which the authority of even the governor himself is forced to bend; then any individual oppression coming from the governor will cease, because by attacking the individuals, he would arm against him the whole of the protective body, of which he depends. Here is, Messieurs, presented in its more beautiful attributes... | When laws can be avenged, it is then that they are respected: without this revenge, they must fall in discredit and opprobrium: but it is time, ''Messieurs'', to come to the branded item, the glaring piece, that must almost complete the philosopher's stone of your freedom, and to give to your new government a consistency which despotism, after that, would vainly conspire to shake. To lay your provincial felicity on such a solid and durable foundation, there must be between the governor and the peoples, a mediate body, furnished with enough provincial consequence to always be able to balance, moderate, restrain even, the power of the first in the various degrees of his [[Wikipedia:exertion|exertion]] on the last. Today, what is each [[Wikipedia:citizen|citizen]]? A simple individual, isolated, reduced, by a government, to himself, and his unity of inconsequent individuality. And what is the governor by the very content of his [[Wikipedia:Letters patent|royal patent]]? A public figure, supported by all the prerogatives of the [[Wikipedia:crown|crown]], amplified and outraged even, since he is in fact armed with the arbitrary power of the most ambitious despotism; he crushes us of the sole weight of his gigantic double power balanced by no counterweight in our favour. Eh, wait! we had and we still have to expect it, for as long as, in a conflict with him, a citizen will offer himself with such a monstrous disparity of advantages and force; but reinforce the inequality of the weapons of the weak and badly equipped combatant; wrap him with all the authority, all the protection, of a legislative and public body, which representing all the individuals of the province, is for this reason responsible to take care of the observance of the laws, under which the authority of even the governor himself is forced to bend; then any individual oppression coming from the governor will cease, because by attacking the individuals, he would arm against him the whole of the protective body, of which he depends. Here is, Messieurs, presented in its more beautiful attributes... | ||
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* Compare with the original edition [http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/PageView/34621/0223?id=abe73f024c56085f here]. | * Compare with the original edition [http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/PageView/34621/0223?id=abe73f024c56085f here]. | ||
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[[Category:Translations]] | |||
[[Category:Letters]] | |||
[[Category:18th century]] | |||
[[Category:1784]] | |||
[[Category:2007]] | |||