province, by a decision of the legislative assembly of
1841), is held to be necessary to constitute a session of
parliament. This we have been unable to accomplish, owing to
the command which your Excellency has laid upon us to meet
you this day for the purpose of prorogation. At the same
time I feel called upon to assure your Excellency, on the
part of Her Majesty's faithful Commons, that it is not from
any want of respect to yourself, or to the August personage
whom you represent in these provinces, that no answer has
been returned by the legislative assembly to your gracious
speech from the throne."

It is said by those who were present on this interesting occasion that
His Excellency was the most astonished person in the council chamber.
Mr. Fennings Taylor, the deputy clerk with a seat at the table, tells
us in a sketch of Macdonald that Lord Elgin's face clearly marked
"deep displeasure and annoyance when listening to the speaker's
address," and that he gave "a motion of angry impatience when he found
himself obliged to listen to the repetition in French of the reproof
which had evidently galled him in English." This incident was in some
respects without parallel in Canadian parliamentary history. There was
a practice, now obsolete in Canada as in England, for the speaker, on
presenting the supply or appropriation bill to the governor-general
for the royal assent, to deliver a short address directing attention
to the principal measures passed during the session about to be
closed.[14] This practice grew up in days when there were no
responsible ministers who would be the only constitutional channel of
communication between the Crown and the assembly. The speaker was
privileged, and could be instructed as "the mouth-piece" of the House,
to lay before the representative of the Sovereign an expression of