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which I declined to do, and I venture to enclose for Your Excellency's information an extract from the letter which I hurriedly addressed to the promoter of the petition in returning the draft. A perusal of this extract will make it clear that I regarded the step I was asked to take as wholly uncalled for. I was subsequently informed, verbally, that the promoter were at first taken to secure by personal solicitation the signatures of those whose names are deservedly respected in the Colony and lend weight to the document to which they append them, and these once obtained, others were secured with greater ease.
A gentleman went round