344
The Government even of a small Colony, requires the most cogent reasons to justify it, and the demand for popular government ought at least to come spontaneously from the people who are aggrieved by the existing régime. In this case both the conditions are wanting. The grievance is not defined but is hidden away in hypothetical generalities, and there is nothing about the "movement" to show that it is the outcome of any genuine public-feeling and not the work of one or two persons who have canvassed the community for signatures.
The proposal is crude and shapeless, and has not been thought out by the authors. They ask for representative Government