The Sun. — London, England, 1839-05-10 00:00:00

- 1 ?:(1; IV ING E il'lo N In e. Robert Nels on i ssue d, two of the objects of the insur- some means of learning the truth from the other. In Lower reetion were st a t e d t o b e the abolition of feudal tenures, Canada, however, where the French and English papers lend the establi s hm e nt of registry offices. When I ob- represent adverse opinions , and where n o large portion o f serve these inconsistencies of conduct among the opponents the community can read b osh langu a ge s with ease, t hose .i and supporters of these reforms ; when I consider that who receive the misreprssentstion arc rarely abl e to a , Al their attainment was preve n ted by means of the censitaires, themselves of the means of correction. It i 3 d itli cul to the very persons most interested in their success, and that conceive the perversity with which misrepresentat i on are they were not more eagerly demanded by the wealthier of habitually made , and the gro ss delusions whi ch fi nd the English, than by the artisans and labourers of that race currency among the people : they thus live in a world of whose individual interests would hardly have derived much misconceptions, in which each p art y is set against the direct benefit f r om their success, I cannot but think that other, not only by diversity of fe elin g s and opinions, but many, both of the supporters and of the opponents, cared by an actual belief in an utterly different se t . of facts. . le's for the measures themselves, than for the handle " The differences thus early occasioned .by education which the agitation of them gave to their national hos- and language are in no-wise softened by the intercourse of do not brine the , tility ; that the Assembly resisted these changes chiefly after-life ; their business and occupati ons r because the English desired them; and that the eagerness two races into friendly conta ct andco-operation ' but other in occasional with which many of the English urged them was stima- only present them to each . lated by finding them opposed by the French. rivalry. A laudable emulation has of late induced " Nor did I find the spirit which animated each party the French to enter on the field previously occu at all more coincident with the representations current in pied by the English, and to attempt to compete with this country, than their objects appeared, when tried by them in commerce ; but it is much to be lamented English, or rather European ideas of reforming legislation. that this did ot commence be unti the national animositie s An utterly uneducated and singularly inert population, im. had arrived a l most at . t d • i h ighes tsuch ; • tom. plicitly obeying leaders who ruled them by the influence of petition has been came on n a manner as to widen a blind confidence, and narrow national prejudices, accorded the pre-existing differences. The establishment of the very little with the resemblance which had been discovered ' Banque du Peuple' by French capitalists, is an event to that high.spirited democracy which effected the Ame - which may be regarded as a satisfactory indication of an rican Revolution. Still less could I discover in the Eng. awakening commercial energy among the French, and it is glish population those slavish tools of a narrow official clique therefore very much to be regretted that the success of the or a few purse-proud merchants, which their opponents had new enterprise was uniformly promoted by direct and illi described them as being. I have found the main body of the beral appeals to the national feelings of the race. Some of English population, consisting of hardy farmers and humble the French have lately established steam-boats to compete ' mechanics, composing a very independent, not very ma- with the monopoly which a combination of English capital nageable, and sometimes a rather turbulent, democracy. ists had forsome time enjoyed on the St. Lawrence, and small Though constantly professing a somewhat extravagant and somewhat uncomfortable as theywere,theywere regarded loyalty and high prerogative doctrines, I found them very with favour on account of their superiority in the essential determined on maintaining in their own persons a great qualities of certainty and celerity. But this was not consi respect for popular rights, and singularly ready to enforce dered sufficient to ensure their success; an appeal was con their wishes by the strongest means of Constitutional pre'. stantly made to the national feelings of the French for an sure on the Government. Between them and the Cana- exclusive preference of the ' French' line, and I have dians I found the strongest hostility; and that hostility known a French newspaper announce with satisfaction the was, as might be expected, most strongly developed among fact, that on the'previous day the French steamers to Quo the humblest and rudest of the body. Between them and bec and La Prairie had arrived at Montreal with a great the small knot of officials, whose influence has been many passengers, and the English with very few. The represented as so formidable, I found no sympathy English on the other hand, appealed to exactly the same a hatever ; and it must be said, in justice to this body of kind of feelings, and used to apply to the French steam officials, who have been so much assailed as the ems. boats the epithets of ' Radical," Rebel,' and' Disloyal.' mien of the Canadian people, that however little I can The introduction of this kind of national preference into excuse the injurious influence of that system of adminis- this department of business, produced a particularly mis teatime which they were called upon to carry into execution, chievous effect, inasmuch as it separated the two races on the members of the oldest and most powerful official some of the few occasions on which they had been pre families were, of all the English in the country, those in viously thrown into each other's society. They rarely meet whom I generally found most sympathy with and kindly at the inns in the cities; the principal hotels are almost feelings towards the French population. I could not exclusively filled with English, and with foreign travellers; therefore believe that this animosity was only that sub- and the French are, for the most part, received at each listing between an official oligarchy and a people; and other's houses, or in boarding houses, in which they meet again I was brought to a conviction, that the contest, with few English. which had been represented as a contest of classes, was, " Nor do their amusements bring them more in contact. in fact, a contest of races." Social intercourse never existed between the two races in " I cannot pass over this subject without calling particular any but the higher classes, and it is now almost destroyed. attention to a peculiarity in the social condition of this I heard of but one house in Quebec in which both races people, of which the important bearing on the troubles of met on pretty equal and amicable terms, and this was Lower Canada has never, in my opinion, been properly mentioned as a singular instance of good sense on the part estimated. The circumstances of a new and unsettled of the gentleman to whom it belongs. At the commence. country, the operation of the French laws of inheritance, ment of Lord Avlmer's administration, an entertainment was and the absence of any means of accumulation by corn- given to his Lordship by Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the merce or manufactures, have produced a remarkable House of Assembly. It was generally understood to be in equality of properties and conditions. A few seignorial tended as a mark of confidence and good-will towrds the Go families possess large, though not often very valuable pro- vernor, and of a conciliatory disposition. It was given on parties ; the class entirely dependent on wages is very a very largo scale ; a very great number of persons were small ; the bulk of the population is composed of present ; and of that number I was informed by a gentle the hard-working yeomanry of the count r y di s t r ict s , man who was present, that he and one other were the only commonly called habitans, and their connections en- English, except the Governor and his suite. Indeed, the gaged in other occupations. It is impossible to exagge- difference of manners in the two races renders a general rate the want of education among the habitans; no social intercourse almost impossible. means of instruction have ever been provided for them, " A singular instance of national incompatibility was and they are almost universally destitute of the qualifies- brought before my notice, in an attempt which I made to Liens even of reading and writing. It came to my know. promote an undertaking, in which the French were said to ledge, that out of a great number of boys and girls assem- take a great deal of interest. I accepted the office of Pre bled at the school-house door of St. Thomas, all but three sident of the Agricultural Association of the District of admitted on inquiry, that they could not read. Yet the Quebec, and attended the show previous to the distribution children of this large parish attend school regularly, and of the prizes. I then found that the French farmers would actually make use of books. They hold the Catechism. not compete even on this neutral ground with the English. book in their hand as if they were reading, while they Distinct prizes were given, in almost every department, to only repeat its contents, which they know by rote. The the two races; and the national ploughing matches were common assertion, however, that all classes of the Ca- carried on in separate and distant fields. nadians are equally ignorant, is perfectly erroneous ; for I " While such is their social intercourse, it is not to be ex know of no people among whom a larger provision exists pected that the animostties of the two races can frequently for the higher kinds of elementary education,or among whom be softened by the formation of domestic connexions. Dur such education is really extended to a larger proportion of ing the first period of the possession of the colony by the the pop u l at i on. The piety and benevolence o f the early English, intermarriages of the two races were by no means possessors of the country founded, in the seminaries that uncommon. But they are now very rare, and where such exist in different parts of the province, institutions, of unions occur, they are generally formed with members of which the funds and activi y have long been directed to the French families , which I have described as p oliticall y , the promotion of educ a ti on . Seminaries and colleges have and almost nationally, separated from the bulk of their own been, by these bodies, established in the cities and in other race. central points. The education given in these establish- " I could mention various slight features in the state of ments greatly resembles the kind given in the English society which show the all-pervading and marked division public schools, though it is rather more varied. It is en- of the races, but nothing (though it will sound paradox'. tirely in the hands of the Catholic clergy. The number of cal) really proves their entire separation so much as the pupils in these establishments is estimated altogether at rarity, nay, almost total absence, of personal encounters about a th o u s and ; and they turn out every year, as far as between the two races. Disputes of this kind are almost I could ascertain, between two and three hundred young confined to the ruder order of people, and seldom proceed men thus educat e d. Al mos t a ll o f t h ese are mem b ers of the to acts of violence. As respects the ot h er c l asses, soc i a l family,u of so me h a bit ins, whom the possession of great er inte rcourse b e t wee n th e t wo races is so limited, that the e sin a k .e ne , s_ t s_ than hi s brothers has induced th e f a th er o f t h e more prom i nent or exc i ta bl e antagon i sts never mee t i n th e ur f iseparish to select and send to the seminary. These same room. It came to my knowledge that a gentleman young°ung men, pos sess i ng a degree of information immeasur- who was fot some years a most active and determined ably superior to that of their families, are naturally averse leader amongst the English population, had neve r once to what they r egar d as d escen di ng to the humble oceupa_ been under a private roof with French Canadians of tions of their p arents . A f ew b ecome pr i ests ; b ut as the h i s own ran k i n lif e, unt il , he met some at table on \ military and n a v a l p ro f ess i ons arc c l ose d aga i nst the cobra- the invitation of persons attached to my missi on , wh o ni,t, the greater pa rt can only fi nd a position suited to were in the habit of associating indifferently with their notions of their own qualifications in the learned pro- French and English. There are therefore no political feesions of advocate, notary, and surgeon. As from this personal controversies. The ordinary occasions of colli cause these professions are greatly overstocked,we find every sion never occur, and men must quarrel so publicly or so village in Lower Canada filled with notaries and surgeons, deliberately, that prudence restrains them from corn with little practice to occupy their attention, and living rnencing, individually, what would probably end in a gene among their own families, or at any rate among exa c tly th e ral and bloody c o nflict o f n um b ers . Th e i r mu t ua l fears same also Thus the persons of most education in every restrain personal disputes and riots, even among the lower village belong to the same families, and the same original orders; the French know and dread the superior physical station in life, as the illiterate habitans whom I hav e d e _ strength of the English in the cities; and the English in scribed. They are connected with them by all the asse. f those places refrain from exhibiting their power, from fear ciations of early youth, and the tics of blood. The most lof the revenge that might be taken on their countrymen, ' perfect quality always marks their intercourse; aed the who arc scattered over the rural parishes. superior in education is separated by no barrier of " This feeling of mutual forbearance extends so far as to manners, or pride, or di st i nct interests, from the produce an apparent calm with respect to publi c matters, singularly ignorant peasantry by w hi c h h e is surrounded. which is calculated to perplex a stranger who has heard He combines, therefore, the influences of superior knowlege I much of the animosities of the Province. No trace of them and social equality, and wields a power over the mass, which I 1 appears in public meetings ; and these take place in every do not believe that the educated class of any other portion of direction, in the most excited periods, and go off without the world Bute the p o ssess, To this singular state of thin g s I awl- disturbance, and almost without dissent. The fact is, that extraordinary influence of the Canadian dema- both parties have come to a tacit understanding, not in any gogues. The most ueinstructedopulation an w h ere way to interfere with each other on these occasions; each p trusted wi t h p o li t i ca l power, is thus placed in the h ands of party knowing that it would always be in the power of the asm dl body of instructed persons, in whom it reposes the other to prevent its meetings. The British party conse confidence which nothing but such domestic connexion and quently have their meetings ; the French theirs ; and ; uch community of interest could generate. Over the class neither disturb the other. The complimentary . .addresses of persons by whom the peasantry are thus led, the Go.. which I received on various ccca , ions, marked the same vernment has not acquired, or even laboured to acquire, in- entire separation, even in a matter in which it might be fluence ; its members have been thrown into opposition by supposed that party feeling would not be felt, or would the system of exclusion lon g prevalent in the colony ; and from mere prudence and propriety he concealed. I had it is by their ag ency t h at th e leaders of the Assembly have from the same places French and English addresses, and been enabled hitherto to move as one mass, in whatever I never found the two races uniting, except in a few cases, direction they thought proper, the simple and ductile po- where I met with the names of two or three isolated Mem pulation of the country. The entire neglect of education bers of one origin, who happened to dwell in a community by the Government !'a3 thus, more than any other cause, almost entirely composed of the other. The two parties contributed to render this people ungovernable, and to combine for no public object ; they cannot - harmonise even invest the agitator with the power which he wields in associations of charity. The only public occasion on against the laws and the public tranquillity. which they ever meet is in the Jury-box ; and they meet " The two races, thus distinct, have been brought into there only to the utter obstruction of justice. the same community under circumstances which rendered " The treasonable attempt of the French party to carry their contact inevitably productive of collision. The dif- its political objects into effect by an appeal to arms, brought lerence of language from the first kept them asunder. It these hostile races into general and armed collision. I will is not anywhere a virtue of the English race to look with not dwell on the melancholy scenes exhibited in the pro complacency on any manners, customs, or laws which ap- great of the contest, or the fierce passions which he l d an pear strang e t o th em; accustome d to form a high estimate unchecked sway during the insurrection , or immediatel y of their o wn su p er i or i ty, they take no pains to conceal from after its suppression. It is not difficult to conceive how others thei r contempt and intolerance o f th e i r usages greatly the evils which I have described as p reviousl y ex- Thy found the French Canadians fill e d w ith an equal isting, have been aggravated by t he war ; how terror and amount of n a ti ona l pr id e; a sensitive, but inactive pride, revenge nourished, in each portion of the pop ulation, a which disposes t h at people not to resent insult, but rather bitter and irreconciliable hatred to each other and to the to keep aloof from those who would keep them under. The institutions of the country. The French population, who French could n o t b ut f eel the superiority of English en- had for some time exercised a great and increas in g p ower terprise; they could not shut their eyes to their success in through the medium of the House of Assembly, found every undertaking in which . they came into contact, and to the constant su • riti which they were acquiring. tsliioeniir force o es unexpectedly prostrated in the dust. The pliy. which they had vaunted was called into action, They looked upon I :h er e l i o r ri vals with with ala rm, b with jealousy, and proved to be utterly ine ffi cient. The hope of recover and - finally with hatred. i a scorn, which soon also assumed th n g lis repaid th e m with ing their previous ascendancy under a . Constitution simi l ar same form of h atred. .to that suspended, almost ceased to exist. R emoved fr o m The French complained of the arro gance and injustice of all actual share in the Government of their country, the English ; the English accused the French of the vices they brood in silence over the memory of their fallen of a weak and conquered people, and charged them with countrymen, of their burnt villages, of their ruined pro meanness and perfidy. The entire mistrust which the two perty, of their extinguished ascendancy, and of their races have thus learned to conceive o f eac h o th er ' s inten- humbled nationality. To the Government and the En tions, induces them to put th e wors t cons t ruct i on on t h e g li sh they ascr ib e t h ese wron gs, and nourish against mostinnocent conduct; to judge every word, every act, both an indiscriminating and eternal animosity. Nor 1 and every intention unfairly ; to attribute the most odious have the English inhabitants forgotten in their triumph the designs, and reject every overture of kindness or fairness, terror whith which they suddenly saw themselves sur es covering secret designs of treachery and malignity. rounded by an insurgent majority, and the incidents which " Religion formed no bond of intercourse and union. It alone appeared to save them from the unchecked domina ! is, indeed, an admirable feature of Canadian society, that tion of their antagonists. They find themselves stilt a it is entirely devoid of any religious dissensions. Sectarian minority in the midst of a hostile and organized people : intolerance is not merely not avowed, but it hardly seems apprehensions of secret conspiracies and sanguinary de to influence reen's fee'ings. But though the prudence and signs haunt them unceasingly, and their only hope of 1 ' liberality of both parties has prevented this fruitful source safety is supposed to rest on systematically terrifying and of animosity from embittering their quarrels, the difference disabling the French, and in preventing a majority of that of relig . on has in fact tended to keep them asunder. Their race from ever again being predominant in any portion of priests have been distinct; they have not even met in the the Legislature of the Province. I describe in strong same church. terms the feelings which appear to me to animate each 'i No common education has served to remove and soften portion of the population ; and the picture which I draw the differences of origin and language. The associations represents a state of things so little familiar to the per of youth, the sports of child:. ood, and the studies by which sonal experience of the people of_ this country, that many the character of manhood is modified, are distinct and to- will probably regard i t as the work of mere imagination; tally different. In Montreal and Quebec there are Eng- but I feel confident that the accuracy and moderation of fish schools and French sc h oo l s; th e children in these are my description will be acknowledged by all who have seen accustomed to fight nation against nation, and the quarrels the state of society in Lower Canada during the last year. that arise among boys in the streets usually exhibit a di- Nor do I exaggerate the inevitable constancy any more Vision into English on one side and French on the other. than the intensity of this animosity. Never again will the "As they are taught apart, so are their studies different. present generation of French Canadians yield a loyal sub- The literature with which each is most conversant is that mission to a British Government; never again will the of the peculiar language of each ; and all the ideas which English population tolerate the authority of a House of men derive from books, come to each of them from per- Assembly in which the French shall possess or even ap fectly different sources. The difference of language in proximate to a majority. this respect produces effects quite apart from those which " Nor is it simply the working of representative go it has on the mere intercourse of the two races. Those vernment which is placed out of question by the present who have reflected on the powerful influence of language disposition of the two races; every institution which re on thought, will perceive in how different a manner peo- quires for its efficiency a confidence in the mass of the plc who speak in different languages are apt to think ; people, or co-operation between its classes, is practically and those who are familiar with the literature of France, in abeyance in Lower Canada. The Militia, on which know that the same opinion will be expressed by an Eng. the main defence of the province against external enemies fish and French writer of the present day, not merely in and the discharge of many functions of internal police different words, but in a style so different as to mark ut- have hitherto depended, is completely disorganized. A tetly different habits of thought. This difference is very muster of that force would, in some districts, be the occa striking in Lower Canada ; it exists not merely in the sion for quarrels between the races, and in the greater books of most influence and repute, which are of course part of the country the attempting to arm or employ it those of the great writers of France and England, and by would be merely arming the enemies of the Government. Which the m i n d s o f t h e res p ec ti ve r aces are formed, but it Th e course of just i ce is ent i rely o b structe d by the same Is observable in the writing s which now issue from the cause: a just d ec i s i on i n an y po liti ca l case is not to be re- Colenial P ress. The articles in the newspapers of each lied upon ; even the judicial bench is, in the opinion of r ! .c etsrewritten in a style as widely different as those of both races, divided into two hostile sections of French and France , and England at present ; and the arguments which English, from neither of whom is justice expected by the convince the enr . , are calculated to appear utterly unintel- mass of the hostile party. The partiality of grand and ligibte to t miser. petty juries is a matter of certainty ; each race relies on " The difference of language produces misconceptions the . vote of its countrymen to . save it harmless from the yet more fatal even i respect to opinions ; it aggravates which by representing all the events ofetsh lights. The political misrepresentation the incidents of a free press in it t e he national animosities, I lion of the hostile party resentat day in utterly different i ever nof facts is one of I I andmakea sure of, and the n t English I consequent acquittal . g litical the French offender may hope for a favourable jury, Thise offences, e e zf i s things,disdi s tinctly c a t n ly d the e d. nations in which all speak the y free I receive a misepresentation from one aide h country; but in I consequent impunity , o , f p • • same language, those who i misted by both sides. e are generally I His Lordship next points out the mistaken policy of the .-. 10, 1t_,39. British Government—" There are two modes by which a Government may deal with a conquered territory. The first course open to it is that of respecting the rights and nationality of the actual occupants ; of recognizing the ex isting laws, and preserving established institutions; of giving no encouragement to the influx of the conquering people, and, without attempting any change in the elements of the community, merely incorporating the province under the general authority of the Central Government. The second is that of treating the conquered territory as one open to the conquerors, of encouraging their influx, of regarding the conquered race as entirely subordinate, and of endeavouring as speedily and as rapidly as possible to assimilate the character and institutions of its new subjects to those of the great body of its empire. In the case of an old and long-settled country, in which the land is appropriated, in which little room is left for colonization, and in which the race of the actual occupants must con tinue to constitute the bulk of the future population of the province, policy as well as humanity render the well-being of the conquered people the first care of a just government, and recommend the adoption of the first-mentioned system : but in a new and unsettled country, a provident legislator would regard as his first object the interests not only of the few individuals who happen at the moment to inhabit a portion of the soil, but those of that comparatively vast population by which he may reasonably expect that it will be filled ; he would form his plans with a view of attract ing and nourishing that future population, and he would therefore establish those institutions which would be most acceptable to the race by which he hoped to colonise the country. The course which I have described as best suited to an old and settled country, would have been impossible in the American continent, unless the conquering State meant to renounce the immediate use of the unsettled lands of the province ; and in this case such a course would have been additionally unadvisable, unless the British Government were prepared to abandon to the scanty population of French whom it found in Lower Canada, not merely the possession of the vast extent of rich soil which that province contains, but also the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and all the facilities for trade which the entrance of that great river commands. " In the first regulations adopted by the British Govern ment for the settlement of the Canadas, in the Proclama tion of 1763, and the Commission of the Governor-in- Chief of the Province of Quebec, in the offers by which officers and soldiers of the British Army, and settlers from the other Northern American Provinces, were tempted to accept grants of land in the Canadas, we perceive very clear indications of an intention of adopting the second and the wiser of the two systems. Unfortunately, however, the conquest of Canada was almost immediately followed by the commencement of those discontents which ended in the independence of the United Provinces. From that period the colonial policy of this country ap pears to have undergone a complete change. To prevent the further dismemberment of the empire became the primary object with our statesmen ; and an especial anxiety was exhibited to adopt every expe dient which appeared calculated to prevent the remaining North American Colonies from following the example of successful revolt. Unfortunately, the distinct national character of the French inhabitants of Canada and their ancient hostility to the people of New England, pre sented the easiest and most obvious line of demarca tion. To isolate the inhabitants of the British from those of the revolted colonies, became the policy of the Government ; and the nationality of the French Canadians was therefore cultivated, as a means of a perpetual and entire separation from their neighbours. I . A remarkable proof of this is produced, in the form of a despatch by Earl Bathurst, dated Ist July 1816.] It seems also to have been considered the policy of the British Government to govern its colonies by means of division, and to break them down as much as possible into petty isolated communities, incapable of combination, and possessing no suffizient strength for individual resistance to the empire. Indica tions of such designs are to be found in many of the acts of the British Government with respect to the North Ameri can Colonies. In 1775, instructions were sent from Eng. It was not until some years after the commencEmp.nt of the present century that the population of Lower Canada began to understand the representative system which had been extended to them, and that the Assembly evinced any inclination to snake use of its powers. Imm s diatcly, how ever, upon its so doing, it found how limited those powers were, and en tered upon a struggl e t o o bt a i n the authority w hi c h ana l o gy pointed out as inherent in a representative assembly. Its freedom of speech i mme di a tely brought it into collision with the Governor; and the practical work ing of the Assembly commenced by its principal leaders being thrown into prison. i In the course of time, how ever, the Governmen t was induced, by its necessities, to accept the Assembly's offer to raise an additional revenue by fresh taxes ; and the Assembly thus acquired a certain control over the levying - and appropriation of a portion of the public revenue. From that time until the final aban donment in 1932 of every portion of the reserved revenue, excepting the casual and territori a l funds, an unceasing . con t e st was carried on, which th e Assembly, making use of every power which it gained for the purpose of gaining more, acquired, step by step, an entire control over the whole revenue of the country, " I pass thus briefly over the event s w hi c h have heretofore been considered the principal features of the Canadian controversy, because, as the co n t est h as en d e d i n the con cession of the financial demands of the Assembly, and the admission by the Government of the impropriety of at tempting to withhold any portion of the public revenues from its controul, that contest can now be regarded as of no importance, except as accounting for the exasperation and suspicion which survived it. N or am I inclined to think that the disput es wh ich subsequently occurred are to be attributed entirely to the ope rat i on o f mere angr y feel ings. A substantial cause of contest yet remained. The Assembly, after it had obtain e d ent i re contro l over th e p u blic revenues, still found itself deprived of all voice in the choice or even designation of the persons in whose ad ministration of affairs it could feel confidence. All the administrative power of Government remained entirely free from its influence ; and though Mr. Papineau appears by his own conduct to have deprived himself of that in fluence in the Government which he might have acquired, I must attribute the refusal of a civil list to the determi nation of the Assembly not to g i vo u p it s on ly means of subjecting the functionaries of Government to any respon the North American Colonies. It is not by weakening, but strengthening the influence of the people on its Go vernment ; by confining within much narrower bounds than those hitherto allotted to it, and not by extending, the interference of the Imperial authorities in the de- tails of Coloni.tl anirs, that I believe that harmony is :o be restored where dissension has so lately prevailed ; and a regularity and vigour hitherto unknown intro duced into the administration of these provinces. It needs no clung° in the principles of Government, no invention of a new constitutional theory, to supply the re. land, ciirectin g that all 'grants of land within the province of Quebec, then comprising Upper and Lower Canada, were to be made in fief and seignority ; and even the grants to the refugee Loyalists, and officers and privates of the Colonial corps, promised in 1786, were ordered to be made on the same tenure. In no instance was it more singularly exhibited than in the condition annexed to the grants of land in Prince Edward's Island, by which it was stipulated that the island was to be settled by foreign Protestants,' as if they were to be foreign in order to separate them from the people of New England, and Protestants in order to keep them apart from the Canadian and Acadian Catholics. It was part of the same policy to separate the French of Canada from the British emigrants, and to conciliate the former by the re tention of their language, laws, and religious institutions. For this purpose, Canada was afterwards divided into two provinces; the settled portion being allotted to the French, and the unsettled being destined to become the scat of British colonization. Thus, instead of availing itself of the means which the extent and nature of the province af forded for the gradual introduction of such an English po pulation into its various parts as might have easily placed the French i n a minority, the Government deliberately constituted the French into a majority, and recognized and strengthened their distinct national character. Had the sounder policy of makirg the province English in its insti tutions been adopted from the first, and steadily persevered in, the French would probably have been speedily out. numbered, and the beneficial operation of the free institu tions of England would never have been impeded by the animosities of origin: Not only, however diet the . Government adopt the un wise course of dividing Canada, and forming in one of its divisions n- French pornmunity, - speaking the French lan guage, and retaining French institutions, but it did not even carry this consistently into effect; for at the same time provision was made for encouraging the emigration of English into the very province which was said to be as signed to the French. Even the French institutions were not extended over the whole of Lower Canada. The civil law of France, as a whole, and the legal provision for the Catholic Clergy, were limited to the portion of the coun try then settled by the French, and comprised in the seignories ; though some provisions was made for the form ation of new seignories, almost the whole of the then un settled portion of the province was formed into townships, in which the law of England was partially established, and the Protestant religion alone endowed. Thus, two popu • - of hostile origin and different characters were brought into juxtaposition under a common Government, but under different institutions ; each was taught to che rish its own language, laws, and habits ; and each, at the same time, as if it moved beyond its original limits, was brought under different institutions, and associated with a different people. The uninterprising character of the French population, and, above all, its attachment to its church, (for the enlargement of which, in proportion to the increase or diffusion of the Catholic populatior, very in adequate provision was made), have produced the effect of confining it within its ancient limits. But the English were attracted into the seignories, and especially into the cities, by the facilities of commerce afforded by the great rivers. To have effectually given the policy of re taining French institutions and a French popu lation in Lower Canada a fair chance of success, no other institutions should have been allowed, and no other race should have received any encouragement to settle the rein. The province should have been set apart to be wholly French, if it was not to be rendered com pletely English. The attempt to encourage' English emi gration into a community, of which the French character was still to be preserved, was an error which planted the seeds of a contest of races in the very constitution of the colony ; this was an error, I mean, even on the assumption that it was possible to exclude the English race from French Canada. But it was quite impossible to ex elude the English race from any part of the North Ame rican Continent. It will be acknowledged by every one who has observed the progress of Anglo- Saxon coloniza tion in America, that stoner or later the English raco was sure to predominate even numerically in Lower Canada, as they predominat e a lr e ady, by their superior knowledge, energy, enterprise, and wealth. The error, therefore, to which the present contest must be attributed is the vain endeav our t o p reserv e a French Canadian nationality in the midst of Anglo- American colonies and states. " That contest has arisen by degrees. The scanty num ber of the English who settled in Lower Canada during the earlier period of our possession put out of the question any ideas of rivalry between the races. Indeed, until the popular principles of English institutions were brought ef fectually into operation, the paramount authority of the Government left little room for dispute among any but the few who contended for its favours. It was not until the English had established a vast trade and accumulated con siderable wealth, until a great part of the landed property of the province was vested in their hands, until a large English population was found in the cities, had scattered itself over large portions of the country, and had formed considerable communities in the townships, and not until the development of representative government had placed substantial power in the bands of the people, that that peo ple divided itself into races, arrayed against each other in intense and enduring animosity. " The errors of the Government did not cease with that to which I have attributed the origin of this animosity. The defects of the colonial constitution necessarily brought th e Executive Government into collision with the people ; a n d the disputes of the Government and the people called into action the animosities of race ; nor has the policy of the Go vernment obviated the evils inherent in the constitution of the colony, and the composition of society. It has done nothing to repair its original error, by making the province English. Occupied in a continual conflict with the assem bly, successive Governors and their Councils have over looked, in great measure, the real importance of the feud of origin ; and the Imperial Government, far removed from opportunities of personal observation of the peculiar state of society, has shaped its policy so as to aggravate the disorder. In some instances it has actually conceded the mischievous pretensions of nationality, in order to evade po pular claims ; as in attempting to divide the Legislative Council, and the patronage of Government, equally be tween the two races, in order to avoid the demands for an elective Council and a responsible Executive ; sometimes it has, for a while, pursued the opposite course. A policy founded upon imperfect information, and conducted by con tinually changing hands, has exhibited to the colony a sys tem of vacillation which was in fact no system at all. The alternate concessions to the contending races have only irritated both, impaired the authority of Government, and, by keeping alive the hopes of a French Canadian nation ality, counteracted the influence which might, ere this, have brought the quarrel to its natural and necessary ter mination. It is i m p oss ibl e to d e t e rmine precisely the re spective effects of the social and political causes. The struggle between the Government and the Assembly has aggravated the animosities of race, and the animosities of race have rendered the political difference irrecon cileable. No remedy can be efficient that does not operate upon both evils. At the root of the disor ders of Lower Canada lies the conflict of the two races, which compose its population ; until this is settled, no good Government is practicable; for whether the poli tical institutions be reformed or left unchanged, whether the powers of the G ove rnment be entrusted to the majority or the minority, we may rest assured that while the hostility of the races continues, whichever of them is entrusted with power will use it for partial purposes. medy which would, in my opinion, completely remove the existing political disorders. It needs but to fellow out consistently the principles of the British Constitution, and introduce into the Government of these great Co• lonies those wise provisions by which alone the working of the representative system can in any country be ren dered harmonious and efficient. We are not now to con sider the policy of establishing Representative Govern ment in the North American Colonies. That has been irrevocably done ; and the experiment of depriving the people of their present constitutional power is not to be thought of. To conduct their government harmoniously, in accordance with its established principles, is now the business of its rulers; and I know not how it is possible to secure that harmony in any other way than by adminis tering the government on those principles which have been found perfectly efficacious in Great Britain. I would not impair a single prerogative of the Crown ; -on the con trary, I believe that the interests of the people of these Colonies require the protection of prerogatives which have not hitherto been exercised. But the Crown must, on the other hand, submit to the necessary consequences of representative institutions; and if it has to carry on the government in unison with a representative body, it must consent to carry it on by means of those in whom that re presentative body has confidence. " In England, this principle has been so long considered an indisputable and essential part of our Constitution, that it has hardly ever been found necessary to inquire into the means by which its observance is enforced. When a Mi nistry ceases to command a majority of Parliament on great questions of policy, its doom is immediately sealed ; and it would appear to us as strange to attempt for any time to carry on a Government by means of Ministers perpe tually in a minority, as it would be to pass laws with a majority of votes against them. The ancient con stitutional remedies by impeachment and a stoppage of the supplies, have never, since the reign of William the Third, been brought into operation for the purpose of re moving a Ministry. They have never been called for ; because, in fact, it has been the habit of Ministers rather to anticipate the occurrence of an absolutely hostile vote, and to retire, when supported only by a bare and uncertain majority. If Colonial Legislatures have frequently stopped the supplies, if they have harassed public servants by unjust or harsh impeachments, it was because the removal of an unpopular Administration could not be effected in the Colonies by those milder indications of a want of confidence, which have always sufficed to attain the end in the Mother Country. ' " The means which have occasionally been proposed in the Colonies themselves, appear to me by no means cal culated to attain the desired end in the best way. These proposals indicate such a want of reliance on the willing ness of the Imperial Goverment to acquiesce in the adop tion of a better system, as, if warranted, would render an harmonious adjustment of the different powers of the State utterly hopeless. An elective Executive Council would not only be utterly inconsistent with monarchial government, but would really, under the nominal autho rity of the Crown, dreprive the community of one of the great advantages of an hereditary Monarch. Every purpose of popular control might be combined with every advantage of vesting the immediate choice of advisers in the Crown, were the Colonial Governor to be instructed to secure the co-operationiof the Assembly in his policy, by intrusting its administration to such men as could command a majority ; and if he were given to understand that he need count on no aid from home in any difference with the Assembly, that should not directly involve the relations between the Mo ther Country and the Colony. This change might be ef fected by a single despatch containing such instructions ; or if any legal enactment were requisite, it would only be one that would render it necessary that the official acts of the Governor should be countersigned by some public func tionary. This would induce responsibility for every act of the Government ; and, as a natural consequence, it would necessitate the substitution of a system of representation, by means of competent heads of departments, for the pre sent rude machinery of an Executive Council. The Go vernor, if he wished to retain advisers not possessing the confidence of the existing Assembly, might rely on the effect of an appeal to the people ; and, if unsuccessful, he might be coerced by a refusal of supplies, or his advisers might be terrified by the prospect of impeachment. But there can be no reason for apprehending that either party would enter on a contest when each would find its inte rest in the maintenance of harmony; and the abuse of the powers which each would constitutionally possess would cease when the struggle for larger powers became unneces sary. Nor can I conceive that it would be found impos sible or difficult to conduct a colonial government with precisely that limitation of the respective powers which has been so long and so easily maintained in Great Britain. " I know that it has been urged that the principles which are productive of harmony and good government in the mother country, arc by no means applicable to a colonial dependency. It is said that it is necessary that the administration of a colony should be carried on by persons nominated without any reference to the wishes of its people ; that they have to carry into effect the po licy, not of that people, but of the authorities at home; and that a colony which should came all its own admi nistrative functionaries, would, in fact, cease to be de pendent. I admit that the system which I propose, would, in fact, place the internal government of the co lony in the hands of the colonists themselves ; and that we should thus leave to them the execution of the laws of which we have long intrusted the making solely to them. Perfectly aware of the value of our Colonial possessions, and strongly impressed with the necessity of maintaining our connexion with them, I know not in what respect it can be desirable that we should interfere with their in. tcrnal legislation in matters which do not affect their relations with the mother country, The matters which so concern us are very few. The constitution of the form of government the regulation of foreign re lations, and of trade with the Mother Country, the other British Colonies, and foreign nations,—and the disposal of the public lands, are the only points on which the mother country requires a control. This control is now sufficiently secured by the authority of the Imperial Legislature ; by the protection which the colony derives from us against foreign enemies ; by the beneficial terms which our laws secure to its trade ; and by its share of the reciprocal benefits which would be conferred by a wise system of colonization. A perfect subordination on the part of the colony, on these points, is secured by the advantages which it finds in the continuance of its con. nexion with the empire. It certainly is not strengthened, but greatly weakened, by a vexatious interference on the part of the Home Government, with the enactment of laws for regulating the internal concerns of the colony, or in the selection of the persons intrusted with their execution. The colonists may not always know what laws are best for them, or which of their countrymen are the fittest fur conducting their affairs ; but at least they have a greater interest in coming to a right judgment on these points, and will take greater pains to do so than those whose welfare is very remotely and slightly affected by the good or bad legislation of these portions of the empire. If the colonists make bad laws, and select improper persons to conduct their affairs, they will generally be the only, always the greatest sufferers ; and, like the people of other countries, they must bear the ills which they bring on themselves, until they choose to apply the remedy. But it surely cannot be the duty or the interest of Great Britain to keep a most expensive military pos session of these colonies, in order that a Governor or a Secretary of State may be able to confer Colonial appoint ments on one rather than on another set of persons in the Colonies. For this is really the only question at issue. The slightest acquaintance with these Colonies proves the fallacy of the common notion, that any considerable amount of patronage in them is distributed among strangers from the mother country. Whatever inconvenience a conse quent frequency of changes amm a * the holders of office may produce, is a necessary disadvantage of free govern ment, which will be amply compensated by the perpetual harmony which the system must produce between the people and its rulers. Nor do I fear that the character of the public servants will, in any respect, suffer from a more popular tenure of office. For I can conceive no system so calculated to fill important posts with inefficient persons, as the present, in which public opinion is too little consulted in the original appointment, and in which it i 3 almost im. possible to remove those who disappoint the expectations of their usefulness, without inflicting a kind of brand on their capacity or integrity. " I am well aware that many persons, both in the Colonies and at home, view the system which I re commend with considerable alarm, because they distrust the ulterior views of those by whom it was originally pro posed, and whom they suspect of urging its adoption with the intent only of enabling them more easily to subvert monarchical institutions, or assert the indepen dence of the colony. I believe, however, that the extent to which these ulterior views exist, has been greatly over rated. We must not take every rash expression of disap pointment as an indication of a settled aversion to the ex isting. Constitution ; and my own observation convinces me, that the predominant feeling of all the Engli s h p o p u l at i on of the North American Colonies is that of devoted attach. mont to the Mother Country. I believe that neither the interests nor the feelings of the people are incompatible with the Colonial G overnment, w i se l y an d popularly ad. ministered. The proofs which many, who are much dis satisfied with the existing administration of the Govern ment, have given of their loyalty, are not to be denied or overlooked. The attachment constantly exhibited by the people of these Provinces towards the British Crown and Empire has all the characteristics of a strong national feeling. They value the institutions of their country, not merely from a sense of the practical advrntages which they confer, but from sentiments of national pride ; and they uphold them the more, because they are accustomed to view them as marks of nationality, which distinguish them from their Republican neighbours. I do not mean to affirm that this is a feeling which no implicy on the part of the Mother Cuntry will be unable to impair ; but I do most confidently regard it as one which may, if rightly appreciated, be make the link of an enduring and advan tageous connexion. The British people of the North Ame rican Colonies are a people on whom we may safely rely, and to whom we must not grudge power. For it is not to the individuals who have been loudest in demanding the change, that I propose to concede the responsibility. of the Colonial administration, but to the people them selves. Nor can I conceive that any people, or any consi derable portion of a people, will view with dissatisfaction a change which would amount simply to this, that the Crown would henceforth consult the wishes of the people in the choice of its servants. " The important alteration in the policy of the Colonial Government which I recommend, might be wholly or in great part effected for the present by the unaided autho rity of the CroWn ; and I believe that the great mass of discontent in Upper Canada, which is not directly con nected with personal irritation arising out of the incidents of the late troubles, might be dispelled by an assurance that the government of the colony should henceforth be sibility. " The powers for which the assembly contended appear, in both instances, to be such as it was perfectly jus tified in demanding,. It is difficult to conceive what could have been their theory of government who imagined that in any colony of England a body invested with the name and character of a Representative Assembly could be de prived of any of those powers which, in the opinion of Englishmen, are inherent in a popular Legislature. It was a vain delusion to imagine that by mere limitations in the Constitutional Act, or an exclusive system of Government, a body, strong in the consciousness of wielding the public opinion of the majority, could regard certain portions of the provincial revenues as sacred from its control, could confine itself to the mere business of making laws, and look on as a passive or indifferent spectator, while those laws were carried into effect or evaded, and the whole business of the country was conducted by men in whose intentions or capacity it had not the slightest confidence. Yet such was the limitation placed on the authority of the Assembly of Lower Canada ; it might refuse or pass laws, vote or withhold supplies, but it could exercise no influence on the nomination of a single servant of the Crown. The Exe cutive Council, the law officers, and whatever heads of de partments are known to the Administrative system of the province, were placed in power, without any regard to the wishes of the people or their representatives ; nor indeed are there wanting instances in which a mere hostility to the majority of the Assembly elevated the most incompe tent persons to posts of honour and trust. However de cidedly the Assembly might condemn the policy of the Government, the persons who had advised that poiicy, , re tained their offices and their power of giving bad advice. If a law was passed after repeated conflicts, it had to be carried into effect by those who had most strenuously opposed it. The wisdom of adopting the true principle of representa tive Government, and facilitating the management of public affairs, by intrusting it to the persons who have the confi dence of the representative body, has never been recog nised in the government of the North American Colonies. I All the officers of Government were independent of the Assembly ; and that body which had nothing to say to their appointment, was left to get on as it best might, with a set of public functionaries whose paramount feeling may not unfairly be said to have been one of hostility to itself. A body of holders of office thus constituted, without reference to the people cr their representatives must, in fact, from the very nature of colonial government, acquire the entire direction of the affairs of the province. A Go vernor, arriving in a colony in which he almost invariably his had no previous acquaintagc with the state of parties, or the character of individuals, is compelled to throw him self about entirely upon those whom he finds placed in the position of his official advisers. His first acts must necessarily be performed, and his first appointments made, at their suggestion. And as these first acts and ap pointments give a character to his policy, he is ge nerally brought thereby into immediate collision with the other parties in the country, and thrown into more complete dependence upon the official party and its friends. Thus, a Governor of Lower Canada has almost always been brought into collision with the Assembly, which his advisers regard as their enemy. In the course of the con test in which he was thus involved, the provocations which he received from the Assembly, and the light in which their conduct was represented by those who alone had any access to him, naturally imbued him with many of their antipathies ; his position compelled bins to seek the support of some party against the Assembly ; and his feelings and his necessities thus combined to induce him to bestow his patronage and to shape his measures to promote' the interests of the party on which he was obliged to lean. Thus, every successive year consolidated and enlarged the strength of the ruling party. Fortified by family con. nection, and the common interest felt by all who held and all who desired subordinate offices, that party was thus erected into a solid and permanent power, controlled by no responsibility, subject to no serious change, exercising over the whole government of the province an authority utterly independent of the people and its representatives, and pos sessing the only means of influencing either the Govern ment at home or the colonial representative of the Crown. " This entire separation of the legislative and exe cutive powers of a Stale, i 3 the natural error of governments desirous of being free from the check of representative institutions. Since the Revolution of 1688, the stability of the English Constitution has been secured by that wise principle of our Govern ment which has vested the direction of the national policy , and the distribution of patronage in the leaders of the Par liamentary majority. However partial the Monarch might be to particular Ministers, or however he might have personally committed himself to their policy, he has inva• riably been constrained to abandon both as soon as the opinion of the people has been irrevocably pronounced against them through the medium of the House of Com mons. The practice of carrying on a representative go vernment on a different principle, seems to be the rock on which Continental imitations of the British Constitution have invariably split ; and the French Revolution of 1830 was the necessary result of an attempt to uphold a Ministry with which no Parliament could be got to act in concert. It is difficult to understand how any English statesmen could hive imagined thatrPpresentative and irresponsible Govern ment could be successfully combined. There seems, indeed, to be an idea that the charact er of representative institu tions ought to be thus modifi e d in colonies; that incident of c o l on i a l dependence that the officers of Go vernment should be nominated by Crown, the without n reference to the wishes o f the community interests ay arc intrusted to their keeping. It very clearly explained what are tia the as imperial never been in in terests which require thi s complete nullification of representative government. But, if there be such a necessity, it is quite clear that a representative go vernment in a colony must be a mockery, and a source' of confusion. For those who support thi s ; stem have never yet been able to devise, or to exhibit i n t h e y practical work.. ing of colonial government, any means for making so complete an abrogation of political i n fl uence palatable to the representative body. It is not difficult to apply the case to our own country. Let it be imagined that at a general election the Opposition were to return 500 out of 658 Members of the House of Commons, and that the whole policy of the Ministry should be condemned, and every Bill introduced by it rejected by this immense ma jority; let it be supposed that the Crown should consider it a point of honour and duty to retain a Ministry so con demned and so thwarted ; that repeated dissolutions should in no way increase, but should even diminish, the Ministerial minority; and that the only result which could be obtained by puch a development of the force of the Opposition, were not the slightest change in the policy of the Ministry, not the removal of a single Minister, but simply the election of a Speaker, of the politics of the majority; and, I think, it will not be difficult to imigine the fate of such a system of Government. Yet such was the system, such literally was the course of events in Lower Canada ; and such in character, though not quite in degree, was the spectacle exhibited in Upper Canada, an d at one time or another, in every one of the North American Colonies. To suppose that such a system would work well there, implies a belief that the French Canadians have en joyed representative institutions for half a century without acquiring any of the characteristics o f a free people ; that Englishmen renounce every political opinion and feeling when they enter a colony, or that the s p irit of Anglo. Saxon freedom is utterly changed and weakened among those who are transplanted across the Atlantic. appears, there sembly to t h e G overnmen t was the unavo idable result "- Af fs , system which stinted the popular branch of the Legislature of the necessary privileges of a representative body, and Produced th ere b y a long series of attempts on the part of that body to acquire control over the ad ministration of the Provinc e . I say all this without reference to the ultimate aim o f t h e Assembly, which I hav e before described as be progressive ingth emaitenance of a Canad ian nationality a g ainst the intrusion of the English race. Having no responsible ministers to deal with, it e ntered upon that sys tem of long inquiries by means of its Committees, which brought the whole action of the Executive immediately, under its purview, and transgressed our notions of the pro per limits of Parliamentary interference. Having no in fluence in the choice of any public functionary, no power to proc ure t h e remova l o f s uch as were obnoxious to it merely on political grounds, and seeing almost every office of the colony filled by persons in whom it had no confidence, it entered on that vicious course of assailing its prominent opponents individua ll y , and dis q ual ifying* jectsthem of for the public service, by making them the sub inquiries and conseq uent impeachments, not alway s conducted with even the appearance of a due regard to justice ; and when nothing else could attain its end of altering the policy or the composition of the Colonial Government, it had recourse to that n i t i ma ratio of representative power to which the more prudent forbearance of the Crown has never driven the H ouse of Commons in England, and endeavoured to disable the whole machine of government by a general refusal of the supplies." The defects and remedies of the existing Colonial system are t h us d escr ibed :—" The preceding pages have suf f iciently pointed out the nature of those evils, to t h e extensive operation of which I attribute the various prac tical grievances and the present unsatisfactory condition of EVI4,'NING EDITION. the varied interests of a much more numerous and extended community. I will b necessary, therefore. fr the contemlation of any t stable scheme of government,o that p a rliament should revise the constitution of the - Legislative Council, and by adopting every practical means to give t'eat institution such a character as would enable it, by its tranoil and safe, but u effective working, to act as an useful check o n the popular branch of the Legislature, prevent a repetition of those collisions which have already caused such datierous ir- ritation. The plan which I have framed for the managemet °f an the public lands being intended to promote the com et ` advantage of the colonies and of the mot her country, s therefore propose that the entire administrati on of it should be confided to an imperial authority. The conclusive rel.', sons which have induced me to recommend this.course 'al!, be found at length in the separate report on the subject et ptblic lands and emigration. All the revenues of the Crown, except those de ri from this source, should at once be given up to the Unite Legislature, on the concession of an adequate civil list. The responsibility to the united Legislature of all officers of the Government, except the Governor and his Secretary' should ed. should be secured by every means known to the 13 0 , 5 _ Constitution. The Governor, as represent ative of tos Crown, should be instructed that he must carry CO his government by heads of departments, in whom the unite,d legislature shall repose confidence; and that he must lock for no support from home in any contest with the legisla ture, except on points involving strictly imperial inter ests. The independence of the Judges should be secured, by giving them the same tenure of office and security alof . come as exist in England. No money rotes should be lowed to originate without the previous consen t of the Crown. In the same Act should be contained a repe l of past provisions with respect to the clergy reserves, s ° the application of the funds arising from t hem. In order to promote emigration on the greatest possibi? scale, and with the most beneficial results to all concerne% I have elsewhere recommended a system of measures whi.c„ has been expressly framed with that view, after full inquiry careful deliberation. Those measures would not op ject either the colonies or the mother country to t anl su pense whatever. In conjunction with the measurer; re gested for disposing of public lands, and remedying t, evils occasioned by past mismanagement in that deparb ment, they form a plan of colonization to which I AT.% the highest importance. The objects, at least, with wb the plan has been formed, are to provide large fun s d for r emigration, and for creating and improving means e e e „ Pi t ; munication throughout the provinces; to guard ernigr a l i of the labouring class against the present risks et r; passage ; to secure for all of them a comfortable reel% place, and employment at good wages immediately on tbflh arrival ; to encourage the investment of surplus 8r i 1t15 , 4 capital in these colonies, by rendering it as secure Ou t ; profitable as in the United States; to promote the se E t t ; b "; ment of wild lands and the general irnprovernent 0 ' ' hi colonies ; to add to the value of every man's propertYr land ; to extend the demand for British-menu to goods, and the means of paying for them, in proPerti°,ll, in the amount of emigration and the general increase or .. 0 colonial people ; and to augment the colonial rev enues the same degree. O s( When the details of the measure, with the p art d reasons for each of them are examined, the means pr°P°:iet; will, I trust, be found as simple as the ends are merely nor have they been suggested by any fanciful or toe' t sb e speculative view of the subject. They are founded on b . c facts given in evidence by practical men • on &whee:, information, as to the wants and capabilities of L t . o b colonies; on an examination of the circumstances vi°ll., occasion so high a degree of prosperity in the neigh b°ll e. ing states; on the efficient working and remarlsablo ref sults of improved methods of colonization in other par tg 0 , the British empire ; in some measure,on the delibe rate a n d, posals of a Committee of the House of Commons ; a r 50.- lastly, on the favourable opinion of every intelligent PeL in the colonies whom I consulted with respect to c h e at, They involve, no doubt, a considerable change of sr h te ec a or rather the adoption of a system where there ha d e of none ; but this, considering the number and magnit e t u ; of past errors, and the present wretched economical sta'"o.. the colonies, seems rather a recommendation than s e be jection. Ido not flatter myself that so much good, Ise accomplished without an effort; but in this, as h ri „, - e t ete suggestions, I have presumed that the Imperial t he ment and Legislature will appreciate the actual c risis te te , affairs of these colonies, and will not shrink from seY,Lire. tion that may be necessary to preserve them to the e'",,r o o. By the adoption of the various measures here re s - 0 10- mended, I venture to hope that the disorders of these," o o. vies may be arrested, and their future well-being an' C er t ain nection with the British empire secured. Of the e," l ,,ish result of my suggestions, I cannot, of course, sPe e ' b to entire confidence, because it seems almost too stal e o be hope that evils of so long growth, and such ext bo ldest o r removed by the tardy application of even the 01 the medy ; and because I know that as much delseal s v u K a se to consistent vigour and irudence of those vib e sups carry it into effect as on the soundness of the po gested. The deep-rooted evils of Lower quire great firmness to remove them. The disorders Upper Canada, which appear to me to originate entireelY, mere defects of its constitutional system, may, I bcliev.e: removed by adopting a more sound and consistent mnel_oo administering the Government. We may derive sore, Canada wil y, ' ss, confidence from the recollection that very simp le o f t medics yet remain to be resorted to for the o time ; and we need not despair of governinegeo people who really have hitherto very imPeflote known what it is to have a Government. to made no mention of emigration on an e xtended sca le , at cure for political disorders, because it is my opinion 'l' until tranquillity be restored,•and a prospect of fro in, 0 . stable government is held out, no emigrants should he lo duced to go to, and that few would at any rate ren 3o b; Canada, but if by the means which I have suggested, 01. any other, peace can be restored, confidence created, 11 ",, 0 popular and vigorous governments established, I rely the adoption of a judicious system of colonisation as, ° ! be o effectual barrier against the recurrence of msf ° A i exiting evils. If I should have miscalculate d , gh t e ti P,LCoo- tions in which the friends and the enemie s O f year's nexion may meet in the united Legislature, 1 ) . i s by emigration would redress the balanc e • ren der a sound system of colonisation that we can benegt these extensive regions available for th e , w hich of the British people. The misnsanagement been the resources of our colonies have hitherto d toe wasted, has, I know, produced in the public mi nd of much of a disposition to regard them corruption and loss, and to entertain with too ril uc ssos placency the idea of abandoning them as useless. either not participate in the notion that it is the co „ tu ern of prudence or of honour to abandon our cono.t r ( o di when our government of them has plunged therstrao aot order—or our territory, when we discover that vie r u free piel turned it to proper account. The experiment 0, ' lo ve as mere so b c o. colonies and governing them well ought at least to w hiclt trial, ere we abandon for ever the vast donsili i°ll „d might supply the wants of our surplus population, s' es at up millions of fresh consumers of our manufactereo ad' producers of a supply for our wants. The we rtn i o stit tr misers and the strongest opponents of Republican of tbs tions admit or assert, that the amazing proslser it i r aine ot United States is less owing to their form of g°, /e b than to the unlimited supply of fertile land, schi c oaell e : tains succeeding generations in an undirninishing ° e a t," of fertile soil. A region as large and as fertile is :des e your Majesty's subjects in your Majesty's AmericaP4oo:. nions. The recent improvements of the means cifeu d i s ocr f nication will, in a short time, bring the unoccuPl e res sb ; of Canada and New Brunswick within as easy, a v ' l tisco s ti the British Isles, as the territories of lowa and ti are of that incessant emigration that annually c 1° i ou England for the far West. g ° • t hat, ( dos s bY I see no reason, therefore, for doubting government, and the adoption of a sound s ystem may t$ o f zation, the British possessions in North America I° ls sseti o be made the means of conferring on the suffering h e s o P o f the mother country many of the blessings which - 1 st ile therto been supposed to be peculiar to the g od s • the New World. ,;f 4 , " In conclusion, I mint earnestly impress on f e lt "; pPo jesty's advisers, and on the Imperial Parliamen t, t ss of t "d mount necessity of a prompt and decisive settleale"tent :mportant question, not only on account of the !,f•ty Id' variety of interests involving the welfare and sce",; l ol oe ' i s b. British Empire. which are perilled by every h e ro i° :s o but on account of the state of feeling which esigver'" public mind throughout all your Majesty's North possessions, and more especially the two Canad as. ty ts t t e ; " In various despatches addressed to your Ig a j es o of t'' - 11 cretary of State, I have given a full descriptio , sod all state of feeling, as I found it evinced by all cla sse u sred sl , parties, in consequence of the events which oc A e pOt the last Session of the British Parliament. I v uci ff lish/ ludo now to the French Canadians, but to the l' l3 , l 7 e ir' e- t e . pulation of both provinces. Ample evidence of i se pted r o ings will be found in the addresses which were P re it i e s, ;,;$ me from all parts of the North American Cole ° rt• li t. which I have inserted in an Appendix to this R disa pp he strong as were the expressions of regret an d t oich be rl ment at the sudden annihilation of those hope! . t isfse'der English had entertained of seeing a speedy 9 0 °. a Lby cape s termination of that state of confusion and On a ifi° 4- s o which they had so long laboured,they sunk'into ins'a se tbre tit , when compared with the danger arising from 1 11 „ ° ,sera l of separation and independence, the open and a o sers: oi e, terance of which was reported to me from all s ° , t he ti fortunately succeeded in calming this irritation if.' t baso. by directing the public mind to the prospect of ur gaj e ter medics which the wisdom and beneficence of l e t hen e ,sst must naturally incline your Majesty to sanction? 0. i,b they are brought under your Majesty's consideratl,?ts the good effects thus produced by the responsit iselt°sl I took upon myself will be destroyed; all the' er e jang will recur with redoubled violence ; and the ° pee rt so s b e come immeasurably greater, if such hope s a re ap l f o or frustrated, and the Imperial Legislature fails to bi s y of immediate and final remedy to all those evils of and Majesty's subjects in America so loudly consPl°l which I have supplied such ample evidence• e at toi l e " For these reasons, I pray your Majesty's 0161 0 1 o f t •e. tion to this Report. It is the last act arising clo°o the loyal and conscientious discharge of the 11 1 3 1 70 1 14 imposed upon me by the Commission with if buta bs , Majesty was graciously pleased to intrust me' ,„ 10 1 4 hope that your Majesty will r e ceive it favourau a pc , 04 lieve that it has been di c t a t e d by the most devote r i0t 6 , 30 of loyalty and att ac h men t t o your Majesty's aid by ! e a throne, by the strongest sense of public duty , earnest desire to perpetuate and strength en the ccoloo'cip between this empire and this North American 31000 which would th en form one of the brightest o res your Majesty's Imperial Crown. " All which is humbly submitted to yo ur DUIZ MaiessitYo° P " London, 31st Jan. 1839 " 0.051 ) The COMlTlissionersliip of Greenwich has been given to the Hon. Wm. Cowper► PriYate tary to Lord Melbourne. voil a° The Journal des Debats states :--I\l. 001' (Marquis de has Marismas) has sold, for an inun e lLo t 't to the house of Clossmann and Co., of Border.u% sn, n o 0. don, the whole of his vintays f the " Grand Yr' Chateau Morgaux, of which be is sole proprietolN carried on in conformity with the views of the majority in the Assembly. But I think that, for the well-being of the Colonies, and the security of the Mother Country, it is necessary that such a change should be rendered more per manent than a momentary sense of the existing difficulties can insure its being. I cannot believe that persons in power in this country will be restrained from the injudi cious interference with the internal management of these Colonies, which I deprecate, while they remain the petty and divided communities which they now are. The public attention at home is distracted by the various and sometimes contrary complaints of these different conti guous provinces. Each now urges its demands at diffe rent times, and in somewhat different forms ; and the in terests which each individual complainant represents as in peril, are too petty to attract the due attention of the empire. But if these important and exten sive Colonies should speak with one voice—if it were felt that every error of our Colonial policy must cause a com mon suffering and a common discontent throughout the whole wide extent of British America—those complaints would never be provoked ; because no authority would venture to run counter to the wishes of such a commu nity, except on points absolutely involving the few Impe rial interests which it is necessary to remove from the jurisdiction of Colonial legislation. " It is necessary that I should also recommend what appears to me an essential limitation on the present powers of the representative bodies in these Colonies, I consider good government not to be attainable while the present unrestricted powers of voting public money, and of managing the local expenditure of the community, are lodged in the hands of an Assembly. As long as a re venue is raised, which leaves a large surplus after the payment of the necessary expenses of the Civil Govern ment, and as long as any member of the Assembly may, without restriction, propose a vote of public money, so long will the Assembly retain in its hands the powers which it everywhere abuses, of misapplying that money. The pre rogative of the Crown, which is constantly exercised in Great Britain for the real protection of the people, ought never to have been waived in the Colonies; and if the rule of the Imperial Parliament, that no money-vote should be proposed without the consent of the Crown, were in. troduced into these Colonies, it might be wisely employed in protecting the public interests, now frequently sacrificed in that scramble for local appropriations which chiefly serves to give an undue influence to particular individuals or parties." " These general principles apply, however, only to those changes in the system of government which are required in order to rectify disorders common to all the North American Colonies ; but they do not in any degree go to remove those evils in the present state of Lower Canada which require the most immediate remedy. The fatal feud of origin, which is the cause of the most extensive mischief, would be aggravated at the present moment by any change which should give the majority more power than they have hitherto possessed. A plan, by which it is proposed to ensure the tranquil government of Lower Canada, must include in itself the means of putting an end the agitation of national disputes in the Legislature, by settling, at once and for ever, the national character of the province. I entertain no doubts as to the national charac ter which must be given to Lower Canada: it must be that of the British empire—that of the majority of the po pulation of British America—that of the great race which must, in the lapse of no lon g period of time, be predomi nant over the whole North American Continent. With out effecting the change so rapidly or so roughly as to shock the feelings and trample on the welfare of the exist ing generation, it must henceforth be the first and steady purpose of the British Government to establish an English population, with English laws and language, in this pro vince, and to trust its government to none but a decidedly English Legislature. " There can hardly be conceived a nationality more destitute of all that can invigorate and elevate a people, than that which is exhibited by the descendants of the French in Lower Canada, owing to their retaining their peculiar language and manners. They are a people with no history and no literature. The literature of England is written in a language which is not theirs ; and the only only literature which their language renders familiar to them, is that of a nation from which they have been sepa rated by eighty years of a foreign rule, and still more by those changes which the Revolution and its consequences have wrought in the whole political, moral, and social state of France. Yet it is on a people whom recent history, manners, and modes of thought so entirely separate from them, that the French Canadians are wholly dependent for almost all the instruction and amusement derived from books ; it on this essentially foreign literature, which is conversant about events, opinions, and habits of life per fectly strange and unintelligible to them, that they are compelled to be dependent. Their newspapers are mostly written by natives of France, who have either come to try their fortunes in the province, or been brought into it by the party leaders, in order to supply the dearth of literary talent available for the political press. In the same way, their nationality operates to deprive them of the enjoy ments and civilising influence of the arts. Though de scended from the people in the world that most generally love, and have most successfully cultivated the drama— though living on a continent in which almost every town, great or small, has an English theatre—the French popu lation of Lower Canada, cut off from every people that speaks its ewn language, can support no national stage. " In these circumstances, I should be indeed surprised if the more reflecting part of the French Canadians enter tained at present any hope of continuing to preserve their notionality. Much as they struggle against it, it is obvious that the process of assimilation to English habits is already commencing. The English language is gaining ground, as the language of the rich and of the employers of labour , naturally will. It appeared by some of the few returns which had been received by the Commissioner of the In quiry into the state of Education that there are about ten f times the number of French children in Quebec learning English, as compared with the English children who learn , French. A considerable time must, of course, elapse before the change of a language can spread over a whole people ; and justice and policy alike require, that while the people continue to use the French language, their Government should take no such means to force the Eng lish language upon them, as would, in fact, deprive the great mass of the community of the protection of the laws. But I repeat, that the alteration of the character of the province ought to be immediately entered on, and firmly, though cautiously, followed up; that in any plan which may be adopted for the future management of Lower Canada, the first object ought to be that of making it an English province ; and that, with this end in view, the ascendancy should never again be placed in any hands but those of an English population. Indeed, at the present moment this is obviously necessary; in the state of mind in which I have described the French Canadian population, as not only now being, but as likely for a long while to remain, the trusting them with an entire control over this province, would be, in fact, only facilitating a rebellion. Lower Canada must be governed now, as it must be here after, by an English population; and thus the policy which the necessities of the moment force on us, is in ac cordance with that suggested by a comprehensive view of the future and permanent improvement of the province." CONCLUDING RECOMMENDATIONS. " In existing circumstances, the conclusion to which the foregoing considerations lead me, is, that no time should be lost in proposing to Parliament a Bill for repealing the 31st Geo. 111. ; restoring the Union of the Canadas under one Legislature, and reconstituting them as one Province. " The Bill should contain provisions by which any or all of the other North American Colonies may, on the ap plication of the Legislature, be, with the consent of the two Canadas, or their United Legislature, admitted into the Union on such terms as may be agreed on between them. " As the mere amalgamation of the House of Assembly of the two Provinces would not be advisable, or give at all a due share of representation to each, a Parliamentary Commission should be appointed, for the purpose of form ing the electoral divisions, and determining the number of Members to be returned on the principle of giving repre sentation, as near as may be, in proportion to population. I am averse to every plan that has been proposed for giving an equal number of Members to the two Provinces, in order to attain the temporary end of outnumbering the French : because I think the same object will be obtained without any violation of the principles of representation, and without any such appearance of injustice in the scheme as would set public opinion, both in England and America, strongly against it; and because, when emigration shall have increased the English population in the Upper Pro vince, the adoption of such a principle would operate to defeat the very purpose it is intended to serve. It appears to mo that any such electoral arrangement, founded on the present provincial divisions, would tend to defeat the purposes of union, and perpetuate the idea of disunion. " At the same time, in order to prevent the confusion and danger likely to ensue from attempting to have popu lar elections in districts recently the seats of open rebellion, it will be advisable to give the Governor a temporary power of suspending by proclamation stating specifically the grounds of his determination, the writs of electoral districts, in which he may be of opinion that elections could net safely take place. " The same Commission should form a plan of local government by elective bodies subordinate to the General Legislature, and exercising a complete control over such local affairs as do not come within the province of general legislation. The plan so framed should be made an Act of the Imperial Parliament, so as to prevent the General Legislature from encroaching on the powers of the Local bodies. " A General Executive on an improved principle should be established, together with a supreme Court of Appeal, for all the North A mer i can !C o l on i es . Th e o th er estab lishments and laws of the two Colonies should be left un altered until the Legislature of the Union should think fit to change them ; and the security of the existing en dowments of the Catholic Church in Lower Canada should be guaranteed by the Act. " The constitution of a Second Legislative Body for the United Legislature, involves questions of very great difficulty. The present constitution of the Legislative Councils of these Provinces has always appeared to me inconsistent with sound principles, and little calculated to answer the purpose of placing the effective check which I consider necessary on the popular branch of the Legisla ture. The analogy which some persons have attempted to draw between the House of Lords and the Legislative Councils seems to me erroneous. The constitution of the House of Lords is consonant with the frame of English so ciety; and as the creation of a precisely similar body in such a state of society as that of these Colonies is impossible,it has always appeared to me most unwise to attempt to supply its place by one which has no point of resemblance to it, except that of being a non-elective check on the elec tive branch of the Legislature. The attempt to invest a few persons, distinguished from their fellow. colonists neither by birth nor hereditary property, and often only transiently connected with the country, with such a power seems only calculutcd to ensure jealously and bad feeling in the first instance, and collision at last. I believe that when the necessity of relying, in Lower Canada, on the English character of the Legislative Council as a check on the national prejudices of a French Assembly shall be removed by the union, few persons in the colonies will be found disposed in favour of its present constitution. In deed, the very fact of union will complicate the difficulties which have hitherto existed; because a satisfactory choice of Councillors would have to be made with reference to ar*