The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-07 00:00:00

Committee connected with those parts of the country who might
be expected to judge impartially of the measure. If he en-
tered the Committee with any prejudice at all, it was averse
to the measure rather than in favour of it.--( Hear.) He
certainly considered that the Committee was fairly constituted,
and that they wero acting upon principles which would be
satisfactory to that House and the country.
Mr. ROBINSON said that the simple question was whether
the Committee was so constituted as to inspire the country with
confidence in their decision. Nothing was more invidious
than mentioning the names of gentlemen ; but he had stated,
on a former evening, and he thought it his duty to state now,
that he had rather there were no Committee at all, than one

constituted as the present. He intreated the Noble Lord to
allow some of the names to be put on the Committee, so as to
keep away any impression of their having a bias on one side
or the other. _ _ _

The SPEAKER thought that before the motion for par-
ticular Members to serve on the Committee was disposed of, the
question whether the number of gentlemen on the Committee
should consist of 14 or 21, ought to be decided by the House.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL thought the Hon. Member for
Berkshire bad subjected himself to that difficulty in point of
form, and he therefore felt it a great relief in not having
to object to particular names, which might perhaps be consi-
dered personally offensive. He thought the Hon. Member for
Berkshire also was either too early or too late with his
motion.—( Hear.) There had been a regular notice day on
which the motion might have been brought on, had the Hon.
Member thought proper to do so--( Hear, hear)—but he had
put off his motion till the Committee had actually sat, and he
now interrupted the regular proceedings of the House.—
(Cheers.) The Honourable Member should either have
taken his objection when the Committee was appointed,
or he should now wait till the report was brought up, when he
might take any objection he pleased as to the constitution of
the Committee.—( Cheers.) He (Lord John) was perfectly
willing, now that the Committee had commenced its sittings,
to withdraw his own name from the list of the Com-
mittee, and allow the Honourable Member for Berkshire
to substitute any one of the Gentlemen whose names he had
just mentioned in his (Lord John's) room—further than this
he could notgo.—( Cheers. )
Mr. GUE ST thought unless the county was satisfied with
the impartiality of the Committee, a great deal of harm might
be occasioned.
Mr. DUNCOMBE could not see what objection there
could be to the addition of six or seven names to the Com-
mittee, if the system was so perfect as had been represented :
of this he was sure, that the greatest injury would result if in.
quiry was attempted to be smothered.
Strangers were then ordered to withdraw.
The House divided, and the numbers were—
For reading the Order of the Day
For Mr. Walters' motion
Majority in favour of Ministers ..... —2B
The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the whole
House, to take into consideration the affairs of Canada—Mr.
Bernal in the Chair.
Lord. JOHN RUSSELL said he never rose to address the
House with so much reluctance to make any proposition, as he
felt on the present occasion, in rising to propose the resolutions
of which he bad given notice, and with which he should conclude.
It was his duty, and the duty of. the Government to which he
belonged, though it was an unpleasant duty, to declare
their dissent from the petitions of the people of Lower
Canada ; but he considered it necessary before ho asked the
hlouse for sums beyond those' which ,had been formerly
asked for the service of that country. It was necessary
in order to justify such a course that he should show the House
that there was a necessity for the interference of Parlia-
ment on this question, and, secondly, that that inter-
ference must not bo stopped short, but must be carried out to
its proper length. He entered upon the question with great re-
luctance; yet at the same t ime lie felt that the Assembly of Lower
Canada had the advantage of being' represented in that llo:ise,
and their cause %could be stated with as great ability as they could
desire. It was some consolation to him in bringing forward the
affairs of Lower Canada to find that the pretensions which
had been put forth by the Assembly, had not met with
the concurrence of other provinces in that country.—( Hear.)
It was proposed on the part of Lower Canada, that there
should be an elective legislative body. He believed that hi
all these colonies, in the communications that bad taken place
between them. and Government, there was a tendency towards a
satisfactory adjustment, and that what they considered g,ri.e/-
anees would be redressed in a full and sltisfactory manner ; ti;ere-
f,re they had not to reproach themselves with having fo-
merVed these disturbances in the province; on the contrary
they appeared to him to have sprung up from that long course
of d;ssent ion, origiedting in demands founded on the real wants
of the province, and n ithout the adjustment of which they could
not vouch for the future to obtain any. pesinanent :rarrquillity.
Ile might likewise add, that they did not cast any censure cr
reproach upon tile Assembly of Lower Canada for the course they
l,ad adopted. On the c.)ntrarv, that course so much resembled
hat other popular assemblies had done, und,n- similar circum-
stances, and instead of being the act of an artful assembly, they
s,em rather to have been the result of that general law by
which a competition is created between a popular assembly
and their representatives. This, however, he would remark,
that popular assemblies were hardly ever wrong at the corn-
nrewernent, and hardly ever right at the close.—( Hear. )
There were generally struggles which began with askitirs
fsr the remedy of well-founded grievances, and which endel
with a declaration of suspicion and distrust of all
authorities at present existing, and endeavours to set up some
11CW and unknown Government, by which it was supposed all
future grievances would be remedied. Lower Canada came
into the possession of the English Crown in consequence of
the successful war which ended by the peace of 1763. It then
contained about 60,000 souls, governed by the laws of the
arbitrary monarchy of France, and having for its own
especial law one of those local laws known in France,
namely, the custom of Paris. It was attempted by the
British Government to make the laws of that country
resemble the laws of the other colonies that had fallen into
the British possessions ; hut that policy was afterwards
changed, and when the contest was entered into with

the North American Colonies, care was taken to sepa-
rate Canada from the appearance of resistance to the
British Crown, and to induce them to go back to their

old custom, and become again, as it were, a French possession.
With the increase of the colony and with the increase
of emigration, it was proposed to institute a new
kind of government for that province, and Mr. Pitt, by

the Bill -of 1791 put that intention into effect. fly
thought it might now be doubted, with the experience of the
time that had since elapsed, whether that Bill was well adapted
to secure good government in Canada. The first part of
the measure of 1791 was to establish an Assembly, of which
one part of its constitution was to consist partly
of an hereditary class, and partly of members named for
life by the Government. Another part was to separate the
provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, the Upper to be
considered as more completely English, and to which
emigrants should resort in greater numbers—( Hear, hear)—
the other was left to be a territory of a mixed population,
partly French emigrants and partly British subjects. He
should not now touch on the latter part of that proposition,
but he should take the liberty of saying with regard
to the first, that it seemed to him it would be difficult
to establish any great resemblance to the British Constituion
in any colouy. It was well remarked by the Member for
Bath last year, that it would be difficult to establish in Canada an
Assembly resembling our house of Lords, because there was no
hereditary aristocracy residing there ; and it would be impos-
sible to find persons to be named for life in whom the Govern-
ment and the people could fully confide.—( Hear.) It was
hardly possible in the course of events that the different
Governors sent to Canada would not take different views of
public affairs, and that the end would not be that great diffi-
culties would be experienced in the carrying on and manage-
ment of affairs, without a settled system, as there was
not in the Governor a power to create Members of the
House of Assembly, as the King created Peers. The peti-
tion presented to the House last year with the consent of the
Secretary of State, from the Constitutional Association
in Canada, declared very plainly that the power was
a very dangerous one, and that it had not been properly exer-
cised. So far, he thought he had proved there was some fault in
the constitution of the Legislative Council. But this was
not the subject upon which much remonstrance was
made.—(Hear, hear.) There were various other subjects.
with regard to the disposal of the public money, and
which had been matter of dispute in the provinces.
In a pap©r among those those presented to the House, drawn
up by Lord Aberdeen, when Colonial Secretary, a re-
medy was proposed, not only equal to that which
the Canada Committee wished, but going beyond the pro-
positions made by that Committee.—( Hear, hear.) It shows
that with respect to all the subjects, with the excep-
tion of one, which I shall mention presently, which were
brought before the Committee of 1828, the remedies provided
by the Government of this country were not only fully that
which the Canada Committee recommended, but went beyond
the propositions made by the Committee. I will mention an
instance of this, and it is a very strong instance. The Canada
Committee recommended that a certain duty, imposed by the
Act of 1774, should he appropriated by the House of Assem-
bly itself as soon as that House should make permanent provi-
sion for the support of the Judges, and for the support of a
certain number of officers of the Civil Government. The Go-
vernment of this country went beyond that proposal, and by
the Act of 1•31 they repealed simply and at once the provi-
sions of the Act of 1774, as far as it left the appropriation to
the Lords of the Treasury of this country, and left it freely and
fully to the ifouse of Assembly to appropriate the funds
n,er aria-
i from these duties. It did not follow that because the Go-
vernment and the Legislature of this country dealt this fair
and fel? concession to the House of Assembly, that they
should be edisposed to make a proper return, by acceding to
bat the Committee of 182 S considered an indispensable pre-
liminary. On the contrary, they hare not hitherto, and, I
think, as I shall hereafter show, they do not seem disposed
now to make any such p?ovision. There was a recommenda-
tion of the Committee which referred to the Judges, with
respect to whom it was by the Committee proposed that they
should be independent as far as their salaries were concerned,
but that they should be removeable at the pleasure of the
Crown. An Act was proposed by Lord Ripon to the effect
tliai; the judges should not only have permanent salaries, hut
that they should hold their offices during good behaviour.
The House of Assembly, in return for this, introduced into
that Bill a certain condition, by which they made all the offi-
cers of the colony, not excepting the Governor himself, sub-
ject to a tribunal appointed in the manner then pointed out.
Thus they met the concessions largely and freely made by the
tGovernment of this country. These proceedings continued; j

xotests upon various points were raised from— time to time.
u, 11), in 1833, a Supply Bill was passed, with many condi-
tacked to the several. items of it, saying that certain
.mm- should have salaries for such offices, providing, at the
pers.
tir,le, that they should not hold any other office, and va-
is.jao;:,
viaotioas of this kind, in consequence of which the Sup-