The Sun.
London, England, 1837-04-25 00:00:00

inveterate errors to which such wrongs have naturally

given birth.

There is no longer a hope of restraining the mad
career of Ministers in the prosecution of the mistaken
system of policy which a number of ignorant, self-in-
terested functionaries have persuaded them to adopt
towards the Canadas. They have the power, and they
seem determined to show that on a slight occasion
they would not be found wanting in the will, to assert
by force of arms the supremacy of Great Britain on the
banks of the St. Lawrence. We strongly deprecate a
course of proceeding which, whatever be its pe-
sent effect, must eventually be productive of fatal
consequences ; and we are astonished at elle ob-
stinacy of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, after hear-
ing the speech delivered by Mr. RwiciNsoN last night
in favour of,his Lordship's coercive Resolutions. The
Honourable Member for Worcester boldly flung down
the gauntlet to the inhabtaWts of Lower Canada, and
not only presumed the possiibility of a civil war, but
speculated upon its resul%s. The Honourable Gen-
tleman did even more. He charged the House of
Assembly with prer,aring for such a catastrophe,
and with hoarding the public revenue to meet the
expenses of a peorffe in arms. Does his MAJESTY'S
Government supnose that such language as this will
tend to tranquilize the minds of the Lower Cana-
dians ? Ot cannot Lord JOHN RUSSELL perceive
that the conduct in a colony which such a speech goes
to denounce, and bid defiance to, is generated and
fostered by it ? It is madness, where an appeal to the
sword has not been resolved upon, to coerce men strug-
gling for freedom, and at the same time taunt them with
their rebellious 'designs and numerical weakness. With
respect to the resolutions before the House of Commons,
Ministers seem not to know, or to be indifferent to
the fact tha.t the passing of them, by violating the
chart,A. of Lower Canada, will justify any measures
to which the Canadians may have recourse for the pro-
tection of their freedom. The moment these resolu-
tions are adopted by the Imperial Legislature, the
constituional rights of the Lower Canadians are virtu-
ally abrogated—the House of Assembly is stripped of
its prerogatives—and the Colonists are told, in the
only language that the Imperial Parliament deigns to
employ, that they ate free, not by any right natural or
I acquired, but by sufferance of a British House of
Commons. Now what indication have the Canadians
given—of all people in the world—that they 1611 con-
sent to hold their dearest rights by such an unstable
and fleeting tenure ? None. And if they not
patiently endure the chastisement of whips, what juve-
nile arrogance to threaten them with the application of

scorpion:;!
Even now, could we persuade the Noble Secretary
for the Home Department to allow the question to rest
for a little time, we have no doubt that arrangements
might be made betw'cen the House of Assembly and
the Colonial Office, which would obviate the neces-
sity of pushing matters to extremities. The Canadians
would see his strength, appreciate his forbearance,
and reverence his motives. By allowiinz them to re-
tire from the field with honour, and apparently of their
own accord, lie would confer an obligation on them to
which honourable minds—and there are many such
among them—could never become insensible. 'File
patriot is never ungrattfni ; and the acts el men strug-
gling for increased independence, ought by freemen to
IT. generously interpreted. There is no Englishman but
must respect the object the Canadians have in view
and that !icing the ease, it is in the lest degree un-
warrantable to misconstrue their acts, impugn their
motives, end insult their weakness.

There is all at once a ‘vonderful alteration in the
tone- of the opposition .journals with respect to the
Irish Municipal Ell. That measure, without which
we innst prepare ourselves for the eventual separation
of Inland from the other constituent ports of the
13ritish umpire, has lip to this day been denounced
as one to which the House of Lords would not only,
never give its consell ; but which would not
even be permitted to be read a second time.
This is what the organs of Toryism have
been giv:nz out for sonic time past. Yesterday there
was a incetin!, of Tory Peers at Apslcy House, to
consider what was hest to be done ; and it was, it
would appear, filially decidetl that no opposition should
be given to the second reading of the Bill. So far,
e agree with the journalists who have been so smi-
th:lllv -cal'ed upon to turn their tongues, the Lords
have dup.,' riglit—they have acted cautiously as those
might be supposed to do who have a majority of EIG
in the House of Commons before their eves. But that
they mean to pass the Bill in any other form than that
mutilated one in which they sent it down to the Com-
mons last year, we shall never believe, until we see the
fact. Their plan for the future treatment of the Bill,
they would have the public to believe, is not yet defini-
tively arranged. It will depend upon certain contingencies
whether the measure shah finally pass or not. "If,"
say thee, your Irish Tithe Bill prove satisfactory—.
if there be no appropriation clause in it-- we may
perhaps be induced to let the Corporatiol, Bill be
smugelcd through the HouLe, but not otherwise."

Now this is a mere subterfuge—a trick by which to
escape the popular odium which they know must
he incurred, by rejecting a measure 'called for
alike by justice and policy. We doubt not the
Tories would be extremely glad to get the tithes in
Ireland, which arc all but irrecoverably gone, clenched
upon the land, as they have done in England. That
is a consummation for which they would make a much
greater sacrifice than the passing of the Municipal
Bill ; but Ministers are not to be duped in that way.
They were, we presume to think, a trifle too hasty in
their English Church Bills, and the consequence has
been, that the Bishops and clergy being relieved from
all apprehensions as to the safety of their temporals—
having secured the main chance—have thrown off all
regard to decency in their opposition to every thing
liberal, while the Tory laity have exhibited a bolder
spirit of defiance from the same cause. We
should have been heartily glad if the Reform of
Church matters had bee❑ left to the very last. We
should then have held a sort of security for the good
behaviour of Churchmen, and their patrons and
abettors. Let us not fall again into the same error.

The Westminster Conservatives gave a dinner
to Sir GEORGE MURRAY yesterday, at which in-
finite speechifying took place. The Chairman, Lord
ELLIOT, displayed singular exuberance in this res-
pect, observing, inter alia, while proposing the toast
of Church and State, that " those words must awa-
ken in their minds recollections of the past, and ap-
prehensions for the future. The past presented to the
mind a clear, bright, and glorious picture ; but as to
the future, he was sorry to say that it was overhung by
clouds and darkness." These observations are charac-
teristic to a degree that there can be no mistaking. None
but a Tory could have made them. By the word" past"
the Noble Lord evidently alludes to that period when the
faction held sway over the empire—a period of exces-
sive tyranny and as excessive taxation ; when new jails
and barracks were the fashionable architecture of the
day ; when little VAN was Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, and CASTLEREAGH with his gagging-bills, the
leader of the House of Commons ; when spies and pen-
sioners were in full feather ; when Te Dennis were sung
in Downing-street for the success of Peterloo massacres;
and gloom, distrust, and despair pervaded every quarter
of the kingdom ! Truly, this is a " clear, bright, and
glorious picture" to dwell upon--" clear" enough
and " bright" enough, GOD knows, for it was illu-