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

supplies but in items and annually, and also demanding to see
the accounts, Lord Dalhousie was left without any money
legally at his disposal ; he, nevertheless, put his hand into
the public coffers, and, without legal warrant, used it. This
outrage, as it was then deemed—though later times have
effaced, by repetition, the notion of its being an outrage—
raised the anger of the Assembly to such a point that they
determined to petition the Imperial Parliament, stating their
grievances, and requiring at their hands a remedy. In 1828,
in consequence of this petition, a Committee sat to inquire
into the situation of Lower Canada, and that Committee—
though of an unreformed Parliament, justified entirely the
House of Assembly, severely rebuked the Governor, and pro-
posed to do what the Noble Lord now proposes—to reform the
Legislative Council.—( Hear.) At that time had the reform
proposed been honestly carried out, this change in the cha-
racter of the Legislative Council would have satisfied the
people of Canada. Now no such palliation will be sufficient.
They have learned by subsequent experience that reforms are
not to be expected from Downing-street, and they in their
next petition demanded a complete change in the constitution
of the second Charter. The reason of this demand was the
non.performasce on the part of the Government of its promise
to reform the colonial administration. All former abuses were
suffered to exist and to increase, and new ones have been added.
The House again petitioned, and no redress was granted. They
thereupon again stopped the supplies, and have resolved not
to grant money till their grievances are redressed.—(Cheers.)
I will now shortly state what their grievances are, and what
is the plan which they propose as a remedy, and contrast it
with that now submitted to us by the Noble Lord. The
grievances I am about to enumerate are elaborately set forth
in 92 resolutions of the House of Assembly. I admit they are
too numerous ; their grievances might have been summed up
in two words...." bad government."—( A laugh, and "Hear,
hear.") To those resolutions the House still adheres, so that
I cannot he said to act on this matter without authority.
1. The first class of grievances relates to finance. The
House of. Assembly complains thltt a revenue is raised from
the people without their consent—that the extent of the pro-
vincial revenue is withdrawn from the House—and that ac-
counts have hitherto been denied.—( Hear.) 2. The second
class of grievances relate to the administration of justice.
The Judges are wholly irresponsible, and the present disgrace-
ful situation of the judicial bench proves the necessity of an
immediate and searching reform.—( Hear, hear, hear.) They
complain, moreover, that all judicial reforms—reforms by
which justice may be made cheap and easily accessible—
have been refused by the Legislative Council.—( Hear,
hear.) 3. The House complains that the revenues which
ought to have been devoted to public instruction have
been diverted ,from that end. The Jesuits' estates belong
to the public, but have been usurped by the official- party
and applied to their own uses. The House complains
bitterly of this enormous grievance ; moreover, they
further complain that 1,600 primary schools have been closed
by the Legislative Council, acting from party and personal
pique.—( Hear, hear.) 4. They further complain that the
British Parliament interfere with internal concerns; and, 5.
They assert that the general administration of the govern-
ment is mischievous, creating jealousies, distrusts, and alarm,
doing many things which it ought not to do, and leaving un-
done those things which it ought to do.---( Hear, hear.)
They complain, in fact, that they are deprived of the govern-
ment of their own affairs, and they !say that they are made the
prey of a faction, who cajole the people of England, and rob
the people of Canada.—( Hear, hear.) Such being the evil,
the House of Assembly thought it necessary to suggest a re-
medy. Knowing well the seat of the disease, their remedy
is applied to the really peccant part, and would, if adopted,
completely eradicate the evil. The evil is the irresponsibility
of the public servants; the means by which this irresponsi-
bility has been maintained is the Legislative Council.—
( Hear.) This council is responsible to no one, and therefore
recklessly pursues its own interest, and treats with contempt
the interests of the province:--( Hear, bear.) The House of
Assembly, therefore, proposes to rendef this body elective,
thus making it responsible to the people, and depriving it of
that reckless and mischievous character which now distin-
guishes it.—( Loud cheers) They propose further to this
House to repeal the Canadas Tenures Act, and the Act creat-
ing a Land Company, because such Acts interfere with their
internal government.—(Hear, hear.) And, lastly, they re-
quire that all the revenues of the province should be subjected
to the control of the Provincial Legislature.—( Hear, hear.)
I will immediately proceed to the discussion of certain objec-
tions which have been urged to this plan ; but before I do so,
I would beg of the House to compare the enormous extent of
the difficulties of the case before us, and then to estimate the
worth of those inadequate remedies proposed by the Noble
Lord. YQI.I are told that a people complain of the responsi-
bility of its public servants. You hear that supplies have been
refused, by a Tote almost unanimous of the House of Assem-
bly. You see that demands are made to remedy a defective
Constitution, and the Noble Lord brings before your notice a
pitiful evasion of the whole matter in dispute—a sort of cut-
purse remedy—" Rob me the Exchequer, Hal," being his
motto and rule upon the occasion.—( Loud laughter, and Hear,
bear.) He proposes merely to pay certain arrears of salary,
to destroy thus the moral force of the Assembly, and to leave
time whole evil without the least remedy or check.—(Hear,
hear.) The coming year, must bring hack every difficulty_
again arrears will exist; again supplies will be refused ; again
the Legislative Council will be complained of; and again the
official tribe will send their hirelings across time Atlantic, and
rouse the sympathies of their brother officials in Downing-
street.--( Laughter.) Compare, I say, this paltry expedient,
this shuffling and disgraceful evasion of the difficulty, with the
bold, honest, and comprehensive plan of the Assembly.—
( Cheers.) You may call yourselves Statesmen, and fancy
yourselves superior to the people whom you are about to in-
sult ; but the day is not far off when your puny efforts, your
pretences at legislation, will receive the scorn they so richly
merit, and contempt will be duly reflected from the measures
to their authors.—( Long and continued cheering.) Look,
too, Sir, at, the machinery which has been employed to pro-
duce this mighty project of legislative wisdom. Not content
with the statements of the people's representatives, you sent
out au expensive Commission to make inquiries, and now pro-
pose to do what you could as easily have done two years since.
Have all your enquiries had this effect alone ? Have your
three special Commissioners done nothing more than this ?
Has all their wisdom, and that of the Ministry to boot, been
able to suggest no wiser plan than this pitiful pettifogging.
chicane ? In good truth, Sir, spite of my indignation, I can-
not help pitying the degraded position both of the Government
and their Commission in this wretched proceeding.--( Hear.)
The very appointment of the Commission was in itself an in-
sult to the people with their representatives at their head.
You had given the people a Constitution, and the representa-
tives have the marked confidence of their constituents. This
body, often sent back to the people, and as often re-elected,
set forth their measures and their demands, and you in answer
sent out a body of Commissioners to make inquiries as to the
truth of the Assembly's complaints. That is, you set aside
the statements of the natural leaders of the people—of per-
sons born among them, well knowing their feelings, wants,
wishes—acquainted with their manners and their. laws--and
you sent out these gentlemen from this country to supersede
the House of Assembly in their function:of representation of the
grievances of the people to the Throne and to Parliament.—

.
( Hear.) Let it be remembered that the subject matter of in-
quiry was here twofold--lst. A great practical difficulty arising
in the government of a colony under very novel and intricate
circumstances; 2d. A body of very complicated laws which
are said to require reform. This body of laws is compoSed
of the old Roman, or, as it is called, the civil law, of the
customs of Paris as existing in the 17th century, certain
portions of the English common law, of the English
statute law, of ordonnances, and provincial statutes.—( Hear.)
Now, who do we send there in these difficult and intricate
affairs ? Men bred to the study of government as a practical
science—of jurisprudence, of positive law ? No, no. The
First Commissioner is a sort of country squire—a Peer, in-
deed, but in his habits and education a mere country gentle-
man, whose knowledge of the Pandects is probably confined to
the fact that they were compiled by Justinian—(Laughter)—
neither can he be supposed to know much of Canadian law.
Sir George Gipps is a soldier; and Sir Charles Grey, though
an East Indian judge, cannot be expected to know more than
his colleagues.--( Hear.) They have also been extolled be-
cease of opposite political sentiments ; and the report on your
table evinces the greatly beneficial result of quarrelling Com-
missioners. Sir George Gipps has a leaning towards libe-
rality ; Sir Charles Grey is a high Tory ; and as for poor
Lord Gosford, he seems to have led a disagreeable life, be-
tween the snarling Whig and Tory, and-was evidently distressed
to choose between the two, knowing nothing of the subject mat-
ter of dispute. Such is your piebald Commission, which super-
seded the representatives of the people in the duty of discover-
ing and explaining the grievances and wants of the com-
munity.—( Cheers.) And what has the Commission done ?
It has done just what I predicted it would do—spent money,
and gained no information. Look at the report—l hope
Hon. Members have read it. The Noble Lord, indeed,
thought fit, in his official capacity, to give it official praise ;
but, unburdened by any conventional authority, I am bound
to say,- that a more unworthy document was never laid upon
your table.—( Hear.) It sins in every possible way against
the rules according to which such a document ought to be
framed—confused, contradictory, illogical, insincere ; con-
taining few facts worthy of record, and no reasoning worthy
of the name ; it is beneath contempt ; it is a disgrace to its
authors, and to the Government to which it is addressed., It
tells no truth worth knowing—it records many falsehoods
long since refuted—it has cost a large suns of money, and
will probably cost us also the colony itself.—( Hear, hear, and
cheers.) I now, Sir, return from this digression to
the consideration of the two plans of reform before us ;
and I first solicit the attention of the House to that proposed
by the Assembly. The objects of the Assembly are twofold-
-Ist, they desire to make all the public functionaries respon-
sible to the people whom they serve ; and, second, they desire
them. To
the
these
to have subject to the control of the representatives of the
wholeends fs
thet Irrseti: egnrue
great
t nlo derivedans froms 010 d
oa
sntdr
tio o
paidctio by
f
the irresponsibility of the Legislative Council, by which, in
fact, hitherto every malversation has been defended, every re-
cusant officer protected, every abuse of whatsoever description
supported.—( Loud cheers.) In accordance. with the successful
practice of their intelligent and powerful neighbours of the
United States of America, the Canadian House of Assembly
have endeavoured to render this second Chamber elective.
My own opinion on the matter has been very freely ex-
pressed to them ; and I have sought to convince them
that this was not, in my belief, the wisest plan— my
scheme contemplated the abolition of time Council. How-
ever, to this, as far as I can ascertain it,. I believe the
feeling of the people to be averse. They believe that a
second Chamber is requisite to wise legislation, and this
opinion they share in common with the large majority of
those who have spoken and written on the subject. This
elective Council it is proposed to elect by a different mode
from that by which the Assembly is chosen; and the
Councillors aro to be , eligible at a latter period of

life than the members of the Assembly. Their number also
is to be smaller. In short, the model is, the Senate of the
various Legislatures of the United States. In the Report on
your table the Commissioners, though opposed to this Elec-
tive Council, are obliged to confess " that in such a country
(as Canada) the people will be little in-alined to respect any
legislative body which does not emanate from themselves;
and that this effect must be enhanced in Lower Canada by
the example of the powerful States which flourish so imme-
diately in her neighbourhood."—( Hear, hear.) Acknowledg-
ing, then, that in principle the plan of the Assembly is correct,
what objection do they urge to its establishment ? Merely
what they are pleased to state present circumstances.. If it
had been asked earlier—if it had been asked later-a--we would
have granted it; but seeing it was asked just at the time that.
it was asked, we are bound to refuse your demands. To
refuse what? The means of good government—(Cheers)--
means which they themeelves allow to be necessary—a 're-
medy for an abuse which they themselves admit to be a
crying one.—( Loud cheers.) If we were to grant this de'.
'nand, say the Commissioners, we should give a victory to one
party—we should wound English feelings and injure English
interests. They thus echo the cry of the official tribe
of Canada. They have adopted the fallacy, and to the best of
their endeavours propagate the falsehood which these. pecula-
ting and refractory servants have been concocting for the last
four-and-twenty years.--( Hear, hear.) One part of this
statement I allow. You will, if you grant this elective Coun-
cil, give a victory to one party ; so you will if you pay these
arrears, by your yiolent interposition. Inp the first case, the
party to whom you will give the victory will be the people at
large, demanding securities for good goVernment ; in the
second case you will give the victory to dishonest public ser-
vants, who have been plundering-the people and fighting off
responSibility by. every effort in their power. Choose which
course you will preserve.—(Loud cries of " Hear," and
cheers.) But I deny wholly the remaining portions of the
Commissioners' assertions. I assert boldly that this is not a
quarrel of races; but a quarrel of principle. —( Loud
cheers.) The dishonest party choose to call shemselves
English, but I deny that their interests are English interests,
or that race or language marks out the,contending• parties. I
take two separate passages of the Commissioners' report to show
this. The first passage will show that some French people
join the official herd, because they, like them, have sinister in-
terests. The second passage will show that a large body of
the English have joined the popular party, because their inte-
rests being that of the people at large, are identical. " We do
not know where any persons," says the report, " are to be
found of British descent who enjoy any influence in society,
and at the same time wish for an elective Council''—[This,
while they wrote it, the Commissioners must have known to be
a falsehood]—" whilst of the higher class of French Canadians
there are several who have no desire for it." Here, then, are
several of the higher class of French Canadians siding with the
official party (as appears by the general report), when we have
it distinctly allowed that all the large body of persons de-
scended from citizens of the United States, and living
in Canada, persons speaking English, are hostile to the
official' party. How then, I ask, could any man in his senses
say that the quarrel was a quarrel of races ? But the Com Mi-
ssioners have had the hardihood to assert that no persons of
English descent of any influence in society have joined the
popular party. What do the Commissioners say to the
names of the provincial M. P.'s ? The House must pardon
me if dwell on this topic. The official party, when they
found their case becoming desperate, artfully invented this
protest of English interests to influence the English people.
They knew that prejudice against every thing French, and
particularly French Republicanism, was strong, in this coun-
try ; they, therefore, have laboured industriously to make out
that the popular party in Canada are French and Republican ;
that they desire to persecute the English minority ; and that
the Legislative Council has been the sole means of security
for the Enelish--The sole barrier against a persecuting
majority of French Catholic Republicans. It is my duty to
destroy this fallacy ; and; with the permission of the House, I
will proceed to the task.=-(llear, hear.) The population of
Lower Canada is something beyond 500,000, and of these I
will allow for the present 100,000 to be persons speaking Eng-
lish. But this 100,000 must be classified also. There are
three distinct classes of persons speaking English ; first, there
is the large majority of the whole who are agriculturists—now
these people live chiefly in the townships by themselves, and
very .little intermingle with the French Canadians, and of
these townships one-half, in point of numbers, have sent Mem-
bers to the House of Assembly, who are stanch friends of the
popular party. I press this fact upon the consideration of
the House. I challenge any one to deny it-e( Cheers)—and I
ask how any one who is solicitous of his character as a person
loving the truth can, with this fact staring him in the face, dare
to assert that the question is one of race and not of principle ?
I refer members who are doubtful upon this matter to the mi-
nute of Sir George Gipps, at the end of the general Report.
The next section of the English-speaking minority are the
merchants of Montreal and Quebec ; and these merchants
having, as I shall soon show, a sinister interest, they for, the
most part side with the third section—viz., the official people
and their families, Now I desire anxiously to know in what
way the Legislative Council protects English interests; for I
assume, first, that it is in the interest of Ergland as a nation
that the Colony be well governed—(Cheers)—and, next, that
the interests of the majority of the persons speaking English
are precisely the same as those of the French Canadians. Now
if these assumptions be correct, and I challenge any one to dis-
prove them, how does it happen that for their protection an ir-
responsible and hitherto mischievous body, is needful ? These
legislative councillors have no such influence in the country,
either personally or as abody—they aro not the great landowners
of the country—they are powerful only because they have a
veto upon all legislation. How, -then, came their peculiar,
their sinister interests, so identified with those of the laborious
English settler ? But it may be objected that the interests
of the French and great body of English canad!ans may be
the same, but the French desire ...to persecute. - They have
hitherto been the persecuted. Their desire of vengeance will
induce them to run counter to their interests, and ill-treat
their fellow-citizens speaking English. Therefore we must
give the minority power in the government equal to that
of the majority. My answer to this is, that the Ca-
nadians have hitherto given no evidence of their desire
to persecute ; they., have in all things proved themselves
kind neighbours, hospitable hosts, firm friends to those kind
English who have gone to their country; in none of their
legislative proceedings have they shown any, the least par-
tiality to French Canadians ; they have never attempted
to draw any line of distinction between the English and
Canadians. I also desire to know how, in what manner,
the Legislative Council have hitherto opposed the desire to
persecute Has it been by shielding peculating officials ?
preventing the increase of education—( Cheers)—fighting a
disgraceful fight in favour of every abuse, and resisting
reform at every- step ? If such conduct be a defence of
English.interests, then' indeed may the Legislative Council
lay claim to the character of their supporters.--( Cheers.)
The House, daubtless, must be struck with the identity of the
language used respecting the minority in Canada and in Ire-
land. In Ireland, nevetheless, we have determined to grant
power to the majority—we have done nothing to shield the
minority—why should we do so in Canada?—(Loud cheers.)
Some nights since, when I attempted to give my reasons for
believing that the majority would not persecute the minority,
the House and his Msjesty's Ministers were pleased to re-
ceive with approbation my arguments, and to adopt my con-
clusions.—( Laughter.) The same spirit which dictated the
pretext in the case of Ireland set it up in that of Canada,
and we in consequenCe shall treat the pretence in both cases
with the scorn it richly deeerves.—(Qheers.) To show the
House the identity of the two cases, I must once more quote
from the report. Not content with retaining the Legislative
Council, the Commissioners entertain the inquiry of how the
House of-Assembly. may also be made subject to the mino-
rity, and one of the Commissioners, Sir Charles Grey, tells
us how he would have acted in the Irish Municipal Bill, and
wishes us to treat the Canadians its he would have treated
the people of Ireland.—[ Here the Hon. Gentleman read
the passage in the general report, containing Sir C. Grey's
scheme of voting.] I must now dismiss this topic, and turn
to another, the interests of the merchants of Montreal and
Quebec, about which I shall content myself with this re-
mark.' To maintain these merchants, and enable them to
aid in keeping a large colony in turmoil, we consent to lose
a million and a half a year by our restrictions on timber.
Whether we derive corresponding benefit, let the House de-
termine. The last objection I shall notice at Kesent to the
plan of the Assembly, relates to their conduct on the tenures
of land. In a passage I have quoted, the Commissioners in-
sinuate that the House of Assembly is in love with antiquated
feudal customs, and determined to retain a mischievous sys-
tem of law. It so happens that the great body of the public
desire a change, but they desire that the change should be
made by their own 'representatives, and not by those so ig-
norant of the whole matter as the Imperial Parliament.—
(Cheers.) I am come to the plan of the Noble Lord; and-
I desire to know, respecting this whole project, the
following things;—That I. The plan, if adopted, will be a
signal and gross breach of faith on the part of this House.—
( Cheers.), 2. That it is wholly inadequate according to the
Noble Lord's own showing; and 3. That it is unjust and
impolitic.—( Hear, hear, hear, and Cheers.) When the dis-
astrous consequences of the attempt to tax 0,110 of our Ame-
rican colonies in 1770 were dearly proved by the lose of those
flourishing possessions, and the independence of the United
Stites of America, the Legislature of this country passed a
law by which it solemnly gave up, as a great concession to
a great principle, all power of taxing the colonies. . That
power was after this solemn concession to rest with the cola-
'lists ; and in 1793 we established a Constitution in the Ca- 1
nadas, by which we gave a means of checking the public ser-
vants of the province which we ourselves possess—a paver
rude, indeed, and not well fitted for the end in view—se mean
that of stopping the supplies. The clumsiness and iniefficieney
of these means resulted, however, from the nature of the
Constitution. In America, where the people do really go-
vern, the power of remedying all grievance •
is directly and
_im-
mediately occasioned. No roundabout orsurse is adopted.
public servants act unworthily, they :ire at once dismissed ;
If-
if changes are desirel in faulty instj.tutions, they are imme-
diately made. But in our enlonies' (in the colonies all are
Tories)--(Cheers)—as in Englaseil, the
people govern only
by a sort of side-wind ; they cart, if they
please, make bad
government so uncomfortable to thr governors, that to main-
tain grievances will prove more disti isteful than even reforming
them. This effect is produced by f lie circuitous mode of stop-
ping the supplies. This method 'is in strict accordance with
the powers you yourselves confeeseed on the, representatives of
Canada; and you now, because you fancy yourselves strong,
determine not to remedy the grievance, but to punish the
representatives for believing your. Constitution a reality, and
yourselves not to• be impostors. You told them you had
given them a Constitutional power a which you considered one
beyond all price ; you told th,t in they were the House of
Commons of Canada, and you now
punish them for putting
faith in your assertions.—(Che ers.) What is now the value
of /our protestatiQns ? Your ifilithyfill in a bl-wouct anion
•

the people ; and, follewing your mischievous example, di"
people will obey only sa long as they fear you.— (Cheers.
Need I say any thing to prove the utter inadepacy of thi!
plan ? What is the evil—what the proposed rex. ely accord
ing to your own statement ? You d.zelare that great misery
exists among the public see:rants; we do not deny it. Well
misery is created, what do you propose to d) ? D ) you po •
pose to prevent the recurrence of the mischief ? Not at all;
you pay the arrears. Who will pay the servants next year'
--(Hear, hear.) Do you believe that the House of Assemb'y
will do so ? Are you not well assured that next year wiq
bring but the same difficulty ? The grievances complained
of exist, the House of Assembly exists, their feel.; g; and
their power are the game as formerly. What then will hap-
pen next year? You know as well as Ido that the supplies
will again be stopped—(Cheers)—that the same doleful out-
cries will again be raised by the public servants, and then, I
suppose, we shall have another Special Commission--another
delay of three years—another evasion of the difficulty—another
breach of faith —and that so long as Canada is ours, discon-
tent, distrust will continue, exasperation will increase—their
powers of resistance will increase also, one effort will be made;
and you and your shuffling policy, your degraded Gevernment,
your unworthy, peculating, and mischievous officials will be
dismissed with ignominy and hatred.—(Cheers.) Decd I say
anything more to prove, this proceeding unjust? I hear eter-
nal talk of the evil consequences of stopping the supplies to
those official people.. I hear nothing in reproof of the Le-
gislative Council, who shut up last year all the public pri-
mary schools in the country, and left 60,00 p children
but initruction.—(Hear, hear, hear.) All your regards ale
turned the wrong way—all your inquiries have a wrong
end in view. You sought to make out a case of hardship
to the servants of the people, but you turned a deaf ear to
all complaints of evil to the, people themseves. 'The House
of Assembly seeks to make the servants responsible—the ser-
vants seek to avoid responsibility; you thrust yourselves into
the dispute, and instead of doing what your duty dictates, you
take the part with the profligate servant, and ill-treat the
already injured master. Such, Sir, is the course his Majesty's
Ministers now seek to pursue.—(Loud cheers.) But I would
ask his Majesty's Ministers if they have well weighed the policy
of this measure, and do they know its inevitable results ? Lest
they should have been negligent on this head, and in order to
prevent the possibility of their saying at any future time " We
did not anticipate such results, and no one pointed them out,"
I wilt, for their information and for that of the House, state
what my knowledge of the country leads me to expect as the
result of this measure. The first. immediate consequence will
be, intense anger in the minds of the great majority of the popu-
lation, who will see in this proceeding insult and injury.—
( Cheers.) This anger will.produce a determination as soon as
possible to get rid of a dominion which entails on them results
so mischievous and- degrading. Every year will hereafter
strengthen this feeling, and lasting enmity and discord will thus
be created between the mother country and the colony ; dis-
cord that will cease only when the colony shall become, like
the United States, a great, powerful, and independent com-
munity. The immediate effects of this anger will not be seen
in open and vinlent revolt, but in a silent but effective warfare
against your trade. Non-intercourse will become the religion
of the people. —(Hear.) They will refuse your manufactures,
and they will smuggle from the States. The long line of fron-
tier will render all your attempte to prevent this smuggling
unavailing! The people will refuse your West India produce,
and they will view with hatred your shoals of unprotected emi-
grants. They will withdraw themselves from your commu-
nion, they will teach their children to hate you, and they will
look with longing eyes to the happy States adjoining their
frontier. Impatiently will they wait for the moment in which
they shall obtain their freedom and become part of that happy,
and, for our interests, already too powerful Republic. A war
will be waged through an unrestricted Press upon your Go-
. vernment and your people. In America you will be held up as
the oppressors of mankind, and millions will daily pray for your
signal and immediate defeat. To restrain this Press will be im-
'possible—printing-presses will be established along the line,
and inflammatory papers will be imported into your colony, ,
spite of an army of custom-house officers and lawyers. The
fatal moment will at length arrive. The standard of indepen-
dence Will be raised ; thousands of Americans will recross the
frontier, and the history of Texas will tell the talc of Canadian
revolt. The instant you have passed the resolutions of the
Noble Lord, a wide and impassable gulf will be opened be_
tween you and your colony, the time for reconciliation will be
gone for ever, and the-bitter lesson taught us by the ir.'ighty
empire we have already lost will be repeated. We Way then
indeed repent our folly, but repentance will be vaie.—nur loss
will be irreparable—shame, defeat, and ignominy will be our
portion, and we shall leave for ever the shores of America.
amidst the hootings, and revilings, and exultae.ons of the many
millions of her people whom we have successively injured and
insulted. (The Hon. and Learned Gentleman sat down amidst
loud c' oers.)

Sir G. GREY said the Hon. and Learned Member entirely
omitted to state the fact, although it was a most material One,
that they were now discussing this question under entirely al-
tered circumstances from those which existed when the ques-
tion came formerly before this House. In the several addresses
lately presented to that House from the House of Assembly of
Lower Canada, in the speeches made that evening by the
several advocates of the claims of the House of Assemb/y, no
complaint appeared to be urged against the Executive C-',overn-
wient, the ground of complaint being, not that the instructions
of the. Home Government to the Executive Government of •
Lower Canada watt not directed to the redress of every
grievance which it was-in the power of the Executive Govern-
ment to redress—not that the local Government had not acted
in the spirit of the instructions, or that the Executive Govern-
ment had abstained from doing everything in its power ; but
that the Imperial Parliament had not altered the Act of 1791,
and that the home Government were not prepared to ask the
House to concede every demand made by the House of As-
sembly as the price at which it would purchase their good.
will, and justify them in their refusal to advance supplies ne-
cessary, not for a few official-persons, as the Hon. and Learned
Member wished to make out, but for the occasional adminis-
tration of justice—of that justice which was now in danger of
being polluted to its source in the tenor with which the
Judges of the land regarded not only the suitors before them,
but even the criminals whom they had to try.—(Cries of
Hear, hear.") He ,would appeal to all the papers on the
table—to all 'the instructions sent out to the local Go,.
vernments, and to every act which they had done in pursu-
ance of those instructions—and he would ask if there were
any thing which a free and independent .people had the
slightest right to complain of? Every grievance which had
arisen out of former mis-government—mis-government as
strongly condemned and reprobated by the Commissioners
and the home Government—had been redressed to the ut-
most power of the Government; and now the House of
Assembly took their stand on another ground, and declared
that if the Constitution were not altered, if various Acts were-
not done, which Government, consistently with its duty,
could not ask the House to do, but which must be done by-
Parliament, if done at all, that they would abstain from the;
exercise of those functions reposed in them by the Act c,P.:
1791. What were the demands they made ? Their objec t
.had been treated as if it were simply to make an alteration :in
the Legislative Council recommended by Mr. Fox. Whe n
the subject was last before the House he stated that he con-
sidered the principle of the Act -of 1791 to be, that there
should be an independent Legislative Council, and that it was
most desirable to devise means whereby it might be rendered
so, and it was with this view, in a great measure, that the
Government had sent out Commissioners to Canada to inquire
by what means the Legislative Council might be rendered
more an object of public confidence. The object was not to
render the Legisla-tive Council a mere cipher cr a mere echo.,
of the sentiments of the House of Assembly, as was desired
bT the Honourable and Learned Member. The Honourablea
and Learned Member complained that Government had not._
placed sufficient confidence in the statement of 'facts made by
the House of Assembly last year, and declared that they
being the constitutional representatives of the people of thee
province, he claimed for them that the complaints of the.
people of the province should proceed only through their mea-
dim, and that the Parliament here should place implicit con-
fidence in their statements, and pay no attention
.to any otlAer
parties, though these parties might come before the
Imperial Parliament with petitions signed by Eighty
thousand persons, who declared that they did 'jot coin-
cide in the sentiments of the majority. The C‘overnment
had been always fully desirous of sifting to the, bottom the
statements made on one side and the other as to the state
of public feeling in the province, and all that was brought
before the House, especially as to the Legislative Council.
The state of feeling Was strongly advorted to by the Com-
missioners, and was besides fully evidenced in the proceedings
of the House of Assembly, -proceedings which ought to be
conducted with judicial gravity, but which' evinced a most
virulent party spirit, directed against official persons. The
propositions of the House of Assembly were for the most
part altogether inconsistent with the relations existing between
the mother country and her colonies; and it was the indis-
pensable duty of Government to oppose propositions the direct--
and, immediate tendency of which was, the dismemberment
of the empire and the severing from this country one of tke
greatest possessions of the Crown. The only chat-ge which
had been brought against the Executive Government wag:
its appropriation of funds not subjr,t to the House of
Assembly, and this was a course which the Executive Go-
vernment was warranted in taking on all just and Constitu- • .
tional grounds. An analogy had been attempted to be eats-
'blisbed between tl-ais question. and the question on which the:
House had bees so lately occupied, the granting the fames
Municipal Corporations to Ireland; and he was ready to
admit that considerable ingenuity had been, exhibited in tl ee
endeavottr thus to enlist for the House of Assembly of Cana( La
the feeli:ogs of the representatives for Ireland, and those wl so
had struggled with them in the assertion of the great winci)kie
lately asserted by the Commons of England ;, but there was
rot the slightest analogy between the two cases. The ob-
ject which had been striven for in reference to Ireland was,
not to make it an independent portion of the empire, but to
invest it with those local powers of 'municipal government
which had been with such success granted to England and.
Scotland. 'lt was no change it' the Constitution which
had been struggled for on „behalf of Ireland; it was a change
in the Constitution which was demanded by the House of
Assembly of Lower Canada, It was to be particulatly re-
marked, too, that this outcry was raised only by the House
of Assembly of Lower Canada. The people of Upper Ca-
nada altogether disclaimed any participation in the drmands
made by tower Canada. And what was the case in refe-
rence to New Brunswick ? In the past year New Bruns-
wick :sent two Members of her Legislature to this (x,untry to
ask concession on all those points on which the -people of
Lower Canada stated themselves to be aggrieved. In conse-
quence of the communications that took place an arrang,2-
meet was proposed precisely similar in principle, and in me at
of its details, to the proposition made to the Mouse of A•s-
sembly of Lower Canada. He had only •wititin these fow
days received. a copy of certain resolutions passed una ni-
)&llQUSly,byy, the Assembly of Nev Bruttewicks with 41!. levi. Of