The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-05 00:00:00

E v ishy
- EDI

'ION.

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1
Lord Durham had stated the only plan wee to have an
honest ays•ern of representation, and that we might rely
upon the British being in a rnajority—first, by the influences
lof a well conducted emigration ; and next, having re-
course, if necessary, to that plan of union which he
had pointel nut as desirab:e. What could be better
for tt-e Fr,.,,,i, Canadians than that they should be
mode in all respects British subjects, and adopt, as speed-
ily as possible, the lang, wage, the laws, and institutions
of Government, that prevailed among the English
people ?—( Hear.) The fact was, the French population
were the poorer—they had been gradually losing their 1
property, and it had been passing into the hands of the 1
British race. Was it for the benefit of a country that a
large class of the people should speak a language dif-
ferent from that of the governing body? There was
but one course to adopt with regard to the people
of that continent. If it was wished that they
should he free, civilized, and on an equality with the rest of
the population, they must speak the language and live under
those institutions which were the language and institutions
of every free man on the continent of North America.
There was one warning which he wished to give the No-
ble Lord. If lie meant not to adopt the union of the two
provinces, let him say so at once; but if the Noble Lord
wished to have it adopted, he was taking a strange course
to get the public feeling in favour of it. In the first place
the Government seemed anxious that there should be no
discussion during the present Session, and next all the
information they had given the House was, that ob-
jections existed in Upper Canada to the union.
The Noble Lord had laid on the table of the Hot 1c a Re-
port from the Committee of Assembly of Upper Canada,
impugning some parts of Lord Durham's Report, and also
some despatches from Sir George Arthur, complaining of
other parts of it. If the Noble Lord was anxious that
the Union should be carried, he might have given evi-
dence in favour of the Union as well as against it.
—( Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord had given no
information as to the mode in which the Report of the
Committee of Assembly was adopted—that it was kept
back till the last day of the session—that the session
was to have been prorogued upon the Thursday, and was
kept sitting till the Saturday, and that when one-third of
the Reforming Members had gone home this Report was
carried, and the Clagyßesery eßill proposed, and carried by
one vote.—( Hear, hear.) Since the Report arrived hero
there had been two elections in Canada, and those can-
didates who were in favour of Lord Durham's Report for
the Union carried their elections by a very large majority.
The Report of the Committee of Assembly had answered
not only Lord Durham's Report, but a speech which he
(Mr. B.) had made at the ccmmencement of the Session,
stating that his opinions were the same as those of ,

Paphieau and Al‘kenzie—that he was a Republican,
which signified nothing more than that ho was
on the Liberal side in politics.—( A laugh.) There
was one thing in the despatches of Sir G. Arthur
which especially ought to have made the Government very
cautious in laying them upon the table. Sir G. Arthur had
referred to what he considered the unfavourable opinion
which had been expressed by Lord Durham as to the
execution of two individuals.
_Now if the Government had

looked to the Report of Lord Durham, thevwould have seen
that there was nothing in it at all justifying this reference
of Sir G. Arthur, for all that Lord Durham had said was,
that the execution of these men had increased the imitation •Jf
the public mind ; and certainly hanging people was not likely
to produce conciliation. Most of the facts stated by Sir
George Arthur were utterly and monstrously untrue. He
(Mr. B.) did not mean to say any thing personally offen.
sive, because he did not think that Sir George Arthur
stated these facts knowing them to be false, but he should
have inquired, and then he would have been convinced that
they were not true, and he was guilty of great carelessness
in having, without inquiry, stated such things. One cir-
cumstance he (Mr. B.) would relate to the House. Sir
George Arthur had accused Lord Durham of incorrectly
stating the number of signatures to petitions in favour
of the two individuals referred to as thirty thousand,
alleging them to be only 5,000. Now, a gentleman frr,r,
Upper Canada had called upon him (Mr. B.) and info-, med
him that he had presented Sir George Arthur w:ith one
petition alone, the signatures to which were snore nu-
merous than all those which be had acknowledged. What
credit, therefore, could be attached to his statements?
He ( Mr. B.) must say it would be most unsatisfactory to
the inhabitants of our Colonies to find that the Imperial
Parliament did not condescend to take up questions
vitally affecting their interests, except on a mere chance
debate got up while Members were pairing off, in order to
dine, before the Irish Municipal Corporation Bill.—( Hear,
hear.) This was the way to offend the feelings of all
classes in our Colonies—to aggravate the dissatisfaction of
the malcontents, and to irritate and discourage the loyal
by showing them that ail their exertions were vain in fa-
vour of a country which cared little fur there._( Hear. )
Mr. LEADER wished to say a few words, although
he was an are it was rather out of order, inasmuch as
the Bill before the House was a Bill for the Govern-
ment of Lower Canada, the object being to increase the
already despotic power possessed by the Government there
—but the discussion had arisen with regard to the union of
the provinces, the Bill for which had been abandoned by
the Government. He was afraid the Hon. Member for
Liskeard was rather Utopian in his anticipations of the
benefits to be derived from a general union of the,
provinces of North America. No doubt, if a kir
union could be effected between all those provinces
much good could be done, but the Hon. Member fc,r Lis-
kcard alluded to the union of the two Canadas ; and he
(Mr. L.) was afraid that the feeling of both pr dvinces was
generally hostile to the proposition. The French Cana-

. .
•Olians knew that the effect would be conroletely to crush
them. The Hon. Member for Liskeard, said, indeed, that
they must take the laws, and language, and Government
of -England.—(Hear.) But he should recollect that
that was just the quarrel which existed in Ireland for
the last 200 or 300 years. In Ireland the contest had
been whether the Roman Catholic majority were to sub-
mit to the Protestant minority. It might or might not
be a good principle that the many should yield to the
few, but if it were, all that we had been doing for the be-
nefit of the Irish Roman Catholics was useless, for it
would be absurd to say that in Ireland there should be
equality of rights, and that in Canada the rights of the
majority should be sacrificed.—(Hear, hear, bear.)
Perhaps it might be for the benefit of the French Cana-
dians that they should become English in their manners,
thoir customs, their language, and their religion ; but if
they could not be persuaded that it was for their benefit
that they should become so, it would be an act of the
grossest tyranny to compel them to become English in
spite of their feelings and wishes. The lion. and Learn'A
Member for Liskeard had said that there was nothing in
Lord Durham's Report offensive to the feelings of the
French Canadians, nor anything to lead to the si;ggestion
that they should be deprived of their fair share in
the elective franchise of the Colony. The;.e was, how-
ever, one marginal note in that Report which contra-
dicted the assertion of the Hon. and Learned Member for
. •

Liskeard, it was as follows :—" Acknowleged inferiority
of the French Canadians." This showed that they were
considered as an inferior race, in the same way as the
fish people had been considered an inferior race, and he

supposed they would be treated in the same manner, and
as their interiority was acknowleged, that they would be
subject to every indignity. He had heard the position and
prospect of the French Canadians described in very graphic
terms by an inhabitant of that Colony. He had
said that the country was first of all inhabited by
the beavers, who had been destroyed by the Indians, who
were their superiors in strength and power; the Indians
had been destroyed by the French, who were superior to
them in strength and power; and then the Anglo-Saxons
had come, who would ultimately destroy the French, as
being superior to them in strength and power. If this were
the law of nature it was true they must submit to it, but it
would be a lasting disgrace to the British Parliament if they
should give their aid to the powerful to enable them to
crush the weak. For his part he protested against any
measure to unite the provinces of Upper and Lower
Canada, and he was delighted to find that in arguing the
question of the future union of these provinces he should have
the powerful assistance of the Hon. and Learned Member
for Dublin. He trusted that in any future Session the
Hon. and Learned Member for Dublin would grant his
powerful aid and protection to the French Canadians, and
oppose any plan of union which would call upon
them to sacrifice their feelings, their laws, their
language, or their religion. The Bill before the
House was really and truly a Bill for enlarging the Co-
ercion Bill of last year, and for rendering that despotic
measure still more despotic. He objected to it both ist
principle and in detail, but finding he should have no support
in opposing this Bill he should not divide the P.ouse
on the question cf the second reading, although be, could
not suffer it to be read without taking this opporruuity of
protesting against it. As to the details, he tr',tsted that
Hon. Members on both sides of the House would pay
great attention to every separate clause i.n the Bill,
and not suffer one of them to pass without kinking well to
the results which were likely to ensue. Tho lion. and
Learned Member for Liskeard had made one or two
remarks which showed great innocence on his part, and
still much greater innocence on the part of the
Upper Canadians. lie had asked what the Government
would do with regard to Canada during the recess, or
course the Government would not think of Canada dur;
g
a
stated
and upper
the
jlt
the recess.—(Laughter.) They would be 'ng
dk
in
to
have got rid of the subject, and would be onlyt in
kin they could shuffle through another Sess;
lau
e n on._(Ag
al office
Canadians had
were occupied with great assiduity in des':
sing measures
for establishing the Government of Canada understoodgh. He
that had
de that
Government he
great innocence on the part of the I: • This showed
ter Canadians, for
at that very time an intrigue was • •
one Colonial Minister and putting g0.11,g on for putting out
Canada was forgotten, and its in another, and Upper
n.Lerests neglected. The
results of the present Session proved that the Government
was not paying proper atten'io to the interests of the
colonies. On the occasion ' n
of his presenting two P eti-
tioris, complaining of grievances, he was told that the
whole question would soon be be fore the House, and then
would be the proper time for him to make all his com-
plaints. He readily acquiesced, but there they were
nearly at the end of the Session without
having been afforded. The people of this country had a
right to complain, but the people of Canada had been
much illused, and he thought the Bill then before the
House would only exasperate them, and increase the state
of anarchy in which things were in the colony. Hun-
dreds of the people were emigrating to the United States ;
there was no emigration from this country to the Canadas
to the entire ruin of commerce, and unless the system of
government were very speedily changed, those colonies,
which ought to be the most prosperous of any, would be
brought to the very verge of ruin.
Sir R. PEEL—That short debate had served to con-
firm him in the opinion which he had formerly given ex-
pression to. He was glad that the House had not been
called to sanction any Bill for the union of the provinces
without its being followed up by actual legislation. The
Bill must, in the present temper of the House have been
lost, but it must have left an impression in the minds of the
peopl.z, that such would. probably be the final judgment of
ihe Imperial Lerr.,tature. He hoped the first step the
Government took' would be to mske an earliest, and 1-,e
hoped a successful remonstrance with the government of; the
United States, so that an end would be put to the