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

As this important document will be found useful in
udging of the provisions of the Bill which is to be intro-
duced into Parliament, for the better ge, crnment of the
Canadas, we have selected those parts of it which have
more immediate reference to the causes of the late
rebellion, and the remedies proposed by Lord Durham.
The primary causes, his Lordship attributes to the
animosity which has long existed between the French
and English, and to the mistaken policy of the British
Government, in dividing Canada into two provinces,
with separate Legislatures. The following extract
relates chiefly to the animosities between the two races:—
CANADA

" The quarrel which I was sent for the purpose of heal-
ing, had been a quarrel between the Executive Govern-
ment and the popular branch of the Legislature. The
lacer body had, apparently, been contending for popular
right and free government. The Executive Government
had been defending the prerogative of the Crown, and the
institutions which, in accordance with the principles of the
British Constitution, had been established as checks on the
unbridled exercise of popular power. Though, during the
dispute, indications bad been given of the existence of dis-
sensions yet deeper and more formidable than any which
arose from simply political causes, I had still, in comn.on
with most of my countrymen, imagined that the original
and constant source of the evil was to be found in the de-
fects of the political institutions of the provinces; that
a reform of the Constitution, or perhaps merely the intro-
duction of a sounder practice into the administration
of the Government, would remove all causes of contest
and complaint. This opinion was strengthened by
the well-known fact, that the political dissensions
which had produced their most formidable results in
this Province, had assumed a similar though milder fortis
in the neighbouring colonies ; and that the tranquillity of
each of the North American Provinces was subject to con-
stant disturbance from collision between the Executive and
the Representatives of the People. The constitutions of
these Colonies, the official characters and positions of tree
contending parties, the avowed subjects of dispute, and the
general principles asserted on each side, were so similar,
that I could not but concur in the very general opinion,
that the common quarrel was the result of some common
defect in the almost identical institutions of these Pro-
vinces, I looked on it as a dispute analogous to those with
which history and experience have made us so familiar in
Europe ; a dispute between a people der:lending an ext: n-
sion of popular privileges on,theone hand, and an Exec u-
tire on the other defending the powers e hich it, mmeeived
necessary for the maintenance of order. I supposed that
my principal business would be that of determining how
far each party might be in the right, or which was in the
wrong; of devising some means of removing the defects
which had occasioned the collision; and of restoring such
a balance of the constitutional powers as might secure the
free and peaceful working of the machine cf government,"
" The political discontents, for which the vicious system
of government has given too much cause, have for a long
time concealed or modified the influence of the national
quarrel. It has been argued, that origin can have but little
effect in dividing the country, inasmuch as individuals of
each race have constantly been enlisted together on the side
of Government, or been found united in leading the Assem-
bly to assail its alleged abuses ; that the names of some of
the prominent leaders of the rebellion mark their English,
while those of acme of the most unpopular supporters of the
Government denote their French origin ; and that the
representatives, if not of an actual majority (as has
occasionally been asserted), at any rate of a large pro-
portion of the purely English population, have been found
constantly voting with the majority of the Assembly against
what is called the British party. Temporary and local
causes have, no doubt, to a certain extent, produced such
results. The national hostility has not assumed its per-
manent influence till of late years, nor has it exhibited it-
self everywhere at once. While it displayed itself long ago
in the cities of Quebec and Montreal, where the leaders and
manes of the rival races most speedily came into collision,
the inhabitants of the Eastern townships,who were re-
moved from all personal contact with the French, and those
of the district below Quebec, who experienced little inter-
ference from the English, continued to a very late period
to entertain comparatively friendly feelings towards those
of the opposite races. But this is a distinction which has
unfortunately, rear after year, been exhibiting itself more
strongly, and diffusing itself more widely. One
by one, the ancient English leaders of the Assem-
bly have fallen off from the majority, and attached them-
selves to the party which supported the British Government
against-it. Every election from the townships added to
the English minority. On the other hand, year after
year, in spite of the various influences which a Government
can exercise, and of which no people in the world are more
susceptible than the French Canadians. in spite of the ad-
ditional motives of prudence and patriotism which deter
timid or calm men from acting with a party, obviously en-
dangering the public tranquility by the violence of its
conduct, the number of French Canadians on whom the
Government could rely, has been narrowed by the influ-
ence of those associations which have drawn them into
the ranks of their kindred. The insurrection of 1837
completed the division. Since the resort to arms the two
races have been distinctly and completely arrayed against
each other. No portion of the English population was
backward in taking arms in defence of the Government:
with a single exception, no portion of the Canadian popula-
tion was allowed to do so, even where it was asserted
by some that their loyalty inclined them thereto.
The exasperation thus generated has extended over
the whole of each race. The most just and sensible of
the English, those whose politics had always been most
liberal, those who had always advocated the most mode-
rate policy in the provincial disputes, seem from that
moment to have taken their part against the French as
rmolutely, if not as fiercely, as the rest of their country-
men, and to have joined in the determination never again
to submit to a French majority. A few exceptions mark
the existence, rather than militate against the truth of the
general rule of national hostility. A few of the French,
distinguished by moderate and enlarged views, still con-
demn the narrow national prejudices and ruinous violence
of their countrymen, while they equally resist what they
consider the violent and unjust pretensions of a minority,
and endeavour to form a middle party between the two
extremes. A large party of the Catholic clergy, a few of
the principal proprietors of the scignorial families, and
some of those who are influenced by ancient con nexioes
of psrty, support the Government against reao!utionery
violence. A very few persons of English origin (not
ny.re, peril:Ts, than fifty cut of the whole number), still
continue to act with the party which they originally
espoused. Those who affect to form a middle party exer-
cise no influence on the contending exile mss; and those
who side with the nation from which their birth dis-
tinguishes there, are regarded by their countrymen with
nggrevated hatred, as renegades from their race ; «bile
they obtain but little of the real affection, confidence, or
esteem of those whom they have joined.
The grounds of quarrel which are commonly alleged
appear, on investigation, to have little to do with its real

cause ; and the inquirer, who has imagined that the public
demonstrations or professions of the parties have put him
10 possession of their real motives and deigns, is surprised
to find, Upon nearer observation, how much he has been de-
ceivcd by the false colours under which they have been in
the habit of fighting. It is not, indeed, surprising that
each party should, in this instance, have practised mere
than the usual frauds of language, by which factions in
every country seek to secure the sympathy of other com-
munities. A quarrel based on the mere ground of national
animosity appears so revolting to the notions of good
sense and charity prevalent in the civilized world, that
the parties who feel such a passion the most strongly,
and indulge it the most openly, arc at great pains to
class themselves under any denominations but those
which would correctly designate their objects and
feelings. The French Canadians have attempted
to shroud their hostility to the influence of Eng-
lish emigration, and the introduction of British institu-
tions, under the guise of warfare against the Government
and its supporters, whom they represented to be a small
knot of corrupt and insolent dependents ; being a majority,
they have invoked the principles of popular control and
democracy, and appealed with no little effect to the sym-
pathy of Liberal politicians in every quarter of the world.
The English, finding their opponents in collision with the
Government, have raised the cry of loyalty and attachment
to British connexion, and denounced the republican
designs of the French, whom they designate, or rather used
to designate, by the appellation of Radicals. Thus the
French have been viewed as a democratic party,.contend-

ing for Reform; and the English as a Coniervative mino.
rity, protecting the menaced connection with the British
Crown, and the supreme authority of the empire. There
is truth in this notion, in so far as respects the means by

which each party sought to carry its own views of govern-
ment into effect. The French majority asserted the most
democratic doctrines of the rights of a numerical majority.
The English minority availed itself of the protection of
the prerogative, and allied itself with all those of the colo-
nial institutions which enabled the few to resist tho will of

the many. But when we look to the objects of each party,
the analogy to our own politics seems to be lost, if not
actually reversed ; the French appear to have used their
democratic arms for conservative purposes, rather than
those of liberal and enlightened movement ; and the sym-
pathies of the friends of reform:are naturally enlisted on the
side of sound amelioration whieh the English minority in
vain attempted to introduce into the antiquated laws of the

movince.
Yet even on the questions which had been most recently
he prominent matters of dispute between the two parties,
It is difficult to believe that the hostilities of the races was
the effect, and not the cause, of the pertinacity with which
the desired reforms were pressed or resisted.
The English complained of the Assembly's refusal to es-
tablish registry offices, and to commute the feudal te-
nures; and yet it was among the ablest and most influen-
tial leaders of the English that I found some of the oppo-
nents of both the proposed reforms. The leaders of the
French were anxious to disclaim any hostility to these re-
forms themselves. Many of them represented the reluctance
which the Assembly had exhibited to entertain these ques-
tions, as a result of the extraordinary influence which Mr.
Pepincau exercised over that body; his opposition was ac-
counted for by some peculiar prejudices of education and
professional practice, in which he was said to find little
say were-
concurrence among his countrymen ; it was stated that
even his influence would not have prevented these- ques-
tious from being very favourably entertained by the Assem-
bly, had it ever met again ; and I received assurances of a
friendly disposition towards them, which I must
while the
very much at variance with the reluctance which the
themselves
lead-
ing men of the party showed to any co-operation
me in the attempts which I subsequently made with
eminded to carry
the French po-
pulation, these very objects into effect. At the Berne titre
leading men of the French party thus render
i n every p
stbayrrcith-jc... abuses of the
liable to twhehoimnpreuriamtimonedoifataetsiumfrideroert
oppo-
sition to these improvements, the mass of v_
minded
shape, their
seignorial system, exhibited,
hostility to the state of things
obstinately maintained. There is which their leaders had so
that a great number of the every reason to believe
Denis and St. Charles, peasants who fought at St.
of success would be the imagined that the principal result
1;11rd:ens; aiid in
the declaration ofi ndependenco.Oich

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