The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-31 00:00:00

HE SIN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1838.

stated. The drift of the pamphlet is to show tha

since 1828 the British Government has gone on
steadily in the course pointed out in the Report of the
Select Committee of the House of Commons of that
year—a Report which M. PAPINEAU and his friends
in the Lower Province lauded as an imperishable
monument of British wisdom and justice. As evidence
of this fact the author quotes the Report of the Select
Committee of 1834—0 f which Mr. ROEBUCK, Mr.
O'CONNELL, Mr. WARBURTON, and Sir WILLIAM
MOLESWORTH were members—which says :—" Your
Committee consider it their duty to declare their
opinion, that a most earnest anxiety has existed on the
part of the Home Government to carry into execution
the suggestions of the Select Committee of 1828, and
that the endeavours of the Government to that end
have been unremitting, and guided by the desire, in all
cases, to promote the interests of the Colony, and your
Committee have observed with much satisfaction, that
in several important particulars their efforts have been
completely successful." Every impartial inquirer into
the real merits of the Canadian insurrection must ar-
rive at this conclusion :—that whereas, from the year
1806 up to 1828, the Canadians had justice on their
side—the concessions made by the Government since
that period, and the pledges given by Parliament of a
redress of grievances, have wholly changed the relation
in which the Colony previously stood to the Mother-
country. The Canadians from being the aggrieved
have become the aggressors ; and England, instead of
being the oppressor, has been wantonly insulted by a
violent faction, who, under the plea of obtaining a re-
dress of grievances, aim at the overthrow of her domi-
nion in every part of North America. PAPINEAU
wants to become the President of a new republic ; and
were he restored to the Speakership of the House of
Assembly, nothing would ever satisfy him short of a
separation from the regal sway of Great Britain. But
let it not be inferred from this that we acquit the Mi-
nisters of all blame respecting the rise of the rebellion.
Quite the reverse. Had the Cabinet only possessed
the most ordinary share of political sagacity—had a
sufficient military force been sent over in April last
when the coercive resolutions were passed—not a single
outrage would have occurred—not a drop of blood
would have been shed in either of the Provinces.
PAPINEAU would have remained quiet, and the ene-
mies of England would not be afforded the insulting
triumph of witnessing the rising of several thousands
of British subjects to dispute the authority of the
parent state. The blundering of Ministers, and their
timid apprehension of the risk of carrying out their
own measures, favoured the long fostered designs of
PAPINEAU and his accomplices ; so that to the extent
that imbecility entails guilt, is the Cabinet responsible
for the crimes committed in Canada. PAPINEAU and
his faction are guilty of having premeditated and orga-
nized a revolt—of having renounced their allegiance,
and shed the blood of their fellow citizens ; whereas
the guilt of Ministers extends only to their having pro-
voked hostilities by a series of despotic and unjust re-
solutions, without having the foresight to provide
against the possibility of armed resistance. Besides
Mr. CLARK'S pamphlet, we have received several
others on the same subject. Among those most
worthy of attention are :—" Canada at the Close of
1837," " Emancipate your Colonies, from an unpub-
lished manuscript of JEREMY BENTHAM ;" and the
" Fifth Number of the Canadian Portfolio," by Mr.
ROEBUCK. But as, with the passing of the Canada
Bill, the interest attached to most of these tracts will die
away, it is now too late to occupy our columns with a
more extended notice of them.

The Reform Bill is_no longer the popular idol it
was in 1832. Every succeeding day only serves to
discover some new blemish or blunder in it—some
additional proof of its unsuitableness to the wants of
the people. We verily believe that one-third of the
Liberals who most strenuously supported its adop-
tion—vdio compelled the Lords to accept it—arc now
heal Lily sick of it. Do they therefore seek the revival
of the rotten borough system ? By no means. They
hate corruption ; they detest the domination of the
aristocracy, and are as firmly resolved to resist t as
ever they were. But they are persuaded—experience,
they allege, has taught them—that the people of Eng-
land can never be fairly represented in Parliament till
a Knowledge Qualification he substituted for the pro-
perty qualification which now confers the right to
exercise the elective franchise. As they have deve-
loped their views in pamphlets and essays, and as
these views are very creditable to tlieir moderation and

talents, we shall, from time to time, seize such oppor-
tunities as to us shall seem most appropriate for sub-
mitting them to the judgment of our readers. We
some weeks since commented upon a pamphlet, pub-
hshed by Mr. ADAM, Editor of the Aberdeen Herald,
on the Knowledge Qualification—a qualification which
was more recently defended in the House of Peers by
Lord BROUGHAM, in his masterly speech upon his
own National Education Bill ; and we have now to
direct attention to a still more striking essay on the
same subject, published by EFFINGHAM WILSON,
and entitled " An Appeal to the moral and intellectual
classes in favour of an immediate Repeal of the Re.
form Bill, and an entire reconstruction of the system
of Representation." The author, who represents
himself as a Member of Parliament of some years
standing, enumerates what lie styles the " Seven
deadly Sins of the Reform Bill," and undertakes to
show that our present system of representation is not
only defective, but radically vicious. Without sub-
scribing to all his opinions, we candidly admit that
those who are least under the influence of ignorant
prejudices are the most likely to be influenced by his
reasoning. We shall first briefly enumerate his list
of the defects of the Reform Bill, and subsequently de-
velope his plan for a reconstruction of the Representa-
tive System. In so doing, we beg distinctly and
emphatically to be understood as giving expression to
the sentiments of the Member of the House of Com-
mons, whose pamphlet is before us. The " Seven
deadly Sins of the Reform Bill" then are :
I. Want of comprehensiveness. Its object was to snb-
stituto actual ror pretended virtual representation ; whereas
so restricted is the franchise, that in a population exceeding
twenty-five millions of persons the electoral body scarcely ex-
ceeds half a million—or one in fifty I
2. Want of comprehensiveness in the habitable surface
of the country within its operation by the establishment of ar-
bitrary and often ridiculous boundary lines, as in the outskirts
of cities end boroughs.
3. The establishment of a property qualification, defec-
tive, because those is no affinity between rental and a discharge
of the duty of an elector ; because such a standard of qualifica-
tion is liable to constant fluctuation; and because it offers
temptation to perjury and _fraud on the part of the elector.
4. The trammels which it imposes upon the elector by
the rate-paying, non-renioval, clauses.
5. The power of unlimited and !exatious
objection,aoc cby.
d.
agents, which it admits in the Registration Courts, without any
redress for the cost, trouble, and annoyance, vexatiously
6. Want of a provision to securo the identity of electors,
in consequence of which hundreds of persons absent or dead
were represented by individuals who polled in their name at
the last election. -

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7. Its recognition of the practice of Election Petitions, so
fertile in bribery, corruption, perjury,. and intimidation, after
the elections are terminated—a practice which he contends
ought to be absolutely and entirely abolished."
So much for the defects of the present Represen-
tative System. Now for the remedy :
In the first place, the author would change the
standard of qualification, and following in the foot-
steps of BENTHAM—substitute for a minimum
amount of property or rental a minimum amount of
intelligence. The being able to read and write, he
contends, is a fairer test of such a qualification than