The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-07 00:00:00

• SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Before we proceed to notice the proclamation of Lord
Durham, brought by the Royal William steamer, we wish
to correct a mistake of our Contemporary the Globe with
respect to his Lordship's departure, and the time at which
he may be expected in this country. "It is expected,"
says the Globe, " that his Lordship and suite will leave
New York about the 27th instant, and will be in England
before Christmas." He was to leave Quebec, not New
York, on the 27th of October. His Lordship has stated,
we know, that he did not expect to be in England before
the month of January. It was not his intention to pass
rapidly through the States, but to endeavour to strengthen
as far as he could the good understanding between the two
nations. With respect to the proclamation of his Lord-
ship, it is no doubt an eloquent paper. It is impossible to
prove, in more forcible language, the injustice and the folly
of delegating to him it power which, "in the strictest sense
of the word, was despotic," for purposes for which a
more limited authority would have been unavailing,
and then harassing him by a system of petty interference.
It was necessary," says his Lordship, " that the most un-
usual confidence should accompany the delegation of a most
unusual authority ; and that, in addition to such great legal
powers, the Government here should possess all the moral
force that could be derived from the assurance that its
acts would be final, and its engagements religiously ob-
served." Lord Melbourne warned the Peers when they
were proceeding in their infatuated course to beware how
they destroyed his Lordship's authority, and he predicted
the mischievous consequences which must follow from their
interference. It was madness to " dream of applying the
theory or the practice of the British constitution to a
country whose constitution was suspended—where all re-
presentative government was annihilated, and the people
deprived of all control over their own affairs—where
the ordinary guarantees of personal rights had been in
abeyance during a long subjection to martial law,
and a continued suspension of the habeas corpus—
where there neither did exist, nor had for a long time
existed, any confidence in the impartial administration of
justice in any political case." But there is a time and a
place for everything. What might have been becoming
and necessary for Lord Durham to say in his place in Par-
liament ought not to have been said by the representative
of the Queen in Canada. There is much force in the ob-
servations of the Standard on this subject :—" We, having
anticipated, with far inferior ability, all the arguments by
which the Noble Earl defends his ordinances, must be sup-
posed to admit the force of that defence, but we cannot
think that it has been made in the proper place. The
whole paper looks too like an appeal from the decision of
the Queen and Parliament of Great Britain to the sense,
if not to the feeling, of the people of Canada ;—surely an
unbecoming character for a proclamation issued by the
Queen's representative." That the people of Canada
could not of themselves fail to draw from the folly, the in-
sanity, rather, of the House of Peers, inferences calculated
to shake their confidence in the Colonial Govern-
ment is no doubt true. It was impossible that
they should not consider it as a great draw-
back from the advantage of a connection with this
great empire that the hereditary branch of the Legislature
proved itself possessed of such inconceivable fatuity as to
suffer itself to be led by the quibbling of a factious lawyer
to interfere with the only course which could avert from
Canada a renewal of civil war. But Lord Durham should
not have drawn that inference himself. The cavilling of
factious or pedantic Peers about the illegality of the Ordi-
nances will have had the effect of continuing the troubles
of the colony, of checking its industry, and giving a blow to
its prosperity. There is really no calculating the amount of
mischief which may result from the proceedings of the
House of Lords. On the authority of one well acquainted
with what is now going on in Canada, we may state
that the task of Lord Durham's successor will be a
most arduous and painful one ; and therefore we could
have wished that his Lordship had not added to
the difficulty by the inflammatory character of his
proclamation. We are assured that the habitans,
once so peaceable and confiding, and who in former times
had for the English a deference amounting almost to devo-
tion, are now inflamed with the most intense hatred of their
fellow-subjects of British origin. This hatred has not been
diminished by the events of the brief but decisive struggle
into which they entered last autumn. They are now
burning for revenge for the defeat they have sustained, and
the consequences of that defeat. They are by no means dis-
posed to sit down contentedly with the first reverse. We
almost dread to repeat what we have heard from a
source on which we place great reliance. The contest, we
are told, has been commenced, and it must go on to its ter-
mination. It is now a contest of racet ; it is Englishman
against Frenchman, not Loyalist against Rebel, or Royalist
against Republican. No other sentiment animates either race
against the other—all differences and grievances hivve
merged in this one ; and nothing can now bring
about a settlement, but such a course of events as shall
determine the question whether English or French blood
shall rule. The contest which has been provoked by the
sword must be settled by that weapon or by superior force.
We beseech our readers to believe that we would not re-
peat this strong and frightful language, did we not believe
that it most accurately describes the present feeling in Ca-
nada. The picture of civil strife which the Duke of Wel-
lington drew in the House of Lords from his experience,
when he urged his apprehension of it as a ground for no
longer refusing to concede the claims of the Catholics, was
but too like the reality. Would that his Grace had borne
his own description in remembrance when factious lawyers
and political sciolists were so dangerously tampering with the
peace of Canada. The Duke of Wellington ought to have
given on that trying occasion his support to Lord Mel-
bourne, and discountenanced the attempts to throw Ca-
nada into confusion. It is, as Lord Melbourne well
observed, one of the evils of popular Government, that
authority may be paralyzed at critical conjunctures, when
the integrity of the empire is endangered. Knowing this
vulnerable point, it is the especial duty of all men possessed
of high influence to use it in frowning down such mis-
chievous attempts as those of last Session. At the same
time we must say that Lord Durham ought to have made
greater allowances for the peculiarities of the Government
of this country. He was, it is true, invested with despotic
powers ; and to interfere with him in the execution of those
powers was most mischievous. But how often in the his-
tory of England has faction animated the members of the
Legislature ! No power, however absolute, can be pro-
tected against the attacks of members of either House.
At this time, more especially, such attacks can with
more difficulty be guarded against. The majorities of
the two Houses pull in different directions. The ma-
jority of the House of Lords is Tory, and the ma-
jority of the House of Commons is Liberal. Lord
Melbourne's Government was placed in abeyance by the
majority of the House of Lords. When the faction
chooses to exert itself in that House, the Minister is ne-
cessarily involved in difficulties. Of what avail would it
have been to make a stand in the Commons with the
Lords moving in another direction ? Canada would not
have gained by a collision which placed the whole Tory party
at variance with Lord Durham's Government.—Morning
Chronicle.
_ _ • . .

Amongst other articles of intelligence brought by the
Royal William, from New York, and inserted yesterday
in a second edition of this Journal, there came a proclama-
tion of Lord Durham, dated the 9th of October, and ad-
dressed to the Canadians of both provinces—a curious,
highly characteristic, perfectly unexampled, and most inde-
corous document. If this proclamation of the Noble Lord
were to be judged no otherwise than with regard to its me-
rits as a composition, we could say, with truth, that it is
neatly, and indeed elegantly, written. But the affairs of
empires and the characters of Statesmen are not to depend
on such skin-deep attributes as correctness of grammar and
clearness of style. Where there is in the conduct of a po-
litical functionary an evident and egregious want of temper,
of discretion, of magnanimity, of patriotism—of even the
most ordinary solicitude for the public interests and wel-
fare—of even the most homely sense of decency towards
the Government (however mean and despicable), which
employs him, and towards the Legislature which he
professes himself bound to obey—it were frivolous
trifling to adduce the literary purity of an otherwise
vicious and desperate production, in apology for those
reprehensible motives through which alone it could
ever have been permitted to see the light in such a
form, and at such a season. We beg to be understood
as confining the above animadversions to this single pro-
ceeding of Lord Durham—namely, his address to the
people under his government, bearing date the 9th of last
October. With the previous acts of the Noble Lord,
after he took upon himself the administration of North
America, we need not have any immediate concern beyond
what is required by his reference to them in the document
now under notice. It will be soon enough when he
comes to defend the whole policy of his High Commissioner-
ship (should he ever do so) from his place in the House of
Lords. Lord Durham commences by a sneer at the policy
of his predecessors in the government of the Canadas—a
sneer as uncalled for as it is mischievous, ill-conditioned,
and unjust :—" The mystery which has heretofore
too often, during the progress of the most important
affairs, concealed from the people of these colonies
the intentions, the motives, and the very actions
of their rulers, appears to me to have been one of
the main causes of the numerous errors of the Govern-
ment, and the general dissatisfaction of the people."
Might not the Noble Lord have assigned a reason for his
own unreserved communicativeness to the Canadians, with-
out attempting to raise a shout of popularity for himself by
a slander on those who went before him ? Lord Durham
next commits a palpable blunder, involving a contradiction,
as well as a self-condemnation, which pervades his whole
address to the people :—" I explained to you in a procla-
mation issued immediately on my arrival on these shores
the nature of the powers vested in me." Now, this would
all be extremely well if much the greater portion of what
follows were not a clear demonstration on the part of the
Noble Lord that he could not have explained to the Cana-
dian people (correctly at least) the " nature of the powers"
vested in him, because it is placed beyond all question that
he did not understand them himself. " When Parliament
concentrated all legislative and executive power in Lower
Canada in the same hands, it established an authority
which, in the strictest sense of the word, was despotic.'
Here, again, there is a manifest blunder. The Noble
Lord may have flattered himself that he possessed despotic
power, and may, with the eagerness of a vain and aspiring
mind, have caught at it as a boy would jump at a new play-
thing. But the Act of Parliament which appointed him
proved that his powers were in no sense of the word despo-
tic. Even the right of appointing his own " Special Coun-
cil" was positively withheld from the Lord High Commis-
sioner, and in nominating the members of his own house-
hold to be his councillors, without a previous authorization
from the Queen in Council here, his Lordship assumed a
power with which the Act of Parliament had certainly not
intrusted him. Lord Durham proceeds :—" He never was
weak enough to imagine that the forms by which men's
rights are wisely guarded in that country" (viz., England)
where freedom has been longest enjoyed, best under-
stood, and most prudently exercised, could be scrupulously
observedin a society almostentirely disorganized by misrule"
(another backhand blow at his predecessors) " and dissen-
sion:" where also, after some considerable verbiage, he adds
words to this effect :—" Martial law had prevailed, the
Habeas Corpus Act had been suspended, and there had
not for a long time existed any confidence in the impartial
administration of justice in any political case." Now,
throughout the whole of these reproachful retrospections of
the Noble Earl, does it not strike, and grate upon, the
mind of every English reader, that in no one sentence, and
in no one phrase, does there so much as by accident ooze
out the very slightest inuendo with regard to the real cause
and origin of the " martial law," the " suspended Habeas
Corpus Act," and the want of all " confidence" in Juries ?
Does it not affect with a mixture of indignation and dis-
gust every loyal Englishman who reads this manifesto, that
this departing Captain-General and civil " despot" should,
while speaking of the privation of " Constitutional" Go-
vernment in Canada, forget to glance at the pernicious
presence and long-continued practices of incendiary dema-
gogues whose sole business had been to inflame the
s' people" against those who were placed in authority
over them ; that he should never state frankly, broadly,
and like a man of honour, the necessity which existed for
not restoring the powers of a Constitution which the French
Canadians themselves had overturned ; the compulsion
under which the British authorities had reluctantly acted
in resisting an open rebellion by " martial law," and the
spirit of disaffection and hatred towards British rule which
bad its source not one-tenth part so much in any descrip-
tion of real misgovernment, as in a desire, factitiously
fomented, for ceasing to be a colony, and setting up as an
independent nation of some half million of souls ? We
are bound to say that there seems to us a great deal of a
very discreditable character in this official document. But
of a foolish and inconsistent character, it may suffice to
point out that he who had so early in the day explained to
the people of Canada " the nature of the powers vested in
him" is forced to qualify his account of the matter in a
subsequent paragraph, by stating that he " had reason to
believe that he was armed with all the power which
be thought requisite by the Commissions and instruc-
tions under the Royal sign manual" &c., although he af-
terwards confesses that " in those first expectations he was
painfully disappointed." Lord Durham afterwards boasts
much of what he would have done for Canada, and was on
the point of doing ; nor shall we be unfair enough to ques-
tion, that amidst te great variety of schemes projected
by him, his Lordship might not have lighted on some from
which more or less of practical good might by possibility
have followed. What we most complain of, however,
in this State document is the want of dignity as well as
principle manifested by Lord Durham in making an in-
flammatory appeal to the turbulent democracy wherever
it can be found in North America against the Legislature
of Great Britain and the constituted
the
es of
the empire—attempting to gain over the popu
of the colonies as parties in his own personal quartherel—
-
and, since he has been himself deprived of Go
vernment, to render the task of governing those colo-
nies as difficult as possible for those who come after
him—to exasperate to the utmost the passions of a rebel-
lious people, to undermine the dominion of
to th
accelerate
e Mother
Country over those distant possessions, and
and define that calamitous hour at which a combination of
bad men and evil contingencies may bring about the dis-
memberment of the noblest empire in the world. We say
plainly that this document has given us a worse opinion of
Lord Durham than we ever entertained before. Puerile,
vain, and petulant, the Noble Lord has often shown him-
self ; but in the present instance we regret to say that the
qualities he discloses are of a far darker hue. At the same
time the Queen's Ministers stand convicted as- much as
ever of the grossest want of common sense towards Ca-
nada, and of the most ignominious meanness and treachery
towards Lord Durham. They ought to have known, what
is clear to all the world, that where subjects fling off
the authority of the laws, and appeal to rebellion and
bloodshed, the rule of government cannot be too simple,
nor its powers too much concentrated. A military man is
the most appropriate settler of an armed disturbance. Sir
John Colborne, admirable as an administrator and a soldier,
who had learned the science of war under Wallington at
the head of the 52d Regiment, throughout the whole of the
Peninsular contest, was already in Canada, and knew the
country, where he had been in observation of thepeople
The first folly of the Ministerspp
for ten or eleven yearhs.
faineant as Lord Gosford to
was their sending such a
The second folly was tosuspe
sede or encumber him.
and • ,'d
Lord Durham, a loose ostentatioush experimentalist,
intemperate, speculative;victirgotcLoertdy,Daunrdhacmon(cseiinteede.
he The
third folly was the not g
ofari une-
their choice) powers adeq fuateu to
t the emergency
h follyewmaestchnecy
notir
being
suppressed rebellion.
`ll.le
amountfourth
of power which Lord
themselves aware of the
out
Durham did actually carry with him. The last and
raft of baseness on ab-
most revolting folly of all was th e g
surdity—the flinching from the defence of their own dele-
gate—the not insisting that the House o should
f Commons shou
pass a resolution complimentary to the humane motives of
an Ordinance, even though its illeg ht have been
ality mig
too apparent to be justified, and thus the conversion of
their protege, though, in the words of Lord
"inconvenient
Jae might in this country have proved an
friend, into a victim of the most selfish and most wretched
(..oivardice that ever disgraced the party history of England.
Atlq),*qters had already disposed of Lord Durham by their
selecant; of him for the Government of North America,
s he eagerness of their desire to sacrifice him, they
where, 01 0- pf the danger in which they involved the
thought littleord Durham has now :succeeded in disposing of
colonies. L
himself. A matt so uttery l deficient in all high political
qualifications can never again be formidable to his rivals, or
...Will or creditable to his country.—Times.

We copy the following from the Globe of last night,
disregarding the apparent awkwardness of repeating that
short article of our own which it embodies. If we thought
this repetition needed any apology to our readers we should
plead in excuse for it the importance of the information which
the article conveys, and our exclusive possession of the
means of laying that information before the public. But no
apology can be necessary since we plainly consult the con-
venience of our readers in placing our intelligence juxta-
position with the official contradiction, or qualification
rather, which it has received, and in thus affording them
all the facility we can for a comparison of the one with
the other, and for drawing their own conclusion from
both :
" The Post publishes the following as its most prominent
article this morning :
" Wehave reason to believe that the Government has
received dispatches from Lord Ponsonby, the British Ant-
bassador at Constantinople, dated the 13th ult., which men-
ticn the important fact that the Russians had collected a very
large naval force in the Black Sea, and that they were daily
expected at Constantinoplo. Our Ambassador had sent press-
ing instructions to the British Admiral at Vourla, to hold the
fleet in readiness for any emergency that might arise. It was
confidently expected at Constantinople, that if the Russian
fleet should enter the Bosphorus and anchor before the capi-
tal, the British Admiral would be ordered to pass the Darda-
nelles, and closely watch them.' "
" What is accurate in the above paragraph is, that dis-
patches have been received (some days back) from Lord
Ponsonby, of the 13th ult. These, however, contain no spe-
cial intelligence of the above description. That the Russians
are very active, and that there is corresponding vigilance in
our fleet, is certain; but all the rest is mere rumour."
" All Me rest is mere rumour." It is rather difficult to
ascertain how much of our statement this is intended to
contradict, or whether it be really intended to contradict
any part of it. We may venture, however, to say, that if
it be meant for a contradiction, it is more vague and timid
than official contradictions generally are. But as " all the
rest is mere rumour," let us see what the rest is, and in
prder to this, let us see how much of our statement is ac-
knowledged and confirmed by the official article of the
Globe. We were accurate, according to the Globe, in stating
that despatches had been receivedfrom Lord Ponsonby of the
13th ult. This is something, and it is something the more
that, although the despatches arrived, as our Ministerial Con-
temporary says, " some days back," the Treasury Journals
had not been permitted to know anything of the receipt
of the despatches, of their date, or of their contents, until
our publication respecting them suggested to our Contem-
porary the necessity of making inquiries, or put his friends
at the Foreign Office to the task of explaining and qualify-
ing what we had published, or of mystifying the public with
respect to it. And as it was not " mere rumour" that had
led us right in respect to the date of Lord Ponsody's de-

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1838.

spatches, of which we alone of the London journals knew
anything, so neither probably was it " mere rumour" that
had led us right when we informed the public that the com-
munication made by those despatches was important, and
that it related to the Russian and the British fleets. To
this extent our statement is again confirmed and ratified
by the official article of the Globe. " That the Russians
are very active," says our Contemporary, " and that
there is corresponding vigilance in our fleet is certain:"
Then as to " all the rest," which the Globe is
instructed to ascribe to the authority of " mere rumour,"
we have only to say that we now repeat, not merely with
unabated but with increased confidence in its entire accu-
racy, every particular of our statement of yesterday ;
afterf
nd
we must take leave to deny the right of the Globe,
admitting so much as it has been compelled to admit, to
impeach the accuracy of " all the rest," otherwise than by
an explicit statement from authority of the actual contents
of Lord Ponsonby's despatches of the 13th ult., so far as
they relate to the movements of the two fleets. Does the
Globe expect to make its readers believe that Lord Pon-
sonby wrote home to his Government respecting the move-
ments of the Russian and English fleets, without saying
more than that the firmer is " very active," and that
" there is corresponding vigilance in the other ?"—Morning
• Post.

those half yearly payments. He (Mr. Sergeant Wilde)
knew that by the recent Act of Parliament that was a matter
left to the discretion of the Jury, but he complained that the
mi3dirretion of the Learned Judge had the effect of preven..ing
them from exercising it in this case. The Court granted a
rule to show cause.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY, Nor. 6.
CHARLES NEALL'S BANKRUPTCY.
This day was appointed for the final examination of the
bankrupt, who has, however, not surrendered. The bankrupt
entered into businesi six months since, at Epping, as a general
dealer, and succeeded in obtaining goods on credit from vari-
ous firms, referring to Benjamin Parker as to his respectability.
Parker become bankrupt, and Neall, when sought after, was
not to be found. The liabilities of Neall amount to 2,0001.,
and the property seized to 2001. It is understood he has pro-
ceeded to the Continent.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, Nor. 6.
SINGULAR APPLICATION.—IN THE MATTER OF S. PHILLIPS.
In this case Mr. CooKE, at the rising of the Court, made
a singular application. The insolvent was discharged under
the Act in 1823, and the present application on the part of
his Assignee was that a warrant should issue for his commit-
ment to the prison from which he was discharged until be
transferred some property to which he was entitled, and
which was more than sufficient to pay all his creditors twenty
shillings in the pound. It appeared from an affidavit that
the insolvent's father was entitled to funded property under
the will of a relation named Somers, and he had assigned the
property to his son, the insolvent. The property could not be
taken in execution in pursuance of the Act of Parliament under
which he was discharged, and an application was now made
under the 58th section of the 7th Geo. I V., for the insolvent
to transfer the property, or be committed to his former cus-
tody until he complied.
Mr. Commissioner BOWEN referred to the words of the
clause. He said the present motion would come under the
words " any other property."
Mr. COOKE remarked that the powers in such cases were
now considerably extended by the new law.
Mr. Commissioner BOWEN had no objection to grant a rule
nisi, in order that the question might be argued.
The COURT granted a rule accordingly.