The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-09 00:00:00

suspend, for a time at least, the present Constitution of that
colony. It had been said by Noble Lords opposite that the
revolt was not a sufficient ground for the Bill. He ( Viscount
Melbourne) fully admitted that revolt, that resistance, was
not in itself a sufficient ground ; but the whole working of the
Constitution for the last four or five years, followed up and
consummated by the revolt, was ground sufficient for the Bill,
and to manifest that it was fraught with no injustice. The
Noble and Learned Lord bad asked, would they punish a
whole province for the fault of a few parishes? But the an-
swer was, that there was no punishment in the case. It might
be an evil to have an arbitrary Government established over
them for a time—it might be a great evil to separate from the
mother country—but it was a much greater evil to exist for so
long a time without any Government at all, and Government held
itself bound in duty not to allow such a state of things to re-
main, and they fully believed that the measure they had framed
would be accepted as a boon by all the thinking and well-
disposed men of all parties, and by all the inhabitants of
the province. A Noble Lord opposite had given it as his
opinion, arguing on what had passed before, that this would
not be well received by the settlers of English descent. He
( Viscount Melbourne) had no reason to expect this to be the
case ; he fully believed that the measure would be acceptable
to all parties. The Noble and Learned Lord near him had
complained that the powers entrusted to the new Governor
were restricted in their character. He (Viscount Melbourne)
should. have rather expected the complaint to have been the
other way—that the powers were too extensive, were tyran-
nical, despotic ; but, notwithstanding the Noble and Learned
Lord's view of the matter, he (Viscount Melbourne) confi-
dently believed that the powers entrusted to Lord Durham
would be found fully adequate to the purpose, and thought un-
questionably the Noble Lord did not go out with powers abso-
lutely to settle, finish, and arrange, yet that he had powers suffi-
cient to enable him efficiently to prepare matters for the final
and complete arrangement of the affairs of the Province. The
Noble Lord opposite had gone much into the general question of
colonial policy, and as to the prudence of considering closely the
advantage which colonies were to the mother country, and as to
the wisdom of looking at some future time to the separation of
such colonies. There might be some sagacity in the remarks
which had been made on this point, but he (Viscount Mel-
bourne) had some doubts as to the policy of making them on
this occasion.—( Hear, hear.) It was extremely doubtful po-
licy to hold out temptations to separation on every trifling
event, on every slight quarrel, on every small difference—
(Hear, hear)—and it must be recollected that however this
might be considered in a commercial or political point of view,
recession, the drawing back, the contraction of territories, was
no trifling matter.—( Hear, hear.) It had never been found
to be so. The boundaries of an empire might easily be pushed
too far, it might be difficult to maintain them, but the drawing
them within a smaller limit had never redounded to the cre-
dit or the safety of an empire.—( Hear, hear.) The Noble
Lord had said that all nations had parted with colonies
at one time or another, and it was true that this country
had at various periods lost great foreign possessions, while
her greatness had survived the loss ; but still it was impos-
sible to deny that the loss of these had given us at the time
great shocks.—( Hear.) The voluntary parting with colonies
was quite a novel idea. The separation of the United States
from this country had been adverted to by the Noble and
Learned Lord, who stated that the grandeur and power and
prosperity of this country had not suffered by the event. Per-
haps such was the case ; but, at the same time, it was quite
impossible for us to decide what would have been the case hail
that event not taken place, and we had still maintained cur
dominion over these etatc s.—( Hear, hear.) It was well
known, however, that the war with these colonies had cost
us a great deal of blood and treasure, and some loss of
reputation ; for it was supposed that the war was not very
well conducted by our officers, though our soldiery never
more highly distinvaished themselves ; but still it could
not be shown that we should have stood better if we had
given way at the time the declaration of independence
was made, instead of carrying on the war to its close in
the manner we did.—( Cries of" Hear, bear.") The Noble
and Learned Lord had said that everything in these cases de-
pended on the temper of mind, the tone of feeling with which
we quitted partnership with our separated colonies ; yet,
although the tone of feeling in which we parted from the
United States was none of the most affectionate, our inter-
course with those States most rapidly and largely increased
after the separation.—( Hear, hear.) These were specula-
tions, however, in which it was better not to indulge; it was
our duty to maintain the territory, the possessions which we
possessed—( Hear, hear)—and he.believed that we should be
fully able to maintain them, not merely by force of arms, but
by the good will, the friendly feelings of the inhabitants of
those countries ; and he had no doubt but that, when peace
end order were restored in Canada, means would he promptly
found for cementing the union between that province and the
mother country, by acting on those principles which it would
be absurd to depart from, of considering the local nature of
the case, the character of their Government, and acting strictly
on the principles of constitutional liberty and freedom. —( Hear. )
Earl FITZ WILLIAM feared that this measure was the
forerunner of greater difficulties than the Government appeared
to anticipate; but if any individual was more peculiarly quali-
fied than another to meet the exigencies of the case, it was
the Noble Earl who had been selected by the Government. If
the resolutions of Parliament last year were received with
such disgust in Canada, even as was acknowledged, by the
friends of the connection with this country, what must be the
effect of this Bill when it reached the colony? He did not
like the words " French party," or English party ;" hut it
was well known that many of the latter party had taken the
side of the former. He felt it to be impossible to acquit this
Bill of beine• a great measure of injustice towards Canada.—
(Hear.) He was persuaded that the authors of the measure
would be disappointed in their expectations of success.
When he used the term "authors," he did not mean merely
his Noble Friends, but the people of England, who seemed
to have rushed with an incredible blindness into the opinions
which they held upon this subject. Under these circumstances,
regretting as he did to vote against the Noble Lords who
now occupied the Ministerial bench, he could not satisfy his
conscience if he had allowed the Bill to go to a third reading
without briefly expressing his sentiments upon it. He could
not but fear that we should have all the scenes of the Ame-
rican war acted over again ; that we should experience the
same Iliad of woes that were experienced between 1768 and
1782 ; and that we should come out of the contest weakened,
and in reputation and every other respect materially injured
by the struggle.
The Bill was then read a third time.
Lord GLENELG introduced a proviso in the second
clause, the nature of which did not appear, but which was
agreed to.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH wished to propose an amend-
ment, providing for a very possible case. He proposed a
proviso to the effect that " If on the arrival of the Act in the
colony the Legislative Assembly should be found dissolved,
and a new Assembly called, or if after the arrival of the Act
in the colony it should be thought expedient by the
Governor to 'dissolve the Assembly and to call another, it
should be lawful for him to do so, and that the proclama-
tion of the Act should be postponed until it was the pleasure
of the Governor to order it to be proclaimed." To him it
appeared to be perfectly impossible so to alter the character of
the several districts in Lower Canada as to prevent the As-
sembly from representing the French party ; and he was per-
suaded that it would be quite as impassible two years hence as
it was at the present moment.
Lord GLENELG disclaimed all intention on the part of
her Majesty's Government to form a union of the two Pro-
vinces. Their object was only to endeavour to make such an
alteration in the constitution of each Province as might enable
each to be better governed. He must object to the Noble
Lord's amendment. It was entirely contrary to the principle
of the measure. It would counteract all that had been done,
and would excite alarm and difficulty.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH repeated, that if it were in-
tended at some time or other to call together a Legislative
Assembly in Lower Canada, it would be impossible to take such
a step advantageously after the passing of this Act. He felt
he had done his duty in stating his sentiments on the subject.
He might be wrong. Considering to how large a majority he
was opposed, the probability was that he was so ; but being
himself persuaded that the measure must fail, he was bound to
express his opinion to that effect.
The amendment was then negatived ; the Bill was passed ;
and, at a quarter past ten o'clock, their Lordships adjourned.