The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-23 00:00:00

fur though there were not wanting in that assembly many ad.
vacates who were not defielent in zeal, and whom they hail
heard on former occasions most fully state the wishes and
represent the opinions of the Canadian people, yet he re-
joiced that the British Parliament, in accordance with the
feelings whichever actuated a British assembly, had not inter-
posed any obstacle to the hearing ofa gentleman claiming to be
the authorised agent of the Canadian people, and poisessed of
such an authority, so far as a resolution of the House of As.
amiably could confer it.—(Cheers.) He would not follow
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman through the remote
periods of the Canadian history, neither would he recite the
serious grievances which from time to time and from year
to year they had heard so well stated by that Hon. and Learned
Gentleman in his place as a Member of that House, nor the
answers called forth upon those occasions ; but he must advert
to one point in the earlier state of facts which had been re-
ferred to, and in which the Hon. and Learned Gentleman at-
tempted to make the house believe that the Canadian dis-
pute related only to financial differences, and that the whole
was merely a financial question. The Hon. and Learned
Gentleman had stated that all the Canadians required was a
control over the revenue; and in dealing with this point the
Hon. Gentleman hnd imputed great negligence and imbecility
to her Majesty's Ministers ; but he (Sir G. Grey) must say
that this was not a fair representation, for every financial
claim had been attended to by the Government ; and the Le.
gislative Assembly had subsequently departed from the just
and constitutional grounds on which it had first stood.—
( [leer.) Concession was made of all their just rights,
and then commenced their unconstitutional and unjust de-
mands; and a negative was given to those demands by
the Parliament only after a solemn and thrice-repeated
declaration of the Canadian Legislature to adjourn all
their deliberations, to render useless their functions, and
to abrogate the duties imposed upon them by the
Act of 1791, till the British Government and the Parliament
had receded front the ground which they had taken—till they
had granted an Elective Legislative Council. By these acts,
or rather this neglect, the Canadian Constitution was prac-
tically suspended, although it would only be so in reality by
the Act which was then proposed ; an Act which, in fact, was
only to supply the wants created by the refusal of the As-
sembly to provide for those Legislative measures , which the
interest of the Province demanded, and to fill up the interval
.which must elapse before an Assembly could be called toge-
ther. The Government had placed confidence in the repre-
sentations made to them, that if the Canadians were entrusted
with a controul over their expenditure, there would be but
little difficulty in managing the affairs of the Colony ; but
when the Assembly met they carried not one Legislative Act ;
they met to remonstrate, not to legislate ; they saw all the
Acts which required re-enactment expiring ; and all this they
allowed to pass without the slightest attempt to prevent the
injustice which would accrue to the public and to indivi-
duals, without any provision for the manifold interests which
required their protection, Red which were placed in their
hands by the Act of 1791 ; and the House was then called
upon, after the greatest forbearance had been carried to the
fullest extent, by the Bill then before them, to remedy these
inconveniences, and this in the only manner in which it could
do so effectively, unless Hon. Members assumed the execution
of the functions of the Local Legislature, by passing, from
day to day the Bills which might be required, and which they
must do in absence from the scene of action, and in entire ig-
norance of the local wants and local wishes. But let not the
House mistake the real state of the case, nor what had occurred
in Canada since 1828. Let them mark well the progress of
the present dispute relative to the conduct of the House of
Assembly. In 1833 a Bill of Supply was passed by the Le-
g:slative Assembly, which was rejected by the Legislative
Council, for the reasons and under the circumstances men-
tinned on a former evening. In 1834 no such question arose,
but the House of Assembly, without any distinct refusal to vote
a supply, passed the ninety-two resolutions which were embodied
in the address to that House, and which having been sent to
the Governor to be forwarded, the Legislative Assembly was
left with so few members remaining in Quebec attending to
their duties, as to render it impossible to transact any busi-
ness, and they could only meet and adjourn. In 1835 the
same process was pursued, and thus for two years the As-
sembly separated without making any provision for the public
service, or for the payment of the salaries duo to the persons
who were necessary to discharge the judicial offices in the
colony, or to those other persons against whom it was never
alleged either that their offices were unnecessary, or that their
salaries were inadequate to the onerous duties which they had
to perform. Under these circumstances it became, in 1834,
the duty of the Government to consider the best steps to pur-
sue to raise the colony to a better state ; and he could not re-
gret, notwithstanding- the weakness and the imbecility with
which he and his colleagues were charged, that they did not
adopt those harsher measures which would have led to an im-
mediate quarrel ; that they did believe in the professions
which were made, that if the Canadians bad a controul over
the expenditure, and if there were a fair distribution of offices,
there was no reason to fear but that the Legislature would
cordially co-operate with the Government to carry on the
executive functions. Ministers might have been too credulous,
but the course which they adopted was preferable to a
harsh and little-provoked exercise of dominion, and
the exercise of what Burke called "the boundless power
of imperious legislation." Lord Gosford had gone out
in 1835, and had carried with him instructions in a double ca-
pacity, both as Governor and as a Commissioner. As a Go-
vernor, he was ordered to remedy every abuse, and to redress
every grievance which was within the province of the Execu-
tive Government, and he (Sir George Grey) might confi-
dently appeal to every act of Lord Gosford in support of the
assertion, that he had fairly acted up to the spirit of these in-
structions ; for he bad never heard any complaint against his
Lords'iip in his administration charging him with any par-
tiality, any preference to one race over another ; or, at least,
he had never heard such a complaint from the :Canadians
themselves. Complaint had been made that he had removed
from commissions in the militia arid the magistracy, not gen-
tlemen who had merely attended a public meeting, to express
a legitimate opposition to any given course of Government,
but to pass resolutions subversive of all connection between
..his cenntry and the colony, and tending to that direct infrac-
tion of the law which had since been acted upon. If Lord
Gosford had waited until insurrection had actually taken place,
tiil the men were to be met with arms in their hands, then, in-
deed, he might have been justly accused of imbecility for abstain_
ing from acting, but allowing the whole weight of their
authority to add to the power which they would have
with a misguided people; and he must say that Lord
Gosford had taken the course which every man of mind
would have pursued. He had been conciliatory till the
exercise of stronger powers was absolutely necessary, and
when the necessity arose he had not failed. In 1834 or
1835 the first demand was made for an Elective Council, and
the House of Assembly refused either to vole a supply, or to
perform their other functions, till their demand was granted.
Lord Gosford, in opening the Session of 1835, informed the
House that he had received his Majesty's commands to place
at the disposal of the House all the public moneys, subject to
certain conditions. It had indeed been said that the
message of Lord Dorchester had already, and for many
years, placed these funds at the disposal of the Co-
luny : but all that Lord Dorchester's message did was
to pledge the Crown that the funds derived from the
casual and territorial revenues, and the revenues :arising
under the Act of 14 Geo. HI., should be strictly applied to
colonial purposes. He was not aware whether they were
placed at the disposal of the House of Assembly, but at any
rate they were by that message only pledged to be used fer
colonial purposes, in aid of the revenue of the Province. In
stating Lord Gosford's message, placing these revenues at the
disposal of the Legislative Assembly, he did not wish to claim
for the present Government any share of merit to which they
were not fairly entitled, and in justice to the Government of
the Right Hon. Baronet opposite. he must say that to the
same extent was the Government pledged, so far back as the
period when Lord Aberdeen was at the head of the Colonial
Oce, and the pledge was contained in some signed dispatches
to Lord Amherst, which were left in the Colonial Office. It
was unnecessary for him, however, to travel through the early
history of the Canadian differences ; it was no part of his duty
to defend former acts_( Hear, hear)—it never was his inten-
tion to state that no unjust principles had been acted upan in
the government of Lower Canada.—( Hear.) It bad been ad-
mitted again and again that there were grievances; but what
he had formerly stated and complained of, and to what he still
adhered, was, that these had been redressed to the fullest ex-
tent ; and when the more moderate but not more strenuous
advocates of good government had expressed themselves satis-
fied with the redress, others stepped in, and, denouncing the
others as renegades, declared that nothing less than an Elec•
tive Council or a separation from England would content
them. To Lord Gosford's address a general answer was made
by the Assembly, but several months elapsed—indeed it was
not till March, 1836, four months afterwards, that the lions!
replied specifically to the Lieutenant-Governor, declaring that
the princiaal objects which they had in the Reforms which
they required were the introduction of the elective principle
into the Legislative Council, to make the Executive govern-
ment directly responsible to the Assembly, to repeal certais
acts passed by the Imperial Parliament, and to give them a
substantial control over the waste lands; and, to prevent any
misunderstanding as to the demands which they made, they
stated that the head of their reforms was the essential principle
of introducing a system of election into the Legislative Coun-
cil ; and that "the people, without distinction, regarded this
Council as opposed to the wishes of the colony, and as the strong-
hold of abuse, and considered that any partial reform or alters-
don would be insufficient," Now the Hon. and learned gentle-
man who had that night spoken at the bar, had said that the
House ought to look to no other representation or explanation of
the opinions of the Canadian people but what was stated by the
House of Assembly, which was the sole organ of the wishes of
an united people. But what were the facts relative to this
very reply elicited by the Commissioners, and for no part of
their report was there more convincing evidence than fe
thi-, that SO Nr tyJrni the people being tlPartilitottlily of ()pi-
nion that nothing short of the inteeditctien of the elective
principle would suffice, there was a large and influential body
of great wealth, especially commercial wealth, who depre-
cated an positively mischiseoms .the suggestion of an Elective
Council, who giotight that by eonceding this principle
in the present state of the colony the Government would
be inflicting a great evil on the ealony3 and that Great
Britain would be thereby receding from the position
which si,e lied taken up when she induced many of her
citizens to transfer theufselys to and to invest their pro-
perty in, this colony. He (Sir George Geey) would not
affirut that the Legislative Council was Withoqt 'fault; he wai
not an adrliirAF cf it e eriginal Genstitutien, end haci ad-
mitted that it had in its eomposition maiiy rat4lla ; lsa need
not therefore repeat the admission ; but he must remark that
there was a great difference between making it elective and
introducing into it such modifications as should secure for it
the greter 6onlitlenrle of the people, and should bring
into greater liatrkbo tie pie_ karachee of the Colonial
Legislature, but which shouhd still loVe -extstetiee the