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

•
misled. He stated distinctly that this was the feeline ente r
tanned in Canada towards the Queen's Government. But th e
Noble Earl was not satisfied with this; he seil that her
Majesty's Government ought not only to have the inten-
tion of maintaining the connection with the Colony, but
also to use the means for carrying it into effect. The Noble
Earl had asked, did they intend to employ these means ?
He had little hesitation in answering that question. It was
undoubtedly the intention of the Queen's Government to
use the means—to use all the means—that were necessary
to give full effect to that determination.—( Hear, hear, hear. )
He had now he thought, answered distinctly tile two questions
put to him by the Noble Earl. He did not mean to follow
the Noble Earl into other parts of his observations ; but the
Noble Earl had stated grounds for hesitating 'to place confi-
dense in the Government. It was not for him to judge whe-
ther the opinions of the Noble Earl were well-grounded or
not ; but if the Noble Earl felt deeply impressed with the
opinions he had expressed, and thought it would be wise to ,
embody his opinions in a distinct motion, then it would be the
duty of her Majesty's Ministers to meet it.—( hear, hear.)
If this had been an earlier period of the debate he might have
followed the Learned Gentleman who had appeared at their
bar through what he must consider some of his misrepresen-
tations of the circumstances under consideration, and more
particularly would he have felt himself called on to remark on
the Learned Gentleman's observations on the conduct a Right
Hon. friend of his, formerly Secretary for the Colonies, he
meant Mr. Rice. The Learned Gentleman's description of
the conduct of Mr. Rice was not founded on fact, and must
have proceeded from an entire want of recollection of every
circumstance that had occurred.
Lord BROUG HAM, when he reflected on his position in
this House during the former stages of this Bill, and com-
pared it with the altered position in which to-night he found
himself, to observe the contrast betweed the two was remark-
ably encouraging and pleasing to him. He no longer could
be said to stand here alone to denounce this measure. He no
longer could be complained of as being left unsupported oil
all hands in his opposition to this Bill of tyranny and injustice.
He no longer stood up among their Lordships to have
yelled at him—sometimes the lighter missives of sarcasm and
taunt—sometimes the heavier artillery of statesmen, and
seldom indeed anything approaching to an argument. He
no longer stood there to have all those matters launched
at his single and unsupported head ' • but he had the gra-
tification to know that lie - had lived to see truth making
its way, and to find himself supported by some of the
most respectable Members of their Lordships' numbers in
what he formerly should have reckoned in this place, as
it almost universally was out of doors and in the other House
of Parliament, the most hopeless part of his whole views.
And if io be supported in his views, if to find an advocate
to back and stand up for constitutional privileges, were
grateful here to him to-night—as it was to find himself sup-
ported on those principles—how much must his gratification
be heightened when he found that, besides the respectability
of those supporters in point of talents, experience, and
character in that House, who had lamented, as the one did,
the unconstitutional and arbitrary nature of this measure,
and as another did, who actually announced his determina-
tion to vote against it for its injustice—those two were two
who had descended from and bore the honoured names of
two of the greatest luminaries of the law—the greatest,
perhaps, in the administration of justice in this country
that this country ever produced, and who bad left to
their descendants a prouder inheritance than the titles
they won for themselves and bequeathed to them, viz., their
own unextinguishable love of the liberties of their country and
adherence to its laws, and abhorrence of their violation—
( Hear, hear)—he might well feel pleased with that change in
his present position. He felt that he could no longer be de-
nounced as a partizan, by argument an encourager of rebellion,
and taking part in the revolt. He had even been designated
by a pretty plain indication as something like Cataline, for
that he lied rushed out of the House as that ancient senator
had done—( A laugh)—for that he had rushed out of the
House as that Roman senator did after he had delivered him-
self of a long, and apparently, by its effects, a not unforeseen
oration, against the Lord Glenelg of that time.---( Laughter. )
He admitted that the comparison was not to be carried fully
out—there was not another such as the Noble Lord; but if he
had not a companion in these proceedings to the whole extent
to which the likeness might have been borne, the comparison
was good in the most essential and important particular—that of
objecting to the gross injustice of this measure—a measure which
outraged every principle of justice—punishing the innocent with
the guilty—making no distinction between the wrong-doer and
those who had aided in repelling that wrong-doer—subjecting
the whole province to the loss of their liberties because a few
parishes in a single county had attempted an unsuccessful re-
bellion—thus punishing as well those who, instead of revolt-
ing, alone enabled the Government to put that revolt down,
without whose aid they never would have succeeded in put-
ting down the revolt—pinishing them with the same loss of
their liberties which it was said the Legislature had a right,
with, as it was called, a just severity, to inflict on the rebels
themselves. But they were now told that the delay which had
marked more or less the whole of these proceedings, which be-
gan in March, 1836, which continued in April, which con-
tinued in May, which was seen still in the month of June, and
which might further be traced through the whole of the re-
mainder of the year—they were now told that this indecision,
and delay was not accidental, as some had presumed to ima-
gine, that they were not unintentional, as others might have
supposed—that they were not arising from any defect in vigour
and natural activity, as a third class of reasoners might
fancy—that they were not attributable, as the Noble Earl op-
posite charitably supposed the other night, to an inveterate in-
firmity of purpose—to wavering and indecision—no such
thing • it was all design; it was all virtue—(Laughter)—it
was all system; it was all the consequence of that natural but
invincible repugnance which his Noble Friend had felt to enter
upon any course that could be imagined to savour of strong
measures—of unconstitutional measures—of rash measures—
of measures of severity to the colony—to his reluctance to en-
croach on the people's privileges—to suspend their constitu-
tional rights. It nraight be so; there was nothing wonderful
now-a-days.—(A laugh.) The longer one lived the less one
wondered—(Laughter)—and this was all within the verge of
probability. But really, if his Noble Friend had not given the
sanction of his grave and high authority to that view of the
matter, he should have been disposed to say—he would not
use a harsh expression—that it was utterly impossible for
any person to credit it. But if such reluctance was shown
by these constitutional men to adopt harsh proceedings, ought
they not to have been reluctant to pass the resolutions of
last year ? There was no reluctance then ; they produced
them on the 6th of March. The time, it appeared, for reluc-
tance and delay was after all the mischief had been done.
What was the fact ? It was precisely three weeks back that
they applied themselves vigorously to enforce the laws, and
to maintain justice, so that from the argument of his Noble
Friend it would appear they were excessively harsh and violent
when they ought to have deliberated, and they were exces-
sively slow, very reluctant, and most undecided, when they
ought to have adopted a course bold, vigorous, and decided.
Of course, this reluctance which they were told bad been ex-
hibited they must expect to continue. The reluctance which
had been felt to bring in the present measure would show itself'
in sending over so many thousand bayonets to carry it into exe-
cution: He now began to understand why that which he had
before complained of had taken piece. He had asked how it
happened that if the sending of a dictator over with a Bill in his
hand to destroy the Constitution was necessary, on account of
some parishes having been guilty of irregular proceedings, how
did it happen that, instead of going over immediately, the Noble
emissary sent on that urgent occasion delayed so long going
forth towards the point of his destination, as if rebellion
looked to the Almanac—( A laugh)—as if State affairs de-
pended on the barometer—as if the assembling of parish.
Committees, District Committees, and Central Committees-
depended on certain times of the year, as in ancient days, when.
there was a regular suspension of arms on the approach of:
frost, and the campaign was not renewed till the second ore
third swallow came hovering around the camp ?—( Laughter.)
That observance even in war having been long since dis-
pensed with, he was at a loss to conceive why in these ne-
gotiations it was thought necessary to go by the weather—he
was at a loss to conceive why his Noble Friend the Noble
Earl did not proceed to his place of destination till the month
of April or May. But if her Majesty's Ministers felt a strong
repugnance to this measure—if they were afflicted with con-
stitutional qualms on this occasion, how much stronger must
be the qualms of his Noble Friend, whose language had al-
ways been so much more decided on the side of constitutional
freedom even than theirs.. It was as plain as a parish
Church that the reluctance in him was much greater than :et
those who framed the measure. He could not be persuadedi
to go till he had tarried so long as to satisfy the people of
Canada of his extreme reluctance to undertake the mission,
so that when he arrived there he should have made it mani-
fest to all mankind in that Province that his consent had
been wrung from him like gouts of blood to administer an
unconstitutional measure, and fur a harsh and tyrannical
purpose. He would now return to the short point which
alone remained for discussion. His Noble Friend, who had
been listened to, as he always was, in proporCon as he de-
served to be on all subjects, but on no subject was he more:
deserving the attention of the House than this—his Nobles
Friend differed from the Noble Baron sitting near him in fails
opinion as to the course which ought to be taken with a view to
the common object of settling these important matters of dif-
ference, and accomplishing peace. He differed in this ;it was
his opinion that the difibrences could not be settled here, but
that they must be arranged and settled in Canada. Did not
his Noble Friend perceive that, though his opinion might be
sound in itself, it was no argument in defence of the present
Bill ? His Noble Friend was supposing—if he did mean to
use that argument as a defence of time measure—that the pre-
sent Biil gave the Noble Earl no power of supplying the mea-
sure that might be necessary to an arrangement. It not only
gave him no such power, but it was directed to that point a
the compass.__( Hear.) It was indeed directed to a totally
,different point—to the point of inquiry. Judging from what
they had seen, they must conclude that the inevitable result of
the -measure would be non-settlement and delay. Instead of
sending out Lord Durham to settle the question, the mea-
sure would leave it more unsettled than it was. If% hei went
out with any other powers than the Bill gave him he _ would go
out with powers not contemplated in the Act or in his instruc-
tions; for, from beginning- to end, all authorised was inquiry, m-
q, u 'ev inquiry—report, report, report : they had no one other
object. It was the inefficacy oftaliieed of fromplanto theaccomfirplsti.sh
To
avowed object that he had complained
1 putjff rre
neeneds
settledto
the present
amicablepainful satrartaenogfetmbenntgt ss—at ti
sof
agcettotrhy
tu
these
(
to send a Governor with full
*1:sola sides—itet .rsnot only wlytaos ce
treat but
tto grant. They had provided the
Nolee Earl with no powers to treat or to giant; they 'cad
afforded him only the power to enquire ; and they had dis-
closed w:iat their notion was as to the speediness with wl rich,
that course being pursued, the settlement might be expr .cted
to be accomplished. They laid down the principle the at no
power ought to be given until information was obtained