The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Journal des Debatiof Tuesday last has en able
article on the subject of Lord Durham's resignation. After
a succinct statement of the state of Canada previous to
his appointment, our French Contemporary proceeds to de-
scribe the effects which followed his arrival in the colony.
In stating that his arrival immediately led, as if by en-
chantment, to the extinction of the revolt, there is a little
exaggeration, for the revolt was suppressed before his
arrival. In short, the object of his Lordship's mission was
rather to devise the means for healing the wounds made by
the revolt, and for securing the future peace and pros-
perity of the colony, than to combat the insurgents. The
tribute of the Journal des Debats to the use made by
Lord Durham of the extensive powers committed to him
is most deserved, and its censure of the means resorted to
at home for thwarting him is characterised by impar-
tiality :
" While, far from his home, Lord Durham was exerting
himself to prevent the dismemberment of the British empire,
implacable enemies were endeavouring in his country to thwart
him, without giving themselves the least concern whether or
not their triumph would be a national calamity. The Go-
vernor-General had prescribed certain arrangements re-
lative to the residence of the prisoners in the Bermudas,
as much with a view to tranquillize them with regard
to their lot, as to prevent their return to Canada. A pro-
digious respect for legality all at once was felt by his adver-
saries. Had not Lord Durham exceeded tl.e limits of his
powers? Singular scruples with regard to a magistrate sent,
with the most unlimited powers, to a country in which the
constitution was already suspended, in which all the representa-
tive institutions had been suppressed, in which the law of ha-
beas corpus r.o longer was in force, in a country, in short,
wholly governed by martial law ! In vesting Lord Durham
with the dictatorship, was it not that he might provide according
to the best of his judgment for all the circumstances which
might arise at two thousand leagues from the mother-
country ? Had he lost sight of the spirit, whatever might be
the case with regard to the strict letter of his powers ? Had
he exceeded the object of his mission? If he had kept within
the limits of his written instructions, ought he not to have
been loudly supported? And if he had gone beyond them in
an accessory point, but for a useful result, ought not what he
bad done to have been ratified and legalized?
" But the spirit of party is little disposed to act so honour-
ably. The, object was to wound the English Ministry in one
of their agents ; and this miserable dispute about words was
excited against Lord Durham. In their turn the Adminis-
tration committed a fault : they did not defend their repro.
sentative. However, they are now paying the penalty of that
weakness, for their conduct has involved them in more serious
embarrassments than the Parliamentary struggle which they
wished to escape. But Lord Durham, attacked by his adver-
saries, abandoned by his friends, saw his acts condemned in
Parliament without having been defended."
The Journal des Debats then proceeds to justify the
resignation, as due to his own self-respect. In examining
the proclamation of Lord Durham the Journal des Debats
proves that it does not understand the bearing of the re-
krms indicated by Lord Durham. "It must be owned,"
says our French Contemporary, " that all the reforms pro-
jected by his Lordship are the condemnation of the old
mode of governing the colony, the confession of the reality
of the grievances of Canada, almost the justification of the
recurrence to arms." If the Journal des Debats had said
that hostility to the reforms projected by Lord Durham
drove the Canadians into insurrection it would have been
nearer the mark. The Journal des Debats assumes that
because Lord Durham's plans of reform are reasonable,
that therefore the French Canadians had been desirous of
them, and the English Government had stood between
them and their reasonable desires. " Lord Durham's de-
sign," it observes, " was to make Canada participate in
the institutions which render their country so dear to
the English ; he wished to merge differences of race in a
more large and comprehensive nationality." The Journal
des Debats is not aware that the rights for which the
French Canadians flew to arms were the right to reject all
improvement, the right to retain their own barbarous laws
and usages, the right to avoid participation in English in-
stitutions, the right to keep the colony in such a state as
to make it an unfit residence for Britons ; the right, in
short, to preserve their separate nationality, to rescind all
the grants of land to Britons. The French Canadians
wished to be independent of England merely that they
might remain in ignorance, a prey to a set of miserable
notaries and doctors, whose consequence depended on fill-
ing them with the most absurd prejudices with regard tothe
designs of their English fellow-subjects. The English Go-
vernment, in its former quarrels with the Canadas, was
often wrong ; but the principal cause of most of the mis-
takes was the defective Constitution of the colony.
Without destroying the Constitution, the improve-
ments projected by Lord Durham could not have been
effected. And if the Journal des Debats will take the
trouble of looking a little below the surface, it will find
that the French Canadians, through their agents in Lon-
don, were at the bottom of the opposition to Lord Dur-
ham in the House of Lords, and that they sullenly held
back from his Lordship on account of the very Reforms
the want of which that Paper supposes drove them into in-
surrection. They who have read M. de Tocqueville's
book will have little difficulty in comprehending what has
taken place in Canada. The French are a civilised and
polished nation, but their civilisation rests on a bad foun-
dation. In England and in the United States the inhabi-
tants of every neighbourhood direct their own local affairs,
and the spirit of improvement pervades in this manner the
whole community. In France, on the other hand, all
power centres in Paris, and that and the other great towns
draw to them nearly all the intelligence of the country.
In this way the peasantry, being left to themselves, remain
immersed in the profoundest ignorance. Hence an English-
man or American who travels through France is sur-
prised at nothing so much as at the little benefit de-
rived by the great mass of the French nation
from the rich stores of knowledge possessed by
the classes in easy circumstances. Surrounded on all sides
by intelligent agriculturists, the Italians, Swiss, Belgians,
&c., the peasantry in many of the departments of France
are utter strangers to the most common principles of agri-
culture, such as that on which, for instance, a rotation of
crops is founded. This ignorance on the part of the
French peasantry renders it exceedingly difficult to secure
them against those who may wish to take advantage of it.
Volney saw and lamented the contrast in America between
the men of English race and the French, and the difficul-
ties in the way of fitting the latter fer self-government.
The great mistake committed by our Government at start-
ing was in not making sufficient allowance for the back-
wardness in which French institutions had left the Cana-
dians, and in not duly preparing them, by the communica-
tion of analogous laws and institutions, for those constitu-
tional privileges which the Anglo-American and the Eng-
lishman have always been accustomed to enjoy. The low
Englishman may be ignorant and prejudiced, but he is
everywhere surrounded by men by whose example he can
profit, and who, at all events, prevent his ignorance being
turned to the danger of the community. We must make
Lower Canada an English colony. It has hitherto been a
French one.—Morning Chronicle.
The Aberdeen Liberals—and their name is Legion—
have, very appropriately, followed on the heels of the Con-
servatives of that city in " sitting down," as the phrase is,
"to an excellent dinner." An abridged report of the
speeches delivered on the occasion, taken from the Aber-
deen Herald, will be found in another part of our paper.
The occasion which was the immediate cause of this gather-
ing of the Aberdeen Reformers, was that of celebrating
the establishment of the Registration Association ; Mr.
Bannerman, Member for the city, presided as Chairman,
and a very excellent Chairman he seems to have made,
though it is but justice to the Honourable Gentleman to
say he could not have acquitted himself when presiding at
this dinner better than he does in the capacity of the re-
presentative in the Parliament of the people of Aberdeen.
In replying to the toast which proposed the drinking of his
health, Mr. Bannerman made some good hits at the ex-
pense of certain of the Aberdeen Tories who figured at the
Conservative feed given in that town a few days previously.
He complained that, notwithstanding their threatened
return to office, and their high-sounding pretensions to a
knowledge of every thing that passes at Court, they did
not condescend to enlighten the Liberals as to the existing
state of matters with regard to the Ministry, but left
them in " outer darkness." This was doubtless very
cruel on the part of the Tories, when a single word would
have dispelled the ignorance in which the Liberal party
are enveloped regarding their future doom. Possibly, how-
ever, the Aberdeen Tories may not, after all, have pre-
served the unbroken silence on this point which marked
the proceedings at their gormandizing exh
ay ,
or ftrhoem
con
motivesthat the of
abstract disposition to be cruel. They.
m
trary, have been promptedtoey mayrern remain mute
fromou
the most merciful kind. They
cruelty would have consisted in tormeutinbgefotrheehanLdibe:falas
the awaits them and
o
before their time, by admonishing them.
cf
the e
doom of so awful a kind as that w
their cause. If such were notions
s
Aberdeen
Tories, they were based on a false philosophy ; for it is
far better at any time to know the worst that is likely to
happen, than to be kept in a state of suspense. Sir
Thomas Burnett made a short but very excellent speech at
this diviner. His reference to those who had once worn
the colours of Reform, but had gone over to the enemy's
camp, was extremely happy.
There could be no question
in the mind of any one present, though no names
all
P
mentioned, as to the parties Sir Thomas head on
y
in his eye. At any rate, there was one rsoEI who, as
soon as he heard the purport of Sir Thomas's speech, could
be in no danger of mistaking the allusion. That person is
Mr, liOrtitibAoss, of Bessie. This renegade from liberal
principles,` trialKto the instinct of all renegades, had been
one of the iiiiistVolent traducers of the party whore he so
Aishouourahltigdened, that ever dealt in foul-mouthed
cothasodieiesa eel at made Sir Thomas Burnett's pointed
reference:a:id; #apostate tell with greater effect, was the
~.taot,thati) as only a few days previously he had been
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