The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-17 00:00:00

committee are led to the conclusion that on the opening
of the North Kent line, and the completion of the other
lines and works of the company, which are events near
at hand, your property will justly stand high in the
public estimation.
" Your committee cannot conclude this report with-
out special allusion to the chairman of the company,
who, it must be admitted, as been as it sere on his
trial; they have already shown the utter groundlessness
of the chargis which had been allfged, or rather sug-
gested, affecting his integrity in the administration of
the finances of the company. They, moreover, feel
bound t' state their conviction, that, notwithstanding
errors of judgment and an undue assumption of indivi.
dual responsibility, his conduct has been honourable
throughout, and marked by a sincere, unflinching, and,
excepting in his character of a very largo proprietor, a
disinterested devotion to the interests of the South-
Eastern Company."

THE AFFAIRS OF CANADA.
THE OFFICIAL DISPATCHES.
FROM GOVERNOR GENERAL THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL
OF ELGIN AND KINCARDINE To EARL GREY.
(No. 1.)
Government-house, Montreal, April 30, 1849.
(Received May 15, 1849.) a
My Lord,—l regret to state that rioting, attended
with some consequences much to be regretted, though
happily with no injury to life, or, except in one instance,
to person, has taken place in the city of Montreal during
the last few days. I hasten to furnish your Lordship
with an account of what has actually occurred, lest you
should be misled by exaggerated reports conveys 1
through the United States.
2. In consequence of the unexpected arr'val of vessels
with merchandise at the port of Quebec, it became neces-
sary for me to proceed, on a short notice, to Parliament,
on Wednesday last, in order to give the Royal assent to
a Customs Bill which had that day passed the Legisla-
tive Coancil; and I considered that, as this necessity hal
arisen, it would not be expedient to keep the public
mind in suspense by omitting to dispose, at the same
time, of the other Acts in which the two branches of the
local Parliament had at an earlier period of the session
concurred, and which still awaited my decision. Among
these was the Act to provide for the indemnification of
parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed
during the rebellion in 1837 and 1838, with respect to
which, es your Lordship is aware, much excitement has
unhappily been stirred.
3. I herewith enclose, for your Lordship's perusal, a
printed copy of the Act in question, and I shall not fail
by the first mail to furnish you with full information re-
specting its character and objects, :the circumstances,
which led to its introduction, and the grounds on which
I resolved, after much reflection, to sanction it. No
money can be paid under it as indemnity for a consider-
able period, so that her Majesty's power of disallowance
can be exercised with effect, should her Majesty be so
advised, notwithstanding the course which I have taken.
As lam writing this dispatch in taste, with a view to
its transmission by way of New,York, I shall confine
myself for the present to a statement of the proceedings
by which the peace of the city has Liam disturbed.
4. In order, however, to render this narrative intel-
ligible, I must premise that for some time past the House
of Assembly, as at present constituted, has been the
object of bitter denunciation, and not unfrequently of
reckless menace, on the part of a certain portion of the
Foss of the province, and more especially of that of
ontreal. Your Lordship will probably recollect that
the body in question is the product of a general
election which took place about eighteen months ago,
under the auspices of the political party now in opposi-
tion, and after a dissolution, to which I had recourse
on their advice, for the purpose of strengthening them
in their position as a Government. The result of this
measure was in the last degree unfavourable to those
who had recommended it ; not, however, so much so in
Lower Canada, where the complexion of the representa-
tion was little affected by the dissolution, as in the upper
province, where several constituencies, among which
were some of the most populous, rejected Conservative
in favour of Liberal candidates. On a question of con-
fidence raised at the commencement of the session, im-
mediately after the general election, the Administration
was defeated by a majority of more than two to one,
and a change of Government, as a matter of course,.
,ensued.
5. This alteration in the political complexion of the
Assembly, nod the change of Government consequent
upon it, wero therefore clearly and distinctly traceable
to a revulsion of sentiment in the British constituencies
of Upper Canada. In Lower Canada nothing had
occurred to account for either. This circumstance has.
however, failed to secure for the decisions of the popular
representative body either forbearance or respect from a
certain section of those who profess to be emphati-
cally the supporters of British interests. To de-
nounce the Parliament as French in its composition,
and the Government as subject to French influ-
ences, has been their constant object, and the
wildest doctrines have been broached with respect
to the right which belongs to a British minority of re-
dressing by violence any indignity to which it may be
subjected from such a source. I have now before me an
article that appeared in one of the principal English
uowspapers of Montreal at a very early period of the
session, of which I transcribe the concluding paragraph,
as illustrative of the temper and language in which, even
at that time, and before the public mind had been ex-
cited by the discussion of the Rebellion Losses Bill, a
portion of the press ventured to criticise the proceedings
of the local Parliament. The article treats of a measure
affecting the townships, to which, I believe, no great ob-
jection was raised in Parliament. It terminates, how-
ever, in the words—" We are very glad of it—the sooner
the cloven foot is made visible the better; the obvious in-
tention of that majority, composed of Frenchmen, aided
by traitorous British Canadians, is to force French in-
stitutions still further upon the British minority in Lower
Canada. The intention is obvious, as we said, and we
are glad that it is openly shown. We trust that the party
of the Government will succeed in every one of their
obnoxious measures. When French tyranny becomes
insupportable we shall find our Cromwell. Sheffield, in
the olden times, used to be famous for its keen and well-
tempered whettles;! well, they make bayonets there now,
just as sharp and just as well-tempered. When we can
stand tyranny no longer, it will be seen whether good
bayonets in Saxon hands A ill not be more than a match
for a mace and a majority."
6. To persons accustomed to the working of constitu-
tional government in well-ordered communities it may
seem incredible that such language should be employed
by the organs of any respectable party in reference to a
body comprising the freely-chosen representatives of a
constituency formed on a most popular basis; but the
cause of the anomaly is apparent enough to all who are
acquainted with the history of Canada. For a series of
years the popular representative body and the Execu-
tive, supported by the Legislative Council, were, in the
lower province especially, in a condition of almost con-
stant antagonism. To revile the one was the surest test
of patriotism; to denounce tho other, of loyalty. In a
society singularly democratic in its structure, where
diversities of race supplied special elements of confusion,
and where consequently it was most important that con-
stituted authority should be respected, the moral influ-
ence of law and government was enfeebled by the exist-
ence of perpetual strife between the powers that ought
to have afforded to each other a mutual support. No
state of affairs could be imagined less favourable to the
extinction of national animosities, and to the firm estab-
lishment of the gentle and benignant control of those
liberal institutions which it is England's pride and pri-
vilege to bestow upon her children.
7. I am not without hope that a steady adherence to
the principles of constitutional government, and the con-
tinuance of harmony between the co-ordinate branches
of the Legislature, may lead inethe process of time to the
correction of these evils; meanwhile, however, I must
ascribe mainly to the cause which I have assigned the
tone of arrogant defiance with which the resolutions,
not of the Government only, but also of the Parliament,
are treated by parties who happen for the moment to be
unable to make their views prevail with either, and the
acts of violence to which this inflammatory language
has in the present instance led.
8. That many persons conscientiously disapprove of
the measure respecting rebellion losses in Loner Ca-
nada which has been introduced by. the Government,
and which the local Parliament has passed by large
majorities, and that in the minds of others it stirs
national antipathies and recollections of former
conflicts, which designing politicians seek to im-
prove to their own selfish ends, cannot, I fear, be
doubted. It is therefore emphatically a measure which
should have been approached with calmness and caution,
by all at least who are not directly interested in the
issue. Unfortunately, however, this has been by no
means the case. Not only have appeals to passion of the
most reckless description proceeded from the local press,
but they have received encouragement from quarters
Passages
from which they had little right to look for it.
fluence treats of the Blitish populatiooineraasbay
' such as the following. in which a London jffeurtneadl
boyf
the
1 affected
to take
measure in question They
and Englishpublic in
tone adopted by
care of themselvetsb,:iEndrzwbseb.vperrea.cmtuch misconstrue the
do
ivy! gaenmde
construed
n s t
rhu.
dh
blowil, 1C le
the province if they do not find some meats of resisting
anivagdrewaitthdaivsci
mean that sympathy will
.be extended from influential
the
aim
quarters at home to those who seek to annul the ohnoxi-
cleicaatvtYhe
ous decision of the local legislature, whatever be the
means to which they resort for the attainment of
that end.
9. The scenes by which the city of Montreal has been
lately disgraced are the natural fruits of au agitation of
this character, operating on a people of an exciteable
temper, who have been taught to believe that a race
which they despise, and over which they have been
wont to exercise dominion, has obtained, through the
operation of a constitutional system, an authority which
it could not otherwise have acquired. Hence, more es-
pecially, their vehement indignation against me person-
ally, and the conviction, in many cases I doubt not per-
fectly sincere, that I have been guilty of a serious dere-
liction of duty because I have not, as my predecessors
have often done before me, consented to place myself in
the front of an agitation to counteract the policy of Par-
liament. The nature of the constitutional doctrines
which practically obtain in this section of the commu-
nity is curiously exemplified by the fact, that it is not
the passage of the Bill by an overwhelming majority
of the representatives of the people, or the acquiescence
of the Council, but the consent of the Governor, which
furnishes the pretext for an exhibition of popular vio-
lence.
10. When I left the Hence of Parliament after giving
tho Royal Assent to several Bills to which I have re-
ferred, I was received with mingled cheers and hootirgs
by a crowd by no means numerous which surrounded
the entrance to the building. A small knot of indivi-
duals, consisting, it has since been ascertained, of per-
sons of a respectable class in society, pelted the carriage
with missiles which they must have brought with them
for the purpose. Within an hour after this occurrence a
/Mice, of which I enclose a copy, issued from of the