The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

In the Times of yesterday was presented a mass of im-
portant State documents relating to Canada, and to Lord
Durham's mission thither. 1. The act of his appointment.
2. The ordinances of Lord Durham, disallowed by the
Government which had selected him. 3. The Bill of In-
demnity passed by Parliament, which recognized the ille-
gality of his Lordship's proceedings, and screened him from
all legal consequences of the responsibility thereby incurred.
The perusal of the above documents could hardly fail to
produce the effect for which we intended them—viz., that
of satisfying all those of our readers who could under-
stand the technicalities of the language employed as to the
ostensible purposes of the Melbourne Ministers in con-
fiding such an office to Lord Durham. We repeat
the word "ostensible" purposes, because it must be
sufficiently obvious, from a comparison of the things
required to be done in North America with the means
provided for their accomplishment, and with the circum-
stances under which the Noble Lord was placed, that
the permanent tranquillization of Lower Canada, if
Ministers had any reasonable knowledge of those circum-
stances, could not have been the chief or true end proposed
by Lord Durham's motion ; but that it was desired by
Lord Melbourne at once to get rid of the Lord High
Commissioner's presence, and to separate him from the
clique of " Extended Suffrage" men, and " Short Parlia-
ment" men, " Ballot mongering" men, and others consti-
tuting that mischievous political monster, calling itself
" the Movement," the fanatics, or impostors, who, like
Mr. Ward, of Sheffield, have taken for their motto " On,
on," and who, in accepting Lord Durham for a leader,
less tortuous and deceitful than Lord Brougham, would at
the same time have rendered him an instrument more con-
ducive to their own objects, and for that reason more in-
convenient to the Ministers, as being of a name hitherto
(notwithstanding some awkward occurrences) less blown
upon than that of the slippery ex-Chancellor, who tripped
up the heels of his patron and benefactor, Lord Grey.
Few persons, we believe, who know anything about
the interior menage of the Whig-Radical faction,
will have the smallest hesitation in admitting that the
primary and moving impulse was to send Lord Dur-
ham to some climate—if less cold and less distant than that
of Siberia.--(which, through the kindness of his humble
friend and disinterested flatterer—one Nicholas Romanoff
—his Lordship had escaped, albeit with a reputation torn
to ribenels)—if, we say, to some less remote and inclement
region than Siberia, it was no fault of theirs, for even the
colonial empire of England has its limits. But the second
object was no less characteristically kind, and still more
long-sighted, for the position allotted to the Noble Lord
was such as to make it all but physically impossible that he
should emerge from it otherwise than in a plight besmeared
and unfragrant. That Lord Durham was not alive to the
imminent probability of such an unpleasant result, that he
at last swallowed the glittering bait of a miscalled dictator-
ship, though held out to him by the hand of rosy-fingered
Majesty—a bait implying the functions of a war-finisher, a
law-giver, a constitution-founder, a nation-changer, and
whatever else was to be most highflying and transcendental
in the attributes of a ruler over men—argues unquestion-
ably not much in praise of the wisdom or self-knowledge
of the Noble Earl. It bespeaks, as we apprehend all
shrewd observers will agree, a good deal more of the smart,
confident recklessness of a schoolboy, than of those quali-
ties which distinguish the searching statesman's mind.
There was in his final plunge into this new office, proof sn
palpable of an infirm will, and of an impolitic, though
courteous and gall-ant, surrender of a just repugnance to
the siege of an unconstitutional, however tempting soli-
citation, that the very feeling in which I, rd Durham's
assumption of the " High Commissionership" had its source
afforded but a sinister prognostic of its successful issue.
We asked at the time why it was that the brave and able
Governor whom Lord Durham was destined to supersede
—why it was that one of the most skilful and resolute offi-
cers, and one of the most experienced and efficient civil
administrators in the empire—namely, Sir J. Colborne—
should be superseded by a personage like Lord Durham,
who had left on record no evidence whatsoever of capacit,
for the service either of peace or war. Nevertheless, away
went Lord Durham. His appointment of a Council at least
was strange. The members of it had not the qualification
required by the Act which constituted the new authority
for the government of the North American provinces
—viz., that of being previously approved of by her
Majesty under the Great seal. But, irregular as was this
transaction, people seemed inclined to pass it over. The
state of things was difficult, and it was generally resolved,
after some little murmuring, to give elbow-room and fair
play to the Lord High Commissioner and his household
Council—his domestic, and singular at least, if not in the
sense of the Act of Parliament, his Lordship's " Special"
Council. News reached England from time to time that
the tranquillizing measures of the new Government bad
begun to take effect, and that the Canadians were
getting into better humour with Great Britain. It
now turns out that all such intelligence was un-
true ; that arms and stores were busily prepared along
the frontier, and smuggled into Canada ; that numbers
of uncivilized and sanguinary ruffians from the United
States, were flocking to their several points of rendezvous,
and all this, moreover, down to the last scenes of the Dur-
ham Administration of which we have any distinct ac-
count. In fact, it now appears that whatever powers had
been successfully exercised towards the putting down of
actual rebellion had produced their fruits before Lord Dur-
ham's arrival, and therefore that for the immediate transition
from war to even the semblance of peace in Canada, the
country stands indebted exclusively to the judgment and
vigour of Sir John Colborne's Administration. Is this blame
to Lord Durham ? Certainly not. The case was not one
for suitle statesmanship, or for political refinement. The
Canadas bad tried to separate themselves from Great Br
tain.

- - -
They did not feel themselves sufficiently beaten, nor
- •

punished with so much severity, as to give up the enter-
prise in despair. They wanted not to be a free people, as
between government and subject, but to be a separate
people, as between Great Britain and Lower Canada.
This, therefore, was not a case for policy or statesman-
ship ; it was a trial of strength, to be solved by force of
arms. The complex machinations of the Whig Ministry
were ludicrous in such a crisis, and well were they
laughed at, and signally were Lord Glenelg's instruc.
tions translated and expounded by the cool sarcastic
glossary of Sir Robert Peel. However, the High Corn-
missionership marched on—the ordinances came—the
discussions upon them after some few days were active,
incessant, and universal throughout the kingdom—Par-
liament, the press, the people, everywhere canvassed
them—Lord Brougham's motion forced out the sent"-
meats of the Conservative lawyers upon the leg tlity of
those ordinances. The Conservative statesmen having hid
before them by those professional authorities in whom they
most justly confided a case of clear and broad unlawfulness
in a public functionary of the highest rank, could do no
ot,herwise than act upon such authorities, and would as-
suredly have been far from justified in scrutinizing the ma.
lives of Lord Brougham, and voting in defiance of what
they were informed was the law, because he with whom
the inquiry originated had projects to help forward and
passions to indulge, which were shared in by no Con.
servative. But, if it be fair to draw a line between Lord
Brougham and the Conservatives, the former of whom
was assailing a personal enemy, and the latter merely
vindicating the dominion of the law, how much more
essential is it to di criminate between the Whigs and
the Conservatives, the latter of whom were engaged
in an act of duty towards the country, while the
former left their own lawyers in the lurch, refused
to accept their own Lord Chancellor's construction of
the law of England, or that of their own law officers
in the House of Commons, each of whom bad declared
the ordinances of Lord Durham to be legal in every but a
single, subordinate instance, defensible and praiseworthy
in all their parts—yet these heartless Ministers trea-
cherously kicked away the plank of safety which had been
fixed for their absent. colleague, and sacrificed him to legal
doctrine, which, in their
to repudiate. LorOdwl3 speeches,
they affected ear-
nestlyurham's exclamations on this
subject in Canada will carr contempt and obloquy towards
these Ministers into the remotest notest parts of England. The
w language used by themrd aggravate their universal con•
na denation. They defended Lord by declaring
that Sir J. Colborne had acted no ss in defiance of the
laws of England than the Noble Earl,e but that
o nobodynSir j
ad
.
ever dreamed of casting a Parliamentaryt their
censure
Colborne. Yet they, professing that
Lord High
Commissioner was equally innocent with his predecessor,
became parties to an act condemning Lord Durham, which
they pronounced would, in the case of Sir J Colbornethiah
d,
have been iniquitous and monstrous! Verily, they
in a respectable point of view before the world.—Times.

SIR P. LAVRIE AND THE husußy.......r)
,Loru
o%iforo has taken up the shillelagh in defence of the class
cormorant of his countrymen, and amongst other things fires
off the following That bra'. Scot,. Sir Peter Laurie, who
now and then administers justice indifferently at the Guildhall
in London, often betrays a jealousy—natura, pe_rhaps—ot
hish adventurers who bend their footsteps towards London to
seek their' fortune. I wish,' said his Worship. last week to
a poor fellow who had failed in his hopes of obtaining
im a place
in that hard servitude the London police, ' I wish an pa
ble wall could be raised all round Ireland.' Indeed, Sir
Peter ! That is very considerate of you ; but so would not
all your countrymen, vast numbers of whom come to Ireland
without the whisper of an invitation, and contrive to nestle
themselves right comfortably upon the birthright of those whose
distress so frequently selves to point your wit, good Sir Peter,
and give brilliancy to your sallies. D,ubtless the lank and
voracious locusts from the north are quite as great a nuisance
in London upon their first arrival here ma the low Irish there-
selves. Live an let live, good Sir Peter: there is coon'
enough in Babylon for both of you; so nec mair of your in.
vecdceous retractions."