The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-25 00:00:00

LORD MELBOURNE AND SIR

FRANCIS HEAD.

The Hall, Atherstone, Dec. 12, 1838.
My Lord—Your Lordship is aware that when my re-
tirement from the Government of Upper Canada was made
known in that province, both houses of the Provincial Par-
liament petitioned me to lay before them the correspondence
with her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies which
had led to my resignation.
Feeling that giving publicity to these documents might
embarrass the policy of her Majesty's Government, and
might also embarrass the new measures which new Go-
vernors were on the point of carrying into effect, I de-
clined to comply with the request of the Legislature, and
accordingly retired from my post in silence, since which
time I have declined to take any part in politics, and have
studiously avoided saying or doing anything which could
directly or indirectly embarrass your Lordship's adminis-
tration.

As Lord Durham's experimental measures have, how-
ever, now ended by his return, as his Lordship has declared
his intention of divulging his opinions, and as the opinions
of Lord Gosford and of the Commissioners of Inquiry who
preceded Lord Durham have already been frankly thrown
before the country, I feel, that as several millions have
been spent in vainly attempting to search for the truth, the
outline of my opinions and policy, as contained in my de-
spatches, ought, even in justice to my own character, to be
no longer withheld from the public.
I am perfectly sensible that in both Houses of the Impe-
rial Parliament many who are politically opposed to your
Lordship, agreeing in the justness of my request, would not
refuse in their places to ask of her Majesty's Government
that my desire to lay before the country my own calm de-
liberate policy and opinions upon important questions, as
explained in my despatches, should be granted ; but as I
had much sooner make those opinions known with the liberal
approbation of her Majesty's Government than attain
my object by seeking assistance from any party, I respect-
fully request of'your Lordship that her Majesty's Govern-
ment will, now that Lord Durham has returned, be pleased
to allow me to vindicate my own conduct on retiring from
the Government of Upper Canada, and to make known to
the public the reasons which induced me to inform her
Majesty's Secretary of State in my despatch No. (—),
dated (—), 1836, " that I did not agree with the Commis-
sioners of Inquiry, and that, as regarded their policy, I
had not an idea in common with them."

I have the honour to remain, very respectfully,
Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant,

To Lord Melbourne, &c.
Downing-street, Dec. 18, 1838.

F. B. HEAD.

Sir; I beg leave to acknowledge your letter of the
12th inst. It is for you to pursue any course that you
may consider to be open to you, but it is impossible for
me, in the discharge of my public duty, to sanction by my
previous approval a step so unusual and liable to so much
objection.

I have the honour to remain, Sir,
Your faithful and obedient servant,
Sir F. B. Head, Bart. MELBOURNE.

The Hall, Atherstone, Dec. 20, 1838.

My Lord,—l have had the honour to receive your
Lordship's communication of the 18th inst. As your
Lordship in your letter to me of the 26th of September
last has objected to my bringing my case " before the
Privy Council, before the Judicial Committee thereof, or
before a Committee of such Members of the Government
as it might deem it advisable to select," and as your Lord-
ship in declining also to sanction the request contained in
ray communication of the 12th inst. has left me " to pursue
any enurse which I may consider to be open to me," I
beg leave very respectfully to inform your Lordship, that
as her Majesty's Government will not sanction any of my
requests, I shall feel myself precluded from publishing
my despatches, or from furnishing any one with the numbers
or dates of those which I am desirous should be produced.
Having, however, pledged myself, before my departure
from our North American colonies, that on my arrival in
England I would in due time endeavour to make known
the causes of my abandonment of the Government of
Upper Canada, I shall feel it necessary, by the immediate
publication of my correspondence with your Lordship, to
inform those who are interested in the subject, that if I
have not redeemed that pledge, it is because I have been
prevented in honour from doing so.
With a grateful sense of the freedom with which your
Lordship, in verbal communications, has liberally allowed
me, without offending you, to speak my mind,
I have the honour to remain, very respectfully,

Your Lordship's
Most humble and obedient servant,
To Lord Melbourne, &c. F. B. HEAD.

LORD DURHAM.

TO THOMAS PROUT, ESQ., STRAND.

SIII,—I perceive in The Sun of the 17th inst. a letter
addressed to Lord Durham, signed by you, as Chairman of
the Deputation appointed at a recent meeting of the West-
minster Reform Society to present an Address to his Lord-
ship, which he refused to accept.
In order to induce his Lordship to receive the Addresss
you tell him that the Society has " no covert or ulterior
objects." Now, Sir, to say that Reformers have no ulterior
objects, is to talk nonsense. Real reforms are the causes
to produce good effects, and ultimately, or in the last con -
sequence, the amelioration of the condition of the who!
human race, whether at home, in our colonies, or in foreign
lands. Whilst you object to "covert objects," why do you
yourself covertly insinuate that " some individuals acted at
the meeting from conscientious motives and some from evi-
intentions" ? Whatever might be the differences of opi-
nion amongst the members of the Westminster Society, and
however brusquely expressed, at the meeting you refer to I
believe no individual spoke personally disrespectful of Lord
Durham—no one acted from evil intentions, but all from
conscientious motives, and I include yourself amongst the
number.

Since you so much dislike " covert proceedings," why have
you not the courage to denounce by name the individuals
who are vulgar Anti-Aristocrats ? Why did you not call
another meeting of the Society to-take the opinions of the
members upon the propriety or impropriety of moving his
Lordship to accept the Address he had already rejected,
instead of concocting in your own laboratory, with the aid
of your distinguished political assistant, a soft appeal and
misericordium of Lord Durham, not to cast away from his
presence the innocents of the deputation, with the men
you deem guilty of evil intentions? If you succeed in sooth-
ing the ferocious indignation of his Lordship, by withdraw-
ing all irritating colours and language, and thrusting out of
sight the commonalty of the Society, and echoing the aris-
tocratic paeans " Odi profanum vulgus et arces," you may
be as good a tactician as you profess yourself, and when
" you assure his Lordship that your speech taken from
the notes of a short-hand writer, contains the true ground
on which the meeting adopted the Address,"—that your
speech alone, is the for: el origo of all his Lordship's West-
minster glory—your modesty and cunning resemble that
of the fox in the well, who made use of his neighbours'
shoulders to extricate himself from his awkward situation,
and to mount into a higher and purer atmosphere. Fie
upon you Mr. Prout ! Do you call this backing your
friends in the Deputation ? Do you call it being candid to-
wards Lord Durham to place him under the delusion that
you who have a more Garagantuan swallow than those you
condemn, which can devour up all sorts of Churches and
Chapels, together with many merely political institutions,
yet, that you strain at the slightest objects ulterior to his
Whig-Conservatism ?
I can have no personal grounds of quarrel with you—
you could not possibly allude to me as one of the indivi-
duals of evil intentions, because, so far was I from what
you call " nullifying the proceedings of the meeting," that
you repeatedly expressed your approbation of my conduct,
and even adopted the amendments which I humbly ,sub-
mitted should be made in the Address, of which you are
the foster-father, especially that binding his Lordship to
abide by his Glasgow declarations for Household
Suffrag,
without any qualification of payment of taxes, &c. ; in con-
tradistinction to his speech in England, when he introduced
a money-qualification, &c., thereby, in lieu of extending the
franchise to nearly two millions of additional voters, he
reduced it to little, if at all, better than that of the present
constituency. My object in writing to you, is to defend
the freedom of discussion at public meetings, "however im_
portant the proceedings may be to the welfare of the
country." I think there is more chance of safety to the
country in a multitude of councillors, than in a coterie
of gentle shepherds, who, however wise in their own con-
ceit, may be turned into the tools of covert aristocrats, or of
men who do not act from conscientious motives.
I do not know whether you have received an answer to
your second application to Lord Durham—whether by
lulling, titilating, and drugging, you have caught your fish ;
if so hold him fast. You must not only draw out Leviathan
with your well-baited hook, b ut he must make a covenant
with you upon his Glasgow declarations. If you can make
him a faithful servant of the public for ever, I will
grant
that you have trolled to some purpose, and you will prove
to those who say we ought " to keep to our own order," and
not court the Aristocracy, that it is just possible for Sama-
ritans to have dealings with the Jews, without being cheated.
Whatever favourable reports his Lordship's assiduous
friends may make to you of his political symptoms, spare
not your medicaments, lest be should have a relapse.
Hope the best, but be prepared for the worst.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
ARTHUR S. WADE, D.D.
20, Pembroke-place, Vauxhall-road, Pimlico,
19th December, 1839.