The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1849.

After two nights' elaborate discussion, the House
of Commons decided yesterday by a majority of 291
to 150 that the Imperial Legislature shall NOT inter-
fere with the local acts of the Canadian Government.
Last evening's decision must now constitute a very
remarkable Parliamentary precedent. It will always
testify that in 1849 the Lower House of the Parlia-
ment at Westminster resolved, deliberately and
calmly resolved, after a careful examination of the
arguments "for" and " against"—That England
would not consent to influence the policy of an
elective Assembly in one of her most important co-
lonies ; and That England should never attempt any
such arbitrary interference unless it was glaringly
manifest that such interposition was positively re-
quired by the honour of the Crown.
There are so many conclusive and wholly unan-
swerable reasons why the supreme Legislature of the
British Empire should arrive at this conclusion, and
arrive at this conclusion alone, that we should con-
ceive ourselves to be perfectly justified in attributing
the amendment of the Right Honourable Gentleman
the Member for Stamford to factious motives, were
we not as fully satisfied that his political conscience
is as honest as his statesmanlike intellect is liable to
be affected in favour of any crochet however extrava-
gant. But that prejudice may blind and eccentricity
mystify even the most keen-sighted and logical intel-
lects, we; should be at a loss to account for the
extraordinary hallucination of so many of our legis-
lators in regard to a matter so clear, so vivid, so self-
evident as this; of the impolicy, and not only the
impolicy, but the absolute injustice of any inter-
ference on our part with the Canadian Parliament
respecting the Bill for the indemnification of losses
in the rebellion.

Among many other reasons, such interference
would be egregiously impolitic and shamefully un-
just :---

Because the measure in question is in itself un-
exceptionable ;

Because it is exclusively a local operation ;
Because it has been passed into a law in the
most strictly constititutional manner—being car-
ried successively through both the Canadian
Chambers by large majorities, thereby receiving the
approval of the representatives of the Canadian
population ;

- Because Upper Canada having already received in-
demnification for losses sustained during the rebellion,
Loner Canada was surely entitled to share in a simi-
lar advantage.

Because,_ moreover, the hostility evinced towards
the Bill has not only been clearly the revengeful hos-
tility of the minority, but that minority has still fur-
ther damaged its already dilapidated reputation by
resorting to the most unconstitutional measures of
opposition, or rather of retaliation, namely, to riot
in the streets, to a violation of the dignity of the
Parliament, to the most dastardly acts of incen-
disrism ; and, lastly,

Because any such proceeding on the part of the

mother country towards her North American depen-
dencies would be calculated to give rise to a grievous,
and possibly to a dangerous ill-feeling, inasmuch as
it would show the Canadians that England is disposed
to interfere with the great principle of responsible
government.

For these, and various other reasons as powerful
and incontrovertible, in a logical, political, adminis-
trative, moral, and legislative point of view, we are
more than rejoiced, we are relieved of a thousand
heavy anxieties by the result of the division last
evening in the British House of Commons. Not
that we doubted for one instant that the real states-
men of England would hesitate as to the course to be
adopted; but that we dreaded lest, by some unhappy
fortuitous circumstance, the Commons might be
tricked into the appearance of subservience, even for
one minute, to the wishes of a handful of bankrupt
insurgents.

If any one consideration were wanting to satisfy
the mind that the Cabinet and their supporters in
the Lower House have been actuated by other than
the wisest motives, it would be found in the remark
uttered last night by Sir ROBERT PEEL, that, accord-
ing to the declaration of Lord ELGIN, the assurance
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and the legal opinion of the
ATTORNEY• GENERAL, the same test will be applied in
Lower Canada which had been used in Upper Canada.
This consideration is, of itself, a sufficient assurance
that the Bill is, per se, unexceptionable.

As to those subtle distinctions which it is pro-
posed by Mr. HERMES and his supporters should be
introduced as an emendation into the measure, they
may be talked about very fluently, and may appear
all very practicable and feasible in the shallow reason-
ings of a practitioner of the Arches' Court, but we
should marvellously like to see them reduced to
writing, either by the representative of Stamford, or
by the representative of Cardiff. And, what is still
' more, we should like exceedingly to witness ;the
felicitous working of any measure so delicately and
even gingerly cobbled.
Amidst.all the confused, and contradictory, and vo-
ciferous reasons advanced, by; the sympathisers with Sir
ALLAN M'NAB and his "fellows," there is one which
strikes us as being altogether such a barefaced and
' impudent absurdity, that we wonder amazingly that
it has not hitherto fallen under the lash of criticism
, either from one of our contemporaries or from one
of the Members of the Legislature. It is this :
The persons who pronounce the Indemnity Bill to be
one wrongfully forced upon the Canadians, men who
are perpetually trying to ferret out something or
other with which to badger that most unfortunate of
all the Ministers, the Right Hon. the Colonial
Secretary—these admirers of Sir ALLAN INPNAB mad
followers of Mr. HERRIES declare the Bill to have
emanated from the English Government, and at the
same time stigmatise it as a gross and flagrant in-
sult offered to the English SOVEREIGN. Now
the perfect extravagance of this is so plain and
glaring, that we are absolutely astounded how
any men at all pretending to the character
of politicians can have the hardihood to stand up in
the House of Commons and write themselves down so
very deliberately brothers-in-spirit of Signor DOG-
BERRY. The pertinacity with which they insist
upon it that the Indemnity Bill is a Govern-
ment measure, and at the same moment
assert that it is an intended insult to the
British Crown, is only comparable in its exqui-
site stupidity to the anxiety
,of DOGBERRY to be
written down an ass. " 0 that he were here to write
me down an ass I Yet, though he be not here,
don't forget, neighbours, that I am an ass !"
Those who may be anxious to satisfy themselves
from first to last of the honourable and
perfectly constitutional conduct of Lord ELGIN,
of the Canadian Parliament, and of the English
Government, in this important matter, will find the
whole of the occurrences related in an admirably
sequential form in a pamphlet recently produced by
ALEXANDER MACKAY, Esq., of the Inner Temple ;* and
should the readers, after a perusal of that clever and
spirited brochure, be desirous of confirming them-
selves still further in their opinions upon the subject,
they will find all further difficulties to so doing re-
moved by another pamphlet (Mr. HART'S t) of
singular ability.

The recent regulation adopted by order of the
Commander-in-Chief for the examination of can-
didates for commissions is the army will come into
operation on the Ist of July next. It is a wise and
judicious movement in the right direction, from which
we anticipate the happiest results. Hitherto there
has been a culpable negligence exhibited as to the
education of military officers, which contrasted
strongly with the care and attention devoted to the
same subject in the continental armies. In this
country no qualification whatsoever was required.
Boys were appointed to commissions without the
slightest inquiry being made as to their previous at-
tainments. They might have received a tolerably
sound education, or they might be lamentably defi-
cient in the ordinary branches of learning that
are considered indispensable for a person occupying a
respectable position in society; no trial was adopted
to test their capabilities—all was left to chance or
accident. Hence it followed that, although we had
many highly accomplished officers in every regiment,
there were others who never could retrieve their early
deficiencies. It could scarcely be anticipated that a
mere youth, just emancipated from the thraldom of a
public school or of private tuition, would voluntarily
undertake the drudgery of acquiring the rudiments
of a language or science previously unknown. With
rare exceptions, these acquirements are only attainable
under the control and diection of a master who can
compel attendance upon his lectures. They will not
be attempted by a young man whose time
is wholly at his own disposal, save so far
as it may be occupied in the ordinary
routine of military duty. The first difficul-
ties interpose almost insuperable obstacles, and should
an effort be made, it is speedily abandoned in disgust,
and those idle and lounging habits are adopted so in-
jurious to the officer himself, and so demoralising to
the soldiers, who will naturally follow the examples
afforded by those under whose command they are
placed, rather than the advice of some few of their
companions, who may desire to improve their minds,
and to render themselves properly qualified for pro
motion.

Hence it is that the cigar and billiard-room are
so eagerly sought after by the one class—the pipe
and the canteen by the other, the only object with
both being to "kill the time " which they are unable
to spend in profitable and useful pursuits.
In France matters are managed very dif-
ferently. There are a number of military
schools throughout the entire country, in which
those desirous of attaining military rank receive a
sound practical education suited to the situations in
which they may subsequently be placed. No person
can
nreed a receive
eit one of es
vea
commissionth
e
or
ra
given
nt
evidence previously o
f
di
his fitness during service as a private soldier. Every
a competent knowledge
y qualifie, dAif
officer has consequently
r ofj
emergency in which he may be placed.those
his professional duties, and is fully
who have been educated for the service are masters of
two or three modern languages, and thus, according
to the dictum of FREDERICK the GREAT, each person
is equivalent to two or three who can only under-
stand their native tongue.
Henceforward, however, there will be a total al-
teration in the system. From and after the Ist of
July next no person will be recommended for a
commission in the British service until they have
been examined by competent persons, appointed by
the Commander-in-Chief, in the ordinary branches
of polite education, and unless they have shcwn a
competent knowledge of English literature, of arith-
metic, history, geography, fortification, and also of
Latin, French, and German. The latter are parti-
cularly valuable. Formerly but little attention was
paid to the acquisition of modern languages, but of
late years French and German have been regarded as

essential branches in the education of every gentleman.
A mutual intercourse between nations is becoming

every day more general ; our commercial relations

are becoming more extended, and in a short time

English gentlemen will blush to confess themselves

unable to address the French or German visitor in

* " The Crisis in Canada; or, Vindication of Lord
Elgin and his Cabinet, &c." By Alexander Mackay,
Esq., Barrister-at-law, Bvo. pp. 63. Ridgway, London,
1849.

t " Our Colonies." By Arthur Wellington Nut.
BYO, pp. 44. Richardgo, London, 1841.