The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-20 00:00:00

array of grave and weighty reasons why the United
States should co-operate with the rebels, in enabling

,hem to throw off what our New York Contemporary

calls the " oppressive yoke" of the mother country.
So much for our impartiality, as well as with our
thorough acquaintance with the corroborating testi-
mony quoted by the Learned Ex-Member for Bath.
But we have not yet done with Mr. ROEBUCK'S
" Note." He says, in justification of his previous
mis-statement, that the law invoked by President VAN

BUREN is a dead letter, and that the language

employed by him was precisely that of General JACK-
SON in the case of Texas, whose interference

was wholly useless. This is " leaping out of the
frying-pan into the fire". with a vengeance. In
excusing one error, Mr. ROEBUCK falls into another,
not quite so grave, we admit, but far more inexcusable,
because relating to occurrences fresh in the remem-
brauce of every body who paid the last regard to them.
Now President JACKSON never once invoked the
law cited by President VAN Burtve against the enlist-
ment of private citizens in the Texian insurrection ;
and we defy Mr. ROEBUCK to point out any similarity
between the language employed to preserve the national
good faith with Mexico, and that now used respecting
the neutrality to be observed in the case of Great
Britain and her colonies in North America. The
justice of the revolt in Texas was argued for several
(ley; in the Congress of the United States—it was well
known that there was not a functionary in the Federal
Union who did not desire the triumph of the Texie ns—
and in fact so strong was the general feeling on this
subject, that it was gravely deliberated by the heads
of the Executive, whether the Federal Uninn ought to
give the 'Mexican Ambassador a pledge to remain
neutral, even fur a limited time. The United States'
Foreign Enlistment Bill remained at that time a dead
letter—but wherefore does Mr. ItoEnucre suppose ?
Not because the Executive had forgotten all al•out its
existtnce ; not because its provisions were found im-
practicable, and that it would be madness to attempt
the chastisement of its violators ; nut lecauee. the
citizens of the United States would refuse obedience
to so preposterous a law. It remained a dead letter
became it required the proclamation of the PRESIDENT
to give it vitality—a wise and necessary precaution
on the part of the Government of a great commereial
people, and one which we should be glad to see
adopted in !his country. We repeat, therefore, that
Mr. ROEBUCK'S " assertions"—proclaimed at a
public meeting of his countrymen, plinted by him
in the Tz-zte Sun, and re-prMted in the first
enmber of time Canadian Porziolio—were neither
verbally no; eubstantially cem is ; and we ma
add, that we were only induced at fi eit to canter-
dirt them from o'eserving the troubler which he
took to give them eatensi-.e correney. In being thus
exp'.icit, we wish it to be understood that we should
!,e exceedingly sorry to impute other than the best
natives which can influence the conduet of an advo-
ezte—of an avowed Representa:ive of the House of
AssemYv—to Mr. ROEBUCK. Hi; feelings and
svmnpe:hies, and not his interests, warp his better

jadgment.
Mr. I{ 0 EBITC ar,uments in s,upport of tl,e v'ew
which he has always taken cf the Canada question,
his plan -for tranquiliz'ng the Lower Province,
he noticed in detail at our cArlies.. leisure;

--X pamphlet, mitled " Tilt! C4nad an Contro-
vel6y," paNished by LONGMAN, contains much valu-
able informa:on on the great question which now oc-
cupies Parliament and the puhlie. The author,
tnough anonymous, does not appear at all anxious

o cr,uccal his lam: ; but a 3 it may. be con-

j.2etured tliat he is, or at cue time was, eon-

nfcted v‘ith the Government, he warns th»
reader against supposing, that, whatever opinion
he will find hire, are any other than the private opinions
of the author." It iq not improbable that they are
the o,)itlions of one who was an inlitmtial Member of
t •
a former Liberal Government, and who has had re-
cent opportunities of making himself acquainted with
the local grievances of the Colonists ; but though rather
tinged with a leaning to the one party to the dis-
advantage of the other, there is throughout the work a
degree of the impartiality and candour for which the
gentleman to whom we allude, has ever been remark-
able. After giving a summary of the history of the
Colony up to 1828, he gives ample credit to the gaud
intentions of the Colonists, and tacitly admits thattlie
Government was in the wrong :

The opinion of the writer of these pages (and he wish" to
lav particular stress on the admission contained in the first part
6(4) is, that up to that period the Assembly was right in al-
most every one of the complaints which it preferred, and that
in a rene,..edstatement which it made of the same and of some
additional grievances in 1831, it acted in pod faith, and with
good reason.
The cause of the subsequent misunderstanding be-
tween the mother country and the colony,
attri-
butes to the present leaders of the violent party acting
on an ignorant constituency ; and thereby would lead
us to infer that the Constitution of 1791 must be
aitered before discontent can be removed, or the rela-
tions between the two countries, as well as the
two
Provinces, be placed on a secure footing :
Although, he says, for nearly half a century the
inhab!.
tants of Lower Canada had possessed the privilege of
elect-
ing one of the Houses of Legislation, the Greater part of
them, certainly, had not taken that interest hi the ordinary
course of public affairs, or enjoyed that diffusion of the
simpler elements of education, without which no system
could
be successful that should throw all the higher branches of
Government into the hands of the people. uilable to read
and write, scattered over a vast territory, and never approach-
ing the seat of Government, a population, such as
that of
Lower Canada, must depend, even fur the knowledge of facts,
upon the words of those delegates whom they ought to be able
t,-) call to account. The representative power is left without
the only responsibility provided for it by the Constitution ;
and the tendency too surely is, that a few should wield the
pretended authority of the many, an oligarchy reign in the
name of the people. To any one who has visited Lower Ca-
neda, this is na ttter nut of speculation, hut of observation.
All this may be very true, but one thing it certainly
proves against.the Government at home—that while
many grievances remained unredressed, no measures
were adopted which were calculated to satisfy the just
claims of the Lower Assembly from 1828 to 1832 ;
the consequence of which was that the demands of
the Colonists increased, and what would have satisfied
them in 1828 was, after this blameable delay, rejected
with scorn. This is but the history of all contests with
the people, when they claim their rights, whether at
home or abroad. Little doubt can remain, that had
the Legislative Council been so constituted in 1828
as it is now, and concessions made in time, the affairs
of Canada would have been in a very different posi-
tion. One of the great complaints against that body,
till very lately, was the appointment of Englishmen,
to the exclusion of men of French extraction, and to
the great number of office-holders. It appears from
the « Quebec Almanack," that a vast chann has
taken place, but it has been made too late. lit that
publication there appear, for this year, the mules of
Legislative Confleil!ors. Of the active and
;r!)°oriti\tent men amongst them, the lumber who have
been known throughout their lives as the friends of
popular rights (but not the advocates of rebellion)
amounts to five ; the number of leading persons on the
other side may be stated to be the same. Again. the
otal number of :nett considered of liberal polities fully
goals one half of the Council, wirh this distinction
that most of them arc more latdy appointed, and corn-
7.76.tivelv oung men; witi!
n e several of the others, from
infirmity-or other causes, never attend, aid must in the
eourse of nature shortly fall off the hat. The number
French-Canadian Mt..:mbers and of Ei4lish-Cana-
Membra is exactly (-qua'. Here again, and the
shorter tenure likely in one class, is applicable to the