The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-27 00:00:00

party in Lower Canada, as, besides the 13 Members from
Upper,Canada, the Governor had the power of nominating
iree Members from the Legislative Council of the Lower
Province, representing in a great measure the English party.
With a Council so composed—with 13 Members from Upper
Canada, deliberating on the affairs of Lower Canada, what
could be the result but continued and increased irritation of
feeling ? The majority of the Council was at the expense of
Lower Canada, and they were to deliberate on all the matters
in dispute in that province—on the application and control of
the revenue, on the measures to be adopted in regard to
maintaining the independence of the Judges, on the Tenures
Act, on providing a Court of Impeachment, and on other
measures affecting solely the people of Lower Canada. Now,
he would say, let Lord Durham find out the best means of
obtaining information on all these points, but don't fetter him
with a plan which he might find impracticable, and which
could not fail of producing irritation, for he must tell the
Noble Lord opposite that it was little short of an insult to
Lower Canada to have 13 Members from Upper Canada
selected for the purpose of deliberating on the application of
her revenues and on her means of internal government. Would
it not have been better to have left Lord Durham free to act
on his own judgment than to say to him, " If you call a
Council at all to your assistance, it shall be constituted in a
certain manner, which we prescribe ?"
When it was first intimated that the Government
intended to grant a new Constitution to Lower
Canada, we expressed a hope that Parliament might
be brought to contemplate a re-union of the Provinces;
and we likewise stated that the best course Ministers
could adopt would be to use every means for placing
the whole of our possessions in North America under
the guardianship of one Federal Provincial Legisla-
ture, and the sway of one Chief Governor. This
too is the view taken by Sir ROBERT PEEL of the
true policy of the Cabinet—a view which was cor-
dially approved of by Mr. HuME, and the other
leaders of the Radical party. In nothing but the
declared suspension of the Canadian Constitution will
Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Bill bear the least resemblance
to the Cabinet abortion which Lord JOHN RUSSELL
so coolly kicked overboard last night, while professing
the strongest attachment to the policy which the
Cabinet had therein embodied. But. we are satisfied
with our triumph ; and for the sake of the country,
we are glad that Ministers—no matter from what
private consideration—for once preferred the true in-
terests of the people to a nice regard to poli-
tical independence. Nothing would give us more
pain than to see the Tories take possession of Down-
ing-street at a crisis so important as the present. The
war in Canada is bad enough ; but it is nothing com-
pared to the prospect of a civil commotion in Ireland.
Bad as are the Whigs, they are a million of times
better and more honest than the Tories, with Sir Ripe-
For-Office Plausible PEEL at their head.

Some of the Scotch papers express surprise at the
lenity of the Judges to the convicted Cotton Spinners,
and contend that the verdict of the Jury would have
warranted a severer sentence. This sentiment, ex-
pressed in Liberal papers as well as others, shows a
wonderful change of public opinion in the North with
regard to the administration of justice. In former
times, when fourteen out of the fifteen Judges were
Tories, and the law-officers of the same political
creed, there were no complaints of this sort. The
severity of the law was seldom relaxed, and juries were
not inclined to convict, unless the evidence vas
such as to leave them no alternative. Strange scenes
frequently occurred in consequence. Some twenty

.years ago a man was tried at Edinburgh for murder ;
the Jury had doubts, and returned a verdict of man-
slaughter, and a Tory Judge of long standing so far
forgot his duty and the dignity of his office as to de-
nounce them from the Bench as men who had violated
the lows of their country. The change certainly is
for the better, not only as regards humanity, but the
efficiency of the law—for had the same stern seve-
rity prevailed at the late trial, in all probabi- I
lity the prisoners would have been acquit-
ted. The public prosecutor and the Judges on
that occasion, in our opinion, showed a merciful dis-
pcsition and a just discretion. The Jury evidently
had great doubts, seven being for acquittal and eight
for conviction ; and in that case any sentence more
severe than that passed on the Dorchester Labourers,
might have led to a similar outcry against the Govern-
ment. About the atrocity of the crimes imputed to
these prisoners, there can be but one opinion
among ail moral and religious men. None can be
imagined more destructive of the bonds of civilised
s-)ciety ; but the very magnitude of the crimes
only warrants greater circumspection on the part of a
jury. They are so infamous, and so alien to the
f,!clings and character of Englishmen, that the people
of this country will not give ctedit to them unless on
the clearest evidence. Nothing will satisfy the public
mind now but the fullest inquiry—those who would
obstruct it can do so only because they hate the light,
;Ind their very opposition will only the more increase
suspicions. For that reason it becomes the duty of
every honest member of those Unions to call for the
'fullest investigation, and to lend every assist-
ance to Mr. WAKLEY in carrying- it into effect.

The proeeedino's last night in the House of Com-
mons excited extraordinary interest, not so much from
the importance of their nature as from the party tactics
and manifestations mixed up with them. Government,
no doubt, did not desire to risque a division during the
absence of many of their Irish allies i; but it is utterly
false that they resorted to the paltry expedient of en-
deavouring to prevent a House being made in order to
gain time. The Times, in its malignant appetite for any
slander against the Government, no matter how gross or
unfounded, has put forward a statement to that effect
this morning ; and in order to give some colour to the
calumny, asserts that not one of the official subordinates
was present at four o'clock, save Mr. PARKER, one of
the Lords of the Treasury. Now we happen to know,
by the best of evidence, that Mr. ROBERT STEUART
was also present ; and, further, that in not one on an
hundred occasions, are there more Official Members
present at the making of a House than there were
last night.

We have received the whole of the Paris journals of
Thursday. Their contents are of trifling importance.
The following article on the financial prospects of the
Carlists is from the Courrier Francais, a journal of
decidedly liberal principles :

" The subsidy of 12,000,0001. proposed to be granted to
Don Carlos by the Northern Courts is not to be lodged en-
tirely in his hands, but a portion of it is to be remitted to the
Genoese bankers, who are in advance with him, under the
guarantee of the King of Sardinia. A certain sum is to be
paid to the contractors, either to liquidate their accounts
of November and December, or as an instalment upon their
future supplies. It has been agreed to send as little
specie as possible to the Pretender's head-quarters. lest
the money should be immediately applied to the pay-
ment of the arrears due to the general and other officers,
and none be left for the material and pressing wants
of the army. If the protectors of Don Carlos in Germany,
Russia, and Italy, have once more submitted to sacrifices
which they imagine to be the last, his friends in England and
France seem inclined to imitate the example. The commer-
cial house at Amsterdam, which is usually the depository of
their donations, has received 100,000 florins from Paris, and
drafts on London for 140,000 f. or 150,000 f. On the other
hand, the petty supplies of the Committees of Toulouse and
other places have been interrupted only by the inclemency of
the weather, and according to all appearance will shortly be
resumed. Letters hare reached Paris from the Carlist head-
quarters, speaking of grand expeditionary projects, reviews
presenting excellent results, and more especially supplies ex-
pected from the Princess de Beira, who thinks herself on the
point of being acknowledged Queen of Spain."
The annexed Carlist " Order of the Day," copied
from a Spanish Paper into the columns of our Parisian
Contemporaries, will show the atrocious spirit in
which the civil war is carried on by the agents of the
Pretender :

" Foe. TIM KING.—To the Alcade of Gandesa.—The
peasant Francisco Perez has been shot for not having obeyed
my orders, and a similar fate awaits all those who shall not
carry them into execution with all due respect. This man's
wife has not experienced the same lot, because she was with
child, but she was made to be present at the death of her hus-
band. Henceforth, however, this shall not be a reason for
women escaping chastisement incurred; thay shall be shot,