The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-11 00:00:00

•
g eat deal of argument has also been urged, in the course of
these discussions, respecting a proviso in the Bill
which was passed in the beginning of the Session upon the
subject of Canada, and which prohibits the Governor of
Canada in Council from doing anything in contravention of
any Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Par-
liament of the United Kingdom, or certain Acts passed by the
legislature of Canada. Unquestionably this proviso, consi-
dering the grounds upon which it certainly was introduced, it
being stated that it was intended to apply only to the Canada
Act, of 1791, and the other Act relating to tenures, was very
large, and I must say I shall be very much surprised if your
Lordships permit it to stand in its present shape. It is impos-
sible to deny that svidch has been said, considering who the
person was that moved this particular clause, as to what was the
intention of the Act, and I hope your. Lordships will consider
what its effects would be, and what it was meant to be,
and although, certainly, there is no ambiguity in the words,
and they must be considered co-extensive with what they
express, I feel at the same time, considering that it ap-
pears that doubts are entertained on the subject, and that
the proviso as it stands leaves the law evidently in a state
of absurdity—( Hear, hear. )—if it enables the Governor
in Council to alter or amend any Act that was passed
before the union with Scotland, or to deal with the common
law in any way be pleases, only placing the statute law
beyond his power—but if it enables him to deal with the
criminal law as he pleases, that certainly was not the
intention of the Act, and it cannot be the intention of your
Lordships to tie up the Governor-General in Canada and his
Council from taking measures which may be necessary for
the safety of the country, even although inconsistent with
some of the Acts mentioned in the proviso. Noble and
Learned Lords seem to me to push this matter to an ab-
surdity in the arguments which they have held on the sub-
ject. As for instance, with respect to a Police Act, it was
stated that the Government in Canada must adhere to all the
forms of Police Acts in this country, and that the party must
be taken and examined before two magistrates, and not be-
fore one. If this proviso be adhered to it would bind the
Governor-General to observe all the regulations of any Act
of Parliament even on the most minute subjects. I think,
therefore, that your Lordships can have no objection to intro-
duce into this Bill an explanation of this proviso, stating
that it shall not interfere with any measure which may be
absolutely necessary to be adopted in the circumstances which
may occur in that country. When we come to that part of
the Bill I shall move a clause to that effect.
Lord BROUGHAM rose and said, but for the concluding
part of the Noble Viscount's speech I should have felt un-
mixed satisfaction at the announcement he has just made of
the course which he intends to pursue, I think most judiciously,
most wisely, and most virtuously, and most in accordance with
the principles of law and justice which a Government ought
to administer. I think the course be is taking is worthy of
those who have always defended the great principles of civil
liberty—worthy of the men who feel that the principle of
public conduct is a regard to the interests of the mass of the
community; and I think it consistent whit those great prin-
, ciples with which he should regard, with which he does now
regard, and with which your Lordships regarded this most
outrageous violation of every principle of law, and every feel-
ing of justice. But I differ from the Noble Viscount on
one or two points, and I think I should not be dis-
charging my duty, or showing a becoming respect for
your Lordships, after the struggle which we made for
right and justice and for conciliation last night, if I ab-
stained from remarYing, which I shall do very shortly, upon
the difference that senarates me from the Noble Viscount.
The Noble Viscount said be greatly lamented the decision
to which we came last night. He said that he deems it his
duty to declare that he labours under serious apprehensions
and alarm as to the consequences of that decision, and that he
will fling upon you and upon me the responsibility of what may
happen in consequence of that decision—( Hear, hear)—and
he tells your Lordships that, though true it is that here as
lawyers and statesmen you submitted the broad principle upon
which last night you rested, it is only lawyers and statesmen
who apprehend and appreciate the principle, and that the
people at large will only see in it the victory of a party.—
( Hear, hear.) Gracious God 1 does it require men to be law-
yers or statesmen or learned men, or even ever to have read a
book upon any of those subjects, to know and feel that it is
an outrage upon all justice to condemn to death fifteen men
who have never been tried ?—for that, in one sentence, is the
effect of this unheard-i ordinance, and that is the principle,
and the whole principle, which your Lordships have laid
down. Ido not believe that in Canada, from one end to the
other of her wastes of snow and her forests of pines, her
boundless lakes and her rapid rivers, that one man dwells
who, when he calls to mind, will be doubtful of the truth
of the proposition, that under ignorance of what he was
doing, or under a misapprehension of it, under an oblivion of
the restraints upon his jurisdiction, under the influence of haste
or precipitation, or error, or neglect of some sort, from over-
sight or mistake, well-meaning but ill-judging, wishing to de,
good, but in effect doing wrong, thinking that be was follow-
ing the law, but in fact breaking the law, the Government of
Canada has condemned these fifteen men to be punished ca-
pitally without notice, without trial, without a hearing, and
that as soon as her Majesty's Government heard of it, with the
advice and consent, and urged by the opinion declared by your
Lordships last night, they have not suffered a day to elapse
without advising the recal of that illegal though, it may be, well-
meaning ordinance. I think I cannot put the proposition more
fairly towards the truth of the fact, more fairly towards the infer-
ence of the law, and at the same time, permit me to add, more
fairly, more candidly, more temperately towards the authors of
the mistake than in the sentence which I have just now spoken.
I charge the Government in Canada with no wilful error—l
impute no tyrannical object as the cause of this wrongful act
%chat ever—l acquit them of all blame, except that of having
committed a gross and manifest error; and upon
the ground of that gross and manifest error, I consider
that your Lordships have done wisely, and well, and justly, and
according to your duty in coming to last night's decision.—
( Hear, hear.) Upon the same ground I venture to foretell
that the people of Canada will not make this conduct of ours,
or of the Government, which is the result of the division, the
pretext for further outrage. If they do, I will take my share,
as your Lordships will take your share, of the responsibility ;
but I must add, in justice to you and to myself, that I should
hold them as guilty of outrage, and of being wrong doers,
not from mistake, but from wilful crime, if they make this
conduct of ours a pretext for further outrage.—( Hear, hear.)
Because it is as hollow, as shallow, as arrant, as flimsy a pre-
tence as a man could rack his brain to invent.—( Hear, hear. )
Because an illegal act is done, because an outrage is corn-
mitted on law and justice through mistake, and because those
• who compose the highest Court of Judicature in the country,
as well as the Upper Chamber of Parliament, because the
Crown at their advice and suggestion loses not 24 hours to
undo what was wrongly done, to repair what was mis-
chievous, to prevent further mischief, and to lead to
greater caution and circumspection in future, will any man
living say that this is to furnish a pretext for the people
of Canada saying that we have altered the opinions that
niado*s pass the Bill, that we have shown a disposition
to •..xticeourage outrage, to encourage the French party
~.04pritt the English party ? Can any mortal derive the
ghtest shadow of a pretext to justify such conduct from
source we have pursued here? My Lords, be not dis•
Couraged—( Hear, hear)—persist in the course to which you
bound yourselves last night—let it be called that of a jobbing
oligarchy or a truculent democracy— ( Hear, hear)—l care not
fir it, so that you oily show a jealousy not of your own privi-
leges, but of the public rights—(Cheers)—and so that you
show that your truculency leads you to prevent !nnocent
blood being shed by an unlawful ordinance, and to'hear men
who have not been heard, tried, vr summoned, but who have
been cronvict?d unheard, untried, and unsummoned.--( Cheers. )
I heartily rejoice, therefore, that Government has come to this
virtuous and wise and politic resolution. lithe course they had
taken has produced an increase cf disaffection towards them,
and a distrust of their motives, I think I may say now that we
have, for the first tine, shed daylight on this obscure question ;
that the course we have taken will lead to a conciliation of the
affections and the respect of many even among the dis-
affected. And doubt not but that if the time and the interval
be wisely used, and the measure of last night be wisely and
consistently followed up, it will better lead to gain the hearts
of the people of Canada than if they had made themselves
parties, infatuated parties, to those ordinances which they have
so wisely condemned. I must confess that I have no ob-
jection to strike out the declaratory part of the Act, arid to
leave the clause of indemnity. My Noble and Learned
Friend ( Lori Lyndhurst) suggested that course ; but I must
say that I cannot consent to arm the Government of Canada
with powers which, under the Bill as it stood, that Govern-
ment did not possess. Had the conduct of the Government
in Canada been such as to tempt there toenlarge their power ?
I certainly do not think so. Ido not go alc ng with the Noble
Viscount in saying that it was ever intended by the passing of
the Act to give any power to the Government of Canada,
however strongly they might be armed in other respects, to
pass Bills of attainder and Bills of pains and penalties against
individuals. The Noble Viscount said that we ought to have
done so. At first the Noble Viscount said that we had done
so
e ; but now he says that as we have not done so we ought, and
h
calls
upon us to do so, that is, to give the power of passing
Bills of attainder without hearing the
party. The Government
of Canada is not composed of men who are so likely to un-
derrate their powers, or to stand within the strict line
of them, or to be governed by law and common sense,
as to malice it wholesome to enlarge the powers which
they already possess. I do not ask to restrain those pow-
ers which they at present possess ; am
the law as it is, and as it was left when wew a
ssi wilting
theto lßillea leave
e
:s
for, although I opposed the Bill, I am not' the' man now
to rise and attempt to repeal it; let it be as. it is, and let
there be an indemnity for those who have counteracted any
part of it, or committed any offence against it as far as
regards Nelson and his associates; but I am not prepared to
extend that indemnity to all cases that may have happened.
The Government of Canada may have caused to be put to death,
unheard, untried, and unnotified, those fifteen persons. They
have included in leis ordinance Perrot, who has never ab-
sconded. If those persons have been imprisoned, and treated
as felons, I am not prepared to say that they should be de.
prived of their right of action, that they should be deprived of
their solatium of damages which a person has a right to have
who has been illegally imprisoned. lam prepared, however,
to grant the indemnity in the case of those nine persons who
were willing to go to Bermuda; they have no right to com-
plain if we take away this i•emedy, but I am not prepared to
go farther. It is therefore my intention, on bringing up the
NF lirspA 15,„,„. report, to move the addition of two or three words to confine
the indemnity to that extent. lam in the bands of the
•. House. This is your Lordships' Bill as well as mine, and
e hatever course to you shall- seem fit to be pursued, with
, Flpgiat I shall be entirely contented, completely satisfied; but
es-a4A>so consider that I have only done my duty in stating the
*L, im-
;~.ression which the speech of the Noble Viscount has made on
y mind.
"./ The Duke of WELLINGTON.—My Lords, I cannot

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