The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-16 00:00:00

LONDON :
TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16, 1838.

We understand that an Address to her MAJESTY
will be moved this evening in the House of Commons
by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and in the Upper House
by Lord MELBOURNE, on the affairs of Canada. It
is possible that the debate may be adjourned in the
Commons.

The first and most important business of Parlia-
ment will be to adopt measures for tranquilizing the
Canadas. What course the House of Commons will
pursue to efFect that most desirable object, will mainly
rest with the Cabinet. Should Ministers, carried
away by passion, and confident of the support of the
Tories, resolve to treat the insurgents with u►►due se-
verity, they will pare the way for the final destructio►►
of Whig influence in the councils of the British nation.
If they have any regard to their own position, or even
to their political existence, they will pause before they
commit themselves upon a question prejudged by the
leaders of their own party Session after Session for
the last ten years.

Upon this subject, Mr. HUME has addressed a
second letter to this Journal, which will be found in
in another column. The Honourable Gentleman
dwells with some emphasis upon our agreement
with him that Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S tyran-
nical resolutions had the effect of accelerating the
rebellion in Lower Canada. Surely he must have
known this several months ago—for we predicted such
an insurrection from the instant those resolutions were
submitted to the House of Commons. We never
sought to conceal the fact that the Canadians had
many serious grievances to complain of ; but on the
contrary, we took every occasion to urge the justice
and the necessity of their removal. Indeed, as far as
regards the question of grievances, we have been more
explicit than even the Hon. Member forKilkenny him-
self. For instance, we have incessantly exclaimed
against the official system of conferring all employ-
ments of honour and profit in the Lower Province
upon Englishmen ; of attaching to all offices enormous
salaries ; of bestowing a number of offices upon one
individual, and confining others to members of the
same family ; of excluding popular persons of French
origin from the Legislative and Executive Council,
and of appointing the slaves of the Administration to
offices so incompatible with a subservient condition ;
of rewarding services done to the Government by the
most unpopular men, with extensive grants of land ;
of a vexatious interference with the trade of the
Colony ; and of a repeated contempt of the peti-
tions of the Legislative Assembly for the removal
of individuals, who by their malversations had justly
forfeited the confidence of their fellow-subjects—indi-
viduals who had disgraced the bench, by an open dis-
play of ignorance, partiality, and drunkenness. Our
quarrel then with the Canadians is, not that they are not
aggrieved, but that they are not aggrieved to an extent
that could justify them in appealing to the decision of
the sword. Canada was at no time more misgoverned
than was England under the rotten borough system ;
nor were her grievances half so numerous, nor so preg-
nant with misery, as these of Ireland at this moment ;
and vet, where is the person who would undertake to
affirm, that a civil war would be preferable to the Re-
form Bill, or that Mr. O'CONNELL would better con-
sult Irdand's interests, by preferring civil to moral
warfare against abuses?

Mr. HUME states that Lord JOHN RussELL's
coercive Resolutions made the Canadians first think
of an appeal to arms. We arc not entirely of this
opinion. We are persuaded the leaders of the insur-
gents had for several years past meditated a forcible
separation from this country. The Resolutions acce-
lerated—or rather precipitated—but certainly did not
give rise to the determination to oppose force
against the domination- of Great Britain. \Vete such
a separation effected without violence—guarantees
being given fur the protection of such British interests
as the Crown is pledged to maintain—we should be
the first to congratulate England on so happy an
event. Let it be proved to us that the majo-
, rity of the inhabitants of the two provinces
desire to be separated from us—that the French
Canadians and British settlers are disposed to live in
harmony together—that there exists a determination
among all parties to respect the rights of each other—
and that the interests of merchants and landowners
here will be respected and compounded for ; and we
shall rejoice to cut all connection with the Canadas,
but such as we can maintain as a commercial people.
The Canadas as free States would be twice as profit•
able to us as they are, or ever can be as Colonies.
But we are for no bloodshed.

The fulsome panegyrics that have been heaped upon
the speech of Sir JAMES GRAHAM compel us to
notice matters that we should otherwise have deemed
unworthy of our attention. We cared nothing for the
lachrymose catalogue of personal grievances which the
renegade Baronet piteously poured forth, seeing that
he remained stout and stalwart, though no longer
4 Cock of the North "—nay, though we deprecate
personal attacks of all descriptions, we were not alto-
gether sorry that the brave and honest little freeholders
of Cumberland, who once almost worshipped this
second WILLIAM TELL, as they thought him, did
express their abhorrence of his treachery and apos-
racy, in a manner that admitted of " no mistake ;" but
we are not disposed to pass unnoticed or unexposed
all the fine things which the " Knight of the bright-