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

who now stand before me should undergo the several degrees of
punishment, short of death, which I shall assign to them be-
fore I leave this place ; and it has also been considered the
safer course to decline to prosecute some of those who were less promi-
nently guilty. I trust, however, that this will excite no feeling of
triumph: nothing like the notion that the law will not be put filly into
effect upon any future occasion it shall be at all violated; and I hope
that the course now taken will have the effect of showing that, however
persons may be maddened at a particular moment by violence or by
a confidence in the power of their own hands, and however they may
think they can exercise and indulge their worst feelings by means
of the power which they posseis, the law is too strong for them ;
and that it will be put in force according to the exigency of every
case when it is outraged and insulted, in such a mariner as is iieces.
airy for the protection of all her Majesty's subjects; every one
of whom may be at• the mercy of an infuriated mob if proceed.
ings like these were not met by the severest punishment, anti the
clearest denunciations of the law, which are absolutely essen.

tial to be fully understood, and I trust will be duly considered, not
only in this county, but in every part of her Majesty's domi..
nions. Now, with this statement you retire from this Bar—some of you
retiring from it and from your country, which you can see no more ;
others of you to be conveyed to distant parts, where for a long period
you will be removed from your dearest connections and relations ; and
some of you escaping with a less severe punishment.—(Here several of
the prisoners cried bitterly.) I own it is enough to excite great corn.
passion to perceive that you are carried away by a feeling of the culpa.
ble offence for having committed which you are evidently most severely
suffering ; and you probably never dwelt on the possibility of your being
placed in the situation in which you now unfortunately stand. No doubt
if you had foreseen your share in this proceeding, you would have ab-
stained from joining it on that consideration, apart from all others ;
but persons ought to learn that every one .is responsible for his own
acts, and should take care that he was not betrayed in his
conduct, or that his reason was not surrendered to the indulgence of
any momentary feelings whatever. You may now retice.

The prisoners then left the dock, several of them bowing respectfully
to the Court.

The prisoners have altered considerable in appearance during their
confinement, and display care-worn, anxious countenances, very different
from the faces they wore on the day of their apprehension. William
Wills (the leader under Courtenay) is the most altered of all, and is evi.
dently " a sadder and a wiser man," but maintains a steady self-com.
posure, very different from the nervous phases which occasionally over.
came his companions in misfortune. After hearing their doom, they
quitted the dock weeping; but Wills was quite unmoved. Grigs still.
wears his right arm in a sling, and road's mouth is seriously disfigured
by the ball which lacerated his cheek.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

On Lord Brougham moving the Order of the Day for go.
ing into a Committee on the Canada Government Act Decla-
ration Bill, Lord Melbourne rose, and, after expressing regret
that their Lordships had determined, very contrary to his feel-
ings, to give a second reading to this Bill, observed, with re-
spect to the objection taken to the ordinances, that it rested
upon a principle of law, very evident, clear, and distinct to
lawyers, though not perhaps so clearly apprehended by other
persons ; and that the tendency of the course determined on
was to favour and give encouragement to a particular party in
the colony—a party which has lately excited rebellion against
this country, and which undoubtedly is bent upon a separa-
tion from this country. " You may depend upon it," said
his Lordship, " that that will be the effect of the course
which the Noble and Learned Lord is pursuing—that
that will be the effect of the course your Lordships
have pursued." Having added, that in his opinion
it would have been far better had their Lordships
left that course to be pursued which should be de-
cided upon by her Majesty's Ministers, but they having
thought otherwise, it was now for him to state the course
which he and his colleagues considered it their duty to take in
consequence of that decision. His Lordship then entered on
the objections which had been taken to the deportation to the
Bermudas, and to that part of the ordinances which related
to the persons not in custody, but who had fled from the
colony, the force of which objection he could not but feel,
while it was obvious that the threatened punishment was
merely held out in terrorera, and that it was intended to se-
cure the colony against the return of persons whose pre-
sence in it must necessarily have been felt to be dangerous;
and observed, that though he would have been better con-
tented if their Lordships had not interfered with this last
part of the ordinances, because, as he had argued on Thurs-
day night, it was not possible to believe that there must not
have been some particular and sufficient reasons for the course
pursued by Lord Durham, yet as it was difficult to dis-
allow one part of the ordinances, which was clearly
unwarranted by law, without disallowing the whole,
he therefore begged ave to say that they had come to
the decision of advising her Majesty to disallow the ordinances.
This is no doubt a determination which the Government have
been most reluctantly forced to take. Though unavoidable,
after the inconceivable folly displayed by the majority of the
Lords, Which, to use Lord Melbourne's words, strikes at the
root of all authority in the country, no statesman possessed of
any foresight could take such a course without the deepest
regret and alarm. And Lord Melbourne did not dissemble
his apprehensions of the consequences. One part of the or-
dinances having been declared illegal, his Lordship observed,

it followed as amatter of course that those who litive aided in
the execution of it are liable to proceedings in the Civil and
Criminal Courts, and he therefore felt that the indemnity
clause of the present Bill should be passed. With regard to
the first clause, as it went too far, he could not concur in
it ; and with respect to Sir William Follett's proviso,
which, if literally interpreted, would involve the most ab.
surd consequences, it was his intention to introduce
into the Bill an explanation stating that it shall not
interfere with any measure which may be absolutely necessary
to be adopted in the circumstances which may occur in Canada.
Lord Brougham was, of course, highly elated at this result of
his labours, and predicted all manner of advantage from it.
The torrent of declamation in which he indulged will not
blind reflecting persons to the obvious consequence of his
labours, that Lord Durham's Government in Canada has re-
ceived a blow which it will with difficulty withstand. The
Noble and Learned Lord thought the Government of Canada

was not composed of men " who were so likely to underrate
their powers, or to stand within the strict line of them, or to
be governed by law and common sense, as to make it wholesome
to enlarge the powers they already possessed." He was willing
to leave the law as it is, and as it was left when they passed
the Bill, and to give an indemnity as far as regarded Nelson
and his associates but not to all cases, fur he charitably
observed, " The Government of Canada may have caused to
be put to death, unheard, untried, and unnotified, those fifteen
persons who were not in custody." It was his intention, on
bringing up the Report, to move the addition of two or three
words limiting the indemnity. The Duke of Wellington
thought the alteration proposed by Lord Melbourne unnece3-
sa;y, as treason and rebellion could be punished within those
provinces under the Canada Act :
" I believe,'! said his Grace, " that the late Governer-General acted
under the provisions of this very Act, and he must have had the power
to punish rebellion and treason, as the present Governor-General must
have under the Act of Parliament as it existed at present, without the

alteration proposed. Under these circumstances I should wish that this
proposition should not be brought under the consideration of the House,
having a sincere desire that this matter should be discussed and should
terminate without any further division of opinion upon it, and really
feeling that if it h now brought on no rea! service will be done to the

State."
The Marquis of Lansdowne observed, that if it were admitted
that the power so exercised by Sir J Colborne was conforma-
ble to the law, then the object of his Noble Friend would be in
a great measure gained; and if he heard a declaration to that
effect from the Noble Lord (Brougham), and Lord Durham
was allowed the same power, he would be satisfied, Lord
Brougham did not feel himself at liberty to answer the question
1,-.tiether Sir John Colborne had or had not exceeeded hia
po„ers• under the Act, and founded his refusal on the possibi-
lity of his s‘'ing.
called on in his judicial capacity to decide,
should Sir John ^ll"ree be
prosecuted or impeached for hay-
in ,
exceeded his k. 7
The Marquis of Lansdowne
ohn Colborne and his succes-
sor, the thought,
House in justice poc.th
not "
o to "s•
l .'Y
sva the question in that state.
eughbto to
The Lord Chancellor showed the absurdity of the construction
put on the Act by Lord Brougham, Wilieli would prevent the
Governor in Council of Canada not merely frvm issuing an at-
fainder, or suspending the Habeas Corpus Act but from depart-
ing from the criminal law as administered in any county in
England. On bringing up the Report Lord Brougham
proceeded to move his amendments, which were agreed to;
after which Lord Melbourne moved a clause explanatory of the
doubts which have arisen respecting the meaning of Sir W.
Follett's proviso, to which clause strong objections were
urged by Lord Ellenborough and Lord Brougham, The
clause was subsequently withdrawn. The Duke of Welling.
ton strongly urged the expediency of leaving matters as they
were for the present. The Bill is to be read a third time on
Monday. Their Lordships have contrived in a few days to
raise all manner of doubts, and it will be a miraela ii OP coil-
sequence of these doings do not prove exceedingly diiastr°l6'
On much less encouragement the men of the party in Cana"'
on behalf of whom Lord Brougham is so deeply interested,
may embark in undertakings, against which the Governor-
out
General, paralyzed as its has been by the doubts three
with regard to his powers, may find himself without the means
of making head. The Duke of Wellington evidently sees now;,
:s
when it is too late, that in abetting as he did Lord Broughatn
factious and most mischievous proceedings on Thursday night
he acted most unadvisedly. The lawyers fairly bewildered
him with their special pleadings. Never did a grave assembly
so befool itself as the Lords have done in the course of these
proceedings. —Morning Chronicle.
After all the hopes held out, after all the professioni I'li,
forth, on the subject of the Irish Municipal Corporation Bill,
by the Ministers of the Crown, the country will hardly.believe
Russell has moved, indeed, and it is ordered aecordinglY7
the fact, that they have once more thrown it out. Lord John
that the amendments of the Lords be printed, and with tile)
.
the reasons which the Lords have assigned for them; but it
is not till after the Bill has been altogether strangled that the
House of Commons is to be trusted with these arguments for
Bill : Lords'a
ng , a
and
amendments
then hea r .
preserving it. The efitry.. in the votes delivered yesterday
morning is a notable one. "Municipal Corporations (Ireland)
and
A t
tr
ee
na:
io:
ei s
m. consideredenibl
s
.
considerationamendei put off for three months : Bill, with the
First
hang,
its. to be printed : Lords' regains to be printed."
me public business allotted for each suaecc'eedin,g
menti diligent in their public duties and ' accustomed to
meat,
watch
will scarce know how to understand this
.entry. They d;
concludeparagraph
votes,must
Thhaevr
they meant to come hot from the been some error in this
Irish Corporation Bill wasnight;
all:long the business of Thursday
notice from the Government that
have been
hconference
now i
tt ideat
ethLa to
rtdhse,
and despatch the Bill the same afternoon ; and the conse-
quence, at this late season of the
year, was, that on the Con-
servative side only nine Members
their design, lest it should ooze
faced attempt at a surprise,
of Members. Upon Mr. Shaw's
present, and even on
the side of the Government not
c than between twenty an.
stealthily, that they did not trust d
Ministers to do this bad work
even their own retainers with
out and produce a concourse
pprrios tee srt, i nsgayasgtahi
enstcthhaismb.ealrieo-r
" Susr