The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER l9, 1838.

inconvenience by abandoning that business, when it was
found expedient by the Legislature at home to protect him
from the legal consequences of the errors into which he had
fallen. It will probably be recollected that, when Lord
Melbourne first blustered against the Canada Go-
vernment Indemnity Bill, and then consented to it,
the Ministerial Papers were filled with pusillani-
mous expressions of hope and anticipation that Lord
Durham would not take offence, but would continue
to enjoy at once his indemnity and his place. There
are indications, however, that of late the Ministers
themselves have ceased to indulge such anticipa-
tions. We shall be very glad if it prove hereafter
that careful and energetic measures have been taken by the
Executive Government to provide for the probable results
of what Lord Durham has done, and of his determination
not to proceed. But it would be to carry courtesy beyond
the bounds of common sense, and to give more weight to
the promptings of hope than to the lessons of experience,
if we were to place any confidence in the sagacity or ac-
tivity of the present Administration of our Colonial De-
partment. To believe that a combination of both has been
exhibited, however important the circumstances, and press-
ing the exigency, which call for the exertion of both, is al-
together out of the question. It will be more reasonable
to suppose that the Whig Ministers have (with their usual
skill and rigour) left events to arrange themselves. The
Lieutenant-Governor will succeed, as a matter of
course, to the duties of the Governor-General, and
it will be discovered by the Ministers here, those sa-
pient directors of the affairs of the British empire,
that, notwithstanding all the pomp and circum-
stance, and the vast national importance which were at-
tached to the " mission of Lord Durham," the affairs of
the Canadas may be sufficiently taken care of by the able
and gallant officer who was in Canada at the time that the
pompous " mission" was resolved upon. As to the pro-
priety of Lord Durham's conduct in returning, that must
be judged of when all the circumstances attending it come
before the public. We have no doubt, however, that many
of the same honest and independent Journals, which in such
piteous accents implored his Lordship not to be angry, and
with so much mock scorn imparted their confidence that
his Lordship would too much despise the policy of the Tory
party to be led to resign by the passing of a Bill which
they supported, will now find out that his Lordship showed
" a proper spirit" in resigning ; and will proclaim that

whatever inconvenience may arse from his return must be
laid to the account of the Tories. Such is the ordinary march
of Whig-Radical consistency, and we have no reason to
expect that it will undergo any alteration in the pre-
sent instance. From the Address of Lord Durham,
however, which has been published, it is clear that he puts
the saddle on the right horse at present, whatever party
spleen may induce him to do hereafter. The decision of the
British Parliament, in which the Ministers of the Crown
felt it their duty to acquiesce—this is the reason assigned
by Lord Durham for abandoning his Canadian Go-
vernment, and, so far as regards the Indemnity Bill,
that is the right and the fair way to speak of it. It was a
measure decided upon by Parliament, and acquiesced in
by the Ministers in both Houses. Nay, all parties had a
hand in it. The Radical Leader in the House of Lords

(Lord Brougham) suggested it, the Tory party in that
House supported it, and the Ministers carried it through
the House of Commons. If the Indemnity Bill was indeed
a rebuke and an offence to Lord Durham, it was a rebuke
and an offence which stood upon a very broad foundation.
But we repeat that the propriety of the abandon-
ment of the Canadian Government by his Lordship, in
consequence of the passing of that Bill, cannot be deter-
mined upon until all the circumstances are more fully
known. The first duty of a public man is to consider the
public service—the next his own dignity and self-respect.
If Lord Durham had reason to believe that his continued
presence in Canada and superintendence of its affairs were
very important to the security of that province and to its
faithful and useful adherence to the mother country, and
that this would be the case notwithstanding the passing of
the Indemnity Bill, then no feeling of personal vexation,
however sharp it might be, should have caused him, at
such a time, to abandon his government. If, on the other
hand, he felt that his presence and exertions as Governor
were of no particular importance, or that the passing
of the Indemnity Bill had taken away his power of
being practically useful, then the course he has taken
is not an ill-tempered indiscretion, but an honourable
step of duty. When further explanations, and especially
Parliamentary explanations, come before the public, we
shall be enabled to decide whether Lord Durham has acted
in conformity with his well-known character previous to his
" Canadian mission," or in conformity with a better sort of
temper and judgment, which we should be happy to believe
that his Lorahip had acquired from the Canadian climate.
The return of Lord Durham and other events of interest
in relation to our colonial and foreign policy will naturally
create in the public mind something like an impatience for
the re-assembling of Parliament. We do not expect, how-
ever, that Ministers will be more likely in this matter, than
in many others which we might mention, to sympathise
with the public sentiment. Perhaps about the last days
of January we may look forward to an interesting, if not a
loving interview, betweeen Lords Durham and Brougham,
upon the floor of the House of Lords.—Morning Post.
When Lord Durham, enveloped in the imperial mantle
of his mock autocracy, with all the pomp and ostentation
which became so great a personage, ascended
" That chair of state which far outshone
Henly's gilt tub or Flecknoe's Irish throne,"
wherein he was to wield the august sceptre of his new
dominions, we felt no disposition to join in the acclamations
of the flatterers of his dynasty, and just as little inclination
do we now feel to unite with them in weeping
.over its
downfall. Short as the career of Quixote's squire in Barra-
taria was the Governorship-extraordinary of all the Canadas,
and scarely less ridiculous. But judging from what the his-
torian of the knight of La Mancha bas left on record of the
court, councils, maxims, speeches, and decisions, of the Go-
vernor-extraordinary of the Barratarian territory, Sancho
Panza was the wiser, and certainly the more modest Go-
vernor of the two. So great was his humility, indeed, that
when he had experienced from the hands of his friends
quite as severe a pommelling as Lord Brougham and his
partisans administered out of pure kindliness and good nature
to Lord Durham, he only exclaimed, " I was not born to
be a Governor, nor to defend islands or cities from enemies
that break in upon them. I understand better how to
plough and dig, and plant and prune vines, than to make
laws and take care of provinces and kingdoms. In my
hand a sickle is better than a sceptre:' We suspect, though
he does not admit it, that Lord Durham knows better how
to make a fortune out of a coal-mine than to restore pros-
perity to a sinking colony. That the " untoward event"
of his Canadian Autocratship's resignation should make
the Globe and Courier melancholy is natural enough, but
we cannot quite so well understand why it should make the
Standard inconsolable. If in any public situation in which
Lord Durham has ever been placed he had exhibited any-
thing like the capacity and talents of a statesman, we
could make some allowance for the grief of our respe.cted.
Tory Contemporary upon this moving occasion ; but inas-
much as his Lordship, whether in the position of a Cabinet
Minister, or an Ambassador Extraordinary to the Court of
Russia, only displayed those qualities which, in the one
situation, made his friends very glad to get rid of him, and
in the other were amply taken advantage of to the detri-
ment of England's best interests by the insidious enemies
of the country, we see in his withdrawal from the govern.
ment of our North• American dependencies no cause of
patriotic lamentation. Even in the ranks of the Whig-
Radicals, as stuff to carve Governors-Extraordinary out of,
" We trust there are within the realm
Five hundred good as he."
There could not be easily pointed out one of his rank and
station worse qualified than Lord Durham for the govern-
ment of an important portion of the British empire at such
a juncture as the present. He who, after having re-
commended himself by doctrines striking at the existence
of constitutional monarchy and rational freedom to a
Glasgow mob, truckled to the Autocrat of Russia, and
earned while in the service of his country the decora-
tions of despotism bestowed by a hand red with the
blood of unfortunate Poland, was just the man who might
be expected to play, unconsciously and out of giddiness
and vain glory, the game of the American democrats. The
want of firmness, sound judgment, and high British spirit
which Lord Durham displayed in his transactions with the
Court of St. Petersburg, and which ought to bring burn-
ing blushes into the cheeks of Englishmen, when they
think of the unexpiated Russian insults to the British flag
and the piratical seizure of the Vixen, made us anticipate
nothing from his Transatlantic statesmanship but injury and
humiliation to England. Under his " sceptre" the Canadas
must have been sooner or later lost to this country. If
this be an advantage to the country, as the philosophical
Radical declared unreproved in Parliament last Session it
would be, any other Whig-Radical Governor can do as much.
Let not our Liberal friends despond—there is no want at the
present day of functionaries who can reduce to practice the
political theories of our Leaders and G. rotes, our Humes and
Bowrings, and assist the " march of mind" by breaking up the
British empire. As to the Ministry who conferred on Lord
Durham his high appointment, they were not actuated
in their choice (we did them the justice at the time
to say) by a respect for his statesmanlike capacity, or an
admiration of his political talents. They were moved not
by love but fear. They sent him into splendid exile
abroad, because they dreaded him as a formidable rival at
home. It must be admitted that the fear they had of him,
and his powers of courtly intrigue wben on this side of the
water, soon evaporated when he had crossed the Atlantic,
for the readiness with which they acquiesced in Lord
Brougham's insulting proposal to clip the Wings of their
own dictatur, while yet preparing for his eagle flight of
power, showed a pretty considerable degree of disdain for
the majesty of the Canadian Emperor, and very little cau-

tion in giving it expression. Perhaps, upon his return to
this country, the alarm of Ministers will revive. Cannot
they appease his wrath by recalling the " aspiring" Clan-
ricarde, of ballooning celebrity, and sending him once
more to take lessons in autocratic government at
Court of the Czar, whence he may possibly return
with an additional store of :ibands and medal-
lions to attest the sincerity of his political faith while
preaching democratic doctrines? The Standard, in al-
luding to Lord Durham's resignation, says—" Dismay is
not too strong a word to describe the feeling with which
we contemplate this most unhappy conjuncture. A cen-
tury cannot replace the American colonies in the position
of security in which they rested three months ago—well
if any length of time can effect the restoration without an
ocean of bloodshed. The " position of security" in which
the Canadas rested at any time since Lord Durham went
out there, and took to his councils Mr. Turton, Mr. Gib-
bon Wakefield, and other distinguished men, was one not
likely to be much impaired by his Lordship's absence from
those colonies, as may be very well understood from the
fallowing description of that " position of security" fur-
nished by the Standard's own private correspondent :
" Various private communications seem all to agree in re-
presenting the Canadian troubles as being anything but ended.
We have it from good, and we may almost say undoubted
authority, not only that rebellious movements are contem-
plated in the lower province, but that the preliminaries are
actually arranged, and this upon a much more efficient scale
than on a former occasion. One private communication, in
particular, represents that large bodies of the disaffected have
been for some time past assembling together in such several
quarters as will prove the most eligible and contiguous to the
point, and which may be fixed upon as the general rendezvous,
when it may be thought advisable to concentrate the whole
force into one focus. These arc believed to possess a very
large supply of arms and ammunition, which are secreted
about in a diversity of places, and quite ready for use
as soon as required ; and the same authority alludcs to
the gross neglect on the part of the Governor-General
in not instituting proper inquiries into the nature and
meaning of these movements, so as to satisfy the public
mind as to what v.ill be done in opposing them."
What is the position of security of that country in which
" large bodies of the disaffected have been for some time
past assembling together in such several quarters as will
prove the most eligible and contiguous to the point which
may be fixed upon as the general rendezvous, when it may
be thought advisable to concentrate the whole force into
one focus ?" What, we ask, is the security of a country
under the nose of whose Governor such preparations for a
rebellious outbreak have been made unchecked? What is
the amount of evil which will be inflicted upon such a
country by the withdrawal of the person intrusted with its
political destinies, whose sagacity to detect and vigilance to
prevent the recurrence of the calamity of rebellious out-
break may be estimated from what is said of " the gross
neglect on the part of the Governor-General in not institut-
ing proper inquiries into the nature and meaning of those
movements, so as to satisfy the public mind as to what will
be done in opposing them ?" To have " secreted about in
divers places a large supply of arms and ammunition quite
ready for use as soon as required" must have been a work
of time. While those preparations have been going on
under Lord Durham's government for some time past,
according to the statement of the Standard's accredited
correspondent, his Lordship was engaged in ostentatious
displays of the pomp and parade of office, and in exercis-
ing that speechifying talent, a great deal of which cannot
compensate, in a ruler of the millions, for the want of a
little practical wisdom. The Governor-General who al-
lows rebellion to organise itself under his administration
without inquiry, and talks loudly of the " security" which
he has established while treading upon the surface of a vol-
cano, may be a very clever orator, but must undoubtedly
be a weak and blind politician. It is no great compliment
to pay the character of Sir John Colborne to say that we
could have much more confidence in him than in such a
man—for we are quite sure that in the situation of Gover-
nor he would neither " fold his arms" through a vain confi
dente, while he saw rebellion preparing, nor indulge in the
star-gazing speculations of fantastic schemes and visionary
policy, while the treacherous enemies that ought to be
crushed were arranging their destructive combustibles for a
dreadful explosion. On the whole, if Lord Brougham has
not been instrumental to conferring a great benefit on his
country by being the primary cause of the resignation of
Lord Durham, he has certainly not inflicted any very seri-
ous injury on the public interests. Let Mr. Charles Bul-
er or Van Buren lament that event ;—we cannot.—illorn-
ing Herald.

The approaching session of Parliament will be one of
the deepest importance. It will surpass in interest any
session within the memory of man. Parties are mere
equally balanced in the House of Commons than they
were ever known to be on any previous occasion ; while the
pressure ,from without, directed and kept up as it will be
by the delegates from the Working Men's Associations
from all parts of the country, will be felt to be all but resist-
less. But it is not only in the state of matters and the po-
sition of parties at home that Parliament will feel itself placed
in a most critical and trying position when it again assem-
bles ; the state of our colonial possessions, especially in
the case of the Canadas, will constitute the source of
much anxiety and solemn deliberation to the Legislature.
Matters, indeed, bear at this moment a most serious,
if not most threatening, aspect. No lover of his coun-
try--no one who wishes well to mankind, and who is
anxious for the preservation of peace and order in this coun-
try and the Canadas, can meditate on the existing state of
things without the most intense solicitude, if not the deepest
alarm. It is to be hoped that our fears will prove ground-
less, and that the threatened disasters may be averted ;
they can only be so by the exercise of a more than ordinary
wisdom on the part of the Government and the Legislature.
At such a crisis, we would adjure all who are desirous to see
the Government of the country carried on on liberal and en-
lightened principles, to bury their minor differences—for a
time at least--in the dust, and unite together for the pur-
pose of carrying into practical effect those great principles
which they are unanimous in regarding as essential to the
well-being of the nation.—Morning Advertiser.

Yesterday morning, between ten and eleven o'clock,
a dreadful accident by fire occurred to a female child, named
Julia Burrows, about ten years old, whose parents reside in
Stingo-lanc, St. Marylebone. It appears that at the time
mentioned a female lodger was alarmed by screams, and found
the poor child completely enveloped in flames. She imme-
diately ran into her room, and seizing a quilt, wrapped it round
her,
.and succeeded in extinguishing the flames. The child
was immediately conveyed to the hospital, where she lies in a
precarious state. The parents were from home at the time of
the accident.

An inquest was held last night in St. Thomas's
Hospital, on the body of Edmund Mews, late in the employ-
ment of Messrs. Brechino, ale-brewers, Bishopsgate-street.
It appears that the deceased was engaged in a mash-tub, ar-
ranging the tackle of the machinery used for mashing malt,
when, by some mischance, the machine was put in motion,
and the deceased was killed. Verdict—" Accidental death."

On Wednesday morning last one of the watermen
plying from the Barbican picked up a coffin floating off the
rocks under the citadel, which he took on shore, and, on being
opened it was found to contain the body of a newly-born
male child. Under the shoulders a piece of hearth-stone was
placed with a view to sink the coffin. An inquisition was sum-
moned by R. J. Squire, Esq., borough coroner, to inquire
into the cause of the death of the child, and when assembled
to view the body one of the jurymen, a carpenter, identified
the 'coffin as being made at his shop on the 19th of August.
This led to an inquiry, and the apprentice who made it was
called. He also identified the article. The person who or-
dered the coffin, contrary to custom, would have it made in
the proper form, instead of as a chest, as is usual for still-born
infants, or those which die in the birth. In addition to this
fact, there were marks on it which left no doubt on the minds
of the master and his apprentice as to the identity of the
coffin. The parent of the child for which it was made was
sent for, and he also identified it, and stated that his infant
was buried in it at Charles Church oa the 21st of August last.
The child found was not the infant which had been buried in
the coffin ' • the one buried was a female. This statement was
borne out by Mr. Rattenbury, surgeon, who was present at its
birth. A post mortem examination of the body was taken
before Dra. Cookworthy and Derry, both of whom declared
that the child had not been dead above 48 hours ; that it was
their opinion it was born alive, but had died from a pressure
of the back part of the head in birth. The jury returned a
verdict accordingly, and the grave at Charles Church was di-
rected to be opened to ascertain the fact of the coffin having
been stolen.— pa Telegraph.
Yesterday afternoon, between two and three o'clock,
an impudent robbery was committed at the house of a widow
lady, named Hettit, of No. 18, White Hart-place, Kenning-
ton-lane, by a man who came to the door with a note, which
be desired the servant to present to her mistress, saying that he
required an answer. The fellow took advantage of the mo-
mentary absence of the servant, and contrived to escape with a
valuable black silk cloak, the property of Mrs. Petitt. From
subsequent inquiries of the policeman on duty it is supposed
that the thief had practised the same trick at another house in
the neighbourhood during the present week ; and as a tole-
rably clear description of his person has been given, he will,
no doubt, be less successful in future.
AFFRAY AT SEA.—A serious affray took place
a few months since at sea, on board a South Sea vessel, which
is daily expected in the River. A quarrel and disturbance,
arising out of some words which passed between the second
mate and a sailor, near the Isle of Timor, ended in a mutiny,
which the Captain, in endeavouring to suppress, with a In g, n
sword aimed a blow at one of the crew, which the second
mate, for whom it was not intended, received. The sword
passed through the mate's body, and he soon afterwards ex-
pired.
One man, said to be a ringleader in the affair, is in
confinement, and, on the arrival of the ship in this port, will
be brought before the proper authorities for examination.

- .....
CORPORATION REFORM.—The tirm!iminary mcet-
of the citiz,,as of atlious to eff,:.ct in
the abuses of the Corporation has eventuated in the establisla-
rnent of a society, which held its first meeting on Wednesday
evening at the rooms of the Society, Basinghall-street.