The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-07 00:00:00

In this position, then, he thought it most convenient to state
the course which he meant to take. The question before the
House was one calling upon them to acquiesce in an address
to the Crown, calling upon her Majesty to remove Lord Glen-
rig. In that address being unable to acquiesce, he meant to
propo-s as an amendm'nt the following :
" That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, to
express to her Majesty our deep regret that the tranquillity of
her Majesty's Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada should
have. been disturbed by the wicked and treasonable designs of
a d'saffected party in those Provinces, by which many of the
inhabitants have been seduced into open revolt against the au-
thority of hor Majesty. To assure her Majesty that we have
observed with the utmost satisfaction the zeal and fidelity which
have animated the loyal inhabitants of her nijosty'a North
American Provinces, and that we cordially rejoice in the suc-
cess which has attended the exettions of her Majesty's regular
forces, combined with the voluntary services of her Majesty's
faithful subjects. To assure her Majesty of our continued de-
termination to aid her Majesty in every ett,rt which she may
lie called upon to make for the suppression of revolt and the
comdlete restoration of tranquillity, professsing at the same
time our desire to afford redress for every real grievance, and
mlturely to consider such permanent arrangements for the
constitution and government of the Province of Lower Ca-
nada, as may best secure the rights and liberties, and promote
the interests, of all classes of her Majesty's subjects in that
Province. Humbly to represent to her Majesty, that it ap-
p rs to us upon a consideration of the documents and corre-
spondence relating to the North American Provinces which
her Majesty has been graciously pleased to communicate to
this House. that the open defiance of her Majesty's lawful au-
thority in the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and the
necessity of suppressing rebellion by force of arms, and of
suspending the Constitutional Government of Lower Canada,
are in a great degree attributable to the want of foresight and
energy on the part of her Majesty's confidential servants, and
to the ambiguous, dilatory, and irresolute course which they
have pursued in respect to the affairs of Canada since their

appointment to office."
He continued by saying that he hoped Hon. Gentlemen op-
posite would recognise in this address the fair and frank ex-
ixession of their opinions on that side of the House —( Cheers
from Members on the Ministerial benches.) It was in te-
cordairce with the expressions which they bad all along enter-
tained, and which they had given distinct utterance to when
discussing the resolutions last year. His motion, it would be
perceived, did not lead him so far back in the history of
Canada as the Hon. Baronet had gone.—( Cheers from Minis-
terial Members.) He understood what that cheer insinuated
—it meant that the disorders in the Canadas did not begin
with the present Government.—( Hear.) He agreed with
them ; but then the question was this, had there not been a
period in which the present Government had a fair and open
field before them, in which they might have remedied the
evils existing ; but which opportunity they by dilatoriness and
neglect had lost ?—( Hear, hear.) Was not the Report of
the Committee of 1828 received with the greatest satis-
faction by the House of Assembly ? In 1831 the Admi-
nistration had, with overweening confidence, given up to
the Assembly the management of their funds. The Noble
Lord the Member for North Lancashire had said that
they ought not to abandon the management of the re-
venue.—[At this portion of the speech of the Noble Lord he
was completely inaudible.] He was understood to say that
on the present Chancellor of the Exchequer coming into office
the course previously pursued bad been abandoned. He
thought, too, that there had not been sufficieut clearness and
distinctness on the part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
with the Canadian deputation, and to that must be attributed
a great deal of the misapprehension that followed. That
Right Honourable Gentleman said that when he went out
of office he had a plan for settling the whole of the Cana-
dian question, and yet of that plan they had never since
heard. In the interval the Right Honourable Baronet the
Member for Tamworth came into office, and he proposed
sending out as Commissioner to Canada a Noble Lord distin-
guished for the amenity of his demeanour. Her Majesty's
Ministers, however, had returned to office, and, instead of one,
they had sent out three Commissioners, and the duty which it
was expected they would have performed in a month it took
them three years to execute, and the result was, that though
they differed from one another upon almost every point, they
agreed in one, and came to the same conclusion with the
Noble Lord the Member for North Lancashire, that the funds
which, in a fit of generosity, they had abandoned, ought to
be resumed by this country.—(Hear, hear.) Now what, he
asked, was the result of all their inquiries ? Did her Majesty's
Government adopt the course recommended to them, and
which was the result of two years' deliberation ?—( Hear,
hear.) What had been the result of the conduct pursued by
her Majesty's Government ? Had it advanced any one point
at issue nearer to a settlement? On the contrary, ho thought
that their policy was deserving of the character of being
irresolute, dilatory, and ambiguous, which he, in the address
he had read, attributed to it.—( Hear, hear.) He would re-
for to some of the papers which had been laid on the table of
the House, and which bore upon this subject. He could not
but observe that Lord Gosford was perfectly sensible of the
way in which he was crippled, by the want of assistance from
the Home Government. Lord Gosford, in a dispatch of the
Sitli of November, complained that he had had no opportu-
nity of showing practically what were his political views, and
of showing his determination to redress well-founded griev-
ances, but, he added, that it was then too late to talk about it.
—(Hear.) Did not this show how much Lord Gosford was
crippled by the want of assistance and instructions from the
Home Government ?—( Hear. ) And, again, as to the selec-
tion of the Members of the Executive Council; Lord Gos-
furd, after having been kept waiting idly for many months,
was at length informed from the Colonial-office that he might
select whom he pleased to fill the office of Executive Coun-
cillor. Might not this 83 well have been done in the first in-
stance ?—( Hear.) If it were right at last it surely wois right
in the beginning. But there was another point on which he
confessed he felt very strongly the conduct of the Govern-
ment. He alluded to the want of a sufficient number of
troops in the provinces of Canada when the rebellion took
place. He knew that a great leader, the first chief of the
age, had taken a different view of this case.—(Hear, hear.)
But he thought that this opinion was confined to a military
Opinion, to the effect that there were troops sufficient to retain
the provinces in obedience ; and no doubt this result jus-
tified this opinion. But he ( Lord Sandon) thought that the
question entirely turned upon whether there were troops suf-
ficient to prevent the rebellion. —( Hear, hear.) It was
true the rebellion had been suppressed, but in what
way ? Was it by means of the regular troops, acting
under perfect control? No, it was necessary to create a
volunteer force, and to convert the suppresion of rebellion
into something of the character of a civil war, and to excite
the passions of the population. In his opinion, all the ir-
regularities, all the difficulties, and all the ill-blood that had
arisen was to be attributed to the neglect of the Govern-
ment, which had left no alternative but the employment of
a volunteer force. —( Hear, hear.) A remarkable opinion had
been expressed with regard to the Government by one who
had been on the scene of the insurrection. Sir Francis
Head, on the 21st of April, 1336, said that he was perfectly
confident that there would be no difficulty in crushing the
rebellious party in Canada. and establishing principles of
loyalty, if the loyal inhabitants were not afraid that the
Home Government would not support them? On what was
this fear founded? On the irresolute course pursued by the
Government, and from the fact of their favouring those par-
ties who avowed themselves the strongest advocates of the
Canadian insurqtrit.,. The favourable reception given in
England to Mackenzie had had the effect of cowing the loyal
and of encouraging the insurgents. The people of Canada
were incapable of understanding the difficulties under which
the Home Government was acting, arid looking only to
their acts, they were afraid to rely on the Government
for support.—( Cheers from the Opposition Benches.)
They had on the present occasion a number of gentlemen
opposite who denounced the conduct of the Government
with respect to Canada, but he suspected that the same party
would cling very closely to the party in power if they re-
quired their support at any future election. Neither slid
lie think that that support would be refused. If the Hon.
Member for Westminster were again a candidate, he
(Lord Sandon) had no doubt but that the Comptroller of
her Majesty's Household would again preside over his Com-
mittee, and the Secretary for Foreign Affairs would be one
of the first to vote fur him.—( Cheers from the Opposition.) On
the present occasion, indeed, he thought that but a very
small party would surround the Honourable Baronet the Mem-
ber for Leeds, although many of tile Honourable Gentlemen
opposite had expressed the strongest opinion on the Canadian
policy pursued by her Majesty's Government, and had told the
Government in plain terms that the cases of Canada and Ire-
land were perfectly identical, and the only difference between
M. Papin:au and Mr. O'Connell was, that the name of the
one began with a " P" and the other with an " o."—(Cries
of " Oh, oh," and laughter.) He had not solicited this ques-
tion. It was not by any arrangement of the party with whom
ire acted 'and the Honourable Baronet (Sir W. Nlolesworth)
that this question had been brought forward. That Hen.
13aronet had moved a call of the House, and this compelled
them to express their opinions ; and this being the case, as
honest arid honourable men, without fear or favour, and with-
out cutting and carving their expressions, but in plain and
simple language, he and those who acted w ith him were de-
termined to express their opinions. The Noble Viscount
( Palmerston) had expressed his apprehension of a coalition
being formed between the Ilon. Baronet opposite (Sir Wm.
Molcsworth) and those who sat behind him (Lord Sandon) ;
and the Noble Viscount dwelt on the sacrifice of opinions
which must naturally take place in the case of such a
fusion Government.—( Hear, hear.) He did not think that
the Noble Viscount had any right to complain on this head.—
(Clie2rs. ) The Noble Viscount supported an Established
Church, but a great portion of those by whom the Govern-
ment was supported were opposed to an Established Church.
Toe Noble Viscount supported the House of Lords, but many
ef those who usually voted with the Noble Viscount declared
that the House of Lords was a public nuisance, and ought to
be abolished. There were many other questions, such as
the shortening of Parliaments, the Extension of the Suffrage,
and the Vote by Ballot, upon which there was not a little
difference of opinion between the Government arid many of
their supporters, and indeed apparently between themselves
and a portion of their own body.--( Loud cheers front the Op-
position.) Having, as he hoped, thus discharged his duty,
he would conclude by moving the address which he had al-
ready read to the House.
The question having been put from the Chair,
Mr. LABOUCEIERF, had not the honour of holding such
a situation in the Conneils of her Majesty as to entitle him to
claim an immediate share of the responsibility
which the other
Members of the Government had in the colonial policy which
was the matter of debate that night; but as far as giving his
cordial approbation to that policy in all its main features, as
far as he was able, as a Member of that House, to take upon
himself a share of that responsibility, in honour and conscience
he felt bound to do so on the present occasion, He said in