The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-30 00:00:00

fault was with the Executive Government, because the-Exe,

cutive Government had not thotreht fit to use the prerogatis e
which the Constitution entrusted to them. It remained
only with her Majesty's Government to improve the Le-
gislative Council, and introduce harmony between the dif-
ferent breeches of the Legislature, by appointing such
Members to the Legislative Council as would be acceptable
to the majority of the people. This would have been no
innovation. It would have been the exercise of the very
prerogative which was given to the Executive Government
by the Constitution of 1791. Had that power been used
harmony would have been restored, and the constitutional
Government of Lower Canada would have gone on pros-
perously up to this hour. An Hen. Gentleman, who was
a stanch supporter of the measure, proposing to her Ma-
jesty's Ministers to sadd'e the colony with an Established
Church !—(Hear, hear.) A very plea*ant prospect it
was to be called upon to sanction the annihilation of one
of the few Representative Assemblies which really did
represent the people, and put in its plate a well-paid
Established Church !—( Hear, hear.) He doubted the
power of the Government to restore this Assmbly,
and he did not feel confident that it was ever their
wish to it.—(Cries of Hear, Lear.) But most certainly
when he observed that during the progress of the Bill
through the House the Noble Lord the Secretary of State
for the Home Department had been compelled to abandon
the preamble for the purpose of conciliating the support of
the Right Hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth, he
(Mr. Grote) knew that whatever new Constitution it might
be deemed proper to give to Canada, it would not be only
what the Noble Lord himself might approve of, but what
the Right Hon. Baronet would also app.ove of ; and
having haard that Right Hon. Baronet accused by ilon.l
Members in that House of entertaining a distinct hatred
of all representative institutions—though in the present in-
stance he could not conceive that the Right lion. Baronet
was deserving of that reproech more than the Noble Lord
himself—he could not help appealing to Hon. Gentlemen
wl-o supported this Bill to say what ground they had for
believing that they should ever get back such a Constitu-
tion as that now existing when it should be once destroyed.
He feared that they had sown injustice, and that they would
reap trouble and calamity.
Mr. WARBURTON entirely agreed with what had
fallen from the Honourable Member for London, that by
this measure they were destroying a free Constitution to
have, probably, in its place one less free. But what he
would now contend for, as he had on former occasions, was,
that as you must cease to govern these States at no remote
period, yau ought to treat them wiir all the consideration
due to their future greatness. He knew it was a humilia-
ting thing, and unfavourble to national pride and national
vanity, to think of the necessity of contracting the limits of
empa—, and to part with what was fancied to be among the
most valuable of the national possessions. He said fancied
to be so, because it did appear to him as rational to talk of
the moon as belonging to ourselves, as to talk of a great
and extensive territory 3,000 miles away from the mother
country as being a part of our empire. But he really
thought if they looked at the great, and glorious, and god-
like work of establishing a great and free republic out of
the'incoherent elements such as the provinces of Canada were,
they would feel that it was an object worthy the am-
bition of a great and powerful nation. It was a great
act for a State like this to accomplish. He believed
that the people of this country would reflect on
this ; and that they now felt that it was a greater honour
to have raised a mighty republic like that of the United
States, than to have subjugated India. He hoped that
these considerations would reconcle the people of this
country to that separation which either now or at an early
period must take place, and that they would have their
attention fixed upon the necessity that must soon arise for
such a separation. He would avail himself of the present
opportunity of passing his last malediction on this unfortu-
nate Bill.
Mr. PETER BORTHWICK said that now that re-
bellion was suppressed, he thought that the best way of
advancing the interest of Canada, as well as of this csuntry,
was by introducing there the real principles of the British
Constitution, and by making the Canadians feel its benefits.
—(Loud cries of " Question," and " Divide.")
The House then divided, when the numbers were—
For the third reading
For Mr. Hume's amendment
Majority for the third reading —lo2

. -
On our return to the gallery, we found
Sir GEORGE GREY moving the insertion, by way of
rider, of the usual clause allowing the alteration or repeal
of the Act during the present session of Parliament, which
was agreed to.
On the question that the Bill do now pass,
Sir E. B. SUGDEN rose to make one observation,
which was, that the alterations introduced into the Bill
had verified the prediction of his Right lion. Friend (Sir
R. Peel) that the instructions from Lord Glenelg to Lord
Durham would never be carried into effect, and would
not be acted on, for, as the Bill was now framed, it would
be impossible for Lord Durham to call together a Coven-
tion ; and the Noble Lord was now deprived of the power
of making an infraction of the Canadian and the EngliAt
Constitutions. Ministers had, by their alterations, left the
Bill preesely in the state in which the Hon. Member for
Tamworth wi3hed it to be.

Sir G. GREY must say that in the present instance the
lion. and Learned Gentlema❑ was tvrong, for in the in-
structions given to Lord Durham, that Noble Lord was
not authorised to call together an assembly having legisla-
tive power, but only a body of persons to gve him advice,
which was not repugnant to the Act of 1791, nor to any
other Act, awl on which there was not placed the
slightest obstruction by the Bill which: had been read a
third time.

Mr. WAKLEY said that the only reason why the
House had been induced to look with the slightest favour
on the Bill of the Noble Lord was the circumstance that it
was to he carried into execution by the Earl of Durham.
But it now appeared that the Noble Lord would not reach
Canada till the end of April or the beginning of May, and
in the meantime it was proposed to allow the Act to be
carried into effect by the Commander-ir-Chief ; and he
(Mr. Wakley), therefore, wished to direct the attention
of the House and of the Government to the accounts
which had been received from Canada of desperate en-
gagements, or he should rather say massacres, which had
taken place there, and which were of so sanguinary a na-
ture as not to be described in the English language, and
the recital of which could not but harrow up our feelings.
Was this a Christian land—did we live under a Christian
Government ? Was in it such scenes as these that we
could boast of the religious institutions of this country ?
Again, he (Mr. Wakley) found from the accounts from
Upper Canada that Indians :were engaged in the war.
Were they chosen for this duty because of their known
cruelty in their conduct of war ? Did the Government
sanction the marching or conveyance in steam-bouts of 252
Indians in company with one of the regiments assisting Sir
F. Head ? It was the custom of some Honourable Mem-
bers to say that it was the exciting language held by other
Honourable Members which induced the Canadians to re-
volt ; but he must say that the revolt was caused by the
conduct of the Imperial Legislature. He again protested
against the Bill.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL observed that the only part
of the Hon. Member's speech which required any notice
from him was that in which he had quoted the statements
appearing in the London Gazette. He knew that the
' lion. Gentleman had no wish to make any misrepresentation,
but he must have misunderstood the passages in the dis-
patches of Sir J. Colborne, Colonel Maitland, and other
officers. The fact was, that the circumstances referred to
were only the usual occurrences of war.—(Hear, hear.)
There were many persons in the church ; it was fortified
and made a place of offence, from which the British troops
were fired upon, and, according to the laws of war, it was
destroyed ; and if troops, marching through a village, were
fired upon, the usual measures of war were taken. If
those who had surrendered and had laid down their arms
had not received quarter, thcn, indeed, the Hon. Member's
observations would have been just—(Cheers)—but he
he did not find any such statement in the dispatch.
With regard to the Indians, he could only observe
that they were not employed as a regular mili-
tary force ; some had attended Sir F. Head, but the
circumstance was of a totally different nature from what
had bean stated. All the troops had been removed from
one province, and the militia was called out to meet several
persons who were collected on the road to Toronto, and
who had commenced the outrages by murdering a military
officer, who had retired from the service after having greatly
distinguished himself in war, who was living with his family,
and who was murdered on his road to the city. When
persons were thus attacked, it was possible that all the
inhabitants, British, Canadian, and Indian, should unite to
put down the insurrection, acting, as they did, under fear of
their lives and property.
NEW WRIT.

On the motion of Mr. MORE O'FERRALL, a new
writ war ordered for Galway, in the room of Mr. Lynch,
who had been appointed a Master in Char.ccry, in the place
of Master Roupell.
The House then adjourned till Friday.