The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-22 00:00:00

LONDON :
MONDAY EVENING. OCTOBER 22, 1238.

The accounts received from Canada stated that
Lord DURHAM was to leave Quebec on October 10,
and as this is now October the 22d, observations
tending merely to influence his determination are com-
pletely superfluous. Whether his Lordship retract
his announced resignation, and again serve under men
whom he accuses of sacrificing him, and with a dimi-
nished power, which he alleges is inadequate to enable
him to fulfil his mission ; or whether he persevere in
resigning, and return home, his determination must
have been formed and carried into execution before
the time at which we are writing. It will take at least
twenty days for our remarks to reach Canada, and even
if we could, on principle, join some of our Contempo-
raries in urging Lord DURHAM to stay there,
Ave must conclude that it is now altogether too late.
Before this time the resignation is either completed,
or Lord DURHAM has withdrawn it.

Looking at the remarks we formerly made on the
question, and at the conduct of the Peers we could
not recommend Lord DURHAM to remain, if we had
an opportunity. The enthusiasm of the people in his
favour, as they are about to lose him, is neither a proof
of the legal propriety of his conduct, nor does it add
to his power, which is not derived from them, hut from
the British Legislature. To remain in Canada be-
cause they are attached to him, as suggested by the
Chronicle, would be to found his Viceroyalty on their
approbation, in defiance of Parliament. Lord DUR-
HAM cannot do that ; and however gratifying their
approbation may be, it is no reason why he should
retract his determination to resign. The welfare of the
Colony, and the connection between it and the
Mother Country, will be endangered, we are
afraid, by his resignation ; but that seems to us
so necessary a consequence of the conduct -of the
Peers, that the responsibility of all the mischief
which may ensue will belong to them.
Their last proceeding, the Act of Indemnity, it will
be remembered, was only one of several studied at-
tempts to depreciate Lord DURHAM, and degrade his
power. He had scarcely secured his appointment,
when the Earl of WINCH ILS EA attacked his conduct,
and, having been supported by the Lords, made it
manifest to the Canadians that their Viceroy had not
the power to name the persons who were to assist him
in governing Canada. He could dispense with the
laws in Canada, it was then supposed, but the prudish
Peers, albeit, some of them were duellists, and others
were adulterers, would not allow him to appoint a gen-
tleman who had been convicted of a gross immorality.
They objected also to his Council ; and, finally, by the
Act of Indemnity, convinced the Canadians that it was
a mistake to suppose he could dispense with the laws,
and that their Lordships were his watchful, jealous mas-
ters. After that proceeding, it was impossible for Lord
DURHAM to have any confidence that his conduct
would meet the approbation of the Legislature ; and
:impossible for the Canadians not to require the confir-
mation of all Lord DURHAM'S acts from England,
before they could rely on their being enforced. His
assumed, or his supposed power, was wholly set aside,
and the Peers constituted themselves, in fact, the con-
trolling Executive Government of Canada. Unless
Lord DURHAM were disposed to administer the Go-
vernment, not as the QUEEN'S Viceroy, but as their
Sergeant-at-Arms, he could not, we think, retain his
nominally high office after receiving the official account
of the proceedings of the Legislature.
But Lord DURHAM also complains of the Minis-
ters, and not wholly without reason. Even the
Chronicle states that it was always opposed to the
course which Ministers adopted in regard to the In.
demnity Bill. What, however, could they do ? Mr.
WARD has told us that Lord JOHN RUSSELL
resigned office after the division on the Ballot.
By their own conduct at the commencement
of the SesSion, and subsequently, the Ministers had
in a manner separated themselves from the hulk of
their Liberal supporters, and they had totally lost the
confidence which arises from being backed by the large
majority of the nation. On many questions their ma-
jority in the House of Commons was doubtful, and it
was not quite certain that they could even there have
stifled the Indemnity Bill. Destitute of the power
which is given by commanding talents, great business
capacity, and first-rate eloquence, from the moment
that they set themselves in array against their Li-
beral friends, they became dependent both for their
opinions and their office on the Tories. When Lord
MELBOURNE found that all the Tory Lords, and
most of the great lawyers, were against him, sensible
that he could not rely implicitly on the Liberals for
support, no other course was open to him than to accept
the Indemnity Bill. He did not, we believe, knowingly
and designedly sacrifice Lord DURHAM, but was
compelled by his own weakness to take the law from
the Tory Lords. He seems to us first to have sacri-
ficed himself and his party, in order to lessen Tory
opposition, and of that great sacrifice the sacrifice of
Lord DURHAM was only a part and a necessary con-
sequence.
After that became apparent, we cannot see
DURHAM could longer serve under an Ad-
how Lord D
ministration which had lost the power to support and
defend him against his enemies. Were he to remain in
Canada he could anticipate only similar mortifications,
for which the satisfaction of the Canadians with his
Government, unless it were transformed into allegi-
ance, and became the source of his authority, could
not be a compensation.

We have already remarked that the quiescent state
of the Tories since the close of the Parliamentary
Session forms a striking contrast with that boisterous
career of jollification which distinguished the corres-
ponding period of last year. All then was revelry an('
riot. The whole faction was in extacies, and nothing
was so certain as the advent of a Tory Adlmi'
nistration before Parliament had sat a month. Whe-
ther it is that the Tories have seen good reason to