The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-26 00:00:00

so exorbitant a price as two millions sterling a year.—( Hear.)
But it was alleged by the Right Hon. Gentleman the Mem')Fr
for Tamworth, the other night, that if independence was con-
ceded by this country to Canada, their other colonies might
set up the same claim, and that even the Isle of Wight
might insist upon an independent Government. As to their
other colonies setting up a claim to independence, it might
or might not be advisable to concede such a claim, according
to the circumstances of the case ; but as to the Isle of Wight
being induced by the example of Canada to insist upon an in-
dependent Government the idea was preposterous; though if the
Isle of Wight was at a distance of three thousand miles from

England, instead of one hour's sail—if that island contained
two hundred thousand inhabitants instead of two thousand,
and if it had, like Canada, enjoyed a Legislative Assembly for
seven-and-forty years, there might have been some fitness in
the comparison.—( Hear, hear.) It was further insisted, both
in this House and out of it, that it was the bounden duty of
Great Britain to retain its sway over Canada, because a vast
number of its own subjects had settled in that country, and if
British iofluence and protection were withdrawn, these settlers
would be subjected to all sorts of violence and injustice. The
gentlemen who made this assertion accompanied it with others
which served to show how unfounded was their apprehension
of danger. They said that in the two provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada there were a million of inhabitants—that in
Upper Canada there were four hundred thousand, nearly all
English and Irish ; and that in Lower Canada there were
600,000, of whont 170,000 were English and 430,000 French
Canadians; the property of the country, they said, also were
principally British or belonging to British settlers ; and as to
the intelligence, the preponderance was decidedly on the side
of the British. If this were so, and he ( Mr. Baines) was
not disposed to deny it, was it to be supposed that the
French Canadians, though enjoying some advantages in point
of local settlement, but inferior as they were in numerical
strength, in proporty, in intelligence, and in influence, would,
if they had the disposition, be able to tyrannise and oppress
their British neighbours ? It was also alleged that to submit
to the severance of Canada from Great Britain would be to

deprive the Crown of England of one of brightest jewels ;
but this figurative expression was calculated rather to impose

upon the imagination than to convince the judgment ; and so
far from the Crown of England being tarnished' by the volun-
tary surrender of Canada, when the time came that the people
of that country generally thought that they ought to ba free,
and felt that they were not, the example of emancipating the
Colony would be highly appreciated in other times and by
other countries, and would give to England a perpetual claim
to the gratitude of the Government and people of Canada. It
was on these grounds necessary and proper, when Lord Dur-
ham arrived in Canada as Governor-General of that province,

and when he assembled around him the Representatives of the

Provinces, men best acquainted with their interests and
their opinions, that he should enquire of them what were
their wishes as to the establishment of an independent Govern-
ment either as to Canada separately, or as to their other set-
tlements in North America, on. the plan of federatiou so ably
recommended by the lion. Gentleman the Member fur Brid-
port.—( Hear, hear.) In his ( Mr. Baines's) opinion, a power
to make this inquiry should be given to the Noble Earl in his
instructions from the Colonial-office. Such a power, accom.

periled with the attribute of general amnesty already promised,
would do more to tranquillise Canada than any coercive clauses
introduced into the present Bill ; indeed it would supersede
to a considerable degree the necessity for such clauses—( Cries
of " Hoar ;")—and it would be strikingly accordant with that
love of liberty to which the noble pacificator, who would then
be hailed as a public .benefactor, was so strongly attached.
The Right Hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth had said
last night that he omitted altogether from his consideration
the person appointed by the Crown to undertake this mission,
but the people of England and the people of Canada would
not o uit that subject from their consideration.—(Hear.) They
would attach great importance to that choice, and they
would rest assured that it was, so far as the Noble Lord was
concerned, a guarantee against the undue exercise of those
absolute powers with which he was to be armed.—(Cries of
" Hear.") That night the Right lion. Baronet (Sir Robert
Peel) had intimated an intention to move an amendment in

the preamble of the Bill for the purpose of withdrawing the
instructions to Lord Durham from that preamble ; but while
those instructions were given from the Colonial-office with a
. .

power to act upon them or not, as the Noble Earl 'night think
fit, it mattered little whether they were contained in the
preamble of the Bill or not ; and the proposed alteration
would be viewed by the House as a distinction without a dif-
ference. There might, however, be some danger from the
plausibility of the proposed amendment that it would attract
some votes from that (the Ministerial) side of the House ; but
when it was considered that the practical effect of Ministers
being outvoted by the other side of the House would involve
the danger of the Canadian Coercion Bill being carried into
operation by a Tory Administration, he felt persuaded that
no persons, foreseeing these consequences, and being strongly
attached to Liberal principles, would be betrayed into a vote
calculated to produce consequences so disastrous.— ( Hear.)
Mr. SL ANE Y approved of the spirit of the instructions in
the Bill presented to the House ; but confessed that he thought
it was unnecessary to insert it in the preamble. He thought
that perhaps the least objectionable course, and one that would
satisfy the Right Hon. Baronet, would be to omit the three
lines, commencing at the ele'ienth—" And whereas it is never-
theless expedient that the said province should be perma-
nently gdverned on Constitutional principles, adapted to prc_
mote the interests of all classes of her Majesty's subjects in the
said province."
Mr. HUTTON begged leave, as a new Member, and an
Irish one, to express the sympathy which his countrymen felt
for the Canadian people. lie earnestly hoped that Lord Dur-
ham might proceed thither with the unanimous consent of the
House, and that the result might be the peace and prosperity
cf the Colony.
Mr. C. BULLE R thought that the Noble Lord did not
act prudently in allowing such an important principle as that
of a Constitutional Government to be discussed in the pre-
amble, as he would thereby array against his measure the
opposition not only of avowed enemies but of wavering friends.
If the Right Hon. Baronet, with that hatred of representative
institutions which characterised him and his party--(" Oh,
oh p' and laughter)—if they would take the objection, as they
"ought, to the instructions themselves in their proper place the
matter might be argued much more censistentLy ; but they
were always glad to catch at votes on any pretext—( A laugh)
and made no scruple to use any means that might enable
them to seize upon office.—( A laugh.) He wished the Noble
Lord (J. Russell), whose intention in this matter he did not
exactly understand, would make up his mind, and consent,
for the sake of the Bill itself, not to press the constitutional
argument on the clause in the preamble, but to take the ob-
jections into consideration and discussion in the clause of
the instructions—if the Right Hon. Baronet would make the
objections to it? He really wanted to know if Lord Dur-
ham was to be at liberty to exercise his judgment and discuss
the question of the Canadian Constitution on his arrival at the
other side?
Lord J. RUSSELL, after the powerful appeal of the
lion. Member for Coventry, did not think it right to press the
point in the present stage of the discussion.—( Cheers.) He
did previously state that, as the instructions had been placed
in the preamble of the Bill, he thought that they should not
be removed without some way being pointed out of expressing
and embodying the sense of the House with respect to them.
However, after what he had heard, he thought it would be
the more prudential course to consult with his colleagues,
before he pushed the matter to a division—(Cheering)—and
on the meeting of the House to-morrow (this day), he would
be prepared to tell the House what course he would take.—
(Cheers and laughter.)
Mr- C. P. V I LLIE RS agreed with the Noble Lord that
Nlinisters were taking the most prudent and popular course of
policy in the measures they were taking for the preservation
of British dominion in Canada, and that they could not per-
mit the separation of that colony from the mother country,
without losing the support in the House which at present up-
held them in office. He did not say that their policy was right
or wrong—(Laughter)—but he was certain it was the most
likely to please the country.—( Hear, hear.) This House had
had laid before it both reports of Committees, and the nume-
rous statements of public men capable of forming a just opi-
nion upon the subject, all of which admitted, that the
grievances of which the Canadians complainod were well-
founded. The Legislative Council was the real evil com-
plained of, and he was at a loss to understand why this country
should resist the demand of the Canadians on that head.
The province of Lower Canada complained that Constitu-
tional
privileges had been withheld from her, and that, owing
to the advantages given to one sect in religion the system at
present pursued would ultimately be of serions injury to
them. Why should not the Irish principle be applied to the
Government of Canada, for it, was found that, not only in
Ireland, but in every country, where people who differed on
religious subjects had been put upon an equality, all those
incidental distinctions and differences which such a state of
things necessarily engendered, became happily merged. For
his
own part, he was dispose to vindicate the law.—( Hear.)
As to the future system by which Canada was to be go-
verned, if the principle was to be maintained that that colony
was to be retained by this country, either with or against her
own will and consent, then Lord Durham's mission would be
unsatisfactory and useless, It could not be retained unless
upon the principle of self-government. In conclusion, he
trusted that there would be no system of legislation pursued
towards Canada founded upon the principle that the Cana-
dians had done wrong, and that self-government, which had in
fact been promised them, would be extended to them.
, Mr. GILLON said that they had treated the Canadians as
slaves.---( Hear.) In his opinion the analogy was very striking
between the present case and that of America when she re-
Yoked from the mother country, particularly when it was con-
sidered that the chief complaint in both instances was the ap-
propriation of the colonial revenues by the mother country.
When the Hon. Member foe Kilkenry urged this point the
other night he was met by an attack from the Hon. Baronet,
the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, in which the lion.
Baronet had made remarks which might well have been spared.
The Coercion Bill with which Lord Durham was to be accom- '
penied on his mission to Canada would be as a mill-stone round
his neck. Was the policy, he asked, which it had been settled
should be pursued towards Canada to be backed by an increased
militarj force in that country ? If such was really to be the
case lie for one should stand up in his place in Parliament
and oppose to the utmost of his power any grants of money
which might be esked for for this purpose.—( Hear.) When-
ever he asked the House for a reduction of taxation he was,
always met with the reply that money was wanted to maintain
the army, and that a large standing army was wanting, even
in times of peace, to maintain our colonies and to defend them.
Now, he considered that if the colonies required so great an
expenditure for their defence, they were rather a drag upon
the resources of the mother country than a benefit to her. He
was sorry to say that St. Denis and St. Charles were not the
only places in Canada in which atrocities were perpetrated.
They had recently heard that burnings and destruction had
occurred in other parts of the country. Whole, towns and vil-