The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-30 00:00:00

Tlll4l SUN, LONt

province. Such was the state of the Legislative Council
that they sought to obtain Crown lands in Loper Canada un-
der their own control, in order, as Sir Francis Head, to
purchase them cheap for themselves, and sell them
again to others. With regard to the roads, there were
certain parties in Lower Canada who agreed in the con-
struction of roads. Lord Durham said there was the
most profligate jobbing on this subject, and that the money
voted for that purpose served only to line the pockets of
the Commissioners, or their political partisans. He ( Mr.
Colquhoun) found a provision in the Bill which was one
of the most atrocious instances of jobbing he had ever
heard of. It was that which created a District Council,
which would consist of about thirty members, who were to
have power to assess lands at what rate and to what pur-
pose they pleased. Who could tell what serious conse-
quences might not result from this? Would not the in.
fallible result be that which had been asserted—to
swell the fortunes of political partisans, while the roads
would be neglected. And if the object of the Reformers
was assimilation to the United States, it seemed to him
their natural course would be to obstruct all .public im-
provements—to wear out all parties—to continue the
struggle for a responsible Government between the As-
sembly on the one side and the Government on the other,
till all parties would agree at last that it was the result of
the baneful domination of the Mother Country, and desire
to be separated from that which they supposed to be con-
sequent on Monarchical Government, and take refuge in
that which was first called responsible Government, but
aimed at last at complete severance from Great Britain.
lie confessed it seemed to him infinitely wiser to continue
to Upper Canada the representative Government which now
belonged to it, to continue Lower Canada as it was till they
had identified the people, and improved them by education,
removed the tenures, and repaired the roads, canals, and
rivers, and made them sensible, by these great commercial
advantages, of the benefits they derived from the mother
cousory, which, if they acted wisely, would not take long ;
that it would be an infinitely better and more statesman-
like course, to press on these practical improvements under
the present Government, which, though it was called des-
potism, was no more so than that which was practised in
the East and West Indies, than to urge them into a state
which the Hon. Member for Liskeard called a responsible
Government, and the Hon. Member for Kilkenny one of
strife and disunion, but which he (Mr. C.) could look
forward to with no other feelings than those of apprehen-
sion and alarm.—( Hear, hear.)
Lord HO WICK said the Hon. Gentleman who had
just sat down, had given them a conversation which had
taken place between himself and a gentleman, who seemed,
he thought, much better to understand the condition of
the colonies than did the Hon. Gentleman. He wished
the Hon. Member had felt the force of the arguments he
had so well repeated, because, when he came to
what be was pleased to call the rebound of the argument
he (Lord H.) confessed he was at a loss to feel the force
of it.—( Hear.) The Hon. Member had offered some
reasons against the measure now before the House, and
having done so had proceeded to lay before them a plan of
his own. He thought the objection to it was simply this
—that no man who had taken the trouble to read the va-
rious papers which had been laid on the table of the
House could form any other opinion than that it was
utterly and altogether impracticable.—( Hear.) Neither
Upper Canada nor Lower Canada would consent to the
system of Government the Hon. Gentleman proposed.
With respect to Upper Canada, he could not allow the ex-
istence of those differences which they were told coutinued
to divide the people of the colony, and to induce them to
seek union with the powerful republic near them. With
respect to Lower Canada the case was *till more striking.
The Hon. Member for Liskeard stated the utter impos-
sibility of procuring the people of Lower Canada to
submit to the continuance of the form of
Government which now existed among thorn, and
when the Hon. Member asked why, if they called it a
despotism, they allowed such a system to exist in the East
and West Indies, the answer was, that the inhabitants of
those countries in their present state were unfit for any
other. With respect to the measure before the House,
he wished to make a few observations. He concurred in
much that had been said by the Hon. Member for Newark,
and it did not occur to him that if they were to consider
in the abstract what would be the most desirable system
of government in Canada, the union of the provinces
would be that which be should prefer. He admitted
that there was considerable force in the main ob-
jection urged to that union—for instance, the great
extent of territory was a considerable objection.
He considered that the difference of race also was an ob-
jection to the proposed union ; but this he believed that no
system of Government could be proposed for these pro-
vinces which was not liable to still greater objections. If
the French Canadians had pursued a more temperate
course, if they bad not broken out into absolute violence,
if the unfortunate events of 1837 had not oocurred, then
he should have considered that this union of the provinces
was not desirable, es being likely to force on the people of
Lower Canada the adoption of British habits in a harsher
manner than could be perhaps wished. Had the French
Canadians, instead of having had recourse to measures of
violence, trusted to the justice of the British Parliament,
they would have saved themselves much suffering, and the
future Government of the Colonies might have been pro-
vided for in a manner less distasteful to them. But it was
now too late; after what had occurred there was no mode
of restoring Constitutional Government to the colony, ex-
cept by the erection of an Assembly, in which the French
race should be in a minority, and the only fair mode by
which that result could be produced was the one proposed
by the present Bill. Both the Hon. Member who had just
sat down, and the Hon. Member for Newark, had
stated that they anticipated great difficulty in carrying the
mode of Government proposed by the Bill, because it went
to establish responsible Government. On that point be
differed from both the Hon. Gentlemen. He had ob-
served that throughout these disputes great inconveniences
had arisen, and great dissensions created from the unfortu-
nate use of general words, without any clear definition
being given of their meaning. This had been the case as
regarded both parties in Canada, but the principles laid
down in the recent dispatch by his Noble Friend would, he
thought, go far to put an end to that evil. If by respon-
sible Government it were meant that the Executive Go-
vernment of the Colony should be directly resposible to
the Colonial Assembly, he was of opinion that responsible
Government so dsfined would be incompatible with the
maintenance of Colonial Government. But he be-
lieved that if the Government at home, as well as the au-
tuorities in the Colonies, were to pursue a system of Pro-
tective Government, guided by a conciliatory spirit, and a
desire to consult the wishes of the people, then such a
form of Government would answer the object that those
who were loudest in their clamours for a responsible
Government had in view. The Hon. Gentleman had
said that a great majority of the people, while they called
for responsible Government, were only anxious to throw off
all connexion with British Government. If the majority were
desirous of throwing off the British connexion, it would be
impossible to carry on any Government against the wishes of
the great majority of the people, and even if it could be
so carried on, it would not be desirable.—(Cheers.) If so
large a majority were averse to any connection with this
country, it was utterly unimportant what system of Go-
vernment we might establish there, or what sort of mea-
sure the House might pass ; because, be that measure what
it might the result must be the same, and connexion be-
tween the two countries must inevitably cease to exist.
But if this was not the case—if the majority of the people
of those colonies, although perhaps they were desirous of
going much farther in the introduction of democratic
institutions than the Hon. Member or himself, or the
House generally might be inclined to approve, were yet
anxious that the connexion between the two countries
might continue—in that case he believed that the connexion
would continue to the certain benefit of this country, and
of the colonies themselves.--( Cheers.) In carrying on
the Government of Canada we must be prepared to give
them a Government differing in many respects from that
which was established among ourselves, and we must ex-
hibit a disposition to go to great lengths for the purpose
or conciliating the people of Canada.—(hear, hear.)
He was disposed to agree with the Hon. Mem-
ber for Newark in the distinction which he had
drawn between the passing cry of the moment and
the deliberate sense of the people. When the delibe-
rate sense of the people was ascertained it ought not to be
opposed—( Cheers)—and if that feeling were in favour of
a more democratic form of government he saw no reason
why in the management of their internal affairs the wishes
of the people should not be acceded to as long as they did
not produce a clashing with the authority of this country.
—( Cheers.) He did not anticipate all the dangers from
this measure which the Hon. Member seemed to expect.
It was bad policy when any portion of the people of a co-
lony were desirous of any reform which we might deem it
inexpedient to grant at once, to turn round upon them and
say, you wish to separate yourselves from the mother coun-
try When they imputed such ideas to persons who were
asking for reform, it not unfrequently happened that the
imputation itself was the cause of such persons ultimately
entertaining the very ideas which, in the first instance bad
been unjustly imputed to them.--( Cheers.) The fair
mode of conducting such discussions was to patiently listen
to the complaints of the colonists, to argue the point calmly
with them, to state the objections to the proposed reforms ;
but let not either party impute motives to the other. Let
the colony avoid accusing the Government of ty-
ranny, and the Government avoid accusing the colony
of the desire for separation. If colonial differences were
discussed in this temper, they would find very few but what
might ultimately be settled in a satisfactory manner—
' (Cheers.) He greatly rejoiced to are the sound principle
of Government adopted by his Right Hon. Friend who
was now the Governor-General of those Provinces. He
was glad he had not adopted the tone of the Hon. Member
far Droitwich, and excluded from office every person who
held opinions of which he did not altogether approve. If
he had done so, over/ Gentleman must admit that it would
be impossible to continue the connection with this
country.—(Hear, hear.) He -was inclined to ads
vocate a general oblivion of the past, although
with regard to the appointment in question, he believed
perfectly
the statement of the lion. and Learned Member for Lis-
keard was perfectly correct,. that the appointment of Mr.
Baldwin was one which on no one principle could be dis-
approved
of, but wa:.nannldanpoptodinttmaienntthewhilioctuise
waslonger than
•the B'
to state that he entirely concurred in. Bill of his Noble
Friend, which he anxiously hoped might pass into a law,
jaunsdt lifrnodmil :ill ge
:
perele.ch of the Hon. Member for Newark, he
was happy to find that all parties concurred in a desire to
bring this Bill to a satisfactory termination, so as to put an
end to those troubles which had too long afflicted that
country.—( Cheers.)
Mr. O'CO N NE L L would only detain the House a few
moments. His object was simply to protest against the
Bill. He would not wish to speak.? Bill because it with anything like
emphasis, but he protested against this
con-
tained two distinct principles of injustice—first, on the
ground of the unequal representation of the people of
t
i
Lower Canada as compared with the Upper Province.
That portion which was the most populous had only the
same share in the representation as that portion which was
the least so. The second injustice of which he complained
was a pecuniary one. Lower Canada was unencumbered,
Now, by the proposed union, it was intended to spread the
debt of Upper Canada, which was exclusively its
over the entire of the united country. But the worst of
all was, that they were about to do this without consulting