The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-15 00:00:00

dered his resignation in coin equence of that circum-
stance, and that alone.
Lord D. STUART asked the Noble Lord the Secre-
tary for Foreign Affairs if he could inform the House
whether the Russian army, which had entered the prin-
cipalities of the Danube, had retired into Russia? Was
the report to that effect true?
Viscount PALMERSTON believed the report to
which the Noble Lord alluded was correct. The last ac-
count he had from the consul in Moldavia stated that the
Russiaa troops which entered Moldavia had retired, or
were about to retire, from that principality. That body
of troops had entered Moldavia at the request of the
liospodar; by the last accounts it was retiring, and no
part of it had entered the principality of Wallachia.
Lord J. RUSSELL moved the order of the day for
Committee of Supply.
COLONIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Lord G. BENTINCK rose to move, " That an humble
address be presented to her Majesty, that she will be
graciously pleased to direct the Earl of Elgin :sr. ,d
Rincardine forthwith to transmit to her Majesty .
Secretary of State for the Colonies copies of the omitted
correspondence between the Provincial Secretary of.
Canada and the Secretary of the Montreal Board of
Trade, and will direct that the same be laid before this
House." He had expected that his motion would have b
been unopposed, but he understood it was objected to by
Government, on the ground of the word " omitted, and
also of its prop osing to direct Lord Elgin " forthwith
to transmit to her Majesty's Secretary of State copies of
that correspondence. He did not think he could have
made use of a more appropriate mode of expression, but
he supposed Ministers were somewhat sensitive at an im-
putation of any correspondence having been omitted by
the Colonial-office. The omission of which he com-
plained was on a subject of great interest to the com-
munity, arising out of the fact of Government having
thought proper to lay before the House correspondence
between the Governor-General of Canada and the
Secretary of State relating to the navigation-
laws. The general complaint was that Ministers,
in laying correspondence before that or the other
Nouse, thought themselves entitled to select only such
dispatches as told for the policy of which they were the
advocates. The Provincial Secretary had reprimanded
the Council of the Board of Trade of Montreal in severe
terms for the manner in. which they had addressed the
Queen and both Houses of Parliament. That repri-
mand was sent home, and he coriteaded that Lord Elgin
should also have sent home a cops- of the rejoinder
made to him by the secretary of that board, by the in-
struction of the Council. He wanted to know if the
Governor bad received instructions to send home only
such dispatches as suited the views of Government. On
the 7th July, only four days before it became noto-
rious in that House that Ministers did not intend to pro-
ceed with the measure for the repeal of the navigation-
laws, Earl Grey wrote to Lord Elgin to say that Mi-
nisters were sensible of its extreme importance to the
Canadas, and entertained a confident hope that it would
pass into a law. Could it believed that Ministers
on the 7th July last seriously entertained a confident
hope that the measure would pass into a law? In-
stead of encouraging the vain and futile hope that a com-
petition between New York and a colony so disadvan-
tageously circumstanced, in respect to climate and posi-
tion, as the Canadas, could result in that colony being
placed on an equal footing with New York, it was the
duty of the Noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies
to have demonstrated that such a result was wholly un-
attainable; and that no repeal or modification of the
navigation laws could possibly secure for the Canadas
any such advantages as were fallaciously held out to
them. Instead of exciting in the breasts of the Cana-
dian colonists the silly hope that the repeal of the navi-
gation laws would place them on an equal footing with
the merchants and farmers of the state of New York, it
was his bounden duty to have informed them that any
Ruch expectation was a delusion. It was a mere mockery
to pretend that the repeal of the navigation laws
could place Montreal and New York on an equal foot-
ing, The average duration of the voyage from New
York to Portsmouth was twenty days, and of the
"Yage back thirty days,• while the average voyage from
Quebec to London was forty-five days, and from
London to Quebec thirty-five days.. How then could
it be pretended than an equality could be established
between two countries so differently circumstanced ?
But besides that there were other difficulties equally in-
surmountable. The navigation of the St. Lawrence
Was continually interrupted and made dangerous, not
Only by shoals and rapids, but by fogs and snow-
storms, and the result was that nut only were from
twenty to thirty days more required to complete the
Voyage between Montreal and London than were
Itecessary for the passage between New York and ',tui-
tions but the charge o insurance was proportionately
larger, the risk being very much greater. The rate of
Insurance on ships from New York to London ranged
from 405. to 60s. per cent., whereas the rate charged on
vessels trading between Montreal and London was never,
even at the most favourable period of the year, less than
41. per cent. There were, moreover, several other ex-
penses of an incidental character, which no legislation
eou
&c., a,e.,
ldaffect,such as that for steam-tugs up the St. Law-
rence,which in the aggregate amounted to a
very large sum ; so that in Canadian ships of 400 tons
there was an increase of 10d. a barrel in the freight
of flour. Ho hoped that the Canadians would
not allow themselves to be deceived, no mat-
ter how authoritative the quarter might be from
which the misrepresentation might emanate. He
would take leave to forwarn the colonies that, if any
laws,
were to suffer from the repeal of the navigation
none that he knew of would suffer more than those
very colonies. They were in no very flourishing condi-
tion even at the present moment, as was evidenced by
this fact, that of the 45 merchants who were engaged in
the lumber trade in Quebec, 21 were already bankrupts,
end'l9 others were in the hands of their bankers. He
trusted that the House would acquiesce in his motion,
and so read a lesson to Governors-General and other
persons holding high office in the colonies, which might
Five them to understand that they were not for the
future to presume to give only partial extracts from
their official correspondence, or to lay before the Legis-
lature information connected with their respective de-
partments which was prepared in such a manner as to
,effect a political purpose rather than to throw the full
light of truth upon a subject of vast importance. Ile
should like to know how it happened that Lord Elgin
Pursued a course which, though it had been adopted by
the Colonial-office on former occasions, had been strongly
condemned by public opinion—that of laying before Par-
liament only so much information as chanced to favour
Isis own political views.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL did not think it necessary or
convenient, just at that moisent, to enter into a discus-
sion as to whether the repeal of the navigation laws
Would or would not be. beneficial to Canada, or as to
whether it would or would not answer the objects which
the Montreal Board of Trade had in view. It would be
very much better to reserve all discussion upon those
questions until some measure with regard to the navi-
gation laws bad been proposed, when the matter could
be formally and properly canvassed. The only question
that the Noble Lord had notified his intention of mov-
ing was, that an address should be presented to her Ma-
jesty praying that what was omitted from the corre-
spondence already in the possession of the House, as
having passed between the Provincial Secretary of Ca-
nada and the Secretary of the Montreal Board of Trade,
should be produced. His (Lord John Russell's) objec-
tion to that motion was simply this, that the motion
appeared to convey an incorrect notion of the facts of
She case.—(Hear, hear.) Anybody reading it would
Suppose that the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine was to
blame for not sending the whole of the correspondence
that had taken place ; and that, in fact, he ought to
be formally reprimanded for the same, and ordered to
transmit the omitted portiOns at once. On the 31st of
May the Earl of Elgin wrote a dispatch to his Noble
Fiend the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which
he stated that a certain correspondence had taken place,
and that a certain memorial had been drawn up for pre-
sentation to both Houses of Parliament, which he sent
for the consideration of Earl Grey. That correspond-
ortee consisted, besides the memorial, of a letter from the
President of tko Montreal Board of Trade, and of the
answer returned thereto by the Provincial Secretary of
Canada. The answer of the 'Provincial Secretary re-
proved the President of the Montreal Board of Trade for
a particular and very improper expression which he had
used in his original communication. The expression was
nothing more nor less than this, that unless thenavigation
of the St. Lawrence were made free to the United States,
the result would be the dissolution of the ties which at
present connected Canada with the mother country.—
(Hear, hear.) After that reply of the Provincial Secre-
tary Was written, there was another letter from the Pre-
sident, defending rather than retracting the unbe-
coming expression ho had used. The Earl of Elgin
and Kincardine wrote on the 91st May, and whether
the reason of his omitting to send this part of the
correspondence was that his dispatches were already
made up, and that he did not think the reply of the
President of sufficient importance'to warrant the dis-
turbing the seal, was a matter which he could not take
upon him to determine, and which, moreover, was but
of very trivial significance. The production of the whole
correspondence was, in his opinion, of very little im-
portance ; but it would be a matter of very considerable
Importance indeed if the present motion, which was vir-
tually one of censure on Lord Elgin. should be agreed
to. the House being all the time in ignorance as to
Whether censure was fairly to be attributed to him or
riot---(Hear, hear.) The President of the Montreal
Board of Trade had thought fit to defend an unbecoming
expression, and it appeared to him (Lord John Ras-
"11) that the letter in which he did so was of very
little importance one way or the other.—sllear, hear.)
However he bad not the least objection to its being
laid upon the table of that-House, and it would, perhaps,
meet the views of the Noble Lord if his Hon. Friend
the Under-Secretary for the Colonies were that evening,
or on some future evening, to move for the production of
the whole of any further correspondence that might have
when place on the subject of the navigation laws be-
tween the parties referred to in the present motion.—
(Hear, hear.) To that resolution he would not offer the
slightest opposition, but he certainly had a strong ob-
jeetion to the present motion, which was not such as
Ought to be adopted by that House. not being at all in
conformity with the facts of the case.—(Hear, hear.)
After a brief conversation, the motion was negatived
without a division.

SUPPLY.
The House then resolved itself into a Committee of
Supply; Mr. BERNAL in the chair.
The first vote was 30,000/. to complete the sum ne-
cessary to defray, up to the 31st of March, 1849, the
Pcnses of the works at the new Houses of Parliament.
:lir H. WILLOUGHBY observed upon the vastness
of the sums which session after session were allocated to
this
purpose. The sum voted up to March, 1848, was
145,000/. Since then they had incurred expenses as yet
uncovered by any vote of that House to the amount of
711,0104 so that the sum total of moneys already laid
oat oa amount of the new Palace was no less titan
3/4.411,0101. lb Yen: lattqh feared that there was some-