The Sun.
London, England, 1828-11-06 00:00:00

and importunate dependents ; and the different Go.
vernments of this country been glad to secure its
support at the expense of appointments most
pernicious to the colOnies, but of the effects of
which they heard but seldom, and not loadly. The
magnitude of the evils to. which such a mischievous
system was not only calculated to give rise,' het
'
hich it actually produced, has at length worked
its own cure. In the Report to which- we have
alluded, the- grievances of the past system are fear-
lessly commented upon, and remedies recommended,
which, if they do not operate a complete change in
the Canadas, will, at all events, greatly allay the
prevailing discontent, and destroy the source of
many of the evils complained of. A Report, in fact,
more fraught. with sound principles, or charac-
terized by more judicious remarks, has seldom, if
indeed ever, come into our hands ; and the
Legislattire will be sadly to blame, if, in the
course of the next Session of Parliament, a series of
measures be riot introduced with the view of carry-
ings its recommendations into effect. The most im-
portant points touched upon by the Committee, are
the clergy lands—the civil ',gilts of the population,
and the causes generally which have produced so
much discontent in Canada, and so greatly retarded
its improvement. With regard to the one-seventh
of all the land in Canada, which was injudiciously
set a part, under the name of Clergy Reserves, for
the support of a Protestant Clergy, the Committee
unhesitatingly recommend their permanent alien-
ation, subject to a fixed moderate reserved rent.
The effect of reserving a seventh out of each
fresh allotment of land, fur the use of the
Clergy, has been most pernicious to Canada,
while it has, in no one respect, benefitted
those whom it was intended to serve. Nearly
500,000 acres have been set apart in this way ; and
as from their nature they are not only scattered over
the whole of the districts already granted, but form
a sort of barrier between each allotment, their effect
in retarding improvement may be easily guessed at.
Neither can they be leased or sold to any parties
advantageously, unless those whose property they
bound; for, as stated by the Committee, out of 930/.
per annum,--the sum total of nominal rent receivable
for upwards of 75,000 acres,—the actual receipt has
only am-muted to 501. With regard to the enjoy-
ment of civil rights, the opinions of the Committee are
as liberal as their adoption must prove beneficial :
" The Committee (says the Report) cannot too strongly
express their opinion, that the Canadians of Mena extrac-
tion should in no degree be disturbed in the peaceful enjoy,
merit of their religion, laws, and privileges, as secured to
them by the British Acts of Parliament; and so far from
requiring them to hold lands on the British tenure, they
think that when the lands in the Seigneuries are fully oc-
cupied, if the descendants of the original settlers shall still
retain their preference to the tenure of Fief et Seigneurie,
they see no objection to ether portions of unoccupied lands
in that Province being granted to them on that tenure, pre-
vided that such lands are apart from, and not intermixed
with, the Townships."
And again, speaking of the Constitution of King's
College in Upper Canada, which requires the Pro-
fessors to be members of the Church of England,
and to sign and subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles,
the Committee state it as their opinion,
" That great benefit would accrue to the province by
changing the'constitution of this body. They think that
two Theological Professors should be established, one of
the Church of England and another of the Church of
Scotland (whose lectures the respective candidates for
holy orders should he required to attend), but that with
respect to the President, Professors, and all others con-
nected with the• College, no religious test whatever should
be required. That in the selection of Professors no rule
should be followed, and no other object sought than the
nomination of the most learned and discreet persons ; and
that (with exception of the Theological Professors) they
should be required to sign a declaration, that, as fur as it
was necessary for them to advert in their lectures to reli-
gious subjects, they would, distinctly recognize the truth of
the Christian Revelation, but would abstain altogether
from inculcating particular doctrines."
With regard to the discontents which /tare pre-
vailed in the Canadas, and the causes which have
retarded their improvement, the .Committee state it
as their deliberate opinion, that they have arisen, in.
the first place,' from the system of laws and consti-
tutions established in these colonies;" but much
more to " the manner in which the existing system
has been carried into effect;" and they record their
complete conviction,
That neither the suggestions they have presumed to
make, nor any other improvements in the laws And consti-
tutions of the Canadas, will be attended with the desired .
effect, unless an impartia , conciliatory and constitutional
system of Government be observed .in these loyal and im-
portant Coloeies.'

It was fOr this reason, no doubt, that the Com-
.mittee recommend what it appears will prove very
unpalatable in the Colonies—we mean the exclusion
of all aim( persons from any share in the represen-
tation of the Colonies. These parties undoubtedly
communicate a temporary strength to the local
government, but it is at the expense of the content
of the country, and the sooner, therefore, that a
change takes place, and the influence of the local
government rests on its real merits, and not on the
corrupt support of its instruments, the better.—
Morning Advertiser. •

When the scheme for establishing the London
University was first made known, a great outcry
was raised at its not comprising any provision for
the religious education of the pupils. For this ela-
. mour, however, we confess that we saw no sufficient
ground, not that we al e indifferent to the importance
of instilling religious: principles in youth, but be-
cause the plan being in the nature of a day-school,
where the children were to remain domestieared
with their patent A, and under their care probably six-
teen hours of the four-and-twenty, and on the t„-,ab-
bath-day wholly, it seemed to us that their religious
instruction might be safely left to their natural guar-
dians, while it opened the doors of the proposed
College as a place of general instruction to the chil-
dren of rrsons cf all religious denominations.—
There \vete those, however, who thought at the
time, and not without reason, teat thiq apparent ab-
sence of religion was rather used as a cloak for the
introthiction of peculiar tenets, and those in hostility to
the Established Church, than as a liberal opt ning
I of the portals of science to persons of all per•
suasions. This now seems to be avowedly the case,
not merely by the appointment of more than one
Dissenting Minister to offices in the establishment,
but from a public announcement addressed to pa-
rents, that two " Protestant Dissenting Ministers"
are about, " with the sanction and approbation Of
the Council," to lecture as such—not, it is true,
within the walls of the, University, but in its " im-
' mediate neighbourhood." We qaarrel not with this
in the abstract ; on the contrary, we recognize in
its fullest sense the right of Dissenters of all deno-
minations to inculcate their principle: fairy in what-
ever way they please; but we do charge the Coun-
cil of the University distinctly with disingenuous-
ness, and a departure from their own avowed neutra-
lity in religious opinions, in thus permitting it to Jae-
curer, contrary to their own avowal, a professed
means of inculcating the peculiar doctrines of some
particular sects. 11 the University is to become a
mere Dissenters' College, let it be so expressed.
We know • the wealth, the power, and numbers of
that body, well enough to be convinced that they
arc quite capable, if united, to maintain such an
institution for thetnselves. But what we say is,
do not let us have a seminary of education erected,
and for a time carried nn, under false colours. Do
not let parents of the Establisked Church be called
upon first to subscribe, and then send their children
to it as a place where their religious faith would
not be interfered with, and then find them exposed
to all the dangers of that schism and spirit of pro-
7eiYfistn which cannot, if it would, be separated
irom the aeal which accompanies the peculiar tenets
we allude to wherever they are to be found. No
one can live in the world and not observe the mean:,
the often unfair means, which are used to make
converts of all that can be caught in any manner to
stray from the fold in which they have been born
and brought up—efforts which are, we fear, too
often not a litle promoted by the lukewarmness and
Ivorldly-mmtlednese of those whose duty it is to
counteract them, But be this the ease or not, those