The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-02 00:00:00

Ctrelting

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1844.

The explanations which have been received from
Canada touching the causes that had led to the recent
resignation of the Members of the Executive Coun-
cil, consist of a letter addressed by Mr. LAFONTAINE
to his Excellency Sir CIIARLEi METCALFE, under
date of the 27th November, 1843, and the answer' of
his Excellency thereto, dated on the following day.
We ‘vere certainly astonished at the news of the
Council's resignation. But astonishment is an eMO•
tiun of varying intensity, and we are much more asto-
nished at the statements and pretensions comprised in
this letter of M. LAFONTAINE. The whole of its ex-
planatory recital and plea proceed upon a one-sided
exposition of the views with which the Council had
taken office, and of their " responsibility to the
representatives of the people in Parliament." They
completely throw overboard the question of any
other obligations of their office, whether to
the Colonial Government or to the Crown, in their
capacity of Councillors. The letter itself is a
laboured attempt to compile a manifesto of griev-
ances, which break down under the attempt to enun-
ciate and specify them. Nor is this result to be
wondered at; seeing that Sir CHARLES MSTCALFE'S
adminiqration of the Government of Canada has been
conciacted, from the moment of his assumption of
office to the period of our last advices from the colony,
in a spirit of fairness, with a degree of political libe-
rality and civil justice, which have reflected upon his
Excellency the highest honour, and have amply justi-
fied his selection by her MAJESTY'S Ministers for the
discharge of' one of the highest—one of the most re-
sponsible—and perhaps the most difficult appoint-
ments, in the service of her MAJESTY'S Crown.
M. LAFONTAINE, in stating for his Excellency's
information the grounds of the explanations which it
was proposed by himself and his colleagues to offer in
their places in Parliament, refers to certain resolu-
tions introduced into the Legislative Assembly, with
the knowledge and sanction of her MAJESTY'S Repre-
sentative; the gist of which appears to have been, that
in order to preserve between the diflerent branches of
the Parliament that harmony which is essential to the
peace, welfare, and good government of the province,
the chief advisers of the representative of the SOVE-
REIGN,n_s.ra constituting a provincial adini t tiun under
him, ought to be men possessed of the confidence of
the representatives,. of the people, thus affording a
guarantee that the well-understood wishes ate! interests
of the people, which our gracious SovErtinGN has de-
clared shall be the rule of the Prorineial Government,
will, on all occasions, be faithfully represented and
advocated.
It will be seen by Sir CHARLES METCALFE S
reply, that this. pledge, so far as it respected the
ourse of his own Government, it is his Excellency's
boast—and a well-founded one—to have carefully
retrieved, and studiously maintained. It might be
thought that N.r. LAFONTAINE and his colleagues

knowing that if they could not pin his Excellency to
some distinct infraction of this large and liberal
policy, they must themselves be those nec,'s artifices
whose fate it is, on the highest authority, arte perire
suit—would hardly have augmented the jeopardy of
their case by the ill-advised statement with which
they followed up this effort. This state-
ment his Excellency demolishes in his reply, we
are bound to declare—indeed, there can be no doubt
of the fact on the mind of any candid reader after
perusing the two documents—entirely by reason of
its pervading vice. There was throughout it that
suppressio ceri which moralists, as well as jurists,
sternly denounce as equivalent to the suggestio falsi.
What is omitted, being of the very pith and marrow
of the case, its omission seems intended to mislead
the public into the notion that what is stated is that
which was the substantive matter of difference and
final severance between the Executive Council
and the Governor-General. The former, Mr.
LAFONTAINE observes, had lately understood
his Excellency to have taken a widely dif-
ferent view of their position and responsibilities
" from that under which they accepted office, and
through which they have been enabled to conduct the
Parliamentary business of the Government, sustained
by a large majority of the popular branch of the
Legislature." Were we to try this significant allusion

by that construction which our English modes of
thinking would justify,—and figure to ourselves the
aria:logy of a constitutional Sovereign and a Privy
Council, in place of that Sovereign's representative
and an Executive Council ; what should we think of
this unblushing proclamation by the immediate
advisers of the Supreme Power, of their actually bar-
gaining for Parliamentary support on this kind of
reciprocating basis ? The Executive Council,
however, would not have cared, had these
differences of opinion between them and the Go-
vernor-General been merely theoretical ; but they had
led to official appointments and proposals for such,
of which they were not informed until the opportu-
nity for their offering advice upon them had gone by;
and one Bill, introduced into Parliament with his
Excellency's knowledge and consent, he had reserved
for the expression of her MAJESTY'S pleasure thereon,
without previously apprising the Council of such
being his intention. Mr. LAFONTAINE then adds, that
the want of that cordiality between the Council and
the Governor-General, which his Excellency has
frankly acknowledged to have observed, "together
with an antagonism between them," extended not
only to acts. on which there were apparent grounds
for difference of public opinion, " but to all measures
of Government involving political principles."
This is a large and fair outline of all in Mr. LA-
FONTAINE'S letter which it is necessary for the reader
to have, fully and fairly, before his mind, in order to
form his own judgment upon the merits of the case.
In his reply the Governor-General states, that he
observes with regret, in the explanation which M.
LAFONTAINE, and the other Members of Council,
propose to offer in their places in Parliament, a total
omission of the circumstances which he regards as
forming the real grounds of their resignation.
'We will endeavour very briefly to abstract the nar-
rative which his'Excellency thus gives of events as
they had occurred. He states that at the Govern-
ment House, on the previous Friday, Messrs. LAFON-
TAINE and BALDWIN, after some preliminary remarks,
" had demanded of the GoVern or-General that he should
agree to make no appointment, and no offer of an
appointment, without previously taking the advice of
the Council ; that the lists of citididates should in
every instance be laid before the council; that they
rne
should recom' ad any others at-discretion ; and that
the Governor-General, in deciding after taking their
advice, should not rike llny appointment prejudicial
to their influence." ."Isitpossible to gainsay the con-
struction which Sir CHARLES puts on this outrageous
proposition ? "In other words, that the patronage of
the Crown should be surrendered to the Council for
the purchase of Parliamentary support ; for, if the
demand did not mean that, it meant nothing, as it
cannot be imagined that the mere form of taking
advice, without regarding it, was the process con-
templated."
The Governor-General replied that he would not
make any such stipulation ; and could not degrade
the character of his office nor violate his duty by
such a surrender of the prerogative of the Crown.
He appealed to the number of appointments al-
ready made by him on their recommendation ; to his
own constant objection to the exclusive distribution
of patronage with party views, and his maintenance
of the principle that office should, in all cases, he
given to the best qualified ; reserving the right of
appointing at his own discretion, where no such pre-
eminence was to be found among the candidates.
Understanding from the two gentlemen that their con-
tinuance in office depended on his final decision with
regard to their demand, he agreed that at the Council
of next day the subject should be fully discussed.
He accordingly met the Council (on Saturday) fully
expecting the parties would resign, as he could not
recede from the resolution he had formed. But three
or more distinct propositions were then made to him,
over and over again, in different terms, hut (he adds)
" always aiming at the same purpose, which, in his
opinion, if accomplished, would have been a virtual
surrender, into the hands of the Council, of the pre-
rogative of the Crown ; and, on his uniformly reply-
ing to these propositions in the negative, his refusal
was each time followed by then we must resign,'
or words to that purport, from one or more of the
Council."

His Excellency expresses his astonishment at find-
ing, after so many discussions of the demand on which
the resignation was understood to he tendered,
that it was now ascribed to an alleged differ-
ence of opinion on the theory of responsible govern-
ment. The Governor-General refers to his having
protested in the course of those former discussions
against the notion, that he was practically adverse to
the working of the system of responsible government
which had been established, and which he had hitherto
pursued without deviation. He declares that he sub-
scribes entirely to the resolution of the Legis-
rive Assembly of September 1841 (quoted by Mr.
LAFONTAINE), holding any other system but that
which recognises responsibility to the people imprac-
ticable in that province. But while he is satisfied
that all government exists solely for the people, he
remarks that if, by "responsible government," the
gentlemen of the late Council mean that the
Council is to be supreme, and the authority
of the Governor a nullity, then he cannot
agree with them ; and must declare his dissent
from that perversion of the acknowledged principle.
As to the " Secret Societies Bill" reserved by him
for the consideration of her MAJESTY'S Government,
the justification of his Excellency is full and tri-
umphant ; and what is more, it is eminently constitu-
tional:—

" If there is any part of the functions of the Government
in which he is more than in any other bound to exercise
an independent judgment, it must be in giving the Royal
assent to Acts at' Parliament. With regard to this duty
ho has special instructions from her 'Majesty to reserve
every Act of an unusual or extraordinary character.
Undoubtedly the Secret Societies Bill answers that de-
scription, being unexampled in British legislation."

The Governor's reply closes with this impressive
passage :

"In conclusion, the Governor-General protests
against the explanation which those gentlemen propose
to. offer to Parliament, as omitting entirely the actual and
prominent circumstances which led to their resignation, and
as conveying to Parliament a misapprehension of his sen-
timents and intentions, which has no foundation in any
part of his conduct, unless his refusal to make a virtual
surrender of the prerogative of the Crown to the Coun-
cil, for party purposes, and his anxiety to do justice to
those who were injured by the arrangements attending
the Union, can be regarded as warranting a representa-
tion which is calculated to injure him. without just cause,
in the opinion of the Parliament and the people, on whose
confidence he places his sole reliance for the successful
administration of the Government."

As sincere friends to all classes in Canada, and
heartily approving of the discontinuance of the para-
mount party policy, we grieve to find the French
Canadians (for we must find a designation for the
section represented by M. LAFONTAINE) doing all in
their power to justify the sinister predictions of
the bitter opponent 3 of colonial amelioration in this
country. They are, as those opponents declared they
would do, visibly attempting, by such unreasonable
and absurd pretensions, to undermine British au-
thority and monarchical representation in their noble
territory. For our parts, we shall at all times exert
our best efforts to resist the practical development of
their mischievous theories, which are fast tending to
an avowed demand for the institution of a Republic,
whilst we can boast a Governor-General every way

so calculated worthily to represent the dignity and
to maintain the rights of it British Sovereign.

The commencement of a new year naturally sug-
gests a retrospect of the old, and prompts us, with a
mysterious impulse, which is one of the most irre-
pressible influences of human action, to speculate on
the future—by the waning light of that which has
just sunk, after its predecessors, into the abyss of
time. But the phases of human institutions are so
changeful in our days, that to reason on what is likely
next to happen, merely on the analogy of what has
already occurred, might prove as bootless a labour as
to argue that the present system of our currency can
be maintained until 1868, seeing that it has been up-
held ever since 1819 ; as if the fact that it has been
endured for a quarter of a century last past, were
sufficient warranty for concluding that it will be
submitted to for a quarter of a century now next
ensuing. History itself is fast losing her former

distinctive privilege of teaching by example. Who
will undertake to predict the fact, or the degree, of
the settlement which the troubled affairs of the
young States in the New World will be likely to
receive within twelve months from this day ? What
is there in the prosperous though tardy progress
and consolidating resources in the empire of Brazil,
to supply any solid basis of favourable expectations
on behalf of Mexico or Peru, of Chili or of Centrat
America, of Bolivia or the Argentine Republic?
The United States themselves have acquired, in the
course of seventy years of national independence, the
attitude, the functions, the commerce, the political
authority and foreign influence of a powerful maritime
empire. Yet who shall answer for the continuous
development of this strength, or even for the main-
tenance of its political integrity, considering the active
elements of disunion which are incorporated in its
►naterial system by the opposing interests of the
southern and the northern members of her Federation;
the presence of an enormous and discontented slave
population in its finest and most vulnerable terri-
tories; and the almost ridiculous laxity and feebleness
of its domestic government, heightened, as the spec-
tacle of this weakness is, by the absurd and arrogant
tone it assumes in negotiating with foreign Cabinets ?
In the Old World do we find any more hopeful
principles of permanency, abroad ? It is not without

pain that we confess to the negative. If we look to
France or to Spain, to Italy or to Germany, to
Poland or to Naples, we perceive that elements of

disturbance are at work, varied, perhaps, with the
locality, in intensity, but still, of uncertain character,

and unascertained modes of operation. In France
the energy and vigour of the reigning Monarch, and
the sagacity of his Ministers, have not been able to
prevent an extensive and organised manifestation of
personal attachment—not to say adhesion—to the re-
presentative of the exiled family, over the dismantled
throne and broken sceptre of whose last Sovereign
LOUIS PHILIPPE was elevated to the seat of supreme

power over " the French" by the will of that nation.

The party by whom this devotion to the person of
the Due DE BOURDEAUX has so been manifested, in-
cludes not a few among the most distinguished
public men of France ; and their devoirs to the

young Prince were not only publicly, hut even
ostentatiously, paid. What are we to infer of the
morale of political character—at what are we to esti-
mate the force of public opinion—or how are we to
rate the implied superiority of party over principle,
in France, when we see that sort of direct and
special homage which, in all other nations, is
usually reserved for the Monarch de facto as well ag

de jure (so far as the will of the people:, is equivalet*;
to law), transferred from him, and carriedibt.the feet 4

of the Prince in question, in a foreign countrY;with'
the purpose, more or less avowed by them, of sanc-
tioning his antagonistic pretensions to wield the
authority now exercised by Louts PnturPi?.:
In Spain (that restless volcano of potitiCaT ex

plosions), in the course .of the last year, we have
seen the Constitutionalists quarrelling among them-
selves, and the Executive divided into two.parties.
We have seen the authority of the Legislature almost
equally repudiated by both, and the intrigues of the
Queen-Mother, from their Parisian centre, so ex-
sively spread and so adroitly managed, as finally to
accomplish the downfal and expulsion of the Con-
stitutional Regent, to whom his country owed so
much for a brief but healthy respite from the ravages
of faction, and the Queen-Mother so large a
measure of resentment and revenge for the bold and
honest interposition of his authority to curb he'r hostile
attempts upon the Constitution. ESPARTERO himself,
one day besieging and bombarding the cities where
but a few brief months before his popularity had been
most enthusiastic and remarl{able—another a fugitive,
in jeopardy of liberty and life, throwing himself on
board an English man•of-war, and received into the
hospitality o" this country as a private gentleman.
Then NARVAEZ, who had been the main instrument
of his overthrow and expatriation, by a successful
application of those means of corrupting the fidelity
of the army, to which the Regent's Government had
not hesitated, in its earlier staves, to resort upon
emergencies, elevated to almost dictatorial power;
and the state majority of the youthful ISABELLA,
Queen of Spain, anticipated as if by the acclamation of
her entire people. In the very first days of her inde-
pendent sovereignty she complains to the assembled
Cortes, that the Minister, friend and colleague of
NARVAEZ, has presumed to press for her signature to
a decree, with an importunity terminating in acts of
personal violence, restraint, and insult : arid this
Minister, OLOZAGA, denounced by NARVAEZ, after
vain efforts to procure the Cortes to hear the whole of
his defence, and after escaping from more than one
attempt at his assassination, is in turn compelled to
flee in disguise to the frontiers, and, by the:protecting
aid of smugglers, establishes his residence within the
Portugese territory. The moment of NARVAEZ'
triumph and success is distinguished by a still more
daring project for his assassination, by four armed
men, in the public streets of Madrid, in open day.
The project fails; but the assassins escape without
even, as it would seem, any attempt on the part of the

bystanders to arrest them. The new Commander-in-
chief, PRIM, appointed to the district of Barcelona, in
return for the good services rendered to NARVAEZ
and CONCHA by his cruelty and severities, is shortly
replaced by Baron DE MEER, to whom he is so little
disposed to act as second, that, by some accounts
received in town yesterday, a most violent altercation
is said to have taken place between them at Iligueras ;
and in others it is affirmed that the Baron has actually
been assassinated in the latter town. Is there in this
chequered drama of last year, a single scene upon
hich one can reasonably base any flattering anticipa-
tions of the probable condition of Spain in 1844 ?
The troubles in the Papal States and in Naples
(upon all of which, by the way, our information has
been extremely meagre), alternately suppressed, in one
quarter by military detachments, and breaking out in
others with a force and combination which no military
detachments at hand are strong enough to face—
these are as questionable indications of tranquillity
presently to be restored, as the coincident eruptions of
Etna suggest the notion of future security and repose
to the terror-stricken citizens of Bronti and Catania,
around whom red-hot lavas are holding on their fiery
course, and beneath whom portentous earthquakes are
struggling to accomplish their work of 'ruin and de-
vastation.

In the well-governed kingdom of Prussia, even, we

have been grieved to observe how many causes of
discord and animosity between the throne and some
of the national institutions appear to have stealthily
attained a formidable heading; and we cannot but
feel an extreme anxiety that some well-intentioned,
but possibly, indiscreet acts of the Monarch, in re-
ference to these affairs, may not have compromised his
general well-merited popularity with his subjects.
In Russian Poland the Emperor NICTIOLAS has been
busy in enlarging the territorial deserts of his vast
empire by the depopulation of towns, the desecration
of homes, the annihilation of connexions, the extinction
of all the charities of life—wherever these had existed
in connection with that of the most important, and
altogether the most industrious, classes of his subjects,
namely, the Jews. Three hundred and fifty thousand
of these people he has driven forth from the country,
reckless of the destruction of property, the sacrifice
of personal claims and liabilities, the personal suffer-
ings, the moral wretchedness, and the political (*re-
dation he has inflicted upon them—unconscious,
perhaps, of, and certainly indifferent to, the deep and
la;ting wound he has inflicted upon his own empire.
Of that empire, with all its enormous extent and its
resources, it may fairly be doubted whether it is in a
condition to bear such visitation as well even as