The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-01-19 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 19, 1838.

.• The Publication of the STANDARD commenced this morn-
ing at 5 o'clock.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.—DEBATE ON THE AFFAIRS
OF CANADA.—Considerable anxiety has been recently
felt
.and expressed as to the course which the govern-
ment of the country, as well as the leading parties in
the House of Commons, might take in reference to the
revolt in Canada. The meeting of parliament on Tues-
day has, therefore, attracted universal attention, and the
interesting debate which arose on the affairs of Canada
has been the subject of general remark.
In the House of Lords, as might have been anticipated
from the high constitutional tone of feeling predominant
among its members, the supremacy of the Queen's au-
thority over the disaffected insurgents of Canada was
strongly asserted. The Duke of Wellington, with that
characteristic manliness and straightforward honesty of
expression for which he is so distinguished, accused the
government of a dereliction of duty in not introducing
the subject to the notice of the house by a message from
the Crown, and hoped that the ministers would " speak
out" upon this important occasion, and evince their fixed
determination to suppress the insurrectionary movements
of the Papineau faction as speedily as possible. He very
properly suggested that a great country like England
" could have no such thing as a little war," and that the
armament destined for the Canadian service should be
on such a scale as to ensure the immediate extinction of
the rebellion. These sentiments called forth from the
Prime Minister and the Colonial Secretary a declaration
of their determination to support the authority of the
Crown, and the dignity and station of the country, by
making such preparations as should put an end to the
present state of things, and bring the affair to a speedy
conclusion.

This is so far satisfactory. If the government are
sincere in making these apparently explicit declarations,
we have every reasonable grounds for anticipating that
a speedy stop may be put to the further effusion of blood
and destruction of property in our Canadian colonies.
But why was not such a tone adopted long since ? Why
did nor ministers take such decisive steps during the past
period of their administration as would have effectually
prevented the rebellion from breaking out ? It appears,
from the documentary evidence that has been supplied to
the houses of parliament, that they were fully forewarned
of the traitorous intentions of Papineau and his fellow-
conspirators; and yet they neglected taking such pre-
cautions as would have precluded the possibility of a
successful revolt. In the dispatch of Lord Gosford, dated
6th November, 1837, be states that " the grievances
which were at first put forward by the leaders of this
party, would seem to be mere pretexts to clothe DEEPER
AND DARKER DESIGNS. The mask has been thrown
aside, and the people are excited to disaffection and re-
bellion by the most artful and unfounded misrepresenta-
tions ; and even if all the demands of the Assembly
were fully and immediately granted, they would, I begin
to .think, be insufficient to satisfy the views of those
whose EVIDENT AIM is not to reform, but to DESTROY THE
ESTABLISHED GOVERNMENT AND THE BRITISH CON-
NEXION."

All this must have been well known long before the
unsuspecting Gosford " began to think" on the subject
of the designs of the conspirators. Ministers must have
known that concession after concession had only pro-
voked fresh and more unreasonable demands. They
must have known that, as in the case of Ireland, the re-
moval of every grievance complained of had only suc-
ceeded in creating a thousand fresh ones, and in aug-
menting the agitation and violence of the revolutionary
demagogues. We are, therefore, justified in charging
upon the ministry all the atrocities of the civil war which
is at present raging in Canada. They are the responsi-
ble parties for the destruction of property, the interrup-
tion of trade, and the threatened disruption of the Bri-
tish empire, which have been the necessary consequences
of their infatuated, temporizing policy. Had that vi-
gour been manifested by the executive, which ought to
have been prompted by the dangers which were evi•
dently impending, these lamentable consequences might
have been avoided. The irresolution or direct conniv-
ance of government, and not the alleged grievances of
the Canadians, was the real source of Papineau's
power.

The debate in the House of Commons was commenced
by the introduction of Lord John Russell's motion for
an address to her Majesty, deprecating and lamenting
the revolt which had taken place in Lower Canada, and
assuring the Crown of the cot dial support of the Com-
mons in suppressing the rebellion, and punishing its
authors; and for the introduction of a bill to suspend
the meeting of the Assembly until certain measures for
the future government of the colony should be brought