The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-02-02 00:00:00

Poetry.

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THE ENGLISH_ SHIP BY MOONLIGHT.

ET ELIZA COOK.

( From the New Monthly Magazine.)

The world below hath not for me
Such a fair and glorious sight,
As an English ship, on a rippling sea,
In the clear and full moonlight.
My heart leaps high, as I fix my eye
On her dark and sweeping hull,
Laying its breast on the billowy nest,
Like the tired sleeping gull.

The masts spring up, all tall and bold,
With their beads among the stars;
The white sails gleam in the silvery beam,
Brailed up to the branching.spars..
The wind just breathing to unroll
A flag that bears no stain;
Proud ship ! that needl4t no other scroll
To warrant thy right on the main.

The sea-boy, hanging on the shrouds,
Chants out his fitful song,
And watches the scud of fleecy clouds,
That melts as it floats along.

Ob ! what is thereon the Sloggard land
That I love so well to mark, •
thehallow'd light of the still moonlight,
As I do a dancing bark! ,

The ivyed tower looks well in that hour,
And so does an old cburch.spire,
When the gilded 'Vane, and Gothic pane,
Seem tinged with quivering fire.
The hills shine out in the mellow ray,
The love-bower gathers a charm ;
And beautiful is the chequering play
On the willow's graceful,a.rm
But the world below holds not for me
Such a fair and glorious sight,
As a, brave ship floating on the-sea,
In the full and clear moonlight.

CON7'EMPORARY PRESS.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA.
( From the Morning Herald.)
It was well observed by Sir. Robert Inglis, last night,
• that the difficulties of governing Canada would, in truth,
only commence, after the. revolt should be put doWn.
~Differences of race, differences in religious faith, (lif•
,ferences in social habits, and differences in political
feeling would, as the honourable baronet observed, make
themselves more keenly felt after the suppression of the
„late.revolutionary movements, than they had ever done
before ! •

. .
--The greatest obstacle, perhaps, to the perfect fusion
of the two races of. Canadians is to be found in their
widely differing systems of law, affecting the tenure and
transmission of property. Until thi!Se jarring systems
•..shall be assimilated, the English and French inhabitants
of, Canada can never become, in truth, one people.
Until the process of assimilation shall be. undertaken,
although Canada may, nominally, remain .c.oonected
with England, Canada must continue divided against
itself. The English government, therefore, ought now,
undoubtedly, .- to establish a system. of English law;
throughout the whole of our North American dominions.
We may be told, it is true, that such a course in.
I_.volve a violation of. treaties, and of guaranteed rights;
i• and-that it will•beattended, moreover, with much posi-
tive loss and injury to classes of individuals. We admit
that injury to individuals, and, perhaps, on a large scale,
may be the immediate consequence: the necessity must,
however, justify the change..,, There can be no reason,
• moreover, why Government should not in- the circum-
- stances; • take into consideration; the claims of injured
.parties, and afford .to.all.suels . reasonable _compensation.
When a great public good is attained at the cost of in-
dividuals, these individaalsare,„in equity, entitled to a
fair consideration at the hands of the poblie. •• •
That treaties should from time to time be departed
from, is an inevitable consequence.of the imperfect vvis-
.- dour 'which presides over all political arrangements; 'but
• if treaties are not departed from in a spirit of bad faith,
there can never exist ground for much regret upon'the
subject. ft
,is for the permanent interest of the French
..,.Canadians,..as,, certainly, as it is for the immediate and
permanent interest of the English Canadian's, but that
one system of property-laws should prevail-•throughout
- oar. American colonies; above all the interest of the mo-
,, ther,eountry, the. interest of the empire, as a-whole, de-
mands the change indicated. If it were necessary,- in the
•• circumstances, to plead any other
.title on
.the part of
~.England, to effect...this great alteration, that other title
would-•be supplied by the result of the late unhappy con-
-Jest. The French. Canadians have attempted to change
the relation in which they stood to England. They have
failed,: • England has, at least, as good a right in any
- circumstances, to change the relations" which connected
herwith aportion of her colonists : and as matters now
standolie law,of conquest supplies England with sufficient -
>warrant.i We do not, however,- urge this argument.
It is sufficient to note, that this argument's influence is
' -cm the-side of the great and beneficial change, which we
recommend. Tt is worthy or remark, at the same time,
that the men most likely to talk, in the matter of Canada,
,of viala.ted• treaties, are the very men n-hose boast-itis,
that:. they are committed in deadly hostility, against the
oldest•and best guaranteed institutions of England—who
laugh at•vested rights—and find matter of, merriment-in
'• the, wisdom of our ancestors !"