The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-13 00:00:00

3. Thirty two remain. Of these there are several,
such as Devizes, Canterbury, and others, where the
conservatives have discovered that they can return the
members without concerning themselves about the
town council, have wholly refused to offer a single
candidate. Devizes is a remarkable instance of this.
The conservatives there have both the seats.. The last
registration, as the radical paper of that town con-
fesses, has considerably increased their strength, so
that there is no longer any doubt of their retaining
the whole representation. Yet they resolved, after
full consideration, to leave the whole town council en
tirely in the hands of the radicals, and not to start a
single candidate.
4. There are several untrue statements as to the re-
lative numbers returned in the Chronicle's list, but we
shall not dwell ❑pon these. We pass on to several
cases, in which, though the "triumph" is claimed for
the radicals, the " gain" is on the side of the conser-
vatives. Such, for instance, as Liverpool, where two
conservatives and fifteen radicals retired, and six con-
servatives and eleven radicals were elected; Hull,
where fourteen radicals, going out, were succeeded by
four conservatives and ten radicals; Portsmouth,
Durham, Bath, and several other cases of the same
sort. In all such places the tide is clearly turning,
and though the majority in the council must remain
with the radicals a little longer, the public feeling is
evidently setting in against them.
But the beauty of the Chronicle's article is chiefly
seen in this, that it almost wholly omits all allusion to
the conservative successes. All it ventures to say is,
that " the few places, comparatively, in which the
tories have succeeded form an insignificant minority.
Bristol and Leeds are the only two places of impor-
tance in which the tories were successful."
There is coolness of assurance about this way of
stating the matter, which belongs only to one indivi-
dual, even in the Reform Club. What! York, we
suppose. is a " place of no importance Cambridge,
Oxford, Macclesfield, Salisbury, Southampton, Hert-
ford, Shrewsbury, Stamford, Newark, Wigan, Hast-
ings, Winchester, Pontefract, Guildford, Andover,
Bridgewater, Warwick, Preston, Retford, and Bewd-
ley —all these are insignificant villages, quite unwor-
thy of notice ! To have changed the corporations of
Reading, Maidstone, and Colchester, within the last
two years, from whig-radical to conservative, is no-
thing worth naming. This is the way to make out a
case for the Chronicle's readers, or at least for those
who never see any other statement. But with all
others, whether whigs or conservatives, such palpably
one-sided views of the case will be regarded only as
confessions that the whole truth cannot safely be
stated.

THE CANADIAN QUESTION.

(From the Carlisle Patriot.)

The reader should never lose sight of this leading fact, be- '
cause it. is at the root of all the disputes that have arisen in
Canada—l mean the fact that Canada was originally colo-
nized by the French—that the colonists were Roman Catho-
lics—and that they were governed by a node of laws called
coutumes de Paris.
In 1534 Jacques Cartier sailed up the river St. Lawrence
for nearly. 600 miles, and discoved Canada. The place where
he landed he named Montreal.
In 1608 Quebec was founded by the merchants of Quebec
and Rouen.
On the 13th Sept., 1759, General Wolfe, at the head of
the British troops, attacked the French on the plains of Abra-
ham, about a mile above the city of Quebec, and defeated
them. He and the French general were killed, but Quebec
capitulated on the 17th.
In 1760 all Canada surrendered, and in 176.3 it was ceded
to Britain in full sovereignty by the treaty of Paris.
In 1774 the Quebec Act was passed, by which the French
code of laws was established with certain exceptions; the
English criminal law, trial by jury, and certain English rules
of evidence being engrafted on it.
In 1791 the form of government was altered; the execu-
tive power was continued in the Governor appointed by the
Crown, and two legislative chambers were formed; the mem-
bers of the Upper Chamber, called the Legislative Council,
were appointed by the King for life, and the Lower Cham-
ber, or Assembly, was composed of persons elected every four
years by the proprietors of the soil.
An executive council was also given, appointed by the
Crown to act as the privy council of the Governor.
At the same time the colony was divided into two pro-
vinces—Lower and Upper Canada. This was more in pros-
pect of what Upper Canada would become, than what it was
then, for at the close of the American war in 1784, Upper
Canada was a vast forest. _

Mr. Pitt's object in establishing ground of difference be-
tween the two parties was with respect to the system by
which lands were holden in the colony. That system was,
and is still, of a feudal nature. The landowners are called
seignors, and the occupiers are termed vassals. Instead of
the revenues of the seignors consisting of money rent, they
are made up of certain fines and services, the extent of which
is by no means clearly ascertained. A seignior of a rapaci-
ous disposition, therefore, may oppress the vassal by extor-
tionate demands. In the first House of Assembly that was
called, this subject was brought forward, and the English
members proposed that these fines and services should be
fixed, but the French members, most of whom were them-
selves seignors, opposed the measure with great warmth, and
nothing was done. This is the root of the quarrel now ex-
isting.
Other causes of dispute have arisen from the Governor
appropriating portions of the revenues of the colony without
the consent of the House of Assembly. That body claim the
tight of appropriating to the public service, according to their
own discretion, the whole of the revenues of the crown ac-
cruing within the province; also the right to regulate the
settlement and alienation of the wild lands within the colony.
Between 1824 and 1828 many bills were passed by the House
of Assembly for granting the necessary sums, and regulating
the limits of expenditure, and for various other purposes, all
of which were rejected by the Legislative Council. In 1828
the people of Lower Canada petitioned the House of Com-
mons for a redress of grievances, but nothing was then said
by them about an elective Legislative Council. In 18.31 an
act was passed by Parliament giving the House of Assembly
power over a certain portion of the revenues, upon the un-
derstanding that the civil list was provided for. The House
of Assembly, however, after getting the control of the re-
venue, refused to grant- a civil list until they had obtained a
"redress of grievauces ;" and from the year 1832 no provision
has been made by them for defraying the charges for the ad-
ministratioip of justice, and for the support of the civil go-
vernment.
In 1834 the House of Assembly, in their celebrated ninety-
two resolutions, for the first time demanded a change in the
constitution of 1791. They called for the following changes :-
1. That the Executive Council shall be responsible to the
House of Assembly. 2. That the Legislative Council should
be elective. 3. The repeal of the Tenures Act. 4. The con-
trol of the waste lands. 5. The repeal of the charter of the
Canadian Company.
In 1835 a commission was appointed to inquire into the
alleged grievances, but it failed in accomplishing its object
of reconciliation.
In April, 1837, the Parliament refused to make any.altera-
tion in the constitution of the Elective and Legislative
Councils, and declared that it was expedient to empower the
Governor of the province to issue out of the revenues, in the
bands of the Receiver General, such sums as should be
necessary to pay the arrears on the accounts of the adminis-
tration of justice and civil government of the province. This
determination of Parliament was made known to the House
of Assembly by the resolutions embodying it being sent to
them. Nu legislative measure was founded on them, it being
thought that the passing of the resolutions would show the
Canadians that the British Government and Legislature were
determined to settle the disputes between the Canadian Exe-
cutive and the House of Assembly.
In November, 1837, the revolt in Lower Canada broke out.
This, after some blood-shed, was suppressed by Sir John
Colborne and the British troops under his command, aided
by the Canadian loyalists.
In January, 1838, Lord Durham was appointed to adjust
the questions pending in Lower and Upper Canada. Au act
was passed suspending the Constitution of Lower Canada for
two years, and purposing to give to Lord Durham and a
council the same powers which the colonial Legislature pre-
viously possessed.
In May his lordship left England, and in the month of
June he issued an ordinance by which be transported certain
persons, who were then in prison on charges of high treason,
to Bermuda, without bringing them to trial, and forbade
others who had left the province from returning, on pain of

death.
In August Lord Brougham contended in Parliament that
Lord Durham had exceeded his authority. He had set aside
the act of 1774, which introduced trial by jury into Canada,
which he had no power to do, the act under which he was ap-
pointed declaring that it should not be lawful for him to re-
peal, suspend, or alter any act of the Parliament of Great
Britain. After discussion this view was taken by Parliament,
and an act of indemnity was passed, and the ordinance of
Lord Durham was disallowed by the Ministers. Lord Dur-
ham considered this to be destructive of his moral power in
Canada, and immediately resigned his commission.
We have thus brought the question to its present state,
where we will, till a future occasion, leave it.

P.S.—The population of the two Canadas is estimated at
100,000,

Lower Canada—French descent 500,000
British descent 150,000
Upper Canada—British, with a few Ameri-
can, German, and Dutch 450,000
Lower Canada is five times the size of England,,and Upper
Canada is nearly three times the size of England.
In 1836 there arrived at Quebec (Lower Canada) 27,513
emizrants.
T RA DE.—ln 1837 there arrived at Quebec (Lower Canada)
from Vessels. Tonnage. Seamen.
Great Britain
Irlaend
Other British Colodies
From other nations—France, 14; Portugal, 2; Antwerp,
1 • Dantzic, 4 ; Hamburgh, 8 ; Prussia, 3 ; Holstein, 2 ;
iotterdam, 1 ; United States. 39; La Guavca, 1.
The value of imports into Quebec in 1837 were—
From Great Britain £1,3301,12.3 19 1
Ireland .
British American Colonies. 21,557 19 2
British West Indies

£1,313,48) 8 1

THE FARMER AND ISIS PaAs.—About forty years ago a
farmer at Eddleston, in Peebles-shire, had a field of peas ly-
ing close to the churchyard wall. When nearly ripe, the
youngsters often stole them after dark. George was deter-
mined to watch his peas one night; so off he went, and seated
himself upon the top of the wall, for the purpose of seeing
better around him. It so happened that two young fellows
of the village determined to frighten old George. They re-
paired to the churchyard, the one with a black sheet around
him, and the other with a white one, but unknown to each
other. The one with a black sheet was there before George
and crept under a gravestone; the other waited until he saw
the old man fairly seated upon the top of the wall; he then
got his sheet around him, and advanced straight for George,
little dreaming what was awaiting himself. When about
half was' through the churchyard, the black ghost crept from
his hiding place, and coming round the end of the church,
met his white friend right in the face; boll stood aghast—
both fainted and fell. After a little while the white fellow
rose and looked around him, where he sees again the black
spirit rising from the earth; be took to his heels and ran,
cleared the wall at a hound, never once looked behind him
till within the house and the door shut. His companion,
equally frightened, ran off at the other side, but did not es-
cape so well, for instead of running down by the bridge over
Eddleston water, he never saw it in his road but plunged over
head and ears to the bottom of the stream. George, honest
man, kept his seat, and when he saw the spirits ascending and
descending among the graves, he said---" that baith black
de'ilsand white de'ils might rise, but he would watch his
pea.is „
—Edinburgh Observer.