The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-05-19 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-THURSDAY

After some conversation on the order in which the pub-
lic business would be taken next week, and which Sir R.
Peel declared would be that which he had previously
stated—viz., to give preference to the tariff, and afterwards
to take one discussion on the Poor Removal Bill, it was
arranged that the adjourned debate on the Factory Bill
should be taken on the first vacant government day after-
wards.
Mr. SPOONER brought forward the case of Mr. Toni-
min Smith, a barrister, whose house was searched for a
private still on anonymous auehority ; but Mr. Cardwell
defended the course pursued by the Excise, and the mo-
tion for a select committee was negatived by a majority of
134 to 125.
Lord G. BENTINCK, in moving " for copies of the
speech of Earl Cathcart, the Governor-General of the
Canadas, to the Legislative Assembly of those provinces
—of the despatches which he bad addressed to Mr. Glad-
stone, the Colonial Secretary. remonstrating against cer-
tain presumed changes in the Imperial commercial policy,
—and of any petition from the Quebec Board of Trade
addressed to the same high functionary, on the subject of
apprehended changes in the Imperial tariff affecting the
produce of the Canadas," observed that he considered it
very important that the attention of the house should be
called to these documents, before it finally decided on the
fate of the corn bill. He believed that the facts con-
nected with these documents were shortly these. Early
in March last, Mr. Gladstone had addressed a letter to
Earl Cathcart upon the measures recently propo•ed to
Parliament by Her Majesty's Government. It appeared
from the letter that Earl Cathcart had previously ad-
dressed a letter of remonstrance against that policy to Mr.
Gladstone Acting upon the same principles, Earl Cath.
cal t had, in his address to the Legislative Assembly, ob-
served that the last intelligence from the mother country
indicated that important changes were to be made in the
commercial policy of Great Britain—that he had pressed
on the Imperial Government the necessity of preserving
the existing relations between the Canadas and the mother
country unimpaired—and that he had recommended the
Canadians until they received further information from
Great Britain, to anticipate that their claims to a just
measure of protection would not he overlooked. Earl
Cathcart had since assured them that in every measure
calcubted to secure to them that just protection, they
should have his hearty co-operation. Surely it was a
matter of serious consideration for that house, when they
found the Governor-General of the Canadas telling their
Legislative Assembly that he would co-operate with them
against the policy of the wailer country. Besides this
declaration, there wereotti,r indications of the dissati-
factioni
which was felt n the Canadas in consequence of
the recent adherence of her Majesty's minister to the
doctrines of free trade. A meeting had been held at To-
ronto a few days before the meeting of the Legislative

Assembly. in which there was a distinct intimation given,
that the adopttou of our new commercial policy might
drive the Canadas into annexation with the United States.
Similar language had also been employed by the Atior-
neral of the province, and this language he quoted
drable length. It therefore became the house
to reflect, whether it would adopt measures which
would deprive us altogether of those valuable provinces.
He then quoted several extracts from papers published in

for the purpose of showing that a similar im-
pression as to the results of our new pol:ey had been
created in the minds of the thinking people of the United

''''-w Yor

States. He reminded the house that if this country were
to lose the Canadian provinces, it would lose a trade
which more than any other encouraged and promoted our
maritime power and greatness. He then dilated on the
injury which we were going to inflict on the Canadas, by
adopting the system of free trade, and quoted the letter
of a Mr. Pemberton, which appeared in The Times, to
show that Mr. C. Buller was guilty of a great error,
when he asserted that the Canadians did not materially
care for the protection which they received from our sys-
tem of duties on corn and on timber. He showed that
tht-re was a disposition on the part of the United States,
especially when the effect of such relaxation was likely to
be the loss of the Canadas.

Mr. ROMIU ex, in seconding the motion, was of opinion
that it would have been for the advantage of Lord G.
Bentinck's reputation as an orator, and also for the ad-
vantage of the house, which had listened to him very re-
luctantly, if he had compressed his speech, and that
which he would inevitably deliver to-morrow night, into
one. He congratulated Lt,rd G. Bentinck and his party
on the new tone in which they now spoke of the pro-
ceedings of the Canadian Parliament. What was the
reason of his sympathising with the Canadas now, when
the Imperial Government was in a minority of seven in
the Canadian Parliament, when he paid no attention to
its wishes formerly, when out of 88 members only 8 sup-
ported that Government? Formerly there were no
stronger opponents of the Canadian Corn Bill than Lord
G. Bentinck and his party; what was the reason which
induced them to stand up for that bill now, as if it were
the Magna Charm of the Canadas? He could not be-
lieve that Earl Cathcart had embarked upon that course
of opposition to the Government which Lord G. Ben-
tinck had described; and expressed his deliberate convic-
tion that the opinions of the people of Canada, if fairly
taken, would be found decidedly in favour of freedom of

Sir G. CLERK observed that there was no intention on
the part of the government to oppose the present motion,
Rs Lord G. Bentinck had been informed nine days ago.
Ile only rose to state that he proposed to add to the pa-
pers now moved for, a despatch from Mr. Gladstone to
the Governor-General of the Canadas, in reply to the
papers for which Lord G. Bentinck had moved.
After a few rewarks from Mr. H. Hinde, who com-
plained that he had been unable to procure an answer from
her Majesty's government to a question which he had re-
peatedly asked in the course of these discussions—namely,
what it intended to do with the colonies ?--and who in-
sisted that the house should compel them to answer it,
The motion was agreed to, and the house adjourned.