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(
LORD BROUGHAM'S SPEECH
UPON
CANADA.
) ■
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I
LORD BROUGHAM'S
SPEECH
IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS,
THURSDAY. JANUARY 18, '838.
UPON
CANADA.
LONDON :
JAMES RIDGWAY AND SONS, PICCADILLY.
1838.
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PREFACE.
It has been considered right by many of the
friends of peace and of liberal policy, to publish this
Speech separately, chiefly in order that the atten-
tion of men may be directed to the important ques-
tions connected with the future lot of the North
American Colonies, when the ferment excited by
late unhappy events shall subside. The whole his-
tory of these transactions is calculated to throw
light upon the inevitable mischiefs of extended
Colonial empire ; and there is a further argument
of the same kind derivable from the unquestion-
able fact, that in even the Reformed Parliament
the misgovernment of a remote and unrepre-
sented Province, has encountered but very little
opposition from many of those who are always
found most reluctant to suffer the least oppression if
attempted upon any portion of the Mother Country.
The comments which this Speech contains upon
the conduct of the Government have been com-
plained of — as if Lord Brougham had some duty
to perform of suppressing his opinions upon the
most important questions that can occupy the atten-
tion of Statesmen ; and as if especially the Colo-
nial Minister had a right to complain of strictures
openly made upon his public conduct.
( •
VI
It is, however, well known that Lord Brougham
never shewed any disposition to censure the pre-
sent Government until they adopted a course
wholly at variance with his oftentimes recorded
opinions. As long as he could support them,
the history of Parliament shews that he ren-
dered them every assistance in his power ; nor
nor did he ever while in office exert himself
more or spare himself less than in their defence in
1835, and in carrying through the House of Lords
the great measure of Municipal Reform. — In the
Summer of 1836, he refrained from all complaint
when he saw his measures for preventing plurali-
ties and non-residence abandoned, and a bill intro-
duced upon opposite principles. — In 1837, he
continued to lend them support on all but one or
two occasions, when it was impossible to approve
their conduct — and on the Canada Resolutions
especially, last May, he was compelled to oppose them
— a duty which he performed with manifest reluc-
tance. He had during that Session, 1837, expressed
his opinions upon the necessity of altering the Re-
form Bill in essential particulars, and especially of
extending the Elective Franchise. The present
Session was unhappily opened with a declaration
on the part of the Government as a body, that
they took a view wholly different from that of most
Reformers; indeed, of the great body of the Liberal
party throughout the country. To this has been
added their support of a policy by which the rights
I! 11^
!!'
li I'
vH
of the subject are invaded, and the maintenunce oi*
peace itself put in jeopardy. They who complain
of Lord Brougham— (the Ministers themselves are
assuredly not of the number) — for adhering to his
declared opinions, are respectfully requested to as-
sign any reason why he should abandon his own
principles — those which he has maintained, with-
out the least deviation, throughout his whole life —
merely that he may support tlie Ministers who
liave most conscientiously no doubt, tliough
for the country most unfortunately, seen fit to
adopt other views. Thus much^ as to the claims
of the Government at large, not only to form
new opinions, and follow an altered course, but
to carry along with them others whom their
reasonings have wholly failed to convince.
Now, as to^the Colonial Secretary, the party
whose conduct is principally involved in the
question of Ministerial responsibility for the present
state of the North American Provinces : —It is well
known that Lord Brougham never shewed any back-
wardness in coming down to his defence when he
observed him unjustly attacked. No one can be
better aware of this than the Noble Lord himself;
with whom, however, it is understood that Lord
Brougham never had any intercourse save that of
an official nature while a Member of the same Go-;
vernment. But they who complain on the Noble
Secretary's behalf (he himself, assuredly, is not of
the number), are respectfully requested to assign
Iff
y
vm
any reason why full licence having been always al-
lowe(i him, and some of his principal Colleagues, to
form their own opinions — with them to oppose
Parliamentary Reform up to 1st March, 1831 — to
defend the Manchester Massacre — to support the
Six Acts — to remove Lord Fitzwilliam from oflSce
for attending a Parliamentary Reform Meeting at
York — to oppose Lord Brougham's motion on the
case of Smith the Missionary — why, those Noble
Persons having without any blame whatever been
suffered formerly to hold such courses — and having,
so happily for the Country, and so honourably for
themselves, adopted a different line of policy , from
Nov. 1830 to Nov. 1837, Lord Brougham alone
should be complained of, for continuing since Nov.
1837 to abide by the very same principles which he
had not taken up for the first time in Nov. 1830,
but held in all former times ? It is respectfully
asked what right they who now complain of Lord
Brougham for differing from the Noble Secretary of
State, have to expect that he should rather differ
from his former self, than from his former col-
league; and while yet unable to partake of the con-
victions that have come over others, should abandon
that devotion to the ca;ise of freedom, and of peace,
to which his public life had been consecrated ? i
The accident of members of a Party feeling
themselves under the necessity of opposing, upon
some great occasion, those with whom it is their
general wish to act, although unfortunate, is by no
/
'•8
al-
!S, to
►pose
I — to
•t the
office
ig at
[1 the
^oble
been
iving,
ly for
, from
alone
e Nov.
ich he
1830,
etfully
Lord
tary of
differ
col-
le con-
jandon
peace,
U?
feeling
upon
their
by no
?r
IX
means unprecedented. When, in consequence of'
their friends being in office, almost all the Whigs^^
were found, during twelve months of the last war
to relax in their desire of peace, retrenchment and
reform, Mr. Whitbread — a name never to be pro-
nounced without reverence and affection by Eng-
lishmen — alone opposed the measures of the admi-
nistration, that he might adhere to his principles.
In 1820, Lord Brougham declared in his place
that he stood wholly aloof from his party, on all
that related to the case of the late Queen, because
there appeared a danger of her interests being,
without any blame, sacrificed to other, possibly
more important, considerations. There seems no
good reason why he should not pursue the same
course, when it is understood that he now very sin-
cerely, though perhaps quite erroneously, believes
a like sacrifice is made of principles, incomparably
more important — the most sacred principles which
used to bind the Liberal party together ; and when
so many men are firmly persuaded that, but for the
accident of the party being in office, they would
have joined in pursuing the same course which
Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke followed with such signal
glory in the former American War.
It is probable, that Lord Brougham, in choosing
to continue in that course, has had little fear of
thereby impairing the strength of the present Go-
vernnaent — That may be greater or it may be less ;
but there can be very little chance of any dimi-
y
nution befalling it, while its party supporters, be
they more or less numerous, both in Parliament
and in the Country — more especially in many of
the Corporations — appear to be so firmly held to-
gether by the common principle which guides their
conduct. That principle is one in some respects
well grounded, and forms indeed the foundation of
aH party connexions. When not pushed too far, it is
justifiable and it is useful. It teaches men to over-
look minor differences of opinion, for the purpose
of effecting common objects of superior importance ;
and warns them against the fatal error so well
described by Mr. Fox, of giving up all to an enemy
rather than any thing to a friend. — It is, however,
equally manifest, that the abuse of this doctrine
may lead to a justification of the very worst mis-
conduct — may be used as a cover for the most
sordid speculations of private interest — and may
sap the foundation of all public principle whatever.
It is to be hoped that the party zeal of those above
referred to, may not lead them to such excesses.
But for the present it does appear to have made
the most grave questions of national polity — Re-
trenchment — Slavery — Colonial rights —Constitu-
tional principle — Peace itself — all sink into nothing
compared with the single object of maintaining a
particular class of men in power — and invested
with the patronage of the Crown, as well as en-
trusted with the affairs of the Empire.
be
SPEECH ON CANADA.
My Lords,
The part which I had the honour to
bear last summer in this House, when the Com-
mons sent up those ill-fated resolutions to which I
trace the whole of the present disasters, impels me
to present myself thus early, and to obtrude upon
your Lordships my sentiments regarding the im-
portant question before you. And, my Lords, I
wish that, in following my Noble Friend over the
ground which he has just trodden, I could confine
myself to the space he has travelled over without
trespassing upon other more delicate parts of it.
But it never seems to have struck him that when a
Minister of the Crown comes to Parliament with a
proposition, not merely such as the address con-
tains, but such as we are warned is to follow swiftly
upon the address — a demand of extraordinary aid
for the executive Government — measures of a high
prerogative and unconstitutional kind — it never has
struck him, that the Minister who resorts to Parlia-
ment for the help of its extreme powers, in apply-
ing remedies of the last description— has something
more to do than merely to ask for those remedies
and shew their necessity — that he has to explain
B
ff^
ivhence the necessity arises; to defend the conduct
which has led to this crisis in our affairs; to repel
from himself and the Ministry whereof he is parcel,
the charge of having brought the Colonial Empire
committed to his care, into such a state, that we
are assembled at this unwonted season, for the pur-
pose of quelling a rebellion in the principal settle-
ment of the Crown, preventing if we can the re-
currence of disaffection, and suspending the free
Constitution of the Province, in order to secure its
peace. Are these every day occurrences? Are re-
volt and civil war of such an ordinary aspect that
they pass over us like a summer's cloud and be re-
garded not? Are the demands of despotick power
by the Crown, and the suspension of the whole
liberties of the subject, mere matters of course in the
conduct of Parliamentary business? Are such de-
mands as these to be granted the instant they are
made, without any question asked — without one
word said upon the antecedent parts of the novel
and py^^tentous case — without any attempt what-
ever to explain or to defend the maladministration
which has terminated in the necessity of those de-
mands — without even one allusion to the obvious
questions — who caused this disastrous state of
things? — whose fault is it that such powers are be-
come requisite? — whose misconduct caused the re-
bellion to burst forth? — whose neglect of all timely
precautions fostered discontent till it ripened into
disaffection? — whose unpolitic councils first stirred
conduct
to repel
; parcel,
Empire
that we
he pur-
1 settle-
the re-
the free
!cure its
Are re-
ect that
d bere-
k power
e whole
3e in the
uch de-
they are
out one
16 novel
it what-
Lstration
hose de-
obvious
state of
are be-
I the re-
1 timely
led into
; stirred
up that discord — and whose misapplication of the
national resources fanned the disaffection into a
flame? Yet, strange to tell! looking from the be-
ginning to the end of my Noble Friend's statement,
distinct and lucid as it was — to this hour I cannot
descry one explanation offered — one justification
attempted — one position taken or defended with
the design of protecting himself against the charges
which have rung all over the country for weeks,
from one end of it to the other, and all pointed
against him and his colleagues in the service of the
Crown ! But, my Lords, 1 cannot consent so to
abandon my duty, as to pass this matter thus over.
I feel myself bound to enter upon the subject of
these charges at once. I cannot follow the Colonial
Minister in the course which he has found it con-
venient to take of flying away from the real matter in
discussion, or allow him to claim the extraordinary
and unconstitutional powers which he asks, as if
he were discharging some common duty of mere
official routine — moving for yearly returns — laying
sessional papers before the House — or calling for a
vote to supply the yearly expenses of his department
in the ordinary circumstances of tranquil times
T'.ere was, indeed, one remark made by him that
might seem an exception to the account I have
given of his speech. He attempted some defence
against the great and leading accusation of having
sent over the offensive resolutions, and providing no
force to support them. But I shall presently shew
B 2
! I
•H ;
your Lordships that the explanation he gave made his
case much worse, and that he left the charge more
grave and formidable if possible than he found it.
I will now come to the course of his proceedings
at large, and first of all to the interval alluded to
by the Noble Baron opposite (Lord Ellenborough),
when we last met — the period which elapsed be-
tween the dispatch of the 20th of November,
1836, pron^ising instructions to the Governor of
Canada, and the 11th of March, 1837, the date of
the next dispatch. — It is not true, says the Noble
Lord, that near four months elapsed between the
promise and the non-performance (for the dispatch
of March gives no instructions) ; a small interval
only occurred ; a letter was written about the mid-
dle of February, but it was private and cannot re-
gularly be produced or even alluded to, says the
Noble Lord. A shorter production than that of
March — shorter in point of physical dimensions,
for one falling shorter of its purpose there could as-
suredly not be — but mathematically smaller. —
Lord Glenelg. — I beg pardon ; I did not say a
shorter dispatch.
Lord Brougham. — Really, then, I must say, this
is the most extraordinary mode of selecting papers
for the information of the Parliament or the excul-
pation of the Ministers, that in my whole life I ever
heard of. The dispatch of March, which is of no
value whatever, which tells absolutely nothing, is
produced. The dispatch of July, which may be of
5
nadehis
re more
md it.
;eedings
iuded to
)rough),
)sed be-
vember,
ernor of
J date of
le Noble
veeii the
dispatch
interval
the mid-
mnot re-
says the
I that of
lensions,
could as-
ier. —
not say a
; sav, this
g papers
le excul-
ife I ever
i is of no
thing, is
nay be of
i
;
some value, and may tell something, (I cannot know
that it does till I see it), is withheld. Why is it not
here with the other ? My Noble Friend affirms,
that it has something in it ; at any rate that it is
long ; and he is exceeding wroth with me for cur-
tailing it of its fair proportions. Anxious, like a
good parent, for the credit of his offspring, he extols
its size, without however letting his natural par-
tiality carry him the length of asserting that its
value is in proportion to its bulk. Nevertheless, I
will, if he pleases, assume it to be so. I will suppose
that instead of containing nothing, like its prede-
cessor of November and its successor of March, and
indeed, that long train of phantom letters which fol-
lowed each other '* stretching out to the crack of
doom," it really told the Provincial Governor some-
thing of the intentions of the Ministry, something of
ihe course he was to pursue ; — then, I ask, why we
have it not produced, that we too may know what
that something was which was thus conveyed across
the Atlantic at a critical moment a year ago? —
Why are we not to see that which tells something,
and only that which tells nothing at all ? That is
my question; a simple one, and I should think
easily to be answered ; and if my Noble Friend
will give it an answer, I shall readily pause in or-
der to be spared the necessity of dwelling longer on
this point of debate, willing enough, God knows,
where there remain so many others which it is im-
possible to pass over, that I should be spared the
/
1 1
I* !
6
task of dealing with any one which is superfluous.
The mysterious description of this letter, is to me
incomprehensible, as given by my Noble Friend.
It was a private one. But what can that signify ?
Whether a dispatch begins My Lord, or My dear
Lord, and ends with " the Honour to be," — or with
" Your's truly" — I had always thought made no
kind of difference in its nature, provided the matter
of it was public business. The test of production is
the letter relating or not to the affairs on which the
Parliament has been convoked, and the Sovereign
is to be addressed. Nor did I ever yet hear of any
Minister refusing to produce a paper, .whatever its
form might be, which bore that relation, unless
indeed he had his own reasons for suppressing it.
But to refuse it on the pretence of its being private,
and yet to use it as a proof that the promise of No-
vember was fulfilled in February, while the only
papers produced shew that it was never fulfilled at
all, is one of the most extravagant draughts ever
made upon the unsuspecting confidence of Parlia-
ment.
It is on the 20th of November, then, that a pro-
mise of ample instructions is given to the Governor.
The next dispatch produced, is on the 11th of
March ; when, instead of fulfilling the promise,
now four months old, new promises are made, new
hopes of instructions held out, to be realised as soon
as the decision of Parliament shall be pronounced
upon the case. The promissory letter of November,
and the promissory note of February, are as it
were, renewed, but at an uncertain date. When
was the decision of Parliament asked ? As early
as the 6th of March, and after passing some of the
principal resolutions, including indeed the most
material of the whole, that refusing an elective
Council, the Easter recess comes to the relief of the
Colonial Department, and Parliament is adjourned.
But it meets again on the 6th of April, and assur-
edly neither before nor after the vacation does it
testify any great reluctance to comply with the mi-
nisterial desires. From all parts of the country
the Members flock to their support against the
hapless Province which has been denounced. From
all parts of the empire the Parliamentary host as-
sembles. Does there appear in any quarter a dis-
position to be over-nice about the votes given — over
scrupulous as to the principles asserted ? Do any
of the ministerial supporters, of that staunch and
trusty band to whom the Government is indebted for
its majority — betray any squeamishness what mea-
sures they shall sanction — what votes they shall
give ? Is any wish betokened to scrutinize very
narrowly the plans or the propositions of the Cabi-
net before they declare them unexceptionable ? —
On the contrary, so the Ministers leave the con-
cerns of the Sister Kingdom untouched and ad-
minister its more practical affairs to the taste of its
representatives — there is no inclination whatever
evinced to make any kind of difficulty about any
I< i
h
kind of measure — how violent soever, how coercive
soever, — that may be propounded for quelling the
spirit and completing the misgovernment of any
other portion of the whole empire. I confess myself
then quite unable to compi*ehend why all this de-
lay of the necessary orders should be made to turn
upon the affected ignorance of what course Parlia-
ment was likely to take upon Resolutions which
were sure to be carried through the one House by
unexampled majorities — through the other with
scarce a single dissentient voice. Yet still not a word
is wafted across the ocean more substantial for
the guidance of the unhappy Governor, than empty
promises of orders — notices that some instructions
will hereafter be sped towards him. This system,
I own, puzzles me not a little. I can well under-
stand the use of notices where there is to be de-
bate and resistance to your propositions. When a
question is to arise upon what you propose, that
its merits may be discussed, and that its adversa-
ries may be warned to attend the controversy,
I can easily conceive the use of giving them
intimation ; though even then such intimations
as the dispatches give, specifying no time at
all, would be of no great avail. But what sense
can there be in giving your servant a general
notice of orders to be afterwards issued, when all
he has to do must be, not to debate but to obey ?
Does he require notice in order to make up his
mind to comply ? Or is he called upon to consider
in the interval, whether he shall resist or do as he
is bid ? And yet the Noble Lord's dispatches are
stuffed so full of mere notices, that I know of
nothing in this respect at all equal to it unless it
be the order book of the other House of Parliament
on the first day of a session after a General Elec-
tion! The notice however being given and the
promise made in November, in the fulness of time,
at the end of April, comes the expected dispatch ;
a six months' child is brought forth, — it makes a
cry, — struggles for life — and is heard no more. I
defy the wit of man to suggest the purpose of the
November dispatch, or of the March one, which
instead of instruction conveys merely a report of
the divisions in the Commons, as the Newspapers
would have done with equal, and the original docu-
ment, the votes, with greater authority ; but still
less can any one divine the purpose for which the
dispatch of April was called into a premature and
precarious existence ; for instead of redeeming the
oftentimes repeated pledge by letting the Govern-
ment know what he was to do, it merely brings
down the report of the divisions, and adds carefully
the yet more useless information of the lists of the
Members' Names. The Resolutions, says my Noble
Friend, have all been passed, by large majorities,
and I enclose, "for your Lordship's information,
** extracts from the proceedings of the House, con-
" taining a statement of the several divisions which
" have taken place on this subject since I last ad-
J—
;i I
I I!
10
" dresoed you." Then as to the introduction of
the Bill itself, that it seems " must be postponed
" till after the opinion of the House of Lords shall
" have been taken;" about which there seems to
be entertained some doubt, to me, I confess, rather
unintelligible, considering that but one voice was
at all likely to be raised in this place against any
of the Resolutions. But the Noble Lord adds,
*' I have every reason to anticipate that the Bill
" will be submitted to Parliament within a very short
" period," and this was written on the 29th of April.
Then come promises in abundance. " So soon," says
my Noble Friend, '* as the Resolutions shall have
" been disposed of by the House of Lords, I shall
" address to your Lordship full instructions on
" the steps which should be adopted under existing
" circumstances, especially with reference to the
" composition of both the Legislative and Execu-
" tive Councils. Your Lordship may rely on re-
'* ceiving them in ample time, to enable you to
** prepare for the meeting of the Legislature." Did
he rely on receiving them in time ? I know not —
but if he did he was grievously deceived. I shall
presently shew your Lordships that he did not re-
ceive them till long after the Parliament had met
and been prorogued, and I shall demonstrate, that
most fatal effects were produced by these instruc-
tions not arriving. After adverting to the time of
the Colonial Legislature Meeting, and stating that
the Governor was the best judge of thi>-, the dispatch
i'l 1
11
goes on to say : — '* I shall, however, distinctly ad-
" vert to this point in connexion with the other
" matters on which T shall have to address your
" Lordship, and I only refer to it now that you
" may be aware it will not be overlooked.'* Really,
I can hardly admit that this would be the neces-
sary efi'ect on the Governor's mind of such a
reference ; so many things had been so often re-
ferred to, all of which had in succession been en-
tirely overlooked, that I am rather apprehensive,
the reference to this question (which, by the way,
it is admitted Lord Gosford alone could decide),
frustrated its own object, and was fitted to make
him expect that this point of future instruction
would be overlooked like all its predecessors. But
another reason is given for the prospective refe-
rence — " and in order that your own attention
" may be directed to it in the meantime.*' To it ?
*' To what?" exclaims the Governor, "for as yet you
" have told me nothing. How shall I direct my at-
" tention in the mean time, to that of which you
" withhold from me all knowledge ?" The thing
seems incredible, and we must keep the eye steadily
fixed upon the original document lest unbelief get
the mastery of us. "With a view,*' the dispatch
proceeds — for there was a view with which Lord
Gosford was to keep his attention fixed upon an
unknown instruction, to arrive at an uncertain
time, he was to ponder upon the question of the
time of meeting Parliament which he alone could
Hi!
12
solve, directing his attention to the instructions on
that subject, to be oent by those who could form
no judgment u^^jn it, and in utter ignorance of the
purport of those instructions on which he was to
be all the while reflecting. And what think you,
my Lords, was this view with which he was to
attend and reflect? What was the reason why his
attention should be fixed upon nothing, why his
eyes should be directed to glare upon darkness or
vacant space ? " With the view,*' concludes this
unparalleled letter, " to the sound exercise of
" that discretion" — some faint semblance there is
here, the approach, at least, of some definite matter
— but it vanishes instantly like all the rest — " that
" discretion which it may probably be expedient
** to leave in your Lordship's hands, with regard
" to it !" — So the Governor is informed that at
some future, but uncertain time, he shall be told
something of importance which is carefully con-
cealed from him ; the reason, however, is given
for warning him that he may expect it, namely,
that he may be enabled to occupy the awful interval
between reading what tells him nothing, and receiv-
ing what is to tell him he knows not what, in making
up his mind how he shall act in unknown circum-
tances, upon undisclosed instructions, and exercise
"a sound discretion" upon the undiscovered matter,
there being a grave doubt intimated in the same
breath, whether or not any discretion at all may ever
*' be left in hishands." To such orders was Lord Gos-
13
fold's conduct subject ; by such ii^structions was
he to be guided ; in such circumstances, and lead-
ing to such results, was his discretion to be exer-
cised. My Lords, let us in justice towards an
absent man — let us in fairness towards one, who,
because he is absent, is by the common proverb, so
little creditable to human candour, assumed to be in
the wrong — pause fora moment, to consider whether
one so situated and so treatea, even if his conduct
had been the most defective, and had the least
satisfied his superiors, would justly have been
visiied with blame, or at least let us say whether
the blame must not have been largely shared
by his employers ? Mark, 1 beseech you, in what
position he is left. Sent to the advanced posts
of the Empire — at a distance from the seat of
Government — far removed from the wisdom, the
vigour, the resources of those councils which rule
our affairs — unprovided with any but the ordinary
force of the Colony, the force adapted to peaceful
times; and with this inadequate force appointed
to meet a crisis brought on by his employers, a
crisis unparalleled in the affairs of the province
mark, I say, the helpless position of this Noble
person, so unaided by adequate resources, so sur-
roimded by extreme perils, and instead of being
instructed how he is to act, told by those who
first planted him there, then surrounded him
with danger, and at the same time refused him
lielp to meet it, that at a future day he shall be
14
liiil!
i
fii!! '
informed how he is to comport himself; that for
the present he is to know nothing ; and that he
may be making up his mind by guess work how
he shall act when he may be told what he should
do ! But, my Lords ! I say it is not Lord Gosford
only, whose situation you are to mark and to com-
passionate — Look to the provinces committed to
his care ! If you will have dominions in every
clime ; if you will rule subjects by millions on the
opposite sides of this globe ; if you will undertake to
administer a Government that stretches itself over
both hemispheres, and boast an empire on which the
sun never sets — it is well. Whether this desire be
prudent or impolitic for yourselves, I ark not —
whether its fruits be auspicious or baneful to our
own interests — I stop not to inquire ; nor do I raise
the question, whether to the distant millions over
whom you thus assume dominion, this mighty and
remote sceptre be a blJ^ssing or a curse. But of
one thing I am absolutely certain ; at .11 events
this resolution to have so vast an empire imposes
upon you the paramount duty of wakefulness over
its concerns — it prescribes the condition that you
shall be alive to its administration — vigilant at all
times — that you shall not slumber over it, neither
sleep, nor like the sluggard fold the hands to sleep,
as if your orders were issued to a district, each
corner of which the eye could at each moment
command — or a kingdom, the communication with
all parts of which is open every day and every
1 i^:
15
hour, and where all the orders you may issue, are
to be executed in the self-same circumstances in
which they were conceived and were framed.
That is the condition upon which such mighty
empires must be holden — that is the diflficulty which
exists in the tenure ; hard to grapple with — perilous
to be possessed of — not wholesome it may be, either
for the colony or the parent state, should they long
remain knit together — but at all events the con-
dition, sine qua non, of having to administer such
arduous concerns.
But let us, my Lords, resume the history of these
transactions. The Resolutions were introduced and
in part were adopted by the Commons, on the 6th
of March Parliament having reassembled on the
6th of April, they were not brought before your
Lordships, till the 9th of May, when you passed
them with only my dissenting voice. Now both
Lord Gosford and the Parliament had been assured
that the Resolutions should be followed up by im-
mediate action, as indeed the plainest '^'".tates of
all sound policy required, and that the Bill to make
them operative should be introduced without delay.
Was it so ? Was any thing like this done ? No.
Nothing of the kind. Day after day passed ; week
after week glided away ; and up to the middle of
June, when the lamented illness of the Sovereign
ended in a demise of the Crown, no one step had
been taken to convert the resolutions into a leffis-
lative measure. Yet did any man living doubt
16
what the inevitable effect of these resolutions must be?
They were not conciliatory, they were any thing but
conciliatory. They werecoercive, they meant refusal,
they meant repression, or they meant nothing. They
imported a repulsive denial of the Canadian's prayers
—a peremptory negative to his long pressed claims
— an inexorable refusal of his dearly cherished
desires. This might be quite right and necessary.
I don't now argue that question — but at any rate
it was harsh and repulsive. Nor was there the least
accompaniment of kindness, the smallest infusion of
tenderness, tosweeten the cup whichwe commended
to his lips. His anxious wish was for an Elective
Council. This was strongly, unequivocally, uni-
versally expressed. Far from relaxing, the feeling
had grown more intense ; far from losing influence,
it had spread more widely year by year. Instead
of being expressed by majorities in the Assembly*
of two to one, of the people there represented, after
the last dissolution that had increased in the pro-
portion of fourteen to one, the representatives of
477,000 against those of 34,000 only. Never let
this fact for an instant pass from the recollection
of your Lordships — it lies at the root of the whole
argument, and should govern our judgment on
everj?^ part of the case. It is a fact, which cannot
be denied, and it indicates a posture of affairs
which all attempts to change must be vain. How
were the resolutions formed to meet this state of
'tiii^f
!'<'),« \ o -- >- .1 (?«> ■( I ) (,a j^ f.' *': t*ii !
17
':v*i5i
the public mind ? IIow did the Parliameni, the
Reformed Parliament of England, meet the all
but unanimous prayer of the Canadian people ?
By an unanimous vote of this House, by a majority
in the other, nearly as great as that which in the
Provincial Parliament supported the improvement
so anxiously solicited, the people of Canad? were
told that they had no hope, and that from the
Parent State they never would obtain the dearest
object of all their wishes. But was there on the
other hand no tenderness displayed to soften the
harshness of the refusal — no boon offered to mi-
tigate the harsh, the repulsive, the vexatious act of
turning to their prayers a deaf ear, and putting an
extinguisher on all their hopes ? There was. You
had given them in 1831 the power of the purse ; had
told them that they should no longer have to com-
plain of possessing the British Constitution in name,
while in substance they had it not ; had " kindly and
cordially," such were your words, conferred on them
a privilege that should place them on the self-same
footing with the British Parliament, secure to them
the substantial power of granting, postponing, or
refusing supplies, instead of the mere shadow of a
free Constitution, which they had before been
mocked with. You had told them that in fu-
ture the means were their's of protecting their rights
from encroachment ; that they could thenceforth
enforce their claims of right ; that they could
insist upon redress of their grievances by with-
c
v\
; 11':!
ill:
>^«£< '!
18
holding supplies, while the redress was refused.
But what do you offer them in 1837, by way of
sweetening the bitter refusal of their prayer for an
Elective Council ? You absolutely mingle with this
nauseous potion, not a repeal of the act of 1831,
but a declaration that for using its provisions — for
exercising the option it gave of refusing supplies —
for employing the powers it conferred, in the very
way in which you intended, or at least professed
to intend they should be employed, to enforce a
redress of grievances, — you would set the act and
allits provisions at nought, appropriate their mojey
without their consent, and seize their chest by main
force, in spite of their teeth, because they had done
what you took credit six years ago for giving them
the right to do — withheld their money until they had
obtained redress ! Such were the Resolutions ;
such their import and intention. I am not now ar-
guing their merits. I am not about proving their
monstrous cruelty — their outrageous injustice. But
I ask if any human being ever existed in this whole
world moon-stricken to the excess of doubting for
one instant of time, what must be the effect of their
arrival in Canada ? Some there may be who viewed
them with a more favourable eye than others ; some
who deemed them justifiable, some even necessary ;
while others abhorredthem as tyrannical and without
the shadow of justification ; some again might ap-
prehend a more instantaneous revolt to be risked
by them than others dreaded, and some might differ
! m
Kvm»m
19
as to the extent and the efficacy of |;hat commotion ;
but where was the man of any class, whether among;
the authors of the Resolutions, and their supporters,
or their enemies, or the by standers, among those of
liberal principles who were struck with dismay at
the shame in which their leaders were wrapt, or
among those of opposite opinions who exulted to
see the liberal cause disgraced and ruined — where,
I demand, among them all was the man endued with
understanding enough to make his opinion worth
the trouble of asking for it, who ever doubted that
the arrival of these detested Resolutions in Canada
must be the signal of revolt, at least the immediate
cause of wide-spreading discontent and disaffection
throughout the Province ? The event speedily jus-
tified this universal apprehension. I might ap-
peal to the ordinary channels of information ; to
the public papers of America as well as of Canada ;
to what formed the topic of conversation in every
political circle, both of the Old world and the New ;
but I will only refer you to these papers, meagre
and imperfect as they are ; for they contain abun-
dant proofs of the fact which I state ; and in the
face of these disclosures, reluctant and scanty
though they be, I will defy my Noble Friends to
gainsay the statement I have made. I may here
observe, that as several of the dispatches give so little
information that they might without any detriment
to the question have been withheld, so some have
manifestly been kept back, of which the Government
c 2 •
so
are unquestionably possessed, and which would
throw light upon this part of the subject ; although
those produced give us plain indications what has
been suppressed. Thus the dispatches of the 2d, 8th,
and 9th of September shew to an attentive reader,
as strikingly as anything in the late deplorable Ga-
zettes themselves, the progress of that discontent
which has been suffered to break out into rebellion.
In the first, Lord Gosford states that he thinks it
may become necessary to suspend the Constitution
— not an indication, surely, of things being in a
satisfactory or a tranquil state. In the last of the
three letters, he says, " up to this day (not at once,
" but in a course of time) he has been obliged to dis-
" miss fifty-three Magistrates and public officers ;"
and for what ? The Magistrates for attending un-
lawful meetings, and the oflBcers for seditious prac-
tices. What state of things does this betoken?
And how plainly does it shew that the evil was not
of yesterday ? Manifestly the dismissals had been
going on for a time, and notice of them had been
communicated to the Government at home ; but
how happens it that no other intimation is given of
so p^rave a matter except in this one dispatch ? Then
in the letter of the 8th September, Lord Gosford de-
scribes a Central Committee as having been formed
by the disaffected, from which orders were issued to
what he calls ** ^Ae Local Committees." The Local
Committees ! Yet we find no mention whatever
of any Local Committees in any of the other letters
21
.»>
produced for our information ! The use of the
definite article plainly shews that the Governor
had in some previous dispatch described those
bodies to which he here refers without any descrip-
tion. When in the same sentence, he speaks of the
Central Committee — evidently for the first time —
he calls it " a Central Committee," and explains
its nature. Clearly, then, there has been received
some other letter, whether long or short, private
and informal, or regular and official, informing
the CJovernment of the ominous circumstance, here
only alluded to as already well known, of Local
Committees having been established throughout
the Province. But that other letter is kept back.
The information which the supposed dispatch would
disclose is not new to me, and it is of deep import-
ance. It points at an organized system of insurrec-
tion, and it traces the system to the arrival of the
Resolutions in Canada. In each parish. Parochial
Committees were formed ; in each district. District
Committees ; and these local bodies were under the
orders of the Central Committee. But a judicial
system was also established ; In each place there
were appointed arbitrators, called amiables composi-
teurSf or pacificators, to whom it was required that
all having suits should resort, and not to the King's
Courts of justice ; or if any party preferred the
latter, he was visited by some one who warned him
that the Patriots had passed resolutions against
suing in the Courts of the State ; his cattle were
2'2
marked in the night if he persevered ; and a fur-
ther contumacy towards the courts of the arbitra-
tors was visited with the maiming of his beasts the
night after. This system was established and in
operation as early as the beginning of September.
But there are some plans which cannot be the
work of a day, and of these a judicial establishment
like this is surely one. We may safely calculate
that months had elapsed before the things stated
respecting it in these papers could exist. But I
know that the plan was not confined to such Com-
mittees of Government, and such irregular tribu-
nals. Men were raised, as was said, for the pur-
poses of police ; as, I believe, to be ready for resist-
ing the Government. The pretext was the removal
of so many Magistrates from the commission of the
peace. So that we have here all the great functions
of Government usurped by the disaffected ; — execu-
tive administration provided, judicial tribunals form-
ed, and a military force levied ; — and all usurped
under the very eye of the Government. Why do I
ascribe all these frightful results to the Resolutions ?
My reason is plain — it is in these dispatches.
Lord Gosford himself tells you what their effect
was, particularly that of the eighth, respecting
the money ; they who were most attached to the
Government, who most reprobated the proceedings
of the Patriots, who least favoured the French party,
were loud in their disapprobation of that eighth
Resolution. I do not marvel at this, my Lords;
23
to me it is no surprise at all ; I expected it. I
contended against the Resolutions ; I protested
against them; I earnestly, though humbly, be-
sought you not to plunge the country into that
civil contention which I saw was inevitable the
moment that eighth Resolution should pass. To
injury of the deepest character, it added what is
worse than all injury, mockery and insult. To
tell men that you gave them the British Constitu-
tion, and to brag of your bounty in giving it ; — to
tell them that they no longer had it in form, but
that now you generously bestowed on them the
substance ; — to tell them that they now pos-
sessed the same control over the executive Govern-
ment which we in England have, and which is the
corner-stone of our free Constitution ; — to tell them
that you gave them the power of stopping supplies,
for the purpose of arming them with the means of
protecting their rights from the encroachments of
tyranny, and of obtaining a redress of all griev-
ances ; — bragging of your liberality in thus ena-
bling them to seek and to get, by these means, that
redress ; — and then, the very first time they use
the power so given, for the very purpose for which
you gave it, to leave them nominally in possession
of it, to pass by iL to disregard it, to act as if you
never had given it at all, and to seize hold of the
money, to send a file of soldiers and pillage the
chest of that fund which you. pretended you had
given them, and them alone, the absolute power over
I \
24
— this Burely is a mockery and an insult, in the
outrageous nature of which, the injury itself offered
merges and is lost. But I am not now arguing the
merits of these ill fated proceedings. Let them have
been ever so justifiable, I have nothing to say
against them. They were adopted by the wisdom
of Parliament, and it is too late to discuss — it is
unavailing to lament it ; but this at least we may say,
that when such a course as this was taken, known
before hand to the Government, to its advisers who
could not be taken unprepared by it — who had
been deliberating on it from the 20th November,
1836, to the unknown date of the suppressed dis-
patch in July, and thence to that of the next
not very instructive but at least forthcoming
dispatch of April 29 — the Ministers were aware
of the measure they had conceived, — they knew
its tendency, — they must have made up their
mind to its effects, — they had resolved to inflict
the grievous injury and offer the intolerable insult
yet worse than the injury. Was there ever yet im-
becility — was there ever confusion or want of ideas
— ever yet inexplicable policy, (if I might prostitute
such a name to such a bavsc nse,) — was ever there
seen in the history of human blunders and incapacity
anything to match this of wronging and mocking
and insulting, and yet taking no one step by way of
precaution against the inevitable effect of the outrage
offered, and to prevent the disaffection into which
you were goading them from bursting out into
25
revolt, and the revolt from proving successful ?
The Canadian People are told — You shall be de-
feated, and oppressed, and scorned, and insulted,
and goaded to resent, but care shall all the ^hile
be taken that nothing is done to prevent the irrita-
tion we are causing from bringing on rebellion, and
should rebellion perad venture ensue, no means shall
be used to prevent the sheddingof blood, — to protect
the loyal and restrain the insurgent. My Lords, there
have been before now at various times, men inclined
to play a tyrant's part ; to oppress the unoffending,
to trample upon the liberties of mankind ; men who
had made up their minds to outrage the feelings
of human nature for some foul purpose of their own,
aggravating the wrongs they did, and exasperating
the hatred they deliberately excited by insults yet
more hard to be borne. These courses have had
different fortunes, — sometimes the oppressor has
prevailed, — sometimes he has been withstood, and
punished by the people. But I will venture to
assert that this is the first time such a course ever
was pursued without some foresight, some precau-
tion to enforce the policy resolved on, — some means
provided to preclude resistance, and at least to
guard against its effects. Tyranny and oppression has
here appeared stript of its instinctive apprehension
and habitual circumspection. Compared with the
conduct which we are now called to contemplate,
the most vacillating and imbecile, the most incon-
sistent and impotent rulers, rise into some station
26
p
1 1
1'-!' ^ .
I :
M
commanding respect ; — King John, or Richard
Cromwell himself r ?s into a wise, a politic and a
vigorous prince
But it is said that there were various reasons
why these Resolutions should not be accompanied
with an effective force. And first, because the event
has shewn that there were troops enough already in
the Colony to quell the revolt. I hope it is already
put down — I do not know that it is ; but assume
it to be so, does not my Noble Friend see how
much this proves? The defence, if it means any
thing means this —that the ordinary peace-esta-
blishment of Canada is quite large enough to meet
the most extraordinary emergencies that ever yet
happened in its whole history. How then will he
meet these oeconomists of our resources — those who
are so niggardly and frugal of the public money,
and justly complain of every pound noedlessly spent
and avery man not absolutely required for the de-
fence of the provinces ? Because if it turns out that
you had in times of profound peace so large a force
in the Colony, as was enough to meet a most unex-
pected crisis and to cope successful'/ with a civil
war, how is the question to be answered, — " Why
** an army should be wanted in peace, equal to the
*' establishment which a war requires ?" Had
such a question been put on any other occasion than
the present, J well know the answer it would have
received, because I have heard it again and again
11^
1 M
1
27
both while in office and while out of office. The
answer would assuredly have been : We keep only
just force enough to meet the ordinary demands of
tranquil times Yet according to the extraordinary
defence set up this night, there never are fewer
troops maintained in Canada, than are sufficient to
meet demands of the most unexpected kind. There
may a civil war an^ moment break out, and the
Government mayoccasion and may quellan universal
insurrection, wrthout despatching an additionaal
man or gun thither. The establishment is so happily
constituted as not to be too great for peace, and also
not too little for war. But a second argument has
been used more startling still. My Noble Friend
tells you that to send more men over would have
had a very bad effect, because it would be admitting
the Resolutions were wrong, and shewing we anti-
cip&i-ed a resistance. Why, my Lords, is it not better
to anticipate a resistance, and thereby prevent it
than to do nothing and be surprised by one ? Which
is the worst and moqt dangerous course, to be over
cautious, or too supine ? Is not the reality of a success-
ful rvvolt infinitely more hurtful than the appear-
ance of dreading one which may never break out ?
Is not a revolt far more likely to happen, and if it
happen to succeed, if you omit the ordinary and
natural precautions ? And suppose these prevent its
happening, what the worse are you for having it said,
and said unjustly too, that you were apprehensive
without cause? But then a third defence is
28
n
njiii
i
attempted. Sending troops, says my Noble Friend,
would have been paying a bad compliment to the
loyal zeal of the Canadians ; it would have been
treating them as if we could not sufficiently rely on
them alone. Now I should not much wonder if these
peaceable inhabitants of the province, however loyal,
and however devoted, were to say, when they found
themselves, through this extreme delicacy, exposed
unprotected to civil war, " A truce with your com-
pliments; send us some troops. Don't laud our
zeal and loyalty at the expense of our security.
Don't punish us for our good qualities. Give us
less praise and more protection. Never heed
the imputation you may expose us to by sending
out effectual succour to those who are not military
men, so that you only secure the settlement against
the worst of calamities, the flames of civil war,
and should they break out, their laying waste our
province." Surely, my Lords, those peaceful and
loyal subjects of the Crown are sorely aggrieved
when you tell them that their settlement may be
involved in agitation and torn by civil broils, but
that still no protecting hand shall be stretched forth
to stay their ruin, — that you abandon your duty
towards them — the duty of protection which alone
gives you a title to the reciprocal duty of allegiance
— and -iS surely they are mocked beside being ag-
grieved when in excuse for thus deserting your
duty towards them, they are told that were you to
discharge it, * you might appear to doubt their
loyalty and their zeal. My Lords, this is not, it
cannot be a real defence ; it is an after thought.
I am sorry to say that I cannot bring myself to
regard it as sincere, and but for the respect I owe
my Noble Friend I could not bring myself to regard
it as an honest defence. If any man had asked
him six months ago, before the event, why no
troops had been sent to back the odious Resolutions
and render resistance hopeless, he might have given
various answers to a very pertinent question. I
cannot indeed easily divine what he would have
urged in explanation ; but of one thing I am quite
certain — I can tell at once what he would not have
urged — he never would have uttered a word about
the dispatch of troops indicating a distrust of Cana-
dian loyalty or a condemnation of the eighth Resolu-
tion. All this is a mere ingenious expedient re-
sorted to after the event, and it is not, permit me
to say, characterised by the accustomed candour,
fairncbs, and ingenuousness of the Noble Lord.
Well, then, thus matters went on, and thus to the
very last with admirable consistency. No instruc-
'iong, either as to the Legislative or Executive
Jouncil reached Canada before the Parliament of the
Province met, although it had been distinctly pro-
mised that tliey should arrive before the meeting, as
indeed after it they could serve no kind of pur-
pose. Nay, the Parliament had met and been pro-
rogued before they were even dispatched from
Downing Street. I am aware indeed of the dis-
HSI
m
u
m
\f
patches which bear the date of July 14, a day
remarkable in the calendar of the Colonial Office
for unwonted activity — no less than four of these
dispatches^being all dated upon that singular day —
and I know that one of these appears to contain u
good deal about the constitution of the Legislative
Council, but when you examine it you find nothing
more than a long, a very long extract from the
report of the Commissioners — so long as to require
an apology in my Noble Friend's letter for the
length of th( > notation. It seems that on this mat-
ter the three . tmissioners had agreed. Their
general course ot proceeding had been to differ
upon every thing — so that each reason assigned by
the one found a satisfactory refutation in the argu-
ments urged by his able and ingenious colleagues.
Nevertheless they had an odd manner of often
coming to the same conclusion, not only by diffe-
rent roads, but by travelling in diametrically oppo-
site directions, as if to reach York they took not the
Hull road or the Grantham road, but the road by
Exeter or by Brighton. However, in this paper they
had for a wonder all agreed ; therefore my Noble
Friend catches at it, and for the edification of the
Governor, sends him nearly the whole of it in the
form of a dispatch without adding one word of
advice or information as to how the Governor should
proceed in carrying the propositions into effect, or
constructing his council — the whole practical mat-
ter being what men he should put upon it. The
m
|v
31
Noble Governor was now surrounded by disaffec-
tion, and sitting upon the collected materials of an
explosion ; he was ruling a province on the brink
of civil war, and without supplies of force, or a
word of information or advice from home. So my
Noble Friend sends him a long quotation from the
report of the Commissioners, a precaution the less
p-^cessary that the Noble Lord himself, being one
of those Commissioners, had himself signed that
report, and might, one should suppose, very pos-
sibly be possessed of some knowledge of its contents.
Nay, it was barely possible that he might have a
copy of the document at large. So careful however
was the Noble Secretary of State, that he thought it
better to send him a part of it, as he was pretty
certainly already in possession of the whole. Nothing
more is done till August 22, when at length a dis-
patch is forwarded, with full instructions as to the
composition of the Council. The dispatches before
sent had contained only a very partial and entirely
provisional power of appointment. But the differ-
ence between the two dates is in fact quite imma-
terial ; for if all that was sent in August, had been
sent in July, it was too late — the Parliament met
on the 18th of August, and unless the powers had
arrived before that day, they were absolutely useless ;
not to mention that a proclamation issued in June
shews the Colony to have been then on the verge of
rebellion. The Provincial Parliament met — nothing
but the Resolutions was laid before them — nothing
but refusal and coercion, disappointment and mock-
32
1 1' " 1
1 1
i :l
ery, were tendered to them, without a single proposi-
tion to soften the harshness of the refusal, or mitigate
the bitterness of the insult. The Provinces were
now arrayed in opposition, and preparing resistance
to the Government, — an extensive system of com-
bination was established, — civil, judicial, and mi-
litary powers were exercised by the patriots. It
was now too late to soothe, by the appointment
of Councillors, whose names, a few weeks earlier,
might have given confidence to the people, and
paved the way for a restoration of kindly feelings
towards the Government ; they had already gotten
the Local Committees, — their central body — their
amiables compositeurs^ their police-bands. — On the
one hand, hope had been held out never to be
realised — promises made only to be broken. On
the other baud, resolutions of coercion had been
passed amounting to hateful threats, to be followed
immediately by Bills, but these were never so much
as proposed to Parliament. The insurrection breaks
out — blood is spilt — the province is involved in
rebellion and in war — still no legislative measures
are ever framed upon the Resolutions. Parliament
assembles weeks after the most important informa-
tion has come from the Colony, — still not a word is
said of any thing but the NewCi^il List; and instead^
of the often promised Bill to carry the Resolutions
of April and May into effect, an entirely new Bill
is announced, upon a wholly different plan, and to
meet the completely cltered state of affairs.
Now, then, I ask the reason why the measures
33
was delayed, after being distinctly promised in
April ? The Government are aware that this ques-
tion must be answered, and I find several reasons
assigned in these papers. — The first is given in one
of the four dispatches of July 14. "Much as the
* Government have always lamented the necessity
* of adopting such a measure under any circum-
* stances, they would, at the present moment, feel
* a peculiar reluctance in resorting to it, as they
* would deeply regret that one of the first legisla-
' tive acts of her Most Gracious Majesty's reign,
* should carry even the semblance of an ungracious
' spirit towards the representatives of her loyal and
* faithful subjects in that province." If, then, even
' the semblance of an ungracious spirit towards
' the loyal and faithful subjects," is so " deeply re-
gretted*' by my Noble Friend, what thinks he of the
reality of an audacious spirit of resistance to the
Sovereign herself ? Does he not consider that it
would have been quite as well to avoid such empty,
unmeaning compliments to his Sovereign, and dis-
charge the imperative duty cast upon him, of
maintaining her authority and protecting her loyal
people ? Would it not have been full as respect-
ful a course, and to his Royal Mistress just as
•grateful, if instead of such tawdry and clumsy figures
of speech, he had given her the opportunity of
maintaining the peace of her dominions, by pur-
suing the course begun under her illustrious pre-
decessor ? My Noble Friend speaks of " deep re-
D
34
n
gfet," — was it then a subject of much satisfac-
tion to him that weakness and indecision, delay
and inaction, should lead from dissatisfaction to re-
volt, and end in shedding the blood of the people?
Are these things no matter of regret, when deep
regret is expressed at merely continuing in the new
reign, the measures resolved upon towards the end
of the old? The rose leaves on the Royal couch of the
Young Queen, must not, it seems, be ruffled by the
discharge of painful, though necessary duties. — But
then was the death-bed of the aged Monarch to be
studded with thorns? If the mind of the successor
must not be disturbed with the more painful cares
of royalty, was the dying Prince to have his last
moments harassed and vexed by measures of a
severe and iiarsh aspect? Such I presume is the rea-
son assigned for nothing having been done after
the resolutions were passed in the beginning of
May. My Lords, this is a delicate — a perilous
argument. We are here treading slippery ground
— we are dealing with very high matters. I affirm
that I speak the language of the Constitution when
I absolutely refuse my ear to all such reasons.
They are resorted to for the defence of the Minis-
ters at the expense of the Monarchy. I know no-
thing of the last hours of one reign — or the dawn
of another — nothing in the change of Sovereigns
which can lessen the responsibility of their servants,
or excuse them from performing their duty to the
Crown, be it of a stern and harsh nature, or be it
)US
)n8.
lis-
Ino-
iwn
jns
Ints,
the
>eit
35
gentle and kind. Beware, I say, how you give any
countenance, aye, or any quarter to topics of de-
fence like these. They are so many arguments
against a Monarchical Constitution, and in favour of
some other form of Government. This is no dis-
course of mine. It is not I who am to blame for
broaching this matter. You are they (to the Minis-
ters) — you are they who have forced it into debate
—and this dispatch — this dispatch is the text
upon which, trust me, commentators will not be
wanting! / ,
But, my Lords, these were not the reasons of
all the vacillation and all the delay. The real
reason oozes out a few pages later in the book before
me. I have been reading from the dispatch of
June 29; turn now to one a fortnight later, and
you find that a resolution had all at once been
taken to give up the eighth Resolution, and ask
money from Parliament here, for the Canadian
service, instead of despoiling the chest at
Quebec. This abandonment of the eighth Resolu-
tion as to all fruits to be derived from it, is indeed
unaccompanied with any benefit whatever from the
surrender — the announcement of the policy, harsh
and insulting, is to continue; only its enlbrce-
ment is given up, and the people of England are
as usual to pay the money. But see with wl?a^
a magnanimous accompaniment this abandonment
.-r-this shifting of the ground is ushered in. We are
now in full vigour; and we cannot boast top loudly
D 2
'i'i
36
It:
f
of it, while in the very act of performing the
crowning feat of impotency. " The time (says this
" very dispatch) has passed away in which it was
*' right to pause and deliberate." Some hopes in-
deed seem yet to have been entertained of amicable
adjustment — it is difficult to see why — nor indeed
does the Noble Secretary of State see — fo. he candidly
says, " hopes, resting as I must confess on no very
" definite ground ;" yet he adds, " I cannot altogether
" despair that the Assembly — or some considerable
" portion of it, will abandon their course." — I sup-
pose because there was nothing whatever to make
them think of doing any such thing. — My Noble
Friend, howe^- r, in the act of abandoning his
course, — a course which he declares was " entered
on by him, upon no light or ordinary motives" —
adds, " To retreat from such a course would be in-
" consistent with our most deliberate sense of public
" duty." " Deprecating, therefore, (he proceeds)
** every appearance of vacillation where no doubt
" really exists" — and so forth. Then did he flatter
himself, that when the appearance of vacillation was-
so much to be deprecated, its reality would work no
harm to the public service? Did he not perceive
that all he here so powerfully urges against inaction
and hesitation, and oscitancy, and faltering, were
triumphant arguments in favour of that line of
conduct which he never once pursued ? This dis-
patch full of reasons against vacillation, affords
the most marvellous sample of it, which is to. be
37
found in the whole train of his proceedings. The
Resolutions were passed almost unanimously — it was
resolved to take the money of the good people of
Canada — it was affirmed that there must be no
pause — no doubt — no vacillation — and the new
determination prefaced by this announcement, is
that the former Resolutions about which no man
(say they) can now have any doubt, shall be given
to the winds, and the money taken from the pockets
of the good people of England ! * ' "
It would indeed seem thatjust about thistime, some
wonderful change had come over the minds of the
Ministers, depriving them of their memory, and lull-
ing even their senses to repose— -that something had
happened, which cast them into a sweet slumber — a
deep trance — such as physicians tell us, not only
suspends all recollection of the past, but makes men
impervious to the impressions from surrounding
objects through the senses. Could this have arisen
from the deep grief into which my Noble Friend and
his colleagues were known to have been plunged
by the decease of their kind and generous Master?
No doubt that feeling must have had its day — or
its hour — but it passed swiftly away — it is not in
the nature of grief to endure for ever. Then how
came it to pass that the trance continued? Was it
that the demise of one Monarch is necessarily fol-
lowed by the accession of another ? Oh — doubt-
less its pleasing endurance must have been caused
by the elevation of their late gracious Master's illus-
m
I iL
38
tri(>us successor, prolonging the suspension of
the faculties which grief had brought on — but
changing it into that state, inexpressibly delicious^
which was suited to tlie circumstances, so in-
teresting, of the new reign. Or coiild it be,
that the Whig party, having for near a hundred
years beeh excluded from the banquet of Royal
favour, had now silten down to the rich repast with
ah ajjpetite, the growth of a century's fast, and
were unable to divert their attention from so
pleasurable and unusual an enjoyment, to mere vul-
gar matters of public duty, and bring their facul-
ties, steeped in novel delight, to bear upon points
"so distant as Canada — affairs so tfival as the tran-
quillity of the most important Province of the
ClPown, and the peace of this country — possibly of
the world ? All these inconsiderable interests be-
ing in jeopardy, were they insufficient to awaken
our rulers from their luxurious stupor ? I knoW
not — I put the query — I suggest the doubt— I am
unable to solve it — I may, for aught I know, have
hit upon the Sv/lution ; but of this I am sure, that
to some Such solution one is unavoidably led by
the passage of the dispatch which refers to the de-
'ihise and accession as the cause of the general
iand absolu'te inaction whicih at that critical mo-
ment prevailed. But another event was in pro-
spect, the harbinger of almost as much joy as the
prospects of the new reign— 1 mean the prospect of
a rteV Parliament. The dispatch gives the ap-
39
preaching dissolution as one reason for the con-
duct, or rather the inaction of the Government —
and I sincerely believe most truly — for as surely as
an accession follows a dissolution of the Prince, so
surely does an election follow a dissolution of l^is
Parliament. It is not that there was any thing like
a justification of the Bill not being introduced,
in the approaching dissolution ; fo^; there was
abundance of time to pass it between the beginning
of May and the end of July, when Parliament
was dissolved. It could not have been much de-
layed in the other House, where such unprece-
dented majorities had concurred in passing all the
Resolutions ; and in this House, my Noble Friend
(Lord Melbourne) knows he can do as he likes — I
mean when he is doing wrong— JIM sejactet in Aula,
and he is little opposed here. I am far from say-
ing your Lordships would so readily let him do
any thing to advance the interests of the people,
or extend their rights ; but only let him invade
their liberties, and he is sure to find you every way
indulgent ; such is your partiality for a bold and
decided policy ; so great your inclination to sup-
port what are termed vigorous measures ! It is
not, therefore, with the dissolution that I can con-
nect the laches of the Government in the way in
which they urge it as a defence. But they were
impatient to get rid of the old Parliament, that
they might be electing a new one, and all their at-
tention was absorbed in their election schei^s.
■/■
40.
Their hopes were high , they ri;ckoned upoi^ gai;:-
ing largely, and little dreamt that upon their ap-
peal to the People, instead of gaining fifty, they
should lose fifteen. Those " hopes too fondly
nursed/' ^ere afterwards "too rudely crossed ;*'
but at the ti^ne they filled their whole soul, and
precluded all attention or care for other matters —
whether justice to Canada, or justice to England.
What passed in this House, to the serious interrup-
tio)i of our judicial functions, may be taken as a
proof how little chance any Colonial affairs had of
commanding a moment's regard, or delaying for
a day the much-wished-for General Election. The
report had been made to head-quarters by the pro-
per officers — those whose duty it is to preside over
the gathering of the Commons — to take care that
thera shall be a House when it is wanted — or that
there shall be none when that is expedient ; and
above all, whose department is to arrange the timea
and seasons' of elections. The result was, that the
interests of the Ministry were understood to require
that certain writs should issue on the Monday; and
that on no account whatever the Parliament should
be allowed to exist another day. In the general joy
of the usw reign and the sanguine hopes from the
new Parliament, my Noble Friend on the Woolsack,
(Lord Cottenham) seemed himself to be a par-
taker. He betrayed signs of hilarity unwonted : I
saw him, I can undertake to say, smile twice at that
critical period, and 1 have heard it said, that the
\\
ft
V\
\
, ;
-y
41'
same symptom was observed on one other occa-
sion ; but that of course passed away. We were
engaged in a most important cause — a question of
law — long the subject of dispute in Westminster
Hall, and on which the different Courts there
had widely disagreed. It had come at length
before this House for decision in the last resort,
and after being fully argued, the learned Judges,
whose assistance your Lordships had, still differing
in opinion, had delivered their urguments seriatim.
It was for the House to determine, and set the con-
troverted point at rest for ever by a solemn decision ;
and accordingly, on the Saturday, my Noble and
Learned Friend had begun by moving an affirmance
of the judgment below ; and by a natural mis-
take (the point being one wholly of Common Law)
he had given a reason rather for reveriing than
affirming, by citing the case that made against his
argument. At this identical moment there was
observed to approach him from behind a form not
r.nknown »;o the House, though to the law unknown,
the Lord Privy Seal, robed as a Peer of Parliament,
and interrupting the judge in delivering his judg-
ment, to suggest what immediately put an end to my
Noble and Learned Friend's argument. There could
be no doubt of the purport of that communication ; —
the hour of four had arrived, and then, if at all, must
the Commons be summoned to hear the Com-
mission read. The Privy Seal had warned the Great
Seal that if the judgment were given — if the reasons
/
V\
I \
in its favour were assigned, only the ones against it
having been stated — the Parliament could not be
dissolved on Monday ; and thus the grave interests
of the elections might be sacrificed to the mere
administration of justice. The judgment being
thus prematurely closed, and the argument left
against, and not for, the decision recommended by
the Speaker of your Lordships' House, the commis-
sion was executed, and some score or two of Bills
were passed. The judicial business was then re-
sumed. Your Lordships differed in opinion. The
Lord Chief Justice took a view opposite to that of
the Lord Chancellor. It was my fortune to agree
with the latter ; and after considerable argument
the judgment was affirmed, not for the reason
which he had given in favour of it, but in spite of
the reason which he had urged against it. But
this was not all : I and other Noble Lords were
most anxious to have the dissolution postponed o»e
day longer, in order to dispose of several impor-
tant causes which had been fully heard at heavy
expense to the parties, and to prevent the risk of
ijhe whole expense being renewed in case those
who had heard them should die before next
session, or be unable to avtend the judicial business
of the House. We earnestly besought the Govern-
ment to grant this postponement for so impor-
tant a purpose, as well as to prevent the vexa-
tion to the parties of increased and most needless
delay ; — to the Court, the serious inconvenience of
/
^avy
of
lose
lext
less
;m-
)or-
;xa-
lless
of
43
deciding a year after the argument had been heard.
But we prayed in vain ; they would hear of no-
thing but dissolving and electing — ^would attend to
nothing else — would allow nothing to interpose be-
tween them and theit favourite electioneering pur-
suits ; and the reports of your Lordships' judicial
proceedings besir testimony to the haste with which,
to attain tliose electioneering objects, the session
was closed, and the administratior. of justice in the
last resort interrupted. Well> therefore, might the
Noble Lord's dispatch of the 14th July, assign the
approaching dissolution of Parliament as a principal
reason why Canada could not be attended to.
Although not in the sense of that dispatch, or as
any thing like an excuse for his conduct, assuredly
the dissolution and its consequences had much to
do with that r eglect of duty. It called away the
tninds of men to nearer and dearer objects ; fixed
their attention upon things that fai more nearly
touched theni' — 'things that came home to their
bdsiness and bosoms ;— the preparations for the ap-
proaching elections ; and the affairs of the remote
Province, which had at no time engrossed too much
of their cjxre, were thought of no more.
Thus, then, my Lords, all is uniform and consist-
ent in these transactions : all is in keeping in the pic-
ture w'hich these papers preseiit to the eye. A
scene is certainly unfolded not much calculated to
raise in our estimaition the capacity, the firmness, the
vigour, or the statesmanlike habits of those distin-
/
^1
guished persons to whose hands has been commit-
ted the administration of our affairs. I do not by
any means intend to assert that the great qualities
of public life may not be discovered in these pro-
ceedings. I should be far from saying that both
deliberation and dispatch may not be traced in
their conduct ; — deliberation amounting even to
balancing, and pausing, and delay ; — dispatch run-
ning into rapidity, precipitancy, hurry. You meet
with the unhesitating haste, and with the mature
reflection ; the consulto and the matura facto are
both there. But then they are at the wrong time
and in the false position : the rapidity presides over
the deliberative part — the deliberation is applied to
the executive. The head is at fever heat ; the
hand is paralyzed. There is no lack of quickness
but it is in adopting plans fitted to throw the coun-
try into a flame ; no lack of delay, at the mo-
ment when those schemes are to be carried into
execution. They rush unheeding, unhesitating,
unreflecting into resolutions, upcm which the wisest
and readiest of mankind could hardly pause and
ponder too long. But when all is determined —
when every moment's delay is fraught with peril —
then comes the uncertainty and irresolution. They
never pause until the season has arrived for action,
and when all faltering, even for the twinkling of an
eye, is fatal, then it is that they relapse into supine-
iiess and inaction ; look around them, and behind
them, and every where but before them ; ; ud sink
45
into repose, as if all had been accomplished, at the
moment when every thing remains to be done. If
I were to ransack all the records to which I have
ever had access of human conduct in administering
great affairs, whether in the annals of our own times
or in the ages that are past, I should in vain look
for a more striking illustration of the Swedish Chan-
cellor's famous saying to his son, as he was depart-
ing to assist at the congress of statesmen, " / fili mi
** ut videos quantuld sapientid regatur mundus / " ,
My Lords, I cannot sit down without expressing
tlso my opinion upon the conduct of the other party
in this disastrous struggle. Both here and else-
where still more, invectives have been lavished with
unsparing hand upon those whon the proceedings
of the Government first drove to disaffection, and
afterwards, by neglect, encouraged to revolt. I
will not stoop to protect myself from a charge of
being prone to vindicate, still less encourage men
in their resistance to the law, and their breach of
the public peace. But while we thus speak of their
crimes and give vent to the angry feelings that
these have ^excited among us, surely it becomes us
to reflect that we are blaming men who are not pre-
sent to defend themselves — condemning men who
have no person here to say one word in explanation,
orpalliation of their conduct — andthatwhilewehave
before us their adversaries in this country, and the
whol^ statements of their adversaries in the Colony,
from themselves we have not one single word
46
spoken or written to assist us in forming our judg-
ment, or to stay our sentence against them. To
any fair and candid, not to say generous nature,
I am sure I need not add another word for the pur-
pose of showing how strong is their claims to all
forbearance, to every allowance which it is possible
for charity to make in scanning their conduct, TJien
I shall ever hold those deeply responsible who could
have made all resistance impossible by making it
hopeless, but who sent out no reinforcements with
that design — those w!io first irritated, and then did
not control — who, after goading to insurrection,
did nothing to overawe and deter insurgents.
And aft r all, when men so vehemently blame the
Canadians, who is it, let me ask, that taught them
to revolt? Wher& — in. what country, — front what
people did they learn the lesson ? You exclaim
against their revolt — though you have taken their
money against their wishes, and set at nought the
rights you boasted of having bestowed upon them.
You enumerate their other comforts — that they pay
few taxes- — ^receive large aids from this country —
enjoy precious commercial advantages for which
we pay dear — and then you say, the whole dispute
foi' which they have rebelled is about the taking of
twenty tliousand pounds without the consent of
their Representatives! Twenty thousand pounds
taken without their consent ! ^Vhy, it was for
twenty shillings thus taken that Hampden resisted
'—and by his resistance, won for himself an ira-
47
le
te"
4
perishable name, which the Plantagenets and the
Guelphs would give all the blood that swells their
veins to boast of ! If to resist oppression — if to
rise against usurped power, and defend our liberties
when assaulted, be a crime — who are the greatest
of all criminals ? Who but ourselves, the
English people ? We it is that have set the exam-
ple to our American brethren. Let us beware how
we blame them too harshly for following it ! My
Lords, I throw- out these things with no view of
merely giving offence in any quarter — I do so with
a better object — an object of all others the dearest
to my heart at this moment, — to prevent, by this
palliating reflection, the shedding of one drop of
blood, beyond what self-defence and the lowest
demands of justice administered in mercy require —
to warn those into whose hands the sword is com-
mitted, that they have a care how they keep it
unsheathed one instant after the pike of the rebel
has been thrown away ! •
My Lords, the speech of my Noble Friend would
now carry me after him into a wide field — the
consideration of the new system which is to he
proposed for governing the Colony. Upon that
ground I decline entering at present ; but the
general aspect of it demands a single remark. The
constitution is to be suspended for three years, and
a Governor is to rule with absolute power; and yet
all the while the boast is that the insurrection has
been partial — that only a single county of the whole
48
eight has taken any share in it — and that all the
rest of the community are loyal and well-affected !
Then, I ask, why are the loyal and well-affected,
because they have put down the partial revolt, to
be punished for the offences of others, and to lose
not only the privileges which you gave them in
1831, but thi constitution which Mr. Pitt gave
them forty years before ? This may be vigour — it
is certainly not justice. It looks like an awkward
and preposterous attempt to supply at this late hour
the total want of activity which has prevailed
throughout the whole conduct of government, by
an excess of action — by a morbid vigour that can
work nothing but mischief to all. It is a proceed-
ing wholly repugnant to all ideas of justice, and
contrary to common sense. Only see how utterly
this measure is inconsistent with the rest of my
Noble Friend's defence. When y6u ask why no
force was dispatched to secure the peace of the
Colony — you are told it was quite unnecessary-— the
people were all so loyal that the peace was in no
peril, and sending troops would only have been
offering a groundless insult by suspecting their zeal
and devotion. But when it is thought desirable
to destroy the free constitution and put a pure
despotism in its place — straightway it is found out
that the whole mass of the population is disaffected
and can no longer be intrusted with political rights.
The rebellious spirit shifts and changes — contracts
and expands — just as it suits the purpose of the
49
argument. Now it is confined to a single county
— pent up in a corner of the settlement — bounded
by the river Richelieu. This is when the Ministeis
are charged with having left the Colony to its own
resources. Presently the new plan of arbitrary
government is on the carpet, and immediately the
revolt spreads in all directions — spurns the bounds
of rivers and mountains — diffuses itself over the
whole country — and taints the mass of the inhabi-
tants. My Lords, I care not which way the ques-
tion is put, but it is a question that must be an-
swered before these Ministers can compass both
their objects, of defending their past conduct and
obtaining new powers. The dilemma is now com-
plete and perfect. If the Colony was in such a
state as to justify this arbitrary bill, why did you
leave it without a force? If the colony w^as in
such a state as justified you in withholding rein-
forcements, what pretence have you for disturbing
its peace, and inflicting upon it a despotic govern-
ment? Answer me these questions. One answer
will suffice for both. But I believe for that answer
I shall wait for ever and in vain.
But then it seems that this despotic constitution
is only to be the fore-runner of some other arrange-
ment. Whether the Noble Lord had himself
formed a very clear and precise idea of that ulterior
measure I am unable to say with confidence. But
this I know, that his explanation of it left me with-
out the power of comprehending it with any dis-
£
50
tinctness ; and what I could comprehend, seemed
absurd in the extreme. Of all established Constitu-
tions we are bound to speak with some respect, more or
less ; they have been tried, and at least been found
to answer some of the purposes for which they were
designed. But a wholly new and untried scheme
is intitled to no respect at all beyond what its
intrinsic merits claim ; and as far as this scheme
is comprehensible, it appears eminently ridicu-
lous. A certain number of persons we are told
are to be called by the Governor to his aid as
Councillors, but how they are to be selected, and
what powers they are to have, we are not informed.
Is the Governor to summon whom he pleases?
Then he gives no share whatever in the delibera-
tions to the people, and for the purpose of concilia-
tion or indeed of learning the public opinion, the
proceeding is utterly nugatory. Is he to choose
the districts and leave the electors there to send
representatives ? But still it is a packedassembly,
and no voice is given to the bulk of the community.
Is he then to issue writs generally — only requiring
ten councillors instead of ninety representatives to
be elected for his help-mates? But when the
whole country is unanimously of one opinion, this
plan can have no other effect than to bring together a
Parliament composed exactly like the present, only
fewer in number and under a different name. It is
plain that in one way or another the intention must
be that the people shall not elect freely as they now
51
do, else a Parliament precisely like the disaffeeted
one will be returned ; and that those elected
shall have no power to act unless they do as they
are bid, otherwise the Government will be in the
precise difficulty which now oppresses it. But if* any
such semblaricp only of consulting the people is all
you mean to give — if under the pretence of calling
them to your aid you exclude all the men of
their choice, and only take counsel with creatures of
your own — I tell you fairly that such an intolerable
mockery will avail you nothinj^. Better proclaim
at once a despotism without any disguise or any
mitigation. Make the Governor supreme. Let him
rule without advice or even instruction — in his own
name and not in the name of the law — for your
interest and not for that of the Colonial people.
But, my Lords, I have said that I should at
present forbear to pursue in detail the subject
which we shall hereafter have ample opportunities
of discussing at large. Neither will I go into the
particulars of the civil war that has so lamentably
been kindled. I have mentioned that there is
reason for hoping its disasters have already reached
their term. I hope, most devoutly hope, it may be
so. No thanks to the Government, the Colonists
themselves, left wholly to their own resources and
their own zeal, are supposed to have quelled the
insurrection and restored peace. But what kind
of a possession is that which must be kept by force
of arms ? Are we not here reminded of Mr. Burke's
52
observation upon the too parallel case of Amcricd?
Here, however, 1 must, in passinj^, express iny
astonishment at finding the address now moved, to
be so nearly copied from that of 1775 — after the
peremptory denial of my Noble Friend (Lord
Melbourne), when I the other night said I sup-
posed it would turn out to be so. Really, though
he is but a novice in office, he made the denial
with a readiness and a glibness, that might have
done honour to those inveterate habits of official
assertion, only acquired by the few who are born in
Whitehall and bred in Downing Street. And
yet when we look at it, we find it the same address
with that of 1775 to the very order of the topics
— all but one passage which is of necessity omitted
here, because I defy the utmost courage of official
assertors to have reproached the Canadians as my
Noble Friend's predecessor Lord North did the
Americans, with making an ungrateful return to
the tenderness shewn by Parliament towards the
principles of the English law and the English
Constitution. The authors of the eighth Resolution,
were not, I presume, capable of setting their hands
to such a boast as this. — In all other respects the
two addresses are identical. — May the omen not
prove inauspicious, and may the likeness end here !
But I was drawn aside from the just remark of
Mr. Burke, which I was about to cite. The rebels,
said he, may be put down, but conquering is not
governing, and a province which, to be retained,
53
must be always subdued, is little worth keeping.
My Lords, I may truly say the same of Canada.
The revolt may be suppressed ; I hope it is sup-
pressed already, and that the blood of our Ame-
rican brethren has ceased to flow. But the diffi-
culty of the case is only then beginning. Then
comes the time to try the statesman — the far
more delicate question then arises — and the more
important — demanding infinitely greater circum-
spection and foresight, wisdom and judgment, than
how a rebellion may be suppressed — I mean the
question, how a distant province may be well
governed —a disaffected people reclaimed — and the
maintenance of your empire reconciled with the
interests of your subjects ? The scheme of polity
for accomplishing this great and worthy purpose,
mu?t be well matured before it is adopted, and
when once adopted, must be executed witli vigour ;
all pausing and faultering must then be ended.
I would fain hope that the Ministers have been
taught a lesson by the past, and that henceforth they
will deliberate at the season of proposing measures,
and act when the period for executing them arrives.
But if I am called upon to pronounce, whether or
not, the authors of these dispatches, the propoun-
ders of last year's Resolutions, they who followed up
their own policy with no one act of vigour, and
accompanied it with no indication of foresight —
they who embarked in a course avowedly harsh and
irritating, without taking a single precaution to
54
prevent or frustrate resistance, and, at the instant
when their measures required to be prosecuted with
effect, suddenly deserted them — if I am to decide
whether or not they are the men endowed with
the statesmanlike capacity to meet the difHculties
of so arduous an occasion, — I too, must faulter and
pause before I give an affirmative answer. To
quell an insurrection, asks but ordinary resources
and every day talents ; a military power — often a
police force — may subdue it, and may bridle for a
season the disaffected spirit. The real test of the
statesman's sagacity and vigour is applied when
tranquillity is for awhile restored. My Lords,
painful as the avowal is, their conduct throughout
these sad affairs has wrung it from me — I must
pause before I can pronounce these men fit for the
emergency which is fast approaching, if it have not
already come. i .•
But let it not all the while be supposed that when
I dwell upon the greatness of the occasion, it is
from setting any high value upon such a possession
as Canada. The crisis is great, and the position
difficult, on the assumption that you will resolve to
keep hold of it, whether in prudence you ought or
not, and will be for making sacrifices to retain it,
of which I hold it altogether unworthy. Not only
do I consider the possession as worth no breach of
the constitution — no violation of the principles of
justice — good God ! what possession can ever be
of a value to justify a price like that !— but in a
66
national view, I really hold those Colonies to be
worth nothing. The only interest we have in the
matter, concerns the mode in which a separation,
sooner or later inevitable, shall take place. The only
question worth considering, as far as our national
interest is concerned, is whether that separation
shall be effected amicably or with hostile feelings —
unless in so far as the honour of the country is
involved. But I am not so romantic as to suppose
that any nation will ever be willing to give up an
extended dominion, how unprofitable, nay, how
burthensome soever it may be to hold it. Such
possessions, above all, are not likely to be surren-
dered to dictation and force. The feelings of
national pride and honour are averse to yielding in
these circumstances; but I do venture to hope,
that when all feelings of pride and honour are
saved — when resentment and passion has cooled —
when the wrong doers on either side are forgiven —
when the reign of law is restored ; that justice will
be tempered with mercy, the foundation for an
amicable separation laid, and an estimate calmly
made of the profit and the loss which result from
our North American dominions. I am well assured
that we shall then find them very little worth the
cost they have entailed on us, in men, in money,
and in injuries to our trade ; nay, that their sepa-
ration will be even now a positive gain, so it be but
effected on friendly terms, and succeeded by an
amicable intercourse. The Government and de-
/
fence of Canada alone, costs us considerably more
than half a million a year ; independent of the
million and a half which we have expended on the
Hideau Canal, and between two and three millions
on fortifications, uselessly spent. I speak on the
authority of a Minister of the Crown, who has
recorded his opinion of the burthen we sustain in
holding such possessions.
- Lord Glenelg. Who? ^^ ^' * '^^-^
^ Lord Brougham. The Paymaster of the Forces.
(Sir H. Parnell.) But beside all this, we have to pay
55s. duty on the excellent timber of the B<»ltic, in
order that we r ^/u compelled tc use me bad
timber of Canaditi t a higher price, on a lOj. duty.
The severance of the Colony would not only open
our markets to the better and cheaper commodity
which grows near our own doors, but would open
the Baltic markets to our manufactures, restrained
as they now are in their export to the north of Eu-
rope, by the want of any commodities which we can
take in return. Their produce is grain and timber,
and our Corn Laws for the benefit of the landed
interest shut out the one, while our Colonial laws
for the benefit of the planters, ejiclude the other. —
Is it not then full time that we should make
up our minds to a separation so beneficial to all
parties, if it shall only take place amicably, and
by uniting together the whole of our North Ame-
rican possession?, form an independent, flourisli-
ing, and powerful state, which may balance the
'/
ike
all
nd
^7. .
colossal Empire of the West ? These, my Lords,
are not opinions to which I have lately come ;
they are the growth of many a long year, and the
fruit of much attention given to the subject. Of
this I am intimately persuaded that it is of para-
mount importance to take care how the change
shall be consummated. If the severance be effected
by violence — if the member be rudely torn away
and blcv ^'ng from the body of our Empire— a
wound is left on either side to rankle and irritate
and annoy for generations to come. Hence a
perennial source of national enmity, the fruitful
cause of commercial embarrassments, and of every
kind of discontent and animosity not only between
the countries, but among the different classes
and parties of each. There is no evil against
which it better becomes us anxiously to guard.
All expedients should be tried to render the
severance kindly and gentle — every thing resorted
to that can pour balm into the wound occasioned by
the operation. This is the most sacred duty of every
wise and virtuous statesman. Lowring as the aspect
of affairs now appears, my hope still is that those
who are entrusted with the government, be they
who they may, will bestir themselves, with these
views for this purpose ; and while it is yet time seek
above all things to heal the injuries which impru-
dence and rashness, complicated with imbecility
and vacillation, have inflicted, so as to give us, not
outward peace only, but real concord and friend-
58
I'
ship, without which the wound is but skinned over,
and peace must be precarious and only a name»
But, to give real peace and concord, the wrongs
complained of must be redressed, and I fairly tell
you that the master grievance must not be suffered
to remain. Ail Canada cries out for an Elective
Council. — Refuse it you cannot. The complaint
against its present constitution is like that some time
ago urged against this House. ('One of the Ministers
here said this was not a judicious allusion). Will my
NobleFriend, whose eagle-eye can pierce through the
darkness of a statement barely commenced, and catch
its application to an argument not yet broached,
suspend his sentence of condemnation till he hears
whether the allusion be indeed judicious or no?
I was stating that kaguage more severe had not
been used towards the Legislative Council in the
Province, than I have often heard employed in this
place against this Legislative Council of the Parent
State. But there is a wide difference, my Lords,
between the two cases, and upon that difference
rests the application of my present appeal, so pre-
maturely judged of by my Noble Friend. First,—
Whereas, only an inconsiderable fraction of the
people of England have demanded a reform in the
Constitution of this House, and even they have not
persevered in the demand, all the Canadian People
with one voice have called aloud and vehemently
for a change in their Upper House, and have never
for one instant, in any circumstances, abated one jot
59
the
the
not
pie
.tly
ver
jot
of the vehemence with which they universally urged
that demand. Next — we never have been rationally,
or even intelligibly informed in what way the Reform
of this House could be effected, without the overthrow
of our mixed Monarchy, whereas the change pro-
posed in the Colonial Council has always been
distinctly stated, and accords with the whole prin-
ciples and frame of the political constitutions all
over the New World. Lastly and chiefly, — the
charge made against youi Lordships of refusing
the measures which the other House sent up, rests
upcm a very narrow foundation indeed, compared
with the sweeping accusation brought against them.
You altered some Bills for the wor^a as I think ;
you mended others, changing them for the better ;
one or two you wholly rejected in one or two Ses-
sions ; whereas the Council in Canada refused Bills
of all kinds by wholesale, rejected scores of the most
important measures upon all subjects indiscrimi-
nately. Bills upon Government — education— admi-
nistration of justice — trade^ — retrenchment — reform
of all abuses — all shared the same fate. Trust me,
my Lords, if you had been so ill- advised as to
pursue a course like that, there would a very different
cry have arisen for Peerage Reform from any
thing you have ever yet heard. With all the diffi-
culty of forming a plan for it, the demand of some
change would have become general, if not universal.
Instead of a feeble cry, proceeding for a little
while from a small portion of the country, all Eng-
60
land would have vehemently persevered in the
demand of reform. The wisdom of your Lordships
prevented this. The conduct of the Upper House
in Canada was the very reverse ; and when the
people had nothing to hope from its present struc-
ture, no wonder that the demand for its change
became loud, vehement, universal, — but much
wonder if in a cause so just, it should not in the end
prove irresistible! In vain, believe me, do you
send out new Governors with larger powers ! In
vain you commission my Noble Friend to carry
out the force of a Despotic Government, if he is
not also armed with force to redress the master
grievance ! With every disposition to trust his
ability and his temper, the work of reconcilement
never can flourish under his hands, if they be not
strengthened to do it by the only power which can
avail ; if they are strong only to inflict new wounds,
and impotent to bestow the boon of justice and
redress. I shall most deeply deplore his under-
taking such a mission, if he goes thus cramped
and fettered. If he is only to carry out the most
unconstitutional, the most oppressive Act that has
crossed the Atlantic since the fatal Bill of Massa-
chusset's Bay, I shall lament it on his account,
because he can reap from such a service no honour ;
I shall still more bitterly deplore it for the country's
sake, which can derive nothing but disgrace from
such a course ; for the sake of the first of all bless-
ings, tlie public peace, which will never be per-
61
manenlly secured })y acts of unmitigated injus-
tice! ' ' -''i'^^'""' ? ■ >>■
But once more let me beseech you to resolve that
you will abide by the course of justice — grant li-
berally—improve fearlessly — reform unflinchingly,
whatever the Canadian people is entitled to de-
mand that you should grant — improve — reform.
By none other measures can either right be done
by the Parent State to its American subjects, or
the character of England be sustained ; by no other
course can the honour of the Crown, the character
of the Parliament, above all the peace of the New
World be restored, or the peace of the Old main-
tained !
THE END.
^^i-y^iiu
:.■ lb.
- '; >r.i:i ..s»,. u-
NOBMAN AND SKEEN, PBINTERS, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN.