NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Is formally notifying the disallowance of his famous Ordinance, and proclaiming the Indemnity Act, at Quebec, on the 9th of last month, Lord DURHAM took occasion to issue a long and elaborate paper, vindicatin his policy and explaining his projects for the improvement and government of the Canadas. This" proclama- tion," ae it is called, is the great newspaper article of the week ; which has engrossed the attention of the political public, and will be a subject of frequent reference and discussion hereafter. For a state paper, it possesses the unusual interest of earnest and impassioned composition ; laying open the mind and feelings of an individual, occupying a most important office, and no inconsider- able space hs the public view. It is remarkable for its disregard of conventional usages, its contemptuous treatment of the myste- ries of state-craft, and the application of the worst names to bad things. Very offensive to official men, in possession or expectant of place, and indeed to many others, the Proclamation is repre- sented as an imprudent and inflammatory address to a disturbed province ; as an indecorous appeal against the Government and Parliament of Great Britain, to the prejudices of an excited people; and a premature disclosure of a case which ought to have been reserved for the Senate. Waiving these, and other critical points which might he mooted as to the manner of the document, we shall confine our attention to its matter.
In the whole of these discussions, accident has given an undue prominence to one act of Lord DURHAM'S administration, while the main objects of his mission have been lost sight of, or kept in the baekground. The High Commissioner states that " the dis- posal of the political prisoners was, from the first, an object foreign to his mission," and that the questi m "ought to have been set- tled before his arrival." Undoubtedly, when the Canada Coercion Bill was before Parliament, the punishment of captured insur- gents, or the " ostracism" of PAPINE au and other fugitives, was little thought of. Nobody dreamed of suspending a Legislature, and appointing a High Commissioner to the entire British posses- sions in North America, for the small purpose of examining deposi- tions and overseeing the legal proceedings against individual rebels ; far less was it conceived that individuals were to be banished and proscribed without a public hearing. Lord DURHAM was thought of as a peacemaker—a reconciler—a redresser of grievances and reformer of abuses, which had caused the insurrection; and the common expectation was, that an unlimited amnesty would be his introduction to the Canadian people. The Proclamation says that " judicial proceedings would only have agitated the public mind afresh." And this is so true, that we know an active member of the English party in Lower Canada, whom Lord DURHAM also knows and has been indebted to for valuable assistance, has pro- nounced it the one great error of the High Commissioner, that he did not take the earliest opportunity of proclaiming a general and unconditional amnesty. Had he done this, Lord DURHAM would have had no cause to complain that the disposal of the prisoners was left for him : he would have rejoiced at the opportunity of commencing his administration with a politic and popular act of grace. " The amnesty now exists without qualification." Such is Lord DURHAM'S official and solemn announcement. Some of the pro- scribed persons have already returned to Lower Canada; others are on their way, and among them, we understand, PA PINEAU. This inevitable consequence of the disallowance of the Ordi- nance. the Spectator saw, and clearly pointed out, a couple of months since. We then said, in effect, what Lord DURHAM pro- claims nos, that the" irrevocable pledge of her Majesty's mercy" could not be recalled, while the "disallowance of the Ordinance" was not to be evaded "by reenacting it under the disguise of an alterattoti of the scene of banishment, or of the penalties of un- authorized return." Fairly is the merit of shunning sanguinary punishments claimed for Lord DURHAM: they would be abhorrent to his clemen t disposition. At the same time, more enlightened and humane now than formerly, the public opinion of England and of ail free states would have been outraged by the execution of the
Canadian leaders ; for whose revolt a partial justification existed, in the very appointment of a High Commissioner to inquire into and redress 'grievances. There is ample admission of previous misrule, and consequently provocation to rise against the Govern- ment, in the document before us.
The mistaken notion that he was invested with extraordinary and even despotic authority, had been fondled and become deeply rooted in Lord DURHAM'S imagination. He alludes to the " tech- nical errors" in his Ordinance, as if he possessed the authority to proscribe and banish without trial or form of law' and was only wrong in sending the prisoners to Bermuda. He denies that he mistook the " extent " of his " powers," and pleads his reliance on Parliament to remedy the defect which prevented him from making effectual the sentence of banishment to Bermuda, which at the time lie knew to be " inoperative." This amounts, after all, to an admission of the illegality of the Ordinance; and is not quite consistent with the terms of an answer delivered a few days after the date of the Proclamation, to an address from Kingston- " I cannot admit its illegality : it is strictly in accordlnce with the powers and provisions of the act of Parliament under which I ad- minister the affairs of this province." Here is another proof of the vague and erroneous ideas the Governor-General possessed of the extent of his authority : one day, confessing that his Ordi- nance was "inoperative"—the next day, maintain;ng that it was "strictly in accordance" with the powers conferred on him by Parliament. That he outstepped the limits of law, we never doubted; and before the principal discussion in the House of Lords, we expressed that opinion : but, presuming that a strong case of expediency, amounting to necessity, might be made out, we suggested that Lord DURHAM bad courageously incurred a risk, trusting to indemnity in the usual form. And if Ministers, instead of waiting for and crouching under an attack, had per- formed their duty by stating the circumstances to Parliament as soon as they were known to themselves, and required indemnity for the past and enlargement of powers for the future, there is not the least doubt that Parliament would have acquiesced. That additional authority was needed, unless the powers of efficient local legislation were to be held in abeyance, nobody, who could read and understand the Coercion Act, doubted. Lord DURHAM had no dictatorship; he had no extraordinary powers—he had even, in some respects, less than former Governors of Lower Canada ; he was a mere servant of the Colonial Office, and a Commissioner of Inquiry. All this was pointed out before the bill passed ; and we remember summing up one of our own vatieinations on the subject with the words" The Ministerial Bill is not the measure,' and Lord Durham, trammelled by the Colonial Office, is not 'the man; demanded for the settlement of the Canadian quarrel." The Act of Parliament defined and limited his power of legislation to a narrow range and strict responsibility : he was the creature of that statute. And it is indeed wonderful that he was sent out, or went, so desti- tute of real authority. Yet, in contradiction to the plain wording and obvious meaning of the Act—nay, in opposition to his own gall- ing experience of the insufficiency of his powers, Lord Duel' aar, in this new Proclamation, says that "when Parliament concentrated all legislative and executive power in Lower Canada in the same hands, it established an authority which, in the strictest sense of the word, was despotic ;" and again, that the " powers " conferred on him were "freed from constitutional restraints." Here, indeed, he refers to the Act of Parliament as the origin of his authority ; but he subsequently lets out the secret of his confidence. "I had reason to believe that I was armed with all the power I thought requisite, by the commissions and instructions under the Royal sign-manual, with which I was charged as Governor- General and High Commissioner." Lord DURHAM loved to fancy that he took his appointment not from Ministers, or from Parlia- ment, but from the Queen ! He seems to have thought that under her Majesty's "commissions and instructions," he could do any thing, even unto despotism. He seems to have had no clear knowledge of—we should almost think that he had never read— the Act which it was his especial business to have mastered com- pletely; anti which so many others correctly viewed as a limita- tion, not an increase of legislative power. Strange infatuation of an able wait! Gross neglect in those whose duty it was to have better instrueted him !
The elaborate yet feeble and faulty apology for the Ordinance, and the dissertation on the extent of the High Commissioner's powers, form but a part of the document under consideration. There are better things in it. Much truth respecting Colonial misgovernment is told, that never was proclaimed with such authority before. He justly holds up the "mystery" which con- cealed from the people of Canada "the intentions, - and the very actions of their rulers,' as one of theSeasalle'bouses of the numerous errors of the Government, Zi.tha -general dis- satisfaction of the people." Then, what a ke he 4Iraws of the state of Lower Canada "Nor did I ever dream of applying the theory of the British constitution to a country whose constitution was annihilated, and the people deprived of all control over their own affairs—where the ordinary guarantees of personal rigida bad been in abeyance during a long subjection to martial law and a continued suspension of the Habeas Corpus—where there neither did exist, nor had for a long time existed, any confidence in the impartial administration of justice in any political case."
The largeness of his views is indicated by the extensive improve- ments he aimed at effecting, the new institutions he designed to confer on the people, the reestablishment of a representative government, and the plan for a federal union of all the North American Provinces. He sought to " obliterate the traces of recent discord ;' to" remove its causes ; to prevent the revival of a contest between the hostile races ; to rair-e the defective institu- tions of Lower Canada to the level of British civilization and free- dom; to remove the impediments to the course of British enter- prise in this province, and promote colonization and improvement in the others; and to consolidate these general benefits on the strong and permanent basis of a free, responsible, and compre- hensive government." These are noble aspirations; and if Lord DuRHAm's plans would or could have been executed in the spirit in which their author conceived them, deep and lasting should be the regret for the abrupt termination of his mission. But the details of measures and the practical development of theories must be seen, before higher merit than that of good intentions can be conceded. The opportunity of laying his plans before Parliament will not, however, be wanting to Lord DURHAM. Ile avows that he has yet to discharge an important part of the duties of High Commissioner, in render* available for future legisla- tion the information he has acquired ; and he announces his inten- tion to suggest, " at the proper period, the constitution of a form
of government for her Majesty's dominions, which may restore to the people of Lower Canada all the advantages of a representative System."
Whatever may hereafter be thought of Lord DURHAM'S mea- sures for the improvement of Canada and the consolidation of the
British dominions in North America, one thing we take to be certain—that the entire Colonial system will undergo a scrutiny and exposure, to which it has never yet been subjected, and which must produce extensive benefit. Public attention will now perforce be directed to Colonial matters. Lord DURHAM'S plain declaration of past misgovernment, awl bitter reproof of the policy hitherto followed in Canada, coupled with the announcement of what he was prepared to do had the means been his, is excessive' and occasions no small degree of perplexity, both to Whigs in office and Tories on the look-out for place. Unquestionably, he has put his successor in a difficulty ; which will net be lessened
by the fact, of which we are assured, that the British party in Canada only wait to ascertain the nature of Lord DURHAM'S re-
ception from the Government, and the prospect of his plans being adopted, to decide whether they shall cherish the connexion or unite in a demand for separation. There is a spirit growing up among the British race, likely to cause more serious alarm to the "jobbing interests" and the Government of this country, than the
discontent and turbulence of the generally indolent, contented, and amiable French population. Lord DURHAM—uot, certainly, in a very diplomatic fashion—refers to the approval of h s policy by the people of the United States, as a curt of compensation fur the ill-treatment of the English Government, and plumes himself upon the" cessation of American sympathy with any attempt to disturb the Canadas." And it may be that for the "Nation Canadienne" the Republicans have no great s) timothy; but the case might—we are credibly informed it would—be altered, were the British population to require their assistance, and seek fur admission into the Union.
