10 NOVEMBER 1838, Page 2

LORD DURHAM'S FINAL PROCLAMATION.

[Frwire the QueLec Official Gazette.]

" Dutta

"By Ids Excellency the Right Honournble John Gcorge Earl of Durham, Viscount ',amino'', Sic. Knight Grand Cross of the most 'immoral de military order of the Bath, one or hr:%lajesty's most honourable l'rivy Council. and oovertior.Oeueral. Vice Admiral, and Captain.Getieral of all her Majesty's Provinces within and adjacent to the eoutiueut of North America, &e.

A PROCLAMATION.

"

in conrortni.y aid, one of its provisions, I have this day proclaimed the Act I awl 2 Victoria, chap. 112, An Act for Indemnify ina those uho have issued r imted under certain parts of a certain Ordinance numb, under colour of an Act passed in time present session of Parliament. entitled,' An Act to make temporary provision or the government ol Lower Canada.' • "1 have also to notify the disallowance by her Majesty of the Ordinance 2d Vim torus chap. 1, entitled, An Ordinance to Inc eLle for the security of time Province of I ow .r Canada.' " I cannot perform these official duties without at t SWIM' tiineIiiIurii llg )i•II, the people of British America, of the course which the meoeures of the Impel MI Govern- ment mid Legislature make it incumbent on me to pursue. 'The ins stert e Melt bas heretofore too often, during' the progress of the most impottaut affairs, concealed from the people of these colonies the intentions. the motives, and the very ilet 10114 of their rulers, appeare to me to have been one of the main caused or the nunerous errors or the Government, anal the general dissatisfaction of the people. Undesirable lit ally time, such concealment on the pert of one int rested with the supreme authority in the resent crisis of your affairs would be most culpable anal pernous. With a people front whom I have had ye mans and such gratifying proofs of warm nod confuliost at- teem/wet I eau /lace U0 reserve. Awl my implicit 'ethnics) on your leyaby anal good sense will justify me iu makino you nequaiuted oith what it most imports yeti to know. It is the more uecessary for me thus to act. because when I first entered upon this Governmeut, I explained to y.oit, in a proclamation issued immealiately on nit- arrival on theee shores, the nature of the powers vested in me, mot the principles on which it was my intention to exerebe them. Now. therefore, that I ant .ibutit to return to England. I feel it my bounden duty to state to you, as fully awl as frail kir , the reasons which have induced me to lay down those powers, rendered inadequate to the corryiug into effect those or any other principle.; of government.

" I dial not accept the government of British North America without duly eoesidering the nature of the task militia I imposed WI myself. or the suffieieney ot nly means for performing it. When Pailiament concentrated all legislative an executtve power in Lower Unmade in the same hands, it established an authority which. in the strictest sense of the word, was &spathe. 'firis authority her Majesty was groionsIs pleased to

delegate to me. I did not from assuming the awful responsibilits to rawer this.

freed from constitutional restraints, in the hope, that by exercising it with justiee, with mildness, and it Ii vigour, I might secure the floppiness O ti! el ,FSeS of the people, tind facilit toe the speedy awl permanent restoratioo of their Wellies. Iltit I never was weak enough to imagine, that the fornii by which men's rights are oisely guarded in that country where freedom has beam longest enjoyed, best understood, 01111

most prudently exercised, he scrupulously ebserveal in a societ y atoms! entin ly disorgailizell by misrule and tlissension. I conceived it to be one of the chief advan- tages of my position, that I was enabled to pursue the ends of sitbstoutial josh ice and sound policy free litid unfettered. Ner dial I ever dream of apply lug III, I Or the

practice of the British constitution to a country whose constitution was suspended- where all representative government was amiihilated, nod the pe pie deprived of all control over their aorta affitirs-ta here the ordinary guarantees of pensomil rights had

been abeyance dining it long subjection to martial law and at continued suspension or the I lib.Corpus-where there neither diil exist, noolvol for a long tittle existed. any eotalence in the impartial administration of justice oily Political ea". "To encountee and stimulate me In niv Plath1011,3 lark, I had great tool worthy oh- jects •iew. M y aim was to elevate tie.: province of Loeser Cannala to ta thoroughly

liritish character. to link its people to the soveleigniy of Britain. by making them all

participators in those high privileges, conducire at mace to freolunt awl staler, ohich have long been the glory or I hgliAimen. 1 hoped to confer on a united people a mere extensive enjoyment of free and responsible govertitnent, anal to meroe the petty ka1011sied or a small community, and the odious animosities of origin, in the higher Itchnee Of a nobler and more comprehensive natiouality. "'Po give effect to these pnrrases, it tees necessary thot my powers of government should be ns strong as they were extensive-that I slimild he known to hose the means

of outing a. well as judging for myself, without a perpetual control by distant aulho-

titles. It were well, indeed, if such oere the ()Militias. bonne ie. woman:tent in the Culouiata, and that your local adminiatration should alwoys eiljoy so nitwit el the confi- dence of those witlt whom Itt.rttS the ultimate decision of your anirs, that it might ever rely on being itllowed to carry tall its polies, to completion, and on tieing supported in giving a•Ifect to its promises and it cononamia. But, in the present posture of your affairs, it *ii. ; IllTeSS:11) that the moot unusual contithowe should itecompauy the dele- gation alf most unusual authority ; Mot that, it) atlaiti011 to utult great legal toners, the GoVPI nment here slawild possess all the moral force that cloth ti derived from the

assurance that its acts would he line! and ita eneagentents religionsly observed. It is

not I t powers, or +1 allithalS authority, that the present danger eau be averted, or the Maud:ohm laid or a better order of things. " I WM reason to believe that I a:14 armed with ell the power which I thoneht refini- shes by the ennitnissions alltl instructions under the royal sign manittal oath which I

was charged as blovernor.Geueral awl high Commiesioner, by the authority vested ill me awl toy Council, by the Act or the Imperial Legislature, anal by the gene: appro-

bation air my ampeint talent ohieh all part le3 Mere pleased to express. I also trusted that I shottlal terry throughout the course of toy administration all the strength which the eoldial awl steadfast support or the authorities at IMMO Call alone give to their distant etlicere, and that even parts. feeling would rehabs from molesting me whilst twee pied in maiutainine the integrity of the British empire.

" these jest expectations I have been painfully disappointed. From the very commeneernent of my task, the minetest details of ray ration have been ex- posed to insessant criticism. in a sterit which has eviiiced an entire ignorance of the state of this taitintry. and of the only mode iu which the supremacy of the British Crown Call here be upheld :anal exercised. Those who have, in the British Legislature. systematically depreciated my powers, and the Ministers of the Crown, by heir tacit acquiescence therein. have produced the effect of making it too clear that my authanity Is inodequate or the emergency at hicli called it into existence. At length an act of niy

guvernment, the first tool most impormut which was brought under the notice of the authorities at hotne. 1105 been annulled; and the entire policy, or Which that act was a amatl I WHO' essential part, has thus loon defeated. "The kli-posal of the politWal prisoners was, from the first, a limner foreign to my mission. With a view lithe more easy attainment or the greet objects contemplated, that question might to have been settled before my arrival. But as it was essential to my plans Mr the future tranquillits and improvement of the colony. that I shunt,' commence by allaying actual irritation. had in the first plies.. to determine the fate of

these who were ender prosecution, toad to provide for the present security of the pro- vince by um oviug the must dangerous disturbers of its peace. For these ends, the ordinary tribuuals, as a recent trial has clearly shown. afforded me Liu means. Judicial proceealings would only have agitated the public miud alresh-woulal hare lout in evi- dence the sympathy or a large portion of the people with rebellMe, awl would have given to tile disaffected generally a fresh assurance of impainity Mr political gnilt. An

aequitta I iti thl.! face of the clearest evidence, which I am justified iit having lanai- rated as iuevitahle. would have set the leaders of the insurrection at liberty, absolved from milli!, aud exalted in the eyes of their deluded country me II Ai the inuecent vie- bins of au tinjeet UN/haat:MOO. and a vindietive charge. I bodied ant these as mis- chiefs la hich I was Iseatel to avert by the ill 'lout exercise of the rye ens intrusted to me. I could two without trial aIla COUVietil/11, lake ally Ineasilfrs it rarely Vella' e!larat:frr ; but I Flooglit myself justified lit availing myself ot an lackitoo lolomeat of guilt. awl adopting measures of precaution against a small number of the laws! culpable or toes!, (tangent'. of the accused.

" Whether a better mode of :listing coal have been devised for the emergency, is now millennial. This is the one that has been adopted : the aUseassion which it at first excited has passed away, anal those who were once most itselined to condemn its lemetiey. Wel ;acquiesced in or stibmitbol to it. The good effsets hill most woo's- sartls have co:allied from any settlement of this (Meath question, hal began to show

themselves. Or these, tiltprincipal were the general approval or toy policy hy the people le' the United States, awl the conserptent cessation of American sympathy with any attempt to eisturb the CaUld:18. This result has been glatify1114 tO inasmuch as it has gone far towards a complete restoration of that se sl-will het wee,' you and a great kin-aired nation, which I have taken every !peaks in my power to eoi-

tivate, and which I earnestly entreat you to cherish as essential to sour peace and pr -peril y.

It is ;also very vatisfactnry to me to find, that the rectitude of my volley has hardly been disputed at home ; ate' that the disallowance of the Onlinance proceeds from no sloubt its substantial merits, but from the importance which has been attached to a

suPllotit'd technical error in the assumption of a power, which if I had it out, I ought to have Lel.

" The perticulor defect ilk the Ordinanee which has been made the ground of its disaLowtowe, wits occasioned. not by my mistaking the extent of my losers, hut by tny reliance in the readiness of Parliament to seppl v their insufficiency in case or need. For. the ',unease of relieving the prisoners from all appreliension of being treated as ordinary couticts. anal the lus al inhabitauta of tile price front the dread or their Use nioliate returia, worda Wet, illSettlta in the Ordinance respectiug the disposal of them Bermota, wool, were known to In. inoperative. I was perfectly aware that my powers extended to lauding the prisoners on the shores of Bermuda, but no further. I knew that they could not be futeibly detatinet in that island without the eWipera- tent of the Imperial Lesislatere. That coOperation I had a right to expect, because the comae I was pursttine Wail pointed out in uumerons acts of the Imperial anal Pro- animal Legielatairee, as I shalt have ocension hereafter most fully to prove. I also did believe, that even if I bad not the precedents of these acts of Parliament, a Govern- ment anal a Legislature anxious for the ware of this unhappy country. and for the in- tegrity of the British empire, would not sacrifice to a petty techuicalit y the vast ber.e- tits o Inc mato, 'twos isomisea, .aoat la a .tt u It aosioans sesmed.

I trusted they wand,: take care that a greet awl new tie, to porpose should isot be

frustrated by ens error, if errer there WI., tulu tiles coulti rectifs , the want of any power ohich they could s,apply ; finally, thot they foetid the (11 Inauce inoperative, they would give it effect-if illegal, that they wool.] make it law. 'I Fhtis small iii 11.5 tiOt heell 1,s:tenth! 1 to toe, eren for this ',toil! oltieet ; :and the usefuluess of my delegated p expires sr Oh the Los et. ti"iat sopport from the supreme alit huritt hich could :alone sustaiu it. The measero row an milled was but part of a large system of measures o IMO I pi Anis 41 ohm. I po claimed the :amnesty. When I sonstat to obliterate the II oft. va siseor.:. I ole.loso los self to 1TIWAL. its Canby{ —to permit the tor 1, :al of a 0 Ilte.a aelWeell hrs.. Ile r t raise the lief:a:tiro institutions of 11O5CT Caoada to tile heel of Mail:Lanett freed0111— I aleiaole all impediments la the estase of Iltitish entetorise in the )recinct., an I pm emote salami- Zation and Mirror °mem in the toilets -nil I .0 eunssli,loto these goner:al Lelailitli the strong awl Isom:went basis of a free, iesponsible. anal satin oreheusive goverantent. " Suelt large 11W30st, I: it has e ltveU Yellowed without :I ',erred rehab:cc Olt the i.11111/SitatIllg al 1 or the ,111,re:,le autheroies. or s‘1,3.1,- avail are the purposes anal promises of n sso ak.! towel, otiose acts ate not root., tub 1,..• the aullwrit y froin which it proceeds? \VW, what ceofidesce can I int i L. ffieteratkil, or iopose tor- beartatice, ohilst I touch ancient haws :and habits, as Mull as alemereeteal ideates, With the veal:one:1 lintels flout usre essassal but II little wore than the ordi- nal y ligourol the police Leo ronbleal times

" flow can I provide asaitot the immediate effsets of the disalloo :knee of the Gish-

nonce ? That Ord iminee v inam.sliately tatilaweted e it uu'tuu r ineasto es m Meta remain ill unrestricted operatiolo It wog ,satioleal with her Maissts's lied abut ion se' :am- nesty ; anal as I ital:ea it Itet.011.141; toot the 1:xlmordin try Legislat,we of lomer Canada should bake urn, measores sf is oreeatatien, au:1 leave to her

Majesty tlw cone...Mal atlOce a is r .1 pros, oative hit the sole just 151of

pardon anal tint , the IO. eta:natio:. ainel molt, itomesty. (ratified only aly ut the (0:Ce1ah-ll, .i11, a in the OlOinaoce. Th.. °olio:sure has leen Oisa:lowed, awl the Prochaniat jou ototisiated. ller 7.1aje4s haviss I ..1 :ads tse,1 to refose her assent to the exceptioos, the anmests ext.'s Iv; Its it 000lli Itieto Ne impediment .1..L.c- fm, exists to the retain ti,, so Os 1111.• admissi„t, ui their guilt, or oh It liao heel: exelu O a by IC lost, tle• rot Owe on moment us* the klanger to ohiell its taanquilOty oo,isl I e expassal find, i awl Wale Call LleW he enacted, Y Loot the o toot.on of sons !lemon es settle:taut to nis sense of justiee anal of lotoey., ,,,L.n ,t rosin ins pledge of her Olajesty 's merey. I eannot tote:apt to te:.,le the t!lawatfre Of the Oislioiness by remise. ing it under the disguise of ;an alteratien of the seeue or or to Ow pen.,Ities

of unauthorized returto I cause.% by a weeks.; suspension ef tho Ilatwas Corpus,

put the personal Ii her: 5..f ever:, tH at the mercy 01 the tievelai ment. anal da el ato whole provitiee in immediate &ahoy: of rebsIliou, merely in older t exercise time in- Oimuce of :k Wa::110 tenor over a llor "In these conflicting alla panful chettnistances, it is fir better that 1 shoold at once anal distinetly announce toy intention of ales:song, nom the situ niter. to to catty my policy and system of :administration iuto fleet with suet' luadomate anal resiticted meaus. If the pe.we of CrILaIIII IS to be again menaced, it is necessary that the tioverienetat should be :able t.. leek. u oo a noire Cura:aa 411.1 vigorous sopport at home than has boor :wooded to me. No geo I that nots ta 1,0 expocted from any other ;moose:tent in Levier Cassola, earl le obi:Oiled I. it •.entittaing to si Id ex- tmortlinary hsod rove' s, or which the Ia.-A.1..1m. anal vonsi.derati on ate gone.

" You will easily bera•ve that, after ail Ow exertions as hich I have made. it is is Oh feelings of deep disapriiignieut 11.1t I tin: thus ..mittenly i'a•priveil of the

power of co:doting groat benefits on the llt0 ittee 10 'tt huh I have rsferre re-s forming the almiuistrative at em there, :old eraalleatine the manifold :abuses which had beett engewlered by the oegligenee awl corrmaiou of Oemer times. awl so lamentably. festered le, chit lissensious. I cannot Wit rss: et taieng oblig.til to rens suce the still woro glariods hope of employ mg tattoos legisf iv,, pee Ors ill III, ,11 low- remit of that prevince silt Ii those free municipal into it Mimeo which are 1/111y sure

basis of Iocal intprovement and reproseut once liberty, rutesablishiug systs tn of

general education, of revising the defective laws whelk regnlate real properts and commerce, and of intiodaciug a pure owl competeut administration of justice. Above :ill. I grieve to be tims juiced to abaudatu the realisation of sect' large road solid SalVMOS of colonizmien awl internal hoprovemeut as watahl counect the distant pot-. Hone of thee.. extensive colonies, and lay epeu the unwronebt treasures oh the wilder- [MSS to the ',MOS of British indostrs awl the energy of Brit:sit enterprise. " For the,. objects I have laboured yowl,. and have reseived the roost retire, zealous, awl eflicieut etOiperation from tho :0 ths and miligtateued persons who are :Issoeiates with too hi this great midertaking. (Jr exert jot's, however, will not,