The news from Upper Canada is bad, because bloody. W e
allude to the execution, at Toronto, of SAMUEL LOUNT and punt Mai-rums, convicted of high treason, as having been concerned in the late disturbances. Four other persons convicted of the sage crime were to be hanged at Toronto on the 30th of April, and seven at Hamilton on the 24th. SUTHERLAND, it was said,would be transported for life, as no act of violence was proved against him. Petitions signed by 3,000 inhabitants of Toronto and the vicinity were presented to Governor ARTHUR to spare the lives of the prisoners; but the prayer was rejected ; and notwithstanding the earnest solicitations of the wives and relatives of LOUNT and MATTHEWS, their bodies were delivered to surgeons for dissection. There, Lord GLENELG! such is the first act of the ci-detant gaoler, the Colonel ARTHUR of Van Diemen's Land—that hell upon earth—whom you have sent to govern a free people. His conduct is precisely what might have been expected from a per. son into whose previous proceedings, for seine excellent reason, the Culonial Office would clever permit a Parliamentary inquiry, though they patronized and promoted him. It certainly wane tacit understanding that a merciful use would be made of the victory obtained by the Government in Canada—that no bloody revenge would be taken after the danger was over. But perhaps Colonel ARTHUR only acted according to his instructions. Is there a Member of the House of Commons who has courage and humanity enough to demand the production of those instructions, or at least a statement of their tenour ?* Let it be seen where the charge of unnecessary cruelty ought to be placed. We are much mistaken if the Government is not sowing the seeds of deep and dire hostility to British rule even in quarters where the dispoe sition is towards loyalty. These useless executions are revolting to humanity. Even in Portugal a general amnesty has been pro• claimed to political offenders ; but in Canada, under the British sway, they are treated like felons.
We have private intelligence from Montreal, which bears evi- dence of the arbitrary disposition and the fears of the Govern- ment for the present in authority there. On the llth of April,
the press and types of the Vindicator were seized, in consequence of the reprint of an article on Canada in the last number of the London and Westminster Review ; and Mr. LARREGUE, of the firm of LARREGUE, BERNARD, and Co., has been arrested on a charge of basing directed the sale of the article—at the dated the last letters from Montreal, he was in gaol. These proceed. ings against the press are uniformly the resort of a weak, unpo- pular, and cowardly Government.
* Since this was written, the instructions have been called for—namely, by Mr. HUME, last night : vide Postscript.
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