20 MAY 1837, Page 13

LORD BROUGHAM'S PLEA FOR CANADA.

THE Spirit of Lard BROUGHAM'S protest against the Canada Coercion Resolutions is worthy of the best days of their author.

But the desire, apparently, of producing something new on a worn- out topic, has led Lord Bitouowest to adopt in one part of his protest a rather strange mode of stating the case for the Assembly of Lower Canada. In allusion to the power of granting or with- holding supplies, he writes-

" This control over the revenue ought, in an especial manner, to be vested ita the people of the Colonies, seeing that it never can give them the same unli- mited influence which it confers upon the people of the Parent State; for if supplies are withheld by the C mons of England on account of grievance, the Crown has no other resource, and the grievance must be redressed ; whereas, if the Commons of the Colony withhold supplies for the like reasons, the Crown cannot by this proceeding be (Adige(' to redress the grievance, as long as the Parliament of the Mother Country is willing to furnish the fund required."

That is to say, the Celopial Parliaments ought to have an espe- cial control over colonial revenues, because, at the time when the determined and effectual employment of that privilege is by them considered most desirable, it can be rendered inoperative by a vote of the Imperial Parliament. The reason stated by Lord BROUGHAM, however, may be only his sly mode of telling the colonists, that their constitutions are not worth a rush, and that it is foolish to stickle for the preservation of a right which was given them in mockery, and can at any time be violated with ease and impunity. To such documents as Lord BROUGH km's protest, the name of "Vassaes HOLLAND'. was wont to be found attached—where is it now? Alas ! CHARLES Fox's nephew, the whilom indepen- dent Whig, has been absorbed into the Dutchy of Lancaster !