" Her Majesty thinks it proper to acquaint the House
of Conunons, that it appears to her Majesty the future welfare of her Majesty's subjects in Lower and Upper Canada would be promoted by the union of the said provinces into one province, for the purposes of legislation, from and after a period to be fixed by Parliament. "Her Majesty recommends it to the House to consider such measures as may be submitted to them for this purpose.
" Her Majesty is persuaded that the House of Commons will combine a due regard for the peace and security of these important provinces, with such pro- visions as may be conducive to the permanent freedom and prosperity of her North American people."
The House, on the motion of the Home Secretary, agreed to take her Majesty's message into consideration on Monday next ; but it will be seen that the debate on the Jamaica Bill was last night ad- journed to Monday ; aad it appears by the Vote-paper, that Friday is fixed for the Canada discussion.
Tile order of the day for going into Committee on the Jamaica Bill having been moved,
Sir ROBERT PEEL rose, and opposed the motion, in a very long and elaborate speech. He expressed his regret that there should be any material difference of opinion on a subject where unanimity was so very desirable ; but it was impossible for him to approve of the manner in which Ministers treated Jamaica. The House had just heard a Royal message recommending the union of the two Canadas ; but there had been no message lamenting the necessity of suspending the constitution of Jamaica. Nay, of so little moment was the Jamaica Bill considered, that Ministers actually attempted to proceed with it, though a dropped order of the day, without fresh notice. He was convinced from these circumstances, that the Government underrated the importance of the question. But there were circumstances which gave it extreme impor- tance. They were going to establish a double precedent for suspending Colonial constitutions. This was the second popular assembly whose functions they proposed to abrogate. Did they mean to make it a rule to suspend a constitution each session ? The course Ministers adopted was very different from that recommended by Mr. Canning in the treatment of refractory colonies ; as Sir Robert showed by a quotation from one of Mr. Canning's speeches, delivered in 1824. The British Parliament, Mr. Canning said, might deal in three ways with the West Indian Colonies,—it might crush them; it might harass thene with fiscal exactions and regulations ; or it might pursue the slow course of tem- perate and authoritative admonition : but nothing short of absolute and demonstrable necessity should induce him "to moot the awful question of the transcendental power of Parliament over every dependency of the British Crown ;" that "transcendental power was an amen= of em- pire which ought to be kept back within the penetralia of the consti- tution." Very different, Sir Robert Peel remarked, was the Ministerial policy from Mr. Canning's ; and he proceeded to state the arbitrary provisions of the bill, the enormous power it would confer on the Governor and Commissioners, and the impossibility of imposing an effectual check on the abuse of power exercised at a distance of three thousand miles. He earnestly recommended Members to read Mr. Burke's speech on Conciliation, in which the difficulty of govering dis- tant colonies was described. He warned Ministers, on Burke's autho- rity, against the danger of exasperating men, who, from the very fact of their having been slaveholders, were peculiarly jealous of infringement of their own rights. When the Canada constitu- tion was to be suspended, the preamble of the bill declared that the suspension would be only temporary, and with the view to the esta- blishment of a new constitution ; but no such assurance was given in the preamble of the compendious act of despotism intended for Jamaica. It was said, indeed, that the suspension was to be temporary ; but he well knew that many supported it in the full conviction that it would be perpetual. And this measure was to be applied to a colony contain- ing half the population and possessing half the revenue of the British 'West Indian and South American dominions. Neither was Jamaica an isolated colony : she would meet with sympathy from all the other co- lonies; and, as in 1838 they had suspended the constitution of Canada, and in 1839 that of Jamaica, similar refractoriness would make it Loses- strf, on Ministers' principle of dealing with colonies, to follow the precs- dent of Canada and Jamaica—there would be no other resource. If, how- ever, refractoriness of he colonists, were not the real reason for the pre- sent measure—if it were necessary for the protection of the Negroes—let that reason be avowed. Was the supreme authority of the state required to restrict the franchise ?—then say so ; but let not the bill be passed on false pretexts. And that the alleged was not the true reason for the measure, Sir Robert thought he could prove, by reference to the con- duct of the Jamaica Assembly, and the assistance they had given in carrying the Abolition Act. He proceeded to quote passages from speeches of Governors and addresses of the Assembly of Jamaica, which proved that there had been, on the whole, an amicable under- standing between them, and that the Assembly had really sacrificed much to keep on good terms with the Mother Country: For their re- cent dal itions, he contended, they had a fair excuse in the treatment they had received from Government, especially the offensive manner in which the Prisons Bill had been thrust upon them. That bill, too, had been brought into Parliament two days after the news had arrived of the abolition of the apprenticeship by the Assembly. Sir Robert, in conclusion, reminded the House, that when thwarted and annoyed by the Lords, it was not their habit to be mild and submissive. He al- luded particularly to the late vote on Irish policy, avowedly to min- • teract a perfectly regular exercise of the Lords' rights; and he recom- mended Members to "look at home "- If this House were to be forward in expressing disapprobation of every ex- cess on the part of popular assemblies, let it beware lest it might be said to it with justice, "First pluck the beam out of thine own own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote that is in thy brother's eye." Still should he earnestly hope, that upon public considerations the example which they were about to set might never under any circumstances be pleaded in deroga- tion of their own privileges; and that this House might escape for the future a sentence which would not be unjustifiable, that "with what judgment they judged it should be judged unto them, and with what measure they meted, should it be meted unto them again."
[Want of space restricts us to a very imperfect outline of Sir Robert Peel's argument, and to a still briefer account of the speeches which followed.]
Mr. LABOUCHERE recapitulated the circumstances of the quarrel with the Jamaica Assembly, for the purpose of showing that the fixed design of that body was to resist the supreme legislative authority of this country. He contended that many laws, which it was vain to hope the Assembly would pass, were immediately required. Ministers would not ask the House to establish the new form of government—which really differed little from that already existing in the Crown Colonies—for more than two years and a halt: He conscientiously believed that the measure was absolutely necessary for the success of the great experiment of Emancipaytion.
Mr. GODSON opposed the measure, as unnecessary, and predicted its utter failure.
Mr. EWART felt no compunction in supporting a bill to place under the protection of the British House of Commons the liberty of the peo- ple of Jamaica, and to put down the spurious Local Legislature.
Mr. CHARLES BULLER supported the measure, but entirely dissented from the grounds on which it was specially proposed. He considered that in the present quarrel the Government was wrong. The insuffi- ciency of the pretext for the bill was the most serious obstacle to its success. But he took a larger view of the question, and considered the present bill a necessary supplement of the Emancipation Act,—a mea- sure which did not exhibit foresight or comprehensiveness of thought in those who prepared it. Mr. Buller proceeded to describe, with great ability, the changes in the social state brought about by the abolition of slavery, and to contend that the materials for establishing a free consti- tution in Jamaica did not at present exist; that time must elapse before the emancipated Negroes could be fitted for self-government ; and that all depended upon the habits the Negro acquired at the commencement of his freedom. [From this brief notice of Mr. Bailer's speech, it will be understood that he brought to the discussion enlarged aud statesman- like views. The perusal of the entire speech, as reported in the Morning Chronicle, will fully repay the reader's pains.] Mr. HUNE followed Mr. Buller. He recommended that every other means of settling time question should be resorted to, before the suspen- sion of the Jamaica Assembly was decreed.
Sir GEORGE GREY complained that Sir Robert Peel had made an ex parte statement; that he had carefully passed over ninny official docu- ments which exhibited the temper and proceedings of the Jamaica As- sembly in a very different light from that in which Sir Robert Peel had placed them. He made an apposite quotation from a speech delivered by Lord Stanley in 1533, declaring, that from 1826 to 1833 not the slightest effect had been produced upon the Jamaica Assembly by friendly expostulation—that the shadow of bills for protecting the Negroes had been passed, but the substance studiously avoided.
At the conclusion of Sir George Grey's speech, Mr. MACLEAN • moved the adjournment of the debate to Monday next ; which motion was agreed to, and the House was soon afterwards "counted out."
In the House of Lords, Viscount MELuouniin presented the Queen's message relative to Canada ; and gave notice that on Monday next he should move an address in reply, simply pledging the House to take the subject into consideration.
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