CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

THE following Despatches, selected from a folio volume of 400 pages, relate entirely to the discussions which led to Lord Durham's Resigna- tion. The first communicates his Lordship's views as to the conduct of the Opposition, and of the Queen's Ministers, in the House of Lords.

(EXTRACT) LORD DURHAM TO LORD GLENELG. " Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, September 25, 1538. " Previous communications from me will have made your Lordship aware of the very injurious effects upon the course of my Government oc- casioned, more or less, by all the proceedings, with respect to my mission, which have taken place in the House of Lords since my departure from England. The representations that I have made to you upon this subject were but tine echo of the public voice in these colonies, where all men, of whatever class or party, were agreed in thinking that unless I should be cordially supported by the Legislature, which had created most extraor- dinary powers of Government for this country, and by the Ministers of the Crown, who had placed that extreme authority in my hands, there was not the slightest prospect of any satisfactory result. The proceedings in the 1-louse of Lords, from the moment of my leaving tine shores of England, showed but too distinctly that the support so essential to my success was not extended to tae; I allude in particular to the speech of the Duke of Wellington on the 4th of July, and to the expressive silence of the Prime Minister on that occasion. His Grace was pleased to say, ' The Act gives no power further than that of making certain reports on an important subject respecting the Government of Canada, and of directing the forma- tion of a commission of enquiry for that purpose ; in any other respect, so far us my recollection serves me, I know of no other powers given to the Earl of Durham which are not ordinarily given to every Governor of a colony.' When the leaders of those two great parties, the one by the most unqualified expressions, and the other by consenting silence, con- curred in depreciating the authority with which I had been invested, that authority was seriously weakened. The effect upon the public mind was instantaneous and most remarkable : the disaffected—and how numerous these are your Lordship will have learned from my despatch of the 9th August (No. 30—were encouraged to believe that as my authority was so questioned, the manner in which it had been or might be exercised would to a certainty be vigorously assailed by the Opposition, and feebly de- fended by the Government ; and they inferred that the success of my mis- sion, which, as all parties at home had allowed when the danger was imminent, and all here still felt, depended on the vigorous exercise of an extraordinary authority, was thus rendered next to impossible. In forty• eight hours after the speech attributed to the Duke of Wellington had been published here, the tone of that part of the press which represents ligence already received. I havehad no choice (as I shall fully explain in the disaffected, exhibited a remarkable change, giving evidence no longer a future despatch), but to declare whether or not I should resign my now of submission, however unwilling, to extraordinary powers unhesitatingly useless office. As your Lordship will perceive, by the documents which exercised, but of discontent, irritation, and seditious hopes. From that I have the honour to enclose (being an address to myself from the dele- time forth, too, down to this day, I have continually received intimations gates of the Colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Ed- of a state of feeling amongst the Canadian peasantry of the district of Mon- ward's Island, with my answer), I have resolved on resigning an au- heel, which threatens, if not actual disturbances during the winter, still so thority which has now, indeed, become thoroughly inadequate to the much combination of purpose and means amongst the disaffected as to re- ends for which it was created, and on quitting a post which has been quire the utmost vigilance on the part of Government. Nor did the Duke rendered altogether untenable by those from whom I expected every pos- of Wellington's speech and Lord Melbourne's silence on that occasion Bible assistance in maintaining it.

in a less mischievous effect upon the great bulk of the British race

in this colony. As respects this class, the first impression created by this ceedings in England, in fully explaining to your Lordship the reasons for evidence of my being left without adequate support at home was one of my having arrived at this determination, and the grounds on which I may, despondency. I can speak almost from my own personal knowledge of after ample deliberation, decide upon the time for carrying it into effect."

numbers, including gentlemen of the most respectable character and high- The next states Lord Durham's view of the legality of the Ordinance est influence, who had entered into all my views for the improvement of of the 28th June 1838 ; quoting the Statutes, Imperial and Provincial, this much-neglected country, who were aware of my determination, so far as it might depend upon me, to remove the causes, to dry up the very

source of past dissensions, and to render this colony essentially British in (EXTRACT.) LORD DURITA31 TO LORD GLENELG. its laws, institutions, and character ; who had, merely on account of those " Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 28th September, 18313. views and intentions, afforded me their confiding support ; and who were " NIT LORD,—The late debate in the House of Lords, and the observe- employing their valuable influence in diverting public attention from the tions which hare been made there upon the Ordinance passed by the miserable past, and endeavouring to fix it on a happy prospect of peace SpecialCouncil of this province, subjecting the State prisoners to trans- and prosperity. These gentlemen, when the news in question arrived portation to Bermuda, imperatively call on me to submit to you a state-

from England, when they perceived I was left alone to struggle with ment of my views upon the legality of that Ordinance, and of the grounds unparalleled difficulties, could no longer rely on the accomplishment of upon which, with every deference to the House of Peers and the high any of the important measures that I had projected. They were therefore legal authorities who are asserted to have declared its illegality, I venture led most naturally, as it appears to me, instead of looking with confidence to maintain that no part of that Ordinance is in itself illegal, however to the future, first to despair of any fruit from my exertions, and next to inoperative it might, and must of necessity, be, without the assistance

recur to the past with feelings of irritation, as violent as were ever pro- and cooperation of the Home Government and the British Parliament, diced amongst the British race in this colony by the worst previous sated- or the Legislature of the Bermudas under the sanction of Her Majesty's fice of colonial interests to the objects of mere party in the mother coon- Ministers.

try. Such is the unanimity of opinion and feeling amongst the British " The Imperial Statute 5 Geo. 4, c. 84, s. 3, provides, that his Majesty population of this colony, that the individuals whom I have described in Privy Council may appoint any place beyond the seas, either within or fairly represent the whole class. The despondency and irritation of that without his dominions, to which felons and other offenders under sen- class were as conspicuous as the half-elated and threatening activity of the tense or order of transportation or banishment shall be conveyed: It disaffected portion of French Canadians. Such was the effect produced provides for the imprisonment of such offenders, their conveyance either upon both classes (that is, upon the great bulk of the people) by the party in contract vessels or in Her Majesty's ships, their punishment for mis- '°I shall not lose a moment, after hearing officially of the recent pro- on which he relied.

tion at my having undertaken to exerci them. The second was the hn- " The Imperial Statute 6 Geo. 4, c. 69, s. 4, provides that ' His Ma- pression, which prevailed throughout these colonies, that I might reckon jesty,' by any Order in Council, may authorise the governors, &c. for with perfect confidence on the undeviating approval and support of the the time being of any of the colonies, to appoint the place within ' his' members of Her Majesty's Government, with most of whom 1 had been so Majesty's dominions, to which offenders convicted in any such colony, long and intimately connected, as well by personal friendship as by politi- and being under sentence or order of transportation, shall be sent or cal relations. By the proceedings in question I was deprived of these, the transported ; and provides that such convicts at the place to which they only, but all-sufficient grounds of confidence in my own exertions. Your may he transported, shall he subject to the same laws as other convicts ; Lordship may believe that the people of these colonies are not better ac- but it makes no provision for their transport or their treatment on the quainted with the springs and influences of party politics in England than voyage to England; that is still left to the local legislatures, at least there are most English politicians with the real state of parties and pulilic affairs is no other mode of providing for it.

party in opposition at home really believed my authority to be no more " Lord Gosford, on the 7th of October, 1835, issued his proclamation extensive than that of an ordinary governor in ordinary times ; that Her appointing such convicts to be sent to England, and from thence to New Majesty's Ministers were of a similar opinion ; that all my promises of South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.

unusual measures suited to the unusual circumstances of the case, had "The Provincial Legislature by Act a W. 4, c. 1, continued by Ordi- been made inadvertently or delusively ; and that I had no more prospect mince of 1 Viet., c. 8, provided. that ' whenever any offender shall have of healing the wounds inflicted on this country by a long course of shifting" been lawfully sentenced by any of His Majesty's courts in this province, and temporising policy, than if the act for suspending a constitution, and other than courts martial, to transportation, it shall be lawful for the go- conferring legislative powers on an individual, had never passed. In fact, vernor for the time being from time to time to cause any such convict to whatever may be the powers which that Act legally confers upon me, the be removed from anyplace of confinement in this province to any other moral authority of my government, the prestige, if I may so speak, of safe place of custody' (it does not repeat ' in this province'), ' and thence power, once imagined to be so great, and of a supposed unbounded influ- to be sent to England, to be there imprisoned according to the provisions ence with Her Majesty's Government, was gone, apparently for ever. of 5 Geo. 4, c. 84, s. 17, to be thereafter transported to New South Under these circumstances, I was greatly tempted to resign an authority Wales or Van Diemen's Land.' The Act authorises contracts for their which appeared to have become inadequate to the grave emergency which safe transport to England ; and, by sect. 6, enacts that after the delivery alone had called for its existence. I did not, however, give way to this of any such convict to the contractor, ' his transportation to England, sentiment of despair. On the contrary, making all allowance for party safe custody, treatment, and confinement, until delivered to the autho- motives, which could not be appreciated by the people of these colonies ; rities in England, shall be regulated to all intents and purposes by the trusting that the approaching recess of Parliament would soon leave me provisions of 5 Geo. 4, c. 84.' undisturbed to pursue the useful course on which I had already deter- " This Act, although authorising imprisonment, and directing a certain mined ; relying not a little on the early promulgation here of legislative mode of treatment upon the high seas, was not thought to exceed the measures calculated to encourage British enterprise and promote general powers of the Provincial Legislature, and was sanctioned and approved prosperity ; and above all, influenced by a conviction that) the worst con- by Her Majesty's Ministers. These several provisions, however, only sequences might result from my resignation, I deemed it my duty to the applying to the case of persons convicted in courts of law, of offences, Queen, to my country, and to the people of these colonies, who had were not in force as to the State prisoners who confessed their participa- generously confided in my good intentions, topersevere in my course so tion in the treasonable practices of which they were accused, but they af- long as there was the least chance of success. Thus impelled, I banished forded a sufficient guide in an emergency beyond the scope of all ordinary every thought of resignation, and occupied myself more diligently than law. ever in bringing to maturity the whole series of measures by which I have " If the British Parliament could authorise the Sovereign to name any hoped that these colonies might be established in peace and prosperity as place of transportation beyond the seas, out of the British dominions, it a happy and loyal portion of the British empire. T was thus engaged when would seem not less within the authority of the Provincial Legislature to I received your Lordship's despatches, Nos. 83 and 84, conveying to me appoint a place of banishment not within the local limits of their autho- the most flattering expressions of the satisfaction which all my measures, rity, but within Her Majesty's dominions, which had been frequently used including the Proclamation and Ordinance relating to the political prison- as a place of transportation from this colony, and at which hulks are now ers, bad given to Her Majesty's Government. kept for the reception of convicts, and to which it appears, by Lord Aber- " Those despatches were the more gratifying to me, inasmuch as they deen's circular despatch of the 2nd of March, 1835, relative to transpurta- were accompanied by numerous unofficial letters from members of the tion from the colonies, such offenders as may be specially selected by the Government, and especially by those from yourself and Lord Melbourne, Home Secretary may still be sent. I need scarcely notice that this last whereby the expressions of official approbation were most warmly and despatch was by no means restrictive of my power in respect to the State

kindly confirmed. prisoners, as to whom your Lordship's instructions expressly suggest the " While those despatches and letters were still before me, an American substitution of transportation and banishment from the province in lieu of newspaper, which had reached Quebec by the same conveyance, was capital punishment. placed in any hands. Your Lordship will judge of my astonishment, when " The power of the Colonial Governments to punish by transportation I inform you that it contained a report of the proceedings in the,House of is indisputable, and its frequent exercise is recognised by the recital in Lords on the 7th, 9th, and 10th of August. sect. 17 of the Imperial Statute 5 Geo. 4, c. 84, already cited ; for, if by " At present no other information on the subject has reached me. the law of the colonies, convicts can be subject to transportation beyond I shall abstain, until officially informed, from entering at any length seas, the Legislatures of such colonies must have power to pass such laws.

on that important subject ; meanwhile, however, it behoves me to assure " I, as Governor-General and Governor-in-Chief of Canada, had a your Lordship, that public opinion here does not wait for the receipt of power to appoint the place to which any person should be transported who official intelligence on matters of vital moment to the interests of all ; and was convicted of a transportable offence, or who, being capitally convicted, that it has been most deeply affected by the sufficiently-authentic iutel- should assent to such commutation of his punishment ; and I had at my

disposal the immediate means of transport to any place within the com- mand of the admiral on the Halifax station, and the previous assent of the admiral to give every facility within his power.

" The Legislature which had the power to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and to place the whole country under the operation of martial law, to substitute a drum-bead court-martial of volunteers for a trial by jury in the ordinary courts of justice in the country, if they had thought it -necessary to exercise it (and the.Executive Government alone did, in fact, exercise it), had an equal power (it would be contending for little to say an equally constitutional right) to subject to punishment those who ad- mitted that they had offended against the laws of ,their country, and who prayed to be spared a public trial, to which the public interest was alike opposed ; the Legislature had an equal power, by law, to pass an Act of Attainder, with or without forfeiture of property, and with or without examining further witnesses, as they might think most likely to conduce to the benefit of the public and the tranquillity of the province, against the associates of those who pleaded guilty, and who bad fled from the pursuit of justice to a foreign country. " Whatever power was vested in the assembled Legislature of this pro- vince before the recent troubles, was vested in me, and the Special Council, by the Imperial Statute 1 Vict., c. 9, so far as that Act did not expressly circumscribe the power which it originated. I have yet to learn that the Ordinance of 2 Vict., c. 1 (now disallowed), in imposing the penalty of transportation to Bermuda on the State offenders, violated any one of the restrictive clauses of the Imperial Act. With the question in a constitutional point of view, it is not my purpose in this place to deal : my arguments are directed merely to the legality of the Ordinance, to show that (whether inoperative or not in any respect) it is not illegal, to show that the Legislature of Lower Canada, as constituted by the Impe- rial Parliament, kept within the limits of its authority. " I contend, then, with every deference for those who may have ex- pressed a contrary opinion, that the Legislature of Lower Canada had a legal right to transport any offenders to Bermuda, and under that autho- rity to convey them there, if they had the means' (as much as to send them to England and to provide the means'). and there to leave such offenders, liable to such restraints as it might please Her Majesty to sub- ject them to; • but Her Majesty could only act through the constituted authorities. The constituted authority here was the Governor, who, under the sanction of the Legislature of Lower Canada, conveyed them, by the means at his disposal, to the Bermudas. There the power of the Legislature of Lower Canada and of the Governor-General ceased. When the prisoners arrived at the Bermudas, it was the business of Her Ma- jesty's Government, either through the Imperial Parliament or through the local Legislature, to retain them there. It was perfectly well under- stood here, in the passing of the Ordinance, that there was no power iu this Legislature to pass any laws which could be binding in the Bermudas,

• and the Ordinance was confined to its recited object, to provide for the present security of this province, by effectually preventing the several persons named in it from being at large therein.'

" It was foreseen that the Governor of the Bermudas might have refused his assistance in this emergency, and have declined to allow the prisoners to be landed, or, if landed, might have instantly released them, or, if not, that before Her Majesty could procure any laws to be passed, ' subjecting the parties to the necessary restraints to prevent their return, the parties might apply to the courts of the Bermudas for their writs of habeas corpus, and might be enlarged, and quit the islands to return. Opposition to an Ordinance intended as, and being, in fact, an extension of Her Majesty's mercy towards the individuals who were the object of it, would probably. have weakened the claim to a future permission to return to the province, a permission which, if the British Parliament had adopted and continued, the Ordinance would have become of the utmost importance to the persons transported ; but the present security' of the province was further guarded by a severe penalty (not, as is evident from the Ordinance, to be inflicted without trial) upon such as should return without due permission. " As the Ordinance stands, coupled with the 1 Victoria, cap. 9, it imposes banishment for four years from the province, under the penalty of death. The returning from transportation before the period for which it is inflicted is subjected to capital punishment by many provincial statutes here, in cases where the original offence is not so punishable. To have imposed a lesser penalty would have been to lessen the original offence of treason, which those transported had admitted. " In conclusion, I maintain that in no respect is the Ordinance illegal, although in part it might have been inoperative without the coiiperation of Her Majesty's Ministers and the British Legislature.

" Insteud of waiting for the express directions of the Government, I determined, for the sake of tranquillising the province, to anticipate such cooperation, and to remove the prisoners instantly. " I have, &c. (Signed) DuRIIAM."

In the next, Lord Glenelg communicates the opinion of the Law Offi- cers: reports progress as to the doings in Parliament ; apologizes for ,the Ministers at home ; praises the GovernorsGeneral ; and advises him what to do.

LORD GLESTELG TO LORD DURHAM.

"Downing-street, 18M August, 1839.

"MY LORD,—With reference to my despatch, No. 83, of the 5th inst. I have now the honour to enclose to you a copy of the report of the law officers of the Crown on the ordinance for providing for the security of the Province of Lower Canada,' a copy of which was transmitted in your despatch of the 29th of June, No. 18. " Your Lordship will observe that the Attorney and Solicitor-General are clearly of opinion that so much of the ordinance as relates to the re- strictions to be placed in Bermuda on the eight persons sent by you to that place is void, inasmuch es the legislative jurisdiction of the Governor and Special Council of Lower Canada does not extend beyond the limits of the Province. In all other respects they are of opinion that the pro- visions of the ordinance were within the competency of the Governor and Special Council.

" I regret, however, to state, that a different view of the case was taken

by several individuals of high legal attainments, whose station and pros fessional experience could not fail to secure great weight to their opinions in the House of Lords, where this question was first agitated. There were, indeed, some who went so far as to contend that the whole ordi- nance was illegal, as exceeding the legislative authority vested by Par- liament in the Special Council ; but as this view of the case has not re- ceived the sanction of either House of Parliament, Her Majesty's Govern- ment, in accordance with the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, are fully satisfied that the powers confided by Parliament to the Governor and Special Council are sufficiently ample to authorize them to legislate to the full extent of the ordinance in question, so far as it relates exclu- sively to acts to be done within the province of Lower Canada. " But an objection of a more popular and general nature was also urged with great force against so much of the ordinance as purports, on a con. viction for returning to the Province without permission, to subject to capital punishment those persons who having fled the Province had there. by avoided the execution against them of the warrants for their apprehen- sion on the charge of high treason. Her Majesty's Government, folly sensible of the numerous and weighty difficulties with which. you had to deal, with reference to this question ; of the notoriety of the conduct of those persons, who, having taken an open part in inciting their followers to.insnrrection, had fled to the United States in order to withdraw them. selves from justice, and of the importance of securing the Province for a time, at least, against their return ; and aware, moreover, that ample time had been afforded to these parties, had they been so disposed, to surrender themselves to justice, and demand their trial, would have been quite satis- fied to have left in your Lordship's hands the mode of dealing with them, with perfect confidence that no act of needless severity or of substantial in. justice would have either been committed or sanctioned by your authority. The course, however,which Her Majesty's Government would have taken, as in their judgment the best calculated to uphold your authority, and thereby to consult the success of your mission, has unhappily, as they feel, been overruled. A Bill was introduced into the House of Lords, the object of which, as it was originally submitted, was twofold ; first, to obtain a de. claration of the intention of Parliament, in accordance with the view to which I have referred, of the narrow and restricted extent of the legislative powers of the Special Council, and thereby not only to invalidate the or. dinance as altogether illegal, but also to prevent any future legislation, by the same authority, involving a departure from the ordinary course of cri. minal law, under whatever circumstances of danger and emergency ; and, secondly, to provide an indemnity in respect of all acts done in pursuance of the ordinance. Her Majesty's Government felt it their duty to offer a decided opposition to the second reading of that Bill in the House of Lords, as calculated in their opinion most injuriously, and contrary to the spirit and tenor of the Act for snaking temporary provision for the govern. ment of Lower Canada, to narrow and restrict the powers vested by Par. liament in the Special Council. I regret, however, to state, that the se. cond reading of that Bill was carried in the House of Lords. Under these circumstances, and after the public discussions which had taken place on the subject, Her Majesty's Government, compelled as they were to admit that a portion of the ordinance, though comparatively unimportant, rested on no legal foundation, most reluctantly advised Her Majesty to disallow the ordinance. Extensive amendments were subsequently made in the Committee in the Bill. The clause which would have restricted the legis. lative powers of the Special Council was altogether omitted, and the in. demnity was expressly confined to acts done in respect of that part of the ordinance which was admitted to be beyond the legislative authority of the Governor and Special Council. The Bill so amended has been since passed by the other House of Parliament, and has received Her Majesty's assent. I enclose you a copy of it.

" The comparatively unimportant point to which alone the Act as it has finally passed applies, renders it in itself a measure demanding but a slight and passing notice. Her Majesty's Government, however, cannot conceal their apprehension that the discussions which.have been raised on this question may tend to impede and embarrass your course in the set. tlement of the affairs of Canada, and to raise anew some of those difficul- ties and obstacles which, under your administration, appeared to be rapidly on the decline. But, on the other hand, the opposition to your measures in this country has given rise to such strong expressions of con. fidence in the purity and excellence of the motives by which your conduct has been regulated, and has drawn forth from those personally interested in the affairs of Canada such decided testimony to the beneficial tendency of your administration, that Her Majesty's Government cannot but hope that your hands may be rather strengthened than weakened by the degree of public attention which has been directed to this subject. At the same time they feel it their duty to leave you in no uncertainty as to their views on the course which it may be expedient now to adopt with regard to the persons who, in consequence of the disallowance of the ordinance, can no longer be liable to its provisions. "In the first place, I have to convey Her Majesty's entire approbation of the proclamation issued by you on the 28th of June, by which, with the exception of the twenty-three persons specifically referred to, an amnesty was granted to all other persons charged with treasonable offences com- mitted during the late disturbances and insurrection in Lower Canada. In order, however, to maintain the distinction which you appear so properly to have made between the chief leaders and instigators of the in- surrection, and their misguided followers, Her Majesty's Government are decidedly of opinion that, notwithstanding the failure of the provisions of the ordinance, the eight persons sent by you to Bermuda should not be permitted to return to Lower Canada, except by the express permission of Her Majesty or of Her representative in the Province. It seems to them that this object could be best attained by an ordinance to be passed by yourself and the Special Council, subjecting the persons in question to such penalty, short of death, as may be thought expedient, in the event of their being convicted of returning to the Province without such permission.

" With regard to those who had previously fled from justice, it may perhaps be sufficient, by proclamation, or by any other clear and unam- biguous channel of information, to make it publicly, known that should they re-enter the Province without the same permission, they will forth- with be arrested and dealt with according to law on the charge of treason. It will, at the same time, be desirable to continue or renew the suspen- sion of the Habeas Corpus Act, that you may be able to detain any of them in custody in the event of their arrest, should the safety of the Pro- vince render such a proceeding necessary. In adopting this plan, it will be indispensable that the Suspension Act should be passed at the same time as the proclamation is issued, and made as publicly known as the proclamation, in order to avoid the possibility of any of the parties re- ferred to in the proclamation entering the Province in ignorance of the Suspension Act. To let them enter in such ignorance would be to deal unfairly with them. Her Majesty's Government hope, that by this means the end which you had in view may be attained, of averting the serious evil to be apprehended from persons being at large within the Province who had notoriously taken a prominent part in the recent revolt, and whose presence could not fail to occasion jealousy and dissatisfaction among the loyal subjects of Her Majesty, and might tend to revive feel. ings and passions which it must be the anxious desire of the Government to suppress and to allay. I do not intend to prescribe to you the precise course to which I have adverted as that which, under existing circum- stances, ought to be adopted, nor am I insensible to the objections to which any course on this subject is liable from those who are disposed to take an unfavourable view of the conduct of the Government ; but I am anxious to relieve you, as far as possible, from the uncertainty in which you might be involved by the recent debates in Parliament as to the ex- tent to which you would be held justified in proceeding with respect to the small number of persons whom, in the exercise of a sound and wise dis- cretion, you have excepted from the amnesty which has been extended to the great body of persons in the insurrection.

" I have assumed, throughout the consideration of this question, that no steps have been taken undiir the ordinance passed by the Special Council during Sir 3. Colborne's administration, for the more speedy attainder of persons indicted for high treason, who have fled from the province, or remain concealed therein, to escape from justice.' It will be for your Lordship to determine whether it would be advisable to pro. teed against the parties to whom that ordinance refers in the manner there prescribed ; but as the object to be attained is not so much the se- vere punishment of the guilty as their exclusion from the Province, and the suggestion to them of some motive for abstaining, during such exclu- sion, from a mischievous interference with its affairs, the other course to which I have referred, appears to Her Majesty's Government to be, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, the most expedient.

"4 I cannot conclude this despatch without expressing the deep regret which Her Majesty's Government have felt at the embarrassments to which you will have been subjected by the recent proceedings in Parlia- ment, regarding the difficult and delicate question of the disposal of the persons charged with treason in Lower Canada. On a deliberate review of the whole case, Her Majesty's Government are enabled distinctly to re- peat their approbation of the spirit in which those measures were con- ceived, and to state their conviction that those measures have been dictated

by a judicious and enlightened humanity, and were calculated, under your authority, to satisfy the ends of justice, although, in some respects, they involved a departure from its ordinary forms. The Government are also persuaded that your Lordship will be equally anxious with themselves to avoid, as far as possible, giving even a plausible ground of cavil or objec- tion to hostile criticism.

" It only remains for me to assure you of the undiminished confidence which Her Majesty's Government repose in you, and of their earnest de- sire to afford you the utmost support in the discharge of the arduous duties with which you are entrusted.

"I am, &c. (Signed) GLFNELG."

To this, Lord Durham replies in the following elaborate paper ; in which he expounds his own policy, and exposes the errors of the Govern- ment in England.

LORD DURHAM TO LORD GLENELO.

" Castle of St. Lewis, Queber,28th September, 1838. " MY LORD—I had the honour to receive, on the evening of the day before yesterday, your Lordship's despatch of August 18th (No. 89), with its enclosures. That communication was accompanied by private letters, and, by full reports of the recent proceedings in both Houses of Parliament with respect to my mission.

"The information thus supplied enables me to fulfil the promise made in my despatch of the 25th instant (No. 66), of fully explaining to your Lordship the grounds on which 1 had determined to resign my commis- sions of High Commissioner and Governor-General of Her Majesty's colonies in North America.

" The Act of mere Indemnity, which has passed the British Legislature, no doubt differs very materially, as your Lordship observes, from the Bill introduced by Lord Brougham. The Bill would have placed such restric- tions on my authority as to deprive me of the legal power, indispensable to the temporary government of this distracted country. The Act only purports to save use harmless from the consequences of a measure declared to have been illegal. Still my position has been, morally and practically, so much weakened as to be no longer tenable, with a hope of beneficial results. But I will not detain your Lordship, by drawing any further comparison between the Bill that was proposed and the Act that has passed ; the latter measure is now irrevocable, and must be considered on its own merits. It is only in that point of view which, however, does not exclude any of the Parliamentary proceedings which resulted in the passing of the Act, that I request your Lordship's attention to the follow- ing observations on the subject : " Your Lordship informs me, that ' Her Majesty's Government felt it their duty to offer a decided opposition' to the second reading of the Bill introduced by Lord Brougham ; but in what, I venture ask, did that op- position result ? In a concession far more calculated, as it appears to me, to weaken my hands, than would have been any vote of the House of Lords ; in which, it is notorious, that Her Majesty's Government have never commanded a majority. A vote of the House of Lords, adverse to Her Majesty's Government, or nurely condemnatory of any proceeding of mine, would have been considered almost as a matter of course, in the present state of parties ; and would, if it had been decidedly opposed by the Ministers, have left my authority untouched, because it would have been attributed to the mere party motives of a powerful opposition. Supposing that such a vote had passed, there would have remained the House of Commons, where I am bound to presume that a measure, de- cidedly opposed by Her Majesty's Ministers, would not have been adopted. In that case, the Parliamentary proceedings on this subject would but have resembled many others which have occurred of late years, and which have left the Government unharmed by a hostile proceeding of the House of Lords. In that case, I should have suffered no greater inconvenience than such as any Government must be subject to, which is vigorously and almost constantly opposed by a majority in the Upper House. As respects these colonies, I do believe that the inconvenience would not have been very great ; because the adverse proceeding would have been attributed altogether to the state of parties in England, and would have been considered as foreign to the state of affairs in this part of the world. But at all events, in that case, my acts and my authority would have been supported by the House of Commons and the Crown. How different is my actual position ! In order to stop hostile proceedings in the House of Lords—(for after your Lordship's despatches, approving of all my measures, I can discover no other motive for the step)—Her :Majesty's Ministers determine on advising the Crown to render abortive the most important act of my government. The Crown, therefore, whose representative I am, condemns me on the ground that I have acted ille- gally. But this is not all ; the manner of the condemnation requires (at least, so it is supposed by those who advised it), that I should be saved harmless from the consequences of the measure which, whatever it may have been before, they render null and void. They imagine that I re- quire such 'a shield ; they think that, without it, the prisoners now in Bermuda, whom I refused to subject to the jurisdiction of such a tri- bunal as would assuredly have condemned them to death; whose pro- perty as well as lives I spared : whom I saved from the ignominy of transportation as convicts ; whose parole of honour I took as sufficient security for their not attempting to escape : that these men are to sue me for damages for such treatment. This is the opinion of her Majesty's Ministers ; and therefore, having disallowed the Ordinance, they support, in both Houses, the Bill of Indemnity. The condemnation of the most important measure of my government has thus become the act of the whole British Legislature. In addition to all this, the Act requires that it should lie proclaimed here ; and I am thus compelled, unless I should instantly resign, to join in the condemnation that has been passed on me by the Crown, the Lords, and the Commons. I may surely be permitted to.think, that adverse votes of the House of Lords 'would have been infinitely preferable to the course which has been taken in order to avert that evil.

" Being determined above all things that no personal feeling or conside- ration shall have any influenep on my conduct in the present state of pub- lic affairs in this colony, I shall proclaim the Act of Indemnity in the next official gazette. If I resigned immediately, that duty would be im- posed on the administrator of this Government. The reasons which induce me to abstain from resigning at present will be stated hereafter. Meanwhile, I have to explain the grounds on which it appears to me that my permanent occupation of this Government would be rather injurious than beneficial to Her Majesty's service. " In my anxious examination of this question, I have endeavoured to dis- regard the past, excepting as it affects the future. By this course I have hoped to gain two advantages : first, that of simplifying the subject ; and secondly, which is far more important, that of preventing the intrusion of wounded personal feeling into a deliberation which should be conducted solely with a view to public objects. " Recurring to the past, then, only as it bears on the future, I am de- sirous to point out, what seems to have been overlooked by everybody in England, that the particular measure which has been condemned forms but a part, though a very important one, of the whole policy which was proclaimed by the Ordinance of the Special Council, and the Proclamation of Amnesty issued on the day of Her Majesty's coronation. That policy was not indicated by either of those measures separately. The two mea- sures were indeed one, having been divided into two parts, merely for the purpose of imposing on the Governor and Council all that required legis- lation and was of a penal character, and of making all that partook of mercy and kindness the act of the Queen. Nor was the whole policy pro- claimed on that day to be found in the Ordinance and Proclamation alone. The official gazette, in which those documents were published, contained a most unusual announcement in the following terms : We are authorized to state that his Excellency the Governor-General is actively engaged in the preparation of measures which will, as soon as may be possible, be embodied in ordinances of the Governor and Special Council, relative to a jury law, a bankrupt law, the judicial and municipal institutions of the whole province, general education, the establishment of registry offices, and the equitable commutation of feudal tenures.' If it had been pos- sible to prepare measures of this kind in time, they would have appeared in the form of ordinances on the same day as the Proclamation of Am- nesty. But the promise was considered sufficient to indicate my sense of the necessity of very important changes in the civil and municipal law of the province. The whole policy which I intended to pursue was embo- died in that promise, in the Amnesty, and in that part of the preamble of the Proclamation wherein is asserted Her Majesty's ' firm resolve to pue nigh with the utmost severity any future act of insubordination, and moro especially to prevent in future the occurrence of dissensions similar tg those by which the province had been disturbed, by effectually removine all causes of dissension, so that the province might be established in peace as a loyal and truly British colony. I had made up my mind, it wa- evident, to the necessity of rendering the institutions of this province tho- roughly British. But it was also plain, I hope, that admitting, as to the future, the necessity of measures which would be unpalatable to the ma- jority of French Canadians, I was desirous to deal very leniently with such of them as had by their past conduct become amenable to severe punish- ment. As to the past, I proclaimed forgiveness and oblivion ; as to the future, British institutions ; as to the present, security against the dis- affected. The only provision for the security of the colony has been ren- dered null. Moreover, since the different parts of the whole scheme of policy were intimately blended with and dependant on each other, the de- struction of one portion of it affects all the rest, not merely by giving a triumph to the disaffected generally, and allowing the worst of them an opportunity to play over again their part as leaders in a rebellion, but also (and this is the main consideration) by showing that no reliance is to be placed upon the validity of any law, or the performance of any engage- ment, proceeding from the extraordinary authority which has been created for the temporary government of this country. If I have described my own policy aright, I shall not err in representing that of the Imperial Go- vernment as one for the production of insecurity at present, and of doubt, uncertainty, and want of confidence as to the future.

" The particular defect of the Ordinance, which has led to the-disallow- ance of the whole of it, was occasioned by no oversight of the Extraordi- nary Legislature of Lower Canada. I believed, and still believe, for the reasons assigned by me in my despatch No. 67, that, by the legislative powers entrusted to that body, we were authorized to banish persons from the province, and that, according to a constant course of precedents fur- nished by the legislation of the province, our power extended to the cus- tody and disposal of provincial prisoners while on the high seas, and to landing them on the shore of Bermuda, or of any other portion of the globe in which free access to strangers is allowed by the municipal laws. further, it was well known to us, our jurisdiction did not extend ; once landed in Bermuda, the prisoners were subject only to the laws of that island. It was known that they would not arrive there as convicts (espe- cial pains had been taken to spare them that indignity), and that the laws, therefore, which held good with regard to ordinary convicts would not apply to them. It was known that they could be forcibly detained within the precincts of Bermuda only by provisions to be made for that purpose by the legislature of the island, or by the Imperial Parliament. The words of the Ordinance, which authorized Her Majesty to impose restraints on the prisoners in a colony not subject to our jurisdiction, could give Her Majesty no power which she did not possess before. It was never sup- posed that they could : and that part of the Ordinance was passed with a perfect knowledge that it was wholly inoperative, and that the prisoners could pot be compelled to remain in Bermuda, without the adoption of measures in aid of our legislation by the authorities of the island or of the empire. The words were inserted for the double purpose of showing that the prisoners were not to be subjected to the ordinary treatment of ordi- nary convicts, and of relieving the loyal inhabitants of the province from the apprehension of the immediate return of these dangerous persons to its limits or its vicinity. "As it happened, however, the object of the provision in question was attained in spite of its legal inadequacy ; for the detention of the prisoners in Bermuda was securcd by their voluntary parole. "Except for the purposes 1 have mentioned, the words objected to were, in fact, mere surplusage. If, as common sense points out, they were merely inoperative, their insertion is a matter of no importance. If the lawyers are technically right in confounding two very distinct words and ideas, and describing as illegal all legislative provisions which are obvi- ously inoperative, it may be inferred that Her Majesty could not give her sanction to this enactment, and that the disallowance of tine Ordinances was a matter of technical necessity. But in either case, it was the busi- ness r.r a wise government and legislature to correct the errors or supply the imperfections which had their origin in a zeal for humanity and for the integrity of the empire. I speak of a policy, of which the leading features and animating spirit have now been sanctioned by almost universal assent. It has hardly been impugned even in this province, by those whose friends I could not entirely relieve from all punishment for rebellion, or those whose sense of justice I shocked not a little by the supposed inadequacy of my penalties. It has been generally and cordially approved, even in its details, by the people of the neighbouring states, the people in the world the most competent to judge without passion of the local necessities of the case, and not the least ardent in their love of freedom and their respect for the law. It has not, even amid*the acrimony of party debates at home, been denied by any person whose opinion has any weight with any body, to possess the merits (all by which I set much store) of substantial justice, mercy, and sound discretion. A government and legislature anxious for the tranquillity of this wretched country, for the interests of humanity, for the honour of the British Crown, would not have lightly foregone the benefits which such a policy promised, and had already in great measure secured. They would have taken good care that its great and beneficent purpose should not be frustrated by any error which they could rectify, or by the want of any power which they could supply. If they found the Ordinance inoperative, they would have given it effect ; if illegal, they would have made it law.

" Instead of this, Her Majesty's Ministers, at the instance of a branch of the Legislature, have decided on disallowing the whole Ordinance : and in place of finding the cooperation which I had a right to expect, I am favoured with an Act of Indemnity, for which I can be thankful, only be- cause it purports to relieve others from any penalty incurred by their ready acquiescence in my views. The disallowance of the Ordinance has, I repeat, rendered null all the repressive portion of my policy ; it has also, by extending a complete pardon to all, deprived me, who do not shrink from the ungracious task of framing measures obnoxious to one class of the people, of the power to make them some compensation by further acts of grace and kindness. Finally, it overthrows all confidence in my en- gagements ; it deprives my pledged word of all weight and value. I should now legislate, if at all, with the expectation that each measure would be scanned and criticised in a hostile spirit, and not improbably rendered abortive by the supreme authority. A delegated authority, when not sus- tained by the power that has bestowed it, loses all moral force : and I need not remind your Lordship, that a government of mere physical force is neither possible on this continent, nor would be otherwise than wholly inconsistent with my feelings and opinions. Therefore, I am satisfied that the proceedings of the Government at home entirely preclude me from carrying out the policy which I had proclaimed, and on which I have acted. I could not adopt a new policy now without bringing ridicule on all concerned. I am thus disabled from rendering any important service to the public in my present situation. By retaining an authority which has become merely nominal as regards the great purposes for which it was created, I should wilfully delude the public with false hopes, and deli- berately provide for a more bitter disappointment. These are the main grounds on which I persevere in the determination of resigning, announced to your Lordship in my despatch No. 66. " But these, though the principal, are not the only reasons, which in- duce me to resign. The late proceedings at home have not merely, by destroying the moral power of my government, deprived me of the ne- cessary means of carrying into effect a policy, of which the Ordinance in question was a small though essential part ; but have, by the disallowance of that particular measure, imposed on the government of this province the most serious practical difficulties. I have already called your Lord- ship's attention to the fact, that the disallowance of the Ordinance annuls all the measures of precaution and punishment which I have adopted ; and that the universal operation of Her Majesty's Proclamation of Amnesty, limited by no exceptions save those now invalidated, establishes an im- punity absolutely coextensive with crime, and places the leaders of the rebellion precisely in the same situation as that which they occupied be- fore their recent unsuccessful attempt. I find that this result was not wholly overlooked in the debates in Parliament ; and that it was suggested that some precautions should be taken by the authority, which invali- dated our acts, to avert the mischief thereby occasioned. Though much was said, however, nothing has been done : the work is left to be per- formed by the provincial legislature : and your Lordship is kind enough to suggest the course which you think it advisable that we should adopt in the present emergency. The question of the disposal of the persons implicated in the late insurrection, was one originally foreign to my mis- sion, an obstacle left in my path by previous neglect in one quarter or another. I succeeded in removing it : the effects of its existence had been effaced. It is now placed in my way once more ; with this addi- tional disadvantage, that, having all that is difficult and odious to do over again, I have lost the power of accompanying it by an act of grace. I have to punish without pardoning; and justice having been now baulked of its due, I am to execute whatever vengeance the interposition of the Home Authorities may have left within my reach.

" The suggestions made by your Lordship appear to me liable not only to this, but to other objections. Her Majesty's Government feeling it their duty, as you say, ' to leave me in no uncertainty as to their views on the course which it may be expedient now to adopt with regard to the persons who, in consequence of the disallowance of the Ordinance, can no longer be liable to its provisions,' suggest the passing another Ordi- nance, banishing from the province the eight persons who have been sent to Bermuda, and forbidding their return under some penalty short of death.'

" Your Lordship appears in a subsequent passage to desire that such an Ordinance should apply to the whole of the ' persons whom, in the exer- cise of a sound and wise discretion, I have excepted from the Amnesty.' This would include Mr. Papineau, and the others, whom, being at large and absent from the province, the disallowed Ordinance had sentenced to banishment.

" But, from a paragraph immediately following, which refers to the course practicable under an Ordinance of Sir John Colborne's, I am led to suppose that you look to a suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act as sufficient for effecting the exclusion of those dangerous persons. "If the Ordinance, which you propose, were to exclude only the eight persons now in Bermuda, it would be useless and iniquitous. There would he no justice in punishing Mr. Bouchette for being taken, while Mr. Gagnon, the companion of his guilty enterprise, is allowed to return unmolested to his home : or in dooming Dr. Wolfred Nelson to a severer lot than that assigned to his brother, who was not only guilty of treason previous to leaving the province, but has since invaded it at the head of an armed hand of foreigners and refugees. If it be politic to allow Mr. Papineau to return, and resume his former course, it were merely a need- less and petty cruelty to banish from their homes his holder, and there- fore less dangerous tools.

" If the Ordinance were to include Mr. Papineau, and the others who have been banished without a trial or confession of guilt, the ends of sub- stantial justice would he attained in the same way as in the disallowed Ordinance ; and the new Ordinance would be liable to the same objec- tions as those urged against the former one. Your Lordship, I know, does not participate in these objections ; hut experience has shown me that it is necessary in the present times, thr those exercising an arduous responsibility far from home, to ]cant to the opinions, not only of the

Ministers, but also of the Oppecicion. And in a course similar to that, which has been already impugned by your Lordship's opponents in Parliament, I do not fed quite sure that the same power which has in- duced her Majesty's Government to cancel an act, of which you had al. ready declared Weir approbation, might not compel them to disallow the very course suggested by themselves.

" The mere substitution of a milder punishment in place of that of death, would obviate none of the objections made on principle to the in. fliction of any penalty without trial. No one can imagine that capital punishment would ever have been wantonly inflicted by one who has de. 'eiated from the ordinary law, in order solely that he might exercise a more than ordinary clemency. That penalty was denounced in the Ordinance, because it seemed necessary, according to the general practice of civilized nations, to enforce submission to the second in the scale of penalties, by a threat of the highest. To call an act innocent in itself, by the name, and subject it to the penalties of treason, is not more revolting to strict notions of ordinary law, than to call it felony or misdemeanor, and punish it with banishment, imprisonment, or fine.

"Your Lordship suggests that this new policy should be completed by a suspension of the habeas corpus. And such a measure I am aware has been suggested, as a matter of course, by some of those speakers in Par. liament who profess most regard for the British constitution. I cannot bring myself to rate the great guarantee of personal liberty as so unim- portant a part of the British constitution, or of those securities which should be possessed by every civilized community. On the contrary, am inclined to think it quite as important, and quite as sacred from need- less and unnecessary violation as any, without exception, of the provisions made for fair and open trial. And I must own that I have seen, with no little regret, how much men's minds appear to have been familiarized with the idea of suspending the habeas corpus, by the frequency with which it has been done in the bad periods of our own history ; and the consequent facility with which, in these debates, it seems to have been proposed as a mere matter of course by some of those who express the greatest horror at any deviation from what they call a constitutional course. To me, my Lord, it appears that men's notions of right and freedom would be much more shocked at such an universal violation of every man's dearest rights, than by any summary process adopted for the punishment of the undenia- ble. guilt of a few. 1 do not say that there are no circumstances under which I would consent to a suspension of the habeas corpus ; I should not hesitate to adopt it in any emergency in which the notoriety of a general outbreak, or of a general purpose of insurrection, might render it ad- visable that a Government should be for a while armed with the power of arresting the objects of its suspicion, without bringing them to immediate trial. But I see no necessity on account of any existing evil in this pro- vince, for taking such a step now ; and the present legislative authority of this province will be capable of being brought into immediate action at the moment in which any danger may declare itself. On no other ground • can I consent to propose such a measure for adoption by the Special Council. I cannot think it justifiable to take away the franchises of a whole people in order to punish a few known and dangelams individuals ; or to guard against the misconduct of twenty-three men, by enveloping them in a general forfeiture of personal liberty.

" Had your Lordship's suggestion of these measures been accompanied by positive instructions for their instant adoption, I should have felt that, in consequence of my insuperable repugnance to taking any part in them, it would be my duty to resign immediately the government of this pro- vince, and to give up my authority to a successor who would carry your orders into effect. But as you expressly state that you do not intend to prescribe to me the precise course to which you have adverted, as that which under existing circumstances ought to be adopted,' I conclude that you mean not in any way to fetter my discretion. I shall therefore pursue the course which, taking all the circumstances of the case into considera- tion, I regard as best calculated for the public service. " I do not instantly resign my authority, because I have made engage. ments and imposed upon myself obligations which it is absolutely neces. sary that I should fulfil. In my character of Governor-General, I have set on foot the reform of some practical grievances, which are among the many that have been long suffered by the people, and which I fear they might continue to suffer, if the governing hand which has first ventured to meddle with abuses in this country were suddenly withdrawn from the work of reformation. In sonic cases, both of individuals and of classes, I have held out hopes, and made virtual promises, to which every sense of honour and of truth commands me, as far as remains in my power, to give effect. In my character as High Commissioner, I have instituted en. quirks, some of them relating to the whole of these colonies, and all to subjects of great importance. Considering the great expense necessarily incurred in carrying out the objects of my mission, and the lamentable want of information upon these subjects, which prevails in the Imperial Legislature, I should take shame to myself if, except under some absolute necessity, I were to leave all these enquiries incomplete. Above all, I am desirous that my mission should not prove fruitless as to its main object, namely, the preparation of a plan for the future government of this part of the British empire. Such a plan could only be framed upon ample in- formation as to the wants, dispositions, and interests, as well conflicting as general, of every class of Her Majesty's subjects in these colonies. I have endeavoured to gain such information from all quarters, but have not yet completed that very arduous task. Still it is so near completion, that I cannot bear to think of leaving it unfinished ; and if unfinished, produc- tive of no other result than a waste of public money, of the laborious exer- tions of those whom I have employed, and of the patience of the people of these colonies, which, I do solemnly assure your Lordship, may be tried over much. I have no doubt that, in a few weeks snore, nothing essential to this object will be left undone. I shall then return to England without loss of time, for the purpose of laying at the feet of the Queen the com- missions of Governor-General and High Commissioner, with which Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to honour me ; and then, in my place in Parliament, at least, I may be able to render my mission productive of good, by satisfying the British people and Legislature of the absolute ne- cessity of steadily pursuing, towards these colonies, a very different policy from any tint has vet been adopted by the parent state.

"Even if I can ao no other good there, I shall be able to use my expe- rience of this colony in chocking the prevailing disposition of Parliament to decide on the vital interests of this distant community according to the principles of a constitution, and the feelings of a state of society the least analogous to those which prevail here. The government of these pro- vinces requires something more than a knowledge of the common and statute law of England. Though the object of wise and benevolent states- men should he to establish the great principles of the British constitution and the English law in this province, it must not be supposed that this is yet done ; and I trust that the acts of future Governors will be submitted to the decision of some more competent judges than those who profess to try such acts by the mere principles of English law. My acts have been despotic, because my delegated authority was despotic. Until I learn from some one better versed in the English language, that despotism means anything but such an aggregation of the supreme executive and legislative authority in a single hand, as was deliberately made by Parlia- ment in the Act which constituted my present powers, I shall not blush to hear that I have exercised a despotism : I shall feel anxious only to know how well and how wisely I have used, or rather exhibited an inten- tion of using, my great powers.

" Nor shall I regret that I have wielded these despotic powers in a man- ner which, as an Englishman, I am anxious to declare utterly inconsistent with the British constitution, until I learn what are the constitutional principles that remain in force when a whole constitution is suspended ; what principles of the British constitution hold good in a country where the people's money is taken without the people's consent, where represen- tative government is annihilated, where martial law has been the law of the land, and where the trial by jury exists only to defeat the ends of jus. tice,and to provoke the righteous scorn and indignationof the community. I should indeed regret the want of applicability in my own principles of government, or my own incapacity for applying them, had the precise course which I should think it imperative on me to pursue in a land of freedom and of law, proved to be the only one that I could adopt in a country which long misgovernment and sad dissension have brought to a condition that may fairly be described as one of constituted anarchy. "I have, &c. (Signed) Du imam ."

In the first of the two following, Lord Durham describes the effect of the occurrences in England on the public opinion of America. In the second, he gives a particular instance of the effect on one of the Canadian Judges.

LORD DURHAM TO LORD GLENELG.

" Dated Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 16th of October, 1838. " In my despatch No 68, which announced my intention of returning to England at an early period, for the purpose of resigning my commissions, I explained the grounds on which I had formed that decision after mature deliberation. I felt that the moral power of my government was so com- pletely destroyed, and the difficulties of my position so greatly augmented by the proceedings of Her Majesty's Ministers and the Imperial Parlia- ment, that the attempt to conduct the government of these provinces on better principles than those which have hitherto been adopted was one which must be made by other hands than mine. I grieve to find that I did not by any means exaggerate the probable effect which would be pro- duced on the public mind on this continent by the occurrences in Eng- land. In the course of one week I have found the tone of the British inhabitants change from the loudest professions of loyalty and attachment to the connection with the mother country, to a calm anticipation and dis- cussion of the chances and consequences of separation. From the same mouths that a short while ago expressed the most passionate resentment of wrongs supposed to have been received from the people of the United States, I hear significant approval of the course which I have all along taken to conciliate the good-will of a kindred people, whose sympathies with the English race it is judged politic to cultivate. I have been star- tled at the rapid growth of this dangerous state of mind ; and when the mass of the Brills% population of this city were assembled to present me with an address, expressive of the kindest feeling towards myself, and the strongest condemnation of the policy which severs the official connection between us, I shrunk from any other than a formal and deliberate expres- sion of my feelings, from fear lest an indiscreet word or gesture on my part, or any of those unforeseen accidents which carry large popular as- semblies beyond the influence of human control, might lead to a general expression of the angry feeling that pervaded the excited numbers whom I beheld before me.

"A perfectly different feeling exhibited itself at first among the French Canadians. They naturally exulted in the victory which appeared to have been gained by those who put themselves forward as their especial advocates in the mother country, and the disaffected rejoiced at perceiv- ing that the arm of authority was weakened. Since the receipt of the first news from home which might lead them to believe, on high autho- rity, that I did not really possess the powers with which they once imagined me to be invested, I can have no doubt that the disposition to secret machinations and preparations for insurrections, which had been for some time checked, has sprung into renewed activity ; and though I do not feel much dread at the prospect of any unsupported attempts which the French population may make against the military force now in this country, I cannot doubt that there is now in existence an organiza- tion of the disaffected in this province, which may lend a most pernicious aid to any attack which may be made from without. " I have already forwarded to your Lordship an address expressive of the feelings of the delegates from the lower provinces of British North America ; and the accounts which I have recently had show that the same feelings have been generally expressed in those provinces in the calm manner in which their happy immunity from actual civil war enables their inhabitants still to express their political sentiments ; but throughout Upper Canada, where the memory of recent suffering is fresh and vivid, and where the terror of near and visible peril constantly alarms the public mind, a more passionate and general feeling of regret and alarm has per- vaded all classes. Unaccustomed to the state of feeling generated by actual insurrection, I have been struck by the extent of that terror with which nil parties and all classes see, in the disturbance of my policy, the harbinger of a winter similar in its political character to the last. The sudden unanimity of all parties in that most divided province has been as alarming as extraordinary ; for when those in power, and those who in attempting to snatch it from them advanced to the brink of rebellion, signed the same address,—when the leaders of the reformers seconded the resolutions moved by the heads of the family compact,-1 could not but infer that an unanimity so strange must have beets produced by the indi- cation of sure and awful peril. "Of what nature that danger is, the enclosed communications from Her Majesty's Minister at Washington will inform your Lordship. I grieve to say that all the intbrmation which I have received within these few days, from all quarters, confirms the alarming intelligence conveyed therein. I have no doubt that the numbers, means, and projects of the conspirators are greatly exaggerated but I have little doubt, also, that there is great reason to apprehend that there has been suddenly formed throughout the bordering states, among a population capable of such en- terprises, a widely-ramified conspiracy, bent on repeating in Canada the scenes of Texas, invading the British dominions with a horde of those lawless and daring adventurers, who are to be tempted by the promise of sharing in the plunder of private and public property in these ample and fertile provinces. " It is of great importance that your Lordship and your colleagues should know the present state of feeling, both in these provinces and in the neighbouring states, and that you should know it betimes. I take, therefore, the opportunity which is afforded me by the postponement of the Royal William's departure, to supply you, though in a hurried manner, with the information which has reached me.

" The mind of the British population throughout all the provinces has been deeply agitated by the prospect of a new change in the system of government. I am happy to be able to adduce the great number and the kind language of the addresses which I have received from all parts of the two Canadas, as proofs of the favourable feelings with which my policy has been regarded. Your Lordship must not imagine that I attach undue importance to documents so flattering to myself ; for I feel that these are expressions of a deeper and more serious feeling than any that regards my individual conduct or treatment. The expressions of regret at my resig- nation, and of condemnation of the disallowance of my Ordinance, pro- ceed from those who disapproved of that part of my policy, just as much

as from those who had most warmly supported it. The measures which I had adopted with a view to the disposal of the political prisoners had been a long time in operation ; and however freely they had been canvassed,— however much a certain portion of the population had thought it right to censure them,—that discussion had run its course, and all had acquiesced in a policy which they judged to be definitively adopted. The disturbance of this settled policy by the acts of the Home Government has been regretted and, condemned, not more by those who most cordially ap- proved of the particular course adopted by me, than by those who origi- nally wished that I had acted with greater severity. Both equally condemn the precipitate interference which has obviously been undertaken in utter ignorance of the state of these provinces. They see with dismay that the difficulties which may policy had succeeded in removing are again placed in the way of the Government ; that the authority from which they expected at least vigour and steadiness is powerless to enforce its determinations, and to maintain the course on which it has entered ; and that these un- happy provinces are, during the trying emergencies which are generally anticipated, to be still subjected to the mischievous influence of that wavering and temporizing policy which has hitherto paralyzed the efforts of their energetic and loyal inhabitants.

" Your Lordship will not be surprised to learn that regret is not the only feeling that has in consequence pervaded the British portion of the population, and that they have not beheld without anger their dearest interests thus made, as they express it, the sport of parties at home, who do not participate in either the danger or the desire to avert it. I have warned your Lordship that the patience and the loyalty of our countrymen in these provinces may be tried overmuch ; I have not been surprised, therefore, that their despair at the failure of that support which they had justly expected from home has led them to think on what they can do for themselves ; but I do assure your Lordship that I was not prepared for the extent of the change which I cannot doubt that these events have produced in the public mind here. " I am compelled abruptly to close this despatch, of the means of for- warding which I received a very short notice."

(EXTRACT.) LORD DURHAM TO LORD GLENELG.

" Castle of $t. Lewis, Quebec, 20th October, 1838. " MY Loan—I have repeatedly called your attention to the injurious effects produced on the authority of Goverment in this province, not only by the acts of the Legislature and of Her Majesty's Ministers, but also by the discussions in Parliament. Your Lordship, and those who, from their intimate acquaintance with the motives and conduct of public men at home, arc accustomed to attach little weight to expressions of indivi- dual opinions, may think that I overstate the effect produced here by what is said in the two Houses of Parliament. It may also be difficult for those who draw their ideas of this colony from a superficial view of what they see in England to conceive the extent in which the authority of Go- vernment is weakened, in every respect, by the want of support which I have hitherto experienced. I am therefore anxious to bring under your Lordship's consideration the proceedings in a recent case in the Court of Queen's Bench at Quebec.

" In the case ' Es' parte Firmin Moreau,' application was made for a writ of habeas corpus, for the purpose of discharging from gaol a person committed by the superintendent of police, under the police ordinance passed by the Special Council at the same time as the disallowed ordi- nance for the better security of the province. Mr. Justice Bildard dis- sented from his brother judges, and held the committal invalid, on the ground that, in his opinion, the Imperial Act, 17 Geo. II. c. 5, relating to vagrants, formed part of the laws of this province, and that the police ordinance, being in contravention of its provisions, is null under those of the Imperial Act, 1 Vict., restricting the legislative power of the Go- vernor-General and Special Council to enactments not at variance with any Imperial Act. " Mr. B6dard was fortunately overruled by the other judges, and no mischief resulted in the particular case before the court ; but that mis- chief has been done, which must result from the public declaration of the illegality of the acts of the only legislative authority in the country, on the part of one of the judges of the highest court; whilst still greater mischief must result from this opinion being grounded on a view which restricts the legislative authority of the province within limits so absurdly narrow, and the greatest evil of all is, that however preposterous may be the opinion, or however small the weight, attaching in the public mind to the authority of the particular judge, who on this occasion dissented from his brethren, his opinion is untbrtunately backed by those of many of the speakers of both Houses of Parliament, in the late debates on the ordinance.

" Mr. Bildard only takes, after all, the ground on which a great many

objections to the disallowed ordinance were made by speakers whose position gave their expressions no small authority. It was stated, that as tls• provisions of the criminal law of England were extended to this pro- vince by the Quebec Act, the Governor-General and Special Council could have 110 power of altering any part of that law. It was urged, that as the procedure in cases of treason is regulated by British Acts, I could not pu- nish persons accused of treason by any mode except that prescribed by Eng- lish statutes. This is the interpretation placed by some English lawyers on the operation of the provision whereby the Governor and Council are restricted from repealing Imperial Acts. Mr. Mord follows out this view to its legitimate and absurd consequences, when he gravely asserts i that the authority of the only legislature of this province is restricted by the most insignificant provisions of the criminal law or imperial statutes. According to this view, a constitution is suspended, and the semblance of despotism established, for the purpose of arming the Government of Lower Canada with an authority winch is fettered by the Vagrant Act.

" I have, &c. (Signed) Du nn AM."

The Governor-General winds up whh a warning of approaching danger, and an account of preparations to meet it.

LORD DURHAM TO LORI) GLENELG.

" Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 20th October, 1838.

" MY LORD—Since my despatch (No. 84) which I forwarded to your Lordship on the 16th inst., 1 have seen Sir John Colborne, and had the advantage of a good deal of communication with him on the present state

of affairs. His information respecting the probability of serious disturb. antes during theensuing winter, I and softy to say, tallies very exactly with that which 1 have received from all quarters ; and his opinion of the gloomy aspect of affairs is just as strong as that which I have lately endeavoured to impress on your Lordship. I am happy to say that the most perfect un- derstanding continues to prevail between us. Looking on him as the person with whom the whole conduct and responsibility of the Government dur- ing the next six months will in all probability rest, I have thought it best for the public service that he should enter as speedily as possible on that course, by which he purposes to maintain the tranquillity and the posses- sion of these provinces. I have requested him at once to take whatever military precautions he may deem necessary for enabling him to carry out his own views for the security of the provinces, against foreign invasion, or internal disaffection. He has readily availed himself of this offer, and is busily engaged in taking steps for calling out the volunteers, and guard- ing the frontiers. The indications of mischief are so numerous and so urgent, that it is no longer possible to conceal, or advisable to attempt con- dealing, the consciousness of danger entertained by the Government: its only course is openly and resolutely to proclaim and avert that danger. The early adoption of these measures of military precaution must of necessity entail great expense on the Government. It will too clearly demonstrate to the province and to neighbouring states the melancholy condition of its internal and external relations ; and it will in all probability produce a state of things in which the present exasperation of parties will be aggra- vated by fresh causes of irritation ; but these are evils which must be borne, if we mean to provide, as far as is in our power, for the retention of the two Canadas. While, therefore, I cannot but lament the necessity of them, I must approve the adoption, under existing circumstances, of these measures by the Commander of the Forces. "The result of my communication with Sir John Colborne, as well as of fresh intelligence which I have received, has been a confirmation of the propriety of my relinquishing the government of these provinces. It is quite clear that at the present season it is useless for the Government to occupy itself with any schemes of extensive and permanent amelioration. The sole object of its care must for the present be the retention of the province during the winter. As this must be attained by military means, the business of my pacific mission is, if not at an end, in abeyance ; and it is best that for a while the civil and military authority of this province should be in the same hands. A civil governor here would, during the next six months, have no legitimate business, save that of rendering that subordinate aid to the military authorities which will be better secured if the enthee direction and responsibility be allowed to rest with the Com- mander of the Forces ; and this is also Sir John Colborne's view of the case. My only sphere of utility to these colonies must, I am more than ever convinced, be henceforth in the Imperial Parliament, where, if I can force on the knowledge of my countrymen the true state of these pro- vinces, and the true policy to be adopted for their future good government, I may contribute towards rendering available the last opportunity which I believe will ever be afforded to Great Britain of maintaining an useful and honourable connection with her possessions on the North American Continent.

" With this object in view, I think it my duty to return without any delay. I have therefore, with great regret, on public as well as private grounds, abandoned my intention of visiting the United States, where I hoped that my communication with the President might be of service. I now intend to sail from this port in Her Majesty's ship Inconstant, direct to England, on the 3rd of November. " The nature and extent of the danger with which Sir John Colborne will probably have to contend, I endeavoured to point out to your Lord- ship in my despatch No. 84, which I prepared at a few hours' notice, availing myself of the postponed departure of the Royal William. Time and deliberation have not enabled me to supply your Lordship with more precise information on the points on which I then touched, for the fresh intelligence which every day brings is of the same vague nature, and con- firms our belief in the existence of unknown perils, without informing us as to the time, the mode, and the extent to which we are to he exposed to them.

" There is great danger to be apprehended from the rapidly increasing familiarity with which the idea of separation from the British empire is expressed and canvassed by the British in these provinces. I do not mean to disparage their severely tried and well proved loyalty to the Crown and attachment to the British empire. Their preference of monarchical insti- tutions, their affection for the mother country, are as strong as ever ; but their hope of maintaining either has been suddenly and materially weak- ened ; and in this state of feeling they naturally look with great anxiety to the form of government under which it is possible they may soon have to live, and to the connections which they may be under the necessity of form- ing when the ties of their present dependance are severed. The chances and the desirableness of the different possible results are daily canvassed among them ; their minds become familiarized with the thoughts, which a short time ago they held it a crime to entertain ; and however favourable

the decision of their judgment may be, the strong feeling which bound them to the British empire is weakened by the mere fact of its soundness becoming a matter of question.

"To what extent this feeling prevails, or how soon and in what form it may exhibit itself, it is impossible to say. It is one of no recent growth.

Do not imagine, my Lord, that it owes its origin to my recall, or that it could be obviated by my retention of the government. Long lurking in the minds of even those inhabitants of these provinces in whom it had not

been openly manifested in the course of the late discontents and disturb. ances, it was in great measure removed by the apparent indications of a better policy, which were hailed in the appointment of a Governor armed with the extensive and sufficient powers which I was supposed to wield

when I landed on these shores. This feeling has sprung into sudden and rapid growth from the hour in which the public mind was disabused as to the extent of my previously exaggerated powers, by the weightiest au-

thority in the British legislature, which deprived me of moral influence by asserting without contradiction, that I possessed only the ordinary legal

powers of a common governor.' From the same moment and from the same cause sprang the other feelings of which the wide diffusion among perfectly different classes menaces even greater danger. "The same cause called into renewed and vigorous action the hopes of the disaffected in both provinces. Of the designs of the disaffected within the Upper Province we know nothing. In this, the indications of conspiracy and dangerous designs are numerous and undeniable. A for- midable organization, bound together by secret oaths and secret signs, undoubtedly exists, and extends over the French population, at least of

the district of Montreal. The object of the oath does not appear to be specific; it merely binds the conspirators to be ready to obey whatever

orders they may at any time receive from their chiefs. When this ma- chinery is to be called into action does not appear. I am, on the whole, inclined to be of opinion, that there is no intention of immediate outbreak in this province, unless in case of invasion from without ; to that it is at all times ready to serve as a formidable auxiliary ; but in the meantime it produces all the alarm which actual insurrection would occasion. Ter- rified by signs of this formidable and mysterious organization, and some. times by secret menaces or warnings of murder and massacre, the lop; inhabitants of the country quit their exposed and isolated habitations; and either at first seek refuge in the towns or at once secure their safety by quitting the British dominions. In both provinces alike, this emigration, from utter insecurity of person and property, has taken place to an alarm. ing extent ; and both provinces have thus been, to a great extent, deprived of the most valuable class of their inhabitants, of those whose peaceful energies contribute most to their improvement, and who most demand and deserve the steady protection of a parental government.

" The same cause has given life to the worst spirit among the bordering population of the United States, and extended, if not created, that for. midable secret combination, of which the existence has been announced to me, not only by a host of concurrent and consistent private communica- tions, but by the most solemn warning which the government of the United States could give.

" I do not believe that this conspiracy is the result of that somewhat generous, but utterly misdirected, sympathy which last winter prompted our republican neighbours to interfere in behalf of a people whom they erroneously imagined to be making a hearty struggle for liberty. It seems rather to result from the aspect of the weakness of the Government in these provinces, which has latterly been presented to the bordering pope. lation, and which offers to the ambition or avarice of the bold and lawless settlers of the American wilderness the ample and fertile lands which ap- pear to invite occupation by the strongest. They think to repeat the con- quest of Texas from a nobler foe, with proportionably greater means of aggression; and if they know that they will have to contend with some. thing more than a Mexican army, they count on an internal aid, which was not found in the solitary wilds of Texas. " That this is the nature of their views and plans I infer, not merely from the direct information which I have received, but from the fact that the first indications of these machinations were observed just at the period in which the first debates in the House of Lords convinced the ill-inten. tioned here, that they need not apprehend a vigorous and well-supported government in Canada. " Such are the internal and external prospects of a country, respecting which, in my despatch of the 9th of August, I thus expressed myself :—

"Fhe exercise of the very extensive powers placed in my hands seems to have operated as a sort of charm, like oil'poured on troubled waters. At this moment all is still ; a stranger would hardly believe that the country had been recently distracted by civil war. Expectation for the future is, I trust, taking the place of angry passions occasioned by the past.' "'Phis was, at that time, a true description ; I stated nothing but what correctly described the state of things in these provinces. 1 could not know that at that very hour events were passing at the other side of the Atlantic which would call into renewed and fearful activity the smothered embers of universal strife, and reverse the fair order of things which I had so diligently laboured to establish.

" I have, &c. (Signed) DURHAM."

Here the scene changes. The Minipers revenge themselves in two letters of censure : the first, though previously sent off to Canada, is communicated to Lord Durham, in duplicate, on his arrival in Eng- land ; the last, when he returned his commissions.

LORD GLENELG TO LORD DURHAM.

"Downing Street, 15th November, 1818,

"My Loan,—I have had the honour to receive your Lordship's des- patch of the 9th of October, No. 80, enclosing copies of two proclamations, bearing date respectively the 8th and 9th of that month, and published by you in the Quebec Gazette.

" Of the proclamation of the 8th of October, I am commanded to con- vey to you Her Majesty's approval.

The proclamation of the 9th of October, Her Majesty's confidential advisers regard not merely as a deviation from the course which has hi- therto been invariably pursued by the governors of the British possessions abroad, but as a dangerous departure from the practice and principles of the constitution. They consider as open to most serious objection an appeal by such an officer to the public at large from measures adopted by the Sovereign, with the advice and consent of Parliament. "The terms in which that appeal has in this instance been made, appear to Her Majesty's Ministers calculated to impair the reverence due to the Royal authority in the colony, to derogate from the character of the Im- perial Legislature, to excite amongst the disaffected hopes of impunity, and to enhance the difficulties with which your Lordship's successor will have to contend.

"The Ministers of the Crown having humbly submitted this opinion to the Queen, it is my duty to inform you, that 1 have received Her Majes- ty's commands to signify to your Lordship Her Majesty's dissapprobation of your proclamation of the 9th of October.

" Under these circumstances, Her Majesty's Government are compelled to admit that your continuance in the government of British North America, could be attended with no beneficial results.

" I presume that before your receipt of this despatch, your Lordship will have delivered over the government of Lower Canada to Sir John Colborne, to whom i shall address the requisite instructions for his guidance. " I have, &c. (Signed) GLENELG."

(EXTRACT.) LORD GLENELG TO LORD PURITAN.

"Downing Stred,10th December, ISM " My LORD ,—I have had the honour to receive your Lordship's letter, No. 118, of the 8th instant, in which you transmit to me, to he laid before Her Majesty, your formal resignation of the offices of Governor-General of British North America and Her Majesty's High Commissioner. " Having had the honour to lay your resignation before the Queen, I am, commanded to inform your Lordship that Her Majesty has been pleased to accept the same. " Her Majesty's Government will be anxious to receive, as soon as it may be in your Lordship's power to transmit to them, the full report which you have prepared of the proceedings of your mission. I presume that this report will include the plan for the future government of the British North American provinces, of which, in your despatch of the 28th Sep- tember, you anticipated the early completion, and to which you advert in your despatch of the 26th October, as about to be reconunended by you.

" In the meantime, Her Majesty's Government are desirous to be fa- voured, at your earliest convenience, with any information or suggestions which you may feel it of importance to communicate with reference to the present state of affairs in that part of Her Majesty's dominions.

" Although the motives which induced your Lordship to hasten your return from Lower Canada, are explained in your despatches of the 20th and 26th October ; yet I must apprise you, that Her Majesty's Govern- ment regret, that any circumstances should have occurred to induce a deviation, in your Lordship's instance, from the general rule, which re- quires the Governors of Iler Majesty's colonies to remain in the discharge of their duty, until relieved by Her Majesty's express permission. " I have, &c. (Signed) GLENELG."