LORD DURHAM'S ADMINISTRATION IN CANADA.

LETTER III.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Gray's Inn, 15th November 1P38.

Sta-My original perpose was to keep Lord De ROAM'S plans for the future government of Canada entirely separate from hie administration of the affairs of that province, anti to confine my observations wholly to the latter, reserving any remaiks that might be necessary upon those plans until they were fully ex- plained by Lon! Mellen himself, or by his accredited friends and defenders. Lord Dunne H, however, having stepped out of his way in order to bring his projects prematurely before the public,-having, moreover, endeavoured to ap- propriate to hiniselt merit that belonged to others, and those others help", my late clients, the House of Atteembly of Lower Canada,-I do nut feel myself any longer bound by my original intention ; and shall therefore proceed at once to ascertain the value of those intended reforms which have been set forth with something too much of boasting and pretension. Thaw plans, however, are curiouely connected with a part of Lord Th.:alien's own administration that cannot be pds.ed over. It has beim a subject of con- stant complaint on the part of the Governnr-General and his friends, that the Canadians withheld from him all confidence (torn the commencement to the

6h

close of his ort commie,. The purpose el the present letters Las been to show why the Cenadians have thus acted ; and I will now proceed to explain for what reasons it is that even now they 410 not exhibit any of that profound emotion which the GovernensGetteral intended to excite, by the splendid array of prospective advantage which his proclamation see forth. Eve!), Governor, no matter what may be his own ability, is obliged, in order to carry hie plans into execution, to del gate his authority to subordinate offi- cers, iu whom ability and honour lie can confide. The choke of these subor- dinate! is usually the first evidence by which the colonists judge of the chain- tar, moral and menial, of every new Governor : this choice, therefore, becomes in reality one of the most itnportaut acts of every new Governor's ailtninis- eration.

Lord De RIIAM, like all other Governors, had to select hie officers ; and the Canadiatis luoked forward with no small anxiety to the choice that he should make. GI ieveue indeed and bitter was their theappoiittnient, eitiister and pain fully foreboding all their anticipations, when they learned who had actually been selected by Lord Deanam as his assistants in this most arduous under- taking.

Of those persons who left England anti attached themselves to Lord Dea- na al. the neer prom'nent were- Mr. CHARLES BULLER, his Chief Secretary ; Mr. Turerox, his Legal Adviser; :51r. En we no ELLICE junior, Private Secretary ; .511% ARTHUR BULLER, who seemed to have no very definite office, but who was. as the event proved, ready to fill anv. Anti though last, not least, Mr. Enwair Gi entre WAKEFIELD.

Of the persons who were selected in Canada to hold etfice, the most remark. able, for reasons I n iil hereafter state, was is man called Ana 3r TI103I.

To those circumstances connected with the private character of some of the persons here named, and which have been the subject of general obeervation, I do not mean here to advert, further than by this one remark-it Was linfortt:- nate, that when a whole inkople were loudly complaining of or colonial system, as Subjecting their destinies to the cootrol ut men W'auin the public entn.1 not know, so ettiking an instance wee recklessly tankled of the tsetlt of their complaint.

On public grounds, th re were many and very serious ebjections ta ro.t.t of these appointments. 311. T 1. Reel N had lately eel iii ned honk iuui ii, as 6.0 ads 0- cate of a llriti.h petty who iii th i cenett y were dem-Mit g hecalise ttwy Were not permitted to enjoy an exe!asive kw mei exxlitsive en:tits oi justice-, when lie was stahloily chosen to II! . the 1414.41 av!v;ser of at Gtivertior oho was about to proceed to a timothy in which the very same diepute in principle teas even fiercely raging than in India. A pet ty in Cie:tele-a mina - rity_was fusion-1y demanding to be set over a whole people, and ask iog the aid of Eng.:m11 in order to erns'u and put down r very Lug trtge, irish I eli• gum. 31r. Ti netts wa. necessarily 14s,ked lion with su,p:::::u by the Cam, dians, knowing, us they did know, the ollice as Lich lie Mid as the alit melte of the AnglioIndian mitimity. Mr. Eiwaicr, ElLicE junior, was only known to the Cen 'diens as the *OD of one of their bitterest, must indefatigable, anti rust puce t'k;i ens:inks. thee could they fail to &street any num who employed al his Private Seeretat the son ef thew ual and step acahle foe, Mr. keewa en Ere me le the too wed- known Seigneur if Reatalarnois ?

'he appointment of Mr. A RTIII: a Bitt En Was Vieleell With indifference while it Was supposed that he was chmen merely to fill the place of au Attache, whose itai,t Lthu,,i huts and important clfice would be to till a seteant place at a dituter.tahle, or to make up a quadrille party. When, lora eVer, it was leart:e:1 that Mr. ARTHUR Ile leer a was UN toll Chief Comm ieeient r to inquire into the state it Education, and to act as Judge in the Court tel A ppe.di then, irides 41, ludignation and ckeitempt were very generally telt mid ex pre.seci by all p.:rti..s in the province. Indignation, Attlee insult thus off.red them : contempt, tot the want of common sense which wa Rt!ti have pi evented this it iekton ii eitch of decorum-this idle and iniechievous trilling at ith the deereet hiterette and twos:gest feelings Of a whole nation. The employment of MI'. WAKEFIELD caused universal aetnniehtnent, and remed every inah's .suspicion. I confine Myself solely to puhlic grimed', of disti mt. One of the chief disputes between the Executive and the iliettee of Ass. Inlay had r rvn respecting the management of the waste heals of the reentry, and the application of the funds deiced frotn them. Reseecting this wetter, Mr. WAKEFIELD hail made himself exceedingly hussy in Erigland-had propread a new theory, and proposed to withdraw the lands from the surveillance or the • The.e nes else this family contlexion-Mr. EnWARD ELLtCE inaraitil a sister of Far' 1. aki v, and Lord DL.1111A34 a daughter of Earl Geer. people of the Colonies altogether, and to convert the funds into a means of deporting the pauper population of England and Ireland. The suspicion arid distrust 'if the Canadians were not allayed by learning thet Mr. WAKEFIELD was employed in making a report upon the waste lands of the colony. But, as if all these causes of suspicion were not enough, Lord DualtAat chose to select Aoe et Timm kis one of his subordinetes. This person was kuown to and hared by the whole Canadian populetion. Ile had made himself notorious in the time of Lord AYLMER, by has thorough support of all Lord AYLMEn'tt violent proceedings, and by his extravagant, continued, and virulent abuse of the House of Assembly. During the last winter, when many hundreds of Canadians were in prison, he was loud and vehement in his demands for their instant execution ; and has acquired, even in England, no very enviable Tepee tatiou, from being the nether elan article in the Montreal Herald, wherein he set forth the folly ttf fattening town (luring the winter for the gallows in the spiny. For this appointment there was no excuse. The man is without any sillily. Employ ing him could further no one useful end, while it servtd et once to confirm every Canadian in determined hostility to Lord DenlIAM'!: administration. The setvice upon which this worthy agent has been em- ployed, us I shall immediately explain, has in no way served to disarm suspi- mon or to allay discontent. Such were Lord DCItIlAll'S offieers. Is it wonderful that the Canadians, looking at these his chosen instruments-looking to his amnesty, which set law and justice and morality equ illy at defiance-retnembering that he permitted a continued ettsperndon of the Debra% Corpus Act 1--that Ike did not grant a corn. plete antnesty,t hut that he accompanied freedom always with a demand for ex- cessive baih-rememheting and considering all these things, is it wonderful, I ask, that the Canadians did lack confidence in the uuble lord, and did not hope f ,r much good at his hands? Ah ! answers some fervent admirer of Lord DURHAM, mark now how greatly they were in error. The following para- graphs in his patriotic proclamatiuu ought, though too late to be useful, to ex- cite their lasting and bitter regret. His Lordship says- " Ti, i nCOUrage and stimulate me in my arduous task, I hail great and worthy objects in view. My aim was to °levet e the. entwince or Lower Canada to a thoroughly British character -wr link its people to the sovereignty of Britain, by making them all partici- pators itt those high privileges. conducive at once to freedom and order, which have long been the glory or Englishmen. I hoped to confer on au united people a more ex- tensive eiljuy merit of free and responsible government,and to merge the pelt y jealousies of a small community., and the odious animosities of origin, iii the higher feelings or

nobler and more comprehensive netionelity. • • • •

" You will emily beliete that, after all the exertions which I have made, it is with feelings of deep disappointment that I find myself thus suddenly deprived of the power of cold...nitre great bens tits on that pro% ince to which I have rererred, of reforming the administrative system there. and eradicating the manifold abuses which had been en. Rendered by the negligence and cortuptiou of former times. arid so lamentably fostered by civil dissensions. I cannot but regret being obliged to reutmuce the still more glo- rious lope of employing' umistial leeisletive power. its the endowment of that province with thole free municipal institutions which are the only sure basis of Ice d im- provement and tepresentative liberty, of eetablishing it system of geueral education, or revising the defective laws which regulate reel property and commerce, and of intro- ducing a pure awl competent administration of justice. Above all, I gtieve to be thus forced to abandon tho realization of such large and solid schemes of colonization and interual improvement, as would connect the distant portions of these extensive colo- nies. and ley open the unwroUght treasures of the Si ildetueFs to the wants of British industry aud the energy of British enterprise."

This is a very magnificent promise in appearance, yet I am by no means cer- tain that underneath there dues not lie a very dangerous and a very cruel pro- p0511 ; and to all that is unequivocally good in these schemes of future benefit, Lord DURHAM can lay no claim. Free municipal institutions had already been framed by the House of Assembly, and had been withheld from the pro. since by the nominees of the Crown, who composed the Legislative Council. Does his Lordship remember the following paseage in the General Report of the Cenada Commissioners? "Even during our own residence in the pro- vince, we have seen the Council continue to act in the same spirit, and discard what we believe tvould have proved a mostsalutary measure, in a manner which ctri harkily be taken etherwise than to indicate at least a coldness towards the establielitneut of cuetottie calculated to exercise the judgment ;mil promote the general improvement of the people. We allude to a bill for enabling parishes and townships to elect local officers and assess themselves for local purposes; which measure, though not absolutely rejected, was buffered to fail in a way that showed no friendliness to the principle.' " (Report, p. 8.) The hill here spoken of was framed as ith care, and after attentive consideration both of the habits of the people and the improvements made in municipal institutions by the neigh- bouring Uttiteci States. It is not too much to suppose that with these aids, and their Os,, special knoithage of their country's wants, the Douse of Assembly could, without the aid of a despotisin, have conferred on the province " those free municipal institutions which are the only sure basis of local iinprovement and reptetentittlee libel ty." From the boastful tune of this extraordinary state I) .p. r, the ; ether is led to iinegine that these magnificent suggestions were un- titketght el- before the Uovernor-General thus proclaimed them to the world. Thilt puke kellniel,tzatiou of justice of which the noble lord speake, was ;deo tlusut of by Lis pi ..,lecessors in legislation, viz. the Assembly. They lee' re:se:es:el then .1 ory system upon Ali. Peel's plan, liv au act which unfortu- nately eepiced lee:7, Si ki VI Was renewed hy the Assembly, hut was disallowed hy the s,4 ita no.t.im ci of the Crown, viz. the Legislative Ceuta, who had denied latetici eel etws Cl) tlw peosle because they sanctioned the pr Mei ple of representa- tiou. The Assembly eleo had for year. been ere iving to make the Judges inde- pendent. 1111 their vi i.!.es been listened to, his Lordellip'n grave charge, that in Caned t " time :a. 'thee did cXist, nor for a long time had existed, any corifi- deuce os ti e itp t: t:.:1 e ! : Inistration ofjkaktice in any political ease, "would not have au..11.10.ti■e I. a; ti.vrefure would not have been made. Fire I I, e other boot, which Lind De a et et WM to confer upon the mg ittiii Cauee: the lignite of Assembly bad amply provided. Unity schools were sereati over the whole land, and were tidily incicaeing with the increasing, numb:I s if the people. But here also the evil genius of Canada, in the shape of the [tenant:es of the Crown, the Legislative Council, again inter- fered, by threwing 1st tlke bill providing for the maiutenauce of the schools, ankl by seal sib dem icing 40,000 chilaren of the meaue of instruction. had Ltd 11: :, HAM Suddenly established all these things foi which the Aormbly leel so ma: 1.444 s: rtigled, and for which struggliug it was annihilated by the lb ideat Patiiathent, aeeuredly he would have acted generously anti wisely; but be weela have dene see itkme then what a popular assembly, if permitted to purs.ce the interests of its constituents, would long since have acconiplished. But the e are some things Still, among the proktrieed betiefits of Lord Dc ittrael, which it is sa:a the Aesembly did not contemplate; and of these the first is the registry of lands. I will not stop to dispute thie assertion ; but would merely refer hits Lerdellip to the many rekkolutions paesed by the Assembly in favour even of this prove-el It:Summand to the etatemeuts of the Camilla Commiesioners thereupon, t I sue that Levi PeRik,M lays claim to praise for liming restored the Habeas Cott.: s Act. This, how,ver, :5 an unjust asstimptiun of honour. Sir Jolts COLBoRNE, iltec..dy, suspended the I tat as Corpus Act utitil the 2301 of August ISM. On that 4143, :4,1 net Ietore, Coal, came into force; except ill the case of Mr. Lotus V IOEN, ik2.‘nea wit as the susp .toioo was esm•cially continued by Lord DURHAM. AU that Lord isa us as, eau Idray. bst of is, that he availed himself of sir JOHN Colatoit NE's iklei;a1 sospensiou of the law to the very last term, mid in the case of one man blegally continued it.

.• To :411 the rest I er Intel a complete amnesty."-Lord Durham's Proctomation. This in nut carreL,; cateSsire bail Was demanded from and given by all the pi isouers.

ash, n In reality are to 11118 etteet—that had the juat euii&ritts ot the Assenday been acceded to, this among tnany other ameliorations of the laws would have long inee been effected. Furthermore, I may be permitted to suggest a doubt as to the conmpeteney of any of Lord Duni/area subordinates, for a task so diffi- cult aim the reform of Real Property law even in Canada. When we recollect that the person selected by his Lordship to sit in appeal upon the judgments of time Courts of Canada, was Mr. ARTHUR. Bur-Lea, we may be allowed to view with some alarm any proposal for law reform emanating from his Lordship. It is more than probable that Mr. ARTHUR BULLER. never opened, much less studied, any work on the Civil or the French law. Yet he has been speeially selected to be a judge to decide upon appeals from Courts tvhieh in civil ca-es decide according to the rules of the Roman and French law. May we not there. fie, very fairly suppose, that they who would have been chosen to frame a law altering and improving the real property law nu in forte, svould have been en- dowed with about the same degree of competency for the task. 'The legal elm- gaeiter of the Lord High Commissioner's advisers is mar, even at this moment, ci any very extraordinary eminence; but I much fear that it would tot have been caised after they hail proved themselves unable to tell us what the law is, if thaw had been called upon to decide upcn what the law ought to he !,1 Iloweyer, there is something yet remaining among the promised benefits whieli 'tile Amenably, it appears, never dreamed of awl that is the giving to Lower Canada a thoroughly Btitish character. I own I am startled by this phrase- eombining it, as I eantiot avoid doing, with the sayings and doings of stone ital. rnediately connected with Lord Dean:Mee government, and also with the whole train of assertion and reasoning employed by the gteat organ of the British or Tory party in:Canada, viz. the Morning Chronicle, for same time peat. It is We. Tossible for me not to suspect, that them is more intended by this phrase than the Ilniniti,Ited would understand ; that much is intended, which, if it cal lie carried into execution, will indeed make us a nation the canyeers of those who r.nt unhappy Poland into many parts, in orler to destroy her nationality. The Canadians, it is Wund, like every other nation in the wothl, are attache.; to their own language. laws, manners,and religion. They speak Fr &midi ; Glide laws, like those of France, are composed of certain customary laws and the Civil law ; and they are in religion Catholics. They are, by all wino laimw them, even by their bitterest enemies, allowed to he a kind, humane. EMI pie, contented, and a polished people; and, strange to say, they comieit the e-ve offence of loving their own language. laws, and leligion. I ii this cri,i.inal attachment, say their enemies—anti the Morning Chronicle has not failed ta iterate the assertion every morning for the last twelve months—is to be found the cause of all the ills uf Canada ; aid nothing is to be accomplished for the restoration of peace in that country, unlesa you destroy their nationality. " They are French," says the Chronicle ; " They are Catholics," says the Standard : " You must make them English," is the Chronic/es t. You must make them Protestants," says the Standard : " You must destroy the Canadian nation," they shout in chorus. Now, when those two worthy organs of the Canadian Tory party joioed in this benevolent sentiment, they did not mean—the one: that by any process it was sought to transmute the man who had been born of Canadian into one born if English parents—nor the other, that they who believed in the Catholic doctrines should suddenly and forcibly be converted into Protestant believers; but it was intended that sonic process ahould be devised of taking away all those powers which the Cluadians now enjoy because they are the majority, and because they are the chief possessors of laud in the country, and conferring the same exchudvely upon the small mino- rity of persons called British who inhabit the province, and whO now have their full anal equal share in all the rights and privileges belonging to the whole people. This equal share is not deemed sufficient; unfortunately for them, they are the minority ; unfortunately, they do not possess the laud of the coun- try; it is, therefore, exceedingly difficult to devise means, after the walinary fashion, of giving time minority exclusive political power. In this strait, the cry Las been raised, " Destray the Canadian nation, make it British, and thus put an end to all the miseries of Canada." Such is the cry, even when Upper Canada, in which there are no French, is still more disturbed than the Lower Province, and when Newfoundland is in the same condition.§

I ant led, then, with some distrust to ask, what is meant by the sonorous phrase, "to elevate the province of Lower Canada to a thoroughly British cha- racter ?" And if I take the answer given by an accredited member of Lord Du aria at's Government, Canada has little cause to ammo over the fallen fol. tunes of that noble lord, or to grieve because the sceptre %%it', which he swayed her destinies has been suddenly and rudely struck feint) his hand. Upon Lord Dnititaat's declaration of his intention to resign, a public meet- ing was got up at INIontreal to pass resolutions of confidence in his Lordship :ool of grief at his departme. Mr. Tnoat, who hail been some time before gazette,' to some Commiesionership, being present at this meeting, WAS called upon to give, in his character of one of Lori' Duanaat's confidential advisers, an exidana. tion of time plans intended to have been proposed by the Governor-Genetal for the future government of the province. Mr. THOM accepted the cdl ; ex- pressly dubbed himself one connected with Lord Du aliases II■uvernment ; and forthwith proceeded to detail time plans of the noble lord. I ml 11.:db1011 to this, Mr. Ttroat wrote various letters to the same intent of explanation, and in the same chat acter, to the Montreal Ilerald. No contradictinn has ever been offered by any other person connected with the Government : we may, therefore, as.sume that he speaks the sentiments of Lord Dentin SI 111111,i:1f. NOW, the grand point throughout Mr. Trioat's letters and speech is, th it Lord Du Kir m has a plan for what is callet1 wamping the Canadians—for de. stroying the nationality of the Calladians, according, to the phrase of the Jim:. bog Chronicle—for elevating them to a thoroughly British character, after the language of Lord DURHAM. The union of Upper and Louver Canada has long, been a favourite scheme of the British—that is, the Tory party : it was supposed that because all in Upper Canada spoke English, thatefore Upper Canada was superlatively and universally attached to 13 itish dominion. AI r. Tim OM, however, demonstrates, that if Upper and Lnwet Canada were united, there would be an immense majority of the whole " ilevoltitineists "its he calls

them; thus pretty accurately shouting that the n e question is not e of race, but

of principle. In fact, that such is t me case, Mr. T11031 very fraakly acknow- ledges— °, with respect to time elsaramer of those measures, they well go ar to gist ify ish or the weal inhabitants, mmml to Mini the dein min:viol' tor his Execll. is to make

bluer Canada a British ;inn ice ; :old it was 1181■01181A 1.0 [Mit they cam. prised tautly, itnot oft tho,c legal reforms of which the ileces,cyI., Il. ilk. prin-

cipal wound for demandiog a unimi or the Conailai. On Ills seli,•,.,•• • •• • , ru ceeded to detail his Excellenc)'s siews. Ills Excelleney had come..., meeting the grand argument, that such a scheme would pi oduce a Ii ii:.,7si

theteby remedy the evil camel:timid at, Statham deseciamitoe to mere d , mid his Excellency did feel strongly persuaded, that the union of I h.• -

cruelly disappoint the mu kip Ilion, lif its ai:V0eates. The aV:thnil'..• .. • :,1

so strong, that it only required to be stated. Suppose the Canada, en 11 I have not alluded to Lord DeRHAM'S promises respecting inter ti-L1 impoivemeuts, simply because lie was without power to wake ally. Ile could la) new tax un the people, and withont money no improvement could have been :111t.18 plea.

When Ministerial papers represent the persons 'olio speak Eng'.i-di ii ('soul as forming one party, awl the persons who speak French another. the!. 0,,,i; 10 that Dr. %Volans') Nimsex, Dr. It. NELSON, Dr. OVA r. semi. Mr I.xs. T.1 e, SZ, are the leaders or an important Eng:ish poly. who suppint. the lab:Mph.% ad- attained by the majority or the members of the last House of Assentlil. Indeed. the Government has eokeeded to the Assembly of Newfoundland, privileges, which 18 hen clammmmeml iu Lower Canada, mere called " French demands." vq.tt Lu is, at Ive,11 tt.VC/11 S -,1 VI. I CS t,iCIi1ht sixteen, ti

Lower tamaaa, vo be ail &darn,' from the French coustittitiencks—the twenty, alto

might la. rot timed oglish or roily English constituencies. to be all souit rum.11 and

Ii: e ; am! mid these suppositions the most saugaine could not go. Suppose all these results, said the speaker: and, in order to make a disloval mijorlte, he needed only such it proportion or Revolutionists in tipper Canada as hail sat even in Sir Francis ll'ers 1..rnAiltly loyal Assembly. 'With such a result before his mind's e% e, no Minister of tlw Crown, intless tint Minister are Home or Roebuck, nookl trate to propose a uni,m or the (7anadas. Ile was, however, a ell suture, that many intelligent 111011 hal cit. or perhaps espected, that the English Revolutionists alimony pr....ince would

ti,ver emobine with the Frineh oh the titlou.: lint he would here ob,,erie. tlmt the Eng- liii ItevolationisiS, aceording to his hypothesis, members for Ciper Canada, ould not eutertaiu the same ranee a national prejudice as their compatriots tri Lower Canada ; and that even if they did, the% would see, and their French accomplices Sri' ii iii thi.le eyes lest they als■) si'l.,11).1 See, that the real queA ion lav not between Frenchown mid Englishmen. bat between Monarcliv and Itt•publicanis.m.—itut-mittch as the rstablishineut vi independence voult1 1sIithcmll> aunibilate the French mi- nority ."

Mr. Thom having thus diapoeed of time plan of time union of Caper and Lower Canada, by what lie calls the artinnetieal argument, goes on to show the efficacy of Lerd 1)u a la at's new plan in overwhelming the Freneh Canadians; and lilt uif tide plan I discover to be that which- I long since proposed in time house I of Commute, ['lough with one s-cry important omission. I proposed, and so it app: ins do, s Laud Du BAIA at, a federal union of all the Jim itish Colonies; and at the sau., time the abolition of the Legislative Councils in all of them. This abolition If the Count-its appointed by the Crown was the groundwork of my plaa—its a-my foundation ; because, by this means a thorough control over their OW11 immediate concerns was given to each province, while by their General -assembly they could provide for matters of general concern. It ap- pears that Lind Du-IMAM originally proposed the whole of my plan. but after- wards rciaieitere so much as rrlated to the Legislative Councils! Mr. T11074

says, in his letter of 29th September 18:33—•• The intention of abolishing the LeflishoGre Councils of the respective prorinces is abandoned ; for, whether advisable or not in itself, it has on necessary connexion with the gcueral plan." But this general plan, as propounded, wocid not attain the end avowedly sought aml propoeml loy Mr. Toom, because the General Assembly could not

interfere with the internal affairs of any colony. But an addition, which has been stated ai forming p at of the neat seheme, and which I have (amyl:icing evidence has beton entertained by Loud Du nue-Nes Government, wouln rertainly effectually assist in the nefarious scheme of destroying the Canadian nation, openly avowed by ,Ir. Moat, and so fiercely contended for by the it/or:tiny Chroaide; and this new device is the dismemberment of the Lower Province, The sehente hiS been described in time Montreal Tory papers as follows.

It is proposed to separate the district of Gmtapa froin Loner Canals and at- tich it to New Brunswick. Having thus truncated the province at this extre- mity, it is proposed to give all that portion of Lower Canada which lies be-

tween time rivers St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, together with the island of Montreal, and so much of the opposite shore as lies on the west side of the river St. John, to Upper Canada. By this means, the most populous district of Lower Canada would be deprived of its o!d laws and customs, and surldealy and

rudely thrust into another s'ate, inside subject to new laws and new customs, and its inhabitants compelled to seek for justice from the Upper Canadian Courts, - mum whiell the English language &mine is spoken. Within the territory thus de- scribed, lies the reign-uric lleanharnois, together with, I believe, all the

lands awned lig Mr. Edward irz Lower Canada.

This pl an Is in perfect accordance with the language of tile Morning Chro- nicle ; it agrees with the object avowed by 31r. TtiOat, and gives sense and meaning, to the inflated phrase of Lord De all AM'S proclamation. But I warn those who entertain the scheme, 81111 all who listen to it, that if any such cautrage be attempted, war will arise in Canada, and that too of a very different descrip- tion firen airy that has yet been contemplated. The dhopute will then assume a religion. character: it will not be French anal English—it will not he Colo- nial and Metropolitan—it will be a fight for religious freedom, with the Pro- testant as the oppressor, the Catholic as time oppressed. The hate that this will engender will be more deadly than any now felt ; the meek will become stubborn, time apathetic and indifrezent will be roused, the ignorant will feel as keenly as the most enlioghtened, the ardent will rise up fanatics the cross

will be raised in every village, and around it will congregate the priest and his floek, urged on by a desperate enthusiasm to battle for their Gad and their

country. And for what iim this violent outratte to be attempted ? To gratify

the morbid vanity and selfish purposes of a few ignorant and bankrupt mer- chants of :Montreal. In the House of Assembly id Lower Canada, theee men had no influence. That Assembly Wag determined to abstain from mischievous

meddling with the operations of commerce. They wisely decided, that commerce could Lest watch over its own interests and that all inter- ference with free bade was inimical to the interests of trade. They tioereforc

would grant no monopolies, no exchorive privileges, refuse,' all aseiatanee to job- bing in banks, foliates, See. The cootisequence was, unexampled steadiness amid security. Lower Canada stands almost alone on the Continent of America as

a state free front debt, and, until the last year, with a full exchequer Upper Canada, with a much smaller population, owes two millions of mon..y. Lower Carowla, with her tarn resources. was steadily and rapidly improving all her in- tern il cotnmunieations Upper Cauaola squandered millions belonging to this country upon her canals atid roads, and to this }your they are unsersiecalrle amid unfinished. But the desire of jobbing- –the belief that this desire wool(' be

gi atitied by the Upper Canada Parliament, bankt ii Pt as that Parliameat is—bas loam constantly urging OD the desperMi.■ merchants of Montreal to s-,,ek, at any

sacrifice. an alliative with Upper Canada and iu order to gratify this desire, the people of England are called upon to put in jeopardy all their interests as a mother (mutiny, to risk the very possession of their celorlica, and to sacrifuse their own honour as a oition. The di-anemberinent of Poland has become a bye-tail of reproach ; but iii what does it differ from the scheme here :Taken of?—from the plans constantly put forth by the organs in EN 1041111 Of the Tory party in Canada? Differing in language, manners, laws, religion, from the people of Upper Canada, 200,000 Lower Canadians, in order to neutralize their votes, are to be forcibly annexed to the Upper Province. Treaties, acts of Parliament. eolemn promises of the Sovereign, all are to be forgotten or disregarded ; the feelings of a kind aml gallant people out- raged ; and every passion called into action by whieh hate for our dominion can be engendm ell—by whieh that du:Motion can be reudered insecure, taboos to the Canadians, dangerous med expensive to ourselves. And this is time grand result of this gut-at expel intent of 1)espotimii ! Such are the mighty projects whieh are to make us out of humour with Representative Government, uti•1 suddenly enamoured of an ealightened Diet woe ! The Canadiana were

taught to believe, that a reign WaS at hand in which and Justice,

and timmerosity, and Montour, were to be time guardian deities of the hint ; when a far-sighted awl piercing sagacity was at once to divine the necessities of the country, and the means of tilinietering to them ; when the lawgiver should be

completely fmee from ail vulgar passion and prcjitilice ; when open truth shoulil preside over every thought and attend on every wood; whoa there adman] ha no mean subterfuge, 11,) vain preterwes, no paltly arts to win men's favour or avert their indignation ; and when the law, adoloiniatered by justice and mercy, should extern.; (leer all her paramount and unimpeachable authority. Such was the mighty promise when Lord DritlIANt assumed the govern. moot of CAnzula. Let the world now judge of the performance !