If new rebellion, or final separation, had been declared in
Ca- nada, it could hardly have excited in London more indignant surprise than the reports about the strange course taken by the Provincial Government in relation to a measure for compen- sating losers by the rebellion of 1837 in Lower Canada. The measure was introduced by the Ministry itself; and, ac- cording to the old British or Loyalist party, it aims at no less than rewarding rebels for their own treason during the civil war. The Ministerial, that is the French or Radical party, represent that they only seek a compensa- tion accorded to the sufferers by the rebellion in Upper Ca- nada; and that they limit themselves to the very terms of the measure sanctioned and adopted by the opponents of the present one. Refining distinctions, vituperations, retorts, actual blows, fly about like missiles in a battle. If the rancour of local ani- mosity has somewhat evaporated in crossing the Atlantic—if the fight is taken on somewhat more dignified grounds—the quarrel has grown to larger proportions, even until the combatants talk about the necessity of recalling Lord Elgin and impeaching Lord Gre.
Of one thing in the hubbub we are quite sure—that the public in England are not in possession of all the materials for a right judgment. But a broader question of statesmanship is more easily understood. It was long ago foreseen that this very sub- ject of compensation would be a source of trouble in Canada : yet it has been allowed to remain unsettled for years; yet Lord Grey and his Governor have kept no look-out for the time when it mat come into active discussion, but, as Mr. Hawes admits, have awaited the final appearance of a completed bill—when the great mischief will have been done ; and yet again, although the consequences of mooting such a question ought to have been an- ticipated, Lord Elgin passively suffers his Ministry to revive the past—to renew, in the form of a money litigation, the civil war of races I Is "responsible government" interpreted to mean no government?
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