CANADA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

London, 22d February 1848.

Sin—I have perused the remarks in the last nmolber of your journal relating to Canadian affairs: and as they appear to me to have proceeded in a great mea- sure upon erroneous information, and to reflect uniustly upon Lord Elgin as well as upon the great Liberal party in the Province, am induced to offer a few ob- servations, in order to place the matter in its true light before your readers. In the first place, you appear to have been lamentably mistaken in regard to the position in which Lord Elgin stands in relation to the Liberals in Canada. You assert that be "is supposed to have done all in his power to keep them out of office. Vi bether or not in fact be did so, he has managed to make them be- heve that be resorted to a general election for the purpose of diminishing their minority, and with an anxious individual wish for their defeat. He passes, therefore, for their personal foe; and they deem their victory over the opposite Party a victory over him. If they are disqualified, by feeling and habit, from constitutional statesmanship, he has in a great measure spoiled his own position as the sovereign of a constitutional system, by acquiring the character of a par- tisan zealously inimical at heart to the now overwhelming majority." In every etaternent here advanced you are wholly in error; and, consequently, have done the greatest injustice to Lord Elgin. As a resident in Canada, and a mem- ber of the Liberal party, I am enabled to state, that Lord Elgin has neither done, nor has he been supposed by them to have don; anything " to keep the Liberal party out of office"; nor is he considered by them to be at all inimical to their return to power. On the contrary, they feel that from the course pur- sued by him since he assumed the government of the Province, they are justified in believing that it is his intention to govern the colony upon strictly constita- tional principles; and nothing has ever transpired to excite even an apprehension that he was desirous of unfairly excluding them from office. Nor did they believe that the general election was resorted to by him with any such views as you at- tribute to him; but, on the contrary, they consider that he was induced to take that step in order that he might be the better enabled to form a correct judgment

of the state of public opinion in the Province. The Liberalparty have always insisted that the minority in which they were placed at the former election wet

the result of fraud and violence, and of undue and improper influence exercised

by the late Governor-General; and that they were only kept in that position by the employment of the most unscrupulous means by the Ministry of Lord Met- calfe, and the very slender majority by which they were supported in office. Con-

fident of success at another election, they have been clamorous for an appeal to the people; and when at length a dissolution was announced, they regarded it as a

measure not willingly adopted by the Administration, but forced upon them by Lord Elgin himself. They were gratified as well by the act as bythe manner in which it was performed. They saw that he studiously refrained from any proceeding that might influence the election in favour of either party; and I feel perfectly sale

in asserting that no one public act of his can be pointed out as indicating on his part " an anxious wish for their defeat." They therefore regard hiin with feelings of

the utmost confidence and respect; nor have they any reason to consider him either as " a personal" or political " foe." He occupies precisely the position in which they always desire to see the representative of her Majesty in the colony placed—that of a Governor of the whole people, and not a zealous adherent of either party; and they have too correct a knowledge of constitutional usages to regard the victory they have gained in any other light than a victory over the existing Administration. They have complained unceasingly of the conduct of former Governors in zealously identifying themselves with a party, and taking an active interest in all the political struggles in the Province; thereby involving themselves and the country in troubles of a most serious nature ": and they are pleased to find that Lord Elgin, instead of following the example, seems de- termined to avoid any similar difficulties, " by letting parties in Canada fight it out between themselves, taking no more share in their canasta than the queen of England does in the rivalry of parties here."

You are equally unfortunate in your remark upon the leaders of the Liberal party in Canada. You assert that, " being demagogues and not politicians, they

had the folly to quarrel with Lord Metcalfe; and they managed by indiscretion and violence to put themselves so much in the wrong, that upon his appeal to the

peoplpeople their party fell into a minority, and they have been out of office ever since." e have proved themselves incapable of holding office, without continuing to act as if they were still in opposition; and may be expected to re- vive under Lord Elgin the demand of wholly unconstitutional pledges from

the Governor, which Lord Metcalfe refused to give." Without entering

into a discussion of the question at issue between Lord Metcalfe and the leaders of the Liberal party, I will merely state that it was a question of prinoi- pie; and that, although he forced them to a resignation upon the question, the

principle has been admitted in practice ever since. They contended, that so long as they retained their seats in his Cabinet, they were entitled to be consulted upon appointments to office, before such appointments were consummated. This he refused to concede, as an "unconstitutional demand"; and, acting upon the advice of unknown and irresponsible parties, he appointed to office a political opponent

of the Administration, without any previous consultation with his cabinet.

This led to the resignation; and after a delay of nearly a year a new Administra- tion was formed under Mr. Attorney-General Deufe. And mark the result. That gentleman. on retiring from political life, publicly declared in the Howie

during the last session of Parliament, that if any appointment, even in the Pro- vincial Militia, had taken place without his previous knowledge and sanction

while he held a seat in the Cabinet, he would instantly have resigned his office. Thus it will be seen, that the principle for which the Liberals contended was de- nied them—pronounced unconstitutional and rebellious—and conceded to their opponents by Lord Metcalfe. So far has it since been carried, that Lord Cathcart, who had promised the appointment of Deputy Adjutant-General to a friend of Sir Allan M'Nab, (who was about being placed at the head of the Militia depart- ment,) was called to revoke his pledge to Sir Allan, and appoint another gentle-

man recommended by his Cabinet. The principle being now admitted, there is no danger of the question being, "revived" under Lord Elgin; but that

they are in the right and not m the wrong " in advancing the demand, has been conclusively established by the result; and it can hardly now be ad- duced either as evidence of their incapacity for "holding office, without combining to act as if they were still in opposition," or to warrant you in stigmatizing them as "demagogues" and not "politicians."

Again, you are in error in stating that "the new Ministry for United Cana- da must be a Papineau Ministry." It is quite true that the Mr. Papineau is HOW

a Member of the Canadian Assembly; but it is entirely a mistake to supped°

that "he is to lead the Liberal party in Canada. The Liberal party in Canada repudiate all connexion with Mr. Papineau, and all sympathy with the senti-

ments and principles he has lately avowed" He was brought forward for the county he now represents by Mr. Turcoffe, the lately appointed Solicitor-Ge- neral for Lower Canada, with the design of dividing the French Canadians • and the Liberal press in both sections of the Province, in classifying the members re- turned to the new Parliament, place his name in the list of the supporters, not of the opponents, of the existing Ministry. Instead of leading the party who now .command an overwhelming majority in Parliament, be will be found in the ranks of the minority.

I have thus gone over the principal points upon which I conceive your state- ment to have been based upon erroneous information; • and, considering " the ig-

norance of Colonial matters which generally prevails here," that the intelligence from Canada, notwithstanding its importance," attracted scarcely any attention,"— considering also the means that are employed to prejudice the people of England against the "Liberal party" in all the British American Coloines,—I am not surprised that you should have fallen into the errors I have pointed out. It is, in- deed, an unfortunate circumstance for the Colonies, that affairs of vast importance to them attract so little attention in this country; and that, notwithstanding the

ignorance you admit toIrrevail regard to Colonial matters, their most import- ant interests are control ed by the authority of Imperial legislation, and the inter-

meddling interference of "irritable and changeful" Colonial Ministers. It is the existence of such a state of things that tends more than any other influence,

to weaken the affections of the colonists for the more and it is from this source, rather than from any exhibition of "American sympathy," that dan- ger is to be apprehended to the connexion between the colony and the parent state * In a recent address to the electors of the county of St. Maurice, Mr. Papineau de- clares, that he " demands in l$47 all that he demanded in 184." He demands a repeal of the union between Upper and Lower Canada, and an elective LeglalaUve Council as well as an elective Assembly for the latter Province. He states that the people can never enjoy political freedom until their institutions are more dosely assimilated to those of "the rm.«, land of liberty," the United States of America; and that " respon- sible government," as conceded to the Canadians, affords no adequate protection or se- curity for their political or civil rights or privileges. The Liberal party of Canada, on the other hand, are satisfied that responsible government, honestly conceded and early carried into operation, places In the hands of the people themselves the power of re- metbing all the grievances of the put and preventing all abuses in future, without in- volving any change in the fundamental principles of the Canadian constitution.

AU the latest accounts from Canada agree that Mr. Papineau will not take his seat Parliament.