BRITISH COLONIES—CANADA.
THE TIMES—Manifest does it appear to us that the greater portion of the British colonies will soon be lost to England, if the principle on which she has hitherto governed them be not completely reformed. We are too much accustomed to hear from official and courtly persons, harangues upon the " rights" of the Crown and "the interests of his Majesty's Government," as contradistinguishecl from those of his Majesty's people ; and, unfortunately such language has been employed with most frequency in relation to those classes and portions of the King's subjects, who are front circumstances most prone to look with jealousy at the spirit in which "the interests of his Majesty's Government" are maintained—we mean the inhabitants of the British colonial possessions. There is another piece of nonsense often in fashion with those who have to rule the affairs of our colonies, and among them we do not hesitate to comprehend the members of both Houses of Parliament, as well as the men in office—viz., that phrase once so prevalent in respect to what are now the United States of America—the "interests of the mother country." We have to say upon this subject, once for all, that the " rights of the Crown" may be very good things, and the "interests of his Majesty's
Government" very precious interests ; and the " mother country" a prodigiously endearing epithet ; but that if we go on to tell the colonists every where, that their interests are to be postponed on all occasions to those of the Crown, and Government, and mother country—their complaints disregarded—their petitions rejected —and their grievances, whether real or imaginary, unredressed,—the colonists will inevitably answer, if not in words at least by their actions—" Why then we must take the first opportunity of establishing for ourselves a system of government, under which our local interests will obtain as they ought. a preference over those of a distant and unsympathising power." The Canadas have for some years past been ruled over in a way which has provoked a great deal of that spirit of alienation and resentment. We are far from affirming that the intention of the Government of England,or of the Parliament, was to oppress the Canadians in what were considered to be their rights, or to retard their improvement and prosperity. But we think it quite obvious that an unhappy mixture of legislative ignorance with the (perhaps unconscious) loaven of haughtiness at home, and a vulgar and overbearing determination of our colonial officers to beat down all resistance to the executive power by the colonists, have produced throughout the tine provinces referred to, the effects that would have arisen from systematic misgovernment, and have raised such a general feeling of disaffection towards England, as nothing but the want of immediate opportunity prevents from showing itself in an undisguised revolt. It was not by any means too soon that a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed last year, to consider and report upon the state of the civil government of Canada, as likewise on the several petitions for redress of grievances which had been presented on the part of the Canadians to the House. The report appears to us, if acted upon by Government, to have laid the grounds of such a system of concession towards the colony, as will not fail to produce, eventually, the happiest consequences on the temper of the population, and on their progress and comfort and prosperity. It is a curious fact, that Mr. Wilmot Horton, in his evidence before the Committee describes both the clergy and Crown reserves of land—a topic pretty strongly dwelt upon in the report, as "practical nuisances to the province."
Previous page
