The address of the House of Assemb1=Ao - wei Minds, which was
given in al the daily papers lassestsweek, and wWels art had in view in our summary of foreign intaliessnee, was nor which the Mous,: adopted, but wintt 13
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Moderate party, and rejected. The address finally agreed to was more forcibly expressed, though in substance the steam: it was carried by a majority of 48 to 32. As a specimen ofttlje tone of this document, we stubjoirata few paseeges. Of the 'Report of the Commissioners, GOSFORD, GREY, and GIPPS, the Representatives d Lower Canada say—
"We were in nowise astonished at discovering in the productions of this pre- Waded Commission nothing but preconceived opinions, prejudices at variance with its mission and its duty, ideas of government founded on data utterly foreign to the country, or at finding it fomenting divisions and national dis- tinctions, forgetful of constitutional principles, calumniating the provincial re- presentation, and practising deception towards this House and the People. We are bound especially to notice in the reports in question, as far as they have come to our knowledge, one essential and paramount contradiction which per-
✓ ades every part of them, and forms their essence. It is, that while they ad• mit the reality of the greater portion of the abuses and grievances of which we have complained, the Commissioners do not recommend their removal, and the destruction of the causes which had produced them, but an act of aggression against this Home, which has denounced them, and the absolute destruction of the representative government in this province, by the illegal and violent spo- liation of the public monies of the People, by the Ministers or by the Parlia- ment; whereas it was the duty of the Commission and of the Mother Country to assist this House in the entire removal of these evils, and in rendering their recurrence impossible, by reconstituting the second branch of the Legislature by means of the elective principle, by repealing all laws and privileges unjustly obtained, and by insuring the exercise of the powers and legitimate control of this House over the internal affairs of the province, and over all matters relative to its territory, and the wants of its inhabitants, and more especially over the public revenue raised in it."
Lord Jou:I RussELL's resolutions are severely handled-
4' We perceive in this measure, on the one hand, a formal and total refusal of the referins and improvements demanded by this House and by the People, and on the other an abuse of the powers of Parliament for the purpose of destroying by force the laws and conetitution of the province, of violating with regard to us the mat sacred and solemn engagements, and of thereby establishing irremedia- bly on the ruin of our liberties, and in the place of the legitimate, efficient, and constitutional control which this House, and the People through it, have a right to exercise over all the branches of the Executive Government, corrup- tion and intrigue, the pillage of the revenue, the seizure of the best resources of the country by the colonial functionaries and their dependents ; the domina- tion and ascendancy of the few, and the oppression and servitude of the mass of the ins, ibitants of this province, without distinction of class or of origin. 4' It is our duty, theretbre, to tell the Mother Country, that if she carries the spirit of these resolutions into effect in the government of British America, and of this province in particular, her supremacy therein will no longer depend upon the feelings of affection, of duty, and of mutual interest which would best secure it, but on physical tied material force ; an element dangerous to the governing party, at the same time that it subjects the governed to a degree of uncertainty as to their future existence and their dearest interests, which is scarcely to be found under the most alsolute governments of civilized Europe. And we had humbly believed it impossible that this state of permanent jeopardy, of hatred and of divieion, could be knowingly perpetuated by England on the American continent ; and that the liberty and welfare of every portion of the empire were too dear to the independent body of the English people, to allow then, to prefer maintaining, in favour of the functionaries accused by the people of this province, the system which has been hitherto its bane."
Alinisters may learn from this reply to the threats of their Go- vernor, Lord Gosroun, that the House of Assembly is in no degree daunted by the vaunted Whig.and-Tory majorities of last session. Possibly they may expect in the new elections to gain a majority in Lower Canada, as Sir FRANCIS HEAD did in the Upper Pro- vince, by intimidation and corruption : but we sincerely hope, and cannot help believing, that they will fail. At all events, they have drogged the Mother Country into a quarrel, the result of which to her must be disgraceful, however it may terminate.
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