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THE QUESTION CONSIDERED IN AN APPEAL ■|() Tin; ELECTOllS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. liY A FREEHOLDER. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, GlI^BERT, & PIPER, I'ATr.RNOSTEU ROW. 18.S}). PREFACE. It socms nccessfiry to say tliat all objections, as that the following considerations arc premature, and that they prejudge the question before the facts are all out, are obviated by the way in which the subject is treated. The statute, whereby Lord Durham's power was ^'onstituted, is open to the ])ublic, and so is the Act of Indemnity which caused his resignation ; and surely no subsequent oral statements of his Lordship can be allowed to vary his own solemn written instrument, the public, official declaration of his mind,— I mean the pro- clamation which he issued in the Canadian Gazette on his resifjuation ! 1 ** SHOULD LORD DURHAM BE IMPEACHED ?" Brother Electors ! The constitution lias entrusted you with the |)o\ver and responsibility of choosing such a Par- liament as shall represent the national mind; upon you therefore eventually rests the decision upon this question, as uj)on all others which may relate to the ])ublic welfare : and as the subject to which this (juestion refers, and the facts which it involves, cannot be blinked, but must be brought up for }!ublic judgment, it behoves you well to consider thereon in time, in order that your minds may be fully made uj), in case of a general election taking place, which present circumstances would seem to render very probable. I presume that most of you are aware of the facts of the case up to the present time. You all know under what circumstances Lord Durham undertook the high office he went out to Canada to execute, and how and for what causes he chose 8 to give it up, and return liome without executing the same; and tlie questions now for your con- siderations are— whether under all the circum- stances of the case, he was justified in so doino-? And, if you shouhl think that he was not so justi- fied— wliether he ouglit to suffer any <^,reater punish- ment tlian the general expressions of disapprobation whicli may be passed on liis conduct in Parliament, or in common societv ? When the news arrived, a year ago, of tlie sad state of things which had taken place in Lower Canadr, and the total disorganization of social order which was likely to ensuis not only in that pro- vince, but in all our adjacent colonies, with the better part of the peo]>le only one feeling existed, of deep regret at the circumstance, and of a firm determinatio:i not to allow those portions of our empire to be dismembered from the government of the mother country. We were all ready to admit, that there had been gross mismanagement in the r.ffairs of those colonies ; we all agreed that every measure should be adoj)ted to restore order, by restoring good and etpial government; so that a recurrence of the recent catastro])he might be avoided by destroying the causes which led^to it. In order to meet the extraonlinary difficulties whicli surrounded the subject on every side, extraor- dinary measures were taken ; and to carry these measures into effect, the country anxiously looked out for fit and approjiriate agents. Ft luvppened. 9 louL executing for vour eoii- I the circuni- 171 So (loinir? 3 not so justi- ^reater piinish- (lisapprohation ill l*arlianient, igo, of the sad aee in Lower of social order ' in that pro- lies, with tlie 3eliiig existed, nd of ,'i (irni rtions of our ( government all ready to snianagenient II agreed tliat •estore order, ?nin!cnt ; so trophe miglit *vhich led to ry difficulties side, extraor- carry these ouslv looked It hap])ened. and as was thought then most fortunately, that an individual was at hand, who had been tried by the country in some important services, and who had justly entitled himself to its confidence, by the manner in which he had performed them. He was a man of high rani in the country, and yet wi -out the popular prejudi.^e, which generally witli^ut dis- tinction attaches itself thereto ; moreover he was a man of enlarged capacities, fully alive to the wants of the times, and fully aware of what the people require of their public servants ; and when, added to all these desirable qualifications, we say that he had been known to sympathize with the ]K)litical struggles of the pc^ople, against those who too long had domineered over them, it surely was not without reason, that the country was well pleased that such a person undertook the divine office of ministering for i)ublic security— of stand- ing between the yet living embeis of expiring liberties, and the deadening influences of lost poli- tical rights, and of staying the damning plague of social disorder, and the ruin of public freedom in one of our most important colonies. Lord Durham was this person. With the full confi- dence of the country, and with a full reliance on his own capal)ilities, he went out to Canada ; armed with powers so great, that only the necessity of the case would tolerate them; he had great ends in view, and he had great means at his command to roach those ends. And that this may more de- M m cidedly be seen, let us refe- to his own words, as they appear in his own proclamation, issued on his resignation. " I did not," says he, « accept the government of British North America wifhout duly considerwfj the nature of the task which I imposed onjnyself, or the sufficiencij of menm for performing '^ "I ^^i(l "ot shrink from assuming the awful responsibility of power thus freed from^con- stitutional restraints : in the hope that, by exercis- ing It with justice, with mildness, and with vigour, I nn'ght secure the happiness of all classes of thJ people, and facilitate the speedy and permanent restoration of their liberties." It appears from this, and nmch more that nnght be cited, that he was quite aware that he bad great means in his i)ower of doing good in the station Avherein his country had placed liini ; and, from Mhat follows, it w;'l also api)ear that the ends to be effected by him were great too, and that he thought them jirac- ticable. "To encourage and stinudate me in uiy arduous task, I had great and worthy objects in view. Mjj aim was to elevate the province of Lower Canada to a thoroughly British character, to Indv its people to the sovereignty of Britain by making them all participators in those high i)rivi. leges, conducive at once to freedom aiul order, which have long b( en the glo.y of I'nglishnien. / hoped to confer, on an united people, a\nore exten- sive en. joyment of free and respojisible government, and to merge the petty jealousies of a small conJ 11 m mm, words, as , issued on his , " accept tlic [I w'lfhout duly icli I imposed or perform in o- assuming" tlie ed from con- i.t, by exercis- I with vigour, classes of the d jjcrmaiient ars from this, , that he was in his power 1 liis country h)ws, it w;'l cted by liim them j)rac- c me in my y objects in province of h character, f Britain by high j)rivi- and order, lislnnen. / nore exten- :(overnment, small com- munity, and the odious animosities of origin, in the higher feelings of a nobler and more comprehensive nationality." Again, — " When I sought to oblite- rate the traces of recent discord, I pledged myself to remove its causes, to prevent the revival of a contest between hostile races, to raise the defective institutions of Lower Canada to the level of British civilization and freedom, to remove all impediments to the course of British enterprise in this province, and i)romote colonization and improvement in the others ; and to consolidate those (/eneral benefits on tlie strong and permanent basis of a free, respon- sible, and comprehensive government." Surely, if any thing be plain, this is the language of a man conscious of the greatness and usefulness of his andei'takings, and confident of his own poivers of carrying them into effect. In other parts of his proclamation he talks of his plans as " a large system of measures" for " a great object," "a great and beneficent puri)ose," and of " the vast benefits which his entire jiolicy jmnnised and had already in a great measure secured ! !" Nay, before he concludes, \w goes out of his way to rei)eat, even to weariness, the great good which he had in his power to do, when he owns the sorrow which his not doing it had caused him. When a man has done wrong himself, in conjunction with others, how apt is he to refer the sorrow which he feels to the account of something not done which he might have done, instead of to something done, which he n li i t 12 /las done ; and to throw impliedly the guilt of what has been done upon those who may have been parti- cipators in the act, instead of taking it ui)on his own shoulders ; althongli he knows that, as far as /le is concerned, he is as much guilty as if he had been the oidy actor in the transaction. Thus my Lord Durham naturally will not allow that he is in anywise the cause of the stoppage of the good which he acknowledges he had in his power to do. The passage referred to is the last that shall be quoted of those which are brought foj-ward as condimvc upon Lord Durham, and vstnpp'nuj him from deny- ing that he felt himself capable of being of great use to his country, by undertakiug tlie mauagement of our affairs in the North American colonies. It is this : " You will c^asily believe that, after all the exertions which T have made, it is with feelings of deep disai)poiutment that I find myself thus sud- denly deprived of thepoinT qf'coufrrrimitircnf hcwffs on that province to which 1 have referred ; of reform- ing the administrative system there, and eradicating the manifold abuses which had been engendered by the negligence and corruption ,)f former times, and so lamentably fostered 1)y civil dissensions. I cannot but regret being obliged to renounce thv stUl iimrc ijhwiims hnpc of emptoyhiu ^omsfuil hjisJafn'r powers in the endowment of that province ivith those free municij)al institutions, whicli are the only sure basis of local improvemt>nts and representative- liberty,— of establishing a system of general education,-loi' \\', 13 he guilt of what have been parti- ing it iij)oii his i that, as far as ilty as if he had tioii. Thus my )w tliat he is in ' the good wliicli ver to do. The shall be quoted rd as vimdn.sk'e lini from deny- beiiig of great le management m colonies. It Lt, after all the vith feelings of yself thus sud- iiifi s to the countrv. I f v. u lu^nsive foimda- vernmcnt of the lieir connection k what follows ! irlossly venture been suddenly n ])oint of what n which Lord in this great / was nf lru(jth t to justify him when he found he went out to V," as fur as hi: ity to give uj) r he has done ? ise he thought c(I in its vat art', dy oiM! of the a nature a<^ to and ijierefore good useless ! motives of the us admit that if a man avIio, ermed othcr- : was fostered 1, over ready, 7 thing which > the countrv, produce a discomfiture in the ranks of their adver- saries ; let us grant that it was cow^ardly taken in hand by the JNIinistry, — a weak and imprudent JVlinistry, ever bringing on measures it cannot carry through, because they are not its own measures, and ])art of a uniform system, but thrust upon it by cir- cumstances, and taken up by chance, as the feeling of the day may be, and not upon principle, and, therefore, ever weak and vacillating ; — let us assume all this, /or it is all true ; but is it enough to justify Lord Durham ? Nay, how does he hi 7}isclf siieak of this Act, which has produced such extraordinary results ? Why, he acknowledges that no imputation whatever was meant to be cast on the substance of his policy, but merely on a " petty tcchaicaliti/'' therein. " Tt is also very satisfactory to me," says he, in his Proclamation, " to find that the rectitude of my policy has hardly heeu disputed at home, and that the disallowance of the ordinance proceeds from no doubts of its suhstanfial merits, but from the importance which has been attached to a supposed technical error in the assumption of a power, which, if 1 had it not, I ought to have had." And so, be- cause the public has not found fault with the general conduct of one of its servants in the execution of a high office, has hardly disputed the same, has ex- pressed no doubts of its substantial merits, but has found fault with Ti petty technicality therein (rather, a mere excrescence thereof, particular in its nature, local and confined in its operations, and temporary in its ! ' < I / if-'u (t ]()• endurance) ; is this sufficient to justify such a public servant, at the instigation of his own personal feel- ings, to throw up his entire policy, when the coun- try had already reai)ed some of the benefits thereof, was anxiously looking for more, and was uiiivcrsally expecting him to continue the same? Brother electors ! this is a matter of great national import- ance, and, as such, gives it all the consideration it deserves. Such conduct does not a]>pear to Ije right. It would not be tolerated in ])rivate society ; as a matter, viewed in relation to civil law, it is a breach of contract and actionable ; and Mliy another rule should prevail in public matters, where greattr in- terests are at a stake, does seem strange indeed ! Because in ancient times j)ublic servants used to be punished for doing well, is that any reason whv in our times public servants should not b(> punisiied when they do //// Has Lord Durham, under all the circumstances of the case, done well or ill ? That is our question ; — not a mere political (piestion, but a jprnf viornl (/fu'sfiou ; and it is for you, the parliamentary electors of this country, to pass a moral judifnient thereon. Was there no other course for Lord Durham to jjursue than to resign in the way he has done? How mucii higher would ho have stood in our eyes, how much good might he liave done, how much of evil prevented, if, when the Act of Tndenmity arrived at Canada, instead of making it the j)lea to give u]) his post as he has done, he had stood by his duty, and written home 17 fy such a public n personal feel- vvlien the coun- )enefits thereof, was universally inie ? Brother ational import- 'onsideration it lear to be right. : society ; as a ^'j it is a breach ly another rule ere greatt r in- range indeed ! mts used to be reason why in ' be punisiied lani, under all L' Mell or ill ? itical question, s tor vou, the ry, to pass a o other course resigji in the lier would he )od might he 1, if, when the a, instead of )ost as he has written home i to the government to the following effect :— " Yon have acted badly to me, but I will not therefore act badly to my country ; I will stav here, and do what / CAN, although T may not do what I coidd have done, if you had not been so weak ; I will not per- mit 'the benefits which my policy ])romises, nay, which it has in a great measure sccimd' to these provinces, to be blasted by your home party quib- blings at my ' technical errors: To me personaUy, I candidly tell you, your conduct is most annoying. it is a deep disappointment that I am curtailed in my career of usefulness ; but I am not quite cut p their children as ignorant as themselves." iMen of the middle classes of society, to whom has been entrusted, by the wish of the country, (as expressed through their organ the Ministry of 1S;J2,) the great responsibility r»f choosing a l»arliament to guide the atlliirs of our vast emjtire, will you put up Avith these sort of men as your rulers? who say that you nuist be low-minded because you are shojj-keepers ! As if cringing was an incident to shop-keeping of necessity ! A\'hy, is not every man who lives by exchange a shop-keeper? [s not the soldier such, who gives up his time and exertions K 21 fnturr m/'uis- oa tor comiiiff y emoroency. r I mean, the on under the 7io are these , needy men ;t over that : ?sts of us tlio luse of Com- /Olt ! If t/H'J/ unjird ! One friend of the 'd simpering tlic slaves of lelig-ht is " to tions of man- •p who heep 's." .Men of m has been as expressed 1S;J2,) the irlianient to will you put rulers ? who use you are incident to t every man [s not the id exertions for his i>ay? Ts not the lawyer such, who exchanges the labour of his mind for his fees ? Is not my Lord Brougham, ex-chancellor of England, such, who, for the pension which we pay him by our taxes, gives in exchange the assiduity of his tongue for the good of the people ? (nay, is he not a re- tailer of very dear articles, above the market ])rice ? — this, by the way, for your consideration at some future time !) AV'ell, because there maij be cringing shopkeepers, are you all therefore to be swamped {' Because some mean men in Bond Street have " their hearts set a fluttering when a lady's carriage is at their door," or, " stand not upright, when a lord is in their presence;" because some shopkeepers in higher quarters may cringe and gloze before a King when they are in office, and insult a Queen when they are out of office, are there no manly shoi)-keepers, no honest and up- right statesmen? For the few who are bad, are the rest to be insulted, and their privileges de- stroyed? Look to it then in time, shopkeepers of England ! See well what these men are, before you let them get upon your backs, and put the bridle in your mouths ! Ten-pound Voters, don't be swamped ivifh yoar eyes o) en ! As for ?/ou, the other great branch of the new constituency, the Fifty-pound Voters of the comities, I need not at any length inform you, that the warrant is al- ready made out for your execution, and has been for some time in tlie ]>ocket of Charles Buller, Esq., I 22 Chief Secretary to the Earl of Durham, and the future Home Secretary of England ! yA)u are ron- sidored as the dead-weight of the Reform Bill, and to fling you overboard will be the first duty of the i)atriotic crew ! Instead of looking upon you as the Imllast of the good ship of the State, AS YOU ARE, they say you arc the grand stoppage to the working of the vessel, and as such you must go to David Jones ! ! Look to it then. Yeomen of England ! See what thoy are after in fitur ! Use your native shrewdness, your plain and homely reasons. Don't be humbugged in an open market ! Take care how you use your power whilst you HAVE IT ! Ilow should you like to see your broad lands and grassy meads covered over with the slavery of a manufacturing j)opulation, tall smok- ing chimneys take the place of your vilhige spires, and the whole of merry Eiiglaml become, as your enemies o])enly wish it niiy, the iUauchester of the world ! AMiat will become of ?/()u, think you, and of your wives and of your cherry-cheeked daughters durhif/ the cltamjc, whex the transition is taking PLACE ! ! I dare not picture to you what I can see would be your case. 'J'hcrefore, yeomen of En- gland ! for your own sakes, for the sakes of your families, for all our sakes, look to it in fhnt', I beseech you! We have been carried somtnvhat from our purpose, in the zeal to show you what will be your fate if you suii'er my Lord Durham to triumph in that which may have been, after 23 'ham, and the yAXf are ron- Reform Bill, the first duty looking ii|ton of the State, rand stoppage iicli you must n, Yeomen of n fiiiw ! Use and homely ojjen market ! ■ WHILST YOU e your broad rer with the »n, tall smok- village spires, come, as your liester of tlie ik you, and of ed daughters 3N IS TAKING hat 1 eaii see unen of En- lakes of your it in time, I id som(nvhat )\v you what iord Durham been, after all, the real reason of his resignation ; but our im- mediate object is with that act of his, what- ever may have been the cause of it ; and whether that cause was the implied censure in the Act of Indemiiity, or tb.o and)ition of Lord Durham for the 'Premiership, from all that has been said he appears to be equally culpable, for having made great public interests subordinate to his personal feelings, thereby cruelly betraying the confidence of his country, which it had so largely, so generously, so absolutely reposed in him : and now, in the last place, M-e are to consider whether he shall do so with imi)unity ; and if not, what punishment is provided by our consti- tution for such transgressors against the public wel- fare \ When an individual is injured in his property, whether by a breach of contract or by a tort on the part of another, he has a remedy by an action at law, thereby he gets a compensation in the shape of damages : when the peace of society is injured ' It will be seen that nothing has been said about the conse- quences which followed upon Lord Durham's resignation in Canada; the renewal of civil discord, the blood which has been shed, the lives which have been lost, and the piteous sorrow which must have ensued thereon in many a family circle, — above all, the proclamation of martial law, which hands over the lives of citizens to the tender mercies of a rampant soldiery : all these, though they tend to raise heavy damages indeed against my Lord Durham, have nothing to do with the thing we are now considering, — his unjustifiable resignation of the office whicii the country had put into his hands. 24 ; , t by any oiitrao-o on its rights at tho hands of a crimi- nal, the pubHc is satisfied, and its future quiet guarded against by the process of indictment and tlie punishment consequent thereon: so also, in apolitical ])oint of view, when the state is injured, and the national mind aggrieved by tlie conduct of any of its servants, whom it may have placed in high trust and authority, the wisdom of our constitution has provided a method, whereby satisfaction is rendered to the nation by the punishment of the individnul who may have committed the offence, and a warn- ing is held out to all future ])ers()ns, w ho may be placed in the same or similar situations, to restrain them within the bounds of their duty by tho fear of what they are to expect if in any way they trans- gress the same. This method is by the high pro- cess of Parliamentary ImpcachnK^it. It is, as it were, a state-indictment, found by the grand incjuest of the Connnons of England, against any great public officer, who, in tlnir (liscrdion, may be deemed guilty of any crime or ini.sdcmcdnour m the exe- cution of his office and the duties which appertahi to it. It is laid down by the highest constitutional authorities ' that it is a remedy quite qmcral in its nature. Tt is not at all confined in its application to any particular acts of transgression, but lies, so to speak, wherever and w/c//;/.v/ win wi soever the Commons choose fo hrhuj if. There is an ignorant ' Sir W. Hlackstnne, Hurkc, ^v. ndsof a criiiii- 5 future quiet ^tnient and tlie >o,in a political jured, and the kict of anv of I in liigb trust )nstitution lias on is rendered the individual :>, and a A\arn- \\ho may be US, to restrain 'y by the fear ay they trans- the hio^h pro- It is, as it grand in({uest ist any great lay be deemed • in tlie exe- lieh ai)pertain constitutional (jnirrnl in its ts apj)lication ; but lies, so hamsoci'cr the > an Ignorant idea afloat, that it can only be brought against a person who is indictable for what he has done at common law : this limitation militates against the whole theory of this high privilege of the Commons, besides being wrong in point of fact ;— who does not know that jNlinisters have, before now, been impeached for signing improper treaties ? Yet it ^\ould be too much to say that an indictment could be brought for signing an improper treaty ! The truth is, that the process of impeachment is quite ^.?'/rt7-ordinary in its nature. I do not say that it is ])aramount, but that it is altogether collateral to, and not in any way affected by, the ordinary law. It is not regulated by its precedents, either as to the way in which it is brought, or as to the objects for which it is brought. This point in our consti- tution may be considered as settled ever since the trial of Warren Hastings. The effect of that trial (protracted as it was for petty party purposes) being to bring this ancient and most useful right of the people into odium, and thereby, perhaps, into future neglect, did not escape the great political foresight of Burke, who, at the request of those who managed the impeachment, drew up the famous Report which was the result of the inquiries of a Committee into the causes of the delay attending the trial. It is there demonstrated, in the clearest way, by constitutional precedent, that the delay had arisen from the nnconstitutional interference of the common 26 H 1! law, as to evidence and other matters attending the jirocess. Tliis most able work of its most able author may be safely ai)pealed to on the subject ; lawyers may read it with advantage on many points of law ; and members of the House of Commons may use it as a safe guide, when it becomes tlieir duty to make use of the extraordinary privilege which it M-as the object of Burke to perpetuate in their hands. But there is one thing necessary to render tliis high instrument of public justice avail- able fur the i)urposes for which it was instituted. fts object being not merely to punish an individual, (which would be a paltry thing indeed !) but to ])roduce a great moral eUl'ct on the community, that o])ject can only be gained by there first existing in the conmiunity not only a mere ])arty, or a mere political, but a great moral, feeling on the subject. The ])ublic at large, or, at any rate, that part of the ])ul)lic to which is given the trust to choose a rejiresentation of the national mind, must be so impressed with the guilt of its servant in the transaction under notice, and with the evil which will ensue to future times, if his conduct be allowed to go without public censure, as that the moral judgment which it shall pass on the offender, shall act with such jiower uj)on tlmse whom it may elect to form the House of Connnons that they shall be forced to carry that judgment into execu- tion in the only way, that to eil'ect its proper 27 ittending the s most able the subject ? many points of Commons 3comes tlieir ary privilege erpetuato in necessary to justice avail- LS instituted. 11 iiulivichial, }ed !) but to community, first existing y, or a mere the subject, t part of the :o choose a must be so vaiit ill the ; evil uhich t be allowed t the moral [euder, shall lom it may IS that they into execu- its proper "fi object, it can be done, and that is by the process of impeachment. This, whatever be the punishment, however trivial, which in the result it may affix to the ofTence, performs its constitutional function by the act of its being brought. When the articles of impeachment are brought up to the House of Peers, even if nothing else should be done, enough will have been done to pass a great public censure on the conduct of the individual who may be the subject of the impeachment ; and enough will also have been done to warn future public servants that they are not to act with regard to their public duties as they please with impunity. This is all I M-ant to be done to my Lord Durham; not to aiilict the man,~.the individual ; but to £ro good to the whole, w^hereof he is but an insignificant memlier. The fact of his being a person of high qualities rather goes to render him less excusable, and to make that, which should be the only object of the impeachment, viz. the moral effect to be produced thereby, the more useful by the punish- ment taking j.lace in his person. Electors of the House of Commons ! you nn> the persons whose more immediate duty it is to pass tliat moral judgment, which the circumstances of this case requires. I have now done with the subject; how far it has been treated by me in a way coinciding with your views, you are the best judges : only give me credit for sincerity. A^VU, thc^i. I tL \ 28 *i ;«L' ? Is mv Lord Durham justip'd ^vllat ao you think ? 1^ my i. in what he has done or not? Hoy say y ,. ov not guilty? Cow^eW^r your verdict . Your humble servant, A Freeholder. - •~~ ""TT. , „.^ sf .lolii.'s Souju-i'. Lo»uU)ii "^ t rhain jiistijiad ay you, oiiilty srvaiit, Freeholder. m 1 's S(ius»ri', Lo»u