IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V. r.^ i/.. ^ ^. 1.0 I.I Li|2^ |25 lU lU lit 14.0 12.0 |l.25 ,.4|,.6 ^ 6" ► V] vQ 7 '/ ^^ *> > .^ <^ liiic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 . (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: L'exemplaire filmi f ut reproduit grAce d la g4n6rosit6 de: La biblioth4que des Archives pubiiques du Canada Las images suivantes ont iti reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la netteti de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec ies conditions du contrat de filmage. 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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. by errata led to ent jne peiure, fa9on d 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^1i <' AN ADDRESS TO THE HOUSE OE LORDS. B Y SIR FRANCIS BOND HEAD, Bakt. •■ Would you destroy the old Uou8« r'-Quy Mamering. /'Ea'^, ,,) f^'kWf'i'« ' *■ AN ADDRESS ^ TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS, AGAINST THE BILL BEFORE PARLIAMENT FOR THE UNION, OF THE CANADAS; AND DISCLOSING THE IMPROPER MEANS BY WHICH THE CONSENT OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE UPPER PROVINCE HAS BEEN OBTAINED TO THE MEASURE. By sir FRANCIS B. HEAD, Bart. S.V----- ■■yf''/-^. * ' Would you destroy the old House ? '* — Guy Mannerimj. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1840. 1 " » '" %'; LONDON t Pi-iiilcd by W. Cix)WK8niid Sons, Stumrord Street- PREFACE. The following Memorandum of an Address to the House of Lords against the bill now before Parliament for the re-union of the Canadas, and against the improper means by which the consent of the Legislature of the Upper Province has been obtained for that measure, is published — 1st. Because I feel it a duty I owe to the country to disclose objections which I most humbly conceive tend to forbid the bans of this proposed Union ; and 2ndly. Because I feel it a duty I owe to myself at all events to record them. It will, I trust, appear that I have offered no personal reflections against the Governor-General of the Canadas, who has evidently only obeyed the instructions he has received ; and although I have freely impugned the inexplicable policy of those instructions, yet I can truly declare that I entertain no improper feeling against the Govern- ment, from several members of which, and espe- cially from Lord Melbourne, I have received as much personal attention as I have had any reason to expect. AN ADDRKSS, WiiKNKVKK tlie Imperial Parliament is called u))on by the Ministers of the Crown to annul a Holemn act, such as (hat by which an immense region of the liritish empire was more than hair a century ngo deliberately divided info two parts, it must stu'ely be the duty of e\ery sensible man, bol'ure even he judges of the new measure, calmly to n^consider the reasons lor which the old one was so solemnly eftVcled. In the year 17G3, when the Canadas were added, by con- quest, to the British Crown, the law of iLiigland was intro- duced by an act of royal authority, and the ca])tured coiuitry was thus made an uniform, as well as integral, part of the British empire. However, from a false principle of concilia- tion, it imfortunately was soon d.;emed proper, or rather ex- pedient, that with our own hands we should subvert our own laws; and accordingly the British Parliament, by their Act of 1774, expressly restored the ancient law of Canada, and made it "the rule of decision in all controversies relating to pro- perty and civil rights." This obeisance or submission, by the most powerful empire on the globe, to a small body of con- quered Frenchmen, who had surrendered to our arnis, and over whose head the British flag, the emblem of justice and sound sovernment, had for more than ten years waved in triumph, it would be useless now to deplore : without a single comment it may therefore be observed that, when the B sIjIlmuI'kI wiklornoss of UpixT Cuiitula Iji-^iin to he jn'oplcd by u low IJritish oniignrnts, a I'l'W iTtircd soldiers, and by a baud of royalists, who, aiiirnatud by a IWding ol" ibo j)urfst patriot- isni, prt'ferrod its hardships antl its loneliness to livinji; in the r<'])ublicwii States, wliich had violated their allegiance to the British C'rown, it became a question for the consideration of Parliament*, which could not be evaded, whether tliis inmiensc and almost unjioopled wild<>rncss was also to be made a Catholic province, and whether its future inhabitants were aho to be bereft of the blessings and institutions of the (lag round vvhidi they had assend)lod, or, without metaphor, of the empire to which they belonged. After calm and unruffled deliberation (for, while the upper province remained almost unpeopled, the cpiestion was one more of theory than pnictice), it was deemed unnecessary, immanly, and unjust to inllict French law, in the French lan- guage, upon people who had all their lives been accustomed to English law, and to their mother-tongue; and that to have tv'o codes of law in one country, or to make a distinction in the administration of justice between suitors in the same court, woidd be impracticable as well as absurtl. But, besides these reasons, the enormous country we had conquered (which in its extent of frontier was, as it still is, bounded by six or seven States of the repubhcan confederacy, each having within itself a separate government) was considered too large to be con- veniently and safely ruled by one executive government. The few settlers at Sandwich were more than 1500 miles from the eastern extremity of the province ; and, even had the best possible roads existed. Parliament deemed that it would be impracticable, even in Europe, to govern from one point such an enormous expanse of territory ; and that to subject the whole of this immense region to foreign law, merely be- cause in a fit of weakness we had unfortunately granted such a concession to a portion of the country thinly peopled by foreigners, would be as preposterous as it would have been to ha^ aiH llc( tlu Cil Pa nai en coi bei 3 ,1 l,y )aiiii liot- the the M of loi.se .1 |\V(Me Imvc oi(l(M(\l Frt'iU'li rc^ulatiuiis, I'lviU'li woiils ol" conHiiiiiid, niul the adoption of Catholic rha])hiiiis. throughout our wholr fleet, because from a false luiiuiple we had allowed all ol" thoni to exist on hoard a single I'Vench IViirate which we had raj)tured. For thcso, as well as for other minor reasons, the Imperial Purlian)ent, fifty years ago, deliberately came to the determi- nation, hy the Act of 17'.)!, to remedy, or at least to confine, the error which had been perpetrated by the Act of 1774, to the country and to the people only in favour of whom it had been committed; and accordingly, still securing to the French or lioman catholic portion of the lower country their foreign laws and foreign langua;Te, ihey deemid it pioper to consti- tute the upper and ahnost »minhal,ited porlion of Canada a Britiah settlement, to be govrned by Engli.vh lawsj to be administered for ever in the Er>li.\-h tongue. For these solid reaso s the division of Canada into two pro- vinces was deliberately and solemnly eirccled; and before the Imperial Parliament shall consent to annul this act, surely it will be wise for it to consider whether the reasons for which the divorce was decreed (founded as they were on the laws of nature) are not as solid, as fresh, and as sound at heart to this day as they were half a century ago ; for the distance from Quebec to Sandwich is still precisely what it was in 1791 ; the difference which then existed between the English and French languages, and between French and English laws, remains inialtercd ; the difference between the Catholic and the Protestant religion has not changed; and the only altera- tion which has really taken place in the great reasons which have been just mentioned is, that, while the British part of the province has, under Pitish laws, maintained its loyalty, the French portion of the Canadas, under P^rench laws, has be- come gradually more and more disaffected, until, by having openly rebelled against its sovereign, it has at last arrived at that climax in which it can only be kept in subjection by the n2 bayonet. But even this is nothing more than a result which, in the parhamentary discussion of the fatal measure of 1774, was prophesied by many, and was thus most clearly foreseen and foretold by Serjeant Glynn, who, after having very elo- quently protested against the un-British and unnatural policy of excludincr the laws of England from British soil, and of sub- stituting in their place the laws of France, added, — " I should have thought it was rather our duty, by all gentle means, to root those prejudices from the minds of the Canadians; to attach them by degrees to the civil government of England ; and to rivet the union by the strong ties of laws, language, and religion. " You have followed the opposite principle, which, instead of making it a secure possession of this country, will cause it to remain for ever a dangerous one. I have contemplated with some hoi'ror the nursery thus established for men reared up in irreconcilable aversion to om* laws and constitution. When I was told by the noble lord that they were insensible to the value of those laws, and held them in contempt, wishing to be bound by laws of their own making ; when I was told they had no regard for civil rights, 1 must confess that it operated with me in a contrary way; and I could not help thinking that it furnished an unanswerable argument against gratifying them. I tlnnk that we could not, with humanity or policy, gratify Them in their love of French law and of French religion." We did, however, gratify them in their love for both; and Parliament is now reaping the result of having wilfully sov/n tares in its own dominions. But even if the great reasons which authorised the division of Canada were not now what they were in the time of Mr. Pitt; admitting for a moment that the domination of French laws ought to have been extended over the whole region, and that tiie Par- liament of 1791 committed an error in establishing in its own wilderness a British province ; yet, before we now consent to annul the decree, we must rellect that "just as the twig is bent the tree is inclined ;" so, between the years 1791 and 1840, effects have been generated by to the clanger of fonseqiioncesccrtainly incomoiiieiit, iiiid possibly most ruinous to the peace and welfare of this country, and de- structive of its cotuiexions with the parent stale. " This province we believe to be cpiite as large as can be effectually and conveniently ruled by one executive govern- ment : united with Lower Canada it would form a territory of which the settled parts from east to west would cover an extent of eleven hundred miles, whi?h, for nearly half the year, can oidy be traversed by land ; the opposite territory of the United States, alonjjf the same extent of fiontier, being divided into six states, having each an inuependent government. *' The population which Upper Canada contains is almost without exception of British descent. They speak the same language and have the same laws, and it is their pride that these laws are derived from their mother-country, and are unmixed with rules and customs of foreicru oriiiiu. '*^ Wholly and happily free from those causes of difliculty which are found so embarrassing in the adjoining province, we cannot but most earnestly hope that we shall be sutVered to continue so; and that your Majesty's paternal regard for your ntmierous and loyal subjects in this colony will not sutler a doubtful experiment to be hazarded, which may be attended with consequences most detrimental to their peace, and in- jurious to the best interests of themselves and their posterity, (Signed) " John B. Robinson, Speaker, L.C. " Akchibalu M'Lean, Speaker, H.A'' s, the Pro- your ppre- sts of some ■)vcrn- ly for What was the opinion of his late Majesty on the subject will clearly appear from the following reply from the Secretary of State to the foregoing Address : — "ATo. 170. Sir, " Doivning-streef, 21s/ April, 1837. " I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your despatch (No. 26) of the 4th \dtimo, in which you transmit to me an address to his Majesty from the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of Upper Canada, deprecating an union between the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. "1 beg leave to acquaint you that, having laid this address before the King, his Majesty lias been pleased to receive the same very graciously, and to command me to observe that the project of an union between the two provinces has not been II contompliiU'd hv his Md]vs\y as ^t tit he rcvmnmcntled Jor (he sanction of Parliament. " I have, &c. » Sir F. B. Head, Jhrrt. (Signo(l) "Glknelg. Altlioiigh iiulivitluiil o])inion8 can have little relative weight, ill comparison with the mass of legislative evidence which has been adduced, yet it may not be improper to observe, Istly, that the impolicy of uniting the Canadas has been just most powerfully exposed in a printed letter, dated Wandsworth, 30th December, 1839, and addressed to Lord John Russell by the Chief Justice of Upper Canada, a gentleman universally respected throughout British North America for his public talents and private worth, who has been for twenty-seven years in the service of the Crown, and who in both Houses has been for the last eighteen years a leading member of the Provincial Legislature; and 2ndly, that the said project has also, in a printed letter, been most strenuously opposed by the Bishop of Toronto, the head of the Established Church in L^pper Canada. Having shown the positive opposition to a re-union of the Canadas, which, from the time of Governor Simcoe, in 1701, has conscientiously been evinced by a succession of all those constituted authorities which it is the duty of Parliament to respect, it may be proper to adduce, as negative evidence, that not only was the joint address of the Legislature of Upper Canada to the Crown, in 1837, against the Union, opposed by every one of those members of the assembly who have since been outlawed as rebels, but that that arch-traitor Dr. Rolph, for whose apprehension a reward of 500/. is now ofTered, finding that the measure had been carried, secretly combined with his republican associates, on the very last day of the session, to speak against time, in order that the mere formal address to the Lieutenant-Governor, praying him to forward the joint address to the King, might be interrupted, as it accordingly was interrupted, by the firing of the guns which announced the Ij or flip Lao. ch hfis , Istly, t most su'ortli, Llussell public n years as boeti jvincial so, in a shop of >anada. of the 1791, those ncnt to e, that Upper Dsed by e since Rolph, finding ith his sion, to Jress to le joint rdingly ced the Lieutenant-Govenuii- having iclt ^ioverniiifnl House lo pro- rogue tlie Parliament. Besides this, it nnist be stated, tliat ahnost the very hist act of Mr. Speaker Papineau was to aduress a most treasonable letter to Mr. Speaker Bidwell, proposing to him an union be- tween the two Houses of Assembly of the C'anadas, as the surest and most etTectual means of thwartini; the sovereiirn's autho- rity, wliich he most grossly insulted and reviled. Now, if it be true that, from the year 17U1, when Canada was deliberately divided by the Imperial Parliament into two provinces, down to the appointment of Lord Durham, every Lieutenant-Governor has felt it his duty not to advise that the said two provinces should be re-united — if the various Executive Councils, during the whole of that period, have agreed with the various Lieutenant-Governors (however they might have disagreed with them on other subjects) in not advisinj; the measure — if the two Houses of the Provincial Parliament of both provinces, during that period, have never once advised it, but, on the contrary, as soon as they sus- pected it might be recommended, have in both provinces joined together in an address to the Crown praying that it might not be effected — if it be true that his late Majesty, by advice of the present ministers, replied to their joint address, " that the project of an union between the two provinces had not been contemplated by His Majesty as fit to be recom- mended for the sanction of Parliament" — if the Chief Justice, and if the head of the Established Church, have, reckless of consequences, unceasingly opposed it — and if, during the period mentioned, the measure has been advocated by Mr. Papineau, Mr. Bidwell, Dr. Rolph, Mr. M'Kenzie, and by adherents, most of whom having absconded are at this moment outlawed traitors, — it becomes necessary to consider upon what grounds Her Majesty's Ministers could possibly have deemed it proper suddenly to advise our Most Gracious Sovereign, in her late royal message to Parliament, to declare — Ifi " TliJit Hor Mnjosty thinks proper to sicqiiaiiit tlio I Ions*' I of l^onls and Commons] that it appears to Her Majesty that the liitnre wellare of her siil)jects in i.ower and Upper ('ana(hi would he promoted hy a nnion of the said provinces intt) one province, for tlie purpose of legislation/' Now, incredible as it may sound, it is nevertheless true, that the above recommendation to I*arlianient, as well as the in- structions subsequently given to Mr. Pouletl 'J'homson, were notoriously and avowedly based upon the posthumous report of a nobleman who had not only im])ugne(l to his Sovereign the conduct — of his predecessors, of the Legislative and ICxecu- tivo Councils, of the House of Assembly, and of the public authorities — but who, before the whole world, having aj)pealed from the Castle of Quebec to the people of British North America against Her Majesty's delegated authority, against the conduct of the Queen's Ministers, against the members of the Imperial Parliament, without permission had abandoned his post on the very eve of an insurrection, which he has since acknowledged he had clearly foreseen. What weight was intrinsically due to posthumous opi- nions, delivered under the circumstances above stated, is a specidative question which I will not presume to discuss; hut, as Lord Durham's assertions form the acknowledijed basis of the recommendation of the proposed union of the Canadas, it is not only just, but absolutely necessary, to place in the opposite scale the following facts for uuch consideration only as they may appear to deserve. 1st. — Lieutenant-General Sir Peregrine Maitland was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada ten years, besides being afterwards Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. In a reply, dated Brighton, 19th August, 1839, which this distin- guished officer did me the honour to address to me, he declared : — " I have no objection whatever to its being stated that I have expressed to you my decided condemnation, with full liberty to disclose my sentinients, of Lord Durham's report ; 17 I ioiistr ry that ito one ic, that the iii- [1, WITO \ repoi pu 1)1 IC p])ealed North aji^ainst ibcrs ot mod his IS sinco us opi- d, is a s; hnt, isis of adas, il in the 11 only Id was I besides In a dlstiii- ne, he that I lith full [report ; my opinion that it ^ives an inuccurato and unfair description of the provitu'o and j)eople of Upper Canada, and that it cen- sures ignorant ly and unjustly those who have administered the government of that province. (Signed) " P. Maitland.'* 2nd. — Sir F. Head, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada dining three session^ of the Provincial Legislature, has declared that his Lordship's allegations against him are the reverse of the truth — that they area tissue of unintentional errors — that, with respect to his Lordship's assertion that ihe Executive Council took office under him on the express con- dition of being mere ciphers, such a condition was neither expressed nor understood — and that, with respect to the alle- gation that the elections were carried by the unscrupulous in- fluence of the Government, he calmly but unequivocally denied it. Sir F. Head moreover has in vain called upon Lord Durham to fultil the promise his Lordship made on his landing, namely, "that he would make disclosures which would astonish both the Parliament and the country." 3rd. — Sir George Arthur, the present Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, in his published despatch to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, No. 91, dated Toronto, April 17, 1839, has stated: — " I have had the honour to receive Lord Glenelg's despatch, marked "Circular" of the 17th of February last, wherewith His Lordshi]) has transmitted lor my information a copy of the Earl of Durham's report to Her Majesty on the affairs of British North America, and also of part of the Appendix. . . . '•The members of both Houses, I find, generally consider parts of the report which refer to Upper Canada to be in many particulars incorrect ; and a committee of the House of Assembly has been consequently appointed to draw up a re- port on the subject. " They regard the Earl of Durham's scheme for the future government of Canada as essentially the same as that nhich was advocated by Mr. Bidwell, Dr. Rolph, and Mr. M'Ken- zie, and to which the great majority of the people of this province expressed their unequivocal dissent; that in fact it 18 was on this point that the elections to the present House of Assembly turned." Again, Sir George Arthur, in his published despatch to the Marquis of Normanby, No. 107, dated Toronto, 13th May, 1839, after complaining against certain allegations in Lord Durham's report, has stated — " His Lordship has evidently regarded the party whose practical loyalty has been so warm)y eulogised by Her Ma- jesty's Government to be politically the most culpable, and the unsuccessful faction to be the injured party. " Of the Earl of Durham's report in other respects I will only state that on many important points he has been much misinformed. (Signed) " Geo. Arthur." In two subsequent despatches addressed to Lord Normanby on the 2nd July and 21st August, 1839, Sir George Arthur has stated : — " There is a considerable section of persons who are disloyal to the core ; reform is on their lips, but separation is in their hearts : these people, having for the last two or three years made 'responsible government' their watchword, are now extravagantly elated because the Earl of Durham has recom- mended that measure.'^ Again, " Far more to be lamented than any of the circumstances to which I have referred are the effects of Lord Durham's report. " The bait of ' responsible government' has been eagerly taken, and its poison is working most mischievously. It was M^Kenzie^s scheme for getting rid of what Mr. Hume called ' the baneful domination of the mother-country ;' and never was any better devised to bring about such an end speedily." (Here follow further observations, the publication of which Government have deemed it proper to suppress.) 4th. — The Commons House of Assembly of Upper Canada, in the report which they humbly submitted to the Queen, and in which they refute at great length all Lord Durham's prin- cipal allegations, have stated — years never lily." which 19 ** That they will apply 'hemselves with calmness, and, they trust, with dispassionate zeal, to vindicate the people of Upper Canada, their Government and Lemslature, from charges that imply a want of patriotism and integrity which they did not expect, and which they grieve to find advanced by a nobleman who had been sent to these provinces to heal rather than to foment grievances, and who certainly should have carefully guarded against giving currency to unfounded, mischievous, and illiberal rumours, for the truth of which he admits he is unable to vouch." Of Lord Durham's well-known proclamation of the 9th of October the Commons House of Assembly observe ; — " It was regarded by all lovers of order with silent asto- nishment and disappointment. . . . They considered as open to most serious objection an appeal by such an officer to the public at large from measures adopted by the sovereign, with the advice and consent of Parliament ;" and they add, " the terms in which that appeal had in that instance been made, appeared to Her Majesty's ministers, (vide Lord Glenelg's despatch) ' calculated to impugn the reverence due ' to the royal authority in the colony ^ to derogate from the * character of the Imperial Legislature, to excite among the ' disaffected hopes of impunity, and to enhance the diffi- ' culties with which his Lordship's successor would have to ' contend.' " 5th. — ^The Upper House of the Legislature of Upper Canada also adopted a report transmitted by Sir George Arthur to the Secretary of State, refuting in the strongest terms the principles and the allegations contained in Lord Durham's report. 6th. — Chief Justice Robinson, the Speaker of the Upper House, and for twenty-seven years a servant of the Crown, in his published communication to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, has stated : — " Another object desirable to be accomplished for pro- moting the security and welfare of Canada is the counteract- ing, by whatever measure may seem most effectual, the inju- rious tendency of the report which was presented to Her Majesty by Lord Durham during the last session of Ptiilia- ment. ** In thus referring to Lord Durham, I would unwillingly ■M ■I J I > y\\ 20 fail to speak of him with the respect due to his rank and the station which he lately filled. " All was done that could be done in this country, by persons connected with the colony, for lessening the f >rce of a blow unintentionally aimed (I trust) at the tranquillity of a distant possession, which, for the common good of all its inha- bitants, wanted nothing so much as the restoration of internal peace. The late Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada showed, in the clearest manner, how strangely inaccurate the statements were which related to his public measures ; the merchants of London connected with the colonies felt them- selves called upon to wait in a body on her Majesty's Govern- ment, with a public expression of their conviction tliat that part of the report which respected Upper Canada was founded in error, and was likely to be productive of injurious conse- quences ; and, as an inhabitant of Upper Canada, / did not hesitate to state officially to her Majesty's Secretary of State, immediately upon its appearance, that I was ready, in any place and at any time, to show that it was utterly unsafe to be relied upon as the foundation of Parliamentary proceed- ings. I knew then, and I know now, that the means of re- futing the most important statements and conclusions con- tained in it must exist in the office of the Colonial Depart- ment, and could not require even a reference to the colony.'* Now, may it not calmly be asked, why has this offer of the Chief Justice of Upper Canada to corroborate three Lieutenant- Governors in impeaching Lord Durham's Report been with- held from the Imperial Parliament ? What has been the reason of this denial of justice to the people of the Canadas ? Was it fair in the ministers of the Crown to overwhelm both Houses of the Legislature with voluminous reports and appendices, not only recommending by one-sided arguments a republican system of " responsible government," but slander- ing the Lieutenant-Governor, Executive Council, Legislative Council, Commons House of Assembly, and people of the Colony, and yet on the other hand to suppress all mention of so competent and irreproachable a witness as the Chief Justice of the very colony in question, who had offered " at any time and any jjlace " to destroy the theory and to refute the cahimnles ? Was not the suppression of such a witness an 21 lents a lander- tslative of the Ition of Chief kl " at refute less an injustice to Parhament and to the people of England, who had so long, so earnestly, and so patiently been endeavouring to arrive at a sound and impartial conclusion as to the future government of the Canadas ? Have the expenses of Lord Gosford, of Sir Charles Grey, of Sir George Gipps, have the enormous expenses of Lord Dur- ham, Turton, Gibbon Wakefield, &c., all been incurred by her Majesty's Ministers, not for the purpose of really ascer- taining the state of the Canadas, but for the sole object of enabling them to recommend a favourite republican theory w^hich the country, wilfully kept in ignorance, is to be forced to adopt ? Without presuming to anticipate what may be the opinion of the Imperial Parliament on the policy of framing remedial measures for Canada upon Lord Durham's unwholesome Report, there surely can be no doubt that, when history retro- spectively and dispassionately weighs his Lordship's experience, his allegations, and his recommendations, against the united re- futations and opinions not only of three Lieutenant-Governors who had successively administered the government of the pro- vince for fifteen years, but of both Houses of the Provincial Legislature, it will join with Chief Justice R' jinson in de- claring " that the Report was utterly unsafe to be relied upon as the foimdation of Parliamentary proceedings." Her Majesty's Ministers, however, unfortunately judged otherwise, and, having determined to make Lord Durham's Report the basis of their remedial measures, they advised our most gracious Sovereign — Jst. to transmit the said Report to both Houses of Parliament, and 2ndly, to recommend to Parliament the fatal project it contained of a re-union of the Canadas. By the above recommendation from the throne, Her Ma- jesty's Government however found themselves in a predicament from which nothing could extricate them but the most despe- rate remedies ; for, although our revered but youthful Queen, Hi U 22 generously yielding to their solicitations, had consented to recommend the re-union of the Canadas, yet it became painfully evident that the thing was " easier said than done :" for, notwithstanding the immense weight which the message of the Sovereign would evidently possess in the loyal pro- vince of Upper Canada, it was well known to the Govern- ment that Sir John Colborne and Sir George Arthur not only had no confidence in the measure, but foresaw in it the ruin of these noble colonies. It became necessary, therefore, that both these public servants should be got rid of. The former was accordingly recalled to England, the latter was informed it would be necessary he should submit to the unprecedented mortification of being, before the whole province he governed, and before the Legislature of which he was the head, super- seded by a gentleman who, on the " lucus a non lucendo" principle, had apparently been selected to maintain on the con- tinent of America the cause of monarchy versus democracy — first, because he was personally unacquainted with the country, secondly, because he was opposed to the timber-trade of the Canadas, and thirdly, because he was a conscientious advocate for the ballot ! But, besides Sir John Colborne and Sir George Arthur, there were other living obstacles to be removed j for not only Her Majesty's Attorney-General in Upper Canada, but Sir George Arthur's late secretary, several members of his Executive Council, as well as many other public servants, had, in their seats in the Legislature, honestly voted against the Union. In order therefore to silence these and all other public servants, as well as all who hungered after office, it was deemed necessary that Mr. Thomson should arrive at Toronto armed with a despatch signed "John Russell/' and addressed to Sir George Arthur, of which the following are extracts : — " Sir, " Downing Street, \6th October, 1839. " I am desirous of directing your attention to the terms on 23 Sir his hadj t the Bublic was ronto ssed which pubhc offices in the gift of the Crown appear to be held throughout the British colonies I cannot learn that during the present, or two last reigns, a single instance has occurred of a change in the subordinate colonial officers, except in case of leath or resignation, in- capacity or misconduct It is time, therefore, that a different course should be followed ; and the object of my present communication is to announce to you the rules which will be hereafter observed on this subject in the province of Upper Canada. You will understand, and will cause it to be generally known, that hereafter the tenure of colonial officers, held during Her Majesty's pleasure, will not )e regarded as equivalent to a tenure during good behaviour, Dut that such officers will be called upon to retire from the public service as often as any sufficient motives of public policy may suggest the expediency of that measure." .... Now, when Mr. Ridout was dismissed from the militia, and from the bench of a District Court in Upper Canada, merely because he so far opposed the " public policy " of the Lieute- nant-Governor as to threaten in republican language "to tar and feather him," the Secretary of State, as counsel for the defendant, replied on the 5th of April, 1837, as follows: — " Much allowance is to be made for natural feelings under a sense of supposed injury I certainly never con- templated that every officer of the militia, every district judge, and every justice of the peace, should hold his office on the condition of being dismissed if he should happen to oppose the policy of the Lieutenant-Governor for the time being. I have accordingly to convey to you His Majesty's commands that Mr. Ridout should be permitted to resume the various employments from which he has been removed." And the despatch, as If sneering at the mischief it intended to create, added, " It will afford me most sincere pleasure if you shall be able to reconcile the prompt and complete execution of these in- structions with the protection of your own authority from the danger to which / am well aware it may be exposed by the means which I am thus compelled to adopt." From the foregoing extracts it appears that her Majesty's Ministers had scarcely pronudgated, on the eve of a rebellion, IH). 24 the doctrine that the Secretary of State never contemplated that a Governor should dismiss a public officer merely because " he happened to oppose the policy of the Sovereign's representative for the time being " (the said policy being well known to them to have been simply the maintenance of British institutions against sedition and treasonable violence), when, in the very same colony and in a moment of profound peace, to enable them to force the Union Bill through the Legislature, they supported the Governor by a contradictory despatch, empow- ering him to dismiss whoever, by reason or argument, should dare to oppose him. With his blunderbuss in his hand, primed, loaded, and cocked, Mr. Thomson did not deem it prudent to level it directly at the head of any particular individual ; on the con- trary, he of course cautiously abstained from committing him- self by making any such threat, but, merely playing with the trigger of his instrument, he significantly observed to at least one of the principal public officers, " Of course, sir, you will be expected to vote for the Union !" But Mr. Thomson himself admits very honestly the assist- ance he had derived from the publication of the despatch in question ; for it appears that in his despatch to Lord John Russell, dated Toronto, December 6th, 1839, he states — " I had previously received the similar despatch addressed by you to Sir George Arthur, and had directed its publication in the Gazette, for the information of all parties concerned. This publication appears to have been attended with good effects.'''' The old faithful, time-tried servants of the Crown having been thus disposed of, Mr. Thomson openly (and, considering his instructions, very honestly) exercised the immense influence of the station he held in obediently persuading influential members of both Houses of the Legislature not to oppose the royal message and the Government measure of a re-union of the provinces. 25 he ' The Commons House of Assembly of Upper Canada had conscientiously petitioned the Crown against the Union unless certain securities which Ihe Government have declared to be inadmissible were granted to them ; it was therefore deemed necessary that the Governor-General should be authorised to promulgate on his arrival, in case of their persisting in opposing the measure, his intention to dissolve this loyal body, whose Speaker, at the head of the militia of the pro- vince, had successfully suppressed the rebellion, had repulsed every invasion of the Americans, and had thus preserved the province to the British Crown ! The Assembly were thus placed in the predicament either of implicitly consenting to the measure, or of being publicly and ungratefully dismissed. But, while this threat was held over the whole Assembly, those most distinguished for their loyalty were reminded that the recommendation commanded their support because it had emanated directly from their Sovereign. Those who were most interested in the financial difficulties of the province were told of the pecuniary relief which the new and " only measure" promised. It can be easily believed that nothing woi'ld be more likely to intimidate those who had most conspicuously fought against the Americans and against the rebels than anything approaching to a hint from the Governor-General that, unless the ministers' measure was acceded to, the Queen's troops would be withdrawn, and the defenders of British institutions be thus handed over to the blood-thirsting ven- geance of their republican enemies. I neither assert nor insinuate that Mr. Thomson, whose private character I respect, used any hint of this nature contrary to the spirit of his in- structions, which it was clearly his duty to obey, but I leave every unprejudiced man to form his own conclusion from the following extracts from the published Parliamentary Debates on the question of the Union, which took place in the Upper House of the Canadian Legislature on the 12th of December last : — i-i . (I ( ,; f ' It ^ 26 " The Hon. W. Elmsley " (a lieutenant in her Majesty's navy, a nephew of the late Admiral Sir Benjamin Hollowell, a Member of the Executive Council of three Lieutenant- Governors, and the leader of one of the boats which cut out the Caroline) " would state another great cause for our ditR- culties, and that was the countenance shown by her Majesty's Government to the disaffected portion of the community, and by the injurious course of policy pursued towards Upper Canada in comparison with the Lower proviri?e; whereas, had the weight of Government authority been thr^vn into the loyal scale, very different consequences might have been anticipated. We should have met no opposition from the dissatisfied, and British interests would have triumphed. And there, in his place, did he tax her Majesty's Ministers as the great moving cause of the late rebellion, and its train of bhghting and withering consequences. By their short-sighted policy were the seeds of rebellion sown, and by their encourage- ment had they germinated. ..... It had leaked out, he had heard, what the intentions of her Majesty's Government were, if this union question was not carried ; and he had understood that on our assent or dissent depended the continuance of protection. It had been reported thatj if the union were opposed, the forces woidd be withdrawn from this country. He would not say it was so stated in so many words, but he had heard that such was the tenor of the communication. Yes, honourable gentlemen would be sur- prised, but he had heard out of doors, that a member of the other branch of the Legislature had been told in a conversation with the Governor- General on the subject of this union, 'that if the resolutions for the union were not passed, the troops would be withdrawn / and he hesitated not to say, that it was unworthy of that high personage so to have expressed himself; and he deserved, if he had used such language, to be im- peached by the people of England. Would honourable gen- tlemen allow threats to influence the deliberations of that honourable House ? Was an independent body, in the dis- charge of its legislative functions, to be told, if you do not pass this measure, her Majesty's troops shall be withdrawn ? He was willing to admit that there might be some mistake in this reported threat, and until it was confirmed, in common cha- rity he would not believe that one of her Majesty's advisers could have used the words which it was currently circulated he had employed; and he took that opportunity of asking the Government organ in that honourable House if it was the intention of the Government to withhold protection if this Bill 27 )t pass I? He III this in cha- llvisers Ited he ]g the IS the lis Bill was not passed ; and what he meant when he said, • it would not be safe for us to throw obstacles in the way of her Ma- jesty's gracious intentions in our favour !*' " The Hon. Mr. Sitllivan^'' (presiding Member of Sir George Arthur's Executive Council) "rose for the purpose of correcting a mistake the honourable member had fallen into, in stating that the head of the Government had said, if the Legislature did not assent to these resolutions the troops should be withdrawn ; and he heartily concurred with the honourable gentleman in declaring, that had such a threat been made, it was unworthy of a British statesman. But he was happy to inform honourable gentlemen, and he did so from authority, that no such threat had either been expressed or intended. His Excellency the Governor-General, in con- versing with the gentleman alluded to, had only put a case thus, that if the people of England, hearing always of our discontent, and of our applications for assistance, and if they also heard of our rejection of the only remedy that seemed open for our relief, might they not say, why should we any longer trouble ourselves with a people who will not hear reason ? and he put it to honourable gentlemen if it was a fair thing to separate a part of a conversation from its context, by which the meaning might so materially be altered ?" As it is of vital importance that the public should clearly understand to what extent and by what means Mr. Thomson's immense influence was, under orders, exerted to force the union through the Provincial Legislature, it is necessary to consider whether Mr. Sullivan's defence of the Governor- General does not amount to an admission rather than to a denial of the charge contained in Mr. Elmsley's speech. The inhabitants of the Canadas could not be supposed to be so dimsighted or so dull, as not to have comprehended very clearly the moral of the Governor- General's admitted remarks, for surely the declaration, or even the supposition, of the Governor-General that if the proposed measure, " the only remedy" were rejected, England might no longer trouble themselves with the people of the Canadas, meant nothing more or less than that unless the union was agreed to, the troops might be withdrawn. ^_ i 1 ;ii ^^t 98 But in order to carry the Union Bill through the Legis- lature, it was (leomed necessary not only to discourage the loyal population, not only to terrify by L(»rd John Kussell's despatch every public servant of the Crown from opposing it, but bv marked attentions to the chairman of the late repub- lican ** Alliance Society," and to those who had most distin- guished themselves by their enmity to British institutions, to encourage \ho support of this party, who on seeing its tendency, beca..ie strongly in favour of the measure. As an example of the manner in which Mr. Poulett Thom- son, in obedience to the policy of his employers, lias heaped honour and distinction upon the enemies of our institutions, it is necessary I should relate the following anecdote, which, it is humbly submitted, stands unparalleled in the history of the world. In March, 1836, a Mr. Robert Baldwin, then only known as an advocate for " reform," was offered by the Lieutenant- Governor to be appointed to the Executive Council. To this offer Mr. Robert Baldwin replied, that " he considered as abso- lutely necessary the assistance of Dr. Rclph/' now an outlawed traitor, " and of Mr. Bidwell," whose name having stood alone on the rebel flag of Mr. M'Kenzie when he attacked Toronto, voluntarily exiled himself from the province the day after that traitor was defeated. The Lieutenant-Governor agieedtoadd Dr. Rolph to the Council, and Mr. R. Baldwin and this gentleman were accord- ingly appointed. No sooner, however, had they obtained this step, which excited universal dissatisfaction among the roy- alists, than they insidiously persuaded the other Councillors to sign a paper ready written for them, in which they demanded from the Lieutenant-Governor " responsible government," alias " non-responsibility to the home government," alias " separation from the parent state." This unconstitutional demand having been resisted, Mr. Speaker Bidwell and the republican majority in the House of 29 ., Mr. luse of Assembly, not only presented most insulting addresses to th« Governor — they not only supported Mr. Robert Baldwin and Dr. Rolph in tlieir demand that the Executive Council should be made " responsible to the people," but, because it was refused, they actually stopped the supplies ; and the very last act of Mr. Bidwell was to lay before the House a treasonable letter addressed to him by his friend Mr. Papineau, in which that traitor impeached the Ministers of the Crown, demanded responsible government, and proposed the co-operation of the Legislatures of the two Provinces (the very project now pro- posed by her Majesty's Government), as the best means of obtaining all their objects. Under these circumstances the Lieutenant-Governor dis- solved the House of Assembly, and in a series of addresses appealing to the people, a discussion among them took place which has never been equalled in our colonies. The demand of Mr. Robert Baldwin and of Dr. Rolph for " responsible government," together with the arguments which the Lieu- tenant-Governor had adduced for peremptorily refusing it, were brought most distinctly before every hustings in the province, and the result of this public investigation, which attracted the undivided attention of the whole of British North America, was the complete defeat of the unconstitutional demand which had emanated from Mr. Robert Baldwin and Dr. Rolph. Mr. Bidwell not only lost the chair, but even his seat in the House of Assembly ; so did Mr. M'Kenzie, and indeed so did all the leading demagogues who had hitherto been successful enemies of British institutions.' Mr. Robert Baldwin having been thus completely defeated in his own country, was despatched by his party to Mr. Joseph Hume, and accordingly he and Dr. Duncombe, now outlawed for treason, and who crossed the Atlantic under a feigned name, arrived in England, and naturally enough, with- out loss of time, waited upon the only individual in this country who, like themselves, looked upon the parental pro- ,'1 f;|| 30 tection of the British Sovereign as "the baneful domination of the mother country." Lord Glenelg very generously refusing to allow Mr. Robert Baldwin, or his colleague, to make verbal accusations against their Lieutenant-Governor, they were obliged to communicate their complaints in writing : accordingly, Mr. Baldwin not only enclosed to his lordship a memorandum from the Alliance Society, of which his father was chairman, in favour of " that sterling reformer W. L. M'Kenzie,''' but in a letter which he addressed to the Secretary of State, dated 13th July, 1836, ho reiterated his demand for an Executive Council " responsible to the people;" and concluded, by absolutely requiring "that Sir Francis Head should be recalled, and a successor appointed who should have been practically acquainted with the working of the machinery of a free representative government." Mr. R. Baldwin and Dr. Buncombe having been informed by the Colonial Office that their allegations against the cha- racter and conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor would be forwarded to that officer, Mr. Hume, in a letter which he instantly addressed to Lord Melbourne, dated 3rd October, 1836, stated,— " It is with deep regret I complain of the conduct of Lord Glenelg to the agents of the Reformers from Upper Canada, m having refused to give an interview either to Mr. Baldwin, a Member of the late Executive Council, or to Dr. Charles Duncombe, Member for Oxford in the new House of Assembly of that Province, although they came 4000 miles, deputed by their colleagues, on purpose to explain to his Majesty's Go- vernment the conduct of Sir Francis Head, the Lieutenant- Governor, and other public officers in that Province " Mr. Baldwin and Dr. Duncombe will both return to Canada and communicate to their countrymen that they have been not only refused redress to their complaints, but that they have been refused by the Colonial Office an opportunity of personally stating their grievances." On the return of Mr. Baldwin and Dr. Duncombe to Upper Canada, they, however, pursued a course diametrically oppo- s f( i ■1 81 Upper oppo- site' from that prophesied to Lord Melbourne by Mr. Hume) for instead of daring to make any public complaint, Dr. Dun- combe absconded from his seat in the Commons House of Assembly, and thougii called upon by the House to sub- stantiate the charges he had made against the Lieutenant- Governor, and which that oflRcer had felt it his duty to transmit to the House for thorough investigation, he was afraid to take his seat ; he did not dare to appear before even the Committee to substantiate a single one of his allegations ; and having afterwards become a principal leader of the rebels, and having, on the appearance of the militia who advanced to attack him, run away, he was expelled from the House of Assembly without a dissentient voice. Mr. Robert Baldwin, equally ashamed of the slanders he had uttered against His Majesty's representative, and equally afraid to repeat them before the inhabitants of his native country, abstained from all public meetings, and not daring in any instance publicly to maintain any one of his allegations, he shrunk into ignominious retirement. On the 4th of December, 1837, the rebellion which for many years had been slumbering, burst into a flame. Mr. M'Kenzie heading a band of 500 or 600 traitors, armed with murderous weapons, advanced upon the capital for the avowed purpose of overturning the Queen's government — pillaging the banks — dis- posing of the Crown lands and those of the Canada Company — and of setting up a republic; — and to assist them in these objects they openly declared that the American people were ready to join them in making war upon the country. In support of the Lieutenant-Governor — the Chief Justice of the province, the Chancellor, the five Judges, one of whom has since been superannuated, the Attorney- General, the Solicitor-General, the three Queen's counsels, with muskets on their shoulders, voluntarily fell into the ranks as common soldiers, to defend the authority of their sovereign ; in which loyal duty they were joined by upwards of ten thousand . r 3^i people of all ranks and ages, who, encouraged by the ministers of their respective religions, wen determined that the British flag should not be trampled under foot without a most despe- rate struggle for its defence. But in this picture which history will not fail to portray, where was Air. Robert Balduin ? He was a young man, a native subject of the province, who had been clothed, fed, and educated by the money received by his father in the service of the Crown; indeed, in the whole city of Toronto there was scarcely a family possessing so much valuable property directly derived from the bounty of the Crown, to themselves or their connexions. If Mr. Robert Baldwin could have pleaded in earnest, those causes of exemption which Jack Bannister assigned in jest, if he could truly have written himself down " old, lame, and a coward j'^ he might have stood excused for being neuter in such an exigency. But^ he had not these exemptions to plead ; on the contrary, he stood aloof upon what he called " principle." He could look on without concern at hundreds of armed ruffians advancing to destroy the town in which he had been born, for well did ho know that neither his person, nor his pro- perty, nor his father's property, were at all in danger. He well knew that the rebels would not injure him, and secure under this infamous protection, he was content that they should murder the representative of his Sovereigrn, the judges, or any or all of the loyal subjects who had assembled to oppose them. He could calmly see, as he did see, the houses of liis townsmen in flames, and could look upon the scene as if it did not concern him. At a moment when the Lieutenant-Governor well knev/ that he could not approach the rebels with safety, and that any man of acknowledged loyalty would have been barbarously shot down by them (just as the gallant Colonel Moodie had been murdered by them), Mr. Robert Baldwin, and Dr. Rolph, ainisters I British : despe- portray, man, a fed, and Brvice of lere was directly or their earnest, igned in d, lame, ff neuter itions to 16 called f armed ad been his pro- ;r. He secure they udges, oppose of his it did vv that lat any irously ie had Rolph, 3:^ iHidertook to convey to the rebels a message from the Lieut. - Governor, calling upon them in the name of their Sovereign to spare the effusion of human blood. Instead, however, of de- livering this message. Dr. Rolph, who was the secret concoctor of the rebellion, infamously advised them immediately to advance, while his bosom friend, Mr. Robert Baldwin, bore back an answer not only insulting and defying the government of his Sovereign, but demanding the surrender of the authority which the constitution placed in his hands. Mr. Robert Baldwin knew that the traitorous demands of which he was the bearer, could not and would not be conceded, and that instant murder and pillage was threatened ; and yet, when every respectable member of his profession was under arms, he could withdraw to his dwelling as a place of sure refuge (which to his shame it was), and could leave his fellow-subjects to encounter without his assistance whatever treason might have power to accomplish ! And now, how will the British nation shudder, what will the civilised world say of us, how will posterity blusli for their ancestors, when it is made known that the Governor- General, who wcs a member of the cabinet when all these events took place, has, with the authority of her Majesty's Government, deliberately selected Mr. Robert Baldwin out of all the prac- titioners of the bar to the honourable post of Solicitor-General to the Queen, to be the representative of her Majesty in the Courts of Justice ! ! ! At the moment of the perilous struggle there were numbers of barristers at Toronto of all agos belonging to various parts of the province who had hesitated not a moment in arming themselves, and in taking their posts by the side of the Lieut. - Governor. Among thorn none were more conspicuous than Sir Allan Mac Nab, Sp<>aker of the House of Assembly, and Henry Sherwood, M.P., who during the insurrection acted as an aid-de-camp to the Lieutenant-Governor, and who is one of the most eloquent speakers in the Conmions House of Assembly. t ill t- 34 Both these distinguished barristers, as well as Mr. Cart- wright, a gentleman universally respected by men of all par- ties, having been previously appointed Queen's Counsel, were in the direct road to preferment. In merit as well as in rank they stood first for promotion; nevertheless all three were publicly passed over, and as if to add to their mortification — as if to disgust every loyal defender of the Crown in British North America, they were informed by the Gazette that out of the whole list of barristers in Upper Canada, the individual who had been selected by the Governor-General as having the stronger I claims upon her Majesty's Government for reward — was no other than Mr. Robert Baldwin, the convicted slan- derer of Sir Francis Head, the arch-instigator of the disturb- ance of 1836, the defeated advocate of mob-government, the travelling companion of the outlawed traitor. Dr. Duncombe, the associate of the absconded rebel Dr. Rolph, and the pro- tege of Mr. Joseph Hume in England ! ! But the case is i.ot complete, for in order to judge clearly of the moral which such an appointment by the Governor- General at such a moment was intended to impress, we must contemplate another incident in the drama. When foreign invasion was added to insurrection, and the whole population of a neighbouring country seemed ready to burst in upon an unoffending province, a gallant sailor, not basking in the sunshhie of the capital, but toiling in the wil- derness to glean a subsistence from the soil, abandoning his shanty, his wife, and his family of little children, rushed forwards to the post of danger — " These are scenes,'* he thought, "from which a Briton and a sailor can find no honourable retreat. Have I ate my Sovereign's bread, and shall I decline to fight his battles ?" Everybody in Canada knew poor Drew, and knew what, under orders, he accom- plished. Seldom has a more daring and successful enterprise done honour to the British name ! And has he been rew.irded ? Has the humble but earnest recommendations of the Lieut.- Governor under whom he served — has the address in his favour 35 Uiff his rushed ," he tnd no and Canada kcom- ;rprise Irded ? iieut.- favour to her Majesly from both houses of the Provincial Parliament been attended to? No. He remains undistinguished, un- noticed, except that, indeed, he seems to have been singled out for persecution ! The distinguished veteran officer under whose eye his youthful days were spent in the service of his country, scarred with wounds, has just descended to his grave — his heart burned to procure for his Lieutenant that just consideration which his conduct called for, but he died without obtaining it : and too likely it is that poor Drew will himself draw his last breath in an ungrateful country. And is this England ? Is this EngUsh justice, honour, spirit ? How can a colonist witness these things and contiiuie to feel his heart beat with pride when he looks upon the once honoured standard of his country ? On the contrary, must it not sink within him when he sees that standard, and remembers the indignities that have been heaped on its defenders, and the rewards that have unblushingly been bestowed throughout all our North American provinces upon rank traitors ? By what miracle can our colonists hope to maintain the public credit of their province, or how can their private pro- perty possibly be deemed secure, when they find that instead of both being really under British institutions, the leading advocate of the theory of " government responsible to the people,' is openly encouraged by a Governor-General who is himself the known advocate of the other republican theory — namely, of absolving the people by ballot from the responsi- bihty which is proposed to be thrown upon them— and surely not only our colonists, but every sensible man of property in England cannot but see, that while responsibility, like a shuttle-cock in the air, is allowed to rest neither with the government nor with the people, a scene of legislative darkness and of universal pillage must ensue ! The effect naturally produced on the provincial legisla- ture by the attentions publicly bestowed by the Governor- d2 < I 36 Gonoral upon the adverse faction, and by the change that had been wrought in the Lieutenant-Governor and public officers, need hardly be described. To use their own homely ex- pression, " it was easy to see which way the wind blew," and as the approaching storm was evidently inevitable, many sound and sensible men, who had all their lives been distin- guished for their admiration of British institutions, as soon as they were told that Mr. Thomson had declared that "Sir Robert Peel was in favour of the union,'' did not hesitate openly to avow that common prudence and a sense of self- preservation had united in inducing them to shelter themselves in time from its desolating effects. On the other hand, there were others doggedly determined never to abandon the British flag, and in sullen opposition even to the recommendation from the Crown, never to submit to join in legislation with its avowed enemies ! They complained, and perhaps not without reason, that the royal recommendation had not been at least suspended until her Majesty had been made acquainted with the result of the Governor- General's free conference with an unbiased legisla- ture, and that it was a violation of justice, on the part of the Ministers of the Crown, to advise the Queen to pronounce her judgment before her Majesty had weighed, or had even ob- tained the evidence upon which it was to be grounded. By the unexpected removal of Sir John Colborne — by the extraordinary suspension of Sir George Arthur — by the un- worthy intimidation of the public servants — by the appeal that was made to them by the Governor-General to obey the re- commendation of their Sovereign — by the allurement of pecuniary assistance — by the significant observations respecting the removal of the troops — by the countenance shown to the republican party — by the astounding declaration *' that Sir Robert Peel was in favour of the union," — and above all, by the malign and withering influence of Lord Durham's report, the legislature of Upper Canada, which for upwards of half a 37 century had given such noble proofs of its attachment to British institutions, and of its deliberate detestation of the tyranny of mob-government, finally surrendered at discretion ; that is to say, they consented to the union, throwing themselves upon their Sovereign, and upon the Imperial Parliament, for conditions which they were told " it would be better for them not to prescribe," and which, when subsequently embodied by them in an address to the Queen, were declared by Mr. Thom- son in his dispatch to Lord John Russell, dated 18fh January, 1840, " to be considered as mere suggestions, of which, it may be observed, lie disapproved. For many years in vain had the thunder of the Colonial- Office rolled above these stitunch adherents of the British monarchy. In vain had its lightning stricken to the ground every lieutenant-governor and public officer who had endea- voured to defend them. The militia, unassisted by troops, had suppressed rebellion ; in every direction they had driven the American invaders from their soil; and, regardless of the storm which still assailed them, Mr. Thomson had found them upon the sparkling snow and under the bright sun of heaven, glorying in the name of Britons, and ready to die in defence of British institutions ; nevertheless, overpowered and disheart- ened, they at last yielded to necessity ; and, " the age of their chivalry having fled," they consented to be handcuffed to 450,000 Frenchmen, only prevented by military force from being most ungratefully in criminal rebellion against the Crown ! Several of the members of the Legislature, among whom was the bishop, or head of the Established Church, and even one or two of the members of Sir George Arthur's executive council, entered their protests on the journals of the house. The Bishop of Toronto, as head of the Established Church in Upper Canada, not only opposed the Union, but felt it his duty publicly to deprecate " the seasonable publication of a despatch from Lord John Russell, by which placemen were made aware that their tenure of office was absolute submission, in all things, to the Governor for tlie time being;" and to 38 adil, "ill this way the Government have gained a {emporary advantage; but the Legislature has lost its moral power, and become an object of general scorn. Even the advantage reaped by Government is fleeting, and will be destroyed at the next election ; for since the tenure of office is now coarsely divulged, no office-holder has any chance of becoming a repre- sentative for any important constituency." "Influence," ob- serves the venerable Prelate, " to be useful and lasting, must be more secret and of more ge,Jle pressure.'' What were the opinions of the Americans of the manner in which the measure has been forced, will be sufficiently ap- parent from tlie following extract from the " Albion," one of the most respectable papers published at New York : — " P.S. Since writing the above, we have received accounts from Toronto several days later. The Legislative Council passed the Union Bill on Friday last, without conditions. Doubtless the threat of Lord John Russell to change all people in office with each and every change of Governor, has had the intimidating effijct intended. It was even reported that the further threat of withdrawing the Queen's troops, and leaving the Loyalists to the tender mercies of the sympathisers, has been resorted to. The whole matter of this Union is de- signed as a cl;ip-tia}) for popularity on the part of the Cabinet at home. Mr. Tliomson will obey his instructions — force the Bill through the Upper Canadian Legislature, and send it to the people in Downing-street, who will oj)en Parliament with a grand flourish, announcing The Pacification of Canada!'' As the Queen's message to Parliament, recommending a re-union of the Canadas, was delivered many months before Governor Thompson echoed the same sentiment to the Legis- lature of Upper Canada, it cannot be denied that the project has emanated from Her Majesty's Government, and not from the Colonists. It also cannot be denied that the Government has exerted the whole influence of the Crown in carrying the lUeasure; and that notwithstanding this bias, the Legislature of Upper Canada has, in equity, only consented to it upon con- ditions emboilied in their Address to the Crown, which, having been refused, the agreement is virtually annulled. It also 39 cannot be denied that the Legislature of Lower Canada has expressed no opinion at all on the subject, and that it continues dumb under military law. It also cannot be denied that the " Bill for Re-uniting the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, and for the Govern- ment of the United Province," as brought in by Lord John Russell and Mr. Labouchere, and ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, on the 20th of June, 1839, was framed by Her Majesty's Government on the basis of Lord Durham's Report ; and that in 1840 the said bill was cancelled and a different bill substituted, based on the report of Governor Thomson. Now can anything be more discreditable to the government of the most powerful empire on the globe than the puerile authority on which the first bill was framed, and the equally inexperienced authority on which it has been condemned ? For, first, it was framed on the recommendation of a nobleman, whose summer state-tour to the Falls of Niagara formed the whole of his personal knowledge of two vast provinces, each bigger than England and Wales ; and, secondly, it has been overturned by the winter journey of Governor Thomson, who, travelling very nearly over the same line, in one week after his arrival at Torojito, saw, and very nobly reported to Her Ma- jesty's Government (vide his despatch to Lord John Russell, dated 24th December, 1839,) the errors of his predecessor. But with every respect for Mr. Thomson's talents, and for the damnatory judgr.ent he has pronounced, it may calmly be asked, whether it will be safe for the Imperial Parliament to venture to legislate on his ephemeral experience of the countries he has visited ? What has he seen of the splendid western district — or what has he seen of any part of the Canadas but the sleigh-road which leads from one capital to another? Has he seen the produce of either province, the crops, the mode of tillage, the indications of mineral wealth ? Has he seen the harvest, or even a square yard of the verdant surface of either country ? No ; 40 he has seen almost nothing of Upper Canada but snow ; and without appealing to philosophy — without appealing to states- men — surely Mr. Gunter would be sufficient authority to warn him, as well as all of us, of the utter impossibility of forming any opinion of a bridal cake merely from an inspection of a small portion of the white sparkling material that covers it. On the other hand, Lord Durham has seen the Canadas only during the burning heal of summer ; and though her Majesty's ministers may mathematically argue that, inasmuch as two halves make a whole, so the summer excursion of one governor added to the winter journey of another form a poli- tical tour-book, sufficiently authentic to authorise Parliament to alter the solemn Act of 1791 ; yet, to common minds, can anything be more ridiculous than the very idea of a meeting at this moment between the two governors in question ; one of whom, as far as his own simple experience could go, would declare Canada to be a country as hot as India; while the other would just as stoutly maintain that it was as cold as Caucasus? Like the two Arabian travellers disputing about the colour of the chamelion, one would be heard to exclaim ; — •' 'Tis green, 'tis green, Sir, I assure you, Green ! cries the other in a fury, Why, Sir, d'ye think I've lost my eyes ? 'Twere no great loss his friend replies, For if they always serve you thus. You'll find 'em but of little use." B\it the subject offers a miich graver moral. Mr. Thomson's bill for settling for ever the long disputed question of the Clergy Reserves, like Lord Durham's ordinances, has been declared by the highest authority in this country to be illegal. And with the rocks of ignorance, upon which these two Go- vernor-Generals have foundered, protruding from the surface, surely, instead of following in their wake, they should be bea- cons to warn the Imperial Parliament of the imminent danger of legislating upon their ephemeral recommendations! 41 Before Parlianipnt shall grant its assent to the Bill for the re-union of the Canadas, it will surely deem it necessary most seriously to consider what effects, if any, the measure will produce in the Upper province on the Established Church, whose relative proportion to other communities will appear from the following extract from the " General Numerical Return of the several Religious Bodies in Upper Canada, founded on the Returns of the Clerk of the Peace, so far as they have been made for the year 1839," which has lately been printed by order of ParUament, Summary. Church of England 79,75 i Methodists (of all denominations) 61,088 Presbyterians (ditto) 78.383 Roman Catholics 43,029 Baplists of all denominations 12,908 Miscellaneous (composed of Independents, Congre- gationalists, Nonconformists, Menonists, Junkers, Moravians, Quakers, Society of Peace, Univer- salists, Restorationalists, Unitarians, Latitudina- rians. Deists, Freethinkers, Irvingites, Re- formers, Christians, Bible Christians, Disciples, Mormans, &c. &c. &c.) 22,806 No profession 34,000 Deficiency as compared with the entire population, being nearly one-sixth 67,558 Total 400,346 With reference to the above abstract I beg leave to premise that in no foreign country which it has ever been my humble fortune to visit, or in any part of Er gland, have I ever wit- nessed a more creditable observance of religious ordinances than I beheld during the time I was in Upper Canada ; in- deed, of the different communities into which the population were divided, it was difficult to say which wa? most distin- guished by its steady observance of the fjabbath, or by its affectionate attaclunent to the ministers of its cliurch. In moments of the strongest political excitement, religion 42 seemed to act throughout the province like oil upon ' '^ waves of the sea. During the excitement of the rebellion, the con- gregations, instead of having diminished, were rather increased, and even on that Sunday when the church of St. James, at Toronto, was accidentally burned, its congregation assembled round its respected minister for evening service in a temporary building, with a fervour that seemed to have been encouraged rather than daunted, by the severe calamity which had befallen them. In the Provincial Parliament difference of religion was never the cause of any lasting enmity or dispute. At the elections the Catholics supported Protestant candidates, and vice versa, whenever they had reason to respect their private characters and political sentiments ; and lastly, when the pro- vince was attacked by the American people — who, boasting that they had no noblemen among them, proved the truth of the assertion by perfidiously assailing thei" allies under the pretext of making them " free and equal" like themselves — Catholics, Protestants, and Methodists, encouraged by their respective ministers, combined together in one body to maintain the character of human nature against the jealous power that was desirous to efface its brightest colours. I feel confident that Sir Peregrine Maitland, and that Lord Seaton, to whose examples as well as precepts Upper Canada in general, and its Established Church in particular, are deeply indebted, will subscribe to the accuracy of the above picture, which has long been exhibited in a colony in which the Established Church has been openly supported by the administrators of the Government, and in which the said Church, in population and wealth, preponderates over every other community. Now, if this family compact of various religious communities, that have hitherto fraternally fought together in the senate as well as in the field in defence of British institutions, be sud- denly flooded by 650,000 Lower Canadians, of whom about 450,000 are French Catholics, it cannot but follow that the 43 Established Church, as well as the whole system described, must be swamped, and that the province nmst be placed under a Catholic legislature. No man acquainted, however, with Upper Canada will venture to deny that this revohition will not calmly be sub- mitted to; but even if it could be effected without bloodshed, I humbly but fearlessly maintain that the British Parliament have no right to create such a revolution. 'I'hc members of the Established Chuich in Upper Canada are either people or the descendants of people who, under the good faith of the British Government, liave settled in a portion of the British empire which it was originally declared by Governor Simcoe was " to be the image and trmucript of the mother-country^ In this faith the population of the whole province has been reared ; and 1 can faithfully bear testimony that there are thousands of men who have been for years mentally supported in the difficulties which they have had to contend with in the backwoods by the reflection that the blessing of God rested upon their land as fast as they cleared it, and tliat, whatever might be their privations, they at least were enabled to enjoy, and to hand down to their children, the inestimable blessings of British institutions, firmly based upon an Established Church. For the maintenance of this Church, and for the support of what was termed in the constitutional Act of 1791 " a Pro- testant Clergy," it is well known that a splendid provision was wisely set apart, and it was upon this rock that British emi- grants from all regions were in\ Ited to build. And although that amiable and pious nobleman Lord Glenelg, when Secre- tary of State for the Colonies, was thoughtlessly induced to assert, in a despatch lo the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Ca- nada, that section 42 in that Act, which enabled the Provincial Parliament to vary and modify the distribution of the clergy reserves, was " a precaution against the inaptitude of a system- atic provision for a Protestant clergy to more advanced stage.s of society^' (as if it was just as natural for a Protestant colony 44 to outgrow its faith, as it is the nature of a schoolboy to out- grow his clothes), yet it was never contemplated for a moment that in the year 1842 the representatives of 70,754 members of the Established Church should be deliberately and cruelly overpowered, and tha tho clergy reserves should be made over by the Imperial Parliament to tho overwhelming control of tlie representatives of 450,000 French Catholics, who, assisted by the representatives of 43,029 Catholics at present in the province, would of course subvert the foundation upon whicii every Protestant in the province had been invited to build. It is true that the clergy reserves could not be thus misap- plied without the consent of the Imperial Parliament, but the Protestant colony of Upper Canada may justly protest against the unconstitutional injustice of the Imperial Parliament placing even their temporal affairs under the protection of a Catholic Legislature ; and they may fairly say, " if the Home Government has for years yielded willing obeisance to the demands, however insatiable, of the popular branch of the Legislature of each single province, what reason have we to expect that they would manfully hold up their heads to support us against the demands of the Catholic Legislature of the United Canadas ?" It is impossible even to suppose for a moment that the bench of bishops in the House of Lords will ever consent to so flagrant a violation of those constitutional principles which they have hitherto so nobly defended ; and it surely ought also most confidently to be relied on, that the lords temporal as well as spiritual will feel it their duty to oppose the measure ; for if before the civilised world, the peers of England should be seen to combine together to pull down the established Church in a British province, eminently distinguished for its loyalty, there is nothing that revolution can effect, there are no horrors that anarchy can, and ere long will, accomplish, that will not, in retributive justice, fall upon their own heads ! The guilt of deliberately sacrificing the established Church in I'pper Canada, in a mere experimentul attempt to remedy op of 4fi clisordoi'ft whicli have boon produced in llio lower province, by a series of weak concessions, and by other acts of mis- governtnent, is an act which no man who respects the House of Lords as he ought to do, can ever bo incUiced to believe possible. In taking leave of this subject, I will therefore only ])resunio to observe that I entertain no prejudice against tiie Catholics of Upper Canada ; on the contrary, I am much indebted to them for the support they afforded me. Indeed I should do them injustice were I not to take every projjcr opportunity of repeating, that in the moment of rebellion and of foreign invasion, they were distingtiisheil by then* bravery, and by their loyalty, and by their devoted attachment to British institutions, which would not have been the case had the Protestant governors and Protestant legislature of their province been in the habit of acting towards them lijtolerantly. Why, therefore, shoul'^ it be proposed that the Imperial Par- liament should overturn a Church which, since the Act of 1791, has been constitutionally established in the British dominions ? It is necessary now to consider one or two of the principal legislative conseqtiences which must ensue from the proposed re -union of the Canadas. Whenever a moderately incorrect principle is attempted to be supported, it is generally defended as being " expedient ;" but when no honest arguments whatever can be adduced in its favour, it is then invariably denominated an act of " neces- sity,^' a word which, like that of charity, has covered, and ever will cover, a multitude of sins. Accordingly those who have themselves created the very rebellion in Canada which it is pretended to bewail, now feel it " expedient," firstly, to lay the blame of it on the guiltless Act of 1791 ; and, having based their remedial measures upon this foundation, they argue, secondly, that as the division of the Canadas has created the disease, it has become an act of evident " necessity," by their re-union, to cwr^ it; and in exemplification of the success which 40 may reasonably be expected from such a theory, it will no doubt be brought lOthe recollection of the Imperial Parliament that " There was a man in Thessaiy, and he was wond'rous wise ! Who jump'd into a quickset hedge, and scrafch'd out both his eyes ; And when he saw his eyes were out, with all his might and main, He jump'd Into the quickset hedge, and scratched them in again T^ It must be evident, however, that an intiinate acquaintance with the inhabitants of the Canadas can alone eiiable the Im- perial Parliament to express anything like a correct judgment on the effect likely to be produced upon the provincial legis- lature by the propo ■ d amalgamation of the legislators of the two provinces. Yet, surely, without local knowledge, before her Majesty's ministers recommended this Babel project, they ought to have reflected upon the following ingenuous confession of George, eldest son of the Vicar of Wakefield : — " I addressed myself, therefore, to two or three of those I met, whose appearance seemed most promising ; but it was im- possible to make ourselves mutually understood. It was not till this very moment I recollected, th m order to teach Dutchmen English, it was necessary that they should first teach me Dutch. How I came to overlook so obvious an ob- jection is to me amazing ; but certain \^ is, I overlooked it." To men of plain common sense has anything ever been pro- posed so preposterous as even the idea of assembling tliirty-six Frenchmen ind thirty-six Enghshmen to legislate together ? Neverthless, the " Bill " before Parliament is grounded on the expectation that the latter would instil into the former the principles of British liberty and of British law ; but by what means is this miracle to be effected ? for, however enlightened the French members might be, however open their minds might be to conviction, and however willing they might be to bend to reason, I beg to say without offence, that the ruddy- faced representatives of the British population might just as well be made to address their arguments to six-and-thirty Mandareens as to a body of respectable gentlemen, each of 47 />» -ment whom could only reply to them by a shrug, meaning, " Mes- sieurs, je no. vous entetids pas /" and vice versa. Could the business of the empire be transacted in the House of Commons under such an arrangement? Could the affairs of any nation in the world be transacted under such a mockery of the gift of speech ? Would the citizens of the United States submit to such an insult upon their language and their sense ? On the contrary, their General Govei nment very properly can- celled the laws of the French province of Louisiana ; they de- creed that the English language only should be used in their legislature and courts of justice, and they prescribed a code of criminal and civil law which left not a vestige of the French system remaining. What stronger reason, therefore, could the bitterest enemy to British institutions adduce for adding M. Papineau and his "/ai7" of thirty-seven Frenchmen to the same number of representatives in the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, than that because they had rebelled against the Crown, it might be hoped that being deaf to all argument and dumb to reply, they would be political automatons whose dead- weight would inevitably turn the scale ? The shrewd opinion of the Americans on the infatuated pro- ject of her Majesty's Government, will clearly appear from the following observations by the able editor of the New York Gazette : — " The Governor-General of the Canadas appears to be act- ing under specific instructions from his Government, and can hardly, therefore, be considered accountable for this or any other act of his administration. These are certainly affairs with which we, on this side of the border, have no right to meddle. The British Ministry must manage these matters as best suits themselves ; but there is nothing unneighbourly, we suppose, in prophesying as we do that the British Government will have very little further trouble in defending their North American possessions, after a imion of the two Canadas, as is proposed ; for the Lower Canadians will probably take that matter into their own hands. Her Majesty's Ministers have for a year or two past proved themselves the most adroit gen- tlemen whose acts we ever heard or road of, Tf their object 48 really he to lose their colonies altogether ; this, we have already said, is none of OUR business." The Chief-Justice of Upper Canada, who, from having served eighteen years in the Provincial Legislature, may justly be admitted to be a most competent authority respecting it, has stated in his printed letter to Lord John Russell, dated Wandsworth, 30th December, 1839:— " I greatly apprehend that the effect of uniting the two provinces of Canada will be, to create a representative assem- bly such as the Government will be \mable to withstand, ex- cept by measures which it will be painful to anticipate — tliat it may at the very outset, and will certainly at no distant period, give existence to a representative body, in which the majority will not merely be opposed in the common spirit of party to any Colonial Governor who shall not be unfaithful to his trust, but a majority which would be held together by a common desire to separate the colony from the Crown — a party, consequently, whom it will be impossible to conciliate by any concession within the bounds of right." To t he above experienced opinion I humbly subscribe, and I moreover most solemnly declare, that although I have had as nmch reason as any man to place confidence in the people and Legislature of Upper Canada, yet that I feel perfectly certain I should find it utterly impossible to main- tain British institutions in Canada, if the two provinces were to be united ; and I appeal to Mr. Gore, to Sir George Murray, to Sir Peregrine M ait land, to Lord Seaton, to Lord Gosford, who are now all in England, and to Sir George Arthur, who is the present Lieutenant-Governor of the upper province, to avow whether any one of them would conscientiously under- take to stand at the helm of the United Legislature; and I would further ask them whether they could name any indi- vidual in the kingdom who they think could undertake suc- cessfully to do so. And if these noblemen and gentlemen, who from having ad- ministered the Government of both colonies, must be practically aware of the difficulties attendant upon the project, unite in the above opinion, I feel myself justified in expressing my have 49 most ferver t prayer that the House of Lords will deem it their high duty to oppose a bill which, for the reasons I have stated, it is humbly submitted must inevitably destroy in Upper Canada both " Church and State." But it is argued by many whose opinions are entitled to the highest respect, that though they are fully aware that the re-union of the Canadas must inevitably cause their separation from the parent state, yet that, because we cannot govern them, or rather the Lower Province as it is, it is there- fore perfectly immaterial in which way we lose them, although, it is by no means immaterial which political party is to incur the responsibility of the act. To this abstract reasoning I beg leave to observe that, even admitting the predicament to be correct, and that it is justifiable in diplomacy for statesmen to allow our colonies to be lost rather than incur the embar- rassment and danger of being in their turn called upon to govern them, it is nevertheless of immense importance that the loss shoukl be attributed by history to our colonists and no*" to us ; in short, that, whenever the separation takes place, it should De their fault and not. ours. It was upon this principle that I humbly administered the government of Upper Canada ; and accordingly, at a moment when Mr. Papines.u and the Assembly of Lower Canada, — Mr. Bidwell and tire Assembly of Upper Canada, — and my own Executive Council were, with one voice, demanding " respon- sible government," I felt it my duty, although they were sup- ported by the neighbouring states, publicly to declare that, ' if all the inhabitants of Upper Canada were to agree together in demanding the alteration of a single letter of the Constitu- tional ^ct of 1791, / had neither the power nor the will to com- ply with their request.'' The result is known ; but had it been otherwise, the hour, I humbly submit, would then have arrived when it might justly h.ave been said that the blame of the sepa- ration rested with them, and there can be no doubt that, if ever the day should come when o\ir No'th American colonics cease 60 to value our protection, and cease to prefer British institutions to democracy, they would be no longer worthy to be either con- sidered or retained as an integral portion of our noble empire. But I have reason for believing that, if our institutions were to be inflexibly supported, that moment would never arrive ; but that, on the contrary, every year's experience of the prac- tical working of mob-government in America is actually binding our colonists closer and closer to the parert state : for if it were otherwise, why did the people of Upper Canada repel the Americans, and why did the Legislatures of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia burn to assist them ? As long as it is the policy of the British Government openly to reward those who advocate revolution, and as long as it is their policy to ruin every one of their servants who dare (o oppose it, so long will our colonies be unsettled and disturbed ; and there can be no doubt but that they will very shortly prefer anarchy to a mongrel form of government, such as it has been our inexplicable policy for many years to impose upon them ; but if we would nobly alter our system, and fear- lessly maintain our institutions, I feel confident that the British flag would never be deserted. Upper Canada might at one time again ask for " a respon- sible executive council :'' at another time an elective lejrisla- tive council might be asked for in New Brunswick : at another time the Commons House of Assembly might be, as it now is, out of favour in Newfoundland : at another time a complaint might be raised, as it now is in Nova Scotia, against the exe- cutive council : — but, instead of uniting these separate sticks into a fagot — instead of re-uniting the Canadas — surely our policy should rather be *' Divide et impera." These momentary ebullitions could, as they have been, easily be conquered in detail ; they would neutralise each other ; and if ever our colonies combined against us, and became too powerful to be resisted, then, indeed, would the period of their separation from us have arrived. And although our financial 51 and commercial loss would be immense ; and though without our colonies we should sink into insignificance, yet we should at least have no cause to mourn over our own misconduct ; and the British flag would still wave in the confined citadel of the empire, although its splendid outworks had unavoidably been abandoned. No British subject who venerates as he ought to do the talent, intelligence, integrity, and high sense of honour which have always characterised the House of Lords, will believe that that constitutional body of noble Englishmen or of English noblemen (for the terms are synonymous), will ever consent, for the sake of avoiding pecuniary expences, to the unconstitu- tional injustice of destroying the Established Church in Upper Canada, of subverting British institutions, and of thereby effecting the separation of our North American colonies from the parent state. An it is, however, a common error even among distinguished statesmen to suppose that this noble portion of the empire is of more trouble and expence to us than it is worth, it may be well to lay before the consideration of such gentlemen the following facts : — It appears from the last official returns of the Board of Trade, as quoted by Chief Justice Robinson, that in the year 1836, the value of British manufactures exported to the four North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Upper and Lower Canada, was nearly double the amount ex- ported to Russia ; and that it exceeded by nearly half a million sterling the whole value of goods exported to France, Spain, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, and that the city of Toronto alone consumes more of our manufactures than the kingdom of Prussia. The quantity of British shipping employed in our trade with the colonies, and which forms a nursery for seamen of inesti- mable value to the empire, compared with that employed in foreign countries in which the system of reciprocity is main- tained, is as follows : — 52 Tons of British Shipping. France 198,339 Prussia 42,567 Sweden 10,865 Denmark 2,152 Norway 1,573 United States of America .... 86,383 Total 341,879 Colonies. Tons. British North American Colonies . . 620,772 West Indies 237,922 East Indian territories 97,034 New South Wales 19,195 Total 974,923 It will appear from the above table, that after deducting' the 620,000 tons that belongr to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, our trade with Canada alone employed in the year 1836 a much greater tonnage of shipping than our trade with France, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and with the Unitc^l States of America ! With these facts before him, who can deny that it is our interest, as well as our duty, to maintain in our colonies those glorious institutions, which, however ungratefully we may speak of them, have converted so large a portion of "the w^ilderness of this world" into so profitable a market for our manufactures ? It has been most nobly declared by one whose career has with undiminished splendour now almost reached the horison, that "England can never engage in a little war.'* Can it exist with "a little trade?" or, in other words, can even the interest of our national debt be provided for, after we have irretrievably diminished our income by wilfully subverting the Established Church, and by ruining British institutions in our colonies ? I'ondoii: Printed l>v William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street. lipping. 165 52 ►73 183 579 72 )22 )34 95 )23 jtinir the insvvick, • 1836 a France, Unitc^' it is our es those we may of "the t for our ireer lias horison. Can it even the we have "ting the s in our