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■■■MBH 
 
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 ON FRIDAY. 2nd FEBRUARY, 1838, ' ' '**^^ '^' ' 
 
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 IN^ORTH AMERICAN COLONIES. 
 
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 JAMES RIDGWAY AND SONS, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1838. 
 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 
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 The complaints which had been occasioned by 
 Lord Brougham's former Speech upon the mal- 
 administration of our Colonial affairs were renewed 
 upon the delivery of the following Speech, not by 
 those whose conduct was particularly impugned^ 
 but by the Noble I^ord at the head of the Govern- 
 ment. He spoke with his usual ability, but with 
 less than his accustomed success, because it was 
 exceedingly difficult to perceive what right he had 
 to complain of any one for differing with him in 
 opinion; or what there is in the Noble Viscount and 
 his colleagues which should exempt them from the 
 lot of all Ministers, to have their conduct discussed ; 
 or why Lord Brougham should be precluded from 
 pursuing the course which he has all his life 
 held, and defending his well-known principles, 
 merely by the accident of his having once been 
 Lord Melbourne's colleague, and afterwards Lord 
 Melbourne's supporter, so long as his measures ac- 
 corded with Lord Brougham's views of national po- 
 licy and public justice. The Noble Viscount omitted 
 to give in his able and ingenious speech any reason 
 in support of the proposition which he did not in- 
 deed state, but from beginning to the end of his 
 
,/ 
 
 IV 
 
 remarks assumed to be undeniable, that whoever, 
 having once found him and his present colleagues 
 pursuing a sound policy for some years, shall refuse 
 to change, not only his opinions upon that policy, 
 but the whole opinions of his public life, at the bid- 
 ding of the Cabinet, and to act thenceforth with 
 them in opposition to all his own most cherished prin- 
 ciples, must be actuated by some sinister motive, 
 some feeling of a private or personal nature : Or the 
 convenient and self-complacent proposition, thus 
 assumed and acted upon by the Noble Viscount, 
 may be stated in other and fewer words : It is this : 
 that no one can be influenced by justifiable motives 
 who does not agree with and support the present 
 Cabinet, through any change of principle, and 
 more especially that portion of the Cabinet whose 
 changes have been the most marked, and have been 
 separated by the shortest intervals of time. But to 
 this assumption was added another, peculiarly 
 adapted to the case of Lord Brougham. It was, that 
 no man can ever honestly differ with Lord Mel- 
 bourne, after once agreeing with him ; nor, having 
 supported him in one line of policy, can honestly 
 refuse to support him in its opposite, unless he has 
 some private feeling of spite or of interest to gratify. 
 A charge so unexpected naturally called forth 
 from the object of it, a peremptory and indignant 
 denial ; — not indeed more peremptory, but possibly 
 somewhat more indignant, than the very gross and 
 notorious absurdity of the accusation might appear 
 
to warrant. An honest defence disdains recrimina- 
 tion ; it meets the charge in front — pointedly repels 
 it if precise, or if vague demands specification — 
 challenges inquiry — and defies to the proof. But 
 the duty of self-vindication once discharged, the 
 interests of justice require that the adventurous and 
 discomfited assailant should be pursued and exposed, 
 in case his own conduct should perad venture be 
 found to have been the subject to which the offen- 
 sive and ill-considered censure might with perfect 
 accuracy have been applied. Lord Brougham said 
 that he purposely avoided all such contention, and 
 restrained himself within the limits of distinct, un- 
 equivocal, uncompromising denial. 
 
 The satellites of the Government are understood 
 to have been greatly edified and comforted by their 
 leader's tone, marked as it was by more than ordi- 
 nary animation, though with less than the usual 
 provision of argument It is respectfully asked of 
 those zealous persons, that they would have the 
 goodness to offer some explanation of the grounds 
 of his attack, should it be expecting too much, to 
 look for someproo/'of Lord Melbourne's assumptions, 
 in behalf of which he offered no more argument 
 than he did in behalf of the Bill itself, or the conduct 
 of Lord Glenelg, or the new morality recently dis- 
 covered by Sir F. B. Head. Lord Melbourne, in the 
 exalted station which he at present occupies, may not 
 perhaps, without want of due deference, be called 
 upon for reasons in behalf of the decisions which he 
 
so readily pronounces and so rarely defends. He, 
 exempt from the ordinary lot of ordinary Ministers, 
 to have their measures debated freely— jabove the vul- 
 gar necessity of assigning grounds for his opinions — 
 removed from the sphere of common mortals, in 
 which he described Lord Brougham to move, and 
 in which he said, a man was often blind, to 
 what all but himself clearly saw, — has of course 
 the peculiar capacity of forming a sound, 
 because an impartial judgment in his own case ; 
 and must be listened to as an authority from which 
 there can be no appeal, when he pronounces judg- 
 ment between Lord Brougham and himself, and 
 declares that all the world, except Lord Brougham, 
 have long since decided on Lord Melbourne's superior 
 fitness to lead the Popular Party in this country. 
 These are the attributes of very h-^^h station, of 
 profuse Royal favour, and of much patronage, com- 
 bined with a little power. But his adherents are not 
 endued with the same infallibility, and cannot so 
 easily be allowed to decide without giving reasons. 
 It is therefore most respectfully asked of them, by 
 what particular argument they mean to disprove 
 Lord Brougham's right to hold in 1838, the same 
 opinions which he held in 1837, and to pursue now 
 the same line of conduct to which Lord Melbourne 
 and others came over in 1 83 1 , most creditably to them- 
 selves, and most happily for the State, with a celerity 
 that produced the most fortunate results to the 
 country as well as to themselves ? And if it be not 
 taking too great a liberty, or taxing their invention 
 
vu 
 
 too severely, they are also most humbly entreated 
 to shew why Lord Brougham has not as good a 
 title to persevere in that course now, merely because 
 the converts of 1831 have, very unfortunately for the 
 State, though without any kind of reproach to them- 
 selves, abandoned it, and returned to their old opi- 
 nions with a celerity as remarkable as that which 
 marked their former conversion ? When this sliall 
 be shewn, there will be laid a ground for charg- 
 ing Lord Brougham with personal motives in 
 refusing to alter his conduct; and for believing 
 that all mankind consider Lord Melbourne to be 
 an old, consistent, and steady friend of liberal 
 opinions. ! 
 
 Lord Brougham, it may be observed, has never 
 complained of any changes in the conduct and 
 principles of others ; he may be the more easily 
 forgiven for claiming the right of adhering to his 
 own. Instead of asking if the conversion witnessed 
 in 1831, of the most zealous enemies of Reform 
 into yrholesale, almost Radical, Reformers, was 
 quite unconnected with the maintenance of the 
 Government they belonged to, and if the re-conver- 
 sion of November 1837, had its origin in nothing like 
 a notion that the Court had become more friendly, 
 and was better worth a prudent statesman's regard 
 than the people. He rested satisfied with assuring 
 the Ministers that they might any day or any hour, 
 restore him to his position as their zealous de- 
 fenderagainst the Tory majority of their adversaries. 
 
VIH 
 
 by simply retracting the declarations against Reform 
 w?th which they unhappily ushered in the Session ; 
 or, without formally recanting, by merely bringing 
 forward liberal and constitutional measures. They re- 
 fuse to accept any such offer ; they will not comply 
 with that condition. Doubtless, they are right — most 
 probably Lord Brougham is wrong ; but how he can be 
 charged with falling into his error, great as it maybe, 
 through personal feelings, is not so easily perceived. 
 On the same night, Lord Melbourne disclosed a 
 secret, which is understood to have been, until then, 
 locked up within his own breast. — He has, it now 
 appears, been for the last three years constantly 
 expecting Lord Brougham to adopt the course into 
 which he has of late been driven. Then, the 
 observant bystander, who perceives that Lord 
 Brougham never failed to support the Ministers 
 most zealously until they changed their conduct, 
 must be led to infer that this change of theirs 
 was all the while foreseen and predetermined by 
 the Noble Viscount — though certainly concealed 
 with some care, and with entire success, from all 
 his followers. But if it shall be said that the 
 Noble Viscount's constant expectation, his daily 
 foresight, of what he pleasantly called a change in 
 Lord Brougham, without reflecting that it is an al- 
 teration in himself, was owing to some impression 
 which he had respecting Lord Brougham's habits and 
 character, it will follow that he must have given fre- 
 quent im cations of this mistrust, of this presenti- 
 
V 
 
 
 ment, both in public and in private, and must have 
 explicitly ascribed the active support of 1835, 
 the kind and considerate abstinence of 1836, and 
 the partial and reluctant dissents of 1837, to their 
 real, though still not very intelligible, cause ; and 
 at all events that he never can have given Lord 
 Brougham, or any common friends, the most distant 
 ground for believing that he gave him the least 
 credit for being influenced by the kindness of friend- 
 ship, or the steadiness of principle, or the magnani- 
 mous sacrifice of personal considerations to either 
 friendship or duty. It must of course be absolutely 
 impossible that Lord Melbourne should have left his 
 opinions and his expectations doubtful upon this 
 head, or ever expressed any feelings of gratitude, 
 much less any indications of being sensibly touched 
 by Lord Brougham's conduct towards him and his 
 government, when he was all the while- penetrated 
 with the conviction that Lord Brougham was only 
 waiting for an occasion to vent" his long-suppressed 
 ** and thus exasperated animosity'against his former 
 friends and colleagues. If, indeed, this should not 
 have been the case — if the very opposite should 
 turn out to have been more nearly the fact, — it 
 must be confessed that both these Lords have been 
 placed in situations quite unprecedented, though 
 the one of those situations will perhaps upon re- 
 flection be felt to be somewhat less enviable than 
 the other. It is only consistent with fairness and 
 candour towards a man, who certainly never on any 
 
former occasion got into such a position, that it 
 should be observed, how likely it is, after all, 
 that Lord Melbourne's boast of his foresight and 
 perspicacity, should be like his friend's (Sir F. 
 Head's) discovery of the way to deal with revolt 
 — an afterthought, — and that, in the heat of the 
 moment, he painted himself in unfavourable 
 colours, by extolling his sagacity, at the expense 
 of far more important qualities. 
 
 But if we reach this conclusion against his own 
 assertion, and only by resorting to the other parts 
 of his conduct, which pretty loudly belie that asser- 
 tion, it may possibly be deemed not unjust towards 
 the other party to remark that his life has been 
 marked by little regard to feelings of a sordid cast. 
 That Lord Grey's Government might be formed, 
 he most reluctantly yielded to solicitations to aban- 
 don an enviable and secure position, both as to 
 profit and power, because he was unwilling to disap- 
 point the Whig party, and shrank from the heavy 
 responsibility of preventing a Reform Government 
 from being formed— though he soon after discovered 
 that the party had fallen into the trap, some of them 
 it is believed very willingly, of having him removed 
 from his real and natural place in the Commons 
 House of Parliament. It is pretty well known that 
 he adhered to the cause of Slave Emancipation, at a 
 large sacrifice of private fortune. It is admitted by 
 Lord Melbourne that his help was never withheld from 
 the Government until they made war upon popular 
 
 
XI 
 
 rights last March, and turned their back upon popu- 
 lar opinions last November. Nor is it denied that he 
 has, ever since he ceased to hold office, given up 
 almost his whole time to Judicial duties in the House 
 of Lords and the Privy Council, labouring as hard as 
 most of the Judges labour in the discharge of their pro- 
 fessional duties. Moreover if Lord Melbourne had 
 spoken with the least reflection, he would have been 
 aware that the facts of the case which he wholly over- 
 looked, are irreconcileably opposed to the intimations 
 of his alleged foresight and acuteness. What does 
 he think, for example, of his leaving entirely out of 
 view the somewhat remarkable circumstance, that 
 Lord Brougham's most active and necessary exertions 
 to defend and uphold the Government (a task some- 
 what heavier than Lord Mel bourne is perhaps aware 
 of), were made immediately after its formation, when 
 ofcourse,if atanytime. Lord Brougham'sdifferences 
 with his former colleagues must have been the widest, 
 upon the supposition of his listening to personal 
 considerations ? Then again, having leftout of his 
 view this fact respecting the beginning of the period, 
 how comes the Noble Viscount to have equally passed 
 over another fact which signalised itsclose — the Mi- 
 nisterial declaration against Reform ? No attempt is 
 here made to blame that policy ; but at least there 
 soems some haste, not to say unfairness, in wholly 
 leaving it out of view, as if it could by no possibility 
 be connected with the matter in question. It is fur- 
 ther worthy of notice, that no complaints are ever 
 madeof Lord Brougham during the last two or three 
 

 ill 
 
 years in any quarter deserving notice. A few anony- 
 mous writers, acting upon a mistaken sense of duty 
 —if not upon an erroneous calculation, of what 
 would gratify their patrons— amused themselves, 
 with very bitter and somewhat heavy, though harm- 
 less invectives against Lord Brougham while he was 
 daily sustaining those patrons with all zeal in the 
 House of Lords. But the party— especially the Ca- 
 binet portion of it— were always abundantly loud and 
 apparently hearty in expressing their thanks for his 
 public support, their only complaint being that he 
 persistedin withdrawing himself from the intercourse 
 of their private society — a restraint which he must 
 have considered necessary to maintain his indepen- 
 dency, else he assuredly never could have subjected 
 himself to what must prove a great loss of enjoy- 
 ment to him, though it could prove little or none 
 to them. This, however, was the only complaint 
 ever heard, until the change of tone which marked 
 the Ministerial declarations at the opening of the 
 new Parliament. That Lord Melbourne should 
 have mistaken Lord Brougham's conduct, if it be 
 a mistake into which he has fallen, may appear 
 strange — but that he should pronounce confidently 
 upon a matter unknown to him can in nowise sur- 
 prise those who heard him pronounce unhesitat- 
 ingly that Dr. Robertson was " a florid and fanciful 
 writer.'' Lord Melbourne's station is no doubt far 
 higher, as First Lord of the Treasury, than Mr. 
 Gibbon's, who never rose above a seat at the Board 
 
Xlll 
 
 of Trade — but excepting in that department itself, it 
 may be doubted whether any one can be found who 
 would appeal to the Minister from the Historian's 
 deliberate judgment, that Dr. Robertson was " the 
 ^^ most accurate of all historians.'* To charge so 
 ahaste a writer with a florid style, seems an halluci- 
 nation only to be matched by the comparison of 
 Gasca, whose name the Noble Viscount had never 
 before heard of, with the Governor of Upper Ca- 
 nada, of whom he had heard a good deal too much. 
 It must further be observed that Lord Brougham 
 never laid any ground for disappointment, by 
 professing an adhesion to the Government in all 
 circumstances. On the contrary, his speech in 
 July 1835, at Liverpool, expressly avowed that he 
 would look to their measures, and that when he 
 found these were framed with a regard to the people's 
 good, and propounded on the principles which 
 were known to guide his public conduct, he 
 would support them — but if another course were 
 pursued, he would oppose them, and see which 
 party the people would stand by. These were his 
 words while preparing to redeem the first part of 
 the pledge, by supporting the Municipal Reform 
 which he almost singly fought through the House 
 of Lords. It is once more respectfully and humbly 
 asked why he should be so piteously complained 
 of for now redeeming the other pledge also 1 It 
 really seems as if no supporters were valued or 
 trusted except those who have adopted the new 
 
XIV^ 
 
 maxim of Treasury Morality never professed by 
 Lord Brougham, possibly never clearly compre- 
 hended by him, that the more a Ministry is in the 
 wrong, the more imperative becomes the duty of 
 flying to its defence. Whoso would work out his 
 salvation in Downing Street, it is necessary that he 
 believe this ; and if he act up to his faith, he shall 
 be deemed a friend indeed. 
 
 That there is any great danger of the people 
 suddenly deserting the Government, and opposing 
 them, is little to be apprehended. The people are 
 disappointed, disheartened, and dispirited — they are 
 becoming distrustful of all public men of the regu- 
 lar Whig party, as they are hostile to all of the 
 adverse faction, although from the latter they never 
 could have less of Constitutional Reform, and pro- 
 bably would have more of important practical 
 improvements, and at least their restoration to 
 place, would give back to the liberal side many of 
 its best supporters, who are at present trammeled 
 by official connexion, and other ties hard to loosen. 
 But although the people are thus flat and indiflerent, 
 — although they may do nothing to destroy the exist- 
 ing Ministry, — they will not stir a finger to help it; 
 the first quarrel with the Court will seal its doom ; and 
 the Whigs, as a party, will have ceased to rule. The 
 Ministers see none of these things ; they hear the voice 
 of the charmer only whose accents modulated to the 
 key of the ear he wisness o tickle, pour out only the 
 pleasing fallacy, the narmonious misrepresentation. 
 
XV 
 
 ion, 
 
 the silver-toned strain of hope, tlie cheerful note 
 of confidence, — and whose especial object it is to sup- 
 press all un pleasing discords from unwelcome facts 
 and unfavourable symptoms. — That the people are 
 friendly while they remain passive and do not op- 
 pose ; that the select circle of the occupants of place 
 who rival the serpent, if not in his wisdom yet in his 
 tenacity of life, form the whole Whig party ; and 
 that, if it is at all necessary to consult the opinions 
 of any others, it is needless to go further than the 
 outer circle — the eager, ardent, irrepressible, resist- 
 less expectants of promotion, who have no opinions 
 at all except of their own fitness for place, nor any 
 principles at all except that whatever the Ministry 
 does, or indeed can do, must be right,— and that the 
 whole duty of political men is comprised in three 
 words — "Support the Ministry" — such are the 
 bland accents which compose the dulcet notes of 
 " linked sweetness long drawn out," and which ever 
 vibrate grateful, seldom unrequited, on the Mi- 
 nisterial ear. But that they beguile the reason 
 while they charm the sense, — that they lull their 
 victim to sleep in the midst of peril,— and bring 
 '>n a sad reverse, which they make more hard 
 to bear by precluding all preparation for it, — are 
 truths attested by all experience of all public men. 
 In the present case their worst effect remains to be 
 told. The deceiver tempts his dupes to their ruin 
 by inducing a belief that nothing they can do will 
 forfeit the support of staunch friends ; and it is 
 
»i; 
 
 'Mi 
 
 XVI 
 
 discovered when too late, that there may happen a 
 catastrophe foretold by Lord Brougham in one of 
 the Civil List debates, when he said—" That the 
 "people would one day awake and ring such a peal 
 " in the ears of the Ministers as would be remem- 
 " bered, not to the end of their official existence, 
 " but to the last hour of the public life of the 
 " youngest functionary among them." 
 
 
 
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 How comes it to pass, my Lords, by what fate of 
 mine is it, that as often as this great question of our 
 Colonies comes on in this place — whether in the 
 ill-fated Resolutions of last May, or in the interlo- 
 cutory conversations raised by the expectations of 
 this measure, or on the address which announced 
 its nearer approach, or now on the Bill itself which 
 embodies it — I alone should be foimd to interrupt 
 the universal harmony of your Councils- -alone to 
 oppose a Bill presented by the Government without 
 any defence, but immediately taken up and zeal- 
 ously supported by their adversaries — alone to rise 
 up in defence of the Constitution — alone to resist 
 the breach of all law, the violation of all justice, 
 in this high Court of Law, which distributes jus- 
 tice without appeal — alone to withstand arbitrary 
 and tyrannical innovations, standing here, in the 
 Senate — the Conservative Senate of a free country 
 —alone to maintain the peace, and stay the dismem- 
 berment of the empire, among your Lordships, who 
 of all men that live have the deepest interest in peace, 
 
 B 
 
! 
 
 ;i9!l 
 
 and the empire being preserved entire ? The position 
 which I occupy is surrounded with difficulty and 
 embarrassment ; the task I perform is a thankless 
 one ; but I will not — I may not — abandon the post 
 in which my duty has planted me ; and I am here, 
 at the last hour of the hateful conflict, again at- 
 tempting to discharge this ungrateful duty. From 
 so unequal a contest I may retire defeated, but 
 not disgraced. I am aware that I may gain no 
 advantage for those whose rights I am defending, 
 but I am well assured that I shall retain the ap- 
 proval of my own mind. <m - >- ;^ sf.-.i^^ 
 ' When the question of Canada was last before us, 
 I purposely avoided following the Noble Secretary 
 of State over the ground to which he invited me, 
 because I knew that another opportunity would 
 occur for discussing the provisions of the measure, 
 the outline of which he then gave by anticipa- 
 tion. That occasion has now arrived, and I have 
 attentively, and, as became me, respectfully, listened 
 to the statement of my Noble Friend. I find that 
 he has said in explanation of the Bill — nothing ; 
 in defence of the Bill — nothing. Not a gleam of 
 light was cast by him upon its darker places ; no- 
 thing was said to clear up the obscurities which are 
 remarked in its arrangements ; nothing to reconcile 
 the incong. uities with which it abounds ; nothing 
 to make a measure acceptable, which all allow to 
 be harsh and arbitrary ; nothing to show why it is 
 introduced now rather than at any other time. In 
 
It 1 
 
 short nothing whatever is urged in defence or in 
 palliation of the Government's Policy, save the 
 very able, and on that portion of the subject, the 
 very temperate speech of the Noble Earl opposite 
 (Lord Aberdeen), an avowed adversary of the Go- 
 vernment on all other questions. And, it must be 
 granted, that the Noble Earl anxiously confined his 
 support to the measure itself, and suffered no por- 
 tion of his eulogy to overflow upon its authors. 
 Taking under his protection the offspring of the 
 Cabinet, which had been abandoned by its parent 
 as soon as it saw the light, the Noble Earl fosters 
 it with no stepmother's care, plainly shewing that 
 had such a thing not been engendered on this side 
 the House, we should have had it produced on the 
 other. Before going however to the arguments 
 for the measure, I must advert for a moment to the 
 course pursued by the Noble Earl in following up 
 the Noble Duke (Wellington) and Noble Earl's 
 (Ripon's) protest against having it conceived that 
 their approval of the Bill implied any approval 
 of the Government's conduct, on which they in- 
 tended afterwards to pronounce their free opinion. 
 That opinion has now indeed been very freely pro- 
 nounced by the Noble Earl ; and in listening to it, 
 I could not help reverting to the extreme of^^ence 
 taken by my Noble Friend a few nights ago at the 
 freedom of my remarks upon the same subject. I 
 could not help recollecting the elaborate contrast 
 which these remarks called forth between my con- 
 
 b2 
 

 < Jul' 
 
 ^lif: 
 
 duct towards old colleagues and the Noble Duke's 
 who had so chivalrously come to the defence of his 
 opponents — coupled with the panegyrick pro- 
 nounced, God knows, most justly, on the vast su- 
 periority of the Duke's mind to his of whose at- 
 tack the Noble Secretary of State so bitterly com- 
 plained. I really suspect that to-night if any such 
 comparisons are instituted between me and the 
 Noble Earl, I may look forward to a more favour- 
 able verdict from my Noble Friend. Not that the 
 professions or the tone of the Noble Earl have been 
 less friendly, than those of the Noble Duke ; for he 
 promised to treat the Government with charity. 
 My Lords, the Noble Earl's is not that charity which 
 covers a multitude of transgressions ; but rather 
 that which covers a multitude of attacks. Any 
 thing less kindly I have seldom heard than the 
 performance of this fine promise, — any thing 
 more bitter to taste than the fruit that followed a 
 blossom so fair to behold. I am in hopes that it 
 may by its contrast with my milder rebuke, 
 have the effect of restoring me to the affections 
 of my Noble Friend. Of this I am quite certain, 
 that he would fain I interposed to rescue him from 
 the hands into which he has now fallen ; and ^'o 
 deliver him from the Earl, as the Duke before de- 
 livered him from me. He must be most anxious to 
 be saved from the charity of the Noble Earl, and as 
 for the forbearance he promised, why it was really 
 worse to bear than the charity itself. He would 
 
not even give the conduct of Government the poor 
 praise of being systematically wrong.— It is not a 
 system of delay, said he — it is a practice originating 
 in inveterate and incurable habits of wavering, 
 vacillation and infirmity of purpose — and all this 
 applied to describe the conduct of a great Minister 
 in a great emergency, which called imperiously for 
 the very opposite qualities — and this, the Noble 
 Earl's way of shewing his forbearance in the exer- 
 cise of his charity. .i.i../ >f,i M.mi i-..!. 
 
 t \i »ifiii> 
 
 dly 
 uld 
 
 Having endeavoured to set myself right on the 
 personal matters connected with this question, and so 
 removed the trivial parts of the subject ; the way is 
 now cleared for arriving at the important part of 
 the argument ; and I approach this, I confess, 
 with some degree of anxiety, fearful of wearying 
 your Lordships by repetitions which it is hardly 
 possible to avoid. The conduct of the Canadian 
 Assembly is attacked again — that bodyiscondemned 
 by my Noble Friend for an abuse of their privileges 
 — by the Noble Earl, with more accuracy of ex- 
 pression for a breach of duty in refusing supplies — 
 it is indeed the whole defence of the measure be- 
 fore you. Both these Noble Lords contend, that 
 after such a refusal in Canada, there is but one 
 course to be taken here — to suspend the constitu- 
 tion altogether. The powers you gave the Colony 
 are abused : therefore take away the constitution — 
 not, observe, resume the powers that have been 
 abused— rbut take awj^y all powers together. That 
 
r 
 
 is the argument, neither as 1 think very conclu- 
 sive, nor even quite intelligible. The Noble Earl 
 praised the proceedings of the Committee that sat 
 in 1828, and quoted the Assembly's words in order 
 to prove that the Colonists were then satisfied and 
 grateful. No doubt they were, because their 
 grievances were considered, and redress was pro- 
 mised. The same kindly feelings continued not 
 only till 1831, but after that year; they were 
 even increased by the great measures of that year, 
 which gave them the controul of the supplies — 
 the power of the purse. What were those complaints 
 which then arose against them ? They had been 
 told that whatever grievances they complained of, 
 the power of refusing supplies gave them the means 
 of obtaining redress—that they no longer were 
 mocked with the name of the English constitution, 
 but had the reality conferred upon them, with all 
 its rights. The power which we told them we had 
 thus bestowed, and boasted of our kindness in be- 
 stowing, the short-sighted, simple-minded men, 
 proceeded to use, as if they really believed they 
 had gotten it! Innocent individuals! to believe 
 what you told them, and act upon the belief! to 
 believe you when you said they might give their 
 money, or might withhold it, as they chose — and 
 they chose to withhold it ! to fancy that you 
 meant something when you said they could now 
 stand out for redress if they had any thing to 
 complain of- and then to stand out in the very way 
 
 i II ' - 
 
you had said they might ! You give them a specific 
 power for a particular purpose, and the instant they 
 use it for that very purpose, you turn round upon 
 them and say — " Saw any one ever the like of 
 ** this ? Were ever men before so unreasonable ? 
 ** You are absolutely doing what you were told 
 " you had a full right to do whenever you pleased — 
 ** Why, you are exercising the very rights the con- 
 ** stitution gave you — You are using the privileges 
 ** we bestowed, and using them for the purpose they 
 " were meant to serve — You are therefore abusing 
 ** them — You are acting by the strict letter of your 
 " new constitution — therefore you are unworthy of 
 " it, and we shall instantly take the new constitution 
 " away, and not only the new but the old, which 
 *' you have had for near half a century." Such is 
 the mockery — the unbearable insult which you 
 have put upoti this people. First, you boast of 
 having given them the power of the purse, and 
 then the first time they use it, you cry out thfit 
 they are acting illegally. — It turns out that this 
 power of granting or refusing supplies was all the 
 while never intended to serve any other purpose 
 than rounding a period \p some conciliatory Roy'-^ 
 Dispatch from Downing Street, or some gracious 
 Vice-regal speech a*^^ Quebec. The real meaning 
 of the whole was simply this. — You shall have the 
 power of doing as you choose about supplies, but 
 always upon this condition, that you shall choose 
 to do as we please — .You have the option of giving 
 
'8 
 
 t'" 
 
 lili 
 
 i! ii 
 
 Ii!; 
 
 or refusing, but understand distinctly, that if you 
 exercise it in any way but one, you forfeit it, and 
 with it all your other privileges. • ; > ^ u.>u < . u 
 i As for the Noble Duke (Wellington) lean far more 
 easily understand his course upon the present occa- 
 sion, because he singly opposed the Bill of 1831, and 
 entered his protest upon our Journals. He objected 
 altogether io giving the power over supplies which 
 that Bill bestowed. But when I turn to my Noble 
 Friends, the authors of that Bill, they who gave 
 that power, what am 1 to think, when I find them 
 crying out treason the instant it is used ? Nay* I 
 find them not merely complaining of its use, but 
 because it is used, they take away, not only the 
 power itself, but the whole Constitution given by 
 Mr. Pitt's Bill of 1791, or rather Lord Grenville's 
 — for he was the author of the Constitution-— and 
 substituting in its stead what they themselves allow 
 to be an arbitrary and tyrannical form of Govern- 
 ment. The crime charged upon the Canadians, 
 and for which they are to be punished by the loss 
 of their free Constitution, is refusing supplies. 
 Instantly the Resolutions are passed. Tlie Noble 
 Earl (Aberdeen) confesses that those resolutions are 
 calculated to harass and vex the Canadians. Then 
 their natural consequences follow : the Canadians 
 are irritated, and no precaution whatever is taken 
 to prevent them from revolting ; not a man is sent ; 
 not an order issued ; not an instruction forwarded; 
 not one line written ; not one word spoken, to pre- 
 
9 
 
 vent what is freely admitted to be the natural con- 
 sequences of the Resolutions ! All this seems suffi' 
 ciently marvellous ; buc this is not all : We nov: 
 have a scene disclosed that baffles description and 
 mocks belief — a scene which I defy the history of 
 all civilized, all Christian countries, to match. A 
 Go veriior— appointed to adrriinister the law — to 
 exercise the authority of the State for the protection 
 of the subject — one commissioned to distribute 
 justice in mercy — whose office it is above that of all 
 mankind to prevent crimes — and only to punish 
 them when it exceeds his power to prevent their 
 being committed — he who, before all, because above 
 all, is bound to guard against offences the people 
 committed to his care — he who first and foremost 
 is planted by the Sovereign in authority to keep 
 the people out of doing any wrong, that the law 
 may not be broken, and there may be no evil-doers 
 to punish — he it is that we now see boasting in his 
 despatches, wherein he chronicles his exploits, — 
 boasting yet more largely in the speech he makes 
 from tlie throne which his conduct is shaking, to the 
 people whom he is misgoverning, — boasting that he' 
 refrained from checking the machinations he knew 
 were going on; — that, aware of the preparations 
 making for rebellion, he purposely suffered them ' 
 to proceed ; — that, inform»jd the crime was hatch- . 
 ing, he wilfully permitted it to be brought forth ; — ' 
 that, acquainted with the plans laying by traitors, ! 
 with the disaffection hourly spreading, with the 
 
10 
 
 !Pi 
 
 ! !i' 
 
 I I'M 
 "liii: 
 
 maturity every moment approached by treason, 
 with the seductions practised upon the loyal sub- 
 ject, with the approach each instant made by the 
 plot towards its final completion, and its explosion in 
 a wide spread revolt ; — he, he the chief Magistrate 
 and Guardian of the peace and executor of the 
 law, yet deemed it fitting that he should suffer all 
 to go on uninterrupted, unmolested ; should turn 
 a deaf ear to the demands of the peaceable 
 and the loyal for protection, lest any such inter- 
 ference should stay the course of rebellion ; nay, 
 sent away the troops, for the express purpose of 
 enticing the disaffected to pursue and to quicken 
 the course of their crimes ! Gracious God ! Do I 
 live in a civilized country ? Am I to be told that 
 such is the conduct of a Parent State towards her 
 children of the Colonies ? Is this the protection 
 which we extend to the subjects over whom we un- 
 dertake to rule on the other side of the Atlantic ? 
 Does it after all turn out that our way of governing 
 distant provinces is to witness disaffection, and en- 
 courage it till it becomes treason ; to avoid all in- 
 terference which may stay its progress ; to remove 
 all our force, lest it might peradventure control the 
 rebellious, while it comforted and protected the 
 loyal? Ti' 8 fact was known, but the plan is now 
 avowed ; and the fatal result is before the world. 
 Blood has been shed ; but not on one side only — 
 the blood of the disaffected has indeed flowed ; but 
 so also has the blood of those whom our wicked 
 
 
11 
 
 policy had suffered traitors to seduce. It was not 
 until that horrid catastrophe had happened, that 
 the King's peace was allowed to be restored ! I 
 am filled with unutterable horror and dismay at this 
 scene ! I appeal to the Bench of Bishops ! I call 
 upon them that they lay this matter to their hearts, 
 and reflect upon the duty and the office of a Chris- 
 tian man. Shall he be held guiltless, be his station 
 what it may, if he allows sin in others whom he 
 has the power to save from it, much more if he 
 takes measures for ensnaring his brother into guilt, 
 that he may fall, and pay the penalty of his 
 transgression ? How much more, then, if he be a 
 ruler of the people, set over them to keep them right! 
 I call upon the reverend Judges of the land to 
 frown down by their high authority, this monstrous 
 iniquity ! Let them tell how they deal with the 
 men who come before their tribunals, not as vindi- 
 cators of crime, and enforcers of th«^ ^aw — but as 
 tempters to seduce the unwary, and make him their 
 prey ! Let them describe to us those feelings, 
 which fill their breasts, when the very scum of the 
 earth's scum is cast up before the judgment-seat,- — 
 that indignation which agitates them, and seeks its 
 vent upon the head of him who might have pre- 
 vented the law from being broken, but prefers, for 
 some sordid purpose, standing by to see the offence 
 perpetrated, and then drags his victim to justice I 
 That indignation they must now transfer to this 
 place, and pour it upon the supreme ruler of a 
 
'S, 
 
 ll! 
 
 pi 
 iliii! 
 
 pi 
 
 A2 
 
 province, who has the courage to boast that such 
 has been his conduct towards the people committed 
 to his care ; vaunting of such misdeeds to the 
 Sovereign who employed him, and to the subjects 
 whom he misgoverned in the trust which he be- 
 trayed. It is well for him to speak with regret of 
 the blood thus spilt — well to lament the gallant 
 Colonel Moody thus foully slaughtered, and who 
 would never have been attacked, had the troops 
 been left at their post whom the Governor made it 
 his boast that he had sent away ! Possibly the 
 whole may be the after-thought of" a vain man, 
 which he never would have uttered had the revolt 
 not been put down. But assuredly, if the force 
 had remained, we should have had to rejoice in its 
 prevention instead of its suppression; and instead of 
 lamenting bootlessly the loss of the gallant men 
 thus sacrificed, he might have had the better feeling 
 to indulge of saving their lives to their country, 
 and preserving instead of restoring the public peace 
 which he was sent to maintain. r;; r 
 . . The same Governor; however, has not, as I find, been 
 satisfied with a civil war ; he must needs do his best 
 to endanger the peace with the United States. He has 
 threatened that powerful neighbour with hostilities. It 
 appears that the neutrality of the American territory 
 has been violated, nor could such an event excite 
 surprise. A volunteer force must always be less 
 easy to controul, and more prone to commit excesses, 
 than tliose regularly disciplined troops who were sent 
 
13 
 
 away at the time their services were most indispen- 
 sable. The Noble Duke (Wellington) expressed 
 himself satisfied with the force in the Canadas, 
 upon the authority of military men whose opinions 
 he had taken. No one is more ready than I am to 
 be guided by such authority — that is to .ay, upon 
 all military questions. If we are asked whether a 
 certain number of troops be sufficient to defend a 
 post, or even to put down a revolt which has 
 actually broken out, to the opinion of military 
 men I will bow — not so where the question is, 
 what force should be kept in a province in order 
 to prevent all revolt from taking place — that is a 
 question of civil and not military polity. Still more 
 if the question be whether it is fitter to keep down 
 all rebellion, than to wait till it rages, and then 
 suppress it — that is no more a military question 
 than any of those matters which daily occupy the 
 attention of Parliament ; no more than a bill rela- 
 tive to police, or to any other department of the 
 civil government of the country. The Noble Earl 
 (Aberdeen) with much good sense, referred to a 
 high authority, and cited a very sound opinion 
 upon this grave and important subject, when he 
 repeated the valuable saying of an eminent man, 
 that " a far less force might be required to put down 
 " a revolt than to prevent one." The charge I now 
 make runs through the whole of the question 
 before us ; and one more serious cannot be brought 
 against any government. The Ministers are 
 
in 
 
 u 
 
 accused, and as yet without offering explanation or 
 defence, of having occasioned by their own incapacity 
 and that of their emissaries, a civil war, the effusion 
 of innocent blood, and the seduction of loyal sub- 
 jects from their allegiance. Upon the same gross 
 neglect, and the necessity of employing an undis- 
 ciplined and insubordinate rabble is also charged 
 the rupture with America, to which that neglect 
 led, not indirectly and as a remote consequence, 
 but by a plain, direct, short route, which might all 
 along have been easily seen and closed up. My 
 Lords, I most deeply lament any occurrence as 
 most disastrous and appalling, which can endanger 
 our relations of peace and amity with the United 
 States. But I would not be understood as thinking 
 that this most untoward occurrence will lead to a 
 rupture, though I fear it will exasperate men's 
 minds and embitter the feelings already not too 
 kindly which the last American war left behind it. 
 I know, however, the good sense which, generally 
 speaking, prevails among the people of America — 
 the sound policy which, for the most part, guides 
 the councils of its government. Long may that 
 policy continue ! — long may that great Union last ! 
 Its endurance is of paramount importance to the 
 peace of the world— to the best interests of hu- 
 manity — to the ge'ieral improvement of mankind. 
 Nor do I see how, if any disaster were to happen 
 which should break up the Union, considering the 
 incurably warlike nature of man, the peace of the 
 
i6 
 
 New World could long be maintained. But in the 
 present case, met, as I have no doubt these 
 wholesome dispositions towards amity will be by 
 corresponding sentiments on this side of the 
 Atlantic, I cherish the hope that after discussion, 
 and explanation, and conferences, and negociations, 
 satisfaction will be yielded where outrage has been 
 offered, redress will not be withholden where 
 injury has been done, and the occasion of quarrel 
 for the present be avoided. But there will not be an 
 end of the consequences that must inevitably follow 
 from this unhappy affair. The public mind will 
 be seriously and generally irritated ; the disposition 
 to interfere with us in Canada will become far 
 more difficult to repress ; and a government at all 
 times feeble to controul the conduct of individuals 
 will become wholly impotent against so prevailing 
 a spirit of hostility. — All these mischiefs I charge 
 upon the same inexcusable, inexplicable neglect, 
 which has left Canada bare of defence against the 
 progress of discontent, at the moment when your 
 rash, violent, headlong policy had excited the uni- 
 versal resentment of your American subjects. 
 
 But your own faults are, with unparalleled 
 injustice, to be laid to the door of the Colonists; 
 because you have mis-governed them, and alien- 
 ated their affections, they are to be punished by 
 the loss of their free constitution. Now, grant 
 even that some portion of them have no justification 
 and no excuse for their conduct — I ask you how you 
 
Ill 
 
 16 
 
 defend the policy of punishing the whole commu- 
 nity for the errors or the offences of a few ? I will 
 not here stop to solve the problem, what proportion 
 of a people must sin before you are entitled to visit 
 the whole with penalty and coercion ; but I will ask 
 you to recollect the argument used a few days ago 
 by the Ministers, when I complained of no troops 
 having been sent to preserve the peace. The out- 
 break was then represented as a mere trifle ; an 
 affray in which but few of the people, but a handful 
 of men, had taken any part — it was confined to a 
 corner of the province — to the banks of the Riche- 
 lieu alone — while all the rest of the country was 
 peaceable, loyal, and firm. In Upper Canada not 
 a soldier was wanted, and the Governor had sent 
 every man away, returning to the inquiry, how 
 many he could spare, the vapouring answer, " all." 
 — Even in Lower Canada, six counties out of the 
 seven were in a state of profound tranquillity, 
 and but a few parishes in the seventh had shewn 
 any signs of disaffection at all ; almost all else was 
 loyalty, devotion and zeal. Such was the minis- 
 terial statement last week.- — Then how do you pro- 
 pose to reward all this loyal devotion and patriotic 
 zeal ? By depriving, not the cr'minal and seditious 
 portion of the people, but the whole community of 
 their rights ; — by punishing, not the one county 
 where the peace has been broken, but the other six 
 also, where perfect tranquillity has reigned uninter- 
 rupted. And you intend to take away, not only 
 
17 
 
 rights that have been abused, not only privileges 
 that have been too rigorously exercised, but all the 
 rights and privileges together, which for near 
 half a century the Canadians have enjoyed. They 
 are told that for the transgressions of a few, the 
 whole liberties of the people are at an end ; 
 and my Noble Friend himself, a well-known friend 
 of liberty, an advocate of popular rights, is to pro- 
 ceed among them in the character of Dictator, to 
 enforce the Act for establishing among them a 
 despotism never before known in any part of the 
 British dominions. But without stopping to inquire 
 longer into the justice of this policy, let us only ask 
 whether or not it is consistent with our conduct 
 towards other portions of the people ; — whether or 
 not we treat all parts of the Empire in this kind of 
 way ? Is it the course we undeviatingly pursue 
 every where, through good report, and through 
 evil report ? Suppose we had to deal with a pro- 
 vince situated not three thousand miles off, but 
 almost within sight of our own shores ; inhabited, 
 not by half a million, but seven or eight millions 
 of people ; not unrepresented in Parliament, but 
 sending over above a hundred zealous and active 
 delegates to speak its wishes and look after its in- 
 terests ; and suppose that of these, a large propor- 
 tion, say not less than seventy, were the sworn 
 allies, the staunch friends, the thick and thin sup- 
 porters, the unhesitating, unscrupulous voters of 
 the very Administration which has been forging 
 
 c 
 
/" 
 
 18 
 
 i! 
 
 fetters for the Canadians — the remote, unfriended, 
 unrepresented Canadians — how would the same 
 Government have treated the portion of the empire 
 now called Canada, but which would then have 
 borne another name ? Suppose the leader of the 
 seventy faithful adherents, the Mons. Papineau as 
 he is now termed, the zealous and valuable coad- 
 jutor of the Minibters, should take up the question 
 of an elective council — should strenuously exert 
 himself for its success —I must here use a Euro- 
 pean expression to be understood — should agitate 
 for it, — would his urgent demands be treated with 
 scorn, and the prayers of his countrymen and follow- 
 ers be rejected with disdain ? My Noble Friend, 
 who represents the ministry elsewhere, (Lord John 
 Russell) has furnished an answer to all these ques- 
 tions. Quoting from Mr. Fox, and greatly exag- 
 gerating that great man's meaning by taking lite- 
 rally what was said loosely, if seriously, my 
 Noble Friend has laid it down, that in Irish affairs 
 there is but one rule for governing the people ; and 
 what do your Lordships think that golden rule is ? 
 By doing what is right and just? By pursuing 
 the policy which the interests of all require ? No 
 such thing! The rule is far simpler than that. 
 By administering, as my Noble Friend on the cross 
 bench did, (Marquess of Anglesea,) justice tempered 
 with mercy — evincing at all times the most watch- 
 ful care of the people's interests, mingled with the 
 most undeviating condescension and kindness of 
 
19 
 
 demeanour towards their persons — at once endear- 
 ing himself to them by the frank urbanity of his 
 manners, and taking care that their best interests 
 should be unceasingly promoted — doing them jus- 
 tice, securing them right, but at the same time 
 holding the balance equal, with a firm, a manly 
 hand— and never, for any consideration, abdicating 
 those functions of a Government from which its 
 very name is derived? Nothing like it! What, 
 then, is my Noble Friend, the Home Secretary's 
 rule for governing a people ? Is it to do what you 
 ought by them ? to give them what is good for 
 them ? to let them have what you ought to give, 
 and nothing more ? Oh no such thing ! but it is 
 to let them have just what they themselves wish ; 
 to do as they bid you —as they, the subjects, bid 
 you, their Governors ; in a word, to let them save 
 you the trouble of governing them by leaving them 
 to govern themselves. That is the rule applied to 
 a country which is close by, with six millions of men 
 whom one common sentiment binds together, who 
 follow one concentrated and individual influence, 
 and who send seventy voters to the aid of the Minis- 
 try in the other House. The rule for dealing with 
 them is, " Give them all they ask : if an elective 
 council, let it be elective ; if a life council, be it for 
 life ; — just as they please." But for Canada, far 
 off, thinly-peopled, and without the (fraction of a 
 member in either House to make its grievances 
 known, or give expression and force to its desires, 
 
 c 2 
 
:|!ili 
 
 20 
 
 another rule prevails, — ** Refuse all they ask ; turn 
 " a deaf ear to every complaint ; mock them with 
 " hopes never to be realized ; iijsult them with 
 "rights which when they dare to use shall be 
 " rudely torn from them ; and for abiding by the 
 ** law, in seeking redress of their wrongs, punish 
 " them by the infliction of a Dictator and a despot- 
 " ism." We have all seen, or we have read, of the 
 contrast between a parent and a stepmother in the 
 treatment of the child ; the contrast between tender- 
 ness, self-denial, self-devotion, — and cruelty, self- 
 indulgence, studied neglect. The one exhausts 
 every resource of kindness and conciliation, antici- 
 pates all wants, yields to each wish that ought to 
 be granted, studies to prevent offences by judicious 
 training, and to reclaim from error by gentleness 
 alone ; nor ever has recourse to punishment until 
 all means of prevention fail, and the safety of the 
 cherished object forces her to do violence to her 
 feelings rather than neglect her duty. But I have 
 known conduct the reverse of all this. Who indeed 
 has not heard of the stepmother — watching for the 
 occasion of quarrel ; taking offence at every thing, 
 and at nothing ; fostering any little failing of tem- 
 per in the child till it ripen into disobedience, and 
 furnish the pretext for inflicting the wished-for 
 punishment; alternately too indulgent and too 
 severe ; by fits and by caprice harsh and gentle ; 
 now flinging to it some plaything, and the instant 
 the child uses it flying into a fury, and snatching 
 
il 
 
 31 
 
 It away, and giving vent to anger by punishment 
 or by restraint ; now visiting on the offspring the 
 faults of her own mismanagement ; and never for 
 an instant pursuing a steady, or a just, or a ra- 
 tional treatment. These things I have witnessed, 
 as who has not ? But never have I known an ex- 
 ample of contrast so marked, so violent, so outra- 
 geous, as between the parental care of Ireland 
 and the stepmother treatment of Canada. 
 
 The act of unprecedented oppression which Lord 
 Durham is commissioned to execute, is, I find, ex- 
 plained and illustrated by the publication of the 
 instructions under which he is to be sent out, 
 and when I survey this strange document, 1 am 
 sure I find it difficult to say whether the tenor of 
 it or the production of it is the most unaccountable. 
 I question if so extraordinary a proceeding altoge- 
 ther has ever yet been witnessed, as the publication 
 of this paper. The Ministers have made public in 
 January the orders which they intend to have 
 executed next May. It is one of the great difficul- 
 ties attending an extended Empire that the orders 
 issued for the government of its distant Provinces 
 can hardly ever be executed in the same circum- 
 stances in which they are framed, because a consi- 
 derable time must needs elapse between their being 
 dispatched and enforced. But is that a reason for 
 unnecessarily incurring the unavoidable difficulty — 
 by sitting down — did mortal man ever before dream 
 of such a thing— by sitting down at the Colonial 
 
22 
 
 Office in Jamiary and lirawing up the orders in all 
 their detail, which are to be obeyed by the emissary 
 in May or June — when that emissary is not to leave 
 th2 country before the month of April ? How '•au 
 my N(»ble Friend know that he will be of the same 
 mind in April, when Lord Durham is to set sail on 
 his hopeful mission of conciliatory coercion ? The 
 measure out of which these Resolutions have arisen 
 has already been changed three or four times over 
 in as many days, if report speak true. First the 
 Ministers wavered a little ; then they a^ected to 
 have made up their minds ; and having done so, 
 they no sooner declared that nothing should move 
 them from their fixed purpose, than they suddenly 
 departed from it altogether, and adopted a totally 
 different course, at the dictation of the Opposition 
 in the Commons. Hesitation, uncertainty, waver- 
 ing, delay — mark the whole course of their pro- 
 ceedings. It extends to the Noble person who is to 
 execute these projects in Canada. My Noble 
 Friend is not to set out on his progress towards the 
 spot where disaffection is abroad, and insurrection 
 has broken out, uatil the wepther is fine. While 
 every week is of incalculable importance, April 
 is the time coolly appointed for his sailing, and it 
 may be later. This extreme deliberation should 
 seem to indicate no great apprehension that the 
 Colony is in such a state as affords any justification 
 of a measure like the one propounded tor its coercion. 
 The Noble Earl (Aberdeen) has mistaken what I 
 
23 
 
 formerly sa?d of my Noble Friend'8 powers. I never 
 pronounced it as a clear matter that he should at 
 all events bo ordered to grant instantly an Elective 
 Council. But I did maintain that unless he goes 
 armed with a power of this extent, to be used if he 
 shall see fit, his going is a mockery both of himself 
 and of the Canadians ; and that neither he nor this 
 country can reap honour from his mission. But 
 no power of this kind, or indeed of any kind, is to 
 be given him. These Instructions are from the 
 beginning to the end. Inquiry, and nothing else. 
 They set out with stating that it may probably be. 
 found necessary to adopt some Legislative measures 
 of a comprehensive nature for effecting a permanent 
 settlement of the Canadian question — but what 
 these measures are likely to be there is no inti- 
 mation given ; indeed the plain implication is that 
 they have not yet been discovered ; and the Instruc- 
 tions proceed to describe how the information is to 
 be procured on which they may be framed. The 
 Committee or Convention is to be formed, and then 
 my Noble Friend is to bring before it various subjects 
 on which he is to ask for their opinion and advice. 
 The first is the matter in dispute between the 
 Upper and Lower Provinces. The next subject of 
 deliberation it is said, will be furnished by the Act 
 of 1791, with a view to examining how its defects 
 may be corrected. Then follow some other heads of 
 inquiry in their order — the mode of defraying the 
 expense of the Civil Government, the state of the 
 
24 
 
 ( 
 
 i 
 
 law affecting landed property, the establishment of 
 a court for trying impeachments and appeals. On 
 all these several subjects the new Governor is to 
 inquire, and what then ? To determine-^to act — 
 to do any thing that had not been done by his pre- 
 decessors ? No such thing — but to report to the 
 Government at home exactly as they did before 
 him. Why, have they not had reports enough ? 
 Had they not the Committee of 1828, with its 
 ample investigation and voluminous reports ? Had 
 they not the Comfoittee of 1834, with such a pro- 
 duction of papers from the Colonial Office as never 
 before was made to any such tribunal, and a report 
 in proportion full to overflowing ? The labours of 
 these two Committees, sending for all persons, ex- 
 amining all papers, searching into all records, 
 were not deemed sufficient to slake our boundless 
 thirst for knowledge, and a Commission was dis- 
 patched to inquire on the spot. They hastened 
 thither, and inquired for years, examined all sub- 
 jects, differed upon them all, recorded their dispu- 
 tations in long arguments and elaborate protests, 
 remitted the volume that contained the produce of 
 their labours and their wranglings, and put their 
 employers in possession of a whole body of contro- 
 versy and of decisions, each Commissioner generally 
 differing from his colleagues in the views he took of 
 the argument, and frequently also from himself, 
 but all agreeing in the conclusions at which they 
 arrived, by the course of reasoning one way, and 
 
25 
 
 m 
 
 deciding another. Will not this satisfy us, insatia- 
 ble that we are ? Can we hope for more argumen- 
 tation and more discrepancy from one inquiring 
 man than from three ? I defy any one, be he armed 
 with powers ever so Dictatorial — let him engross in 
 his own person all the powers of his station, and be 
 his own Master of the Horse into the bargain, to 
 surpass the celebrated inquiry and report of Lord 
 Gosford, and his learned and gallant coadjutors. I 
 had vainly imagined that all the inquiry of the 
 last three years might have been enough to satisfy 
 the greatest appetite for delay and inaction ; but I 
 find I was deceived ; we are still to falter and 
 pause ; the hour for action recedes as we advance ; 
 and the mighty measure of abrogating all law and 
 creating a dictator, ends in sending out one Lord 
 to renew the inqniries which had been making for 
 three years under another. 
 
 I have uniformly stated my conviction that it is 
 the duty of the Government here at length to 
 make up their minds and pursue some intelligi- 
 ble and consistent course towards the Colony — 
 above all, that sending Lord Durham thither with- 
 out the only power which can ever be of the least 
 use towards attaining the object we have in view, is 
 a mere pretence for new delays. The alarm 
 expressed at that power by the Noble Earl (Aber- 
 deen) is to me incomprehensible. An Elective 
 Council, he says, means the severance of the Colony 
 — I have always held this to be a benefit and no 
 
I' .• 
 
 26 
 
 V.T^ 
 
 loss, provided it can be effected in peace, and leave 
 only feelings of kindness on either side. But I 
 deny that the giving an Elective Council can pos- 
 sibly produce such a consequence Men commit a 
 
 great and a palpable mistake when, arguing from the 
 analogy of the Parliament of England, they transfer 
 to Canada the ideas connected with our Upper 
 House. In the Colony there is no aristocracy nor 
 any thing like an aristocracy — consequently the 
 materials of r f^nper House are there wholly 
 wanting. But t, 3t more remarkable difference 
 arises from the relation of colonial dependency. 
 Why is this House in which we sit necessary for 
 our limited Monarchy ? It is because the Crown 
 would, without its interposition, come into conflict 
 with the People, represented in the Commons. 
 The Monarch has no revenues but what he derives 
 from the votes of that Lower House ; if then he 
 were to exercise his veto upon bills, all supplies 
 would be stopt ; and the Monarchy could not 
 survive the shock were it often repeated, were 
 not its violence mitigated by this Upper House 
 being interposed between the other two branches. 
 This House, by the influence which the Crown 
 has in it, by its natural leaning towards the Court, 
 and by its aversion to the extremes of popular 
 opinion, relieves the Sovereign from the perilous 
 oflice of refusing the measures sometimes pressed 
 upon both by the representatives of the people. 
 But the state of things in a Colony is essentially 
 
27 
 
 different. There the Executive Government is not 
 altogether dependent upon the supplies voted by 
 the Commons—there the Jommons have no more 
 absolute power over the rest of the Government 
 than they would have here, if Hanover or some 
 other dependency of the Crown yielded a revenue 
 of twenty millions a year, which could defray such 
 expences as the Parliament might refuse to au- 
 thorise. Consequently in the Colony, the Governor 
 has no difficulty in rejecting bills, and exposes the 
 constitution to no shock by the exercise of his veto. 
 He wants no Upper House to do for him what he 
 can safely do himself, and to deaden the concussion 
 occasioned by a collision between him and the Com- 
 mons. Were the Colonial Council then elective, there 
 would none of the effects ensue which must follow 
 from making this House a representative of the 
 people like the other. Were we chosen and sent 
 here by the same body that elects the Commons, 
 any one must see that the only consequence would 
 be, our having a House of Commons divided into 
 two sections instead of one, sitting in two rooms, 
 and passing bills through nine or ten stages instead 
 of four or five ; the Government would be wholly 
 changed, and a pure Democracy substituted in its 
 stead. In the Colony the reform of the Council 
 or its total abolition, would not alter one jot the 
 nature of the Government, or impede its working 
 for an hour. The Commons might refuse supplies 
 because the Governor rejected bills— each party 
 
y. 
 
 X 
 
 28 
 
 would for awhile stand out against .the other ; in 
 the end a middle course would be resorted to, 
 each party giving up a little and gaining the rest ; 
 and the supplies of the mother country adminis- 
 tered by her Parliament would be forthcoming, 
 whenever the sense of the Government and people 
 of England went along with the Colonial executive, 
 to overcome any very unreasonable and pertina- 
 cious resistance of the House respecting the Colonial 
 people. — Unable then to discover the least danger 
 from the change so much desired by all the Ca- 
 nadians, I deeply lament the short-sighted and in- 
 efficient policy of sending out a new emissary 
 without the power of granting it, or even of en- 
 tertaining the question ; and I remain decidedly of 
 opinion, that whether we regard his own credit 
 and honour, or the interests of the country and the 
 colony, he had far better not go there at all, than 
 proceed with mutilated powers upon a hopeless 
 errand. 
 
 The Colonial experience, my Lords, of the 
 Spanish Monarchy, fertile as it is in lessons of 
 wisdom upon all subjects, is singularly so upon a 
 question of this kind. There once broke out, as you 
 are aware, a revolt so formidable, and so extensive, 
 involving the whole of the most valuable of the 
 settlements of Spain, that it is still known at the 
 distance of three centuries as the Great Rebellion. 
 I allude, of course, to the revolt of the Pizarros in 
 Peru, compared with which, were the war in 
 
S9 
 
 Canada to rage with tenfold fury, it would be 
 a mere nothing for danger and difficulty. The 
 events of that famous passage have been recorded 
 by the illustrious Historian, my revered kinsman, 
 in that spirit of deep reflection for which he was 
 renowned, and with a charm of style hardly ex- 
 ceeded by his celebrated narrative of Columbus's 
 voyage, which it is difficult to read with a dry 
 eye. The rebels had been eminently successful on all 
 points ; the revolt had raged for above a year, and 
 had wrapt all Peru in the flames of civil war. At 
 the head of his hardy and adventurous veterans, 
 Pizarro had met the Spanish troops, and over- 
 thrown them in many pitched battles. The Vice- 
 roy had himself been defeated, taken, and put to 
 death ; the seat of Government was in the hands 
 of the insurgents ; and a combined system of revolt 
 . had been universally established to the extinction 
 of all lawful authority. In such an extremity, the 
 Emperor Charles, a prince of vast experience, of 
 practised wisdom in the councils both of peace 
 and war ; a ruler, whose vigour never suffered him 
 to falter ; saw that there remained but one course 
 to pursue . He resolved to send out a person with 
 ample powers of negociation and of command ; and 
 his choice fell upon Pedro de la Gasca, who had, 
 though in no higher station than Councillor of the 
 Inquisition, distinguished himself by his ability 
 and success in several delicate negotiations. He 
 was recommended to the office by an enlarged ca- 
 
30 • 
 
 pacity, hardly to be surpassed, — an insinuating 
 address,- —manners singularly courteous to all, — a 
 temper the most conciliatory and bland,-* above 
 all, a rare disinterestedness and self-denial in 
 whatever concerned himself, and a singular 
 devotion to his public duties. Of this he early 
 gave an unequivocal indication, in peremp- 
 torily refusing the offer of higher rank in 
 the Church, which the Emperor pressed upon 
 him with the purpose of increasing his weight 
 and influence in the arduous service entrusted to 
 his hands, ** But (says the historian) while he 
 " discovered such disinterested moderation in all 
 " that related personally to himself, he demanded 
 " his official powers in a very different tone. He 
 " insisted, as he was to be employed in a country so 
 ** remote from the seat of Government, where he 
 ** could not have recourse to his Sovereign for new 
 ** instructions on any emergency, and as the whole 
 *' success of his negotiations must depend upon the 
 " confidence which the people with whom he had to 
 " treat could place in the extent of his power, that 
 " he ought to be invested with unlimited authority ; 
 " that his jurisdiction must reach to all persons, 
 " and to all causes ; that he must be empowered to 
 *' pardon, to punish, or to reward, as circum- 
 ** stances might require ; that in case of resistance 
 ** from the malcontents, he might be authorized to 
 " reduce them by force of arms, to levy troops for 
 " that purpose, and to call for assistance from the 
 
31 
 
 " Governments of all the Spanish settlements in 
 " America." Powers like these seemed to the 
 men of mere precedent in the Colonial oflfice of 
 Madrid, impossible to be granted to any subject, 
 — they were the inalienable attributes of the preroga- 
 tive, according to these official authorities — " But 
 " the Emperor's views," says the historian, " were 
 " more enlarged. As from the nature of his em- 
 ** ployment, Gasca must be intrusted with discre- 
 ** tionary power in some points, and all his eflforts 
 " might prove ineffectual, if he was circumscribed 
 '* in any one particular, (as for example, the grant- 
 " ing of an Elective Council) Charles scrupled not 
 " to invest him with authority to the full extent of 
 *' his demand. Highly satisfied (he adds) with this 
 " fresh proof of his master's confidence, Gasca 
 " hastened, (much clieering attended the mention 
 " of this word) — he hastened his departure, and 
 ** without either money or troops, set out to quell 
 " a formidable rebellion." The result is well 
 known, and it was conformable to the vigour and 
 the wisdom that presided over these preparations, 
 Gasca arrived in Peru without any suite, or any 
 pomp whatever ; he put in action the resources of 
 his genius for negotiation ; dividing his adversa- 
 ries by the justice of his proceedings, winning over 
 many of all parties by the engaging suavity and 
 mingled dignity of his manners, never making any 
 sacrifice to temper or to selfishness of his arduous 
 and important duty, but gaining every where 
 
! I 
 
 88 
 
 friends to his mission, while he hardly left an enemy 
 to his person. His bold and uncourtly antagonist 
 perceived that he was undone, if further time were 
 given for the practice of diplomatic arts, alike 
 strange to his nature and his habits. He rushed to 
 the field, his proper element, and to those arms 
 which were the only arts he knew. To his dismay 
 he found that he had to cope with one whose uni- 
 versal genius for affairs fitted . him for following 
 up in action the councils of his provident sagacity. 
 Gasca suddenly disclosed the result of the prepara- 
 tions which he had been making, while occupied in 
 negotiating with the leaders of the revolt, and re- 
 claiming the victims of their artifices. He equipped • 
 a fleet, met the cruisers of Pizarro, and captured 
 them every where. He took the field against the 
 veteran conquerors of the New World ; he met their 
 chief, overthrew him in a pitched battle, made 
 him prisoner, put him to death with his principal 
 accomplices, restored peace and order to the whole 
 province, and gave back to the Spanish Crown, 
 rather than kept in it, the brightest of its jewels. — 
 To complete the glory of this great man, already 
 so brilliant both in council and in arms, there 
 wanted but one crowning passage, which should 
 bestow upon him a yet higher fame, by shewing 
 the genius that inspired his conduct, eclipsed 
 by the virtue that governed it. Nor was this 
 proof wanting. Master, by the fortune of the war, 
 and by his unlimited powers, of the whole forfei- 
 
33 
 
 tures of the rebellion, he distributed a far greater 
 mass of wealth, in money, and mines, and land, atid 
 palaces, than was ever by any absolute potentate 
 bestowed upon his followers or his favourites ; and 
 reserving not the fraction of a farthing for himself 
 or his connexions, he retired to Europe, and rendered 
 up his trust, leaving to his grateful Sovereign the 
 payment of the few debts which he had contracted, 
 and which his poverty disabled him from discharg- 
 ing. His reception by his country and his Prince 
 was all that might be expected from public grati- 
 tude fur unparalleled services, and from unbounded 
 admiration of the highest and most various capacity. 
 But he retired into the privacy of his former life, and 
 passed (says Robertson) " the remainder of his days 
 " in the tranquillity of seclusion, respected by his 
 " country, honoured by his Sovereign, and beloved 
 " by all." 
 
 Having, my Lords, called your attention to the 
 lessons which this memorable passage of Colonial 
 history presents to the Government, as peculiarlyap- 
 plicable to the circumstances of the existing crisis, 
 I will not any longer stop to dwell upon a picture, 
 which, I fear, offers to the eye only sad contrasts in 
 all its material features, between the capacity and 
 the vigour of former and of present times. And 
 here, too, I willingly retire from the contemplation 
 of the whole subject — painful to view in every re- 
 spect — lamentable in some of its parts, — disgraceful 
 in others. My closing words, my parting advice 
 
34 
 
 ai*6 to retrace your steps, and do justice. Let the 
 Government make the restoration of kindly feeling 
 the main object of all their endeavours. — To com- 
 pass this, let them go all lengths, and out of their 
 way, in negociating with the disaffected and in 
 ruling the Province. Let them largely mingle 
 mercy in the administration of its affairs. — 
 Above all never let them listen to those who 
 would persuade them, like the Noble Earl, 
 (Aberdeen,) that what might have been rightly 
 granted at one time it is dishonourable to give 
 now that the supplicant has flown to arms, 
 and become a rebel. If those concessions were 
 wrong before, so are they wrong still, and I call 
 upon you firmly to refuse them, — but if it ever 
 would have been just and politic to yield them, be 
 you well assured that nothing has happened to 
 make it less wise, and less right now, and the fame 
 of England never will be tarnished by doing her 
 duty. Make that you/ rule and your guide, and 
 you may laugh to scorn the empty babblers who 
 would upbraid you with the weakness of yielding 
 to armed petitioners ; you will shew them that the 
 concession is not made to the force of arms, but 
 to the irresistible power of justice and of right. I 
 devoutly pray that the end of all may be content- 
 ment and peace— that contentment and that peace 
 without which outstretched empire is but extended 
 weakness, — which, if you shall not restore, all your 
 victories in the council, in the Legislature, in the 
 
 I 
 
85 
 
 t tlic 
 eling 
 com- 
 their 
 id in 
 tingle 
 irs. — 
 J who 
 Earl, 
 ightly 
 ) give 
 arms, 
 
 were 
 1 call 
 ,t ever 
 em, be 
 tted to 
 e fame 
 ng her 
 ie, and 
 jrs who 
 rielding 
 bat the 
 ms, but 
 ght. I 
 jontent- 
 at peace 
 xtended 
 all your 
 
 in the 
 
 field, will be won in vain — which, it' you do restore, 
 you may defy the world in arms, and despise its 
 slanders as well as its threats. 
 
 LoRDMELBOURNEhavingexpressedhissatisfaction 
 with the prudent advice offered by Lord Brougham, 
 and in the soundness and wisdom of which he en- 
 tirely concurred — proceeded to complain of the acer- 
 bity which characterized other parts of his speech ; — 
 said he had lon^ perceived, — had been aware three 
 years ago that sooner or later it must come to this — 
 that he felt thankful for his support in 1835, for his 
 abstinence in 1836, and for his qualified opposition 
 and partial support in 1837 ; adding that he felt no 
 irritation in consequence of the differeut and more 
 harsh course he now pursued,— and which no doubt 
 arose from no personal considerations but solely 
 from public spirit and from feelings of a patriotic 
 kind.* 
 
 Lord Brougham. — I purposely abstain on this 
 occasion from going further into the personal 
 remarks of the Noble Viscount, because I will not 
 thus interrupt the discussion of a great public ques- 
 tion. But when he compares and contrasts my 
 conduct towards the Government this session with 
 
 * Lord Melbourne in referring to the proceedings of Gasca and 
 the Peruvian rebellion, designated Dr. Robertson as a florid, lively, 
 and fanciful historian, a description, perhaps, as notoriously inap- 
 plicable as it is truly original, of that great writer, the chasteness, of 
 whose style is equal to the admitted accuracy and impartiality of 
 his narrative. 
 
36 
 
 1:1 
 
 that which I formerly held, he utterly and noto- 
 riously forgets the whole of the facts, has he for- 
 gotten, can he have forgotten, that last May I both 
 urged t? e same charges and recorded them en your 
 Journals? I even pursued the self-same course of 
 argument which has, I observe, to-night given hin 
 so great offence. He speaks of '* acerbity." A 
 person supposed to have used bitter remarks is per- 
 haps not a judge of the comparative "acerbity" of 
 his different observations — nor is that p'irson, possi- 
 bly, against whom they have been employed. But 
 I venture to say, that of all 1 said this night, the 
 portion which he felt the most bitter, and to which, 
 be it observed in passing, he made not the 
 least allusion, was my comparison of his conduct 
 towards unrepresented Canada and well-repre- 
 sented Ireland. Well— last May I drew the very 
 same comparison, and nearly in the same terms — 
 made the same quotations from the Ministerial 
 speeches in the Commons — and recorded the sub- 
 stance of the comparison in Ui^y protest. My Lords 
 -I indignantly and peremptorily deny that the 
 motive or principle of my conduct is changed. 
 13ut i know that the changed conduct of others 
 has compelled me to oppose them, i^l order that 1 
 may not change my own principles. Do the 
 Ministers desire to know what will restore me to 
 their support, and make me once more fight zea- 
 lously in their ranks, as I on '^ fought with them 
 against Uie majority of your Lordships? I will 
 
w 
 
 37 
 
 tell them at once ! Let them retract their decla- 
 ration against Reform, delivered the first night 
 of this session, and their second declaration — 
 by which (to use the Noble Viscount's phrase) 
 they exacerbated the first ; or let them, without 
 any retractation, only bring forward liberal and 
 constitutional measures — they will have no more 
 zealous supporter than myself. But, in the 
 meantime, I now hurl ny defiance at his head- -I 
 repeat it— I hurl at his head this defiance— I defy 
 him to point out any, the slightest, indication of any 
 one part of my public conduct having, even for one 
 instant, been affected, in any manner of way, by 
 feelings of a private and personal nature, or been 
 regulated by any one consideration except the sense 
 of what I owe to my own principles, and to the 
 interests of the country ! 
 
 ThE END. 
 
 
 Norman and .Skeen, Printer), Maiden Lane, Govern G.iui.ni. 
 
1