also of sovereign power that it alone of all powers and bodies in the empire, does possess this unlimited discretion. And this is not only true of the lawful supremacy resident in King, Lords and Commons, but of the absolute power obtained by the Commons through their command of the purse. But our House of Commons has not used or abused its power in the way supposed by the Canadians. We admit that occasionally, in very factious times, the Commons have attempted to force the Lords to concur in some favourite measure, by tacking it (in parliamentary phrase) to a money bill; but we recollect no instance in which this unworthy use of power has been finally persevered in; and the practice is now absolete, and universally condemned. alleged grievances are set forth in the most violent language; we can notice only some of the most remarkable particulars. First, they claim, under the constitution. of 1791, all the rights possessed by the House of Commons in England, especially in respect of supply, which right, or rather the exercise of it, they misrepresent as we have already stated. Secondly, they claim, that no alteration should be made in that constitution, except according to the will of the people, as collected from the votes of the Assembly. Thirdly, they nevertheless aver, that the fit constitution for Lower Canada is not to be sought in analogies to the constitution of Great Britain. And, Fourthly, they appeal rather to the insti tutions of the United States for the model of a constitution suited to the Canadians. Filthly, they urge that representation ought to be founded on the basis of popula tion... But the Canadians, and their English agent, have mistaken the position of the executive government of England. The Crown has funds of its own, not sufficient perhaps to support its accustomed dignity, and to carry on the civil government, upon Sixthly, throughout the whole there are the usual scale of expenditure, but such as scarcely disguised threats of an intention to to remove it far from absolute dependence. throw off the allegiance of the colony, and And it is, or was until lately, the practice to apply the elective principle not only to of the British Parliament to commute these the legislative council, but to the executive funds for a revenue, granted for the life of government. each sovereign, which placed him on a footing of independence in respect of his house hold and civil government. 46 We know that, in very modern times, a considerable portion of the expenses of the civil government have been made the subject of annual vote: it is not exactly true that these votes for the most part, (if in any case,) assign so much to one functionary and so much to another," for the votes are departmental, and in many cases only supply a deficiency, the office having a fee-fund sufficient to defray a part of its expenses. For the King and his household, pensions at pleasure, the Judges, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the King's ministers abroad, a permanent provision is made. But above all it is not true that these votes have in any instances been regulated by any consideration, other than the opi nion of the House of Commons of the necessity of the service and the adequacy of the sum. The new system brings all the expenses of government under the annual control of the House of Commons, as the military and naval expenses have long been, but the control exercised is financial and merely financial. It was in this year, 1834, that the House of Assembly passed the ninety-two celebrated resolutions.* In this manifesto, all the Feb. 21, No. 392, of 1836, p. 16 Acting, however, upon their erroneous view of their position, the Assembly continued to withhold supplies. The proceedings of the Assembly induced Mr. Stanley, now Secretary for the Colonies, to give notice of a hill for suspending the operation of Lord Ripon's act. This suspension, we are of opinion, would have been perfectly justifiable; but at this time the aggravated symptoms, in other of the king's ministers, of hostility to the church of which he had been from his entrance into parliament a firm supporter, induced Lord Stanley to withdraw from the administration. The Committee of 1834, appears to have entertained a notion that some compromise would be effected, and it is now alleged that this hope was justified by the language of Mr. Spring Rice, (the new Colonial Secretary,) in an interview with the agent and delegates from Canada. Mr. Rice dropped Lord Stanley's bill, and, to meet the present difficulty, authorized Lord Aylmer to take 31,000l. out of the military chest, to pay the civil servants of Canada; thus committing a manifest breach of the laws of England, in order to avoid an interference with those of Canada. The government was entirely changed. Elliot, p. 23, Parl, Deb. xxii. 810. + Sept. 27, 1834, No. 211, of 1835. Lord Aberdeen succeeded Mr. Spring Rice of Lord Glenelg, who succeeded Lord in November, 1834. It was determined to Aberdeen, in April, 1835. send out Lord Amherst as Governor Gene- This government determined to send out ral, and it has been admitted by those who their Commission to inquire and deliberate, profess hostility to Tory governments, not but not to act. It consisted of Lord Gos. only that Lord Aberdeen would have acted, ford, Governor General, Sir Charles Grey, instead of inquiring into well-known facts, and Sir George Gipps. The instructions to and deliberating upon that which required these gentlemen were framed, as was right, prompt decision, but that his proposed mea-in a spirit of conciliation; but the whole sures were more likely to produce a satis proceeding was a specimen of that sort of factory result even to the Canadians, than flourish in which the Whig ministers, and those which his successors adopted. none more than Lord Glenelg, are apt to The view which Lord Aberdeen took of indulge, and which is harmless enough, the several questions was not materially dif- though now and then a little ridiculous, when ferent from that which was entertained by used to set off an efficient measure, but when his predecessors and successors; but he it is substituted for action it is injurious. was prepared to make his concession to the Assembly more complete, and at the same time more effectual; and it it failed, he was prepared to take definite and decisive mea But this offer was to be conditional upon the establishment of a Civil List, upon the scale suggested by Lord Ripon, but with the addition, fully justified by the cession of the hereditary revenues, of a stated sum for contingent expenses. The necessity of appointing three Commissioners is not obvious, and certainly did require an elaborate paragraph to explain it ; and here the paragraph is "11. His Majesty has thought it proper that the Commission should consist of more than one Member, because the proposed range of inquiry will embrace so many topics, legislative, judicial, fiscal and moral and social, that it is not to be imagined that the studies or previous habits of any single mind, however gifted, would be sufficient to compass them all." In what proportion, or by what application of Adam Smith's principle of the division of labour, the several Commissioners were to It would have been inconsistent with the bring the studies of their respective lives to object of Lord Amherst's conciliatory mis- bear upon this multifarious inquiry, Lord sion, to accompany this liberal offer with a Glenelg did not prescribe to the Irish noblethreat of the consequences of a refusal; but man, the Indian judge, and the captain of Lord Amherst was made aware that a rejec-engineers, who constituted the Commission. tion would be immediately followed by the It appears to us, that some of the enumerarepeal of Lord Ripon's Act. ted qualifications were common to all, and some could not be predicated of any one of the Commissioners. The demand of an elective Council was to be peremptorily rejected. That demand was subsequent to the Committee of 1828, whose recommendations had already been carried into effect. On the first of the two points, the conces sion was rather more liberal than that of the late government; upon the second it was not really less liberal, since that government had equally made up its mind against the concession, though inclined perhaps to dress their refusal in a courtly periphrasis. But the great object of the mission was to bring the pending questions speedily to a point. Two or three months were considered as the period during which they might continue in abeyance. The remaining suggestions of the committee of 1828 having been already realized, (though the subjects of some of them have been since revived,) we may leave them unnoticed, and come now to the doings of the new Melbourne ministry, and especially VOL. XXI. 15 But the truth is, that with the exception of one passage* on education, (a subject which Lord Glenelg observes would be more than the united strength of the three could accomplish within the time allowed,) the instruc. tions did not dictate an extensive inquiry.— They rather referred to the consideration of the Commissioners' questions, upon which statement and argument had been almost exhausted, and concerning which little of new light could be expected, and assuredly not much was obtained,-in Canada itself. Let us proceed to the substance :-the intention was announced of giving up the whole of the revenues, provided that the Assembly would make provision "for the support of the civil government, and the administration of justice.' A very strong opinion was expressed * Par. 81, 82. against making the Legislative Council elec-[partial publication was communicated to tive, but still that question was so treated as him, he could not be persuaded, but that if to convey an impression, or rather to show the Assembly had its full length they would that the framers intended to convey an im- relent. pression, that it was possible, though not probable, that the opinion of government might be changed. For historical accuracy it is necessary to add, though the blank, if we had left one, would have been easily filled up by the read. It was very truly stated, that if the British er, that the Assembly, again convened for the Canadians were (as has been alleged) no: especial purpose of reading Lord Glenelg's equally represented in the Assembly with the despatch in its unmutilated form, declined to French, that inequality furnished an addi- vote supplies until their alleged grievances tional reason against an elective council. were redressed, and resolved that they would This view of the interests of the British colo- not even meet for business, until the princinists was supported by petitions in which they ple of an Elective Council had been recog. regard the Legislative Council as their pro- nized. The members had already begun to tectors against the Assembly, in which the disperse, when Lord Gosford, on the 4th of French have an unfair preponderance. October, 1836, prorogued the Parliament. And other documents of which Mr. John The ministers laid before Parliament the Neilson, a reforming petitioner of 1828, was Reports of the Commissioners, who recomthe bearer, placed in true colours the misap-mended that various changes, intended and prehension by the Assembly of the power of calculated to conciliate the Canadians, should the purse. be made in the composition and functions Although the proceedings of the Commis- both of the Executive and the Legislative sioners fill a bulky volume, the story of their Councils. Although the first of these had proceedings, and those of the Governor been also received in the summer of 1836, general, is soon told. The colonial parlia- no proceeding had been had upon either ment was convoked, and a communinication of them, when the business of Canada was in the spirit of the instructions was made to brought before Parliament. The postpone. them. The address of the Assembly was ment, we collect, arose from the hope that civil, but reiterated the demand of an elective the Commissioners would ultimately suc. council, in terms which made it clear that it ceed in effecting the great work of conciliawould be a sine quâ non. Yet the Governor tion, and that their final Report would preand Lord Glenelg clung to the hope of a sent a complete system of Colonial policy satisfactory adjustment, until Sir Francis for the consideration of the government. Head published in Upper Canada some parts But this hope had been entirely dissipated in of the instructions (which had been commu. November, 1836; the final recommendation nicated to him), whence the small probability of the Commissioners was an urgent sugof the concession of an elective council was reasonably deduced. The Assembly was in a flame, insisted much more urgently upon an elective council, tracing its present constitution to the prevalence of the aristocratic principle in 1791. And being under the strange delusion that our Reform Act had equalized representation in England,* they prayed for a similar reform of the Legislative council,-forgetting that that Act had not touched the House of Lords. They nevertheless voted a supply for six months only, in order to give three months to the king's government to comply with their demands. In this supply bill, several sala. ries were omitted, and various reductions made, to which Lord Gosford attributes its rejection by the Legislative Council. Although the English ministers approved of the rejection, we are inclined to think that this inadequate bill ought to have been accepted. Lord Glenelg set so high a value upon his own composition, that when the effect of its See p. 361 of our last volume. gestion of measures of coercion, and the exercise of an arbitrary power; and although it may be freely admitted that, in the then temper of the Assembly, no partial measures of conciliation would have reconciled the majority to those arbitrary measures, the ministers would have put themselves more in the right, by greater alacrity in adopting them. In addition to these strong measures they proposed that a parliamentary opinion should be pronounced upon the principal matters of dispute, such opinion to be in almost all cases adverse to the prayer of the Assembly. And seeing that these proceedings would in fact contravene the Constitutional Act of 1791, they threw out as an alternative the total suspension of the Constitution. On the 6th of March 1837, Lord John Russell proposed to the House ten resolutionst on the affairs of Lower Canada. It was proposed, Third report. ↑ Parl. Deb. xxxvi. 1287. "5. That while it is expedient to improve the composition of the Executive Council, it is unadvisable to subject it to the responsibility demanded by the House of Assembly of that province." The eighth resolution declared that the arrear of 142,000l. should be defrayed first out of the king's hereditary, casual, and teritorial revenue, and then out of any other part of his majesty's revenues in the hands of the receiver general of the province. By a ninth resolution it was declared, that the hereditary revenue was to be given up, in case the provincial legislature should see fit to grant to his majesty a civil list for defraying the necessary charges of the ad. ministration of justice, and for the mainte. nance and unavoidable expenses of certain of the principal officers of the civil govern. ment. The Goverment began at last to perceive that their measures were not altogether con. ciliatory, and that even when backed by the majority in the House of Commons, they might not be entirely acceptable in Canada; and it was in contemplation to send out a reinforcement of two regiments. A fortnight afterwards, Lord Glenelg had ascer tained that this force could not be spared without inconvenience, and making a demonstration which might be productive of much more evil than it could prevent. Although the question was one of difficul. ty,* the vacillation is a little unaccountable; but we may concede that such danger as was likely to arise in Canada, was sufficiently provided against by the power to draw troops from Nova Scotia. Still, it has never been explained, why the troops moved up from Nova Scotia were not replaced so soon as the movement was known in England, namely, the middle of July;† since in that movement itself consisted the demonstration which it was in vain attempted to avoid. However slight the hope was, that the resolutions of Parliament would induce the Assembly to vote the supplies and go on with the business of the colony, it was doubtless right to give them the opportunity. In obedience to an injunction from Lord Glenelg, of 22d of May, the two Houses were convened, and met on the 18th of August See Lord Melbourne, xi. 221. and the Duke of Wellington, 226. +See Lord Glenelg's despatch of 20th July, 1837, acknowledging Lord Gosford's of 15th June. Before this time, seditious meetings had ta ken place, and votes adopted, in the most violent language of hostility, such as to induce the Governor-General to call for the troops from Halifax, as lately mentioned. The parliamentary resolutions were treated with indignity by officers of militia and justices of the peace; a most espectable body of British subjects on the other hand, comprising some of French descent, and including Mr. Neilson, one of the most active petitioners of 1828, signified their reliance on the British Government. The The session was of short duration. Assembly repudiated the resolutions, by a great majority, with considerable indignation, and in language which must be taken to threaten a separation from the mothercountry; and on the 26th, Lord Gosford prorogued the parliament, which has not since met. After all, the resolutions were not carried into effect on the part of the government. The bill founded upon them had not been introduced at the time of the death of William IV. and the ministers have since as signed a somewhat trifling reason for not introducing it afterwards. They were unwilling that the first act of the reign of the young queen should "carry even the semblance of an ungracious spirit towards the then representatives of her loyal subjects in Canada." Surely, as the Queen's ministers had certainly no intention of advising her to be more gracious towards the Assembly than her predecessor had been, her Majesty and the Assembly were both deluded by the semblance of hesitation. The money was now provided by an ap propriation (not as before, a mis-appropriation) of British funds, at a time when, as soon appeared, they were unable to meet the charges upon them. Soon after the dismissal of the Assembly, Lord Gosford became convinced that "the ulterior objects of the Papineau faction were the separation of Canada from England, and the establishment of a republican form of government."† He contemplated the suspension, apparently by his own authority, of the habeas corpus; and among other measures to be adopted by the Government in this emergency, he suggested the removal of himself, and the substitution of “ a man * The address, as presented, which was prepared by M. Morin, was carried only by 46 against 31, because those who voted for an address somewhat modified, which M. Taschereau proposed, voted against M. Morin. But the minority, which might be considered as in any degree favourable to the government, never ex ceeded 19 against 58-No. 72 of 1837, p. 43. + Sept. 2, 1837, p. 46. who had not so avowedly declared his wish to carry on his governmeut on the principle of conciliation." should be authorized to revive such laws as Now this is one of the mischiefs of the system of flourish, of which we have spoken. No right-headed man goes upon any mission or employment, (unless he be a commander, with orders to sink, burn and destroy,) otherwise than on a principle of conciliation; but he is prepared to act boldly break which occurred at the commencement It is no part of our plan to describe the outif those with whom he deals are unreason of the winter; nor indeed are the materials able or hostile. And all this is understood, perfect. Two things appear clear, namely, as it is indeed in every society of gentlemen that high treason was committed, and a ciThus would Lord Amherst have gone to vil war commenced, and that some of the Canada. No man is more conciliatory; but members of the Assembly, who had been he would have acted vigorously, if conciliation failed. But the Whigs can do nothings, were deeply concerned in the more instrumental in its contumacious proceeding, however simple, without making a fuss gentle treason, though the principal of them about it; and thus, by talking boastfully of one part of their duty, they incapacitate appear to have prudently kept out of the themselves from doing the other. war. Thanks to the talents and energy of Sir Not that it appears to us that either the John Colborne, and the loyalty of a great language which had been used, or the measures adopted, by Lord Gosford in confor body of Canadians, the insurrection was soon put down. As to the legal proceedmity with his instructions,* necessarily disqualified him from doing his duty under al-ings against the conspirators, we are scantily informed. tered circumstances. But we quarrel with the practice which made him hesitate in performing it: for Lord Gosford was really quite as eager for strong measures as if his speeches had contained no honeyed words. He very soon urged upon Lord Glenelg the expediency of suspending the constitution. Having introduced some new and independent members into the Executive Council, he obtained from them an opinion that "during the virtual abolition of the Act of 1791, by the declaration of the House of Assembly that they would not proceed to the despatch of the public business until the Legislative Council was made elective, it was absolutely necessary that the executive go. vernment should be made independent of the assistance of the legislative body, until such time as the tranquillity of the country shall be established, and the public mind, now agitated and deceived by factious and designing men, shall be disabused, and restored to a healthy state." And when Lord Gosford put it to the Council, how it was possible to make the executive independent under the present constitution, they replied, that "it is advisable to suspend for a limited time such parts thereof as relate to the calling and meeting of the provincial parliament, and that, in the interim, the local government ford, one only received the immediate ap- the debates of the present session; indeed, The following may interest those who are watching Sir J. Colborne at this moment 'Colborne has my will and all my papers.' As he spake these words Major Colborne, his military secretary, entered the room. He addressed him with his wonted kindness, then turning to Anderson, said, 'Remember you go to Willoughby Gordon and tell him that it is my request, and that I expect he will give a Lieutenant Colonelcy to Major Colborne,--he has been long with me, and I know him to be most But the case is very different, if Lord Gos-worthy of it.'"-Last Moments of Sir John ford, as has been suggested, conciliated only one party, and even flattered and promoted the mover of the 92 Resolutions. + Oct. 12, p. 65. Moore, in Moore's Life, ii. 228. + November 27, p. 93. December 6, a. 106. § December 6, No. 32 of 1838, p. 16. |