population to whom war is a pastime, and the profession of arms an emancipation; for the serf becomes a free man directly upon becoming a soldier. Such is the power, wielded at will by a single man, with whom we are likely to be engaged in hostilities; and the vigour and the ability with which we cope with such an antagonist, will try the mettle of democratic England, and show how much she is, or is not, indebted to the authors of the reform bill. Most devoutly do we wish that their fallacies may in this case deceive themselves, and that, despite all their wicked devices, we may still be able to maintain the integrity of our colonial empire. But, if we shall, it needs no great sagacity to divine that it must be done by other hands than those of the present contemptible advisers of the crown, whose official existence, it may be clearly seen, is very nearly at an end; and whose whole career has been marked, not merely by selfishness and rapacity, as far as the spoils of office were concerned, but by a disgraceful indifference to British honour, and a criminal forgetfulness of British objects.

In Canada our whole policy may be described as an ingenious device for fanning discontent into treason; a discontent that may be literally described as having been caused by having given the Franco-Canadian population more of constitutional liberty than they knew well what to do with. Lord Gosford was sent over, (and a more judicious choice could not have been made,) to hatch the eggs of the cockatrice, until they became instinct with life; and it cannot be denied that he performed his office with a commendable assiduity; and that he sat until the young brood of monsters fairly burst the shell, and exhibited manifold symptoms of the vigour and the ferocity by which they were to be distinguished. His lordship was withdrawn before they had an opportunity of demonstrating their dutiful attachment to his person, and Sir John Colburn, the military chief to whom the government was for a season delegated, proved but an indifferent step-mother to his predecessor's cheshed progeny, and treated them with an uncouth roughness, which was the more sensitively felt because of the partiality and the fondness which they experienced under the former to them truly parental administration.

Then came the autocrat, the Great Western, as he has been called, to the delight of the trembling rebels, who were momently expecting the due reward of their deeds; but who saw, in the new viceroy, something so congenial to what they felt within themselves, that they were encouraged to hope, from him not merely, for mercy, but for favour also. His well-known proclamation was issued, even before the extent of his jurisdiction was ascertained; and the illegal banishment was but the signal for the triumphant recall of the outlawed traitors. When this creature was sent out, with powers which made him, as has been happily said by one of the London morning papers, a kind of transatlantic great Mogul, the opposi tion cautiously abstained from any animadversion upon such an appointment. They considered, and truly considered, that the office was one at the disposal of the queen; and that the choice which had been made could not be condemned, without trenching upon the prerogative, in a manner that might endanger its existence. The precedent of the interference with the appointment of Lord Londonderry, as ambassador to Russia, was fresh in their minds, and they thought that it was one which would be " more honoured in the breach than the observance." Ministers were, of course, personally responsible for that, as well as for every other royal act, and, should it prove seriously detrimental, they must answer for it. But to canvass it before hand,

in

any way that could prejudice it, before Lord Durham was fairly tried, that they eschewed as pregnant with pernicious consequences; and preferred risking the safety of the Canadas, to any interference which might have, even in the slightest degree, an unconstitutional aspect.

Now all this may be very fine; but, to our rude apprehensions, (we candidly confess it,) it does not appear to have been very wise. Mere etiquette towards the shadow of a prerogative, could never reconcile us to a species of silent acquiescence, which might compromise the well-being of the empire. Of all human beings, Lord Durham would appear to us to be the least fitted for the difficult and the delicate duties which he was called upon to discharge. In such a post as he occupied, the very first requisites were, temper and discretion. Whatever other qualities the

viceroy of the Canadas might possess, if these were wanting he was unfitted for his command; and that they were wanting, grossly wanting, in his case, could be unknown to none who had ever held intercourse with the noble lord, and, least of all, to her majesty's advisers. We would, therefore, not have concealed our conviction of his unfitness, from the outset, nor hesitate, boldly, to specify the deficiencies, both moral and intellectual, under which he laboured, and which must render his appointment one of extreme peril, under circumstances which would have required as great a combination of statesman-like qualities as ever were called into operation.

The government papers now discover, what should have been discovered before, that the temper of the noble lord is in fault; and having tried in vain to propitiate his wounded pride, they seek to damage his character, in order to break the force of his resentment. But it will not do. Their masters are answerable for his misdeeds. They should have known the man better, to whom so great a trust was confided. England's honour, and the safety of a distant colony, should not have been entrusted to the discretion of an atrabilious whig-radical, who was only distinguished by his rashness, his shallowness, and his presumption. And we are not, we confess it, half reconeiled to the abstemious course prescribed to themselves by the leading `conservatives, in remaining silent respecting the manifest unfitness of an appointment by which the safety of our Canadian possession has been endangered.

We stop not to canvass the motives of Lord Brougham, in bringing the illegal proclamation under the notice of parliament. That he was right, as a constitutional lawyer, in his construction of that proclamation, we see no reason to question; seeing that his view was supported by the ablest men in both houses of parliament, and at length, reluctantly, and with the worst possible grace, acceded to by the ministers of the crown. Yes, the very first duty of those, by whom the appointment of Lord Durham was advised, was, to annul the very first act of sovereign authority with which his administration commenced; and thus, in his own judgment at least, to deprive him of all moral power, without which his royal commission was but a piece of parch; and his high-sounding title an

ment

empty name! And yet, after this, they would, forsooth! fain have cajoled him into continuing the farce of playing the autocrat still, with Lord Brougham in the House of Lords, determined to act the viceroy over him! They might, no doubt, have said to him, "you see how we exist without moral power. We keep a determined hold of office; we use our extensive patronage wisely, for the purpose of securing steadfast and unscrupulous adherents. As to any higher considerations, a fig for them. We never regarded them as of any value, even when we found it expedient to profess for them some external respect; and now that your own reform bill has become the law of the land, it is plain that they may be utterly contemned. Do, therefore, take example by us, and do not suffer any supposed damage which your character may have suffered, to cause your resignation of an office, for which you are just as well qualified now, as at the first hour of your appointment." This, no doubt, would have been very natural; but Lord Durham's scruples were not to be so removed. Had Lord Brougham only been guilty of treason to the crown; had his offence been that he was detected in secret correspondence with the rebels, aiding, abetting, and encouraging them in their guilty courses; had he thus incurred all the responsibility of the blood-guiltiness with which they were covered-the autocrat of the Canadas would have found no difficulty in extending to him the royal mercy. Towards traitors and their associates, whether open or secret, his lordship has shown that he can exemplify a degree of temper and forbear ance which may be looked for in vain towards any one else. Appearing in such a character, Lord Brougham would have had his promptest forgiveness; but when he chose to put himself forward as his personal enemy; as one who presumed to question the legality of his ordinances, and to doubt the absolute wisdom of his decrees; oh! that was quite another matter. The Durham spirit was at once aroused. The high consideration which he was bound to entertain for the moral attributes which belonged to himself, forbade him to hesitate a moment about flinging up his commission, when it could only be held with a diminished reputation. And although the time was critical, and his retirement might be but the signal for the re-commencement of civil war, every such conside

ration was to be set at nought; and even our empire in the west must, if necessary, be offered up as a sacrifice to his wounded honour. Admirable moral philosophy, for a great statesman, this! How much this noble lord must have profited by his intercourse with Mr. Turton and Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield!

But some disclosures have been made respecting the conduct of the latter functionary, which require somewhat more of explanation than they have as yet received at his hands. It appears, that, immediately upon the fulmination of the ordinances, he was found in the quarters of some of the most obnoxious of the insurgents; that he impressed them with the belief that the government was but in jest when it sentenced them to banishment; that a hair of their heads should not be touched; that, by and by, they would be recalled; and that, in the future arrangements respecting the province, their wishes would be sure to be consulted, and some of them might even calculate upon being numbered amongst Lord Durham's advisers!

Such is the substance of the statement communicated to the public by Mr. Roebuck, upon the authority of a letter from one of the traitors, with whom Mr. Wakefield had held the little short of treasonable intercourse above described. It is almost confirmed, to the letter, by the admission of Mr. Wakefield himself; who acknowledges, that, holding as he did a confidential situation under Lord Durham, he did see and converse with the Canadian insurgent leaders, and that his interview was very much of the character ascribed to it; but that it was without the privity of Lord Durham, and that that nobleman

was

never made acquainted that it occurred. Thus we have Mr. Wake. field's authority for disbelieving that Lord Durham was his accomplice in what may, without exaggeration, be called a great crime, implying the meanest duplicity, and leading to a suspicion of the most revolting treason! Mr. Wakefield may be a man of veracity and honour-we say not to the contrary-but all that is publicly known of him would lead us to desire some fuller exculpation than he can afford, from so grave a charge as that which has been preferred. Doubtless Lord Durham will be ready, in his place in parliament, to offer such explanation as the case requires; but until then we must hold him seriously implicated by

the disclosure of Mr. Roebuck, and cannot suffer him to ride off upon the mere declaration of his innocence by a fellow delinquent.

When this nobleman was appointed to the high station for which he has proved himself so wholly unfitted, the public were shocked by his selection of such persons as Mr. Turton, and Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, as confidential advisers. Even Lord Melbourne seemed to be ashamed of them, when they were animadverted upon in the House of Lords; and almost volunteered a denial that such appointments had taken place. That this was disingenuous on the part of the premier, is now sagely surmised; and some disclosures remain in petto, by which it is said he will be humbled. But, be that as it may, it now appears, in one of the instances at least, how flagrantly improper was the nomination of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield; who went out, as he himself tells us, with such a sympathy for the Canadian insurgents that he heartily wished them success. Papineau, upon his own showing, he was disposed to regard as a second Washington; and whatever of sympathy or of encouragement might be expected from such individuals as Mr. Roebuck, or Joseph Hume, Edward Gibton Wakefield was ready to evince; until, as he now tells us, his eyes were forcibly opened by an actual intercourse with the traitors, to whose characters he now seems fully alive ;and it must be truly gratifying to the enlightened people of England to be authoritatively informed, that if, in the first instance, the transatlantic rebels were likely to profit by his unwary confidence, they must now wither under his righteous indignation.

Indeed, and we say it with a sorrowful bitterness, these things could not be, if the old spirit, or the old tone of moral feeling, which formerly distinguished the people of England, had not been almost extinguished. It would not be endured for a single moment in a more healthy state of things, that the public ear should be abused by a kind of Peachum and Lockit recrimination between the Canadian ex-viceroy and the first minister of the crown. While the old standard of morals maintained its authority, no audacity would have ventured upon appointments by which public decency has been so flagrantly scandalized. If they were made, and acted upon, they would have proved the ruin of those who made them. But now they are announced without

reserve or scruple ;—and Lord Durham is even constrained to accept of a character from one, whom he brought out with him, in defiance of loudly expressed public opinion, and the odium of whose connection with him, did almost as much to damage his moral weight, as the subsequent decision of the House of Lords! Well may the noble lord rejoice in his finished work-the reform bill. It before proved its efficacy by the promotion of incompetency; it is now felt to be available for the screening of delinquents! For, had not the moral character of England been grievously damaged by it; had not the people been drugged by a deleterious mixture, causing a wild intoxication which is, thank God, rapidly passing away, but which has been followed by a state of national stupor, in which "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint," there would have been, ere this, a universal shout of reprobation from one end of the empire to the other, which would strike terror to the hearts of the miserable and guilty actors in the wretched farce; and tell them, in language not to be mistaken, that neither should public morality be outraged by appointments such as were made, nor the honour nor the interest of Great Britain compromised, by a collusive arrangement with outlawed traitors!

But this is a part of the subject upon which we must not any longer dwell at present. It relates to matters respecting which fuller explanations, on all sides, are required. No doubt, the interval between this and the coming session, will be employed, by the ministerial intriguers, in stopping every unfriendly mouth by which damaging truth might be told. But enough is already publicly known to enable thinking people to form a tolerably correct judgment as to the real state of the case; and before the period of parliamentary inquiry takes place, other stirring events will, no doubt, engross the public mind, and Canada will be either lost or won to the British empire.

But Lord Durham has come home, having left, as a legacy, to the country committed to his care, a proclamation, which, if not intended, was, most certainly, well calculated to rekindle the flames of civil war. And, accordingly, in a few days after his departure, her majesty's troops are attacked by the insurgents, and a demonstration of violent hostility is made, which only proves how mercy was abused, when, in their

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intance, the gallows was defrauded of its victims ! We trust, confidently, to the loyalty of the province, and the valour of our soldiers, to defeat this second outbreak of rebellion, which, it now appears, was in preparation since June last, and for which, for any communication which Lord Durham sent over, this country was so little prepared. The skill and the vigour of Sir John Colborne, and his brave compatriots, will, we firmly believe, make this second act of high treason terminate as lamely as the first; even although the American sympathisers" should prove as numerous as their interference in such a contest is disgraceful. But, having put them down a second time, what is to be done? Are they still to be dealt with tenderly, as though, poor, dear fellows, they were scarcely at all to blame for the blood which they have caused to be shed? Are we still to be amused with the game of conciliation ? Is another Lord Gosford to be sent out, with plaster for the broken heads of the ruffians by whom British clemency has been now, a second time, abused? Oh! dire disgrace to England, that we should have to ask such questions! A spirit now pervades our councils, which makes almost any act of blundering wickedness credible of the present administration. We have already seen so much to deplore and to condemn, that nothing which may follow would surprise us. This may be laid down for certain, that the course which ministers will pursue, is that by which place may be most effectually retained; and if Hume and Molesworth cannot be propitiated, they must go any length which these men prescribe, as the price of their tenure of office ;-unless, indeed, England shall, by that time, have fairly thrown off the nightmare by which she is oppressed, and make it manifest that she will not endure to have her colonial empire wrested from her, by the folly and wickedness by which it has been so seriously endangered.

And here, although comparisons are odious,and although our minds and hearts recoil from contemplating, at the same moment, two such men as Lord Durham and the Duke of Wellington, it may be instructive to suggest the different lines of action which they, respectively, pursued, when they felt towards their associates, or the government under whom they served, not a little of chagrin or resentment. Let the reader trace the latter through his paths of military glory, either in the East Indies or the

Peninsula, and he will find, that he was as much beset with difficulties and embarrassments, from the ignorance, the waywardness, or the jealousies, of those upon whose support or co-operation he should have calculated, as from the numbers, the valour, or the skill of the enemy. But no instance will be found in which temper once triumphed over duty; or resentment once betrayed him into any act at variance with the principles of the patriot, or the honour of the soldier. On the contrary, such was his forbearance, on critical occasions, and such the uniform ascendaney of the spirit of his high calling, over every consideration which would tempt him to forget it, that no perplexity, no annoy ance, no jealousy, no insult, no misapprehension of his views, no misrepresentation of his motives, no government neglect of his wants, no parliamentary vituperation, ever caused him to take a single step, which could place in peril any of the mighty interests which had been confided to his care; so that we scarcely know which most to admire, the moral victories which he must have so frequently gained over himself, or the military victories which he gained over the enemy. But in the other case -pshaw !-forgive us, reader, the contrast is really too odious. A titled anatomy of conceit and insolence, goes out to a rebellious colony with a plenitude of authority, for the supply of which ministers would seem to have mortgaged the constitution. He deals his idle threats amongst the rebels, with no intention whatsoever of doing them any bodily harm. But it is not always safe to act the part of a political Salmoneus, even when Jove himself may be disposed to wink at the frolicsome presumption of his rival. Ample as was the noble lord's commission, his ignorance, it seems, was more ample still; and he unwittingly oversteps his powers, for want of duly ascertaining the limits of his jurisdiction. This did not escape the penetrating eye of Lord Brougham, (whose banishment from office had put him into the blue devils,) and his denouncement of the measure which was to be the chef-d'œuvre of the Viceroy's colonial policy, was followed by a gentle parliamentary reprimand, which called not in question any one of the qualities upon which his moral influence should have properly depended. Well, what is the conduct of the noble lord (whom no possession of the good things of office has ever, that

we have known, taken out of the black jaundice)? Does he take any other measure calculated to curb the discon. tent, or to baffle the designs of the traitors? Does he proclaim martial law? Does he suspend the habeas corpus? Does he do any single act by which the return of the banished men might be prevented; or by which, if they did return, they might be rendered harmless? No. But he issues a proclamation, in which he distinctly states the inefficacy of the existing laws to control the disaffection of the province, and his determination not to supply any remedy! The traitors, he says, may return if they please. There was nothing to prevent them; and as parliament thought fit to nullify his ordinance, he would do nothing to supply its place! All this, upon the eve of an outbreak, which had been maturing since the preceding June! of which, if he was ignorant, how culpable his ignorance! And if he was apprised of it, how criminal his forbearance! This mighty potentate's thoughts seem to have been all engrossed by the insult perpetrated against his magnificent self; and accordingly, he flings down the insignia of authority, without waiting to hand them over to a successor, and hastens to England as fast as steam can carry him, "nursing his wrath to keep it warm," where the first news that he hears is, of the second insurrection of the mal-contents, in the colony which he had so basely abandoned! After this, talk of sense of duty, talk of a feeling of official responsibility, on the part of this gangrened statesman! And yet, he is the idol of the radicals! The idol of such men as Sir William Molesworth and Joseph Hume! who were quite satisfied to confer upon him unlimited political power; being perfectly convinced that it would not be employed in any effectual manner for the suppression of treason! And they have not been disappointed. The insurgents neither abandoned their designs nor remitted their preparations, during the whole period of his sojourn amongst them. They were neither deceived by his menaces, nor won over by his demonstrations of lenity and kindness; but, true to the spirit which urged them on, they proceeded to reconstruct, and re-invigorate, the broken confederacy in which they had been engaged; until, when every thing was prepared, the scintillations of the noble lord's wrath fell like sparks upon combustibles, and