stitution, it is right they should enjoy the same rights and privileges as we enjoy. Our opponents, on the other hand, maintain that the Roman Catholics are aliens in blood, differing from their fellow-subjects in religious opinions, and only waiting for an opportunity to shake off the Government of this country as tyrannous and oppressive. Undoubtedly, adopting such principles, our opponents must adopt, and did adopt, a course of proceeding very different from that which we recommend, and in which we are supported. I have now had an opportunity (which I had not had when I last addressed the House on this subject) of seeing the printed Bill sent down to the House on the subject of the Corporations of Ireland; and I must say, that the principle which ran through the alterations which had been made in that Bill was the same on which the amendment moved to-night by the noble Lord (Stanley) was founded—namely, the principle of contempt for the Roman Catholics, and the desire for their degradation. That principle runs through the whole of the amendments of the noble Lord; and I must confess, that when the noble Lord (Francis Egerton) proposed the instruction to the Committee on a former occasion, I wondered by what provisions it was intended to carry the principle of that instruction into effect. But when I now see my noble Friend (Lord Stanley) supporting precisely the same principle, I am still more disposed to wonder how it is that the noble Lord and the right hon. Baronet agree in supporting that principle, their opinions on political questions having long been so diffe

I cannot find that their new proposition is founded on the Whig principle of liberty, or on the Tory principle of reverence for ancient institutions; but, on the contrary, it is a mixture of some foreign adaptation, in which is combined whatever is worst in the example of the destructiveness of the French republic with what is most despotic

in their military empire. In considering the amendment of my noble Friend I am compelled to look at it with reference to the whole of the political principles adopted with regard to Ireland. From that point I shall not depart. I consider the Bill as involving the whole question of the principles on which Ireland is to be governed; and whether that shall be in accordance with the wisdom and sense of the country, and directed by that reason which, as my noble Friend observed, should be the guide of the course of Government, or whether it shall be only in conformity to the domination of one party. If the House be of opinion that we must consider the wants, and wishes, and interests of the Roman Catholic subjects of His Majesty, then it will be right and consistent to allow the Bill of my noble Friend (Lord Morpeth) near me to be proceeded with; if, however, the House be of opinion that this important point should be altogether omitted from our consideration, then I must admit that the plan of the noble Lord (Stanley) opposite is well worthy of consideration. I contend that the course pursued by hon. Gentlemen opposite involves this consequence-that after the House of Commons has decided upon the principle on which Ireland shall be governed for the future, namely, the principle of justice and equal laws, if we should now rescind that promise and make the cup we have held out to them as bitter as disappointment can make it, if we are now to persist in a course which is degrading to them and which pollutes the source of justice as regards them, we shall have to contend with much opposition and with many obstacles from the feelings which will be manifested by the people of Ireland; and I think likewise, that we should have to contend with the reason and opinion of the people of England, who now are turning their attention to Irish subjects, and will not be willing, I think, to maintain the present system in

Ireland. I have confidence in the English nation, I feel convinced that they will do as they have always done, namely, do as they would be done by, and on these subjects treat their Irish fellow-subjects with regard and affection, and thus lead to a real and complete union of the two countries.

AFFAIRS OF CANADA.

March 6, 1836.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL:— -I can assure you, Sir, that I never rose with so much reluctance to make a proposition to the House of Commons, as I now rise to propose the resolutions of which I have given notice, and with which proposition I mean to conclude the observations I am about to make. It is my duty, and it is the duty of His Majesty's Government to which I belong, and of which I stand here as the representative on this occasion, to bring under the notice of the House the affairs of Canada, with a view to the declaration of what is our sense of the conduct of the representatives of the people of Lower Canada, and to ask this House to apply to the necessary services of that colony those sums of money which ought, in the regular course, to have been voted by the Colonial Assembly. I feel that it is necessary, in order to justify us in taking such a course, to show, first, that there is a necessity for interference on the part of Parliament; and, secondly, that that interference should not stop short of that which I shall have the honour to propose. In making this proposition I do so with very great reluctance, yet, at the same time, I feel that the House of Assembly of Lower Canada have the advantage of being represented in this House, and that their case will be stated with as much

ability as they can desire; and that if in any respect I shall wrong them by the proposal I shall have to make to this House, they will have an opportunity of having their claims fully advanced, and their pretensions put in the most favourable light, by the Gentlemen who have undertaken to support their cause. It is likewise a consolation to me to know in bringing forward the affairs of Lower Canada, that the pretensions put forth by the Assembly of that province are not supported by the general concurrence of the other provinces of North America subject to the Crown of Great Britain. It is not now proposed on the part of Upper Canada that there shall be an elective Legislative Council; it is not proposed on the part of New Brunswick, or on the part of Nova Scotia; and with respect to all these colonies, I may say, that the communications which have taken place between the Government and the Houses of Assembly of these provinces tend generally towards a satisfactory adjustment that they have the prospect, that what they now consider their grievances will be redressed in a manner the most full and sufficient; and, on the other hand, the Crown has every reason to expect a loyal and dutiful concurrence on the part of the Assemblies of those provinces. Therefore, we have not to reproach ourselves with having to contend against the general demand, and the general wishes of the provinces of North America. On the contrary, all the demands are from Lower Canada; raked up, as I believe, in the course of long and unfortunate divisions, and the consequence, as I believe, rather of past irritation than demands founded upon real and practicable wants, without the effectual redress of which we could not hope for future and permanent tranquillity. In so saying, I may likewise say, that I do not propose to cast censure and reproach on the Assembly of Lower Canada for the course they have taken. I consider that

this course so much resembles the course which other popular assemblies have on similar occasions taken, that instead of its being an act of self-will, or caprice, or presumption, it seems rather to be the obligation of a general law which affects all these disputes between a popular assembly on the one hand and the executive on the other; and the course of the proceedings which generally take place strongly impresses this lesson, that popular assemblies are hardly ever wrong in the beginning, and hardly ever right at the conclusion of such struggles. They are generally struggles which begin with seeking a remedy of well-founded and existing grievances, and end with a declaration of suspicion and distrust of all authorities at present existing, the popular party endeavouring to set up some new and unknown government, by which they suppose there will be a means to remedy all future grievances. But if they succeed in their attempts, they seldom end in producing the benefits that are expected from the new institutions. The province of Lower Canada came into the possession of the English Crown in consequence of the successful war which ended in the peace of 1763. It contained at that time about 60,000 souls, who were governed according to the laws of the arbitrary monarchy of France, having for their own especial law one of those inconvenient and local laws known in France by the name of the Customs of Paris. At first, the British Government wished to make it a British colony, to give it a constitution like the other colonies that had fallen into our hands, and make it like other British colonies in every respect. This policy was afterwards changed; and when we entered into the contest with our other North American provinces, care was taken to separate Canada from the appearance of resistance to the British Crown, and to induce the colonists to cling to their own customs, and to become again, as it were, a French colony. With the increase of the people, and the