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distinguishing what is only difficult from what is wholly impracticable, endeavours to form new, where he cannot improve existing conjunctures. Theories, however refined, if sound, control the perversity of particular accidents, by supposing and comprehending them: general principles, like long levers, are able to move great masses of matter. By these, nations as well as men must be guided in their conduct, if they would not resign themselves to the caprice of mere chance, and the hopeless indolence of mere scepticism. But the greater part by far of men in our nation, belonged rather to the second class, or what we have denominated political em pirics.

They were of opinion, that their utmost political wisdom and foresight did not extend to any wide sphere or distant period of action; but seemed rather to lean to the maxim of the celebrated Pope Sixtus, who was wont to say to his cardinals, "Let us eat and drink, and pass away our time as well as we can, for the world governs itself." That theory is not to be introduced in politics as in science; and that, in the conduct of public affairs, men should feel their way rather than see it. This school has been gradually, though insensibly, formed since the reign of Queen Anne; after which the introduction of learning and science into the conduct of great affairs, became less and less in vogue. All things were governed by political combination, family connexions, and lastly, court favours. Attempts were made, with various success, to break through these, by bold appeals to the sense of the nation. It was on this ground that the present minister first stood, as

his father had done before him. The necessity of accommodation to other powers, principles, and pas-, sions, induced him, it was generally supposed, as in the instance of the Russian armament, to relax somewhat from his own rigid maxims and enlarged views, in order that,' by still retaining possession of the helm, he might steer it aright when the tide of the times would permit him to do so.

In this country there had been, for a long course of time, a tendency in politics, as in philosophy,. to descend from the heights of abstraction and general and comprehensive views of the relations of things, to mere experiment; until, at last all regard even to the balance of power was lost. The violent capture of Corsica, the partition of Poland, the dismantling of the barrier towns by the great innovator Joseph II: acts of injustice that have brought the most dreadful calamities, by substituting a partitioning policy and the law. of the strongest, to public law, or the law of nature and nations, neither awakened the jealousy of our statesmen, nor disturbed their slumbers. A century ago, a young gentleman when he wished to rise in the state, applied diligently to the study of historians, civilians, and moralists, ancient and modern. At present, were a speaker in either House to interlard his discourse with a variety of learned allusions and quotations, he would either not be listened to, or be laughed at; and deservedly, if he carried this humour to the height of former pedantry. But our speakers in parliament, for the most part, have carried the expulsion of learning and philosophy to the extreme; S 2

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while they run into an extravagancy more silly and ridiculous: that of being heard for their much speaking, and that of pressing their notions on the acceptation of the senate and the applause of the public, by the powers of oratory. When sound and manly sense died away in the Roman government with the spirit of liberty, philosophy decayed, and its place was usurped by rhetoric. We return from this digression to the total neglect of the European balance of power, and of the consequences to be apprehended from the exclusive aggrandizement of a power already preponderant.

A messenger having been sent to the court of Berlin, to notify the delivery of the king's message to parliament, he was, after the first debate and division of the House, recalled by another messenger, who proceeded forward with dispatches, stating the temper and tone of the House of Commons and the British nation, on a subject of a war with Russia; and the probability that the plan concerted between the courts of London and Berlin for a settlement of the north and east of Europe must be abandoned.

The last point, except the usual application for supplies to the House of Commons, recommended in his Majesty's speech to the attention of parliament, was, as we have seen, the state of the province of Quebec, and such regulations as might be necessary in the present circumstances and condition of the province for its government.

On the acquisition of Canada, by the peace of Paris, 1763, a proclamation was issued by his majesty, promising for the encourage

ment of such British subjects as should afterwards settle there, that measures should be taken for extending to that country the benefits of the British constitution. The province, meanwhile, underwent that degree of change which could not fail to take place after its cession to Great Britain: British subjects were drawn by the proclamation to acquire property in Canada, and others to settle in the unoccupied lands in the interior of that province; while many loyalists, in consequence of the revolution in America, naturally emigrated to a country so near, and in many respects bearing so near a resemblance and affinity to their own. These Britons, or descendants and fellowsubjects with Britons, carried with them a strong attachment to British laws and the British constitution; and they did not fail, by frequent applications, to remind government of the promise made to them in the royal proclamation, of extending the benefit of that constitution in its Canadian territories; while, on the other hand, the native Canadians were swayed, not less by attachment to ancient customs than by a jealousy of ancient privileges, to oppose such an extension in many particulars; though willing to admit the excellence of our constitution, as being, on the whole, favourable to liberty and the rights of the subject. The seigneurs, or noblesse of Canada, in particular, who, under the French government, enjoyed many distinctions, were particularly tenacious of those feudal rights and immunities which the introduction of a new form of government might infringe or abolish.

The British government had

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been at great pains to investigate the facts and circumstances necessary for their direction in the framing a new constitution for the Canadians, ever since this subject was first agitated in parliament in 1788: and it was now, at last, brought forward in the form which, on the fullest inquiry, seemed the most expedient to be adopted, by a message from the King, delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the House of Commons, on the 4th of March. Mr. Pitt on this occasion entered into the fullest detail of all the heads of the bill proposed. Regulations of the minutest kind were explained. The principal feature of the plan was, the division of Canada. By this division, it was intended to remove the causes of those disputes which had for a long time subsisted between the ancient inhabitants of Canada and the newly established British and Anglo-American settlers; and by giving a separate legislature to each, to provide for the establishment of such laws and regulations as should be found best suited to the peculiar interests and social situation of each.

By the present bill, Lower Canada was made to extend, along the banks of the river St. Lawrence, to the lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Illinois, and Superior; of which the last is fifteen hundred miles in circumference, and none of the others less than six hundred, constituting the greatest inland navigation, and the largest pieces of fresh water in the known world. The river St. Lawrence, which they feed, runs a winding course of seven hundred and fifty miles; and may be easily made navigable to its source. This country, with the

exceptions of the banks of the river, its numerous isles, and some spots on the lakes, remains as it came from the hand of Nature; being covered with immense forests of trees of a surprising height and thickness, and almost the exclusive habitation of wild animals. For a thousand miles on the sides of the lakes, and the numerous and noble streams that swell the St. Lawrence from the north and south, there is seldom to be discovered the vestige of a man; the few solitary and naked savages that occasionally meet the eye, are so shy, and look so fierce and barbarous, that, instead of humanizing the scene, they increase the gloom of the wide wilderness. As in Africa, the negroes are under the necessity of going armed against the treachery of the white people: so here, in return, the white must be on their guard against the force or fraud of the red species; not indeed through fear of slavery, but of murder; the rude aborigines not having yet learned to labour themselves, or to derive benefit from the labours of others. The Indian, leaving to his wives, for he is a polygamist, the care of his scanty field of maize, makes war or hunting his sole occupation; the one to gratify his. revenge, and the other to procure skins, to be exchanged for articles of necessity or luxury. The latter are confined to spirituous liquors, which he calls strong water; and the former, nearly to a coarse blanket and a gun, with powder and ball. In winter, which lasts from the middle of December to the end of April, though it lie between the 50th and 65th degrees of N. latitude, the earth is entirely covered with snow to the depth of five or

six feet, and is passable only in snow shoes. The gradual cultivation of the continent, will no doubt at a future, but remote period, bring the climate to the temperature enjoyed in the same parallels in the old world. For each of these provinces, a legislative council and an assembly were established, in imitation of the British constitution. The members of the council were to be hereditary, or for life, at the option of the King: and the members of the assembly to be elected by proprietors of freeholds equal in value to forty shillings per annum: but in towns, or townships, by the owners of houses worth 51. per annum, or by renters of houses paying ten pounds in six months. Both provinces contained one hundred and fifty thousand white people, employed in agriculture and furnishing corn, lumber, peltry, and some iron and fish for Britain and the West Indies, to the amount of 40,000l. and importing British manufactures to nearly the same value. This provincial parliament is septennial, and meets once at least in the twelvemonth, at the call of the governor, who represents the sovereign; and may refuse his sanction to any proposed law till the final resolution of Britain is known. In Lower Canada, of which the population consider ably exceeds an hundred thousand, the assembly must not be less in number than fifty, nor the council less than fifteen; and in the Upper, the assembly must not be less than sixteen, nor the council less than seven. The clergy are allowed oneseventh of the land, in lieu of tithes; and a bishop of the English church is to be nominated by the crown. Internal taxation by the British

government is completely renounced; but the external regulation of commerce and trade as strongly asserted. Against the abuse of this power, however, a remedy was provided, by a provision, that the levying and imposing of taxes on external commerce and trade, was to be reserved to the legislatures of the two provinces. All laws and ordinances of the whole province of Canada, at present in force, were to remain valid until they should be altered by the new legislature. On the 8th of April, when the report of the committee on this bill, made on the 28th of March, was to have been taken again into consideration, Mr. Hussey moved its re-commitment.

Mr. Fox, who had not opposed the principle of the bill, either when it was first announced, or on the first or second reading, seconded Mr. Hussey's motion, and stated several objections to the bill. In breaking ground, he took post on the political philosophy of the day. He expressed his hope, that in promulgating the scheme of a new constitution, the House would keep in view those enlightened principles of freedom which had already made a rapid progress over a considerable portion of the globe, and were every day hastening more and more to become universal. He objected to the proposed mode of representation, as being too scanty; to the division of the country into two provinces, which would retard and not accelerate the coalition of the French and English, and the adoption of the British laws and customs; to the establishment of the clergy, which was enormous; and to the mode of electing the council, which he thought should

be

be chosen by the assembly. There was not in the province, he ob served, either property or respecta bility sufficient for the support of an hereditary nobility. He meant not to discuss the general proposition of what use hereditary pow ers and hereditary possessions might be, abstractedly considered; but he confessed, that he saw nothing so good in them as to make him wish for their introduction among a people with whom they were formerly unknown. He did not think it prudent to destroy them in kingdoms, where they already formed a part of the constitution; but he thought it extremely unwise to give them birth in countries where they had not before any previous existence. He could not account for such a conduct, unless by the supposition that an opportunity was eagerly embraced of reviving in Canada, formerly a French colony, those titles and honours, the extinction of which some gentlemen so much deplored, and of awakening in the west that spirit of chivalry which had so completely fallen into disgrace in a neighbouring kingdom. The provincial constitution of Canada, he said, should be as free as possible, that the people might see no thing enviable in the neighbouring states. The governments established in the United States of North America, would have furnished better models for imitation than that which had been followed. As the love of liberty was gaining ground, in consequence of the diffusion of literature throughout the world, he thought that a constitution should be formed for Canada as consistent as possible with the genuine principles of freedom. The

shadow only, and not the substance of liberty, was granted by the present bill and this was his princi pal reason for opposing it.

Mr. Pitt very readily assented to the commitment of the bill, which he was anxious to have fully discussed: in the mean time he replied to the objections of Mr. Fox, that an elective council, independent of the crown, the cause that seemed to form the chief objec⚫ tion to the bill, would render the whole system democratical, and might soon detach the colony from Great Britain. As an aristocratical principle was a component part of a mixed government, which he conceived to be best for our colonies and us, it was proper that there should be such a council in Canada as was provided by the bill, and which might, in some measure, answer to our House of Lords. The division of the country into two provinces, he considered as the most likely method to produce that coalition of French and English parties, which he admitted with Mr. Fox to be extremely desirable. If there were to be only one house of assembly, and the two parties, as might be sometimes expected, prove equal, or nearly equal in numbers, a per petual scene of altercation would succeed, and the breach become factious. On the other hand, by the

establishment of two distinct assemblies, all cause of complaint would be removed; while the French subjects, being left to their own choice, and not influenced by the pride of party, would most probably adopt the English laws, from an unprejudiced observation of their superior utility, as to the number of which

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