ther the change be formidable and odious to a large and wealthy and thriving part of the population within the same provinces, without regard to its bearing on the circumstances of the provinces that adjoin. We have seen how the language, the laws, and the religion of the people, some of whom have risen in arms, have been protected. We have seen examples, beyond all account, both of the forbearance and of the liberality of the British Go

vernment.

It is now for the public to declare, Is this rebellion justified or is it not? The answer can hardly be doubted. The people of England will see that there is no reason for the absurd cry of oppression, and therefore no reason to sympathise in the resistance which has been offered to the laws. There is no reason, they will see, to pour forth all manner of wishes and aspirations in favour of the men who have betrayed an inoffensive and worthy peasantry into a disastrous civil war; nor to countenance and invite aggressions on a British territory by foreign nations; nor to disseminate through every channel plans for rendering the struggle as long and as mischievous as may be. There is no reason to gloat. Finally, the people of England will probably not see why the House of Commons should have been polluted, and the taverns of Westminster should have reeked, with expressions of pleasure, at the reported defeat of British troops; of satisfaction at the prospect of the confiscation of British property; of great

joy, that battle and murder, and sudden death were set afoot over a country, where one short twelvemonth ago there reigned the most profound peace and tranquillity.

APPENDIX.

Enclosure No. 2. in Lord Aberdeen's Dispatch to Lord Amherst, dated 2d April. Commons Paper, 113, 1836, p. 36.

No. II.

A Minute shewing in what manner the Recommendations of the Canada Committee of 1828 have been carried into execution by His Majesty's Government.

In the following pages, Lord Aberdeen will attempt to shew that there was sufficient reason to anticipate the entire conciliation of Lower Canada from the accomplishment of the Resolutions of the Canada Committee, and that to the utmost of the power of the Crown, those Resolutions were, in fact, carried into execution.

The appointment of the Canada Committee of 1828, was, on every account, an important proceeding. The redress of grievances had been demanded, not by an isolated party, but by both of those great bodies which divide between them the wealth and political authority of the Province. With views essentially dissimilar, or rather hostile, they had concurred in an appeal to the Metropolitan Government.

By each body of Petitioners were deputed agents authorised to interpret their wishes, and to enforce their claims. The Committee itself was certainly not composed of gentlemen unfavourable to the views of the great numerical majority of the House of Assembly. They pro

secuted the enquiry with great diligence and zeal. They examined the agents of both parties, and every other person capable of throwing light on the subject referred to them. None of the questions brought under their notice, either by the Petitioners or by the witnesses, was unexplored; and, in the result, a report was made, in which with an explanation of every known or supposed grievance, were combined suggestions for the guidance of the Executive Government in applying the appropriate remedies.

The House of Assembly in Lower Canada in their answer to the address with which the Administrator of the Government opened the session of the Provincial Parliament in the winter of 1828, characterised this Report in terms which may be transcribed as expressing, on the highest local authority, the claims of that document to respect, as affording a guide at once to the Canadian Assembly, and to the Ministers of the Crown, of the rights to be asserted by the one, and conceded by the other. "The charges and well founded complaints (observed the "House) of the Canadians before that august Senate were "referred to a Committee of the House of Commons, in"dicated by the colonial minister, that Committee exhibiting a striking combination of talent and patriotism, uniting a general knowledge of public and constitutional law to a "particular acquaintance with the state of both the Ca"nadas, formally applauded almost all the reforms which "the Canadian people and their representatives demanded "and still demand. After a solemn investigation, after "deep and prolonged deliberation, the Committee made a

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Report, an imperishable monument of their justice and "profound wisdom, an authentic testimonial of the reality "of our grievances, and of the justice of our complaints,

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faithfully interpreting our wishes and our wants. Through "this Report, so honourable to its authors, his Majesty's "Government has become better than ever acquainted "with the true situation of this Province, and can better "than ever, remedy existing grievances and obviate diffi