dividuals vested under it should
be respected. Complaints had been likewise made of the commercial
relations between Upper and Lower Canada: the upper province, by the
act of 1791, was allowed no communication with the sea, except on
the payment of heavy duties; while the lower province put various
impediments in the way of its commercial progress. It was proposed
that, with the assent of the legislatures of the two provinces, a
joint committee should sit at Montreal, composed of four members of the
legislative council and eight of the representative assemblies of each,
making twenty-four persons in all, who should have power to prepare
laws and regulations upon all matters of reciprocal intercourse. These
propositions were embodied in a series of ten resolutions, of the first
of which, relating to the payment of the judges, &c, Lord John Russell
then moved the adoption. These resolutions met with violent opposition
on the part of the Radical section of the house of commons. Mr. Leader
called the measure a coercion bill, and reminded the noble mover of the
rule of unlimited concession in government whicli his lordship had a
few nights before quoted from Mr. Fox, and desired him to apply it not
merely to Ireland, but to Canada. He moved as an amendment on the fourth
resolution, "That it is advisable to make the legislative council of
Lower Canada an elective council." Mr. Robinson said that the whole
of Mr. Leader's argument was founded on the modest assumption that the
government, and commissioners, and legislative council had been wrong,
and Mr. Papineau and the house of assembly as uniformly right in
everything that had been done. Mr. O'Connell warmly advocated the cause
of the Papineau party, whose sole object was, separation from this
country. He called for "justice to Canada." He remarked:--"Give them a
legislative council elected by themselves; place them in possession
of all the rights and privileges which as British subjects they could
reasonably demand; and then if they persevered in their opposition to
the home government, it would be time enough to think of adopting some
such measures as were now proposed." The Canadas, he urged, ought not
to be governed with reference merely to British interests: Great
Britain did not want Canadian revenues. Sir William Molesworth, Colonel
Thompson, and Mr. Roebuck followed on the same side of the question. The
speech of the latter was more violent than any of his party. Like