CHAP. XXXVI. 1835. successor. In the mean time, such was the discontent which prevailed at Government refusing to agree to a bill for rendering the upper house elective, according to O'Connell's demands in Great Britain, that the Lower House of Assembly refused to vote the supplies; the salaries of all the public servants ceased to be paid, and the governor, under the direction of Mr Spring Rice, advanced £31,000 from the military chest to meet the most pressing demands. The Assembly, however, were by no means so niggardly to themselves as they were to the public servants of the State, for one of their first acts was to vote £18,000 for payment of their own salaries and current expenses. This vote the governor required time 1835, 380- to consider, and as the opposition upon this withdrew, ii. 377, 378. the Assembly was adjourned upon the ground that a quorum did not remain to carry on the public business.1 With a view of appeasing the colony, which had now, Demands of both in the upper and lower province, become extremely discontented, Lord Melbourne, soon after his restoration provinces, to power, sent out Lord Gosford as governor, with a board 1 Ann. Reg. 382; Mart. 28. the discon tented in both the of commissioners, of whom he was chairman, to inquire into the grievances which were complained of. It was soon discovered that the grounds of complaint were of an entirely different character in the lower and the upper province. The preference shown to the English language over the French, and to the British settlers over the French, with the accumulation of offices in the persons of the former, the interference of government in elections, and the undue delay in sanctioning or considering bills, formed the chief grounds of complaint in the former province; and they were urged almost entirely by persons speaking the French language, and of French descent. They insisted also, that the Upper Assembly, corresponding to the House of Peers, instead of being, as heretofore, appointed by the Crown, should be elective. The demands of the upper province were different, and were directed chiefly to obtaining a control of the public monies and accounts; and the dis XXXVI. contented in it were for the most part found among the nu- CHAP. merous new settlers who had come out during the general Thus it was fervour originating in the reform movement. 1835. easy to see that different agencies were at work in the two provinces, and the discontent originated in the want of different things. The influence of Rome was exerted in the lower province to add to the difficulties of the English Government, and aid O'Connell's agitation and crusade against the House of Lords in the British Islands; and accordingly it was directed to rendering the Upper Assembly elective, and obtaining the admission of Catholics into offices of trust and power under the government. The influence of the reform passion was felt in the upper pro- 378, 379; vince, and accordingly the demands of the leaders of its Ann. Reg. agitation were chiefly directed to the old Anglo-Saxon 284." object of getting the control of the supplies.1 1 Mart. ii. 1835, 283, the Assem mands of To appease these discontents by conceding such of 29. them as appeared to be reasonable, and suited to the Opening of growing strength and intelligence of the colony, Lord bly, and deGosford stated in his speech to the Assembly, on its open- the Opposiing in November 1835, that he was authorised to sanction tion. the grants voted in the last session for their own expenses, and which Lord Aylmer had reserved for consideration; and he made at the same time the important announcement: "I have received the commands of our most gracious Sovereign to acquaint you that his Majesty is disposed to place under the control of the representatives of the people all public monies payable to his Majesty or to his officers in this province, whether arising from taxes or from any other source. The accounts, which will be submitted to your examination, show the large arrears due as salaries to public officers, and for the other ordinary expenditure of the government, and I earnestly request of you to pass such votes as may effect the liquidation of these arrears, and provide for the maintenance of the public servants pending the inquiry by the commissioners." This great concession, however, was far from satisfying XXXVI. 1835. CHAP. the demands of the Canadian reformers, directed as they now were by foreign and sacerdotal influence. They said, accordingly, in reply: "The great body of the people of this province, without distinction, consider the extension of the elective principle, and its application to the constitution of the Legislative Council in particular, the repeal of the acts passed in Great Britain on matters concerning the internal government of the province, as fully within the jurisdiction of the provincial parliament, as well as the privileges conferred by such acts, and the full and unrestrained enjoyment, on the part of the legislature and of this house, of their legislative and constitutional rights, as being essential to the prosperity and welfare of his Majesty's faithful subjects in Canada, as being necessary to insure their future confidence in his government, and their future welfare and contentment under it, and to remove the causes which have been obstacles to it." They received with pleasure the grant of a control over the public accounts, but avoided any promise to repay the £31,000 advanced from the military chest. This state of things did not augur much harmony in their future deliberations between the Government and the Assembly, and this soon appeared. One of their first acts was to insert in the public accounts the agent's bill for Mr Roebuck's salary, the parliamentary agent for the Assembly in the House of Commons; and the governor's council having declined to sanction this charge, the Assembly passed it at their own hands without the intervention of the government. Thus ill-humour and hasty proceedings prevailed on both sides, and it was easy to see that mat1 ii. Marti ters were fast hastening to that point when concession on Ann. Reg. the part of Government would inflame rather than allay the public discontents, and that a violent collision was unavoidable.1 377, 378; 1335, 385, 386. The general prosperity of the manufacturing and commercial interest, contrasted with the deep depression of the agricultural which had distinguished the two preceding XXXVI. 1836. 30. Parliament, Feb. 14, years, continued through the whole of 1835 and 1836, CHAP. and formed the subject of marked allusions in the Speech from the Throne, when Parliament opened on the 14th February in the following year. The King said, in his Opening of speech on that occasion, with truth and discrimination: "The state of the commerce and manufactures of the speech. United Kingdom is highly satisfactory. I lament that 1836. any class of my subjects should still suffer distress; and the difficulties which continue to be felt in important branches of agriculture may deserve your inquiry, with a view of ascertaining whether there are any measures 1836, 2, 3; which Parliament can advantageously adopt for the xxxi. 4, 5. alleviation of their pressure." 1 Ann. Reg. Parl. Deb. the Irish tions. The precarious condition of Ministers, depending for 31. their majority in the House of Commons entirely upon The state of the support of the Irish Catholics and English Dissent- corporaers, stamped, as a matter of necessity, a peculiar character upon their legislative measures, which were entirely directed to relieve the grievances or gratify the wishes of these parties. The first field which presented itself, and which was recommended for consideration in the Speech from the Throne, was the state of the Irish corporations. These establishments, in addition to the numerous abuses which had been so much complained of in the English boroughs, and which had led to the Municipal Bill of the preceding year, were affected also by a great variety of evils which were peculiarly their own. Thus their reform was calculated at once to remedy more serious corruptions, and introduce more extensive changes in the balance of political parties, than that of the English boroughs had done. These corporations had been established chiefly by James I., as so many legislative outposts to secure the English command of the country. As a necessary consequence, they were all Protestant, and Catholics were excluded from them all. In a word, they had been planted in the Irish wilderness, like blockhouses in the forests of the Far West, to form so many VOL. VI. N XXXVI. 1836. CHAP. rallying-points to the Protestant settlers in the island, and they were in general surrounded by a vast majority of Catholics. In these circumstances, the extension of municipal institutions, similar to those established in Great Britain, to Ireland, was not merely a social but a political question. It was mixed up in fearful proportions with religious dissension, and tended to convert the fortresses erected for the defence of one faith into the strongholds from which it was to be assailed. Nevertheless, the thing required to be attempted, for after popular government of boroughs had been established in Great Britain, it was impossible to refuse it to the sister island; and if such a refusal had been attempted, it would only have added another to the many real and supposed grievances of the Emerald Isle. 32. plan, and plained of. The first step of Government on this question was to Government issue a commission to inquire into the condition of the abuses com- Irish boroughs, as they had done in regard to those in England. This commission, as might have been anticipated, reported strongly against the Irish corporations, even more so than had been done against the English.* There could be no doubt that though such commissions in general proceed on ex parte evidence, and studiously avoid summoning any one who is likely to thwart their preconceived opinions or secret instructions, yet in this instance their report was in the main well founded. Pro "That the incorporations provided no means, and contained no constituency by which the property, the wishes, and the interests of the whole local community might secure a fair representation in the corporate body; that in many towns there was no recognised commonalty; that in others where it existed it was entirely disproportioned to the inhabitants, and consisted of a very small portion, of an exclusive character, not comprising the mercantile interests, nor representing the wealth, intelligence, or respectability of the town. The corporations, and not without reason, were looked on by the great body of the inhabitants with suspicion and distrust, as having interests distinct from and adverse to those of the general community, whom they thus studiously excluded from any participation in the municipal government. Their members frequently consisted of the relations and adherents of particular families or individuals, and the principles of their association, and those |