XXXVI. 1836. 52. remarkable the Russian case, or for want of being told what danger threatened, CHAP. and where it was most instant. On 19th February, Lord Dudley Stuart, in a debate on Eastern affairs, said in the House of Commons: "Russia has 50,000,000 sub- Lord Dudjects in Europe alone, exclusive of Asia, an army of ley Stuart's 700,000 men, and a navy of eighty sail of line-of-battle speech on ships and frigates, guided by the energy of a government power in of unmitigated despotism, at whose absolute and unlimited disposal stand persons and property of every description. These formidable means are constantly applied to purposes of territorial aggrandisement, and every new acquisition becomes the means of gaining others. Who can tell that the Hellespont may not be seized by Russia at any moment? She has a large fleet in the Black Sea, full command of the mouths of the Danube, and of the commercial marine of Odessa and Trebizond; in three days. she may be at Constantinople from Sebastopol, and if once there, the Dardanelles will be so fortified by Russian engineers that she never can be expelled except by a general war. She could be in entire possession of these important Straits before any expedition could be sent from this country, even if such a thing could be thought of, against the enormous military force at the command. of Russia. That Russia is determined to have the Dardanelles, is evident from the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi, by which she began by excluding the ships of all other nations. The effect of this treaty was to exclude any ship of war from these Straits, except with the permission of Russia. Russia might at any moment insist on the exclusion of our ships of war from the Dardanelles. Nay, she has already done so; for when Lord Durham, going on his late embassy to the court of St Petersburg, arrived at the Dardanelles in a frigate, he was obliged to go on board the Pluto, an armed vessel without her guns, before he could pass the Straits; and when he arrived at Sebastopol no salute was fired, and the excuse given was, that they did not know the Pluto from a merchant vessel. But both before and since Lord Durham went, Russian the East. XXXVI. 1836. CHAP. ships of war, with their guns out and their streamers flying, passed through the Black Sea to the Dardanelles, and again through the Dardanelles to the Black Sea. Russia has now fifteen ships of the line and seven frigates in the Black Sea. Sebastopol is only three days' sail from the Hellespont. Turkey has no force capable of resisting such an armament; the forts of the Hellespont are incapable of defence against a land force, for they are open in rear. Russia might any day have 100,000 men in Constantinople, before England or France could even fit out expeditions to defend it." Lord Palmerston 1 Parl. Deb. did not deny these facts, but resisted the motion for 679; Ann. duction of the correspondence in regard to the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi, which was negatived without a division.1 xxxi. 626, Reg. 1836, 278, 279. 53. discontents pro The discontents of Canada, which had become serious Increasing in the preceding year, went on accumulating in this, and of Canada, arrived at such a point as to threaten an immediate rupment of the ture. The demands of the opposite sides remained subupper pro- stantially the same, the colonists insisting for the right and settle of electing the members of the upper house as well as XXXVI. 1836. one was appointed. Instantly the reformers in the pro- CHAP. vince were thrown into the most violent agitation; and the Assembly having become unmanageable, Sir Francis Head, the governor, dissolved it on the 28th. The event proved that he had not miscalculated the loyal feelings of the province in taking this step; for the returns proved that the tide there at least had turned, and that a decided majority of the people were opposed to the unconstitutional designs of the extreme democratic party. Out of sixty-two members returned, only eighteen belonged to that party, the other forty-four being strongly opposed to any organic change. The result was, that the governor and legislature were then soon in harmony; and that Ann. Reg. noble colony seemed to be more firmly than ever attached 316. to the British monarchy.1 1836, 314 proceedings sembly in Canada. The course of events, however, was by no means 54. equally satisfactory in the lower province, for there the Violent great majority of the inhabitants were Roman Catholics, of the Asof French descent, and speaking the French language, Lower and their separate nationalities and religious discord came to swell the tide of temporal discontent. In addition to an elective upper house, and entire control over the public accounts, whether voted by themselves in the shape of taxes, or derived from the hereditary revenue of the Crown, they now insisted that the whole waste-lands of the province belonged to themselves in fee-simple, and that a charter, granting a small part of them to a company for the sake of improvement, should be annulled. Government in vain endeavoured to get them to vote any sum for the civil service of the colony, or the payment of the judges and other public servants, now three years in arrear. They voted the payment of their own salaries, and that of Mr Roebuck, their agent in Parliament, but nothing more; and at length Lord Gosford, finding them utterly untractable, was under the necessity of proroguing the house early in March, before which they voted an address, complaining of their grievances, to the Colonial CHAP. Secretary in England. The Assembly met again in XXXVI. October, and insisted on their former demands, and were 1836. even proceeding to frame an act of their own authority, declaring the upper house elective, when their proceedings were stopped by a prorogation on 4th October. It had now become evident that the Canadian malcontents were acting under foreign sacerdotal direction; that their petitions were entirely framed to support O'Connell's 1 Ann. Reg. demand for an elective House of Peers in Great Britain, 1836, 317and their agitation got up to aid that which he was conducting in Ireland.1 321. 55. Public meetings on both sides. The banquets in London and Leeds. Oct. 20. The extremely small majority of Ministers in the House of Commons, and the large majority against them in the House of Lords, suggested to the leaders on both sides the expedience of endeavouring to strengthen their hands, during the recess of Parliament, by public meetings of their respective friends and partisans throughout the country. A great number of such assemblies accordingly took place, chiefly in the great towns. The leading topics on the Liberal side were the necessity of rallying round the Government in its distress, and protecting the country from the dreaded invasion of the Tories; on the Conservative, the necessity of adhering to the landmarks of the constitution, and preventing any farther invasion of it in Church or State. The most imposing meeting on the first side was held in Drury Lane Theatre, in honour of Mr Hume and Mr Byng, the members for Middlesex, which was attended by eleven hundred persons, and very Radical sentiments were expressed, particularly by Mr Grote. Inferior to this meeting in numbers, one much more remarkable for statesmanlike views and eloquence was given in Leeds to Lord Morpeth, the Irish Secretary. "I value," said he, "the constitution, and will do my utmost to maintain it, but under its broad and expansive shade I would remove every obstacle, and clear away every avenue of access, to every class, to every creed, to every race, that owns its sway and courts its shelter. I would rest. XXXVI. 1836. proceed in reducing and removing all the remainder of CHAP. exclusive privileges and monopolies by which one class of our countrymen may be benefited to the detriment of the I would give to religious as well as civil freedom the most unobstructed range; and at one act I would desire to banish from our temples and altars the clash of sordid disputes and civil bickerings. I would cling to no abuse because it is ancient; shrink from no improvement because it is change. The destiny of parties, as of nations, is beyond human ken; but I shall always, as a member of party, recollect with pride that in four short years we have reformed the representation of the people in Parliament-reformed and opened the municipal corporations of England and Scotland-swept from our blushing records the demon of slavery-opened wide the seas and shores of the globe to British trade and enterprise. And this, the legislation of four short years, has been—let the over-timid and the over-bold mark this-achieved without one form of the constitution being violated-without one 1 Ann. Reg. breach of the law being countenanced-without one drop 1836,14,15. of human blood being spilled." 1 gow ban Jan. 11. If those eloquent words were a glowing, and in many 56. respects just survey of the Whig legislation since the The Glasaccession of that party to power, an occasion was ere long quet to Sir afforded to Sir R. Peel of declaring his political senti- el. ments before a still greater and more influential assembly. On the 11th January, a vast meeting was held in Glasgow, to which persons flocked from all the west of Scotland, in honour of that statesman, who had just been elected Lord Rector of the University there, in opposition to Sir John Campbell, the Attorney General. Covers were laid for 3432 persons, in a magnificent hall, erected for the occasion, in the centre of the city. By far the greater part of the wealth, intelligence, and worth of the west of Scotland was assembled on the occasion; and this embraced many who had been keen reformers five years before. Sir Robert addressed himself in an espe |