inflated with the consciousness of my extensive powers; and, above all, as I am taught by my advisers to look upon every complaint of the system as a libel upon my judgment and an insult to my administration-I very soon begin to dislike those who complain; to speak and write contemptuously of them in private and in public; to denounce any who have the hardihood to suggest that some alterations are required, by which the opinions and rights of the majority shall be respected, as men dangerous to the peace of the city, and disaffected towards Her Majesty's person and government; until, in fact, Liverpool becomes very like a town, in the olden time, in which the inhabitants generally being hostile to their rulers, the latter retire to the citadel, from which they project every description of missile and give every species of annoyance.

By and by the time arrives for the legislative branches of the city government to assemble. One of these, being elected at short periods, under a low franchise, which includes the great body of the independent citizens, may be taken as a fair reflection of all their great interests, their varied knowledge, passions, and prejudices; the other is a body of life legislators, selected by my advisers from among their own relatives and friends; with a few others, of a more independent character, to save appearances; but in which they always have a majority of faithful and determined partisans. The business commences; the great majority of members in the representative branch-speaking the matured opinions of the people complain of the system, and of the advisers it has placed around me; expressing the fullest confidence in me, whom they cannot suspect of wishing to do them harm, but asking my co-operation towards the introduction of changes without which, they assure me, the city never can prosper. But my advisers having a few of their adherents also in this body, they are instructed to declare any change unnecessary; to throw every obstruction in the way; to bully and defame the more conspicuous of those who expose the evils of the existing system; and to denounce them all as a dangerous combination, who, with some covert design, are pressing, for factious objects, a series of frivolous complaints. Of course, as the minority speak the sentiments which I have imbibed, and put themselves forward as my personal champions

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on all occasions, they rise in my esteem exactly in the same proportion as the other party are depressed, until they become especial pets; and, from their ranks, as opportunities occur, all vacancies are supplied, either in the list of irresponsible advisers, who in my name carry on the government, or in the number of life legislators, who do their bidding in the upper branch.

I respectfully beg Your Lordship to ponder over these passages, which I assure you are true to nature and experience; and ask yourself, after bringing home such a state of things to the bosom of any British city, how long it would be uncomplainingly endured? or how long any ministry, duly informed of the facts, would wish it to continue? Look back, my Lord, and you will find in every rotten corporation, swept away by the immortal act of which Your Lordship was one of the ablest defenders, a resemblance to our Colonial governments as they at present stand, too strong to be mistaken; and, let me venture to hope, that the man who did not spare corruption so near the national centre of vitality; who did not hesitate to combat these hydra-headed minorities, who, swarming over England, everywhere asserted their right to govern the majorities, will not shrink from applying his own principles-the great principles of the Constitution to these more distant, but not less important portions of the empire.

Your Lordship will, perhaps, urge that Sir Francis Head succeeded in pleasing the people and getting the majority on his side. Admitting the full force which the worthy Baronet gives to this case, it is, after all, but the exception to the general rule. The true history of events in Upper Canada, I believe to have been this: A small, but desperate minority had determined on a violent revolution; this party might have contained some men so wicked, that a love of mischief and desire for plunder were the governing principles, and others, moved by attachment to republican institutions; but, small as it was, the greater number of those found in its ranks had been driven there by the acts of another equally small and equally desperate minority, who had long monopolized, and, under the present system, may and will monopolize for a century to come-the whole power and patronage of the government, dividing among them the revenues of the country. The great mass of the people

of Upper Canada belonged to neither of these bands of desperadoes. They were equally determined, with the one, to uphold British connection; and as equally determined, with the other, to get rid of a wretched system of irresponsible local administration, under the continuance of which they well knew the Province could never prosper. When Sir Francis Head arrived, he entered the Colony-if we are to believe his own account of the matter-almost as ignorant as my imaginary mayor of Liverpool. Sir Francis admits his ignorance, but denies the consequences that must be deduced from it: that he was led and influenced, in the first acts of his administration, until the compact found him ripe for their own purposes and embroiled even with the moderate men on the other side. Then commenced that extraordinary flight of proclamations, addresses, and declamatory appeals; which, winged with the ready pen of a professional author, and shot from the long bow of the family compact, created so much false excitement, and carried so much misrepresentation into every corner of the Province. In these the great question at issue in Upper Canada-which was one between the interests of the family compact and the principles of the British Constitution was winked out of sight; and the people, not only of that, but of the surrounding Colonies, were made to believe that they were to choose between British and Republican institutions; that Sir Francis and the family compact (Archdeacon Strachan, with the Clergy Reserves, one-seventh of the Province; and Attorney General Hagerman, with the corrupt patronage and influence of administration, under their arms), represented the former; and Mackenzie, and his band of desperadoes, the latter. Thus appealed to, the British population everywhere, as the cunning men at Sir Francis' elbow well knew they would, said, with one voice: If that is the question, then we are for the British Constitution; and hurrah for Sir Francis Head! Mackenzie was an outlaw in a week; his small band of desperadoes was scattered by the energy of the people, the great mass of whom never dreamed of breaking the connection with the mother country. Then came the period in which the compact glorified themselves and Sir Francis; the fever of loyal excitement, in which the miserable minority of officials-feeling strong in the success of their manoeuvres, and still stronger

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in the strength of British thousands profusely spent ; regiments of militia to be officered, equipped, and paidbegan to wreak their vengeance upon every man who had been known to be hostile to their monopoly; and to identify opinions, not more extreme, when thoroughly understood, than those held by the most moderate section of the Whigs in England, with " privy conspiracy and rebellion." But the period was fast approaching when this unnatural excitement was to subside; when hundreds of thousands of British subjects, looking steadily through the mists that had been raised around them, were to ask of each other, Has this case been decided upon the true issue? Was that the question? For evidence of the solemnity with which this inquiry has been put, and the all-pervading unanimity with which it has been answered, I refer Your Lordship to the meetings which have been held in every section of the Province; to the opinions boldly expressed by every newspaper-with a few, chiefly venal exceptions-printed in Upper Canada; to the bold and determined stand taken by many of the bravest and ablest men who crushed Mackenzie's rebellion, and beat back the sympathizers upon the frontier; to the extraordinary union of Orangemen and Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Churchmen, and Presbyterians; whose watchwords are British connection and British responsibility, and down with the compact, and the absurd idea cherished by Sir Francis Head, of a government in which the whole responsibility rests upon the Governor. If Your Lordship doubts the utter explosion of your theory, even in this Province, where, for a time, I admit, it seemed to flourish, the approaching general elections will furnish evidence enough; and even Sir Francis, if he were to come out again with another sheaf of proclamations and addresses, and preach this unitarian doctrine of responsibility, would no longer be listened to by the Upper Canadians, who have embraced a higher and purer faith.

Having, as I conceive, then, shown Your Lordship that the idea of a Colony in which nobody is responsible but the Governor, while his responsibility is only nominal, however delightful it may appear in the eyes of those who have been or hope to be Governors, is one that never can be a favorite with the Colonists, and has been repudiated and rejected by those of them among whom, for a limited period, and under a system of delusion, it

seemed to flourish; let me turn Your Lordship's attention for a few moments to the doctrine maintained by Lord Glenelg, against Sir Francis Head, and now put forth by Your Lordship, in opposition to the Earl of Durham-that the Colonial Secretary is alone responsible, and that the Governor is an agent governing the Province by instructions from him.

Whatever new readings may be given of our unwritten Constitutions, this is the one which always has been and always will be the favorite with Colonial Secretaries and under secretaries, and by which every clerk in Downing Street, even to the third and fourth generation yet to come, will be prepared to take his stand. And why? Because to deprive them of this much-talked-of responsibility, which means nothing, would be to deprive them of the power to which they cling of the right of meddling interference with every petty question and every petty appointment in thirty-six different Colonies. While things remain as they are, the very uncertainty which reigns over the whole Colonial system invests the Secretary of State with a degree of power and influence, the dim and shadowy outline of which can scarcely be measured by the eye; but which, from its almost boundless extent, and multiform and varied ramifications and relations, possesses a fascination which few men have been born with the patriotic moderation to resist. Though a Secretary of State may occasionally have to maintain, in a particular Province, a doubtful struggle for the whole responsibility and the whole of the power, with some refractory Governor like Sir Francis Head; yet even there he must exercise a good deal of authority, and enjoy a fair share of influence; while in all others his word is law, and his influence almost supreme. A judge, a crown officer, a secretary, or a land surveyor, cannot be appointed without his consent; a silk gown cannot be given to a lawyer without his sanction; while his word is required to confirm the nomination of Legislative Councillors for life, and irresponsible Executive Councillors, in every Province, before the Queen's mandamus is prepared. The very obscurity in which the real character of Colonial Constitutions is involved, of course magnifies the importance and increases the influence of the gentleman who claims the right to expound them. More than one half the Colonists who obtain audiences in Downing