habitants of Canada, and recommend to them the free choice of a constitution for themselves. On what then was this House to found its competence? There was another code, on which men in all ages had acted, viz. the law of nations, and on this code he thought the competence of the House must rest. This country had acquired the power of legislating for Canada by right of conquest; and in virtue of that right, all the rights and duties of the old government had devolved upon us. In the second place, came the right by the cession of the old government; and in the third, the right of possession, which we had held about thirty years. All these, according to the law of nations, enabled us to legislate for the people of Canada, bound us to afford them an equitable government, and them to allegiance. Setting aside. then the doctrines of rights of men, which was never preached any where without mischief, the House was bound to give to the people of Canada the best government that their local situation and their connection with this country would admit. How was this to be done? He could not refer to the expedients of old governments, for that was exploded by the academies of Paris and the clubs of London, who saw too much by the light of their new lantern to have recourse to any other. The great examples to be considered were the constitutions of America, of France, and of Great Britain. To that of America great attention, no doubt, was due, because it was of importance that the people of Canada should have nothing to envy in the constitution of a country so near to their own. Situation and circumstances were first to be considered-Non mihi res, sed rebus me submittere conor. They were not to imitate the examples of countries that had disregarded circumstances, torn asunder the bonds of society, and even the ties of nature. nature. In the local situation, was there any thing to give a preference to the American constitution, or in the habits of the people? Part of the province was inhabited chiefly by persons who had migrated from the United States. These men had fled from the blessings of the American government; and there was no danger of their going back. There might be many causes of emigration not connected with government, such as a more fertile soil, or more genial climate; but they had forsaken all the advantages of a more fertile soil, and more southern latitude, for the bleak and barren regions of Canada. There was no danger of their being so much shocked by the introduction of the British constitution, as to return. The people of America had, he believed, formed a constitution as well adapted to their circumstances as they could. But, compared with the French, they had a certain quantity of phlegm, of old English good nature, that fitted them better for a republican government, They had also a republican education; their former internal government was republican; and the principles and vices of it were restrained by the beneficence of an over-ruling monarchy in this country. The formation of their constitution was preceded by a long war, in the course of which, by military discipline, they learned order, submission to command, and a regard for great men. They learned what, if it was allowable in so enlightened an age as the present to allude to antiquity, a king of Sparta had said was the great wisdom to be learned in his country-" to command, and to obey." They were trained to government by war, not by plots, murders, and assassinations. In the next place, they had not the materials of monarchy, or aristocracy among them. They did not, however, set up the absurdity, that the nation should govern the nation; that Prince PRET TYMAN TYMAN should govern Prince PRETTYMAN; but formed their government, as near as they could, according to the model of the British constitution. Yet he did not say, give this constitution to a British colony, because if the imitation of the British constitution was so good, why not give them the thing itself; as he, who professed to sing like a nightingale, was told by the person to whom he offered his talents, "that he could hear the nightingale herself." Hence he thought the greater number of inhabitants of that description would have no objection to the British constitution; and the British inhabitants were probably not so much corrupted by the clubs of London, and the academies of Paris, as to think any form of government preferable to an old one. The ancient Canadians were next to be considered, and being the most numerous, they were entitled to the greatest attention. Were we to give them the French constitution-a constitution founded on principles diametrically opposite to ours, that could not assimilate with it in a single point; as different from it as wisdom from folly, as vice from virtue, as the most opposite extremes in nature-a constitution founded on what was called the rights of man? But let this constitution be examined by its practical effects in the French Weft India colonies. These, notwithstanding three disastrous wars, were most happy and flourishing, till they heard of the rights of man. as this syssem arrived among them, PANDORA's box, replete with every mortal evil, seemed to fly open; hell itself to yawn; and every demon of mifchief to overspread the face of the earth. Blacks rose against whites, whites against blacks, and each against one another in murderous hostility; subordination was destroyed; the bonds of society torn asunder; and each man seemed to thirst for the blood of his neighbour; As soon "Black "Black spirits and white, "Mingle, mingle, mingle." All was toil and trouble, discord and blood from the moment that this doctrine was promulgated among them; and he verily believed, that wherever the rights of men were preached, such ever had been and ever would be the consequences. France, who has generously sent them the precious gift of the rights of men, did not like this image of herself reflected in her child, and sent out a body of troops, well seasoned too with the rights of men, to restore order and obedience. These troops, as soon as they arrived, instructed as they were in the principles of government, felt themselves bound to become parties in the general rebellion, and, like most of their brethren at home, began asserting their rights by cutting off the head of their general. Mr. BURKE read the late accounts from St. Domiugo, delivered to the national assembly, and added that by way of equivalent for this information, M. BARNAVE announced the return of the members of the late colonial assembly to the true principles of the constitution. The members of an assembly no longer in existence had bequeathed their return to the principles of the constitution as their last act and deed as a body, and this was an equivalent for all the horrors occasioned by troops joining in a rebellion which they were sent to quell. Ought this example to induce us to send to our colonies a cargo of the rights of men? As soon would he send them a bale of infected cotton from Marseilles. If we had so little regard for any of our colonies, as to give them that, for the sake of an experiment, which we would not take ourselves, if we were for periculum in corpore vili, let us think how it would operate at home. Let us consider the effects of the French constitution on France, a con stitution stitution on which he looked not with approbat n, but with horror, as involving every principle to be detested, and pregnant with every consequence to be dreaded and abominated, and the use which they proposed to make of it. They had told us themselves, and their partizans in this country, the Revolution and the Unitarian Societies, had told us, that they had erected a great monument for the instruction of mankind. This was certainly done, not without a view to imitation. Let us see what we were called upon to imitate; what were the last acts of the contrivers of this glorious form of government. There were here no doubts of the facts, for they were related by the authors; and there were cases in which the falsest of men might be believed, namely, when they gave a true character of themselves. When they had got a constitution, moulded according to the newest pattern of the rights of man, when they had got a King, who was every thing in name, and nothing in reality, over whom, as a state prisoner, the Marquis DE LA FAYETTE, the chief jailer of Paris, mounted guard; he was desirous of taking a little fresh air, and a little recreation in the country, and they granted him a day rule to go five miles from Paris. But then recollecting, as it is the quality of the rights of men never to be secure, that this temporary release from imprisonment might afford the means of escape, they surrounded his carriage, commanded him to stop, and one of the grenadiers of his faithful and loyal body guard presented his bayonet to the breast of the forehorse." In pursuing these and the like observations, Mr. BURKE was frequently called to order, but still persevered in his remarks on the French Revolution, till lord SHEFFIELD made a formal motion on the irregularity of introducing narratives of the transactions in France into a debate on the |