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HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.

Torspar, 30th April

® COMMITTEE ON THE STATE OF GORE THE COLONY.

(Debate continued.)

Mr. Monreexery wished to know what was to fol- iow the adoption of the Resolution. Was it intended to follow it up by another Address to Her Majesty the Queen? Ja his opinion, the House ought to wait entil they had received an answer to the Address already sent home to Her Majesty, before they agreed to a second gesolution. When the answer should be received, if found favourable to the viewa and wishes of the House, they would have ail that they required from the Royal Authority for the furtherance of their object, and, he thought, the proper course would be to await the receipt of an answer; for, in the absence ef one, he could not sée how it would be possible for the House to act upon ihe resolution should they adopt it.

Hon. Mr. Patmen.—He had listened patiently fully ea hour and a half by the clock, while the honorable, wember fer Queen’s County (Mr. Coles) had delivered | himself of a stream of words, in adding calumny te eslumny against his Excellency the Lieut. Governor, and constituting wha: he supposed must be called a

speech. He (Hon, Mr. Palmer) did not intend to notice all the malevolent allegations breught forward by that monorable member against his Excellency the Lieut. Governor. It would be derogatory to the character of his Excellency to suppose that his detractor had ob- tained that degree of credence with the House, which would render it necessary te reply, by denial or refuta- tion, to one-half, three-fourths, or even seven-eighths of his dilly charges and complaints, if even true, in depre- clation of the character of Sir Donald Campbell. The leader of the majority (Mr. Coles) and his immediate assistants, had, he believed, been busily engaged tor the last three or four moaths, in the collection of mate- rials whereon to base a resolution of want of confidence in hig Excellency ; but, not having found such materials qaite as abundant as they wished them to be, they had 4 sen obliged, relnciantly, to forego that project, and to content themselvee with the less daring, but sufficiently sindictive resolutions which they were then prepared to carry, These were, in all probability, intended to be the precursors of their crowning production—a vote of »ant confidence in his Exxcellency —but, although they had been compelled, from the want of proper materials, to abandon their ultimate object, and were hopeless of affecting anything in furtherance of their designs, by the carrying of the three resolutions which had been wtroduced %o the notice of the committee, yet, Seing pregnant with them, they cauld not deny themselves the poor satisfaction of being, even abortively, delivered of them. ‘The mover of the first resolution had admitted, that the disontisfaction of himself and his friends, up to the time of their moving and carrying @ resolution of want of cenfidence in the Government, had been with the Government or Executive Council, and not with the Governor: and it was clear that, if, by the carrying of that resolution, they had effected a complete change in the Government, his Excellency would have been, tn their estimation, ali that a Governor ought to be—bless- ed with the very best of tempers, the kindest disposi- ‘ton, the clearest judgment, and the most independent. mind—gentle and courteous in speech and manners, sruly liberet in his sentiments and politics, end utterly incapabie of conceiving an untruth. Bunt, in the re- markable epeech they had just heard delivered by the Yeader of the majority, his Excetleney was, cn the con- tury, denounced with the utmost rancour ; he was repre- sented as most irascible, as tyrannical in his disposition and practice, as erring and unjustly biassed in judgment, aa swayed by a few for their individual benefit, and al- together unfit to govern the people of this colony. Te (Mr. Coles) had been so profuse in his aspersions of his Excellency, that no one, he (Hon. Mr. P.) thought, would be able to recollect all the particulare of his abase, unless he had noted themdown; and that would, indeed, have been labor ill-bestowed, for they contained nothing that was worthy either of record or remer- drance. There were, hewever, one ortwo things which he ‘had’eaid, that he (Hon. Mr. P.} would condescend to notice. He (Mr. Coles) had told them of his having tawed a hornets’ nest about his ears, dy certaimo! hie proceedings, in which he seemes. greatly to pride him- self; and, in hia re’ation of which, he ligured as a hero. But he (Hon. Mr. P.) thought it would have: been much better for himself if he had left that episode quite ort

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VHEN FREE~BORN MEN

CHAR

INTELLIGENCER.

—HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC_MAY SPEAK FREF.”—Minton’s Euripipes.

OTTETOWN, JUNE 15, 1850.

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Vol. 1 : No. 39.

whom it wae levelled; but it was, indeed, most detri- mental to hinisélf, a8 showing him to be so blindly malevolent, that he could not even conceal from the public eye the corrupt and poisoned sources of the false and reckless accusations, by the means of which he hoped to open the doora of power, place, and emolu- ment, to himself and his eager and hungry friends. It had, in truth, been both amusing and disgusting to wit- ness the vulgar confidence and. the assumption of indis- putable authority, with which the unfounded accusations were preferred. The hon. Member for Queen’s County (Mr. Coles) seemed to think that, in finding a certain passage in the Royai Instructions, he had made a dis- covery which would prove very valuable to himself and his party in the prosecution of their designs. In stum- bling upon something in the Royal Instructions which has always been there, he (hon. Mr. P.)could not per- ceive that he had found any just or sufficient cause for exultation. The passage or article merely authorized the Governor to fill upany vacancy or vacancies in hie Council which might accidently occur; but it gave him no authority or licence to make an entire re-construction of it,at his own free will or pleasure; aud was very far indeed from warranting the construction put upon it by the hon. member for Queen’s County: and his followers. They said he had never askeck hia Excellency to esta- blish Respeasible Government, that allthey had re- quired of him was a re-construction of his Council, and that they had not even asked! fora single office. It might be true that they had not, in express terms, demanded the establishment of Responsible Govern- ment; but who was so blind as_ not to perceive that, in insisting upon having the Council entirely composed of themselves—the leaders and other members of their party—they aimed at nothing short of the assumption of the whole powers of the Government; and that, had they succeeded, those powers would quickly have been exercised by the displacing of old and respected pub- lic servants, and the appointment of themselves and their friends in their stead. ‘Thre offer made by his Ex- cellency to admit three of the liberal party into the Exe- cutive Council, had been treated as a subterfuge and a mockery, by the member for Queen’s County (Mr. Coles); but there were in the Council mencalled Liber- als, who would say that his Excellency would not have been justified by circumstances in an entire re-con- struction of his Government, and that the offer of three Seats atthe Executive Board to the Liberals, by his Excellency, ought to have been received by them asa pledge of his willingness to re-construct his . Council, wholly with regard to the principles of Responsible Go- vernment, in case he should be authorized to do so by the Home Government. The truth was that, in making that offer, His Excellency had graciously manifested a willingness to gratify. the Liberals by a concession. of all that he could be justified in yielding to them, whilst the question concerning the establishment of Responsi- ble Government should -remain undetermined; all the endeavours of the hon. member for Queen’s County (Mr. Coles) and his party to prove the contrary would be utterly in vain. They had even gone so far with respect to one office—which, amongst their own ranks they had no one competent to fill—as to say to the present incumbent of it—in the hope of gaining him over to their cause, and of adding to it the weight and influence of bis character, abilities, and experience, in order to lessen their present great and notorious defi- ciencies in that respect—that provided he would only act as they wished him to do, they would not seck to eject him from his office, but, on the contrary, would willingly and gladly retain him init. Was not this single fact sufficient to show that, at the time of their making that proposal, they were in imagination, what they desired to be in reality,—the Government, and the disposers of all official place, honour, and emolument in the Colony? They were at length, however, unwillingly beginning to perceive that they had been aiming too high and seeking too much. They were beginning to see that her Majesty would support her Representative in the Colony, in his just and constitutional refusal to submit to the dictation of a set of political speculators, and rapasious and needy demagogues, and in betrayal of his trust to divest himself, as it were, at their solici- tation, of all the powers of his Office, and to place them in their haads; and they were then endeavouring to throw dust in the eyes of the people, and to render them blind to the unscrupulous selfishness of their characters and views, by saying that all thatthey wanted was a re-construction of the Executive Council, Amongst the many accusations preferred against hie Excellency by the hon. memper for Queen's County (Mr. Coles) inere was ene concerning desertion from the garrisan,

ot his extravagant and abusive harangue. »By it, he wd established aotbing to the prejudice of thdae against

which, perhaps, required ap answer, He (hon. Mr. P.)

scat ME adh. lysate F3 LN a

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did not, however, intend to justify his Excellency’s bay- ing, on account of the frequeficy of desertions here, sent away, or Caused to be withdrawn a part of the detach. ment stationed here. When all the circumstances com neeted with that step of his Excellency’s were taken in- to account, it would be evident that on account ‘of the responsibility which he had taken upon himself by caue- ing, through his representations to Sir John Harvey, » ‘considerable increase to be made in‘the number of t Stationed here, it was natural that he should be anxious to discharge himself from that responsibility, when ex- perience proved to him that decertion among the troope was really in greater proportion here than in any other Colony, and that representations to that effect were seni home from the officer commanding in the garrison, one consequence of which was to place Sir Donald Camp- bell in no very enviable position with respect to the mi- litary authorities at home; for it was owing to the te presentation made by Sir Donald, that desertions were not more frequent here than elsewhere, that an addition was made to the number of men usually stationed here. Was it to be wondered at then, that, when facts were at variance with that representation, his Excellenc¥ would seek to relieve himself from the responsibility which had devolved upon him through his having pro- cured that addition to be made; and that he should, consequently, cause the number in garrison to be re duced tothe former complement? They had heard three or four silly observations about his Excellency having sent the Sergeant at Arms—an Officer not known to exist in connection with the Executive Cour- cil--to compel the attendance, at the Executive Board, of two or three recusant members of his Council, when it was their privilege, if they thought proper to avai! themselves of it, to absent thietnnel veh for six months without being Jiable to censure or question for their prolonged non-attendance. With respect to the Re- solutions submitted to the Committee, they were to be regarded as a'mere abortion. They were, he believed, at first intended to lead to the adoption of a Resolution expressive of a want of confidence in his Excelleney, but the good sense of some of the party had, no doubt, suggested the “discretion was sometimes the better pert of valour,” and the rest, with all their folly, had prv- dence enough left to take the benefit of the hint. “ charges which he (Mr. Coles) had brought forward against his Excellency had been preferred in a manner sufficiently indicative of the disappointment, spleen, anc malice in which they had had their source; but, im themselves, they were so frivolous, so absurd, and on substantial, even with all the studied exaggeration with which they had been heightened, that the only damage which they could effect would be to the individual who had detailed them.

[Debate to be coneluded in our next.}

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GORRESPONDENGE. —

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LETTER FROM MR. COLES IN REPLY TO THE GAZETTE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EXAMINER,

Sie ;

I do not believe it is necessary I should notice the editorial remarks in last Tuesday’s Gazetle, in reference to my speech, or to those parts of it whieh referred to the conduct of the Lieutenant Governor, further than to say—that it is evident His Excellency hasan extremely bad case, or a very miserable advocate in the Editor of the Gazelfe, when, out of a multitude of allegations brought against him, two alone are, or seemingly could be, questioned ; and those two the least important of ai), As to the Gazelte’s Genial of the two facts referred to, namely, His Excellency’s ill-treatment of a metwber ef the Government House Comnuttee, and bis rode conduct towards the Deputation entrnsied. with the Petition praying that the Steamer Rose inight be pre- vented from running on Sunday,—I beg further to observe that a mere denia! is no proof to the reverse of what I have asserted, and that as my credibility hes never been destroyed by my being compelled at the dictation of any Governor to publish myself a propaga- tor of false and unsuthorized statenients, J have no tear that my testimony to the truth of any fact will he shaken by the loose assertion of a Journa) chat is just as ready to do dirty. work for the present Governor sa it was for 3 former one. ~~

‘fam, Sir, yours, &c., é GEORGE CO

Charlottetows, June 14, 1850.

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