Bie aie aaa

“THis ts TRUE LIBERTY WHEN FREE-BORN MEN

New Serics.

ROUSK OF ASSEHWBLY. | Tuurspay, 27th March. AFTERNOON SITTING.

wecse IN COMMITTEN ON ADDRESS IN ANSWER TO HIS EXCBELLENCY'S SPEECH.

Dr. Janvine in the Chair. fidr. Pope’s Speech Concluded.)

It was true, continued the hon, member, tat he had been assailed in all quarters ey the obstructive faction and their azeais; and by none with more virulence tean a certain discarded representative — a rejected candidate—a convicted sedi- vous libeller; aman who recognized no moral principies of action—one who, avon after taking up his residence tn this Golony, had found it necessary to take measures to refute the charge of having beea concerned in the rebcilious move- meats in Canada—one who, in fine, had proved himself in every way qualified to acquit himselfto the utmost, of ail the ediigations of a hired slanderer,and was seerefore, indirectly paid by certain offi- cials to bel the mejority of the House. jie would not have coudescended to al- lade ether to the slanderous unpuiations east upon him by that individual, or to his infamous labours in support of a cor- rapt governmet and en unscrupulous fac- tuov, he had attended some of the public meetings, (which had been called by eertain members of the majority,) to mts- represent, a3 well ws chstruct to the utmost of his power, their legitimate pro- eecedings; and that it wason the autho- rity of his misrepresentations, that the Hom. Sol. General had vilified the cha- racters of the respectable and indepen- dent men who had mainly constituted those meetings, and most falsely accused them of being actuated by the mort de- grading motives and lowest appetites. ide had never, without much reluctance —-even in cases in which circemstances occurred to afford him a full justification ef his doing so—-impugned the conduct of individaals on the floor of the House, when such individuals were not there present, and at liberty to defend them- selycs. But, on the present occasion, al! that he should say, in reply to the Hon. Sol. General, touching the character of the late public meetings—so far as il might be personal—would be a mere re- peution of what he lad spoken in the pre- seace of those whom his observations might unplicate. ‘ihe conduct of those sacmbers of the majority who had called those meetings, was highly commendable, and such as greatly to redound to their exedit. The hireling editor of the hired press of the government and official fac- tion, had long been proclaiming a reac- tion on the part of the peeple, adverse to the responsible cause. He had broadly siated und reiterated again and again, taai the people had lost all confidence 1n the majority, ang would be found ready, oa the first opportunity, to tell them so ; and dared that majority to attempta refu-

tation of such assertions by calling public |

ragetings to test the feelings of the peo- pie touching their proceedings in the last two sessions of the Legislature. The majority were indeed nothing loth to be satied to the field, but wore found quite ready-—the course being fally im accord: aace win their own previous intenton— ro meet the people, and in the presence of (heir opponents and accusers, to rende: so to their constituents ag accouut ©! weir stewardship. hey openly took tae field —they scorned to hold any thing hice hole-and-corner mevtings—they gave «pecific public notice of ther intentions —and they imvited the:r opponents fo meet thea, gainesy them, oud prove thein.

A ei. siete

he Exam

guilty if they cuuld. Bat how was their invitation met? Did their opponents in the Legislature dare to acceptit? They did not; for 8o he had it himself declared —the discarded representative to whom he had alluded, ty undertake a service trom which they themselves shrunk, as if fully conscious of the judgment which would be pronounced by the people be- tween them and the majority, whose mo- tives and actions they so anxiously sought to have condemned. [t was true, vee em ae . an adherent of the faction accompanied their hired sianderer; and the worthy asguci- ates sustained each other in their at- tempts to stigmatize the majority as oflice-buuters. Now, when it was re- membered what had been the conduct of those two individuals with respect to otve-hunting. What was attempted by one of those individuals, very soon after his arrival inthis Colony, at a time when he was scarcely known in the Island ? Why he basely endeavoured to dispiace the Surveyor General, than whom a more meritorous or respectable officer is not to be found in the Colony, by petitioning the (Queen for the appointment, representing himself as the only person in the Colony properly quaiiied to discharge the duties ol the otice, and directly disparaging, not only he Surveyor General, but every olher Surveyor, in the island. Yet this Was the man, this was the fellow who could unBiushingly vome forward and prefer a charge ut office-hunting against individuals who, if they sought office at all,sought it only through the favour, and wi the entire concurrence and ap- probauon of the people; and who, when charged with tuis mean ect, unblushing- ly replied that it was only a “ lark.” Well he (Mr. Pope) could only say, that a lark with Her Majesty by such a tellow, with a view of depriving of his bread a public officér, against whom there was not a shadow of cuimplaint, was a species of amusement that would go a Jong way to illustrate the characier of the man. The individual by whom this paid slan- derer was accompanied, and sustained

in hig assaults upon the majority of the Assembly—and especially upen certain

individuals, amongst whom he (Mr. Pope)

had the honour of very particular notice—

raved furiously against bim as an office-

hunter; but by way ofa rejoinder, he had

taken leave tu remind him of the surrep- titious and imdirect methods by which

sume cuvertly svught promotion and office, to whica, couscious of their deme-

ris they did not dare openly te aspire.

He had reminded tim that a certain in- dividual,ambitious of being invested with

magisterial authority, had personally soli-

cited the late Sir Donald Campbell to

appoint him a Justice of the Peace, urg-

ing upon the reluctant Governor the

great services Which he might render in that capacity, in the suppression of trays and brawls, in his frequentjourneyss

into the country. * ” . a

° " “i And yet this is the

moan who dares to impeach the motives of every member of this louse who presume

te advocate a public measure winch he

hinself has frequently pledged himse!f to

support

Now, waa it to be supposed that the

people of this Colony were ao dull, that

they could not justly diserimigate between

the men who openly, honestly, and hoa-

ourably shougit office or promotion,

through the favour of the people—the ge-

nuine, she ortginal source uf public honor

and power—and them who had recourse

to surreptitious aids, and pursued secret,

indirect and winding paths tor the attain-

ment of the gameend? He({Mr. P.) had

attended those meétings fur the express,

the avewed parpese of ebtainteg a full,

CHARLOTTETOWN,

gy

ner,

APRIL 28, 1851.

an unequivocal expression of opinion from the people coucerning the course pursued and measures adopted by the majority of the Assembly forthe attainment of Re- sponsible Government. The people had responded to their appeal, and had stamp- Led with their approval the proceedings of their representatives in a way that could not fail to be highly satisfactory to the inajority of the House. Statements more audaciously false, or standers more gross and infamous, had never been made and circulated than those which had origi- nated with tle hired advocate of the ob- structive party, and to which he had given currency through the columns of the Journal which he edits. With respect to the public meeting held at Let 19—he had not serupled falsely to state, that the number of persons assembled on that oc- casion did not exceed seven or eight dozen, and had attempted to prove that the house would not centain 50 persons: but he (Mr. Pope) would pledge his word, thatthe nanber cid not amount to less than from two to three hundred. {[n ad- dition to that, he had falsely asserted of him (Mr. Pope), that be-had assailed the character of the Colonial Secretary by casting upon it the most unwarrantable imputations; that he had called the Ex- ecutive Council a set of Rascals, and characterized ther general proceedings as rascally and cisgraceful. What he (Mr. Pope) had said in reference to the Government on that head, wes that they had proceeded to make an immediate and thoropgh investigat:on of the ‘Treasury, at the time when they had first good reason to suspect that a serious cefa!cation exist- ed in that Department, the actual deficit would have been found to emount to no less than between £2000 and £3000 ; and that such was the case could, ie believed, be substantiated to-morrow. On_ that score the Government were guilty ota neglect, amounting to little short of the most culpable connivance. But, with reference to the proposed>re investigation of the affairs of that Department, afier it

vestigation, that the amount of public moneys found by them in the Chest was quite correct, he had said, and would sull sav, that a renewal of the inquiry would have been nothing less than actual persecution. His charge ‘against the

on the private defalcations of any officer; for that was a circumstance which might happen under the very best and most vi- gilant government that ¢ould exist. No: he had not accused them becanse every subordinate officer of the government had not been found worthy of the trust re- posed in him; bet he accused ,them be- cause, instead of inanifesting a desire that all government offices should be filled oy honest and honourable men, they had been guilty cf the most flagrant corruption in keeping open the ‘Treasury office, for the re acceptance of the late incumbent—of whose previous defaleations they had sufficient knowledge—at atime when it had been vacated by his own act, by his having greatly exceeded his leave of absence, and when his sureties had re- fused any longer te guarantee ‘his inte- grity. Sach conduct on the part of a government could not be defended ; for it afforded the strongest evidence of posi- tive corruption, it being publicly known,

sums of money from individuals uncer falsa pretences. Again how had they acted with reference to the Post Office? ‘l'o cratify private resentment against the representatives of the people, to bring about, if possible, a serious misunder- standing between them and their consti- tueuts, tha Government, notwithsianding

had’been reported by a Cominittee of in->

Government was ‘not, however, founded

that the Treasurer had obtained large

—HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC—MAY SPEAK FREE.”—M11tTon’s EURIPIDES.

|

SESE TE IS

ee ee

Vol. 2: No. 3.

ee Gre ate tte ene eet epee . . —e

wesa self paying service, had determined to stop the transmission or conveyance of all Mails, both foreign and domestic; but finding that they themselves could not conveniently dispense with the reception and transmission of the furmer, they had been obliged to confine the exercise of their malice to the stoppage of the InJand Mails. How pitiful, how contemptible, how disgraceful was such condnei! Why, the absolute and semi-berbarous Turk, the Pacha of Egypt, had shown himseif more enlightened: and, in a spirit more in harmony with the wise liberality of the age had freely perinitted the transmission of his eneunes’ mails through his domin— ions, even at a ume when they were actually waging war against him. It might, perhaps, be said that the arbitrary interdict touching the fost Office bail proceeded direetiy from the late Gover- nor himself: but, even although it cos}d be granted, that that was hitterly the care, the admission could by no means exon- erate the Government from the bleme and odium which attached to them in conse- quence of it. Honest and mdependent inen would not have suffered themselves to be implicated in any act, so tyranni- cally and unnecesserilly abrogating one of the most important of all publie privi- leyes and conveniencies; but would at once have resigned their seats at the Council Board, as the only positive or sufficient evidence they could afford, un- der such circumstances, that they did not entertain a greater regard for their own private interests than the acknow- ledged rights of the people. It might be alleged by some, that in thus severely censuring the conduct of the lute Gover- nor, he was not exercising that forbear- anee which was done tothe dead. Teo such an allegation he would reply, that if the Governor was dead, his bad ects were nut: they were stil] living: with them the people and their representatives had still to contend; and it was owing to them, that the people had still to struggle to free theinselves fromthe incumbeney of a bad government, whose leading ob- ject, for the last twenty or thirty yeare, had been the promotion of one family in- terest, unduly represented in it—a go- vernment the construction of which, beige altogether independent of the voice and sanction” of the paople, made it slmost moraily impossible that it should be otherwise than corrupt. The «nen of thie Colony had, however, not lived for nothing in these times of moral progression: there eyes were opened: they clearly saw the real existing state of public affairs; they fally understood what was requisite aid necessary to secure good gevernment, and the future prosperity and well-being of the Colony ; they duly appreciated the labours of those who were actually en- gaged inthe struggle for the establish- ment of their just rights: they now fea:- lessly expressed sentiments, the avowal of which, a few years ago, would have been accounted sedition; and their hopes were steadily set upon the attainment of those ameliorations and reforms, whieh their representatives—the majority of the Assembly—were cCetermined to pursme, and, if possible, to work out for them at all riska. With respect to the principle ge- nerally received and atted upon by Le- gisiatnres and Gevernments, that public servants, on retirement or removal from office, were generally, unless dispheed for malversation, entitled to some ecm- pensation for loss of office, he certainly did not mean to deny the justness of its general recognition ; and there wss not a member of the House who would mere readily acknowledge the claima ofa me- ritorious retising officer than himeelf: bat the ¢ircumstances and resources of (his

the well-known fast, that the Past Odice : Celony were evidert'y such, as to make