HL Deb 17 May 1836 vol 33 c956
The Earl of Aberdeen

said, that before the appointed business of the evening commenced, he wished to correct a statement that had gone abroad, and which, if not contradicted, might lead to a misunderstanding of considerable importance in regard to the colony of Canada. He alluded to some observations alleged to have been made in the other House of Parliament by the hon. Baronet, the Under Secretary for the Colonies. The subject under discussion in the other House last night, had reference to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada, and he found it stated in the public journals that the hon. Baronet to whom he referred, had declared that the instructions delivered by the present Government to Lord Gosford, a copy of which was then on the Table of the House of Commons, in no respect differed from those given by the late Government to Lord Amherst. Now, with out meaning to deny that the spirit of the instructions to Lord Gosford were generally conformable to those sent out to Lord Amherst, and that in some specific instances they were identically the same, to the assertion of the hon. Baronet, as it applied to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada, he must oppose the most unqualified and direct contradiction.

Lord Glenelg

felt bound to admit, that upon the point alluded to there was a clear difference between the two sets of instructions, and felt quite assured that his hon. Friend, the Under-Secretary for the Colonies could not have said, that as regarded it they were the same.

Subject dropped.