NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE official accounts, communicated to the public, of the progress of the war in Lower Canada, are brief and unsatisfactory. Ex- tracts from two despatches from Sir JOHN COLBORNE, and one from Colonel GORE, have been published in the Gazette this week. The amount of the information they contain may be stated in a few

words. Colonel GORE reached Sorel, from Montreal, on the even- ing of the 30th November, with eight companies and three field- pieces. From Sorel he marched on to St. Denis, which he reached on the 1st December. At St. Denis he found no rebels, but some arms and ammunition. He set fire to the village, burning Dr. Neesont's house and " all tire defences." He left three companies and one gun at St. Denis, and proceeded to St. Charles; and then

on to St. Hyacinthe, where M. PAPINEAVS residence is situated. He surrounded the house with soldiers; but, strange to relate, M. PArINEAU was not at home! Colonel GORE then returned to St. Charles, where he left two companies and a gun : afterwards he proceeded to Sorel, and thence to Montreal at which last place he arrived on the 7th December. Sir JOHN COLBORNE states in his second despatch, on the authority of Colonel GORE, that the habitats in the neighbourhood of St.

Hyacinthe had returned to their homes. In his first despatch. he spoke more generally of the pacification of the country—" I have

every reason to believe that the habituns who had taken up arras on the Richelieu have returned to their homes." It appears, bowever, that it is necessary to garrison all the chief posts on the Richelieu—" Her Majesty's troops occupy at present St. John's, Chambly, St. Charles, St. Denis, St. Ours, and Sorel; in the neighbourhoed of which places there is no appearance of dis- turbance." Colonel GORE, it is worthy of remark, went to St. Denis and returned to Montreal by his former route of Sorel, which is considerably to the north of Montreal. Why did he not march across the country from Montreal to St. Denis ? There was no disturbance at Sorel or St.Ours—no ammunition or rebels to seize.

The published despatches of Sir JOHN COLBORNE give no account of the insurgents at Grand Bru16. But it is not pre- tended that all he wrote is made public : doubtless nothing that bears a favourable construction is kept back. In the absence of authentic accounts, we must resort to the newspapers. A correspondent of the New York Commercial Adre,li.str, a paper of extensive circulation in Canada, whose correspondence is marked with a strong Royalist tinge, mentions as the heest intelligence rrom Montreal, that the rebels at Grand Bruit. are "fully determined to fight till the last for their (as they axe) dependence: they ere very numerous, well armed, and are being well organized.' A detachment from the Forty-third Regi- ' went had arrived at Montreal from Halifax, after a twenty days march. A party of about 100 insurgents, raised in the village of Swanton, on the borders of Maine, attempted to join their friends in the neighbourhood of Montreal, but were driven back. Lord Gossento has issued two proclamations; the first, dated the 29.11 November, offering pardon to the rebels, not leaders in the revolt, who would return to their allegiance. The mild and merciful tone of this proclamation gave great offence to the Orangemen of Montreal and Quebec. The second proclamation, dated the 5th December, was of a different character—it esta- blished martial law in the district of Montreal, and authorized Sir JOHN COLBORNE to punish by death or otherwise all persons acting, aiding, or assisting in " the said conspiracy or rebellion, which eon, exists in the said district of Montreal." We have here a pretty clear proof that the assertions of the London Minis- teriel and Tory eapioe, that the rebellion in Lower Canada is quelled, so, untrue.

The ,eled to the Upper Province. Repeatedly has it been asserted, in and out of Parliament, that in Upper Canada there was nothing approaching to serious dissatisfaction with the Government : on the contrary, hi that British colony, knell approached to enthusiasm. When asked how many troops he could spare for the suppression of the rebellion in Lower Canada, Sir FRANCIS HEAD replied, " All I "—so much he de-

spised the disaffected—so sure was his reliance on the obedience

of his subjects. Governor HEAD has had a narrow escape from a heavy penalty for his rashness. He had issued orders for the arrest of Mr. W. L. MACKENZIE; but a body of the people, whose numbers are stated at 2,000 or thereabouts, rallied round MAc- KENZIE, and marched against Toronto. They entered that place

on the 5th December, driving Sir FRaNe Is Ibsen and a party of

Volunteers who adhered to him into the Market-house. Here MACKENZIE committed the blunder (natural to a civilian, but usually fatal for a general) of negotiating instead of pursuing his

advantage. As the condition of laying down his arms, he de.

mended

" The dissolution of the Representative Assembly, "An elective Upper Chamber, " The removal of Sir Francis Head."

Sir FRANCIS returned no answer, but despatched emissaries to rouse the Orangemen to his rescue. On the 7th, they appeared

in sufficient force to alarm the insurgents, who retreated. To what distance they retired, or how far the Loyalists succeeded in dispersing them, does not appear from the confused and somewhat contradictory account in the American newspapers. A proclama- tion, offering a reward of 1,000/. for the apprehension of MACKENZIE, and of 500/.for the apprehension of DAVID GIBSON, OT SAMUEL LOUNT, or JESSE LLOYD, or SILAS FLETCHER, all leaders of the insurgents, has been issued by Governor HEAD. Inasmuch as the attack on Toronto failed, the Whig-Tories have cause of satisfaction; but is it not far outweighed by the incontrovertible evidence that " loyal" Upper Canada contains a bold and numerous body of the disaffected? Three days ago, he would have been jeered who prophesied that Toronto would be in the hands of Mr. W. L. MACKENZIE, and Sir FRANCIS HEAD pent up in a corner of his capital. Even those who were aware of the existence of a strong feeling of discontent must hre been surprised by the appeal to arms. It is evident, if the outbreak in Upper Canada has no other result, that there will be no efficient assistance given from that quarter to the Loyalists in the province. A diversion has at any rate been made in favour of the insurgents of Lower Canada. On the supposition that the party of MACKENZIE are completely dispersed, suspicion and alarm will remain. There can be no more future reliance on the most posi- tive representations of Sir FRANCIS HEAD; who has afforded ample proof not only of rashness, but ignorance of what he most needed to have known well—the state of public opinion in the province. The Volunteer Orangemen will now he apt to stay at home, where they will have enough to do in maintaining their own odious government. The immediate result of the insurrection in Upper Canada is of little importance compared with the proof it affords of widely- spread disaffection in the North American Colonies. It was gravely stated that the contest was one of races—French against English ; but what say the wise and honest politicians, who in- dulged in daily sneers at the " Nation Canadienne," to the revolt in Upper Canada, and the demands of the insurgents? Have they a French or an English character ? It will surpass the assurance even of the Ministerial journalists to assert henceforth that the revolt in the American Colonies is solely for obsolete French laws and customs.

Lord Joster RUSSELL and Sir GEORGE GREY declared in the House of Commons, that Lower Canada alone was discontented; and Lord Jour; admitted that if a similar feeling prevailed in the neighbouring provinces, he should feel much hesitation se to T.:.e course to be pursued. Well—Lower Canada and Upper Canat.a are in open revolt; the Legislature of Nedloundland has refused the supplies ; the Assembly of Prince Edwards Wand has placed PA PI NE AU'S rebellious address on its minutes; and it is not many weeks since the Assembly of New Brunswick had a vehement dispute with the Governor. Nova Scotia alone is submissive to the Colonial Office.

In consequence, as it is supposed, of an application from the British Ambassador at Washington, President VAN BUREN has signified to the authorities of the United States in New York, Maine, and Vermont, that the laws against levying an arin:d force in the States, to be employed against a friendly power, must not •

be violated. But the President has no means of enforcing obs- dience to those laws; and had he the means, it may well be ques- tioned whether he has the disposition. It is manifeet that popular sympathies in the United States are strongly in favour of the insurgents. News of the war is sought for with extreme avidity. Some of the papers m Vermont and New York have almost hourly intelligence of what is going on in Canada. lao doubt that Atuer lean volunteers have already ,j' . ee.gere

A meeting has been called in New Yolk to te.,e e.sneir- : •.ia public feeling in favour of the Canadians, So much for the progress of the conflict on the other side of the Atlantic. In this country, the effect of the war, in drawing the Whigs in office and the Tories in opposition into closer alliance, is becoming every day more visible. The Ministerial journalists sound the trumpet with even more vigour than the Tories. Traitors, rebels, Frenchmen, conquest, submission, are the fa- vourite words in their vocabulary. The Tories are playing their own game with skill, and perfect consistency : they support their avowed principles, with less violence than the Whigs display in apostatizing from theirs. Daily have the Tories the satisfaction of beholding the Whigs plunging deeper and deeper into the diffi- culties prepared for them. Not a vestige of popularity will cling to the authors of the Reform Bill. Having fulfilled the purposes of the Tories, the Whig party, now kept together by office, will be scattered : some will join the Tories, others the Radicals; more, perhaps, will retire from public life. The resuscitation of the Whigs as a powerful aristocratic body in the state is not to be expected. Even now the Tories, in virtue of their command of the Army, en- joy most of the profits of the war, which they intend to engross altogether. They will also reap advantage from the inattention of the Legislature to domestic politics. Economy and retrenchment are not to be mentioned. Vigour—that is, extravagance and violence combined—will be the order of the day. Increased esti- mates, fresh loans and taxes, jobs and contracts, must mark the continuance of the contest. In one short session, how many years of honest exertion for the reduction of burdens, the remedy of abuses, and the improvement of institutions, will be rendered of no avail !

It was remarked in this journal a fortnight ago, in reference to the manner in which the People would deal with the Canadian question. that the "real test of the supposed advance of the public mind within the last half century was about to be applied." There is reason to hope that the People will not be found wanting. There has not been the slightest indication of the existence of that savage spirit which prevailed at the commencement of some former wars. The attempts to prejudice the multitude, and halloo them on, have failed. The foes of freedom in Canada have no support from the bulk of the people in this country.