The Express.
London, England, 1866-06-20 00:00:00

BROGDEN'S GOLD lIRDOCIICHAINS.

ITIIIRTLE, VURTLISE, TURTLE.
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mitaraima, assuormagn, rizoionsx.
ARIL DONALD. Propietor.

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PRJECESIF&
TEM Eviwnicl, THE MERCHANT OF VENICK Shyloek,
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BRITANNLL
nut MEWL TUE LADY OF ONE.—Madame Ramadan
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LOON WATER AT LONDON MIDGE
Two Dee —Morning, Th. 24m Afternoon, Th. 52m.
ToMoisow—Monang, se. 20m Afternoon, 80. Z.

LONDON, IVEDNESDAY, JUNE 20.

Tex Fenian raid into Canada has not ended
exactly as we had all hoped, and as we had a right
to expect. The insolent intruders were not re-
ceived altogether as they should have been, and
they were allowed to escape with too much facility
after doing considerable mischief. The force in
the neighbourhood of Fort Erie and Chippewa was
not insufficient to deal with them, and the Canadian
Volunteers met the enemy with spirit and resolu-
tion ; but there was incapacity and mismanagement
on the part of the executive military authorities.
The Fenians were able to charge, pursue, and
make prisoners, and then to retire, when, with a
little care and patience, they might easily have
been surrounded and subjected to exemplary
punishment. Their organization shows that they
could have hoped for nothing inure than to make
a raid with impunity ; they were destitute not
only of all appliances for establishing them-
selves in the country—if wo may name so
serious an intention in connection with their
project--and it is plain that they never
meant to meet a regular British force in the
field. O'NEILL justifies his retreat by the fact
that his men had nothing to eat, and that being
without guns they were liable to be met by a battery
of Armstrongs. The 1,500 men who landed at
Fort Erie were a ragged and dirty set of fellows,
natives of the United Kingdom, the most ignorant
of the Irish Roman Catholic population, but they
had passed through the school of war in the ranks of
Confederate or Federal armies. Their military
experience and the leadership of O'NEILL, who is
said to be a man of unusual daring and vigour, gave
them a decided advantage over the raw Canadian
volunteers, with whom alone they came into col-
lision. Colonel BuoirEit, who led a force of
900 men to meet them, appears to have been
carried away by his military ardour, and to have
set out at an hour considerably earlier than that
which had been fixed in concert with Colonel
PEACOCK, who, with a battery of artillery and
several companies of regulars, was moving upon
Fort Erie, the Fenian " base ;" in this way the
common action of the British and colonial forces
was prevented. There ought to have been nothing
allowed to take place which could be repre-
sented as a battle under these circumstances ; the
whole affair should have been treated strictly
as a matter of military police. Far be it, however,
from any Englishman to censure Colonel BoorrEe.
for too promptly acting upon the suggestions of
patriotism. He had the spirit of his troops to
consider and nourish. He marched forward to
meet the invaders, and attacked them most gal-
lantly, notwithstanding the inferiority of his force
in numbers and discipline. The Fenians fell back
by a calculated movement until they reached
rising ground, where they halted, checked the
volunteers, and then advanced. The Canadians
at this time found themselves short of ammuni-
tion, and owing to an absurd report that Fenian
cavalry were coining down upon them, were formed
into square. In this situation they were out-
flanked, and compelled to fall back as far as the
spot where they first met the enemy. It is ad-
mitted that during this critical movement some of
the Canadian corps did their duty manfully, and
all would probably have held their ground under
skilful management. As itwas, O'NEILL was able to
satisfy himself that he had no chance of leatlint.,
his men to the Welland Canal, the object of his
expedition, and gave the order to retreat to Fort
Eric, from which he had started. Returning to
this post, he found that it had been occupied by
a handful of militia, and soon saw 83 of his men
made prisoners and placed on board a steamer in
the river. But the colonial officer in command,
underrating the Fenian strength, soon found him-
self attacked by a superior force, and for a time
33 of the QUEEN'S subjects were in the hands
of the Fenian as prisoners, until the approach
of a regular force made it convenient for O'NEILL
to embark and restore the captives to liberty. It
is to be regretted on every account that the Fe-
nian were enabled to make good their escape,
leaving no more than 200 of their number
in the hands of the authorities. The best
American newspaper' declare that our
vexation on this account cannot exceed theirs,
for Fenianistu in its most blatant form is even
more annoying to them than it is to us. Within
a few hours of their embarkation a British and
colonial force capable of dealing with ten times
their number was on the spot. By that time the
Fenians had become prisoners, but not to those
who had the right to deal summarily with them,
as the British authorities would have been
thoroughly justified in doing. O'NEILL was cap-
tured, with 500 of his followers, by the United
States steamer Michigan, but it is not expected
that he will receive any treatment worthy of the
name of punishment. The position of a State
prisoner is by no means the least eligible for a
Fenian leader just returned from an expedition
that had proved a failure. O'NEILL can boast of
" having fought a battle with the British army" ;
lie has his lit' of enemy's killed and wounded, and
a " colour" taken at Limestone Ridge is lurking
at the bottom of some dirty Fenian pocket for
future display to credulous contributories. All
this seems ridiculous enough, compared with the
designs in which the Fenian leaders had induced
their dupes to believe. But it is no light matter