The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-30 00:00:00

TRTLX, TURTLE, TURTLE.
Claw, Thick, and Invalid TURTLE SOUPS always nady,
T. LtILIES.HALL, RIGENTSTREIT, PICCADILLY.
WIL DONALD, Proprietor.

WEST-END DINERS —The WELLING-
TO Y, 8t James's-street, Plocaday. Wks' 99100 n MAIM"
eels ea the firet 6eoe. The suleeriparns roomy ire %Fl%
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. p. 49, 9t. Jumes'estreet.

T OPTDON must have a SUPPER and MUSIC
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the erraatos.

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LONDON. FRIDAY. MARCH 30.

ALTHOUGH St. Patrick's Day, the Ides of
Much of the Fenian invasion of Canada, had come,
but was not yet over when our leak Transatlantic
news was despatched, we shall probably not be
found premature in eongratulating our countrymen
on the collapse of the source of their apprehensions.
Nothing of course is more possible than that some
sort of raid or wild foray may have been, or may
yet be attempted. The incursion of a disorderly
mob, to whose hands the shillelagh would be more
appropriate than the musket, the attack for the
sake of plunder on some outlying and unprotected
town or village, are events which at any moment
are quite on the cards. Canada was during the
American civil war made a base of operations for
the South ; and to the same extent the States
may now be made a base of operations for the Irish
Republic. But the campaign of the chivalrous
Southerners reached no further than the capture
of a lake steamer and the breaking into the till of
the St. Alban's bank. Such operations are pro
ciaely what we have now, at the utmost, to fear on
the part of the Fenians. And the reason is in both
cases exactly the same. Invasion in force is a
military operation of the most serious and hazard-
ous kind. It demands long preparation of ammu-
nition, stores, provisions, and forage. It requires
an army perfectly equipped in every arm, with
due proportion of cavalry and artillery, and with
organization completed to the minutest detail.
Failure in any one of these points means the most
utter and helpless failure in the whole expedition.
We need not recall instances in support of
so well known a principle ; it needs not
that we should be reminded that NAPOLEON
estimated the presence, with the force intended to
invade this country, of fifteen thousand cavalry
and as many artillery as indispensable ; that we
carried both horsemen and guns with us to the
Crimea, and at the Alma should have cut a sorry
figure without them ; that the French sent both to
Genoa by sea, while they pushed their infantry
across Mont Cenis in 1859. We must assume,
then, that the Fenians, supposing their infantry as
brave as the heroes of OSMAN, will pay so much
deference to the degrading spirit of modern civi-
l]. Alen as to support them with cavalry and
artillery. And without either, how could their
squares stand before shot and shell, their lines
resist the charge of dragoons ? Their attempt to
move across the border without these indispensable
adjuncts of modern warfare could only lead to
their forces being mowed down in unresisting
slaughter by opponents numerically not a fiftieth
part of their strength, but who would not lose a
man while annihilating their enemies. There are
a sufficient number of soldiers in their ranks to
know this, and we are therefore perfectly sure
that nothing deserving the name of invasion will
be attempted without some previous effort to
muster cavalry and procure artillery, to organize
a commissariat, and establish a military train.
But this is exactly what they cannot do in a
neutral country. We all know that the most
friendly government in the world cannot prevent
mass meetings and processions, wild speeches, the
assumption of military titles, the waving of green
flags, and even perhaps a little vain•gloriona en-
rolling of names and a little modest drilling of
recruits. We know all this, for we have seen it
in our own country more than once within the last
few years, and we cannot be quite sure we have
even now put it down in Ireland itself. But when,
it comes to organizing regiments, mounting cavalry,
and buying field guns, these are very overt acts,
which no government can shut its eyes to, and no
government, seeing, can allow without itself being
profaned to taucome a 'Deingereat. We unl4 not
allow the Southerners to do this in Canada, and
consequently the grand diversion collapsed into the
St. Alban's raid. Now, at exactly this same point
the Fenian* have instinctively and prudently for-
borne to try the American patience further.
They have indulged themselves and been in-
dulged with as much " tall talk " as they
could enjoy ; they have been fooled to the
very top cf their bent, but they have never shown
a regiment of either horse or foot, nor boasted of
the possession of a single gun—for the best of all
possible reasons, since they know that if they did
their regiments would be quietly disarmed, their
horses turned loose, and their guns taken into the
custody of the nearest State barrack. They know
that the Government of America, whatever pre-
sent soreness it may feel towards us, is not going
to let the determination of the question of peace
or war be taken out of its own hands by a parcel
of disorderly emigrants ; and, consequently, that it
will fully perform its international duties to the
Power with which it remains at peace. Conse-

quently the Fenian leaders have more sense than

to spend the Fenian treasures on investments
which would be instantly confiscated, even thosgh.
they are thoroughly aware that without such war-
. like investments the invasion of Canada is the
insonest of dreams.
We do not, however, mean to say that the call-
ing oat the militia and volunteers by the Canadian
Government has been a whully superfluous pre-
, caution. An excited mob, when of the possible
'dimensions of a hundred thousand men, may do an
infinite deal of mischief before it can be caught
and dispersed, if nobody is expecting it where it
makes its onslaught. The great extent of the
Canadian frontier, and the number of points to be
guarded, makes the presence of a large force
necessary. But it must be hoped that when the
Fenian mass sees that all its subscriptions have
ended in nothing—that the talk of invasion
is all a sham—that however eassest some
might be, it is an attempt ladiaronaly
hopeless, and that without a decks stion
of war between Great Britain sad the United
States it neVelt can have she remotest chance of',
any result save the slaughter of all who eaves the
border, and are not fleet enough of foot to get
back again, the present preposterous easibement of
playing at invasion will quietly die oat. It Is a

great loss to Canada to hay :Wir:Jt
dustrious population frogs tb* Syl
purpose of repelling so iliagiretlA:

ing, a danger. But this CMforOedholidayis at
the worst all she will have to suffer; her material
' interests are in no danger whatever of being
*ailed, and perhaps even this military parade of
tie nation may have some counterpoise to it; in-
convenience in the evidence it will afford of the
power, union, and loyalty of the colony.

I