The Express.
London, England, 1861-10-31 00:00:00

TO OUR =ADZE&

SPORTING INTILLIGENCE.

A !ate edition ol this Repress il published every
evening during the rasing season, containing the
results of the day'e mom

Ma. k tvwsr, a Colonel in the Canadian Militia
and a leiliber of the Provincial Parliament, has
been committed for trial by the magistrates of
Toronto, for having accepted a commission in the
Federal Army. According to the opinion of the
magistrate-4 before whom this gentleman was ex.
ani•ued, there was no evidence to warrant the
charge of his having enlisted men fo- service in
the t uite.l States. In the meantime it seems
that he has been deprived of his commission in
the Militia. As Mr. RI•(KCr is about to be tried
for his alleged misdemeanour, it would be pre-
mature, and therefore indecorous, to make any
remarks upon the criminal offence with which he
is charged. But there are circumstances con-
nected with the case which may involve the Im-
perial Government in some difficulties.

According to some interpretations put upon the
Foreign Enlistment Act, it may become necessary
to have Mr. &isms tried at Westminster, and
thus the inconvenience which arose in the case of
the fugitive slave, Jour AN DLit* oN, and which
was only avoided by one Canadian Judge over
another, will be repeated. It is certainly
impossible to deny that no British subject is entitled
to take service with one of two belligerents after the
Government to which he owes allegiance has de-
clared its intention to be neutral. Hut it is •
very different question whether it would be judi-
cious on the part of the Government to take any
notice of every violation of international or even
of statute law. When the Foreign Enlistment
Act was paned the streets of many English
towns were crowded with armed bands about
to embark for America, and it was to put
an end to this serious evil that Mr. CAN-
:mai defended the bill against the speech of
tilt J•MEA MA4 'INTORH, which he designated
as the " splendid obstruction " to its pro-
gress through the House. But in the present
ease, so small is the evil anticipated from the de-
sire to join the Federalists or the Confederates,
that the law officers in Canada have declined to
take the initiative in prosecuting Mr. RANKIN ;
and, indeed, it appears that those who have insti-
tuted the proceedings against this gentleman are
his political adversaries. If the law were strictly
carried into effect, it is clear that all those who
left Ireland to serve under the banner of Lsmoel-
malt and the triple tiara, made themselves
liable to the penalties of the Foreign Enlistment
Act, and it was only the good sense of the Govern-
ment officers which saved us the humiliating ne-
cessity of punishing those who were bent upon
punishing themselves. But in the case of Colonel
It isms it is possible that even this option may
be denied to us. A hotheaded political opponent
may possibly compel the Courts at Westminster
to devote their time to the trial of a Canadian
who has accepted a commission from the Govern-
ment at Washington, and to condemn a loyal
colonist to serious Ices and inconvenience.

It is indeed abundantly clear that these things
should no longer be possible. A great country
like Canada should be made really independent.
The tribunals of such a colony should be clothed
with absolute power to deal with cases such as
those of the fugitive ANneasos and Colonel
R NKIN. It may be a question perhaps whether
the Foreign Enlistment Act apples to a domi-
ciled Canadian ; but if it does it should ob-
viously be restricted in its operation. If
any party in Canada chooses to rouse sectarian
prejudice and popular feeling by reviving an ob-
solete Act of Parliament, and punial-Mg Colonel
RANKIN for accepting a commission in the Federal
army, Canada alone should bear the burden. The
discontent and ill•nature that must be engendered
by such a proceeding should not be transferred to
the Imperial Government, which has far less in-
terest in the matter. If the Canadians are fit to
exercise those privileges which they claim as a
quasi-independent people, they must be made to
feel their responsibility. No doubt the imperial
Government must answer for the acts of all its
subjects ; and if any of them are accused of violat-
ing the neutrality which has been proclaimed, the
Imperial Gov.,rninent must either disavow their
acts or defend them. But this obligation is very
different from that under which the imperial Go-
vernment now labour., of being compelled to IF
force, in a colony enjoying a constitutional GoVern-
ment, an obsolete Act of Parliament peened some
forty years alo, at the instigation of the political
adversary of the UMW who is assumed to have vio-
listed it. It is one thing to refuse to proleet a
subject who has set at defiance the injunctions of
his Sovereign; it is another and a very different
thing to enforce against such a person the penal-
ties of an Act of Parliament, especially if to en-
force them be contrary, as in the case of Mr.
RANKIN it would be, to the feelings of those with
whom he is closely connected.

This prosecution against Mr. Raxxix is only a
fresh illustration of the absolute necessity of de-
fining with more accuracy the position which a
Colony enjoying constitutional government holds
towards the Imperial Government. It is no doubt
a very difficult question to determine the precise
measure of control which the mother-country
ought to exercise over its dependencies ; and in
no particular is it more difficult than in the amount
of superintendeooe to be exercised over the local
tribunals by those of the Imperial Government
It ia confidently asserted by persons of great ex-
perience and intelligence that in a country inha-
bited by races so various as Canada it is abso-
lutely essential to maintain the right of eppesl
in matters of property to the Privy Council, For
otherwise, it is said, the property of the English