The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES,—It is always good for people to under-
stand each other, and just at this conjuncture the
establishment of such an intelligence between the
Canadians and ourselves may be of great service to
both parties together. Nothing more, indeed, seems
to be wanting on either side than a clear and
definite perception of future policy. The Colony is
very well affected, and with good reason, towards
the Mother Country. Its population is thoroughly
loyal, and its interests arc completely identified with
its allegiance. The Canadians, as we are assured
this morning by one of themselves, are not only
without a wish to dissolve the connexion subsisting
between their country and Great Britain, but
" would fight to the last" to maintain it ; nor can
we disbelieve these professions when we remember
the conditions of dependence now accepted. Canada
would necessarily be a loser by any change of polie
tical position. Independence would deprive her of
a powerful protector; union with America would
simply make her a participator in liabilities which
no man can measure. We, on the other hand, are
content to retain an allegiance yielding little sub-
stantial fruit, at the cost of what may be most
onerous obligations. It would be hard to say what
privilege we derive from our colony of Canada, but
at any rate we have no wish that the connection
should be severed, To perpetuate these terms, then,
and to avert all chances of disagreement or danger,
it can only be necessary that we should explain and
the Canadians should understand exactly what we,
for our part of the bargain, are prepared to per-
form. At present it seems to be assumed, or was,
at least, assumed till recently, that in the event of
a war involving the Colony the fighting would be
done by Imperial troops. Of course the colonists
would support us as soon and as far as they were
able. When they had suiceeded in organising a
Militia and collecting a Volunteer force, when
they had drilled their men and trained the officers
to command them, they would fight by the side
of the British regiments; but until this result had
been attained—perhaps, as happened in the United
States, in the second or third year of the war—the
defence of the colony would be left to devolve upon
us. Now, do the Canadians reflect upon the conse-
quences which would follow? The colonial fron-
tier is a thousand miles long. We could not garri-
son it effectually if we sent to Canada every regular
soldier in these islands. We make believe to garrie
son it at this moment with a force of 9,000 soldiers,
of whom two-thirds aro divided between Montreal
and Quebec, while the rest are distributed by regi-
ments anti even companies along the frontier line.
In other words, we confront a neighbour who can
dispose of half a million of men with a score or two
of stations like those of the Irish constabulary. Nor
are these pickets supported by any sufficient re-
serves. "A Canadian Volunteer" tells us the whole
truth in this matter, and shows us that even the
moderate preparations with which the colony was
credited in a late debate have but a partial existence
in reality. The fact is this—that our 9,000 men,
while they could do nothing of themselves, suffice
to prevent the colonists from doing any more. They
look like a demonstration of the power and inten-
tions of England. They stand as the advanced guard
of a great army, and the Canadians do bat obey the
instincts of human nature in declining to do for
themselves what others appear ready and willing to
do for them. There should be an end of this delusion,
which is not only deceitful, but dangerous. We have
not the least design of providing the Canadians with
an army sufficient for the defence of their frontier.
The utmost that was intended in this country was
to give them a " nucleus" in the shape of a few regi-
ments of Imperial troops, and even that design is
now limited, as was shown by a recent debate, to the
protection of the two chief capitals of the colony.
In relying, therefore, upon our readiness to fight
' their battles the colonists are deceiving themselves,
and the demonstration we make happens to b© full
of danger in more ways than one. Nothing is so
likely to provoke attack as an easy and accessible
prize, and every station of British troops along the
Canadian frontier offers such a prize to the Ameria
can army. To surround and capture a British regi-
ment would be an exploit of which an American
commander might reasonably boast; to inflict humi-
liation on the British arms might be a triumph
which an American Government would be unwil-
ling to forego. These opportunities we actually pre-
sent in the most seductive and alluring form. We
post fragments of our army in positions where they
may be at any moment' surprised, much as King
Alfred suspended golden bracelets in lonely woods
and challenged anybody to offend justice by appro-
priating them. But we have not ttle EOlllO grounds
for our defiance. We should, indeed, be compelled
to pursue the offender, but it is neither our interest
nor our desire to establish our power by provoking
the offence. On the contrary, it would be infinitely
wiser to remove the temptation, and thus diminish
the chances of conflict. It seems to have been for-
gotten in the recent di-cussions that the exhibition
of this handful of Btrish troops on the Canadian
frontier is in itself actually an element of danger.
When the Americans have a grievance against us
they immediately threaten to invade Canada. Why ?
Not so much because Canada is a dependency of the
British Crown as because it contains a few British
soldiers, and is thus a vulnerable part of the Britisn
empire. If Canada were defended only by Cana-
dians, it would scarcely answer the purpose of the
Americans to make a raid into the province at the
coat of a war which would bring the British navy
on their coasts. A conflict with the chief maritime
Power of the world would be a heavy price to pay
for penetrating a few leagues into a country which
it would be very troublesome to occupy and
impossible to annex without conquest. But a
regiment of the British army would be a more
enticing bait. By the capture of such a trophy
the Americans could not only gratify the national
pride, but compel us to a conflict in which the
advantages would be all in their favour, If we
began to fight them on land, and suffered disasters,
we should be forced to go on. Our reputation as
well as our pride would be involved, and our enemies
would enjoy the singular good fortune of taking us
at our weakest from the position most advantageous
to themselves. Now, we say that wo cannot do
better for Canada than remove this provocative to
invasion. Let the Canadians provide for their own
defence according to their own estimate of the de-
mand. We see that there is a party in the colony
which holds that the best armament is no armament,
and if that doctrine prevails we are not inclined to
quarrel with it. We are certain, at any rate, that it
is sound when applied to an armament of Imperial
troops, and if the colonists choose to extend it they
may, perhaps, be the best judges. But whether
they rely for their protection upon natural difficul-
ties and political repulsion,or whether they resort to
the more recognised policy of military organisation,
let the work be their own. From us they may count
upon the aid of a powerful navy, and what that means
in a war may be learnt from the embarrassments of
the blockaded Confederacy. On these terms the
disadvantage would be all with the Americans in-
stead of with us, and perhaps three millions of white
men in the North supported by the naval power of
Britain would form as troublesome an enemy as six
millions in the South deprived of free intercourse
with the world. At any rate, reason suggests that
these should be our terms. By our present policy
we are at once deluding our colonists and tempting
to aggression the only Power from which aggression
is to be feared. The isolated detachments of our troops
might attract invasion, but could not possibly repel
it. Their removal would extinguish one of the prin-
cipal chances of danger, and for the rest the colony
should provide according to its resources and inte-
rest as estimated by itself. The Canadians must be
good judges of their own position. They are under
the influence, at present, of indefinite impreesions if
not of false expectations, and we can hardly pre-
sume that their conclusions wouid be sound. But
if they can distinctly understand the views of this
country, and divest themselves of all illusions about
our intentions, we have no doubt that they will
adopt a wise policy and remain on better terms
with the mother country than ever.

POST.—The curtain has at length fallen on that
terrible drama which for the last eighteen months
has been played out in Russian Poland. The in-
surrection is now officially declared to be at an end,
the last of the chiefs of the revolutionary Govern-
ment has been consigned to the scaffold, and order
once more reigns in Poland. Fur some months past
wo have heard but little of the insurrection, and ex-
cept when an occasional account reached us of an
execution on the glacie of the citadel at Warsaw or
of the departure of a convoy of exiles for Siberia,
we have. been left in ignorance of the means em-
ployed by the Russiaa Government in re-establish-
ing their authority in the Kingdom of Poland. The
history of Poland during the past year and a halt is
one which. will never be written with accuracy, and
even it so written would never command belief.
Since this time twelvemonths the Russian Govern-
ment have been enabled, without even the interrup-
tion of a protest by any foreign State, to pursue
that peculiar system for the suppression of revolt in
their disaffected provinc9s which on =any previous
occasions they have employed with so much success..
Deserted by Eurcpe, and unable to cope with the.
legions, not merely f soldiers, but of police. spies,
which were arrayed against them, the Polish insur-
gentsdragging
finally gave way. The scattered bands which,.
armed with scythes, and, in some cases,
after them wooden emanoo, scoured the forests, were

one by one annihilated or dispersed; whilst in the
towns the organisers of the insurrection either re-
linquished in despair a task which was indeed hope-
less, or continued to devise and plot until the skill
or the treachery of some spy delivered them into
the hands of their merciless oppressors. Insurrec-
tion, in the true meaning of that term, there'
has been none in Poland for many month'
past. It has been simply a trial of skill between
the authorities and those who took, or were suspected
to have taken, a part in the revolutionary movement,
whether the latter should live to aid in a revolt at
some subsequent period against the Russian rule.
The victory has been with the authorities; nor is
this surprising. A system of secret government
.may
be so carefully organised as to escape detection
but none can reckon on impunity where suspicion,
though unsupported by evidence, is sufficient to
bring. the suspected person to the scaffold or send
him into exile. The system of suppression pursueda
by the Russian Government was equally sitnPi.e and
effective. All whom they believed to be implicat.
they incontinently hanged or banished ;
plan having been pursued for several months, the
result of this general weeding has been that the
most formidable of their enemies have disappeared.
The so-called National Government of Poland for a
long while baffled their attempts to discover those
for.
who. composed it; but after having adopted
es Inca
considerable time the exhaustive system to
we have referred, the Russian Government this
now the satisfaction of assuring Europe that
brood of traitors has been completely exterramat.eds
and this
The official Russian journal at Warsaw, in recordicg.
the execution of five members of the National
.G°
vernm ent, including its chief, has for the first tiit
ne
Published to the world the manner in which thas
Government was conducted. The details Posse!e
historic interest, and give a curious insight into t".
method employed by the Poles to baffle the
rities.. During the whole period of the insurrection
it was notorious that a committee of the insurgents
_
eat en permanence at Warsaw, and directed th!.
Effort;
revolutionary movement, despite all the
made by the authorities to discover its eaernberre,
or to interrupt the communications which no
.maintained between them and the jusurgseeo-
- various. parts of the kitigdom. • "st
clamations were printed and scattered broadca
every
d
through the streets of Warsaw, although
printing. establishment was guarded' by lyer'eleia
officials, and even cemeteries were ran auth.oa
saekedh_
.search. of type. Nor is it astonishing that the aut
reties were foiled in their attempts to discover
tn.
members of the National Government, since it
IP-
p.ears that so secret and perfect was the orgell•-ee
tion that its very members were unknown to caul;
other, and all possibility-to treachery thus °Weld
The Warsaw Central Organisation was coninoeu
six. departments, similar to the departments end, Stait:
in other.. countries, under distinct heads; ,ja
addition to its chief, each department had a eerie
number of subordinate officials and a secsetar.rY!
"Following.. out the principle adopted in the enti:t
organisation,the members of which each departrthe
was. composed were unknown to its chief, and ° aa
chiefs themselves moat were strangers to
.001.•
a.noth.er." Independently of the central orgacij:e
tion Warsavv, there were local administrations
each. of the eight woywodeships, or districts, 11'1'a
which the insurgents had divided the kingdom
Poland. The communication between the thrTl
and the latter being uninterrupted until the luraL
of October of last year, the Government was eo.ch
posed of a small council, the composition of ever
was veiled in such impenetrable mystery that e.,ve;t
now the Russian authoritids are compelled to sum,:
th know but little about it. After this detevs!.
however, for some reasons which it has been luln
possible to discover, a change took place, sod ae,
.individual was recognised as the leader tieredho e.".
tire revolution, 'Whether this change ren diets
discy easier it is difficult to say • but athall ever3lue
.very did take place, and it' was Le° recgeehees
tionary chief and the principal of his colle.a
whose execution has just been recorded colthelie the
Targato Gazette. The method in which s
discovery was made, however, well deserves
the appellation of " exhaustive" which evi•
have just given it. " Owing to the still
coveries made by the military invesrlgat'evr
.committee, and the increased activity of the Wert,
police (we quote from the official Dziennick), nu'
hers of persons concerned in the revolutionary orga.
rnsation were arrested and an extensive revolution
ary correspondence seized. Upon inspection of the
documents and examination of the prisoners further
arrests were undertaken, which, combined with in-
formation already obtained, rendered it 1)0"
sable to gain possession of the chiefs of the
insurrection." The Polish insurrection of 1863-6
may therefore be considered at an end. Might lies
once more triumphed over right, and another chap.
ter has been added to the history of the world which.
wilt seem incomprehensible to these who test the
ways of Providence by the touchstone of human
reason. The scenes of 1830 have been re-enacted,
and :he triumphant wrong of half a century pre-
yious has for a third time been confirmed. The
insurrection was hopeless from the beginning, but
it would be alike absurd and ungenerous to ascribe
to folly what was in truth the offspring of despair:
Even the weokest of animals will stand at bay bee
fore the most formidable antagonist, and for a tittle
will flatter itself that its fate is in suspense. Nor
was the insurrection the work of the Polish psople
alone. It was that of their masters. Not that Ill°
Russians simply drove the Poles into rebellion by
their misrule. They so directed their tyrannY."B
to produce revolt. They desired an insurrection
because they desired a pretext for decimating tto
inhabitants he
and deporting all whom they feared
the wilds of Siberia. They gained their ohlec;
The Poles revolted. And although the insurreetieon
was graver than they anticipated, they have he
completely victorious. Order once more reigh.e, and
will continue to reign until another generation. 0..1
Poles shall spring up, and decimation and
tion once more become necessary. dap
The The
liberal Europe assuredly is inexhaustible.
patience o