The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-28 00:00:00

rebellion a quarter of a century ago. It was not,
however, received until recently with much favour
by any considerable portion of the people of the
colonies. The idea was proclaimed to be good, but
impracticable, or, at all events, premature. Pert
haps, had it not been for the American Civil War,
and the eventualities that may grow out of it, the
notion might still have slumbered in the minds of a
few Canadian statesmen or journalists, or been
mooted only to meet with the opposition of a large
majority, inclined to believe that the ultimate and
preferable destiny of Canada was peaceable incor•
poration with the United States. But no such ma-
jority and no such minority now exist. Whether
the Federal Union shall be restored, or the States
shall resolve themselves into their original elements,
the determination not only of the Canadians, but of
the people of the maritime provinces is to maintain
their connection with the mother country. If at-
tacked by the Federal Government they will defend
themselves to the last extremity, trusting that in
the day of peril Great Britain will not be so untrue
to her old renown, her unsullied honour, and her
high position among the nations of the earth, or so
insensible to her own security, as to abandon,
the faithful colonies that are willing to offer the
blood of their sons in support of their own and
of British rights, and to make their fields and
cities tne brttle ground on which to decide not
alone the liberty of the colonists, but the future
status of Great Britain in the councils of the world.
It is principally as a means of defence against the
" Yankees" that the project of a Confederation has
suddenly acquired popularity in British America,
and that a task which six years ago seemed all but
hopeless bids fair to be executed with as little diffi-
culty as attended the federation of the thirteen
American colonies after the acknowledgment of
their independence by Great Britain had left them
free to shape their own destiny.
A Convention of delegates to consider the subject
in all its bearings, to hear objections, to be informed
of difficulties, to suggest compromises, and to work
the inchoate system into a consistent whole, meets
in this city on Monday next, the 10th inst. New-
foundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, and the two Canadian provinces
will be represented on the occasion. It is understood
from the informal proceedings and the interchange
of ideas between the leading men of the maritime
colonies and those of Upper and Lower Canada
that took place three weeks ago at Charlottetown
that there are in reality no difficulties in the matter
that threaten to be insurmountable, that all the colo-
nies are desirous of union if their local Legislatures
be preserved for local purposes, and that all desire
that the new nation to be thus formed shall stretch
from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and in•
elude the Crown colony likely to be established on
the Red River and the Jaskatchewan on the land of
the Hudson's Bay Company; that the Confederation
shall be known by one distinct name, and that it
shall,if the Imperial Government raise no objection,
be erected into a viceroyalty under the British
Crown. The greatest difficulty yet started proceeds
from the jealousy of the Anglo-Canadians in Lower
Canada, who, in the necessary separation of the
Canadas into two States, fear that they will be out-
voted in all matters of local self-government by the
French Canadians. It has been suggested that the
Canadas should be divided into three States to
remedy this evil, thus placing the French Canadians
entirely apart to manage their own affairs as their
priesthood may direct. But, as this arrangement
would meet with violent opposition on the part of
the French, and perhaps produce now complica-
tions, the subject will be left for mature delibera-
tion, possibly for the decision of the Home Governs
went. It is not anticipated, grave as the matter is,
that the feelings engendered by it on either side in
the Lower Province will be sufficiently envenomed
to prevent or retard the establishment of the Con.
federaey.
Mindful of the awkwardness of the title, "The
United States of America," which is a description
rather than a name, and a description, moreover,
which has temporarily, if not permanently, ceased
to be accurate, it is proposed that the new nation
shall be called either " Acadia" or " Canada." The
latter suggestion meets with most favour. If
adopted, it would be necessary to find other names
for Upper and Lower Canada, which in that case
might not improperly be designated—the one " On-
tario" and the other " St. Lawrence," leaving to the
other States of the Confederacy the names by which
they are now known. The advantages of the Union,
in addition to those of defence against the world,
would include free trade between the several pro-
vinces and a lower tariff on British manufactures
than that which is now imposed in Canada.
It seems to be the hope of all the provinces
that a Prince of the Blood Royal of England
will be deputed to rule over them as hereditary
Viceroy. If they cannot be gratified in this re-
spect they are willing to pay a first-class man a
salary of £20,000 or £25,000 per annum, if he will
spend it freely—maintain a proper state and hospi-
tality—and govern them constitutionally and libe•
rally, subj2ct alike to the action of their own Par-
liament and the suzerainty of the British Crown.
They believe they have within themselves all the
elements that will form in due time one of the
greatest nations of the earth, and that their union
under the protecting, but scarcely felt, influence,of
the mother country will be the means of leading
to their shores a large portion of the great stream
of immigration that now flows into the United
States. They believe that they will be able to offer
to the emigrant a liberty more secure than can be
enjoyed in Federal America for many years after
peace shalt have been restored, accompanied by
no such taxation as must oppress the Americans, if
they do not avoid the evil by the repudiation of the
debt. They also believe that they have within
themselves such resources as need only men and
time to make them a great naval as well as military
Power, and enable them to hold their own against
any enemy that may attack their independence or
insult their flag. Their population at the present
day exceeds that of the 13 colonies when they
formed themselves into the United States, and in
the course of a quarter of a century will probably
amout to 10,000,000. Their climate, if severe, is
more congenial and less debilitating to men of the
European race than the warmer climate of the
more Southern portions of the North American con•
tineut, and even of the middle regions of Pennsyle
vania and Ohio. The project of their Confederation
commends itself se highly to the common sense and
sympathy of mankind that even the bitterest ma•
ligners of Great Britain in the American press
forget their hatred of England to wish it God
speed. It is not likely that either the Imperial
Government_or the British people will wish it
otherwise.