The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

ITiaiEs.—A short paragraph of Canadian newts
which we published yesterday ought not to pass
unnoticed in the present condition of American
affairs. /t is said that the Federal Gaverntnenr,
have erected a new fort at Reuse's Point, forty-fiv, t
wiles from Montreal, with magazines capable o
containing supplies for 100,000 mrn and accommo
da,`,ion for a permanent garrison of 5,000 men.
This is a position of great strategic importance,
whiel the late Lord Ashburton unfortunately sere
rendeeed to the United States during his mission
in 18-12. It would eaahle the Americana to collect
a fleet and a force on Lake Chaplain, so that they
might surprise Montreal. That the Federals should
be strengthening an important frontier stronghold
need not of itself cause any alarm. Their new-found
enthusiasm fn. war and all things connected with
war would naturally lead them to pay more at-
tention than they used to the mere outsides and
munitions of warfare. The Canadians have no
reason to he alarmed by any such demonstrations
at present. The two Governments haVe no imme-
diate cause of difference, and none is likely to arise
except by the wilful aggression of the Federals ;
but for the present they have fat too eaueh on their
4mbarooilontehaeemysefelvelis with us. Still, there
ihsatlto e
certainly
nations which makes
s sit ineevnigtabbleet7't-heeant tthheet
with
Cana-
dians should view
me jealousy acts which at
have
any other time need
excited
is
As this announcement, therefore,
some likely to attract
some attention and to. excitet comment in
Canada, we are anxiousonsto point
theoyutetrt,
e. 2.,
tat)
Canadians the true le.sss
draw from it. From the tone of feeling towards
the Federal States which has been growing up in
Canada during the progress of the Southern rebel-
lion, we have no fear that in the event of war the
Canadians wcuid prove indifferent to our alliance.
Oar Correspondent's letter from Niagara, which wo
published on Monday, described the people as pos-
sessed by almost as intense a dislike to the Federal
Government as actuates the Southern rebellion.
They are just sufficiently near the Northern States
to see exactly the character of the Washington
Government. The Federal spies infest their hotels,
the Federal refugees betake themselves to their
borders, and every element of disaffection to the
Federal Government finds a welcome and spreads
its discontent on their soil. They appreciate the
difference between an equal, just, and steady rule,
and the wild, disorderly, and confused domination
which is ruining their neighbours. We are not
afraid, therefore, that the Canadians will wil-
lingly leave our empire, or that they have any
other wish than to resist any possible attempt .
on the part of the Federal Government to force
them from us. All we are afraid of is lest they
should take the wrong means, or only take the
right means too late. The letter of Mr. M'Gee, for
example, though prompted by the ominous move-
ments of the Washington Government, urges only
the appointment of an English Priece to the Go-
vernment of Canada. Otherwise, in the day of
need, he fears that England will give only a
nominal assistance. Now wo wish to point out
that any such suggestions as this are in a totally
wrong direction. lithe Canadians are really afraid
of the aggression of the Federals, and really anxious
to avoid its consequences, they must pi-epare to de-
fend themselves. In former wars they always
successfully repelled invasion. They are now
stronger than ever. They have much more, to de-
fend, and they know batter than before what would
be their fate if conquered. They might, as we have
said, rely upon all the assistance we could give
them. Our fleet could blockade the American ports.
Our own power would be sufficient to distract
the attention of the Federal forces. Oar trained
and seasoned troops would form a steady nucleus
for their militia or less disciplined regiments. They
would have all the experience and skill of cur gene-
rals, and all the advantages which ready supplies
of the best artillery and munitions of war could give
them. Still, the real work of defence must be done
by themselves. They must be prepared with asuffi-
dint army or trained militia to oppose any invad-
ing force of the Federala. The supply of men, the
actual fighting on land, the real struggle of hand-
to-hand resistance to the invaders must be done by
themselves. .

POST.—The address of each successive President
of the British Association is looked forward to not
merely by persons actively engaged in scientific
pursuits, but by others—and these the majority—
who, having neither time ner opportunity for the
perusal of widely-scattered documents and heavy
tomes, still like to know, from year to year, what
progress science has made. bie William Arm-
strong's remarks on British coal prospects, how.
ever, refer to a future so little remote that
even practical men interested only in what
concerns the probable term of their own lives,
may well pause and consider. It seems that at
the end of 1861 the quantity of coal raised in
the United Kingdom had reached the enormous total
of eighty-six millions of tons, and that the average
annual increase of the eight preceding years
amounted to two and three-quarter millions. Start-
ing with these data, and assuming the same ratio of
increase to be maintained, Sir William Armstrong
addresses himself to the question, " How long will
our coals last?" Assuming four thousand feet as the
greatest depth at which it will be ever possible to
carry on mining operations, and rejecting all seams
of less than two feet thick, about eighty thousand
millions of tons of coal are available in these isles,
a supply equivalent, at the present rate of increased
consumption, to only a period of two hundred and
twelve years. This, in the history of nations, is but
a short span—four generations sufficing to span it.
Even on the assumption that we should pass from a
condition of coal abundance to coal famine, it would
be time that we were up and thinking of the future.
The actuality, however, is even less favourable than
this. Lang before the available stores of British
coal are used up, the cost will be enhanced, inas-
much as, with the lapse of every year, coal will
have been raised from a lower level. England will
—as Sir William Armstrong remarked, and as we
believe Mr. Sopwith remarked before him—cease
to be productive of coal for exportation long before
the final period of exhaustion shall have arrived.
For many practical purposes of life—especially
domestic purposes—it is not with the general ex-
haustion of British coal that one is so much inte-
rested, as with the special exhaustion of north
country coal-fields. So far as that district is con-
cerned, two hundred years will have seen the end
of the principal seams, even at the present rate of
and, consumption
if the present rate of increase of
•
consumption 'be maintained, the duration of yield by
these seams will be comprised within the limits of
century. These are startling facts, although not
new to geologists; they have now been presented
for the first time under a popular form, and we
shall be surprised if they do not set many practical
minds thinking on the coal prospects of tuturity.

INCONGRUITIES OFWESTMINSTER ABBEY.—Lor
Hanghton himself would scarcely like to continue
the intrusion of such productions as the statue of Wilber-
force in a church, nor would his calm reflection desire to
retain the grouping of seas, ships, sailors, anchors, nude
admirals, pancake like clouds, genii, sepoys, savages, lions,
bears; Cupids, victories, battles, columns rostrake, coaches.
guns; flags, spears. galleys, urns, spades, skulls, skeletons,
trumpets, drums, steelyards, and Heaven knows what, that
now load the finest Gothic church in England. Pitt may
find a better place to declaim from than the top of the
western door of an edifice which, when it is used, holds an
audience that turns its back to him. Poor Pitt I Vice-Ad-
miral Charles Watson may receive the obeisances of the
Genius of Calcutta, and exhibit the humiliation of Chandcr-
nagore in eludes, elsewhere than in the temple of mercy and
of peace, or near the beautiful triforiam, destroyed to give it
room, of Westminster Abbey. " That amiable spy,"
Major Andre, might be commemorated in a better
place than that which holds the monuments of New-
ton and a host of the truly glorious dead of England.
In many cases the monuments would be visibly
improved by a fiter and properly designed loca-
tion. The splendid statue of Watt that now fills up the
whole Chapel of St. Paul, cannot be seen as a masterpiece
of its sculptor's geniuts, though it hides all about it, and
presents the problem of how the egg got in the bottle—sa
much larger is it t•han the space of entrance. Banks's monu-
ment to Sir Eyre Coote, Flaxman's to Chatham, that by
Nollekens to the Captains of 1793, even the cumbrous slab
that bears the monument to Wolfe, while it shuts off a
whole chapel and hides the fine tomb of Sir Francis Vero
—a great captain of his day, to whom England owes that
Wolfe should not overshadow him, and a host of others, era
of this class. These would find a fit place in a British.
Valhalla not far from Westminster Abbey. Such of theta
as are not of an ecclesiastical character might well grace the
interior of Barry's Houses of Parliament, while the spots in
which the great English dead repose in the Abbey—might
be marked on slabs in the floor, as was done by the grave
of Newton and many more when it was convenient to re-
move the monuments from above them, Where would Mr.
Gibson's statue of Sir Robert Peel look better than in the
Houses of Parlianient or a British Valhalla ?—Atkencerem,

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