The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-20 00:00:00

_FROM AMEBIFA TO CANADA.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
TORONTO, FEB. 1.
Snow and fro:A and biting winds in New York
reached, as the telegraph told us, to the heart of the
Federal Camp on the Potomac. With many feet of
congealed mud beneath- his army in narrow paths
and uncertain " corduroy" roads, it seemed little
probable that one so prudent as General M'Clellan
would trust to the chance of the thermometer
being above 32 degrees the fate of a movement on
which would depend the fortunes of tha United
States. The difference of a degree might make or
mar the hour and the man, and all they con-
cerned here. In Kentucky mud was master. The
Americans are fond of comparisons, and no wonder.
Why should they not measure by the standard
of the Old World, from which they came, all
the men and deeds of that New World
which, as yet, has created no standard of its
own ? If the lines of the defensive works
around Washington, which is not menaced at all,
must be compared to those of Torres Vedras ; if
Beauregard, who is not attacking, and is not supe-
rior in force, is to be compared to Mamma, who was
both, why not admit that the mud in Virginia is as
deep as the mud in the Crimea ? Mulligan's defence
of Lexington—and far be it from me to deny its
gallantry—has been compared to that of Saguntum
and of Saragossa. Zagonyi's charge has been
likened to that of the Light Brigade. Pillow's re-
tirement has found its prototype in Napoleon's fare-
well at Fontainebleau. The army of the Potomac
has been discovered to bear for future development
all the tremendous powers of that magnificent orga-
nisation of forces which smote Prussia and Austria
to the earth at lena, and Austerlitz, and was snapped
in the frosts of Russia. Bull's Run has been but a
panic such as the French and English had many
times, and notably the former in the Italian War.
Let the mud of Virginia and Kentucky be as the
mud of Balaklava and Kamiesh was. Whatever
General M'Clellan may have in view, it is obvious
he does not so much aspire to be one of the fulniina
belli as to earn the fame of him qui cunetande
restituit rein. It may easily be imagined that if
there was a Roman Chase in those days he preferred
Scipio to Fabius, as his Treasury bills were much
lighter. The American's Carthage is far away, and
at most he must be content to find its outworks in
Canada. Let us at once say that Mr. Seward no
more thinks of annexing Canada than he dreams of
taking India; but let us by no means forget that
in the only wars which we had with our rebellious
colonies and the great empire, which the success of
the first insurrection produced, Canada was a special
object of attacks, which were signally defeated.
History records few encounters more fiercely con-
tested, less decisive, more sanguinary, than those
between the British and Americans in the last
war in Canada, which ended in the retreat of the
latter, not without laurels, nor without the fame won
by their prowess on the lakes ; but, great as has
been the increase of the United States since that un-

happy period, it must be remembered that Canada
has, in spite of a frost-bound, harbourless coast in
winter, made the most extraordinary advances, and
that of late years she has excelled her formidable
neighbour in the rapid augmentation of her people,
which, in such a country, is an increment of
wealth.

Of course it was to be expected that the United
States, in the spirit of Mr. Seward's circular, would
turn their attention to the Canadian frontier, not
forgetting that in war works of defence are certain
bases of offensive operations. An able and accom-
plished officer, well known to our engineers, Colonel
Totten, aided by an adequate staff, has been exa-
mining the United States frontier. Gen. M'Clellan
has been recommending or suggesting various steps
to strengthen it. Sums of money have been appro-
priated to works for the purpose. General Scott,
who is intimately acquainted with the country in
which lie the fields of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane,
and in reference to which in the boundary discus-
sions he acquired still more knowledge and earned
the regard and esteem of our officers for his concilia-
tory attitude, and the name of the " Pacificator," Is
said to be the author of a most elaborate scheme for
operations in case of a campaign against Canada.
It is obvious enough that the defence of the whole
frontier, so as to make it impermeable, is not to be
effected, but there are certain important points on
the lakes and along the rivers which should be made
secure as matters of the first necessity, and the more
permanent works can be multiplied the nearer will
be the approach to safety, so long as they are pro-
perly garrisoned. The greatest defect in our pre-
sent position lies in the exposure of the road to
Rwiere du Loup to any enemy in the adjoining
territory of Maine. The Grand Trunk of Canada
rail is perilously near the banks of the St. Lawrence.
The Welland Canal is now at the mercy of any
hostile band which may make a dash at it. De-
prived, by our famous "capitulation" and by the
suppressio veri practised upon our diplomatists, of
our proper territory, the security of the Canadas
can be gnawed in two at any moment by the pro-

jetting incisor tooth of Maine. If Halifax is to be
our only accessible port in many months of the year,
it is necessary to make a road which shall be safe
and sufficiently far from the possible enemy, that
troops moving along it in lengthened sleigh trains
shall not be exposed to destruction. But reserving
the consideration of the roads and communications
in Canada for a future letter, the interest deservedly
taken in 'such a vast territory, ample enough to
furnish kingdoms for all the unprovided princes of
the world, induces me to describe what I see in the
short tour I am about to make ere I return to Wash-
ington, or proceed to whatever place may be the seat
of active war when the weather permits. The
military importance attached to Canada, and the in-
flux of British troops, directed with so much rapidity
and against such adverse circumstances into the
Provinces, combined with the daily "all quiet along
our lines" of Washington, and the fitful character
of proceedings elsewhere, were inducements strong
enough to overcome the small disayremens of winter
travel in a country where the thermometer shows a
preference for zero. The condition of the streets in
New York last Monday prepared one for frost and
snow in perfection, and had induced a large exhibi-
tion of sleighs ; but when we started in the evening
by the Hudson River Railway for Albany, there
was nothing to warn us that the line was inter-
rupted, or that there would be any detention of the
train. As the open country was gained, however,
the snow was found to lie thicker, and three engines
attached to a light train could scarcely drag us
faster than a canter. Four hours is the ordinary
time for the journey from New York to Albany;
7,t, instead of arriving at half-past 9 or 10 at
411 t, the train did not reach the terminus till 3
o'clock, the following morning. The carriages are,
n"cever, 50 heated by stoves and the crowd of pas.
stingers' who regard opening a window as an out-
rage on society,
from
that little inconvenience is expe-
riencedcold,and little
e whatever may be and are the
discomforts
incidental to railway miseries of another kind
travel in America. I am not
going to utter a
word
saliva, rclabout expectoration or
parabolic discharges
o for no one can say
w, hat influence climate
may not have over the
human frame and habits, and
I iehfaovrethmeedtiswpliatyh
Englishmen who were as remarkable
of such phenomena after a few years'
the country as any of the Whennatives.residence in
lives for several hours together on ~ a man
gum drops,"
apples, water, and tobacco, it is not to be
at if the results are abnormal. The republican 6imeerd
plieity of the railway car certainly places rich and
poor on a dead level of uncomfortableness, and the
introduction of sleeping cars, by which those Nth,
can afford to pay for it have accommodations not
afforded to people who cannot do so, destroys the
theory on which the Americans vindicate their doc-
trine of the greatest unhappiness of the greatest
number of travellers. In trains where no sleeping
cars are provided, or where all are full, the fatigue
of travelling bolt upright, with no support for the
head, can only be imagined by those who have gone
in a third-class Parliamentary train from London
to Aberdeen. And then to be bedless at Albany—to
cross the frozen Hudson in a sleigh, and to stand in
mild submission and teeth-chattering cold at the bar
or office of the Delaware-house, trying to catch the
eye of the callous clerk, who regards the crowd

with Imperial indifference over the handle of his
deeply-fixed toothpick, and to melt him by a smile
into the concession of a bedroom ! West tyrants
they all are ! What poor slaves arc the American
people! They may abjure kings and princes, but
they are ruled by hotelkeepers and w,•iters. With
money in my purse, I could get nor lAe nor sup in
all this capital of the Empire State, and it was only
by the research of a companion we procured a place
to lie upon. The table cl'hote system of America
strikes a deadly blow at self•respect, independence,
and freedom of opinion. You are tyrannised over so
much that at the very door of the saloon you are
seized by a waiter and placed in a particular chair,
and if you don't eat then you must be content to re-
main hungry till the next meal arrives. However, I
must get on someway to Canada now. Next morning
I went on by the train to Buffalo, and reached the
American side of the Falls after midnight. The coun-
try lay deep under snow, and the noise of the cataract
was muffled in the heavy vapours,which grew thicker
and denser in the morning, and at last turned into
a drizzling sleet, mixed with rain. There are few
visitors to Niagara in winter. The hotels are closed,
only one or two of an inferior order are kept open
for country use. As I had seen an announcement
in the papers some time ago that " Niagara Falls"
were " for sale," I was glad to observe the pro-
prietor had not introduced any change into the
scenery. Winter, indeed, had wrought with it in
his own severely chaste, yet grand old style. The
trees, indeed, are not weighed down with masses of
ice, but the branches are covered with snow, which
lay a foot deep over the plains, the banks, and
Goat Island, polished like steel by the freezing rain,
so that it was not safe to approach the edge of the
Falls over the glistening surface. It has been often
said that Niagara looks finer in winter than in sum-
mer. It may be so when all the trees are heavy
with enormous icicles after long-continued frost,
but as I saw it at the close of last June, Niagara
was to me more impressive than it was this week
in its early winter garb of snow. The water, instead
of bright green, was of a brownish hue, which was
owing, the guide said, to the small tributaries being
"riled" by the recent rains. The whiteness of the
foam and the frothing jets of the Fall is dimmed
by that of the snow, and they look dull and opaque
by the contrast. Immense icicles fringed the rocks
at the sides of the Fall, and the masses of limestone
which have fallen at the American aide, and rise up
above the boiling whirlpools, were covered with a
spongelike coating of snow and frozen spray, which
assumed strange shapes, and here and there hung
over them like the skin of monstrous Polar bears.
Our small party crept cautiously over the ice in
our water dresses and got behind the Fall on the
English side, but the ice and snow blocked up
the way a few yards inside, and the falling icicles
crashing down from time to time did not tend to
prolong our visit. Far be it from me to attempt
here a description of Niagara. In my present
duty I was more called upon to consider it as a mi-
litary position. Close to us were the plains of Chip-
pewa and the pillar which marks the battle-field
of Lundy's-lane—two most desperate encounters
between the Americans and the British in the last
I war, attended with extraordinary slaughter in pro-
portion to the number engaged. The Americans
could cross into Canada below Buffalo now as readily
as before. Since then there has leapt across the St.
Lawrence, two miles below the Falls, the boautiful
creation of Roebling—the most light, graceful, and
daring work of the kind in the world—the fairy
queen of suspension bridges. What barbarism it
would be to destroy it ! The very water that rolls
through that fearful gorge in the wildest fury would
cry out against it; and yet, unless some express
agreement were come to, in event of hostilities any
bombardier who could fire a field-piece might shiver
the iron cobweb to pieces. At present these passes
are important, mainly on account of facilities afforded
for desertion. The town of Niagara is full of pla-
cards for Maccomb's regiment. They are offered 13
dols. a month, clothing, outfit, medical attendance,
100 dols. bounty at the end of the war (in small
print) " on honourable discharge," and 120 acres of
land ! Every inducement will be held out to get our
non- commissioned officers over, but, if I am to judge
from what I have heard, several of our old soldiers
in the Federal army say they will not be at all satis-
fied with the change in their conditions, in spite of
pay and food, because they find such a want of order
in their new service. Steps are taken to watch the
trains and the passengers, but if the men are bent
on going it will be difficult to prevent them. As
yet the desertions have been very few. Between the
railway station and the town on the American side
is a collection of the most wretched-looking wooden
shanties. Our conductor, a good specimen of the
native American—clever, shrewd, and vigorous—
told us they belonged to the Irish, whom ho spoke
of very much as a farmer would speak of his pigs.
"We put them out there," said he, "because they
were too dirty in their habits to be let stop in the
town. When the cholera broke out we just shipped
off every soul of them, and located them there,
with the order to allow so much space betwee
every house; but, hang them, you see how they've
huddled together again." Evidently inferior crea-
tures ; but they had probably built most of the
town and of the railroad to. A man of the class of
oar conductor never works at any thing of the sort.
Next morning we proceeded across the bridge into
Canada, and were made aware that we were in
another country by the formulas of the Custom-
house, which were very courteously and civilly per-
. formed by the officers. Some two hours and a half
brought us to Hamilton, which has been assigned
as the head-quarters of the battalion of the Rifle
Brigade assigned for duty in the province. A
pretty custom-house in cut-stone, from which floated
the Union Jack—the first I have set eyes on for
many a long month—flanks the entrance from the
railway station to the long straggling town, which
but for that token might be taken to be in the
United States. Indeed, the influence of the Re-
publie extends some way into the dominions of her
Majesty. The people in the carriages were reading
the paltry pictorial papers which do so much to
deprave the taste of the Americans and to unsettle
their notions in perspective and in material forms,
or were deep in the pirated editions of English
works which constitute the staple trade of the mass
of "enterprising publishers." The New York papers
were the only journals hawked about for sale in the
train. The sides of the carriages were covered
with New York and Boston advertisements. Not
a smack of Canada in book, or print, or journal, or
trade could be detected ; but in conversation it
was widely different, and all the gentlemen with
whom I conversed had but one view in reference to
the recent breach of amicable understanding be-
tween Great Britain and the United States. At
the hotel in Hamilton we found a number of offi-
cers engaged in preparing for the detachment of
the Rifle Brigade, just expected. The Canadian
winter dress is becoming and not unserviceable—
a round fur cap of gray Astrachan with flat top ;
a long overcoat, braided, and faced on collar and
cuffs with gray lamb's-wool of the same sort as
the cap ; long boots to the knee. The soldiers
wear long boots, thick warm coats, fur caps, and
gloves. It was delightful to learn there was no
grumbling ; the arrangements for the voyage and I
the transit across New Brunswick were admitted
to be excellent. At Hamilton there was some little
difficulty in obtaining quarters for the men who
were coming up by rail, and it was feared they
would arrive before their beds were ready. The
mejor of brigade, Capt. 11I'Donald, was busily en-
gaged with Dr. Innes (one of the "men of Delhi ")
in getting ready reoms for them, assisted by Lieut.
Stevenson; of her Majesty's 30th. Major-General
Russell has gone to London, attended by some other
officers, to look after the arrangements for winter-
ing the troops in that town, and altogether it looks
as if the
standingp power
wertom somell ulle
billet
would.small
dbieffive curl yt i
es at
fi r
st comfortable,in onbot
at wi
adequateniitnhg-
are, not adasea.
absurd sums for their
use
required by the Crown. At accommodation for them. There is no
troops in in Canada. The large houses
itarnedintahe owners ask
when they hear they are
s t,4.5300'c10ck e
inwe g reachedarrison
Toronto. Here her Majest,
but the defences pf the place
most unsatis-
factory condition, although much improved,canc oomr, ,p li
-in-
deed, created, since the recent Ameri
cation.