The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-07 00:00:00

British North America, " including facility, rapidity,
and security, is, indeed, the true secret of the develop-
ment of a country."—(P. 8.) Lieut. SYNGE is tho-
roughly acquainted with the geographical and geologi-
cal peculiarities of the colony, he has studied the
country with the scrutinizing and appreciative eye of
an officer in the Royal Engineers—and he pronounces
himself decidedly in favour of the feasibility of
opening such lines of traffic as shall render the com-
munication throughout those dominions complete.
0 The advance," he says, " may be made by canal, by
railroad, or by a mixed route."—(P. 14.) If so—
then assuredly the railroad would be preferable, as
coming within his former requirements of rapidity,
and security, and facility, much better than the canal,
or the mixed route. Canal-barges would hardly keep
pace with steam-engines ; and railroads are not gene-
rally liable to be frozen. Every one of the argu-
ments employed by Lieutenant MILLINGTON SYNGE
go far to enforce the scheme to which we have already
more than once referred, as having been propounded
by Major CARMICHAEL SMYTH—the scheme of
constructing a gigantic arterial railway Tun-
ing across North America from Frazer's
River to Halifax, and thereby connecting together
the Pacific and the Atlantic. No doubt the project
is bold—so bold as at first sight to appear almost
extravagant. But bolder things have been done
under more discouraging circumstances, and without
a fraction of the recompense in comparison. Many
shrug their shoulders, very likely, at the suggestion,
and feel disposed to cry out with AUSTIN CAXTON,
" Pshaw !" and " Papm !" But the Spanish children
pointed after COLUMBUS in the streets of Madrid,
calling him the " mad Italian," because he dreamed of
discovering land further west than the Canaries !
Major CARMICHAEL SMYTH can afford to exult in the
privilege of bearing a kindred derision to that lavished
by the Castilians upon the glorious CHRISTOPHER.
Yet the daydream of a trunk railway between the
Pacific and the Atlantic would seem to have awakened ,
the attention of people as little gifted with imagina-
tion as fur-traders. From the communications pub-
lished by ourselves in another column, it would appear
that the Hudson's Bay Company are disposed
to afford the scheme their countenance. That
fact, we doubt not, will go a great way
towards its advancement, if it do not actually
bring about its realisation. It will show that the
motion can influence more than intellectual specula-
tors—that it has the attraction of £ s. d. as well as
the fascination of a poetical vision. The subject, in
fact, is one so peculiarly calculated to arrest the at-
tention of every one interested in the prosperity of
our North American possessions as to force itself
upon public consideration. And appearing precisely
at this moment, it holds out a means for the tran-
quillization of the turmoil already beginning to re-
vive in the Canadas. It proffers the very boon for
which the mother country has been so long aspiring.
It reveals the chain that may bind our dependencies
in North America to Great Britain for ever, and with
those dependencies all the rest of the colonies hanging
on to the gorgeous skirts of the empire. Once
carried out, the stupendous possessions of England
though distributed over both hemispheres, would
be permanently compacted together—our fleets
would more than ever hold dominion
over the seas commanding both hemispheres
—the hidden resources of the northern continent of
America, of New Zealand, and of Australia, would be
suddenly called to light—the necessity of an overland
route across Europe (liable at any moment to inter-
ruption) would be removed, the route across the new
world being more direct and rapid—indolent crime
would be compelled to toil, in the persons of the con-
vict labourers, for the nourishment and emolument of
industrious virtue—the east and the west, barbarism
and civilization, the fruitful regions of spice and vege-
tation, and the cities of workshops and factories would
be confronted, face to face, through the intervention
of steam power—Canada would be pacified, England
would be enriched, and the British empire con-
solidated.

Will this prove a gorgeous daydream or a magnifi-
cent reality ? 'We leave Time to decide.

We have latterly been favoured with opinions by
Members of that House which is usually least prone to
express strong views on litigated points that do not
strictly come under their legislatorial authority.
Harsh condemnation of men struggling under adverse
fortune has not hitherto been a characteristic of the
British House of Peers, and we are glad to see the
protests made by Lords LANSDOWNE, FITZWILLIAM,
and HARROWBY against the precedent. That the al-
lusions to possible causes of suffering amongst the
exiled Poles are founded upon purely imaginary data,
has been proved to the satisfaction of the country
which contributes to their relief and to Europe, which
has hitherto admired its generosity. It is not easy to
clear up accusations against the Hungarians who are
engaged in a similar struggle for liberty to that of
the Poles, because no party in this country,
as far as we are aware, has lent them any
aid, or even maintains any correspondence with them.
But as an attempt has been made to prejudice public
opinion by representing the corps in Transylvania
commanded by General BEM as having transgressed
the laws of humanity in their proceedings, it may be
well to call attention to a quotation from the Alge-
meine Zeitung, of the 28th of March. It states—

" The traces of fire, blood, and robbery, which the
Wallachians left at Zdathna and Enyed, will be more
tittficult to efface than those which the Hungarian rebel
army, under Mai, left in their march throughout the
whole country."—(7'ransylvunian Messenger, published
in German, at Hermannstadt.)

This testimony, from an unwilling witness (as the
term rebels applied to the Hungarians shows), seems
to make the accusation raised against General BEM
to be as illusory as that prefered by Lord &MINTON
against his poor countrymen in England.

Nobly has the heroic BEM earned the glorious
decoration of the cross of Louis KOSSUTH ! His
sgwreoartddisescpuottitsilig ms to
of
fApiecesustrtih
ae
andlegionariesussia ft
htohs ee
tt
oo
gigantic empires the conquest of whose
united force required all the strength And
strategy of the Emperor NArOLEON at
Austerlitz. The bulletins from the Hungarian
Commander-in-Chief—which interesting documents
vs ill be found given exclusively by ourselves in
another column—show again for the nine hun-
dred and ninety-ninth time that the statements
made in the reactionary journals, both in this
country and on the continent, are utterly devoid of
accuracy—that they are, in fact, from beginning to
end misstatements, or, if the phrase must out at last,
lies, and no white lies either, but lies of Cimmerian
blackness.

Instead of BEM having taken Hermanstadt merely
for the sake of abandoning it immediately afterwards
—as has been impudently proclaimed by the Minis-
terial papers of Germany, and as impudently repeated
by the Tory papers of England—it will be seen that
Hermanstadt was captured on the 11th inst., and that
on the 16th, the date of the latest intelligence, it was
still in the possession of the Hungarians. It will be
perceived, moreover, from these memorable bulletins,
that General BEAT has proceeded further than could
by any chance have been anticipated—that on the
15th, the anniversary of the great day when Hungary
first awoke from her sleep of dependence, he entirely
routed the Imperial army of his antagonists, driving
the Russian auxiliaries across the frontiers into Wal-
lachia, and compelling the Austrian Generals Yuca-
NER, GNESEE, Jovlcii, and PFEROMANN to fly before
his victorious soldiers. Now we ask any man not posi-
tively deranged by the animosities of faction, whether
these repeated disproof's of the assertions made by the
reactionary newspapers, as to the proceedings of
Hungary, do not justify the public in henceforth
discrediting their most solemn asseverations as to
the progress of the arms of Austria ? Let it
be remembered that between the seat of war
and ourselves there intervene the German dominions
of FRANCIS JOSEPH—that all' the first news from
Hungary passes through Vienna before it reaches
the western shores of Europe—that the interest of
ohide its
an d reverses
kno w
and
assailing
assert
powitesrs
is
advancement to
from experience that the Viennese organs
fables, defeats into victories, and so forth,
are marvellous adepts at distorting ftahcotspuibnlitno
will, hereafter, we doubt not, give a proportionate
credence to the Germanized, Tory-trumpeted dis-
pisatlcnhtehser:oseisveeduif:mof hethtebattle-fields of Hungary.
The truth is, as we have stated, that Hermanstadt
.
patriots—that Box has