The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-30 00:00:00

BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS CANADA.

It is not among legislators that a movement
making a fundamental change in the status of a
country is likely to originate ; on the contrary, it is
in a Legislative Assembly such a change is certain
to experience the most Arenuous opposition. It is
not then with surprise we read the following tele-
gram, dated Toronto, March 22 :—" A resolution
in favour of an independent action of the Dominion,
subject to the assent of the Crown relative to com-
mercial treaties with foreign countries, bas been
defeated in the House of Commons. The Govern-
ment amendment in favour of concurrent action by
England and the Dominion, and the condemnation
of the Customs Union with the United States, was
carried by 100 votes against 58." Mr. WHALLEY,
from his place iu the House of Commons, made in-
quiries from the Under-Secretary of State for the
Colonies about a w idely-published letter of Sir A.
T. GALT, and a speech he delivered in the Canadian
Parliament, showing that the policy of Dominion
Independence was the policy of the Imperial Govern-
ment. If men are to be judged by their acts, the
policy of independence is that of her MAJESTY'S
Ministers, and there was no denial of this implied
in the answer of Mr. MONSELL. Supposing that the
policy of independence was not that of her MA-
JESTY'S pre ent Government, the course it is pur-
suing is that of a man playing blind-folded on the
edge of a precipice, his steps being towards the
brink, though he may not know it. If Great Britain
desired to preserve the connection as it stood, she
would not take the most effectual steps to change
that connection ; and, judging from the course of
those she has placed in power, rational persons can
only conclude that Canadian Independence is in-
tended. Who ever heard of two nations, widely
separate, maintaining the sort of connection now
existing between the Dominion and the mother
country ? and the very resolution proposed in the
Canadian Parliament indicates the fact that such
a connection cannot be maintained. At present
the most influential Canadians find it best comports
with their inclinations to uphold lii itish supremacy
and to give the 'United States the cold shoulder.
Many of them are decorated, and enjoy the handle
to their names none the less for being in the neigh-
bourhood of a populous Republic. A noble with an
historic name is not the stickler for etiquette and
privilege that is the newly-made knight of Canada ;
just as there was no such upholder of the Domestic
Institution of the Southern States as the poor white
who might have had a share in a slave, and there
is no such a maintainer of the full rights of pro-
perty as the man who has just acquired a little for
the first time in his life. These individuals feel the
change and exaggerate its importance ; but the
new knight or taronet of Canada, or the person
who hopes soon to have a title, is not a faithful
exponent of the s ate of feeling in the Colony.
Nor can any guarantee that a change will not
be wrought in their own opinions within a short
period, when the same resolution may again be
brought forward with a different result. We main-

taro that there is no permanency in such relations ;
that their existence direct public attention towards
them ; that the public discuss them, and having the
power to alter, are likely to exert it at any time they
change their opinion. But if the Imperial Govern-
ment intended that the Dominion was to be held
permanently as a Province, it would have sup-
pressed, not fostered, the discussion of such n so•
lutions. It is not by withdrawing all troops from
Canada, by leaving fortresses empty, and by urg-
ing the establishment of a Dominion militia and
Volunteer force, that her MAJESTY'S Ministers
would have proceeded to hold the country. The
policy of Gnat Britain is clearly to federate into
an independent nation all the British Possessions
of North America, thus establishing as far as it
can a balance of power on the Continent. But,
unfortunately for this policy, the British Posses-
sions are the wintry, ice-bound North, while the
more genial portions of the Continent are embraced
within the States ; indeed all, but Upper Canada.
We do not for a moment say that the Dominion
will not be a grand field for emigration, but here-
after; for the finer portions of the Continent must
first be filled up. And, it is by overlooking so
simple a fact, that many Englishmen blunder along
in their emigration schemes. There are thousands
of her MAJESTY'S subjects who would prefer a terri-
tory over which the British flag flew rather than the
Stars and Stripes ; but if they have to emigrate,their
main consideration must be the country which offers
them the greatest material advantages. Of course,
the richer and more genial territory does, therefore
they go there ; and it is amazing that this natural
cause should be overlooked, and the good people who
are doing the best they can for themselves under the
circumstances should be called names, though they
are no.more to blame than were the American ship-
owners who, during the war, transferred their ton-
nage to foreign hands to escape Confederate
cruisers. Nature's arrangement, and the treaties
through which the Union has secured the beat of
of the Continent, have left the Dominion nut in
the cold, and. no legislation can alter the position.
We do not assert that the policy of founding the
Dominion must of necessity fail ; but Nye do assert
that it cannot for generations, if ever, be esta-
blished as a counterpoise to the United States, or
so as in any degree to create a balance of power on
the continent of America. It will not be the fault of
Greatßritain or of Canada,but of the territory itself;
and it ought not to astonish any if the design should
fail, but, that it should ever have been attempted.
The best course would be, as we before stated, if
the North American Continent is to be split up into
separate nations, that the whole should first be
placed under one Governinent,and then subdivided
in accordance with the physical features of the coun-
try. The Customs' Union with the United States
was probably the proposal for Canada, alluded to
by Sir FRANCIS ,HINCKS, to enter into a sort of com-
mercial protection convention, which would have
benefited the manufacturers of the Union at the ex-
pense of England as well as of the people of Canada;
but we are not aware that the nature of the proposal
is known on this side.—Angle- Americana imes.

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

The debate in the House on the admission of
Georgia was long and earnest, the bill being finally
passed for the admission of that State on the same condi-
tions as Virginia and Mississippi. It was hurried along
by the fact that the Fifteenth Amendment will not be
proclaimed till all the States are readmitted. Meanwhile,
however, General Butler is preparing another bill to turn
out Tennessee, and has set to work to reconstruct that
State. The President and the Secretary of War have
directed a regiment to be sent at once to Tennessee, and
more will be added, if necessary, to suppress the disturb-
ances of which it is the theatre. Representative Prosser
has announced to his Nashville constituents that he will
give his nomination to Most Point Academy to the best
coloured scholar in the schools of his district, and thus the
fight between the races is maintained. Recent telegrams,
however, show that some of the States are no sooner re-
constructed than they lapse into the old quagmire, out of
which Congress has again to drag them. Resolutions ap-
pear to hare been offered in the Senate for the re-estab-
lishment of military rule, and the suspension of the
Habeas Corpus Act in Georgia. Carl Schurz declared
that this proposition etubodied a wanton and flagrant
usurpation. The opinion of so liberal and enlightened a
Senator, one distinguished for a life-long contest against
coercion and military rule, will carry weight.

The following items have during the week been
brought by cable :—A resolution has been introduced in
the Senate to provide for a Government survey of the
proposed Tehuantepec ship canal, and for the encourage-
ment of the project. The House of Representatives passed
a resolution last Monday, declaring , that securities not
bearing interest should not be converted by funding into
interest bearing securities. A resolution proposing tc
authorise the national banks to increase their currenc3
was ordered to be laid on the table. The Senate's Finance
Committee have agreed to report adversely on Mr. Sum-
ner's bill for the resumptirn of specie payments in Janu-
ary, 1871. Tho Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations
recommend the rejection of the treaty for the purchase of
the island of St. Thomas. The debate on the new Tariff
Bill progresses slowly in the House. Long speeches are
now being made on the principles of the bill. It will
probably not be considered in detail till next week. Tho
Yoreign Affairs Committee of the House have agreed to
report favourably on General Banks' resolution instructing
the President to maintain an impartial neutrality in the
contest between Cuba and Spain. _ .

The Pall Mall Gazette has received the following
telegram :—" The Senate sat in secret session for several
hours on Thursday, to consider the ratification of the San
Domingo Treaty. Mr. Sumner spoke in opposition to the
Treaty. He was in possession of the flour for nearly
three hours. The President has made every effort in his
power to secure the ratification of the treaty; but ap-
pearances indicate that the Government will be defeated.
The opposition to the Funding Bill in the House increases,
and the leading Republicans now predict that the bill will
either be defeated or modified in essential particulars. Be-
fore the State Committee of the Legislature at Albany
Mr. Jay Gould has made a speech controverting Mr. Burt's
most material assertion concerning the Erie Railway. Mr.
Burt's chance of success is considered to be complicated
by the serious split which culminated yesterday between
the city and the country Democrats on account of the
notorious corruption connected with the Tammany rule in
New York.
Contrary to expectation the House has passed a
bill enforcing laws against the Mormons in Utah, depriving
polygamists of the rights of citizenship,and punishing them
by line and imprisonment, by a vote of 94 to 32. It was
amended by, striking out provisions authorizing the Pre-
sident to send military into Utab, and select 40,000 volun-
teers to enforce it, The bill goes to the Senate. As the
clause giving the President the power of coercion hasbeen
struck out., even if the Senate does adopt and the President
signs the House Bill, it will remain, at least for a time, a
dead letter, unless indeed the Mormons themselves take
action. Brigham and several of the leading " saints" have
started in search of a new Jerusalem in Arizona, and there
may be another Mormon exodus.
The Piegan massacre and the sinking of the
Oneida by the Bombay are very generally discussed by the
American press. General Sheridan and Colonel Baker have
been much censured, but have also found hearty defenders.
Col. Baker's report has been published. It appears that
the troops managed to approach to within a few miles of
the Indians, when they galloped to Big Ben, 16 miles, and
then burst like a hurricane on the camp of 32 lodges. The
Piegans attempted resistance and shot a soldier dead,
which so infuriated his comrades that they killed all
they saw except a hundred women and children. Several
notorious chiefs were killed, though Black Eagle escaped,
but wounded. Forty-four lodges were destroyed, and
three hundred horses captured. Gen. Sheridan notices
The injustice done to Colonel Baker by the omission
in Mr. Vincent Colyer's letter that he had captured 100
women and children, and he asks who shall be killed, the
whites or the Indians ? adding, since 1862 over 800 white
men, women; and children had been murdered within the
limits of his present command, in a manner too fiendish
to describe. A letter is published from Sherman to Sheri-
ean.in which the Commander-in-Chief asserts that the Pie-
guns were attacked by desire of Geu. Sully and others, who
are now shocked at tho result, and endeavour to cast the
blame on General Sheridan and Colonel Baker, which
General Sherman pronounces to be unfair, censuring
Sully severely for communicating as he did with Mr
Colyer. General do Trobiand speaks in the highest terms
of Colonel Baher while forwarding hie despatch, and the

people of Montana have held meetings in every town to
endorse and applaud the action of that officer.

As regards the loss of the Gneida both the
British and American reports are given in full, and the
impression in America is strongly condemnatory of Capt.
Eyre. It is asserted in the American account, that, on a
cross-examination of the Bcntbay crew, their evidence was
found "to be incoherent and inconsistent, a wilful and deli-
berate issue of fabrications;'' and it is added that "either
cowardice or the most horrible inhumanity dictated Capt.
Eyre's conduct." The Bombay was old, had been injured
by the shock, and was making water, and it is possible
Capt. Eyre feared to delay; but it is strenuously main-
tained that he knew the position in which he left the
Oneida. The American press looks for a full irLvestiga-
Con of the case—a trial at law, in which Capt. Eyre will
stand arraigned in the dock, if not for murder, at any rate
for manslaughter; and the sooner that gentleman is tried
and justice done in this matter the better.
The effects of the terrible gales, in which, we
fear, the City of Boston has perished, aro daily seen in the
reports of abandoned ships at sea, and the rescue of crews
on the Atlantic. On Thursday the Cunarder China brought
into Liverpool the crew of the ship C. C. Houghton, bound
from Loudon to Boston, which was abandoned on March 12
in a sinking condition. The passengers on board the Samaria
published a very strong letter of censure against Captain
Forsythe, of the Guion U. S. mail steamer Manhat-
tan, who, as they allege, passed them at sea, in spite of
their signals of distress, without even stopping to inquire
what was the matter. In reply, the owners asserted that the
charge bore improbability on its face; for Capt. Forsythe
might be benefited by rendering assistance, while he could
not have injured himself, but he could not benefit,though he
might be injured by passing unheedingly a vessel in distress
They added that the Manhat tan had sailed for New York,
and that therefore Captain Fo rsythe had now no oppor-
tunity of stating the circumst antes. A telegram has,
however, reached London, from New York, announcing
the arrival of the Manhattan and Captain Forsythe re-
ports that on the 12th of March he passed a brig-rigged
steamer hound east, under full sail. There was nothing
in the appearance of the steamer to indicate distress. It
was too far off to make out any signals. He did not know
it was the Samaria or that she was still out and overdue.
He says the report that he refused assistance is untrue.
The steamer could easily have attracted special notice by
changing her course, taking in sail, or firing a gun, not
one of which things she did. The letter of accusation,
however, asserts that the Samaria would not obey her
helm, and could not therefore change her course,that guns
were fired and sail lowered.

We learn by Cable that Mr. Bradley has been
confirmed by the Senate as Associate Justice of the Su-
preme Court. The President paid a visit to the Capitol
on the 9th inst., and assembling the Republican members
of the Senate Judiciary in the President's room had a
long conference with them about the nomination. He
plainly stated his willingness to withdraw the nomination
if the committee deemed it expedient, even asserting that
he had arrived at the opinion that the nominee should bo
a Southern man and a resident of the district, wherein be
would be required to preside. At the conclusion of this
interview the President sent for the Republican members
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to confer on
the San Domingo Treaty. He informed the members of
the vote of the people of San Domingo on the subject of
annexation to the United States, and he desired immediate
That e best acquainted with the matter who have discussed
it with the President, are surprised at the breadth of his
information. In a general way he concurs with the report
of the Special Committee, which he has carefully read,
and he is prepared to back any sensible legislation on the
subject. We hope he does not overlook the remarks of
this journal, for ho may depend upon the fact that the
best way to ventilate a difficult matter is to gather opi
pions from diverre sources, always providing that they
come from persons who understand the position, and
honestly discuss it according to their light.

To say the least it is amusing to see telegrams
figuring in the London morning papers of Wednesday
last, from Australia, with the news that the new line of
steamers between Sydney and England via Honolulu and
San Francisco will commence running (this day) 26th
March. The matter of that telegram was the subject of
a leading article in this paper last week. 'We frequently
gather news via San Francisco and ca,ried by the mail to
England, which appears a week after we have published it,
in the shape of telegrams, in the London daily papers.

How TO SETTLE A QUARREL.—At St. Louis, on
Wednesday night, March 9, A. J. Spaker and Caleb W.
Baldwin quarelled, and fired at each other. Baldwin was
shut in the heart, and fell dead ; Spaker was shot in the
head, and is not expected to live. It must be highly satis-
factory to the friends of both that the gentlemen showed
such spirit, and so effectually squared matters that they
left nothing for future arbitration. We cannot tell whether
he who got the bullet in his heart or he who got it in his
head went out of the world with a grievance; whether
the quick or the slow was the prefet able, but it must be
most encouraging to the youths of St. Louis to have this
Kilkenny-eat system FO sti ikingly exemplified. That city
is certainly acquiring an unenviable notoriety for the
ready resort to the pistol by its citizens ; and it could
scarcely fail to check such a tendency to manslaughter, if
the party who escaped was lynched, so that a resort to that
fatal weapon became more certain to end in the death of
the man who used it than of the man against whom it
was used.

An American traveller in the East accounts, in a
way little to the credit of our boasted civilization, for the
inexplicable conduct of the officers of the mail steamer
Bombay in leaving the crew of the Oneida to perish. He
says that great recklessness is shown in the navigation by
European vessels in those seas, where they sometimes
come in collision with weak native craft, and pursue
their voyage without making any inquiry as to the da-
mage, or any effort whatever to rese.ue a drowning crew.
The night was pitchy dark, and nothing could be seen
except the light of the vessels when the steamers collided,
but so slight appears to have been the shock to the
Pomba! that she might have pursued her voyage, imagin-
ing that she had only run down a jinak. I Later accounts
accounts, however, show that this was not the cased The
American papers hope that this disaster will lead to thn pas-
sage of laws by the principal maritime nations, inflicting the
severest puniaiment on the masters of vessels who abandon
to their fate a drowning crew whom they could have
aided. The Government at Washington will demand an
investigation, but it is highly improbable that the E ng-
lish will await the demand, but order a rigid inquiry into
the subject immediately on the arrival of Captain Eyre.
POLITICAL NEWS.—It is announced, on reliable
information, that President Grant has decided not to issue
the prcclamation declaring the adoption of the Fifteenth
Amendment as part of the Constitution, until Georgia
is admitted to representation in Congress, and official
notice has been received of the ratification by the Legisla-
ture of Texas.

BUDGET OF PERSONAL.—Dr. Mary Walker has
been arrested for wearing male clothing, and discharged
with the warning that every time she appeared in the
street in that costume she would be locked up.—ln San
Francisco, W.A.ltobinson, a public school teacher,has been
sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment, for cruelly punishing
a pupil.—Secretary Robeson is to deliver the address before
the Literary Society at Princeton College at the next Com-
tnencement.—T he health of A.H. Stephens is improving.—
In America the papers says that Sir Charles Mordaunt will
leave England at an early day to spend some time in the
enjoyment of the sports of the Western prairies. If he
can enjoy anything at present he must possess a very
"enjoyable" disposition.—President Smith, of Dartmouth
College, writes from Jamaica that he has rented a cottage in
the mountain region, 1,450 feet above the sea, and that his
health is already much improved.—Montgomery Blair is
said to be an aspirant to Congress from Maryland, but has
doubts as to which nominating convention to apply to.—
Ex-Auditor Wickliffe, of Louisiana, has delivered up the
coupons he was charged with embezzling, and been re-
leased on bail.—Captain Hall, the Arctic explorer, lectured
in Washington, on the night of March 5, to an audience
including the President, Vice-President, Chief Justice, and
several Congressmen. He said he intended to ask an
appropriation of 100,000 dollars for an expedition to the
North Pole in the interest of science and commerce. He
had no doubt, so far as th, latter was concerned, of the
discovery of extensive whaling grounds. -C. S. Hobbs,
the late paymaster of the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern Railroad, shot himself at Cleveland, March sth.
—General Horace Porter, private Secretary to President
Grant, has been spending a few days in Philadelphia.—
Sumner is preparing a sixteen-column speech on one cent
postage.—Lydia Thompson now proposes to horse-whip
Olive Logan.—A daughter of Chief Justice Chase has
nearly ready for publication a collection of nursery
rhymes in several languages, illustrated by herself.—
lilt Burns, the present famous.man of Water-street, New
York, is said to have a voice "like the filing of a saw, and
when he laughs it resembles the agony of a door-hinge in
want of oil."—Miss Emma Jones has been elected a pro-
fessor in the new University of the Pacific, at San Fran-
cisco.- On the Ist of March, at the Church of St. Agatha,
Rome, was married, by his Eminence Cardinal Cullen,
Archbishop, attended by the Very Rev. Monsignor Moran,
D.D., and the Rev. Dr. O'Connor, James Kieran Hyland,
Esq., 13, Rutland-square E., Dublin, and Newtown H yland,
County Dublin, to Josephine, daughter of the late J. Cun-
ningham, Esq., Chicago.—Tom Allen, the prizefighter, has
arrived in Cincinnati, from the South, with forty pounds of