The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-24 00:00:00

(From the Anglo American Times)
There has been added this week, through the co-
lumns of the Limes, to the controversy ou England's
policy towards' the colonies, a series of letters from
" A Colonist," evidently of Canada, with means
of information which enable him to give details not
generally known in support of his view ; from
which we would argue that lie is a member of the
Dominion Parliament, and one who appears thou-
roughly to understand his subject. His letters
almost wholly refer to the British North American
Possessions, and are chiefly designed to refute the
reasons advanced for severing the connection arising
from the danger and complications caused by the
continuity of the frontier with a great Power like
the United States. Although we partake of Mr.
FORSTER'S broader views, as given in the preceding
article, and,fail to see that Canada is really more
English than the United States, or that there should
in either case, if well and wisely directed, be this
hazardous hostility on which the arguments of " A
Colonist" mainly rest, yet we are sensible of the
existing state of things, to which, as a practical man,
" A Colonist" is justified in confining himself.
First, " A Colonist' considers that Canada, backed
by the whole power of England, might successfully
sustain the burden of an invasion from the United
States. " Canada possesses some of the strongest
positions known—Halifax, Quebec, St. John, and,
if properly covered, Montreal and Kingston, and
other places on the Peninsula between Lakes On-
tario, Erie, and Huron." Each is widely separated
from the others, and would require for the reduc-
tion separate armies and fleets. Though in places
the countries are contiguous, there the land is wild,
the climate so severe that winter operations are im-
possible. Where an army might at such a time exist
in huts, broad lakes would be behind the invader.
If the fortresses could not be taken in one season
the sieges would have to be raised and resumed dur-
ing the next, and the writer sees difficulties so great
in sustaining the operations from climate, distance,
and inaccessibility, that he is confident these never
have had their due weight. He goes on to show that
on the lakes, Canada would command Ontario, as the
U. S. shipping of Erie, Huron, and Superior could
be cut off by the destruction of the Welland Canal.
The advantages of connection with the sea, of
' harbours, and the dockyard on Ontario, are all
with Canada. Finally, he asks what must be the
strength of the forces attacking each point? assert-
ing that the operations against Charleston, New
Orleans, Fort Fisher, and Mobile, which occupied
so many years, and where the naval supremacy was
wholly with the invaders, were as nothing to what
would have to be overcome in these northern posi-
tions. Then he turns to the other si le, and
makes the bold statement that the population of
Canada comprehends nearly as many fighting men
as the Southern States ever brought into the field,
while the South had no England at her back, no sea-
men or win ships worthy. the name, whereas the
Dominion has fully 70,000 admirable sailors. While
conceding the force of his remarks there are a few
points of vital importance overlooked or evaded.
The strength of the Northern States, which subju-
gated the Southern States, lay for the most part
well to the North, that is, bordering on Canada.
In attacking Charleston, New Orleans, and Mo-
bile, the main power of the Union had to be di-
rected a vast distance, through a hostile coun-
try or along a hostile coast, and the South-
ern climate in its deadly effects is certainly
more prejudicial than the dry, winter cold of a coun-
try abounding in fuel like Canada. Though " A
Colonist" counts every mile from St. John to Hali-
fax, and from Halifax to Quebec, thence to Kings-
ton, he takes no account of the far greater distances
of New Orleans, Mobile, Vicksburg; but what is
much more to the point, he omits to admit that the
strength of the enemy, in a degree, faces these for-
tresses—that is, close to St. John is Maine, with
a perfect railway system to the frontier; not far
from Montreal are New Hampshire, Vermont, and
New York ; Kingston is almost within gunshot of
that most populous, and powerful, and most perfect
in communication of all the States, New York. Op-
posite Canada, on the one side of Lake Erie, is the
populous city of Buffalo, on the other that of
Detroit. Considering the concentration of rail-
roads to these points, the easy means of supply-
ing them with all the material required for an army,
we fail to see that Canada possesses the advantages
claimed in her widely-scattered fortresses. Indeed
we hold this to be a weakness instead of a strength,
for it would be easier for the United States to use
her material for forming and supplying an army
around Detroit, around Buffalo, Ogdensburgh, St.
Albans, and Portland. By thus acting, all com-
munication in Canada would be destroyed, and
being attacked simultaneously, the defence would
become isolated, and comparatively paralysed,
while the expense of the drain on the United
States would be lessened, for the levies would
each be comprised within a separate circle, making
them comparatively easy in organisation and less
costly in transport. We are alive to the fact, that
if Canada hurried together a large army, the Re-
public would be compelled to concentrate; but what
then becomes of the advantages urged by " A Colo-
nist" in the scattered fortresses ?—for in that case she
mustriskall in field fights. Nor does "A Colonist" only
omit the telling truth, that the strength of the United
States adjoins Canada, instead of as in the South-
ern war, being widely separated from the enemy it de-
sired to reach ; but he also omits to notice the fact
that the United States was then a divided house, one
section of the country warring against another. To
compare the efforts of a nation thus acting against
the efforts of a nation warring against a foreign
enemy involves a broad and palpable miscalcula-
tion, It is not what the Confederate States sent
into the field against the Union, but what the
Confederate States and the Union could send into
the field against a common enemy, that Canada has
to consider ; and these are the two omissions which
in a measure vitiate this portion of the argument.
" A Colonist" then proceeds to discuss the alterna-
tive of giving Canada up, and how England would
then stand in the event of a war. We think an
error is also implied in that argument, which briefly
is, that England, having been dispossessed of all
harbours on the American continent, would first
lose Bermuda, then the West Indies, and through
them every chance of acting effectively against
the coasting trade of America from Portland round
the Horn to Sitka. " A Colonist" deduces too
much from his premises, and he shows this even in
his own letters. Surely if England cannot act with
anyeffect along the interminable coastline of the Ame-
rican Continent, North and South, it is unfair to as-
sume that America can act with dangerous effect from
Newfoundland against Ireland, whence, he says, a
safe base of operations would be formed for the
despatch of men and munitions of war. The danger
of an invasion of Ireland from America is a bug-
bear. Europe combined, might succeed, though it is
extremely doubtful. England is the strongest for-
tress on earth ; it is a concentration of entrgy,
wealth, and appliances ; it is an arsenal, a mili-
tary storehouse, a man-of-war, iu its condensed
means of repulsion ; and for an enemy to set foot on
an island to which England could moor ship to shija
and form a bridge if she desired it, would require a
nation many times stronger than herself, to have any
prospect of doing with a chance of success. There
must be a vast chansge in the relative naval strength
and the power of constricting iron ships ere America
could send an armament from Newfoundland to Ire-
land. The fact is that " A Colonist" has attempted
to prove too much, and his letters would have greater
weight if he had frankly touched on these objec-
tions. There is much in which we thoroughly
agree, for this paper is no advocate for a needless
dismemberment of the British. Empire. On the con-
trary, ours is the broader policy, the federation of
the English-speaking people. When " A Colonist"
branches off from war to discuss the internal affairs