The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 13, 1869,

THE UNITED STATES AND CAA-ADA.

(From the .Inglo-American Times.)

Opinions in widest circulation are often the most
erroneous ; for instance, many believe that Canada
is the joint in England's coat of mail that the Re- '
public can at any time penetrate with the most
deadly effect to the monarchy. It is the threat which
America most delights to flourish, and which most
makes England quail ; nevertheless, it is true, that,
instead of being England's danger, it is America's
danger, and the more dangerous because it makes
so little threatening show. Instead, it lures ; offer-
ing a tempting bait, though as deceptive as a gaudy
fly on a barbed hook. Canada conquered, would
be Britain freed from an encumbering dependency ;
but what would Canada conquered be to the United
States? If the Union took forcible possession
against the strenuous resistance of the Canadians,
the chance would perhaps have passed away for
ever of amalgamating the whole Northern Conti-
nent into one nation. The Northern States might
drink a little more of the intoxicating draught of
glory ; but at what a price ! The history of Ame-
rica could not then be written without stirring up
in American bosoms feelings of irritation. The con-
quest of the South and the conquest of the North
might read very pleasantly to the Middle States,
but from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, from the
St. Lawrence to the North Pole, that history would
give but little satisfaotion. There ate Northerners
who think the civil war a gigantic blunder, and
there are more who believe it to ha►e been a neces-
sity only less fatal to the conquerors, than to the
conquered. Its record can never be expunged, its
memories never obliterated, and the day will come
when the burden of Southern poetry will be to give
vent in song to triumph in Southern victories, to wail
over Southern subj ugation, and to mourn the memories
of the leaders who fell in upholding the Southern
cause. STONEWALL JACKSON is a name that will be
heard oftener fifty years hence than now, and it
may represent to the Southerners of that day, what
WALLACE does to the Scotch. 'A more unwise thing
could not be done in cool blood by any nation than
deliberately to generate, beyond the St. Lawrence,
the memories stamped into the soil south of the
Potomac ; and if ever this fatal thing happens, the
statesman has to be born who can undo the work.
Those who, like the New York Times, glibly talk
of conquering Canada, had better ponder this view
of the question. Let Americans weigh all the cir-
cumstances, and see who would lose most in such a
course of action. Our deliberate opinion is that
the tempting bait of Canada's conquest is Ame-
rica's danger, not England's ; and that in retiring
from the continent, with the towns and villages of
Canada in flames behind her, England would leave
to the United States one of the most fatal legacies
ever wrung by one nation from another. We are
among the believers in what is so often sneered at,
as the " Manifest Destiny," but we base our belief
on the virtue and good sense, in the main, of the
American people. The hardest task ever undertaken
is that before them. They must, indeed, have
read history to little profit, who suppose that a con-
tinent can be built up and welded together as one
nation, unless virtue, wisdom, and moderation pre-
vail. Clashing interests have grown, are growing,
and will continue to grow. Localities may become
the centres of extravagant demands and angry agi-
tation, and it will require an emblem of the
Union, a national flag which speaks to the
heart, to keep always in the American mind
that, however distant from the place of go-
vernment, that however grievous may be their
wrong, yet that the-y are but a part of a great
nation to which it is their pride to bel ing, and
whose history they all cherish. But, let wide terri-
tories regard with aversion that flag, and know that
American history is to them but a record of their
own subjugation, and the dragon's teeth are sown
hereafter to rise in crops of armed men, and it will
become almost impossible to fulfil the destiny it is
the fond belief of so many, awaits the Republic.
Canada wrenched from England is but the loss of
prestige; and not much of that, for no one supposes
that any European nation can fight the Republic
on American soil without quickly coming to grief.
The struggle would be on the water ; and there lies
England's strength, for she could build and man
ship for ship against the world combined, when
thoroughly roused and driven to it. It is not, how-
ever, the chances of such a war that we here discuss,
but the error so generally entertained in both coun-
tries, that the danger to England in its colony contrasts
in such a conflict with the sure triumph of the
Republic, for we feel certain that if the Canadians
fight, it would be the most disastrous conquest ever
achieved. Worse than Dead Sea fruit, it would
dash from the lips the ravished cup when supposed
to be filled ; while naturally, the luscious fruit would
come in due time to those who honestly worked to
gain it. Instead of advancing the real object of a
genuine continental Union, it would erect before it
a barrier almost insurmountable. Canada must
drift into the Union by the attraction exerted by a
mighty mass. But let America beware of conquest,
for in attempting there to strike England, the recoil
might have a shattering effect on the stability of
the Republic itself.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

PRINCE ARTHUR AT TRINITY COLLEGE.

Prince Arthur has had to meet political feeling
in Ireland, and he seems to have looked on in simple
amazement and wonder. He visited Trinity College,
Dublin, on Saturday, and the students made the
occasion one for displaying their hate of the policy
of the Government. He was received by cheers and
Kentish fire. The latter he could not understand ;
and he seemsto have got still more uneasy, as, in reply
to shouts of " Maynooth," the students began to
groan vigorously. But his own name was received
in every case -with favour. The Roman Catholic
Freenzan's Journal would have it that he left
abruptly on hearing groans called for Earl Spencer ;
but the other papers make no mention of this cir-
cumstance, and all agree in stating that the name
of the Countess was cheered to the echo.

merely manufactured front cork. It would be easy
enough, therefore, to manufacture a dozen out of as
many wine corks. It is no use our barring up our
eyes and saying such things could not occur at any
respectable club. They did occur at a very first-rate
club." No wonder that the Owl announces a tem-
porary suspension of ballots at one of the principal
clubs until investigation had been made in order to
ascertain how it is that so many candidates for election
have come to grief of late.