The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-13 00:00:00

E SUN, _LONDON, FPIDAY EVENING, AUGUST `i3, EF69.

AGENTS WANTED EVERYWHERE
to introduce commodi ies valuable to every householder
high and low. This offers a highly mmunerativeGommission to
Tradesmen, Traveller,. Gentlemen's Servants, &c. Apply with
two stamps to MARRISON, Great Orford-street,Norwich.

TIIEATIU DRURY-LANE.
eiole Lessee and Manager, Mr. F. B. Chattcrton.
THIN EVENING, at 7, BELLES OF THE KITCHEN. At 8
FORMOSA : Messrs. Barrett, 1-T. Irving, David Fisher, Brittain
Wright, John Rouse; Mrs Billington, Misses M. Brennan. Mac
donald. and Katharine Rodgers. Conclude with BORROWED
PLUMES.

was

805 the Confederation Act was passed.

The

measure provided for the union of several smaller
colonies to Canada, and steps were at once taken for
the incorporation of the great Hudson's Bay
Territory under the same reyiiue. These negotiations,
however, lasted long, and have only just terminated
by an agreement between the Company, the Canadian
Government, and the English Ministry, in virtue of
which the first receives £300,000 from Canada,
England to help the colony by guaranteeing the
loan for the required suni. It is clear that this is
a just exception to the wise rule recently laid down
of not guaranteeing loans for the benefit of

the colonies on the security of British taxes. The
question is one of good faith and of our own interest.

An arrangement of the kind was contemplated
in the Confederation Act of 1865. The guarantee,

moreover, has been promised by the English
Ministry. It is true that an Act passed in 1865 does
not necessarily bind the Parliament of 1869,

equally true that all money pledges by the Cabine

are subject to the veto of the Legislature. But here

he bargain is decidedly equitable. Canada has the

greater interest in transferring the territory, and
therefore she pays the money ; England has a less

interest, and therefore guarantees the sum with-
out incurring the actual burden. had not the

Hudson's Bay Territory been handed over to the
Dominion, it must have been either left to the evils of

an unsettled Government or formed into an expensive

Crown colony. From this choice of evils we are cheaply
delivered by a guarantee for £300,000. So far from
this loan being in continuance of the old system of

pledging our security for the advantage of others

it simply frees us from costly colonial responsibil

We have not the less reason, however, to be dis-
satisfied with the return which the Canadians have
made for this and other efforts on their behalf, some
of which may fairly be termed disinterested. For
several years the English Government has laboured
to consolidate a powerful State in North America.

No sooner does this work approach successful com-
pletion than the Parliament of the Dominion deliber-
ately pass an Act to deprive British inventors of
their rights. By this measure no British
subject or foreigner can hold a patent in
Canada. All discoveries in England or elsewhere
out of the colony are appropriated in the Dominion
without recompense. No patent, in fact, in Canada
is valid unless the inventor himself have resided for

twelve months in the country. Canadian inventors
find protection in England ; but English
inventors are to be robbed in Canada. Verily, we
may justly complain that we are an ill-used race. The
money of the British taxpayer has been and still is
poured out like water for protecting colonies against
invasion, guaranteeing their loans, and providing
them with cheap government. In return British
manufacturers are shut out from Australia by a
heavy tariff, and British discoveries are confiscated
in Canada by a patent law which is only for the
benefit of the Canadians themselves. Well may the

house of Commons feel dissatisfied. Well
may the taxpayer entertain doubts whether
for a good deal of money he does not
get worse than nothing in return. The
fact that the colonists do wrong will not
indeed absolve us from the responsibility of doing
right. England must fulfil her duties to her depen-
dencies; but surely the relations between the old
State and the new ones would be improved if the
colonists were not so systematically to follow out the
principle of getting all they can from us and giving
us injury in return.

to guarantee the loan by which the Cana-
dian Government will pay for the Hudson's
Bay Territory, Mr. HOWARD was complaining
with some reason that the Colonial Legislature had
passed an Act depriving British inventors of patent
rights in Canada. Whilst the English are assisting
their brethren in America to extend and consolidate
their Dominion, the later reciprocate by confiscating
the property of English patentees. The contrast is
certainly not pleasing, though the two questions have
no immediate connection. Our duty in the matter
of the loan—Mr. MONK's opposition notwith-
standing—is clear. We ought to give the guarantee.
The transfer of the immense region known as
Ruperts' Land from the control of a private company
to a regular Government is a matter of Imperial
importance. Previously to 186.7 i the whole of
British North America, except Canada and
the other eastern colonies, was nominally subject to
the rule of the QUEEN, and was yet under the
administration of the Hudson's Bay traders
a wild and inaccessible district, without a settle,
Government, subject to incursions from the Indians
of the United States, and to constant disputes
between the trading company which claimed this
entire region as its property and the settlers
who colonised portions of it. I
desirable that such anarchy should cease, and it was
agreed that by far the most advantageous change
would be to add the territory to Canada, in further-
ance of the scheme by which all the British-American
possessions were to be consolidated into one State

THE AMSTERDAM EXHII3ITION.

Like most other buildings on Dutch soil, the New
Palace of Industry has a foundation of wooden piles, on
which alone between £15,000 and £20,000 were expended.
The superstructure is constructed of cast-iron, wood,
and glass, but the proportion of the latter to the
other materials is small when compared with the
Crystal Palace at Sydenham. There can be no doubt,
however, says a reporter, that, as far as architectural
beauty goes, the building here far exceeds the one in
England :—" It is small. When standing at one end of
the gallery, and looking through the nave, it does not
appear much longer than one of the wings of the Syden-
ham building, and its height is about two-thirds of the
other. But its proportions are really exquisite. The
architect, Mr. Cornelius Ontboorn, deserves great credit
for the symmetry and grace which it displays. It con-
sists of one principal nave, supported by very slender
cast-iron columns, which give it an appearance of light-
ness. But the side-halls, which are joined to it, and
its moderate height, prevent it from having that
appearance of scaffolding which irresistibly strikes the
visitor at Sydenham when glancing at the two empty
galleries. In the middle of the nave rises an oval dome to
a height of 62 metres, or about 250 feet, on the top of
which a female angel is placed, in what I suppose the
Dutch consider to be the most angelic attitude, balancing
herself on her right foot with outstretched wings. The
whole of.the outside is painted in a stone gray colour,
which makes it a pleasure for the eye to dwell upon after
having been annoyed by the dull brown of the brick houses
around."