The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-09 00:00:00

THE ROYAL VISIT TO C.dllr..lDA.

(From the Saturday Review.)

England could once boast of a Prince who Wag
the fi st gentleman in Europe. At the present day
we may more legitimately congratulate ourselves
upon the fact that our future Sovereignis receiving
an education of almost unprecedented variety and.
completeness. Not the least among Queen Vic-
manytitles to the respect and gratitude oft
her subjects is the watchful sagacity with vrhiiiit
the heir apparent is being prepared for th., mo-
mentous responsibilities which are one day to de-
volve upon him. The Prince cf Wales has every
opportunity of becoming one of the best-info Ined
men of his day. He is seeing the cities and man-
ners of many men ; his name is enrolled amoiig tho
students of more than one great seat of learning ;
all that is fairest in art, and most curious in science
—the latest result of philosophy, the nicest adjust.
meat of mechanism— has been pressed into the ser-
vice of rousing the inquisitiveness and enlarging
the understanding of the Royal scholar. Nothing-
has been spared which could tend to demonst rate
how serious and how interesting a matter life is,
and how far too valuable it is to be wasted upon
unintelligent pleasures, or suffered to pass away in
the splendid frivolities that too often have made
up the sum of court existence. •
social
oohcfout i
auc 10l simplen
eminence
enjoyd
pe
n s
t onsomejusticefot
r entails.
thh ea t
s exceptionale3rprincesooun s
taadd
drawbacks
their
sn:
ba
sagac
eyksss,
which
yohuliNtetvhhay iss but
that he is lost in astonishment that monarchs
should be capable of sustaining their burthen of
dignity ; and the difficulty must be all the greater
from the fact that they are, from the necessity of
the case, deprived of almost all that moral discip-
line of struggle, hope, and disappointment, which
forms the most valuable portion of the training of
ordinary mortals. The great tasks of life are
ready done to their hand—its noblest prizes arts
already within their grasp. There must be an
enervating consciousness of having nothing to tc ark
or hope for, and little to fear. They start to i ear
the winning-post that the pleasurable and heal ;hy
excitement of the race is entirely lost. Then, again,
habitual ceremony must dangerously enhance the
difficulty of social intercourse. A king may, no
doubt, have his occasions of familiarity, but t\ey
must be the exception and not the rule, and the
constant bias of his mental habits must
_be in an
opposite direction. It is not every monarch ,vho
possesses sufficient versatility to pass, like Fred a ick
the Great, from/he dull rigidities of court etiqu site
to the philosophic enjoyment ofpipes, beer, and I on-
versation. There is a sort of isolation in great ness
which must make it almost impossible for a ma:. to
know either himself or the world about him. tis
by the rude contact of actual experience that we get
to know life, and in this a prince is forbiddrzl to
participate. The smiles of courtiers, the obsee:aieus-
ness of attendants, one fine pageant succeeuing to
another, the apparent profusion which re.gns
around, and the entire absence of all the little wor-
ries of existence, must tend; one wonld imaging, to
produce a pleasing but dangerous illusion as to the
real state of things. The streams of truth reacth a
royal car in feeble volume and diluted quality ; 'ex-
istence is seen through a rose-coloured medium, and
the rude tones of suffering or discontent are al ,t to
lose half their sharpness as they pass within. the
doors of a palace. It was not mere constitutional in-
difference that suffered Louis XVI. to amuse him-
self calmly with his hunt or his workshop, while
Paris was starving at his doors, and the storm-c loud
of revolution was ready to burst over his head.
When a great queen, we are told, once travelled
through her dominions, the solicitude of her Mi ais..
ter erected artificial villa gas here and there expre sly
for the occasion, to relieve the desolate monot my
which would otherwise have been too painfully ap-
parent. The future King of England is allowed to
pass his youth in no such unreal and unhealthy: at-
mosphere. He is thrown into positions where he
must stand face to face with life ; and the inter.ded
visit to Canada, announced in the Duke of New-
castle's despatch to the House of AAsembly, can
scarcely fail to prove a valuable addition to the
stock of experience already acquired. It will call
his attention, more than-any of the scenes of w]tich
he has as yet been a witness, to the study his
fellow-men. It will force him to take notie:, of
national characteristics, and to trace the nati. mal
tastes and tendencies under varied circumstanc, s of
climate, custom, and government. It will cony ..nce
him of the many nice shades of difference in opi,tion
and sentiment which separate each section of the
human community from all the rest, and of the ab-
solute necessity of making allowance for them if we
would argue about mankind with correctnes-s, or
calculate with precision the effect of any influences
that may be brought to bear upon it. Such dis-
tinctions are none the less real because they are
sometimes too subtle to be expressed in words, and
the inability to appreciate them has been an ong
the most fatal stumbling-blocks at which Royalty
has so often tripped and fallen. To make ext.3tly
the right allowance for them is one great secret of
Statecraft, and the Prince could nowhere learn the'
lesson to greater advantage than among the too
curiously heterogeneous, and in some respects con-
trasted, communities of which the Canadian m tion
consists. For those communities have, almost lur-
ing the Prince's own lifetime, passed through re arly
every variety of political vicissitude. There has
been the smouldering of discontent, the wild Naze
of rebellion, the reaction of patriotism, the steady
growth of affectionate loyalty. There has been
financial embarrassment, with its attendant train
of miseries ; there have been strong remedial mea-
sures, the actual operation of which the Prince 'will
have the benefit of observing ; and there has been
commercial enterprise grandly conceived and vigo-
rously cargied cut, of which the great work whose
opening his visit will inaugurate is but a single
though perhaps a remarkable instance. Everywhere
there has been change, effort, progress—evils met
by their proper cure, causes leading to an immedi-
ate result.

If Royalty is to go to school, where, better than in
such a country, could the lessons be learnt which
are most valuable to a Piince ? The retrospect is
one which every Englishman must regard with the
utmost satisfaction. Canada stands side by side with
the United States, a memorial of successful, as con-
trasted with foolish legislation. The one reminds us
how much may be effected by timely, liberal, and
considerate measures of concession—the other, now
that every animosity has died away, remains a use-
ful warning to statesmen of the dan;ers of a violent
and obstinate policy. Nothing could look less pro-
s:
oensoistn
whichgo
ftht ab ne thpharede Cs
Seen
eonetandr
eiaai
tgn ro or
kvAi
inl
nlc ett shh
eoa
strno theoptohel
eioTtrmi
hee moae
ll(ifiePut
vtacreesy_r:
had begun to agitate our dependencies.
oo
ff
tthh
ee
hßoedform
politic;ov e
amsetnr to
stream
a of
ffedlits
ai
ffn every
Irish
sohr twi oa
was
ecetve
constantly swelling the ranks of the malcontents;
andthfiere. A
agitation of
derangement religious
o partisansadded
f commerce fuel
ag
to the
gravated the dangers of the crisis, and every symp-
tom of outbreak found plenty of sympathy across
the American frontier. Then came the actual colli-
sion of arms—demonstrations and counter-demon-
strations, the oath of devotion, the cap of liberty—
all the accustomed machinery of revolution with
which Europe was too familiar. The energy of a few
vigorous commanders struck down the growing re-
bellion with two or three decisive blows; and the sa-
gacious moderation of Parliament determined upon.
measures underwhichCanada is fast rising into set tied
prosperity, and has become honourably conspicuous
among our colonial possessions for a devoted loyalty
to the mother country. In 1838 Lord Durham, in
one of his despatches, dwelt in the strongest terms
upon the mortifying eontrast which the Canadian
provinces offered to the energetic prosperity of the
neighbouring States. There were, for example,
only fifteen miles of railway iii the whole country;
and the other departments of commercial enterprise
were in a correspondingly inactive condition. The
supply of emigrants had, owing to the disturbed
state of the country, fallen to a mere fraction of its
usual amount. The animosities of race burnt high,
and national affairs were conducted with a scan-
dalous disregard of the public interest. Diftress
and discontent were prevalent alike in every section
of society. Far different and far brighter will be
the state of things to which the Canadians will now
be able to invite the attention of. their Royal vial-
the
an unheeding ear.
and skill, and daring, which
tor. Its moral, we areuseurew, not
todbeer red to
offered
triumphs of energy, h
eet_
fast oigblvilteewra.tinligethweillynseeire,ohrojea
w
affectionate homage
of loyalty
quarter the
of a painful past ;. and as he receives from 'ivory
laud re-
spect, he will understand how great a dignity and
swoielilaelvperroyspwehreitrye i ins
how serious a responsibility it is to be suecessrm of
a Sovereign whose goodness and wisdom have en-
deared her even to the distant dependencies of her
Empire, and whose reign has been marked by so
large an increase of patriotic sentiment and mate-
rial prosperity.

Lieut.-Gen. Sir J. H. Grant, K.C.8., left CAL.
cutta on the 26th February to take command of her Ma•
jesty's forces in China.—Army and .Icary Gazette.
COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS.--At the meetilg of
the council on Saturday the following gentlemen were
elected members of the college :—Rev. A. Creak, ICA.,
Brighton; Rev. J. Sargent, Gildcrsome, near Leeds;
W. Esam, Peckham Rye; Mr. John Hart, Southampton;
Mr. J. J. Hart, Tunbridge Wells; Mr. J. Held:nann,
Kensington ; Mr. T. E. Heller, Choltenham ; Mr. It. T.
Manson, Heighington, Darlington; Mt. Joseph Ring land
Banbridge, Ireland ; Mr. John Wilding, Great Malvern;
also, Miss M. A. Carter, Nottingham. At the same meet-.
ing the diploma of licentiate was conferred upon Mr. R. A.
Federar, of Turton Hall, near Leeds.