The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-17 00:00:00

TILE FENIAN INVASION OF CANADA.

On the 6th of June last, in violation of our neutrality
laws, a military expedition and enterprise against the Bri-
tish North American colonies was projected and attempted
to be carried on within the territory and jurisdiction of the
United States. In obedience to the obligation imposed
upon the Executive by the Constitution, to see that
the laws are faithfully executed, all citizens were
warred, by proclamation, against taking part in or aiding
such unlawful proceedings, and the proper civil, military,
and naval officers were directed to take all necessary mea-
sures for the enforcement of the laws. The expedition
failed, but it has not been without its painful consequences.
Some of our citizens who, it was alleged, were engaged in
the expedition, were captured and have been brought to
trial, as for a capital offence, in the province of Canada.
Judgment and sentence of death have been pronounced
against some, while others have been acquitted. Puny
believing in the maxim of Government, that severity of
civil punishment for misguided persons who have engaged
in revolutionary attempts which have disastrously failed,
is unscuud and unwise, such representations have been
been made to the British Covornment, in behalf of the con-
victed persons, as, being sustained by an enlightened and
humane judgment, will, it is hoped, induce in their cases
an exercise of clemency and a judicious amnesty to all who
were engaged in the movement. Counsel has been em-
ployed by the Government to defend citizens of the United
States on trial for capital offences in Canada ; and a dis-
continuance of the prosecutions which were instituted in
the courts of the United States against those who took
part in the expedition has been directed. I have regarded
the expedition as not only political in its nature, but as
also in a great measure foreign from the United States in
its causes, character, and objects. The attempt was under-
' stood to be made in sympathy with an insurgent party in
Ireland, and, by striking at a British province on this
Continent, was designed to aid in obtaining redress for
political grievances which, it was assumed, the people
of Ireland had suffered at the hands of the British Go-
vernment during a period of several centuries. The
persons engaged in it were chiefly natives of that coun-
try, some of whom had, while others had not, become
citizens of the United States under our general laws of
naturalisation. Complaints of misgovernment in Ireland
continually engage the attention of the British nation, and
so great an agitation is now prevailing in Ireland that the
British Government hive deemed it necessary to suspend
the writ of habeas corpus in that country. These circum-
stances must necessarily modify the opinion which we
might otherwise have maintained in regard to-an expedi-
tion expressly prohibited by our neutrality laws. So long
as these laws remain upon our statute-books they should
be faithfully executed, and if they operate harshly, un-
justly, or oppressively, Congress alone can apply the
remedy, by their modification or repeal.

DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATION IN GREECE.

Political and commercial interests of the United States
are not unlikely to be affected in some degree by events
which are transpiring in the eastern regions of Europe,
and the time seems to have come when our Government
ought to have a proper diplomatic representation in
Greece.