The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-09 00:00:00

STATE OF CANADA.

Canada, once the favourite battle-ground of
Indian tribes, then the scene of a fierce struggle for
empire between the two chief Powers of Europe,
has long been exempt from the evils, the horrors of
war. There are some still living who recount with
pride and pleasure their campaigns against Ameri-
can invaders, but they are grey-haired men, and
they tell these tales to their grandchildren, for the
events of which they speak took place half a cen-
tury ago. There are more who talk of the rebel-
lion of 1837; but that was a mere riot, an altogether
insignificant affair compared with the wars of his-
tory, compared even with the American civil war
of to-day. It follows that nct one in a thousand of
our people rightly estimates the blessings of peace
or the calamities of war. Indeed, we never shall
be adequately thankful for peace until we
have had to measure swords with an
enemy, until each one of us has had
relatives or friends exposed to danger and
death, or property devoted to destruction. But by
looking at the condition of the States wo may form
some idea of the miseries, private and national,
which a state of war involves, and which inspire
the prayer of the Anglican litany—" Give us peace
in our time, 0 Lord." The British contribution to
the population of the United States has fallen off
90 per cent. from what it was ten years ago ! That,
however, is not all, The stagnation of business of
all kinds, the consequent lack of employment, tho
apprehension that the war will be a long one, the
dread of an enormous national debt and heavy taxa-
tion, have driven many new corners to the States
away. They have gone back to the shores of Great
Britain by hundreds, and our own emigration agent
to Ireland, Mr. Donaldson, says he has seen ship-
loads of emigrants returning from America to that
country. We have not suffered much from war yet.
Even our Customs revenue has not fallen off to any
great extent ; and if some branches of industry have
been injuriously affected, that has been more than
compensated for by the stimulus given to others.
Our population has been largely increased. The
number of emigrants arrived at Quebec up to the
18th ult. was 19,461 this year, as against 9,654 last
—an increase of more than 100 per cent. This is by
ship, The number of those who have come into the
Province from the States by rail is probably even
larger, judging from the reports of the emigrant
agents in the various cities ; and many must have
arrived of whom the agents have nen nothing, for
all the newspapers teem with accounts of the esta-
blishment here of small manufactories started by
enterprising Americans. Probably at least 50,000
souls have been added to our population this year
by immigration. If the war in the States continues,
and we are mercifully preserved from being involved
in it, there is no telling the effect it may have on
the relative positions of the States and Provinces ;
and, even though it should cease, its effects
will last for years. To paraphrase a famous
sentence—" The United States' calamity is our
opportunity." The tide of emigration is not one
which can be bid to flow at will. The Times
said, in a recent article, that "it would be years
before emigrants would believe in the pacification
of the Union even if peace were proclaimed to-
morrow." And probably, before the States begin
to recover favour among the emigrating classes, the
provinces may be so populous and rich as to be able
to unite themselves into a powerful confederacy, a
worthy rival of its Southern neighbour, with every
prospect of a speedy emancipation from a state of
colonial dependence, and the formation of a Colonial
Empire which shall be far more stable than the re-
public which is now bursting into fragments.—
Quebec Chronicle.