The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-24 00:00:00

01M,*

F,ONDON, MONDAY. NOVEMBER 24 1845.

Like all our Contemporaries, we are most anxious that the
serious misunderstanding which exists between Great Bri-
tain and the United States should be amicably settled, and
that two nations, so necessary to each other for mutual pros-
perity, should eentinue long in uninterrupted peace. But
we fear these peaceful aspirations are vain, and that the
encroaching and restless and unprincipled portion of the
American Republic will urge their country into a war, and
be satisfied with nothing but full scope and power to
invade and seize on every district of the New
World that captivates their fancy, till in time they
bring the whole under the dominion of the Great Fe-
deral Union. For some time certain members of Congress,
as well as writers in anti-English journals, have made strong
protests against the interference of European powers in the
affairs of the southern parts of America, as well as the
northern, and seem to regard as their undoubted birth-right
the privilege of affixing their sanction to every treaty or
change of any kind whatever in these extensive regions.
Even Canada, a colony essentially British, and we believe
now fully attached to the mother country, they claim as
their own, and at one time, a time of peace too, it was se-
riously proposed in Congress to adopt measures for incorpo-
rating that extensive country in the already over-grown
republic. It causes, therefore, little surprise to hear that
the Government will not agree to the occupation
by the English of one rod of the Oregon, and that it is their
full determination to drive the English from the Columbia,
shut them entirely out from the Pacific, and unite the Rus-
sian and American frontiers. But that 1:3 only the first and
minor step. Schemes of infinitely more importance are
passed in view—a powerful State is to be established in the
west, intercourse with China and the numerous islands in the
China seas is to be farmed. on.a grand scale, the English
trade with India and China is to be crippled or annihilated,
and Oregon is destined to control the commerce of the
Pacfic and the Oriental trade of the world. These
are not the visions of men in the " far-'rest;" they
are not the crude suggestions of members representing the
States of Missouri, or Illinois, or Arkansas, but they are the
deliberate opinions put forth by the organ of Mr. Poree. We
never imagined for a moment, in discussing this question on
previous occasions. that the Americans cared one straw for
the portion of the Oregan territory belonging of undoubted
right to the English, on the ground of its intrinsic value,
but constantly kept in view that they had projects of a
far different kind than the acquirement of a barren tract,
and the'occupation of one Solitary river, the Columbia; that
their object was to expel the English from the west of the
Great American Continent, and prevent every communication
between the Hudson Bay Company, or any other company,
sad China and India. We judged, from their encroaching
disposition, and their vast anxiety to get Oregon into their j
possession, we judged that they would not risk a war for
barren rocks, and swamps, and snowy mountains, and 1
that they would not be at the expense of esta-
blishing military stations across the mountains, and
maintaining a military force in such an inhospi-
table climate, merely for the right of collecting furs,
and using the mouth of the Co'umbia as a harbour for
their exportation. That our readers may judge of their in-
tentions., eve give the following significant extract on the
subject from the official journal of Washington :—"We cannot
doubt thatthe Administration is fully prepared to perform with
firMR"S$ its constitutional duty, of recommending to Congress
all such measures as may be deemed essential to the full and
efficient protection of all our rights over every rod of that
great domain on the shores of the Pacific, which is, by an
accumulated mars of title, the rightful property of the United
States. Of these measures—and, indeed, of this whole topic
of the American territory of Oregon—we shall have fre-
quent occasion to speak. And it may be well enough to
consider foe' a moment, in the outset, the nature and the
value of this our great territorial possession. This ter-
riory lying between the Rocky Ufluntains and the Pa-
cific Ocean—drained mainly by the Columbia river ,
bounded on the north, the east, and the south by the moun- 1
tain chains, and on the west by the ocean—extends front
latitude. 42 deg. to latitude 54 deg. 40 min. north. It e,otee
tains more than 400,000 square miles—that is, it is more
than twice as large as France, and about half as large as
all the States now subject to the Federal constitution.
The American people claim, against all other nations,
this whale domain as a part of their own soil. The cli.
mate, throughout nearly its whole extent, is mild and tern..
perate. Accounts vary somewhat as to its fertility and its
natural advantages; but no man doubts that it is capable of
sustaining an immense population ; nor that, when so peopled,
it will control the commerce of the Pacific, and the Ori-
ental trade of the world." Let those who argue on the folly
of going to war about a bare rock study the Oregon question
in this light—in the very light in which it was viewed by
Jacecsoet and TYLER, and is now viewed by the President of
the United States, and say whether these are ob-
.] ects: worth contending for. Whether the ob-
ject was great or small, whether the Oregon
was worth something
or nothing, the English Go-
vernment from the beginning had but one duty to perform
—to maintain the rights of Great Britain at all hazards.
Pusillanimous concessions only lead to fresh demands, with
increased insolence; the consciousness of independence gives
vigour to man in his individual capacity as well as to large
numbers formed into communities; and all history concurs

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