The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-21 00:00:00

FORTIICOMING MESSAGE.

The relations between the United States and Europe form
he great topic of conversation in all circles, and between all
parties, at the present time, in this metropolis and all other
parts of the country. The prospect of the serious differences
between the two nations, leading to a collision, has been in-
creasing since the inaugural message of the President was
commented upon in the British Parliament. Since that pe-
riod, public opinion in both countries has been giving new
developments of the views and sentiments entertained, rela-
tive to their relations with each other, as expressed by the
respective Governments.
On this side of the water, on all hands the question is
asked, what will be the temper of the President's message,
and of the debates in the ensuing Congress? This important
question has received, so far at least as regards the character
of the message, and the policy determined upon by the Ad-
ministration, a full and explicit reply in a very important
and extraordinary article, which has recently appeared in the
columns of the President's organ atWashington. The Union
—a newspaper published under the auspices of the President
and his Cabinet—published last Friday a leading article, de-
claring in the most unequivocal terms the absolute right of
the United States to the whole of the Oregon territory down
to the Russian line; and the manner in which this declara•
tion is made reveals, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that
it is a positive but informal annunciation of the President
and the Cabinet previous to the opening of Congress. On
this point there can be no question. We always believed
Mr. Polk's opinion, on this important question, to be as
broad and as long as it is now represented to be. This
opinion received strength and concurrence by developments
made during the recent election in this great metropolis, and
by the unanimity of all parties in the United States.
The present Government of the United States, then, bas
fairly taken up its position on the Oregon question, declaring
it to have the beat title to that territory from the Mexican
boundary on the aoutb, to the Russian line on the north,
thus excluding the British claim to any portion of that
region. Such a declaration brings our Government, it will
be at once perceived, into immediate collision with England,
and the result no one can feretel.
The interest and importance, therefore, of the coming
session of Congress and of the Parliament of England are in-
creased to an extent not easily to be exaggerated. Indeed,
never within the last quarter of a century have we had
a crisis at which more interest has attached to the proceed-
ings of the legislative bodies of both countries. We are in
the commencement of a new era. Daily the nations of
.i:urope are undergoing change, and forming new relations.
France and England, former rivals on land and water, are
now united in the closest brotherhood, and appear to be
alarmed at the progress of the United States, and the in-
fluence which this country is destined to exert upon the des-
tinies of the world hereafter. Everything is in the womb of
the ftiture. We must wait with patience and fear on both
aides of the water.
VIEW OF THE AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION ON
THE OREGON QUESTION.
(From the Washington (official organ) Union, Oct. 31.)
During the late presidential canvass, it was said, in allusion
to the Texan issue, "we are about voting on a question of
national identity—on the question as to what and where our
country shall henceforth be ?" So far as the Texan discus-
gen is concerned, that question is now substantially settled—
the recent unsuccessful attempt at protest by the Whigs of
New York city, to the contrary notwithstanding. But the
same great question as to what and where our country shall
be may come up in another and a still more imposing shape in
the approaching Congress, and if so, it will form the great
laud question of this generation.
We allude, of course, to what we call, with the fullest
confidence, the American territory of Oregon. On this
great subject, within the last three or four years, public
sentiment Lae ripened fast. In the judgment of a vast
majority of this nation, the time is rapidly approaching—
or say, rather, has now come—when clear right in rela-
tion to this territory should embody itself in positive
law. For more than twenty years, the people of the
United States have seen what they regard as their indis
putable title to this immense territory swamped in nego-
tiation. It was to be expected from the wisdom and true
policy of the British Government that this negotiation, so
barren heretofore of good result, when entered upon with a
new Administration, which, in its identity of opinion on this
subject, is as one man, and which is sustained in that opinion
by an overwhelming mass and mastery of public sentiment—
it was justly to be hoped of the wisdom of England, that
the new negotiation, under such auspices, and in such hands,
would, ere long, begin at least to secure, instead of defeating,
as in past years it has defeated, the great ends of interne
tional justice.
But, however this may be, whether the negotiations suc-
ceed or fail, there can be no doubt that the democratic Con-
gress now about to assemble Will lave a great duty to do in
relation to Oregon ; and we believe that, coming to Washing-
ton fresh from conference with their constituents, they
will come:together resolved to do it. With the strong resolu-
tions of the Baltimore convention, and the manly and pa-
triotic inaugural words of the President yet vivid in our me-
mory, we cannot doubt that the Administration is fully pre-
pared to perform with firmness its constitutional duty of re-
commending to Congress all.snckasteisures asanay be deemed
essential to the full and efficient protection dell our rights
over every rod of that great domain on the shorerof the Pa-
citic, which is, %in accuniulated mass of title) 'the rightful
.
property of the lilted States. ,
Of these measarea; and indeed -of this whole topic of the
American territory of Oregon, we shall have frequent occa-
sion to speak ; and it may be well enough to consider ,
for a moment, in the outset, the nature and the valve
of this our great territorial possession. This territory,
Mountains and the Pacific
lyingocea between
Ocean,
, drainedthe Rocky
mainly
l yb ythe
Columbia river, bounded
on the north, the east, and the south by mountain
chains, and on the west by the ocean,' extends from lati-
tude 42 deg. to latitude 54 deg. 40 min. North. It con-
tains more than 400,000 square miles, that is, it is more
than twice as large as France, and about half as large as
people claim, against all other nations, this whole
American
etlriiecaSntates now subject to the Federal constitution. The
domain as a part of their own soil. The climate, through-
out nearly its whole extent, is mild and temperate. Accounts
vary somewhat as to its fertility and natural advantages;
but no man doubts that it is capable of sustaining an ins-
peopled, it will control
stobe oriental trade of the
tinheencsoeliplompeurclastioonf,tnheorptaliciatfi,c,whanend
world. _ -
The present legal condition—the policy—of this important
region, is quite extraordinary as it exists in theory; but it
is far more extraordinary as it stands in tact. In theory,
and by treaty stipulation, this land, with all its navigable
waters, has been, since 1828, open to the free and undis-
turbed use and enjoyment of the subjects of England and
the citizens of the United States. To terminate this state of
things, at the will of either of the parties, only one year's
notice is necessary.
This common enjoyment by the two nations of all the ad-
vantages of a territory more than twice as large as France,
being the somewhat singular theory and stipulated law of its
condition, stands in yet more singular contrast to the state
of things which has, in fact, grown up there within the last
twenty years. Leaving out of view the Indian tribes which
make this territory a part of their range, we find its present
civilised population to consist of about eight or nine hundred
British subjects, and about half as many thousand citizens of
the United States. The bulk of this population, both British and
American, is concentrated around the lower waters of the Co-
lumbia river, occupying, in its mass, a region not much more
than 100 miles in length, from east to vet st, and-probably not
much more than 50 miles in breadth, from north to south.
The eight or nine hundred men, who compose the British
portion of this people, are all of them understood to be in the
service of the Hudson Bay Company, and are engaged as
hunters, trappers, or factors, in the fur trade. These men
have their principal station—at once a trading post and a
fort, called Fort Vancouver—on the river Columbia, about
eighty miles in a straight line from its mouth. Theme may
be two or tires farms in the possession of these British sub-
jects; but, as a general rule, they live by the fur trade, and
do not till the soil at all. Besides Fort Vancouver, the Bay
Company has some twenty other stations in various parts of
the territory. But these are merely fortified stopping Places
for hunters and traders, and have each around them a little
nucleus of a community of from three to four to about fifty
amis.

The American population of Oregon, on the other hand,
numbering probably some four thousand, is collected in the
valley of the Waßarnette river, which flows from the south
into the Columbia, near Fort Vancouver. These Americans
are farmers, graziers, and mechanics. They are a fixed po-
pulation. They live by tilling the soil. These men, having
waited for fears in vain for some action by Congress which
should give them a government as American citizens, were,
at the date of the last advices from them, setting up a pro-
visional government for themselves, after the American
fashion, and dividing out their new homestead into towns
and counties, such as they had left in the United States.
Such being practically the present political condition of the
American farmers in Oregon, under the treaty stipulation of
1818, how is it with the British hunters and trappers of the
same region? The answer may be given in a few words.
These few hundred British subjects in the service of the Hud-
son Bay Company, govern by their laws, enforced either in
the courts of Canada, or by judicial officers of the Com-
pany on the spot, every inch of the whole territory
of Oregon, save the few square miles actually under
tillage by the Americans. Nor is this all. These
servants of the Company have entirely monopolised,
for some twenty years past, the whole of the most lucra-
tive occupations m Oregon—fur-hunting and fur-trading.
They have driven every American citizen out of the business.
Let an American trapper or hunter appear anywhere in the
territory, and instantly two or three agents of the company
establish themselves by his side furnished amply with specie
and merchandise, to outbid him for furs, to call in Indian or

. , .
i white competition, and so break up his business. The indivi-
dual cannot stand against the organised and powerful com-
, pany His business ia *ikon u and hp goes to farming in
1 the valley.of Valfaniette. This s Ow 05 liiguier cowls of