The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-08-28
APPREHENDED, INVASION OF
- '" CANADA iau'a tt!is tt2
Letter from Thomas D,Arcy mc0ee.


/ .Theologians instruct us that there
are two sins against hope - despair
and presumption. Statesmen acknowl-
edge two chief misdemeanors in those
charged to keep watch over the safety OF
country-rash counsels and blind self
confidence. It is difficult, they say, to
tell which is the greater criminal, the sem
try who raises mischevious panic or he
who sleeps on his post. The alarmist is a
nuisance and may be abated, but the be-
trayer can never be guarded against, and
never sufficiently execrated. In England,
the high crimes and misdemeanors, for
which the great officers of State may be
impeached, executed, and attainted in all
their posterity, are of both kinds. The
Admiral who neglects to guard vigilantly
"the narrow seas " is subject to the ex-
treme penalty, with the Ambassador who
betrays his sovereign's secrets to hostile
power, and the Cabinet Minister who
enders that sovereign advice subversive of
the fundamental laws and liberties of
England. Vigilance is thus raised to the
foremost rank of political virtues, while
negligence is regarded and punished as the
worst of crimes. Is our condition in Can
ada really critical? Are our statesmen
vigilsnt, and on their guard? On what
have we to depend in case the avowed de-
signs of the American democracy against
us should be prosecuted to actual hostil-
ity? How do we stand cat homer" Is
England satisfied or dissatisfied with our
vigilance and preparedness? In other
words, Will England stand by US, should
the worst come to the wOrse9 These are
questions to be asked and answered at
Quebec, before the Parliament called for
Thursday next should be allowed to adj
iourn. Six, or seven, or eight months of
negligence or indifference to the first duty
of the statesman-the security of the
State-may .jeopardize the connection,
imperil our existence, and lay us pros
trate at the feet of the northern Amer
leans before 1864 is half past. 1 am
no alarmist, but neither can shut my
eyes to the signs of the times. AT Rouse's
Point, forty-five miles from this pOpulOus
city, the heart of Canada, our neighbors
have hurried to completion an immense
new fortress-Fort Montgomery The
statesmen of Canada ought to go to Que
bee via Rouse's Point. They will see there
a place of arms, destined to play no feeble
part in the contemplated subjugation of
their country. They will see, if they are
permitted to enter, magazines capable OF
containing supplies for an army OF 100, 900
men, and barrack accommodation for gar
rison of 5000. Ispeak upon no newspa-
per authority, upon no doubtful lnforma-
ton, when / say that the plan contem-
plated at Washington for the invasion of
Canada is to march one hundred thousand
men I'D the district of Montreal-"to cut
the connection between Upper and Lower
Canada ito abstain religiously from
intermeddling in our local affairs, but
to force a separation of the provinces
by the mere force of an army Of
occupation, interposing its military barrier
to their intercourse What would follow
such separation, rest assured, has not es-
caped their calculations. It is in view of
these facts and others, which for impor-
tant reasons l do not now state, that l
ask the question which trust every con-
stituency in Canada will, through its rep
resentative, insist on having answered at
Quebec Immediately: evil England
stand by us?" To that question the gov
eminent of the day ought to be now in a
position to give an authoritative official
answer. hope they are now in that po-
sition; if they are not they must be forced
into it by every possible constitutional
pressure. can well understand English
statesmen and economists, when they say
that a nominal connection is not worth
the expenditure of blood and treasure,
which a conflict with America must nee
essarily impose on England. 10 answer
that argument, not by logic but by facts, not
by argument but by action, we must make
the nominal connection real. Ii we can
show that through British America lies
the shortest and securest British highway
to Japan, China, India and Australia, to
Japan and China shorter by 1000 miles,
to Australia by 900 miles, than any route
now existing; if the opening of this Brit
ish highway was once fairly begun-wOuld
not England then have something to stand
by? If there were Grown colony at Red
River, and Grown prince presiding over
our united destinies in British America,
would she not have something to stand
by? Then our existence would be wrap
ped up in hers-our credit would come
within one per cent. OF hers-We would
ride out this American storm by the
same anchors of policy and power
which have held her fast, and never
dragged from their firm grip of the
planet during all the European storms of
eight hundred years beseech the hon.
Orable members of both houses, now on
their way to Quebec, not to dismiss these
suggestions as idle Or speculative, as I'M
founded in observation and information.
beseech them to consider within them
selves whetherit is likely that England UiU
stand by us, if the connection is merely to
be nominal one? Will she equip an army
and navy for Lord MOnck's salary, or the
pride of nalving Lake Erie with the repub-
licans! For one, do not believe it; other
and better defined arrangements must be
entered into; the connection must be made
real, not nominal, or the assistance OF Eng
land will be found, in the day of need, to
be rendered, by onr own default, nominal,
not real.
! Yours, Messrs. Editors &c. &C.
THOMAS DARCY McIEE.
Montreal, August 8, 1853
Patriotic lharua