The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-11-20
THE FE.NIAN MOVEMENT.

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a5 Time works wonders. Our English
friends over the border, who were so af-
flicted at the spectacle of homogeneous
people striking at each others Threats
that they encouraged banditti to aid the
general murder and TO set our towns on
fire, are now trembling before the pros
poets of Fenian invasion. The panic
which began i'm England has transferred
itself to Canada ; and thus the guilty
trenlor has completed the preliminary
circuit of its vengeance. When the
spectral cause of this alarm rears it's head
again, there will be crushing in of
some, opposing Substance, and we shall
hear the sound of the collapse even at
this distance.
When Fenianism first began to attract
the attention of this country, it was
looked upon as one of those weak insur-
reclionary bubbles, which an ignored
nobility of restless instincts, had repeat
eddy projected in fitful protest against
the invincible ascendancy of Britain.
The failures of every Irish revolution.
the increased debility of each new at.
tempt az organization, the degeneracv
of the Irish leaders themselves, until the
depth of ludicrous deterioration was
reached through chieftains whose moral
nature spurned the religion of parole.
induced sensible people on this side Of
the Atlantic to pass this last rumOred
rising from their minds, as a matter
unworthy of consideration.
BY degrees, however, 1t became appa-
rent that this new move for Irish indie
pendence was not in the hands of the
blathershite journalists of Dublin but
that it was being engineered in secret.
by men of steady natures, who had stu
died their politics in the United States,
and who, instead of springing their OPP
erations within the centre of the British
camp, diseretely selected their base of
operations beyond the reach of British
surveillance and British arms. The Fe-
nian movement in ireland, therefore, of
which we have read so much, and about
which England, at the last accounts,
was even becoming merry, was mere
feint, to mislead the British govern
ment, until the real object-point could
be pounced upon beyone any chance of
rescue. That object-point is Canada,
and the time played for, by the apparent
overt acts in Ireland, was that period
when the winter will rib up the Cana
dian harbors against English reinforce
ments and supplies. The strategem has
been adroitly managed, and already it is
too late for England to retrieve the error
into which she has been led by "hatters'
and "tradesmen."
BY the light of these facts, we are now
enabled to comprehend the true philos-
ophy of the Fenian campaign; and we
readily perceive that it is in able hands.
BY the next European steamer, or the
next, we shall find England starting
from the happy dream which the sue
cessful arrests of Irish shOp-boys and
cOnspiring tailors threw her into but
it will he too late. In a few months
more when the Fenian swarm has
massed itself beyond the northern bor-
der into an armed host, and commenced
to sweep like simeon toward the sea,
we shall have an application from our
true friend Earl Russell, to permit Great
Britain to land troops for the suppress
sion of the Canada invasion, at Port
land, or some other American harbor,
hostilties, overland. Our Government,
though sympathizing with Great Bril-
tain in this domestic trouble, to the same
extent that Great Britain sympathized
with us In the st. Adams raid and the
Alabama eases, will hardly be able to
do more, than lend my lord handful
of police "a course which we sincerely
hope the President will take, not only
as an evidence of responsive friendship
to Great Britain, but to prevent any of
the Fenian violaters of our laws, from
coming back until their work is finish
ed. Fortunately, the restored power of
the Union, which shuddering Europe
for a while hoped, would be broken into
fragments, will enable us, if we wish, to
enforce this restriction in good faith, in
the interest of England.
But while we shall expect our Gov
eminent to display that even-handed
justice which is required from digni-
fled neutrality, in relation to the strug-
giles of two powerful belligerents, we
shall claim for our citizens the right to
take sides, in every lawful way; wheth-
crit be to sympathize with the British
rule in Canada, or to promote the inter-
e3ts of the insurgeDt cause by subscrlD-
ing to the Fenian loan, and by taking
shares in Fenian privateers 1t should
be considered no hardship by Great Bril-
tain TO submit her interests to the bal
ances of public sentiment for that ma
tural instinct which our English friends
have told US always runs in favor of the
weaker side, ought in this struggle to
range itselfwith her.
It's correctly ascertained that the Fe-
mans of the United States have upon
their rolls two hundred and forty thou
sand members, and some eight millions
of dollars in their Treasury. They are
also credited with having some fifty
thousand men in Canada, while large
portion of the British army i'm that
province, being of Irish birth, may be-
regarded as largely imbued with Fenian
prochvities. The provincial Govern
ment of Canada, on the other hand,
has mixed and disaffected population
to depend upon, with barely enough
| mustered troops on hand, to endure the
wear and tear of six weeks campaign
We see ITO grave difficulty, therefore, in
the way of the successful Fenian inva-
sion of Canada; and we speak with
confidence when we say, it may be ex-
lpected to be undertaken in force, on
any day after the first of January next
Ireland, itself, will be lost sight of for
the time, and probably remain tranquil.
while this great adventure in her inter-
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