The New York herald., 1870-05-29
The Fsnian. FinscO-The Grand Dc''S1
aud tho Ridiculous Reality


And The fox he has come to the town, oh ~
And this is fair summing up OF the late
Fenian invasion of the New Dominion. 'Old
Mother Slipper Stopper" is Canada, and the
fox is the Fenan army; but the wide awake
| old woman was too much for him, and she
cooked his goose in short order. Never was
there military campaign with such funny
| beginning as the capture of "Mr. O'Neill, or
with more ridiculous ending than the retire
ment of the disgusted General Gleason from
the enemy's territory when he found that the
impudent ''Kanucks" were shooting bullets
and were actually moving to bag him. In
fact, the prevailing idea with these warlike
Fenians appeared to be not to 60 too far into
Canada, for fear they might not be able to stop
this side Of Australia. There were apparently
three leading ideas among these invading Fe-
nians-frst, to keep near the boundary line
after crossing It.; second, to provide for con-
venient retreat to the safe side of the line II
attacked, and third, to retreat when attacked,
so as to disappoint the rascaly Britishers in
their bloodthirsty intentions of killing Fenians
or taking them prisoners But whether upon
this safe plan of operations to the Fenian
forces they calculated upon ''unfurllng the
sunburst upon the towers Of Notre Dame, in
Montreal, or upon the Plains of Abraham, at
| Quebec, we cannot tell.
The American Fenian programme for the
| liberation of the s'old sod" from the grip OF
| the Saxon, from all that we have been able to
| learn, was this: First, as fast as possible to
throw City or hundred thousand Fenians into
Canada and subjugato the whole Dominion
| from the central base of operations at Mon
treal; second, to sot up preliminary Irish
republic, extending from Newfoundland, on the
Atlantic, to Vancouver's Island, on the Pacific
| from each of those islands a feet of cruisers
| TO sweep the seas of British trading vessels,
and then to build lot Of steam iron-clads to
convoy squadron of swift steamers bearing
Off GERS small arms, artillery and munitions Of
war to Ireland the fighting Fenians there,
meantime, to be gathered at some appointed
place on the sea coast to receive said officers,
arms, &C., and to equip their army with them
on the spot and fortify the port 80 used as
base of operations by land and sea.
This programme is methodical and attrac-
tive, barring the drawback Of the time re-
quired, with the best luck to carry it out, and
barring the chapter Of accidents likely to
delay its execution from the interference Of
British troops, Canadian militia, Indians, gun
boats and British iron-cleds all the way
through. With these drawbacks, however,
we hardly think that this was or is the real
Fenian programme. What, then, is or was
their real scheme for Ireland's independence?
The capture of the New Dominion, with view,
perhaps, to exchange it for Ireland. This
looks more like business, because the exchange
of Ireland for the New Dominion would be a
mighty good bargain for England, and how it
would turn the tide Of Irish immigration back
again into the old land! This arrangement,
however, interferes with our theory of the
final settlement of those Alabama claims, and,
moreover we don't think that even this is the
real Fenian programme. We do think that the
grand object of the Fenians in these Cana
dian invasions is to keep John Bull in con-
tinual stew about Ireland till compelled to give
her up as bad bargain to the Irish people for
the sake of peace.
As for these American Fenan leaders, we
presume the Irish republic is, or has been 80
far, a good speculation with them in the matter
of United States greenbacks, to say nothing of
those Irish bonds. Or, say what you like of
those bonds, O'Mahoney was right in provid-
ing money as the first essential of new gov
ernment preparing for war. This, as the head
of his con federacy, was the first proceeding of
jeff Davis, and till his Confederate scrip got
down to three cents on the dollar his armies
continued to fight. Even at this time there
are some hopeful English financiers who
expect in some way some day to turn an
honest penny out of their rebel cotton loan
bonds, though we think they are gone up in
balloon. How it is that George Francis Train
has not introduced his 'CrGdit Mobiller" for the
republic of Ireland we are puzzled TO explain,
but we don't suppose that even Train has lost
more than two or three paltry millions In the
cause of Irish independence. His Fenian plan
is the short cut-"Elect me to the White
House and Will make Ireland republic"
The trouble here is, however, that everybody
believes that Train is joking or playing Bar
mum or Daniel Pratt, ''the great American
traveller"
But whatever may be the plans, schemes or
calculations of the Fenian leaders and mana
| gers we think that they have shown enough
in the way of presumption and folly and reck-
lessness in these Canadian wild goose chases
| to convince the honest Irish men and women
who furnish the funds that any further funds
| for such senseless adventures are worse than
so much money thrown away.
JUSTICE TO RoMR.-A correspondent asks
| that justice shall be done to Rome in the mat
ter of her compelling Protestants to worship