PROVOCATIYES TO WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. TO THE EDITOR
OF THE SPECTATOR.
London, 9th Feb-wary 1838.
Sin-in the Morning Chronicle of yesterday is a letter signed " A Cana-
dian," and backed in the leading article of that Ministerial journal, which appears exactly calculated at the present moment to increase the chances of war with America. The gist of the letter appears to be to demonstrate to the Holy Alliance and all it may concern, that " America has no government." The tendency of which in America, with due reservation for difference of cir- cumstances and degrees, may be apprehended to be, in kind, as nearly that of the celebrated proclamation of the Duke of BRUNSWICK iii 1792, as at is easy to conceive.
If a Portuguese Ministry had declared that "England had no government " beeause it encouraged Englishmen to go and attack Don MIGUEL, Englishmen would probably have only laughed. Competent reasons may exist, why an American, instead of laughing, will take his rifle from the crook.
The Americans have a government for purposes they consider useful to themselves, but not for the purpose of restraining them from what they think useful; and they have an abiding jealousy of the increase of the powers of their Government in this direction. The declaration of the English Ministerial journal comes therefore with the same effect, as would have come a declaration from Lours the Fourteenth that the English "had no government" because the King did not present himself to Parliament with a horsewhip. Among things useful to themselves, the Americans consider the establishment of free government on their Northern frontier. They may be right or wrong ; but they no more acknowledge the existence of a government for the purpose of parleying with arbitrary governments on such a point, than we here acknowledge the existence of a government to parley with thieves and highwaymen. The English may have conceded the point, that right or wrong depends upon success. The Americans no more admit it, than we admit the right of the housebreaker or of the inmate to depend upon the same.
As regards entering into war, the Americans may reasonably trust to the fact that the English Government, by its past acts in respect of Portugal and Spain, and its acquiescence in the case of Texas, has given up all claim to summon the interference of other nations in the present case. The risk of war with England, it may be they are disposed to " jump ;" acting on the con- fidence that it could not continue for six months without rousing the English polite into general opposition. In this confidence they may be right or wrong ; bat a politician of any grasp is bound to consider the probability that they may entertain it. The Government in Canada has laboured hard to get up a confi- dence on this point. The Americans may reasonably conceive, that the horrible atrocities they witness in their vicinity, must sooner or later bring the people of England to their side. Put the case that an English officer in Spain had blown his brains out to prevent capture by an uncivilized enemy, as it is not clear never happened. The like happened in Canada to a 'Swiss officer, ANIIRY GIR0D1 and hear what one lord, not Carnet, writes to a brother lord, not Carlist, on the subject. "On his body being brought to Montreal, "an inquest was held on it, and a verdict returned of Suicide whilst flying from justice as a rebel. ' " (Lord Gosford's Despatch to Lerd Glenelg, 23/1 Dec. 1837.) Hear ton the sequel, as given in a letter in the Inverness Courier. "Hi. body was decapitated, his head was exposed on a pole, and the other parts burned in the street." Suppose this had happened to my son in Spain, and appeared in a despatch of Yuba REAL t would the Spanish brute have been a whit less dear to me than the English? We are pressed too bin; the Whigs insist on making us cannibals ; we are driven it to a corner, where we must either turn as a rat does or submit to be dragyed through the ordure of men below the level of the age. The Am ricans may reasonably assume that things cannot stop here. They know the English exulted in the pure victory of the Three Days in Pari. ; and they menet but think they will draw comparisons between the tonsequences of the people's success and of their enemy's-between the Boni I tans wheeled oat of France in a coach and six, and the " brutal and bloods " atrocities attendant on the victories of lords in Canada. There is not a dr., bt of what all this tends to. The English Ministry is exposing itself to Ii, jun in upon by the consent of the human race. The attempt to confound mei, contending for political rights with felons, is what will be trampled on by 1European feelings, while every Englishman is justified in taking it as a pers. cal insult to himself and to his ancestors. The Ministry is doing all in its pinta r to lay the foundations of a general hate of aristocratic rule, and, as far as in it lies, to hatch the eggs of a revolution like the French one, trio d on a tho- rough mistrust and hate of the previously ruling powers. Jut so would they have cut up the limbs of WasniNGToN, if they had got hold oi him. But the people of England are not ss hvrena bigots," nor will long be overned by them. For the first grumbling of °the storm, distant and low but till distinct, let me make you a quotation from the Eclectic Review, you know whose organ and what--" But ' the shields of the earth belong unto God.' May not the tepee hand of Providence be about to impart a new impulse to ill. great cause of universal justice through the medium of English rule, and for this end to tall other agencies into play ? Have we, or have we not, arrived t a point in the progress of empire more critical than any which has preceded i ? Are the momentoue changes which have distinguished the last thirty si ars in the annals of British history preparatory and germinant, or time tl y final and effete? Are intellect and great moral pm inciples to preside in our ii uncils, and to mould our institutions ; or are self-interest, blind submission, ato corruption, te he the result of our struggles? In fine, is God for us, or is he . ainst us?" -.I think I understand that ; perhaps you do. Yours sinc.i, .y,
ANTI-'. REASON.
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