The detailed accounts we have received of the Fenian invasion
of Canada present an even more ludicrous picture of immediate and blank failure than the telegrams themselves. Before crossing the frontier, General O'Neill said, " Soldiers of the advance guard of the American-Irish Army for the liberation of Ireland from the yoke of your oppressors, from your own country you now enter that of an enemy. The eyes of your country are upon you. Forward ! march !"—to which Captain Cronan, of Bur- lington, replied in the name of his country, " General ! I am proud that Vermont has the honour of leading this advance. Ireland may depend on us to do our duty." Whereupon almost immediately, General O'Neill was seized by the United States' Marshal,—Marshal Foster,—thrust into a closed carriage, and driven away from the field, with the warning that any outcry might cost him his life. As for the engagement, both aides are said to have fought well for two or three hours,—the Fenians are no cowards, or they would not attempt any enterprise so desperate,—when the Fenians, knowing of course of the active measures taken by the United States' troops in their rear, became demoralized and fled. No doubt Canada would have beaten the invaders without American help, but the American help made the job easy.
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