NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE excitement in Canada over the elections rapidly in- creases, the Conservatives taunting the Liberals with a desire for annexation to the Union, and the Liberals retorting that they are perfectly loyal, and that the Conservatives know it, but are afraid of Free-trade. The Canadian Premier, Sir John A. Macdonald, now seventy-six years of age, makes exciting speeches about dying an Englishman, and on the 17th inst. created a sensation by declaring that the Liberal leaders, 'especially Sir R. Cartwright, were engaged in a treasonable plot to worry the Dominion into annexation. At present his only proof of this charge, which is absolutely denied, is that Mr. E. Farrer, of the Globe, a young Irish Catholic, published a pamphlet in Washington showing Americans how to annoy Canada to such a degree that she would take refuge in annexa- tion. This charge appears to be true ; but the Liberals answer that they are not responsible for Mr. Farrer, and that they only intend to relieve the agricultural interest of the burden of Protection. No one as yet pretends to predict the issue ; but -we fancy the Liberals are rather stronger than is to be gathered from the telegrams, as, they have a majority of the English-speaking farmers with them. This class is wearied out with high prices and the partial closing of its market. 'Sir John Macdonald, on the other hand, is strongly supported by the Roman Catholic Bishops, by his own party, hitherto always in a majority, and by many voters provoked by what they consider American interference. The elections come off early in March, but their result over so vast an area will not be known at once.
