The figure which the United States cut before Europe just
at this moment is not less characteristic. While two leading sena- tors are threatening to fight a duel over a semi-Ministerial pro- position to suspend the Missouri Compromise in favour of a new Slave territory North of the line—while Protestant John Mitchel continues to pour forth jesuitical suggestions to the Irishmen, wherever they may be, that they should attack England from the United States, rebel in Ireland, and " annex " in Canada—while gold from California is eagerly expected, and not less eagerly pro- mised in new reports—the practical results to which a truly utilitarian people ultimately come are marked by good sense and by something very like English feeling. The duel is pre- vented by honourable explanations ; and the bill which had nearly led to it will probably be a dropped order. John Mitchel is daily more and more understood ; and his own countrymen— Irishmen in Canada as well as the United States—come forward to contradict his distorted version of Irish history and grievances, and to inform American sympathizers that the Canadians, like the Novascotians and New Brunswickers, have nothing to rebel about —no reason for preferring annexation to practical independence under protection of the British empire. The look-out for Califor- nian gold does not arrest the immense increase of produce for the European market; and the New York Chamber of Commerce— which comes forth with a memorial to its own President and Con- gress on the subjects of privateering, free goods in free bottoms, and right of search—places the American views on these topics in form studiously moderate, and singularly resembling the views practically adopted by our own commercial public and embodied by our Government in the recent Orders in Council.
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