TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE ROYAL VISIT TO CANADA AND WASHINGTON. Timm:Tetuan a vast extent of territory on the other side of the - Atlantic, preparations are in active progress to receive one par- ticular young gentleman now nearly nineteen years of age. Grave senators, governors, military and civil, British and foreign, houses of legislature, courts of justice, chambers of commerce, municipalities, guilds, professional and industrial—corps of vo- lunteers, households that cannot be counted, and that august giant, the mob—all these from the Lake of the Woods, to the Bay of Fundy, from Maine to Florida, are watching the departure of Albert Edward Prince of Wales calculating the time which it will take for him to traverse the Atlantic, reckon- ing the stages of his circuitous route in her Majesty's North American Colonies, and counting the day, when he will appear on the ground of the federal republic, until he shall actually be a guest in the White House at Washington. All these innumerable circles of society are debating with themselves what they shall do to signalize the arrival and travels of this youthful voyager, and are anticipating the pleasure and distinction which shall then be exchanged. The moralist might smile in surveying this great map of agitation, at the effect which royalty can produce, not only in the off-lying possessions of the British Crown, but even in those British colonies which some time since repudiated their King, and have since claimed to be considered a nation inde- pendent and equal with ourselves. But there is, indeed, a deep moral beneath the surface of all this commotion, a moral luckily most easy to read and most certain to fructify under its present cultivation. In truth, we believe that no event more happy for England has ever befallen, and that the great American Republic, as well as the United Empire, will hereafter have reason to point to the day when Albert Edward left the shores of England to make new conquests in America.
How many historical reflections flash across the mind ! How long is it since a Royal foot trod the shores of America ? How long since the presumptive wearer of a British crown was there ? The last question might be answered by the single word--never. The young Duke of Clarence once visited Halifax, we believe, when he was a junior officer in a British ship of war ; but nobody recognized in him the William the Fourth of our Reform Bill days. And other Royal Princes have shown themselves ' • but no heir to the British throne, with all the presumption of Royalty around him, has ever trodden the shores of those colonies, severed or unsevered. How many a colonist, how many a "citizen," will, like a political Richard Owen with the specimen before him, speculate upon the actual nature of Royalty, in the abstract and' in the concrete,—upon its functions in the world, past, present, and to come,—upon the broad distinction between countries which possess the institution, and those which have it not ? How Eng- lishmen will congratulate themselves that they still possess the blessing ; citizens that they are " free from the encumbrance." And yet in the mind of each will unquestionably lurk a doubt whether the advantage is so absolutely on the one side. We English have an institution which enables us, through every change of party, through every variety of the political sky, through every mutation of men at the head of affairs, to pursue our way with an even tenor, the whole community at any one period making very nearly the progress marked out for it, what- ever may be the incapacities, ineptitudes, or even reluctances of the men entrusted with the conduct of affairs. We have con- tinued our course from Magna Charts to the Reform Bill of 1832, and shall continue it, from 1832 even unto the measure of nine- teen hundred and whatever it may be, without any power on the part of Tory reactionary or " Chartist visionary " to disturb the peculiar march of the British State. As we have before had occasion to remark, that course has been distinguished amongst nations by a strikingpeculiarity. Our " revolutions " have been wholly unlike most movements so called on the Continent; we are not'aware of a single exception in which the people moving has not appealed from lawless acts of those in authority to the established and acknowledged law of the land. Magna Charts was but a declaratory ad, as its companion statutes were ; the Petition of Rights, and Bill of Rights, belong to the same series, and, by the bye, the British community resident on the other side of the Atlantic did but appeal to the law of the land in the mat- ters of taxation against the arbitrary usurpation of George the Third and his Ministers. It was the. King and his unluoky ad- visers who then broke the law ; the " Revolution " was theirs ; and we have already had to acknowledge the strength which we Eng- lish people have derived in our ulterior progress through that noble vindication of law on the part of our American brothers. By the same act, they relieved themselves from the " encumbrance" of royalty; we are not sure but what many a man who has attended conventions in America Very lately must have asked himself whether even 450,000/. a year would not be a cheap cost for the working of any machine which should continue the affairs of the Union in steady progress, while .the freest action should remain for Parliaments and Ministries, for the whole Federation, and fer every one of the thirty-three States. But if questions of this kind hang, as it were, around the bank
chambers )nu ch of the mind, and ;occupy Psyche during the slumbering
periOds of leisure, they will not appear with sufficient force to be en in the broad blaze of the festivities attending the young ce's path ; not a shadow of them will be-traced in the blazing sunshine of that summer visit ; nog a
perceptible in the broad grin which will oeAed at Anult. But
- to be destroyed countenance of hospitable society. The great fact-.re lace differences which have happened since 1783, will l the meeting of Wallace and Bruce was as nothing comparee that shake of the hands between Albert Edward Prince of Wales, and Tames Buchanan. The White House will be the great man- sion of peace ; Royalty and Republicanism will lie down together in that first beginning of the Millennium. Hearts royal, and hearts republican, will discover that there is in truth little difference between them. Englishmen are the same all the world over, under whatever institutions they may recently have lived. They are still distinguished by identically the same qualities and aspi- rations, and notably by these—the faithful love of law, the ener- getic impulse to make opportunity profitable, and the ceaseless desire to do as much good as possible. Terminate the differences that have ever separated England and America, and enable them to understand each other up to the very top of society, and how much may they not hereafter do by their united force, under those three sacred impulses ? Ever since the close of last century, the Americans have been in the habit of confounding the action and motives of the English crown with repudiation of law, forcible encroachment, antagonism, andjealousy, political and commercial. During the reign of Queen Victoria, every one of these trans- Atlantic prejudices has been softened to such an extent, that each one is now ready for removal, and we see the whole Republic eagerly preparing a welcome for Queen Victoria's successor. On the other hand, English society,—which means persons of great wealth and influence living in the upper regions of the West-end, remote from the vulgar commonwealth,—have supposed that the American Republicans are rough, unlettered, eager to show their independence by repelling all gracious influences, and anxious to retaliate any of the affronts which royalty may have put upon them. Nor are these insults entirely ancient ; even British colo- nies unsevered, have had within very few years to complain that they suffered from neglect and disparagement. If a leading colo- nist visited England, his local honours were unrecognized; the statesmanship which ruled in the Downing Street of Australia, or the West Indies, found itself simply in lodgings in the political suburbs of the imperial metropolis; many who come full of loyal fervour returned soured by ofcial coldness and repudiation. Nothing has contributed more to remove that untoward feeling, than the genial graciousness with which Queen Victoria has re- ceived representives of the British colonies unsevered, aye, or severed. And now the first gentleman in England is about to learn by personal experience the vigorous cordiality, and the tasteful courtesy, with which the Republic of America can welcome the renewed alliance.
Nor is it simply a matter of state ceremony : by this visit an influence will be created, at the very centre of the United King- dom, most favourable to every good work for which the Ameri- cans can ask our cooperation ; and while recognizing the most absolute equality in the great Anglo-Saxon State on the other side, we may say an influence will be left, in the very centre of the Republic, most favourable to all that we Englishmen can wish. The joint action of these influences cannot but have a most powerful effect in enlarging the opportunities of both coun- tries, in adding to their wealth, in increasing their united pursuit of knowledge, in widening and elevating every form of social happiness.
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