A CANADIAN CAMPAIGN.
A cestretest in Canada is rather a fermi/1811e affier, if we believe the reports of the best-informed military officers who have served in that country. In comparison with an ordinary American campaign, an European one has always been linked on as a mere "playing at soldiers ;" and a campaign in Canada is the superlative degree of all American campaigeitig. Let us suppose, then, that Sir JOHN COL- BORNE'S report in his public despatch is correct,--namely, that the insurrection is tolerably wide.spread,—and then eedeavour to describe the nature of the struggle that is but too likely to ensue. We have to consider the number and habits of the Canadian people, the military character of their country, and the n.cans of attack and defence on both sides.
The people of Lower Canada are pretty giseerally admitted et present to amount to about half a million. The number of persons from the age
of eighteen to fifty-nine enrolled to sieve in tee of Lower Ca- nada, in 1833, was above 94,00e; oreaurzed into SS battalions, and having 8,000 muskets. This number, by the way, multiplied by 7, would give a population of 638,000; but if the proportion of men capable of hearing arms be only one in eight, then the persons en- rolled, multiplied by this last timelier, would make the population above 730,000. We make this observation to show that the number of inhabitants in Lower Canada is rather underrated than over-rated. Out of the number of men capable of bearing arms, five-sixths will be of French origin, and one-sixth of Saxon. The first, therefore, will amount to above 78,000, and the last to above l5,000.
Upon the whole, then, we may safely assume, that if the insurrection prove as general as it is supposed to be, the King's troops, and the small portion of the people that are Loyalists, will have to maintain a struggle with from 70,000 to 80,000 men capable of bearing arms. The number of men enrolled for the Militia a Upper Canada, in 1834, a year later than the statement for the sister province, was short of 40,000. This number multiplied by 7, would give a population of no more than 280.000 ; and even multiplied by 8, but 320,000. The po- pulation, then, has either been overrated, or, being less of a military character, is less anxious so enroll.
Seven years ago, the number of families in Lower Canada employed in agriculture amounted to about 50,t)00; whereas those employed in trade were but one-twentieth part of that number, namely 2,500. This points at once to the genius of the people. They are, in fact, agricul- turists, fishermen, woodsmen, and hunters, or rather, all these by turns. They are accustomed to pass lakes and rivers, and are bold and skilful boatmen. In winter, when rural labour cannot be carried on, they be. take themselves to hunting : with their rifles slung over their shoulders, and their bedding dragged after them in light sleighs, they traverse snows and ice that would make the European of a temperate climate shudder. This gives them a thorough acquaintance with the localities of a country which they roam in almost as much as dwell in. Altogether, they may tie described as a simple, frugal, and hardy race; and after the late trials of their courage, it is hardly necessary to add that . they are a brave one.
So much for the people, and now for their country. The Morning Chronicle seems disposed to consider it, in a military point of view, a small country, in which there is hardly room enough to fight. The area of the two Canadas is in round numbers 330,000 square miles ; which is four times the extent of Great Britain. Upper Canada con- tains only 90,000 miles : there remain, therefore, for Lower Canada, 260,000; which makes it thrice as large as our island. So there is room enough to fight, and to run, and to fight again. It is pretended, however, that the Canadian population is concentrated in villages, and, therefore, easily assailable by an attacking force. Why such a state of the popu- lation should afford the facilities in question, it is difficult to perceive. It is obvious enough that had they been more concentrated in towns, they would have been more easily attacked in a mass than as they are : on the other hand, had they been dispersed in solitary hamlets, as the English rural settlers frequently are, they would have found it more difficult to combine, and had also a less disposition to combine. The flight to Montreal and the States of these dispersed English settlers, or at least of such of them as are Loyalists, has even already proved the accuracy of this last observation. For military defence, in short, we suspect that the Canadian population is most formidable just as it is. The alleged concentration, whatever it may be, cannot be very great, seeing that the population extends 600 miles along the St. Lawrence, and 400 more along the Richelieu, the St. Francis, Chaudiere, and St. John's. Striking off from the whole surface 60,000 square miles fur lakes, the St. Lawrence and its estuary, (being the usual computation for the area occupied by water,) the Canadian inhabitants are just 2e to the square mile, or, in. eluding those not of French lineage, 3 inhabitants. Where the in- habitants not of French extraction (rather erroneously culled English, seeing that most of them are Irish and Americans) are concentrated, it would not be easy to tell, as there are but three towns ip all Lower Canada,—namely, Quebec and Montreal, with about 30,000 inhabi- tants each, and Trois Rivieres, with about 5.000; in all of which the French race is known to be the great majority. The climate in Canada is described inn sentence : the winters belong to Russia, and the summers to the Equator. In the first, the thermo- meter is frequently 20 degrees below the freezing-point. Throughout the months of December, January, February, and March, the mean of the thermometer is full 20 degrees below, in November it is 15 degrees below, and even in October it does not rise above zero. On the other hand, in summer the heat is often 100 degrees,—that is, higher than under the Equator itself unless in very peculiar cite cumstances. In the month of July, the mean heat is exactly that of the Equator; whilst in June and August it is but 8 degrees lower. In winter, the ground is covered with from three to five feet of snow, for five months,—from December to April inclusive; and the rivers are closed with ice during the same time. There is no more spring than in the neighbourhood of the Frozen Ocean. April would be tolerably mild, but that the land is still covered with snow. Sep- tember is the only temperate month of the year. With these minute exceptions, the climate of Canada is made up of six months of a Sibe- rian winter and four months of a Tropical summer. In a word, there exists no climate more rigorous than that of Canada, except such as are fit only fur the habitation of Tongouses, Samoyedes, arctic foxes, and beavers. Added to the intense heats of summer, musquitoes, land-flies, midges, and " yellow nippers," are far commoner than black. berries. In autumn, remittent and intermittent fevers and dysenteries are the necessary concomitants of a country covered with wood and fen. In winter, frost bitten noses, fingers, and toes, are of frequent occur- rence among unpractised and unwary strangers; and intense cold, acting like a powerful narcotic, often sets the sentinel to sleep on his post. The roads, in summer, are neither very good nor numerous. In winter, they are narrow passages cut through the snow ; capable of allowing two sleighs to pass each other, with a wall of hard snow from three to five feet high on each side. The bridges over them are frail wooden structures, burnt or cut down at an hour's notice ; a fact of which our troops have already had experience.
Of the 200,000 square miles of dry land which Lower Canada con- tains, we have no estimate of the amount under cultivation. The amount occupied, or rather given away for occupation, cannot at the utmost be reckoned even now (and seven years ago it was much less) at more than 7,000 square miles. But if the whole were cultivated, it would still leave 193,000 miles of deep, dark, and impenetrable woods, and unwholesome fens and marshes, not to reckon 600,000 or des of lakes, rivers, and estuaries. Such a country is of all that could be mimed the least suitable for the marching and matexruvering of regular troops, and more especially for the portion of them which for twenty-two years has only been accustomed to the pavement of St. James's and the mac- adamized road from London to Windsor. All competent authorities, in- deed, admit that Canada is of all countries the most easy to defend by a determined reeve population, and the one most difficult to con- quer by an invader. Twice have the Americans, used as they are to marshes and forests, been beaten back, chiefly by the assistance of the very men—in many cases, indeed, of the very individuals—in a contest with whom England is now engaged. Every wood is a natural abbaus, every river a bridgeless and almost impassible fosse, and every ravine a formidable rampart. In summer, a campaign is inconvenient and de-
structive, from heat and miasma; and in winter impracticable, from the
cold, the snow, the ice, and the want of roads. Regular troops can move only on narrow paths ten or twelve feet wide, and therefore can neither show front to an enemy nor manoeuvre in any respect. They are, in fact, pent up in a thin column within a narrow defile, with a broad mass of snow on either flank. In such circumstances, a column of 10,000 is nearly on a parity with a column of 100. The ride is then deadly, the bayonet of little service, and the cannon and cavalry unworkable.
The Queen's troops in Canada are in the mean while under lock and key, fora long winter of five months. What is to become of them dur- ing that time, should the insurrection continue, we are at a loss to un- derstand. Montreal is an open town, and Trois Rivieres the same. In fact, the only fortified post in the interior of Canada is Quebec ; for the three millions laid out, or proposed to be laid out, on the fron- tier fortifications, are of no more value in the present contest than if they bad been expended in repairing the great wall of China. If the gar- rison of Quebec is amply provisioned, it may bold on the defensive for any length of time : but it must be recollected, that the provisions required are not only provisions for a garrison of 2,000 or 2,500 men, but for a population, as far as Quebec is concerned, of 30,000 persons ; and if we suppose Montreal to hold out also, of as many more, to say nothing of the Loyalists from the country that have fled to these towns for pro- tection.
From the side of the United States, which covers the whole Southern and a considerable part of the Eastern frontier of Canada, no relief is to be reckoned on to the Loyalists ; while, from the very character of the contest, it is quite sure to be given, in one shape or another, to the disaffected. They will at least receive arms and ammunition, if they have wherewithal to pay for them,—sympathy in any case, and a retreat in temporary or permanent disaster. In all these forms, indeed, they have already received more or less assistance. Supposing the insurrection to be general, (and the whole case which we state is founded on this hypothesis,) by what means is it to be suppressed, and at what cost? A force of 25,000 men at least will be requisite ; and in this case, more than a fourth part of the British army will be required to punish a people that our own injustice and impolicy has driven into most unwilling insurrection. The lei es pay of 23,000 men for a single year will cost 800,000/., without re- ference to transports, camp equipage, prisoners, hospitals, arms and ammunition, staff, blood-money, pensions, and half-pay. In point of economy, we shall have one advantage ever those who conducted tl e American war—this will be in the matter of navy : but economy w. 1 be gained at the cost of efficiency. The whole coast of America, fu of harbours and navigable rivers, was open to our squadrons and cruisers. There is just one harbour and navigable river in Canada, and the navigation is intricate and dangerous : sloops, schooners, and small steam-boats only can be employed ; and they must be built for the purpose. In short, a single campaign of this character will cost us several millions.
The above remarks have been made on the supposition that the in- surgents in Upper Canada will be kept down by the combined Orange- men of that province, without the aid of regular troops; but who can safely assume that such will be the case?
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