THE ALARM. IN CANADA.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 581, 7 October 1869, Page 4

THE ALARM. IN CANADA.

• (JVlno York Times, July 30.) The Canadian scare this year seems to be quite as baseless, so far as we can judge, as that of the late season ; but, indeed, a Fenian fright has come to be a regular annual sensation with our neighbors across the borders, and it does not require much staple of fact to go upon for an imaginative or reckless newsmonger to produce an excitement in that invasiondreading community. Nor do we say this in any spirit of ridicule. On the contraiy, the geographical situation of Canada on the one hand, and the known recklessness of the Fenians on the other, may well produce a constant flutter of anxiety, if not of fear, in those peaceful Canadian cities and settlements which, as they lie closest to the border, would bear the brunt of a sortie from our territory. Mutato nomine, or, rather inntalo loco, with our positions reversed, the story niis^lit be told of us ; let us but "put ourselves in their place," and we should probably be in the same trepidation. As a matter of fact, however, the present is probably a " needless alarm." There is no indication whatever of any formidable Fenian design on Canada, and on the other hand, it is easy to trace the source from which rumor may have concocted one. These midsummer days are those of gregarious enjoyment, of society festivals, of picnics, anniversaries, club celebrations, and what not, in whichj of course, the remnant of the Fenian organisation, and the old Brotherhoods of the Irish Republic take^their part. Naturally much is said of the past glories of Fort Erie, and of the Fenian movements of three years ago ; and much patriotism and much invading zeal is for the moment revived. But, so far as formal preparation for a campaign is concerned, nothing of the kind has been noted. Besides, the Irish situation has changed since ] 866. Then there was a revolution in Ireland, to which the American movement was auxiliary, while now "all is quiet on the Littey." Then the Irish question was one of peasantry aganst constabulary, of blows, imprisonments, and fighting ; now it has taken the shape of. legislation, and when we talk of it or or write of it, our thoughts are tixed on what is doing in London, not in Limerick. The movement on Canada in 1866 was not a mere reckless piece of iillibusterism, but was designed as a tiank attack to aid the cause of the "Irish Republic" in Ireland itself ; and the stimulus has subsided now. We admit that Fenian movements are not always dependent on reason or on probabilities of success ; that they are often so eccentric and seemingly causeless that it is unsafe to measure them by ordinary standards ; and, in any case, as we have already said, the Canadians are right in taking precautions, for "the burnt child dreads the fire." But the

frenzy of Fenianism is gone— its wondrous enthusiasm wondrously escaped by being drawn off, as it were, through the safetypipe, instead of being stored \ip and used behind the engine. '