Page 4 Advertisements Column 4

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 200, 25 August 1870, Page 4

The key to the entrance to the reporters' gallery iv the House of Repree sematives having been lost, the door had to he broken open. The Post says : — " Some hoo. members from the North j imagined that au earthquake was coming, but the general impression was that the '• building had succumbed to dry rot." Opinion in Canada. — The Spectator publishes the following extracts from a private letter received by Tennyson : — " The recent speeches of certain English - statesmen and the tone of an influential portion of the press favoriug the idea of au eventual, if not an early separation of the , North American Provinces from the Empire, wring the hearts of Canadians with a feeling that you can form no conceptionofiu England. At present, that feeling is all one of regret, mitigated by a wilful disbelief in the possibility of England's dotage and decrepitude to that extent that her people would, without reason ffi or necessity, break up the immense Empire which it has been her aim and policy for centures to acquire. Ere long that feeling of regret now prevailing in Canada at this policy, which is getting iv fashion amoug ' advanced ' statesmen iv England, may, by a natural rebound, turn to indignation at the threatened cowardly abandonment of the colonies — the end of which would be fatal to English supremacy here and elsewhere. They know hun.au nature very ill, at least I can vouch for Canadian nature, who think that England can shrink from her colonies, and make aliens t of their inhabitants, and at the same time • preserve their respect and affection. The result of an abandonment of the North American colonies would not be their independence (that is a chimerical idea, cherished in England, but ridiculed here), but their immediate annexation to the United States, and the transfer of the maritime supremacy of the world from England to her most implacable enemy aud rival. For if there be one idea more than , another that predominates in the great Re- ! public on our border, it is a desire and a purpose to humiliate Eugland and take her high place among the nations, and above all, to transfer to America the dominion of the seas. The maritime supremacy will be gained at one stroke by the trausfer of the marine of Canada (which slands the third in extent in the world) from the British flag to the American. Moreover, the most loving aud faithful subjects our , Queen has would resent that abandonment, until it would be seen that even American ill-will against England would be a trifle to that engendered here in tbe hearts of those who naturally are her dearest and most devoted sons. It is for England to count the cost of those delusive and dangerous theories that are cropping up in her midst. These theories appear so monstrous to the people of Canada, that as yet we wilfully shut our eyes and toill not see them — as Shem and Japhet turned their backs upon the shame of their father. We say to one another, " These are only Ihe ideas of a few visionaries. The people of England will never be so insanely untrue to themselves, and to us." And so we wait and wait for the turn of the tide, and a change in the aspect of the times. Still the public mind is deeply stirred, and is in that mood to be suddenly roused to action. A few false moves in England might be the spaik in the powder-magazine that will blow our whole empire to fragments. Ob, that there were some visions in the dear old land ! and that. Mr. Gladstone could read with full understanding the words of David, "Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost uot increase thy wealth by their price !" Why do I say these things to you, Sir? Because I know that you are a true Englishman, who will not scorn a few words from a loyal Canadian on this momentous topic. Excuse, pray, this jeremaid. I never had the honor of writing to you before — I may never do so again — I detest politics as a rule, I do roc even write this to enlighten you on Canada, (hat I am sure were needless, and I hardly know why I have allowed my pen to trace. these lines, except to give utterance to the anxious thoughts that are being forced into the minds of even the quietest people of'tb^se colonies by the late declarations of English statesmen. Inquiry is said to have been made in Wanganui for tow, for the paper-ivills in Melbourne.