THE ST. JUAN OUTRAGE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 175, 26 January 1860, Page 3

THE ST. JUAN OUTRAGE.

[From the Saturday Review.'] The insult recently offered to tire English nation by a petty force of 'American soldiers may lead to serious consequences, if the good sense of both nations does not intervene. Every other year we seem to be on the verge of war with the United States. Americans are so touchy, so sensitive, and, if truth must be spoken, occasionally so intemperate, that it i 3 difficult to keep on good terms with them. For the sake of preserving peace, we frequently have to repress little rising fits of indignation at their cavalier wav of treating us. We are quite prepared to make allowances for a high-spirited, people, and in diplomatic disputes to give the benefit of the doubt, if there be a doubt, tp America. At the same time, there are limits'to national forbearance. On the present occasion our kinsmen arc so clearly in the wrong,' and the outrage committed against ns is eo.unprovoked, that it is impossible for Englishmen to submit in silence. There cannot lie two opinions'on the point. A foolish and hectoring official at ht. Juatn kas.

grossly affronted us. It is difficult to conceive how the Government at Washington can, for a single moment, sanction his proceedings, and it is certain that all generous Americans wil i view with indignation and contempt an act of vulgar and offensive bravado. The island .which has been forcibly occupied by American troops lies between Vancouver’s , island and the continent, in the Gulf of Georgia, through'whose waters the Oregon frontier line was intended by the Treaty of 1846 to pass. “It was, stipulated in that treaty that the boundary of the United States should coincide with an imaginary line running through the middle ,of the gulf channel to the Pacific Ocean. As the Gulf of Georgia happens, however, to be parted into more 'than one channel by a cluster of islands, of which St. Juan is the chief, the letter of the treaty is a little ambiguous. Is the channel meant the Canal de Haro, which . 33 the channel nearest to Vancouver’s Island on the west of the group ? So say the Americans, and assert their right to St. Juan accordingly. Does the. treaty allude to the great Rosario strait on the American side of the gulf, the only regular channel in use at the date of the negotiation of 1846 ? If so, St, Juan and its sister islands belong exclusively, as hitherto, to us. For thirteen, years the controversy had gone on between the two nations. Boundary Commissioners had been appointed in an amicable spirit, and strict orders given by both Governments to the, local authorities to avoid every act calculated to provoke a conflict. The difficulty was not one of title or of right, but of mere interpretation. It was perfectly immaterial which of us was in present possession of the ground. All that we wanted to know was to what channel the description in the treaty of 1846 was most applicable. The great men of “ the greatest nation upon earth” have their own peculiar way of deciding controversies. Diplomacy might have been still weaving her meshes round the important question but for the appearance of a notable personage on the scene. General Harney, leader of the forces of the United States upon the coast, resolved, as Alexander did, to cut the Gordian knot which Commissioners were vainly endeavouring to disentangle. The dispute was, it is true, a friendly one. But the General was relentless, and had got his eye upon glory* The dispute was a geographical one, “ Generalis sum Americanus et super geographicam,” thought General Harney. Pacific envoys had been • balancing the conflicting claims of their respective countries long enough. Like Brennus of old—-who, as far as benighted heathen could be, was himself a Filibuster — the General determined to throw his sword . into the scale. Bent oil a terrible campaign, he led off, conformable to all the principles of strategy, with a ruse de guerre. There is nothing like lulling an enemy into false security. The General opened hostilities against the Goyernor of Vancouver’s Island with an afternoon caU—pacem duello miscuit. The manoeuvre, though a daring one for times of peace, was happily effected without loss of life. He was asked to dinner, and like a second Alfred in the Danish camp, passed a convivial evening with the unsuspecting Englishman, who perhaps little knew the heroic soul of the Harney with whom he sat. Next morning he retired to his own head quarters, and forged a thunderbolt of war. Sixty-three men, three cannon, a drummer, two constables, and a custom-house officer, were suddenly landed under his direction on St. Juan in the teeth of an Eiiglish judge, and under a severe cannonade of interrogatories from the astonished squatters. Their duty was—so ran the orders of Harney the Audacious—to capture an inferior, t.o fight an equal, and to protest against a superior force. The sixty-six soldiers pitched their tents and beat about for an unseen force to capture or to fight. The custom-house official levied a tremendous tax on all exports *>r imports, and issued proclamations to an imaginary population. “ Constablos Smith and Higgins” assumed the badges of their dignity, and made arrangements for taking the entire British army, coujd it only be discovered, into custody. It was a proud moment for ea.Qh member of that daring band. Ajax, son of Oileus, defied the lightning when his blood; was. up. Mrs. Partington, of immortal memory, was once known to attack the Atlantic with a mop.’ General Harney was now at wa*. with, thq. Brjtish empire. . Fortunately for the General and his sixtysix fellow-patriots, the Governor of British Columbia was a man of sense. Had he been an, American colonel, or a candidate for the President’B chair, or the editor of a Washington newspaper, he would have bombarded the intruder’s caipp, or pnt all the occupants, including the two special constables, to the sword, and, the war between General Harney and Great Britain would have become international. As h,e was only an English gentleman, he contented himself with despatching an overwhelming force to protect the few British settlers on St. Juan, and treated the Genera!—no doubt to that, hero’s great disgust—as a monomaniac who had disobeyed the orders of his own Government. As, a matterof form, he protested against the occupation of the island, and sent home foj; further instructions. Deprived of the pleasure of capturing of being captured, General Harney was compelled to wait and see whether his acts found favour in the eyes of the United States executive. By this time the adventurous warrior’s suspense is ‘ probably over- Hnless some evil chance has. brought about a collision between big troops, and ours, not much mischief, we trust, will, have been cloned

The littlp island of St luan is chiefly important to England as commanding the entrance by sea to her possessions on the Fraser river, which are rising in'value every day. To

resign a questionable claim; than go to war ; but they would: sooner go to war times than be hectored out of a single roodof land. The quarrel, in such a case, would not be whether or.no we were: to . have St. Juan, but whether it was to be ; taken from us, pendente Ute, by an American; filibuster. General Harney is , good; enough, no doubt, against Mexicans, and Central Republicans--he had better not meddle with Englishmen, Unless we over-estimate the manliness and courtesy of Americans, he will not succeed in establishing anything but an' Unenviable reputation among his countrymen, The United States and England are natural allies, destined, sooner or later, to become fast and tried friends, The first element of friendship is mutual'respect, and it never will be wanting as far as England can contribute to it. Free-handed and out-spoken nations will sometimes act and speak roughly towards one another. It is for the puhlic opinion and the Government of each to prevent chance, irritation rankling into, a sore, and hot temper assuming the form of de-: liberate insult.