The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 207, 30 March 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1868.

The last forty-eight hours has indeed brought us grave and momentous intelligence, and such as to call for the most thoughtful and earnest consideration of every one amongst us. The news by the English mail is of a gloomy character, and look which way we may there is no break in the dreary and overcast political horizon, and there is little hope that peace will be much longer preserved. The embers of discord, long smouldering, are being rapidly blown into a flame, and at any inomsnt a warlike conflagration may light up every corner of Europe, and very probably America. Beginning at home we find that the United States have raised two questions, either of which, it is possible, may be decided by the arbitrament of the sword. One has reference to the Alabama claims, or in other words payment in full by England of all the damage inflicted on Federal commerce during tho late war

by that then celebrated Confederate privateer. England has already made every concession that she can with honor, and has ottered to submit the claim to the arbitration of disinterested powers, but this does not suit the extreme party in the States, and a " demand" has been made for prompt payment. As this most certainly will not be acceded to, execution may probably issue from the American Government in the shape of seizure of British property as a material guarantee, and then of course, war alone can settle the question. Independently of this, we learn that Congress has ordered the Committee on Foreign Affairs to take immediate action on the maltreatment of American citizens in Ireland. What they mean by this is at present hard to say, but if Congress thinks that American citizens, whether native born, or whitewashed, are on that account to have unlimited power to stir up and assist high treason and sedition, without being liable for the consequences, they are hugely mistaken, and will have to enforce their opinions with something harder than paper pellets, and more dangerous than the oratorical bounce indigenous to the great republic. The fact is all parties are bidding for the Fenian vote in September next, and though the bulk of the American, as well as the whole of the sensible portion of the English people would truly consider such a war as a frightful calamity, it is quite likely that it may arise. Deeply deplorable, as it would be, England, thank God, notwithstanding Fenian disaffection, is now in a better financial position, and better prepared in armanent than she has ever been since her existence as a nation, and though it would indeed be a battle of giants, there need be no fear as to he ultimate result. France too, is apparently on the verge of war, and the Chassepot rifle, which " did wonders" on raw Garibaldians, is relied on it would seem to enlarge the boundaries of France to the banks of the Ehine, and thus fulfil one of the First Napoleon's ideas. Louis Napoeon has cot forgiven Bismarck for last year's check, nor can he stomach the position Prussia has assumed as the first military power in Europe. These offences, added to the unquestionable decline of the Napoleonic prestige, have most probably determined the ruler of France on making a desperate effort to restore the latter and regild the fading glories of Magenta and Solferino, as well as strengthen the dynasty he represents. In the East, Eussia, as usual, is intriguing with every power or principality that will encourage her advances—no doubt with the intention of one day givin» the coup de r/race to the " sick man," and seizing Turkey, the prey that fourteen years ago he was compelled to relinquish. If England is engaged with America, or in other warfare, France with Prussia, there is no interference worth dreading, and it is by no means impossible that in the hurlyburly the Crescent may fall before the onslaught of the Imperial Eagle. Altogether it must be clear to the most dull-sighted, that we are on the eve of great changes, and it is by no means improbable that the close of the summer of 18G8 will see great changes in the map of Europe, as well as in other parts of the world. The next mail will, no doubt, clear up much that at present can only be guessed at, and very probly draw up the curtain on the first act of the great drama that is furthcoming.

A movement set on foot by James Stevens, in America, in 1858, gainin-r strength during the second year of the civil war in that country, and assuming tangible political shape during the latter end of the year 1863, has at length, under the name of the Fenian Brotherhood, been committing acts of unparalelled that have shaken England to its centre. The ostensible object of Fenianism is the redress of the wrongs of Ireland, but the real object of the brotherhood is simply to obtain Ireland for the Irish. By the latest accounts from England, we read that although further atrocities have been committed, and plots of a most serious nature, with the view of overturning constituted authority have beeu discovered that Fenianism is already doomed, and the enrolment of 80,000 volunteers, comprising 20,000 loyal Irishmen, shows the spirit prevalent amongst Englishmen, to put down at any cost, a society whose aim is treason, and whose acts already have been directed at the most sacred institutions of liberty. Till within the last few weeks, the Colonies of New Zealand and Australia, indulged in fancied security, and imagined, that although Fenian Irishmen might sympathise with their countrymen at home, that the fact of their location here, where neither creed or race in any way could be inimical to their interests, would

have prevented any serious outbreak. The facts however, disclosed lately, first in the funeral processions that have taken plaee at Hokitika and Westport, and lastly, the dastardly and cruel attempt in Sydney to assassinate His E.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, (which attempt, thank God has been futile) have shown that the secret brotherhood of Fenians ha been long banded in the colonies, and was only awaiting some favorable moment to follow out its cowardly and treasonable practises. The latest telegrams from Hokitika tell of the arrest of Father Larkins and William Melody, for the late seditious demonstration and although we have hitherto abstained' in these columns from any comments on the Fenian organisation, it has been with the view of carrying out that conciliatory policy which both the Government and all right-thinking and loyal men have approved. Now, however, that the gauntlet has been thrown down, repressive measures must be adopted to quell the disaffection, and the loyal demonstration throughout the colony, shows the state of public feeling, and is proof of the vast under-current of loyalty and affection to the British Crowu and family which runs through the colonies, in every race and creed, and is prepared at all sacrifices to put a stop once and for ever, to the attempt of this misguided people to either overturn authority or destroy life. To the members of the Fenian Brotherhood in our midst we would offer a few remarks—whatever the ultimate fate of Feniauism may be in Englandand America, it can never affect their interests here, and before going any further in their treasonable cause we bid them ponder well their position, and the freedom they enjoy in this country, and before proceeding to extremities be warned of the ultimate fate of their body should the majesty of the law be furtheroutraged, or the blood of loyalty be further roused, and instead of being led by base and designing men, whose only aim is to line their pockets, and lead a life of laziness and luxury at the expense of their victims, think for themselves of the fact, that whether Ireland be governed by a king of its own, or remain a possession of the British Crown, that any attempt made here to overthrow the British Constitution will only result in their ultimate extermination.