[from the Richmond Whig.]
how Canada Regards the Yankee war.
Amid all the bluster of the North there are evidences that much of their confidence is assumed.
Thus, one telegraph informs us that an instalment of 500,000 arms has arrived from Europe, whilst another of the same date mentions the departure of Commissioners to procure arms for the States of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. While volunteers are said to be pouring in, Boston and New York are paying bounties and raising contributions to entice away the idle and reckless thousands who interest them.
With a similar inconsistency it was reported that Canada would furnish thousands of men to subjugate the South, and the alleged superfluity of arms in the North was to be still further encumbered by the loan of 80,000 more by Canada!
We have already seen that the Canadian authorities have refused to endorse the policy which Consul-General Giddings has cut out for them, and we now give extracts from a private letter from a gentleman of the highest respectability who lives in Upper Canada, from which it will be inferred that the Government of Canada will by no means plunge into the turbid sea of American politics with the alacrity represented:
April 27th, 1861.
‘"The people of Canada, whilst they regret the commotion, will abstain from all participation in the conflict. The Government has issued strict orders to all the officers of the active militia forces in whose hands are our arms and ammunition, to be vigilant that no such articles are obtained from them under any pretence whatever. This is as it should be"’
There are other passages in the letter which show the reasoning upon which the men of Canada, to whom their own Government is just now more dear than ever, are inclined to avoid complicating themselves with a people whose avowed rule of Government is the supremacy of numbers.
‘"The North is evidently arming."’--says the Canadian writer-- "It is reported that President Davis is upon his march upon Washington, where General Scott is arming for defence. That there is a great struggle at hand there seems no doubt, and much suffering must ensue. Many people here believe it would be better that Southern Independence should be acknowledged, and a treaty made, for the advantage of both sections whose interests, habits, character and customs are so dissimilar.
"I notice that several persons having means are leaving New York and Cincinnati, in consequence of the American troubles, to settle in Canada, until the tyranny is past. --When that will be is hard to predict.
‘"The great American experiment of republican government has failed in its solidity and safety. 'It seems sadly to lack that principle of government always so necessary for the safety of life, liberty and property.' 'The phantom of republicanism has certainly exploded, and the same States can never be united again' 'Universal suffrage will, ' in the opinion of the writer, 'stimulate the worthless to divide and divide again, from time to time, the earnings of the prudent and industrious. The minority will be trodden upon by the majority for the time being; the popular idol of to-day will be recanted by the mob to-morrow. This must always be the case, when there is no reverence for authority concentrated to protect the weak against the force of an unscrupulous majority.'"’
‘"I greatly rejoice that the Queen in her speech from the throne regrets the difficulties in America. It is so different from the speculative sympathy of our Northern Yankee neighbors, for our emancipation from the 'tyranny of British rule.' During the few days' rebellion in 1837, they seemed to act as if our banks could once be robbed Liberty would be secured."’
In some just speculations upon the apparent differences in Northern and Southern character, the writer says:
‘ "Mr. President Lincoln may be a politician, but it is very doubtful if he is a sound statesman.
"It does certainly appear that the South presents more gentlemanly statesmen than the North, and would not sacrifice principle to the Almighty Dollar as the Northern Yankees, for they always make a great splash and are very deceitful with at."
’ These views from a native English Canadian, honestly representing the sentiments of his class, and not written for publication, afford an indication that the British Government and people have a correct estimate of the Yankee. They consider him mean and truckling until he obtains an advantage, and unscrupulous in its exercise. They have read their neighbors correctly.
