Interesting from Canada — the War feeling — Hostility to the United States, &
Quebec, Jan. 26
--Public opinion in Canada is decidedly hostile to the United States.
In some quarters the feeling takes the form of pretended sympathy for the Southern rebels, about whose condition, aims, prospect and principles, a profound ignorance prevails among the provinces.
In others, the sentiment resembles mere neighborly spits — the petty rancor and envy which narrow-minded villagers cherish for the rich man next door.
With a few exceptions — among which it is right to distinguish the Toronto Globe the ablest paper in the province — the press of Canada follows faithfully the lead of the London Times, decries our army sheets at our successes, exaggerates but reverses, vituperates our Government, William our generals, and labors with zeal, if not with address, to foster a bitterly unfriendly feeling against our people and our Institutions Every class of society appears infected with the prevailing American To the bulk of the Canadian people the surrender of Slidell and Mason seems to have been a disappointment.
It venomed rather than aminished their spite, and it certainly increased the contempt for Americans which is infused into Canadian opinions by the influence of the British officers, stationed in the province.
Nor has the settlement of the Crent dispute checked military preparations.
In all the large settles the young men drill with more ardor than ever, and the reorganization of the mottle proceeds steadily.
The first, arrival from sea in the spring will bring to the provinces supplies of modern arms of every jurisdiction. By that time it is expected that nearly 40,000 militia will be in condition to go to the field.
The twin organs of Government, the Toronto Leader and the Quebec Courier are the bitterest anti-American orders to the province.
Nothing is talked of in military circles out now to assail the United State in their weak spots.
Troops, alter the surrender of Mason and Slidell, were ostentatiously detailed for the defence of the southern extremity of the Victoria bridge, and surveys are still being vigorously prosecuted with a view to the erection of forts, which would be worse than useless it peace is to be maintained.
One is driven to ask — in view of this exhibition of temper and these preparations — what motive Canada can have us seeking war with the United States, to its obvious ruin of her commercial, finances interests Let me with has been given to me
Canada wants a w For nearly six mouth practicable out territory.
When the peopled and poor this dured, but of late year felt and bitterly d the Grand Trunk Railway to has been proposed as a remedy.
But the three hundred and fifty miles of railroad which would have to be built would cost fully $30,000,000--more than either the Province of Great Britain cares to spend in cold wood The road would pass so close to ironer of the United States in some places that in the event of war it would be very easy for American guerillas to destroy it.
It will seem, on your side of the line, preposterous notion, but it is a fact, nevertheless, that many of the leading minds of Canada have resolved to get Maine if they can. They say that they require Portland, the terminus of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railway; that it is a geographical necessity for them to possess it.
In reflecting upon these somewhat startling pretensions, you will not fail to recall to mind several paragraphs which have lately appeared in ministerial prince in England, on the subject of pretended addresses which were alleged to have been forwarded to the Queen by inhabitants of Maine, praying for annexation to Canada.
No one in the United States noticed those ominous paragraphs except with an incredulous smile.
If you reflect now easy it would be for Canada to send a few hundred British subjects into Maine, with instructions to petition for annexation at the proper time, and how plausibly England might, in the event of continued trouble is the United States, send over fleets in Portland to comply with the prayers of the petitioners, you will probably conclude that there was more in these infants than appeared on the surface.
To me it seems that, so long as the civil war lasts in the United States, the State of Maine, and especially the town of Portland, will occupy a position of peculiar peril.
It was lately stated by a British officer, whose opinions were entitled to respect, that had war resulted from the Mason Slide; imbroglio, Portland would have been in the possession of the British within fifteen days after the declaration of war; and further, that it would never have been given up so long as Great Britain held a foot of territory on this continent. 