The projectors of increased and accelerated intercourse between the British
North American Provinces and the Mother-country by means of the establishment of a packet station at Galway, unable to persuade Government to adopt their views, have resolved to try the efficacy of a private association, and they also have had a public meeting in Dublin this week. If the enterprise succeed, the, altered course that may eventually be given to the North American mails will, it is anticipated, promote the manufacturing industry of Ul- ster; but its effects on the-Colonies will be more immediate.
-The arrangements concluded by Mr. Howe with the Colonial Office, have already given an impetus to railway enterprise in Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The placing of swift and powerful steamers on the shortest passage across the Atlantic will, now that railway communication has been extended on this side to Galway, augment this impetus. The British North Aine- rican Provinces will thus afford more remunerative employment for labouring emigrants, and may become the highway of the traf- fic between Europe and the new States of Iowa and Wisconsin. Settlement and cultivation have made comparatively rapid pro- gress in Canada of late years, and this new opening will add to both.
Material prosperity is ever conducive to political contentment. This, and the diminished interference of the Imperial Government in the local affairs of British North America, have assuaged in a great measure some of the bitterest of the old animosities. Little is heard there at present of " annexation " or " independence." New party relations are springing up with reference to purely local questions. The different shades and sections of the Liberals are approximating more closely to each other, and the " Tories " of Canada West and the French of Canada East evince a disposition - to unite. The question of the clergy reserves has been mainly instrumental in paving the way to these changes. The Canadiens under the influence of their priests, and the Upper Canada Tories under the influenoe of their 'clergy, combine to retain the preserves for ecelesiastical purposes, againatigne Liberals, who would secu- larize them. But the Conservativeleanings of the great mass of the habitans—evinced in the pertinacity with which they cling to their seigneurial tenures--render them, even withont this induce- ment, more natural allies of the English Conservative party than of the party of Progress, now that the " family compact," with all its irritating accompaniments, has been relegated to history.
