Another question has been added to the ominous category of
dis- putes with the United States. Of that we had a hint last week, and Another question has been added to the ominous category of dis- putes with the United States. Of that we had a hint last week, and
the more recent intelligence received by the Caledonia substantially- confirms the former account, though certainly with considerable modification. A citizen of the United States has been seized within the territory of the States, carried across the border, and lodged in gaol at Montreal. At,first it was said that the violators of territory—for that constitutes the outrage, the man himself' having probably got his deserts and no more—were regular British soldiers ; but now it is known that they were Volunteers. The Volunteers of Canada are a body with all the recklessness and little of the discipline of regular soldiers, while they possess all the local animosities of a border people, and, as experience has shown, not unfrequently abuse their military strength in the pursuit of special objects of their own passion. (iROGAN, the man who is seized, is charged with incendiary outrages : the loyal Volunteers, disregard- ing the embarrassed and complicated state of the Imperial relations with the United States, in the pursuit of a man who has outraged their feelings, make no difficulty of throwing a new M‘Laors case on the hands of Government. Of such materials is half of that force in Canada composed, which is to defend the colony— to put down the outrages they make. On the other side, some hundreds of thousands of Yankees panting for excitement, emi- glints who have thrown off their allegiance, refugee rebels' and miscellaneous vagabonds, have organized secret societies, and boast a standing army ready for the invasion of Canada and the expul- sion of the British from the Western continent. Petty local. , brawls keep the peace of the two countries, and thus the peace of the world, in perpetual jeopardy. Occasionally the news of a very bad outrage finds its way to the ears of the people whose larger interests are at stake ; and so we now hear of this seizure of GaocAx, and of the attempted destruction of a British steamer by a fire-raft. These, however, are only great exploits in the constant hubbub of the border. The President of the United States issues a proclamation avowing the disordered state of society within his own jurisdiction, threatening the lawles's with the terrora of the law, and entreating the peaceable to "frown" down the secret societies and the overt pillage of arsenals. And we, who cannot keep our own quasi-military troops in order—who cannot. oblige the officer to respect the royal commission which he holds, and who have our public gaols prostituted to the vagaries of a band of kidnappers—laugh at President TYLER for the weakness of his Government ! The British Government has not, so far as we know, even endeavoured, like Mr. TYLER, to control the piratical lawlessness of its own subjects by admonition and warning : the Caroline affair itself arose out of a violation of territory ; and we have suffered time to creep on without warning the aggressors of the consequences of their acts, until another case has arisen. It were well, at least, if the Governor of Canada imitated President TYLER'S declaration of the law. At peace, and united in the com- mon object of repressing outrage on whatever side, the two great countries might crush the half-barbarized ruffians, who, under the cover of defending each, brave the other: but while futile jealousies and punctilios give to the two Governments the semblance of hos- tility, it remains in the power of a few backwoodsmen and borderers to plunge two empires into an unwelcome contest, which must double the burdens of the British tax-payer, and saddle the American citizen with a much-dreaded national debt—to say nothing of private ruin and misery. While these scenes are enacting on the border, Mr. M`Liscas!a. trial is slowly preparing : it was to commence on the 4th of this_ month ; and voluminous reports from the Commissioners to take evidence in Canada, with the examination of some hundred wit- nesses on the spot, would most likely protract it for many days.
