in the absence of some such system of colonization, thousands and tens of thousands of British continue to abandon their country's flag, to people the United States, and swell the ranks of inhabitants in a country against whose power without fresh precautions, we shall presently find it difficult to stand. In repudiating their country, these emigrants do not alone deprive us of their services, but also subtract by this act of licensed desertion, considerable portions of the common treasure; it being calculated that within the last five years the deserters from this country to America have carried with them to the United States a capital of no less than £25,000,000,-an estimate borne out by the fact that among the emigrants comprising the poor passengers alone, on board the Ocean Monarch, amounting to 350 persons, the collective funds carried with them were ascertained to be upwards of £10,000.

Let it be observed that 200,000, carrying with them only £10 each (and each emigrant is generally provided with very much more), would lose £2,000,000 to this country. Upwards of two millions of British subjects, at the present rate of departure, will have abandoned us for the American republic, before England is but a few months older. Not the aged, the halt, and the blind; but the very flower of our industry and strength.

The standing army of the United States in 1845 was as follows:

Regulars, comprising staff officers and all ranks

Militiamen

Field Officers

Company Officers

7,670

1,385,645

13,813

44,938

Now, although the vast extent of territory over which this force extends, the irregular character of its main strength, and the immense deserts which lie between its sphere of muster and our frontier; together with the difficulty of collecting and marching an army so composed, and the next to impossibility of keeping civil military in the field away from their families and pursuits, are considerations not to be despised, especially when taken in connexion with the fact that Canada can on her part show a superior militia of

150,000 as a front; still we think there is much reason to dread our active, desperate, and encroaching neighbours, who look on the whole continent of America as belonging to them by right.

The flush of Mexican conquest, and the formidable increase of French and German military with which American force is daily augmented, have probably communicated a different spirit of confidence and daring to what America has hitherto displayed in her contests with us; while the seditious dissension of some of our Canadian subjects, on the other hand, may have deteriorated, in a very serious degree, that ardent patriotism and attached feeling she has uniformly manifested towards us in the hour of danger. This view alone should necessitate the expediency of augmenting our strength, by an extensive introduction of British-born into these menaced and exposed territories; while yet peace and opportunity afford uninterrupted occasion. For even if Canada should resist the annexation mania, until the event of an European war, no sooner will such a misfortune occupy our hands, than as sure as Lord John Russell is at the head of the British Government, with power to provide against the fatal consequences, England, unable to detach sufficient force for the defence of Canada, will lose her for ever.

How different might it be if our superfluous members, mustered in organized force, were only posted in opportune possession of the ground, encouraged and directed by classes, who compose the customary leaders of our armies, and whose example would continue to foster and preserve the spirit of loyalty and devotion to the British crown. In the meantime, what exercise of extraordinary patronage would accrue to Government by this extension of power in Canada, in the creation of tribunals, magistracies, clerical appointments, offices and commands; while the simple service of a British railroad across Canada would, of itself, provide for thousands of respectable persons, of all classes, who now endanger our public peace in dissatisfaction engendered by inoccupation and want.

To form some conception of the numbers, for which the creation of such a resource would provide, we beg to present

our readers with the following extract of a parliamentary return, showing the number and description of persons employed in our home railways on the 30th of June 1849.

"The total number employed on railways, open and unopen, was 159,784. On open lines there were 55,968 persons employed; and on railways not open to traffic, there were 103,816, of which number 83,052 were labourers. On the open lines there were 156 secretaries and managers; 32 treasurers; 107 engineers; 314 superintendents; 120 storekeepers; 131 accountants and cashiers; 490 inspectors and timekeepers; 1,300 station masters; 103 draughtsmen; 4,021 clerks; 709 foremen; 1,839 engine-drivers; 1,871 assistant engine-drivers and firemen; 1,631 guards and breaksmen; 1,540 switchmen; 1,361 gate-keepers; 1,508 policemen or watchmen; 8,238 porters and messengers; 5,508 platelayers; 10,809 artificers; 14,028 labourers; and 144 miscellaneous employments; making a total of 55,968. The total length of railways open on the 30th of June, was 5,447 miles 10 chains. Length of railway in the course of construction, 1,504 miles 20 chains; and 5,132 miles neither open, nor in course of construction of the 30th of June. The result shows that, on the 30th of June, the length of railways authorized to be used for the conveyance of passengers, was 5,132 miles and 333 chains; and the number of persons employed was 159,784."

What is the length of our proposed railroad to this? With an opportunity of providing for such a multitude as is included in the foregoing list, and ten times their number immediately connected in labour with them—all exercising their activities for the enrichment of this country; while agriculture and the arts would flourish in their footsteps; whilst prosperous millions would reap happiness and independence in exchange for the mortifications and misery they are doomed to endure in their native home-with such an opportunity, we say, did she REJECT it! England would deserve the most exemplary punishment of nations. Yes, she would merit a condign destiny not less cruel than the fate of Spain, her predecessor in universal ascendancy, who, rejecting her proper interests, and in

sensible of her internal decay, misgoverned her people in the false show of external splendour, and turned a deaf ear to their complaints. But she soon saw them, in the midst of patrician arrogance and pomp, emulated by the pride and luxury of the middle classes, sink under the intolerant insolence and bigotry of a bloated church: saw them compromised and infected by commercial speculations and monopolies saw them defied and beaten by younger powers; until the whole nation, being first gradually enervated by corruption and plunged in general ruin, aggravated by civil war upon civil war, was stripped of all her magnificent colonies and stupendous fleets; while her model army dwindled to a military force scarce strong enough to garrison her frontiers: her aristocracy sunk into the dust; and her credit, her glory, and her existence, as a leading nation, departed, probably not to return for centuries and ages, if

ever!

X.

CHINA, COREA AND JAPAN.

Having submitted our views on Canada, as summarily as strict justice to the subject would admit, without dwelling upon details which we intend to elaborate in another publication, more replete with particulars, and more deliberately matured, let us invite our reader to accompany us across the Pacific, to those countries immediately connected with the grand scheme of cosmopolitan intercourse and traffic to which our project of a railroad, from sea to sea over the breadth of Canada, is but an introduction and partial feature-a means to an end. We will not arrest attention in our progress to the insular nations scattered, like stars, over the Pacific oceans, that wait but the signal of such a railroad to be introduced into civilized existence, as populous, opulent, and frequented as the islands of the Mediterranean.

We shall not now stop to ask for what object has France of late manifested so strong a predilection for the Marquesas,

or whether it is alone for the sake of prison accommodation she is forming a penal colony at Noukahiva; nor shall we comment on the singular attachment lately exhibited by the same nation towards the people of the Sandwich Islands; nor the spleen and resentment she exerted when the ungrateful objects of her courtship crossed her love and declined her embraces. Neither shall we inquire, why so many steamers of the first class have lately been purchased by the United States, and despatched to stations on the Pacific; nor, if it be true that they have actually commenced to run a line of steam packets from a port in that ocean to one in China, stopping at the Sandwich Islands; where every necessary convenience has been secured, as the American journals have very coolly announced, for the edification of British readers. We need only revert to the fact that, while we possess only a hundred and forty whaling vessels upon these seas, our American friends navigate these waters with no less than seven hundred ships of the largest tonnage, engaged in the same pursuit, whose traffic in oil is likely to become of great importance in Chinese commerce.

Waiving all these, and many other prominent considerations involving questions of critical interest to this country, we will at once address ourselves to our relations with Asia, maintaining in the outset the fact not only that our commerce in the Chinese seas remains partial, fluctuating, and precarious, and our relations with the Government of Pekin, ambiguous, and unsatisfactory in the extreme; but that in spite of our late invasion of the Celestial Empire, our entry into Nankin, and threatened march upon the Chinese capital itself, we have had, since our victorious flourish, to revenge the murder of our subjects at Canton, and to repeat our coercion of that post, where our cruisers are compelled to keep constant watch and ward over the turbulent and insolent city. We have to repress by awe the commission of new outrages against the lives and property of the British residents, maintained under perpetual threats from the Chinese community, whose pleasure it is to practise every expedient to harass and obstruct our factory; while refusing us the hospitality of their walls, and haughtily