They have been anxious to
abide by their Constitution, which to them has been as it were a
second gospel, and we have spoken of that Constitution as though it
had been a thing of mere words in which life had never existed.
This has been done while their hands are very full and their back
heavily laden. Such words coming from us, or from parties among us,
cannot justify those threats of war which we hear spoken; but that
they should make the hearts of men sore and their thoughts bitter
against us, can hardly be matter of surprise.
As to the result of any such war between us and them, it would
depend mainly, I think, on the feelings of the Canadians. Neither
could they annex Canada without the good-will of the Canadians, nor
could we keep Canada without that good-will. At present the feeling
in Canada against the Northern States is so strong and so universal
that England has little to fear on that head.
I have now done my task, and may take leave of my readers on either
side of the water with a hearty hope that the existing war between
the North and the South may soon be over, and that none other may
follow on its heels to exercise that new-fledged military skill
which the existing quarrel will have produced on the other side of
the Atlantic.
