y regular troops from England. The
militia of Upper Canada are quite as good men as the Americans, and can
meet them after their own fashion. A certain proportion of regulars are
advantageous, as they are more steady, and in case of a check can be
more depended upon; but it is not once in five times that they will,
either in America or Canada, be able to bring their concentrated
discipline into play. But if the Americans have not the discipline of
our troops, their courage is undoubted, and even upon a clear plain the
palm of victory will always be severely disputed. A Vermonter,
surprised for a moment at finding himself in a charge of bayonets, with
the English troops, eyed his opponents, and said, "Well I calculate my
piece of iron is as good as _yourn_, anyhow," and then rushed to the
attack. People who "calculate" in that way are not to be trifled with,
as the annals of history fully demonstrate.

A war between America and England is always to be deprecated.
Notwithstanding that the countries are severed, still the Americans are
our descendants; they speak the same language, and (although they do not
readily admit it) still look up to us as their mother country. It is
true that this feeling is fast wearing away, but still it is not yet
effaced. It is true also that, in their ambition and their
covetousness, they would destroy the mutual advantages derived by both
countries from our commercial relations, that they might, by
manufacturing as well as producing, secure the whole profits to
themselves. But they are wrong; for great as America is becoming, the
time is not yet arrived when she can compete with English capital, or
work for herself without it. But there is another reason why a war
between the two countries is so much to be deprecated, which is, that is
must ever be a cruel and an irritating war. To attack the Americans by
invasion will always be hazardous, and must ultimately prove disastrous.
In what manner, then, is England to avenge any aggression that may be
committed by the Americans? All she can do is to ravage, burn, and
destroy; to carry the horrors of war along their whole extended line of
coast, distressing the non-combatants, and wreaking vengeance upon the
defenceless.

Dreadful to contemplate as this is, and, even more dreadful the system
of stimulating the Indian tribes to join us, adding scalping, and the
murdering of women and children, to other horrors, still it is the only
meth