tty brave last year with reference
to Mexico and her allies, and he felt equally so now. He believed
if we wished to avoid a war upon this Oregon question, _the only
way we could avoid it was preparing to give them the best fight we
had on hand_. The contest would be a bloodless one; we should avoid
war, for the reason that Great Britain knows too well: if she had
war about Oregon, farewell to her Canada."

Our next extract will be from the speech of Mr Adams, a _Whig_
representative from, we regret to say, Massachusetts, which is in every
respect the pattern state of the Union. We are willing to believe that
in this single case the orator does not represent the feelings of the
majority of his constituents. Mr Adams has filled the Presidential
chair, and other high offices; and, while secretary of state, permitted
himself to say on a public occasion, that the madness of George the
Third was a divine infliction for the course that monarch had pursued
towards the United States. The ruling passions of his life are said to
be, hatred to England and to his southern brethren; and he thinks that
war would gratify both these malignant crotchets at once, as the former
would, in that contingency, lose Canada, and the latter their slaves. He
urges that notice to terminate the convention of joint occupation should
be given, and then observes--

"We would only say to Great Britain, after negotiating twenty odd
years under that convention, we do not choose to negotiate any
longer in this way. We choose to take possession of our own, and
then, if we have to settle what is our own, or whether any portion
belongs to you, we may negotiate. _We might negotiate after taking
possession. That was the military way of doing business. It was the
way in which Frederick II. of Prussia had negotiated with the
Emperor of Austria for Silesia._ [Here Mr A. gave an account of the
interview of Frederick the Great with the Austrian minister, and of
the fact of Frederick having sent his troops to take possession of
that province the very day that he had sent his minister to Vienna
to negotiate for it.] Then we should have our elbows clear, and
could do as we pleased. It did not follow as a necessary
consequence that we should take possession; but he hoped it would
follow as a consequence, and a very immediate one. But whether we
give the notice