any personal ill feeling by the assailing party, and are only enemies
in so far as they choose to espouse the cause and defend, at the
point of the sword, the acts and existence of a government held to be
corrupt and oppressive. From the difference in population and other
circumstances, there are a greater number of inoffensive persons in
England, in relation to Irish grievances, than there are in Canada;
so that, adopting the very style of argument used by those gingerly
or subsidized cavillers, there are more causes for justifying a
descent, at any time, upon the latter than upon the former country.
The truth is, the masses or people of any country are, for the most
part, inoffensive on the whole, and are merely wielded by governments
with a view to maintaining a power for good or evil, having in many
cases themselves no very clear idea of the grounds upon which the
field may have been taken; and laying down their arms at a moment's
notice, without being concerned as to the expediency or justice of a
cessation of hostilities. In truth, even amid armies thundering down
upon each other at the word of command, there are necessarily
thousands of unoffending persons who entertain not a single feeling
of animosity against their opponents individually, and who are but
simply the exponents of an idea that their rulers deem necessary to
maintain at the point of the bayonet; although they themselves may
not sympathize with it to any extent whatever. So that it is
apparent, that the invasion of Canada was never undertaken with a
view to despoiling or injuring the people _per se_ of that country;
but for the simple purpose of making a descent upon a point of the
British empire most accessible to the arms of the Republic of Ireland
on this continent, in the hope of establishing a basis that would
enable Irish Nationalists to operate successfully against a
government that had for seven hundred years subjected their country,
name and race, to every injustice and persecution known to the