“It perhaps,” he continues in the next paragraph, page 70, “does not come with a good grace from a Canadian to give any credit to the Fenians, who, without any ground of complaint against us, invade our country and cause the loss of valuable lives among us; but as a truthful narrator of facts, I must give them credit on the only ground on which they can claim it.”
This is honest and soldierly on the part of Major Denison; but should these pages chance to meet his eye, he will find his theory untenable in relation to the immunity of Canada from the consequences of any acts for which England may seemingly be responsible only. The war of 1812 was not a war against Canada, but against Great Britain, and yet Canada was invaded by the Americans and made the principal theatre of the conflict. How multifarious soever, or widely scattered its colonies or dependencies, every nation is a unit, and consequently amenable as well in detail as in the aggregate, for any offence committed against public justice or humanity. When you quarrel with a man, you don’t quarrel in particular with his eye, his foot, or his nose, although you may punish him as a whole by inflicting injury upon all or any of these organs; and thus it is in the case under consideration; the New Dominion is the foot or the eye or the nose of John Bull, and as such, any enemy of England is justifiable in maiming him in any or all of these parts. This is the hard logic of the point; and if Canada wishes to escape its consequences, she must demonstrate to the Irish people, or to any other who may be at enmity with England, that she is neither part nor parcel of the British Empire. How ridiculous the plea set up by Canada, that because she was not forsooth an active individual agent of gross tyranny and injustice towards Ireland, she ought to be exempt from any of the consequences arising to the real culprit in the case. The same argument might be urged with as much reason, by half the population of England herself, who are just as innocent in this respect as the people of Canada; they having never been consciously concerned in any oppression of Ireland, either individually or collectively. But they are the friends, allies and abettors of the government which has perpetrated such crimes in relation to Ireland,—nay, more, they create and sustain the agencies through which these wrongs are committed; and in this they are joined heart, hand and soul, by the people of Canada or the representatives of that people. Canada, then, having sworn allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain, is constructively, as well as virtually, as much an enemy of Ireland as England is. The Firm, comprising Great Britain and all its colonies and dependencies throughout the world, is known as John Bull & Co., and the distinctive sign of the house, in all its ramifications, is the Union Jack or some adaptation of the red cross of St. George to local predilections. As in ordinary mercantile transactions, a debt incurred by any branch of the establishment involves the responsibility of the whole, and can be levied for in London or Hokitika. This is the true state of the case, and any individual who would advance a doctrine contrary to it, is either a simpleton or a knave.
Black Jack and his companion were astonished to find such order reign in the midst of an invading army, and to perceive that the inhabitants of the village were not subjected to instant plunder, if not fire and sword, by the troops now in possession of the place. They had come over in the hope of being able to make some bold strokes in the wake of the soldiery, and the confusion that they had fancied should obtain among the people; but finding that they were foiled in this direction, they cast their eyes about them to see what was best to be done under the circumstances.
“I’ll be blowed,” growled Jack, as they both rambled in the outskirts of the village the morning of their arrival, “if this ain’t a go. Honly fancy, Kid, vot a set of spoonies these ‘ere fellows har, not to be goin it like the Hinglish in Hindia, or in the Peninsoola under the Duke. I ‘eard a fellow as vos there say, that they used to steal hoff at night and ‘av hodd sport and leave none to tell the tale in the mornin. Glorious, vosn’t it? And then ven they gathered hup the svag, they made it hall right vith the sentries and sometimes vith the hofficers themselves.”
“Jack, I’ll never make anything of you,” returned the Kid; “your language is so vulgar, and your address altogether so ungentlemanlike, that you at once peach on yourself; for anybody, with even half an eye, that either sees you or hears you speak, would take you for the villain you unquestionably are.”
“Oh! bless’ee, but you’re a sveet cove,” rejoined Jack, “and no vun vould suppose for a moment that you cut Sal Gordon’s throat, the night you coaxed her hoff to marry her, just because you took a fancy to a couple of five-pun notes she had in her trash-bag that she refused to give hup afore the knot vos tied.”
“Come, come,” winced the Kid, “no more of that, but let us see if we can’t do a little business here, or, at least, before we return, which I venture to say we shall manage if we keep in the wake of these fellows without arousing the suspicions of any of them.”
“Yes, yes!” said Jack, “but vot hif ve should run foul of the henemy and be taken hup as belongin to these ‘ere chaps, hif so be they’re beaten, as I hope they vill?”
“I tell you what, there’s but one chap among them all that’ll keep his eye on us,” replied the Kid, “and that’s the fellow who thought to surprise me into a confession, by suddenly producing a button that, I apprehend, dropped off the dress of the lady that we, recently ran over here for our new employer. I have found out his name, and learned that he was engaged to be married to this same beauty, who is now safely caged at Wilson’s, where she’ll soon be apt to learn that she’s in about as nice a fix as ever she was in during her life. But,” he continued, “I don’t know what to make of that Martha. All I can do or say, whenever I happen to be at the house, has no other effect than that of apparently making her more and more opposed to her uncle’s wishes, until I am convinced shell never be mine, willingly at least. And after all, I love the girl well enough; although I feel I should kill her before she was mine a month.”
Thus baffled and circumscribed, these two scoundrels prowled about the village until near ten o’clock, when the troops moved down the river about four miles, and went into camp at Newbiggin’s farm. At this period the gallant O’Neill was in great uncertainty. Here he was in an enemy’s country with but a handful of men, and in utter darkness as to what was going on at other points. Already, at Buffalo, he had a taste of the manner in which the War Department had conducted the expedition to that point; and was, of course, afraid that the inefficiency of that department would make itself apparent in more relations than one. In the ability, activity and devotion of President Roberts, Vice-President Gibbons and the Senate, he had the fullest confidence; but Col. Roberts did not take it upon himself to dictate to a department that was in charge of what was believed to be an old and experienced military officer, and one on whose judgment and practical skill he placed the fullest reliance. The position was a desperate one; but O’Neill was determined to maintain his ground on British soil, until satisfied that failure had obtained elsewhere, and that there was no probability of his being reinforced. He had long burned for an opportunity of meeting the enemies of the land of his birth in open fight; and now, although all around looked dark and uncertain, he was determined to join issue with any force that was brought against him. His men for the most part, too, shared this sentiment. True, that a few cowardly hounds had deserted his standard almost as soon as it had been unfurled on the enemy’s shore; but then these were of that miserable breed that always attach themselves to expeditions of this sort without measuring their motives or the strength of their principles. However, be this as it may, they have forever forfeited their claims to the name of Irishmen, if such they were; while the very recollection will be painful to many, that so dastardly and worthless a crew tainted, even for a single moment, the pure atmosphere in which such men breathed as the following, not to speak of the noble rank and file whose names we are unable, for obvious reasons, to give here, and who, like them, led by the gallant O’NEILL, immortalized themselves on the field of Ridgeway: