The return of able-bodied males fit for military service in Montcalm’s time, exceeded the whole number of volunteers now actually enrolled; but the present force is possessed of seven field batteries, of several squadrons of cavalry, and of 15,000 men armed with rifled muskets. There must be at this moment in Canada at least 50,000 rifles of the best kind. There were four 18-pound batteries, two 20-pound Armstrong batteries, a large number of howitzers, and an immense accumulation of stores last year, which have received constant accessions ever since, as the threats of the New York press have produced to us in increased expense some of the evil results of war. There are also in the stores great quantities of old-fashioned brass and iron field and siege guns, of shot and shell, of mortars, and of ammunition. The Americans can find no fault with us for taking steps, in view of contingencies which they have threatened, to obviate, as far as possible, the disadvantages to which distance from the mother country exposes the Provinces. It was enough that before the days of steam, which has greatly increased the disparity between us, Great Britain submitted to conditions in regard to the Lakes which could only be justified by the supposition that Canada was the western shore of Great Britain. By the articles of the Treaty of 1817, the United States of America and Great Britain are limited to one vessel with one 18-pounder and a crew of one hundred men each on Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, and the upper lakes. No other vessels of war are to be built or armed, and six months’ notice is required to terminate the treaty obligations. It will have been observed that the Americans of the Northern States are spoken of as the only enemies whom Canada has to fear. They are the only people who threaten from time to time the conquest and annexation of the Provinces, and who have declared by the mouths of their statesmen, that they intend to insist, when they are strong enough, on the fulfilment of the doctrine that the whole continent is theirs; for the natural basis of the Monroe dogma is, the right of the Americans to lay down the doctrine at all, and if they can say to the nations of Europe, “You shall make no further settlements on this soil,” they can say, when it pleases them, with just as much right, “You who are now occupying this soil must either leave it or own allegiance to the Union.” The Union is now, what it never was before, a sovereignty, and Americans in its name fancy that they can do what they please. The Canadians are by no means well-disposed towards their neighbours’ institutions, manners, and customs, and do not desire to be incorporated with them. The annexation must, therefore, be effected by force, sufficiently great to overpower the resistance of the inhabitants, whether singly, or supported by the British army and navy.