Much depends on the point of view from which a man writes; and I can only say that, if the distinguished Major-general is right, _from a purely British point of view_, in depreciating the island and its resources, he thereby furnishes a _very strong argument why Great Britain should, for a reasonable compensation, cede this island to the United States_. I am perfectly sure that the majority of the 200,000 inhabitants would not have the slightest objection to exchange the Union Jack for the stars and stripes. But I do not think that, in making this exchange myself, I have abandoned my old English habits of thought; and so I would mention some reasons why, even if I were still a fellow-citizen (or should I say subject?) of Major-general Dashwood, and were as much bound as he is to place the interests of the British crown above every other interest of my life, I should for that very reason differ with him in opinion, first of all, from a strategic point of view. We must not, because my distinguished fellow-citizen, Captain Mahan, has so brilliantly painted the sea-power of England, forget also her _man-power_. Most certainly, Viscount Wolseley would not do so; and I think Major-general Dashwood, from whose interesting little book, "Chipplequorgan," I have learned that he came with his regiment to Halifax after the "Trent" affair, will agree with me that it would then, in case of a war with the United States of America, have been very convenient if Newfoundland had been peopled by half a million hardy farmers, woodmen, and miners, in addition to its few fisher-folk. England has to take undergrown and underfed boys into her army now; but, if the sturdy Irishmen who have been driven to the United States by famine and eviction had been provided each with the "three acres and a cow" of Joseph Chamberlain's speeches in the valleys of the Humber or Codroy Rivers, surely the experience of Louisbourg and a hundred well-fought battles since then may tell us how much more they would have contributed to Britain's honor and interest than they do now as American voters. The south-western part of Newfoundland reminds one very much of old Ireland in its climate and its physical features, and certainly is quite as well fitted to sustain a sturdy peasantry of small land-owners.