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The forcible subjugation of the South would prove a hopeless task. ... The Federal exchequer will engage itself in an expenditure which no country in the world could ever support.—Times, 1861.

It happens to be the unanimous opinion of nineteen educated Englishmen out of twenty, that a more purposeless and hopeless enterprise than the reconquest of the South by the Federal Government, has never been projected by any ancient or modern state.- -Sat. Review, Dec. 7, 1861. Lincoln's three hundred thousand men will not be forthcoming.— Sat. Review, Feb. 8, 1862.

In a few months the independence of the South must be acknowledged, and it might with profit a twelve month ago.—Times, July 26, 1862. Mr. Jefferson Davis has made the South a nation.-Gladstone's Speech, August, 1862.

It will be impossible for the Central Government to enforce the pay. ment of direct taxes.—Times, June 24, 1862.

The Income Tax will never be paid.-Sat. Review, Feb. 8, 1865. Grant's advance on Richmond is a failure.-Morning Herald, May 13, 1864.

The Americans have become a nuisance among the nations.-Morning Herald, Feb. 4, 1862.

The vast majority of the people of this country are in favor of the cause espoused by the Secessionists.-Liverpool Daily Post.

HOSTILITY OF THE BRITISH PRESS AND THE RULING CLASSES TOWARDS THE UNITED STATES.

IT

I.

T is a fact very well known to intelligent readers throughout the world, that the British Press and the Ruling Classes of Great Britain, with some noble exceptions,-showed a spirit of hostility to the United States at the beginning of our civil war, and during the whole period of its continuance. They have since manifested a very different feeling. But lest there might be some misapprehension hereafter on this subject, I have thought it well to put on record some extracts made during the last five years, since they may be convenient to refer to. They may some day or other illustrate a lesson which ought to have been learned before, of the importance of measuring words in speaking of nations as well as of individuals. Words are things -sources of events-yea, events themselves. In this sense is it too true," Not that which goeth into a man defileth him, but that which cometh out; these are the things that defile the man."

Those who understand this philosophy as it applies to men as well as nations, know that the expression of a hostile sentiment at particular times, leaves wounds so deep that they only cicatrize, not heal. The gashes may close up for a while, but they will fester with every new cause of irritation, and be quite likely to break open at last.

The law has held in some cases that the greater the truth the greater the libel, when words are uttered in a bad spirit; but in the case we are now speaking of the greater the lie the

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HOSTILITY OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

more infamous the motive which dictated it, and the less easy is it to forget or forgive.

Nations are no more exempt, nor, in fact, as much so, from the fatal consequences of hard words, as are individuals. It is easy to forgive an international wrong by paying the damages, if it were a question of money. The etiquette and courtesy of international intercourse, when violated, may be pretty effectually atoned for by fair and abundant apologies. But it is now out of the power of the whole British Press by any course of laudation of American heroism, generalship, statesmanship, magnanimity, justice, etc., etc., to atone for what it has said. What is written is written. Words are eternal. They outlive pyramids. They are the oldest monu- ́ ments left of mankind's history in the elder days of time. So England's words about us will live.

A

II.

T first, the unfriendly tone of the British Press towards the Republic of the United States, gave great pain to the truest loyal hearts in America. But when this same spirit manifested itself in a stronger way, and ill-concealed sympathy with the Rebellion gave place to unqualified hostility to the Union, the soul of every American was stirred with indignation. At last we got used to it, and discovering how hollow all former pretensions of friendship towards us were, we became disgusted with the whole thing, until all such displays of British feeling were either hastily glanced over with indifference, or thrown aside with contempt. In illustration of this, I quote from one of the tracts (No. 69) sent out by the Loyal Publication Society.*

* THE BRITISH Appeal for Peace—More ImpertineNCE.-Governor Seymour is made the recipient of a memorial, which has appeared in print, from some three hundred Englishmen and Irishmen, pronouncing our war against the Southern States a wrong, a failure, and a ruin to our republican institutions, and asking its immediate discontinuance. This memorial is headed, and was circulated by Henry de Houghton, Baronet. That is appropriate enough, for it speaks for British class interests. It is committed to Horatio Seymour. That, too, is ap

CHANGE IN THE BRITISH PRESS.

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It would be amusing if it were not painful to notice the changes in the tone of the British press towards this country. On the start, the leading organs of British public opinion took the right stand:

We are glad to think that the march of slavery, and the domineering tone which its advocates were beginning to assume, have at length been arrested and silenced. We rejoice that a vast community of our own race has at length given an authoritative expression to sentiments which are entertained by every one in this country.-Times, Nov. 21, 1860.

Should South Carolina, Georgia, and the adjacent States, separate themselves permanently from the Federation, constituting themselves a new nation, with their own army, navy, foreign representatives, and all the appanage of independence, then the whole series of American politicians will have been in the wrong, and this journal, which has always declared such an event to be impossible, will have been in the wrong with them.-Times, Nov. 26, 1860.

Of one thing the Democrats may well be assured-that the character and prestige of the United States in the eyes of Europe depend on their Federal Union. . . . . . Let there be no mistake as to English public opinion on this subject. If we have paid a sincere homage to the rising greatness of America, it has not been to that which the Southerners are so anxious to

propriate enough, for it speaks to American faction and sedition. But though the authorship and the trusteeship are apt, the memorial itself is not so. It is a piece of superlative impertinence.

They want no foreign
They want no foreign

The American people understand their own concerns. teaching. They can also manage their own concerns. advice. Their assurance is that this is a war for self-preservation. Their determination is that it shall be fought through until every hair's breadth of the Republic is secure. That assurance and that determination are as much beyond the influence of the Old World as the sun in the heavens.

Our people realized the Since that time, they have

The English people—or, at least the dominant classes of the English people— have chosen to take sides against our Government, and for the Rebellion. In the beginning of the war, this was regarded with great regret by Americans, for they had no other than good feeling toward England. Honest and earnest efforts were made to change the English spirit. They failed. failure, accepted it, and resigned themselves to it. been wholly indifferent to British sentiment. So far as respects the positive complicity of the British Government and people with the actual prosecution of the war against us on the high seas, they have deferred the reckoning till they can give it their special attention. So far as respects the misrepresentation and contumely ceaselessly emitted against us by the presses most patronized in England, we care not. It is impotent. These gentry may befool themselves as they like, and rave as they please, within their own little limits. Our only demand. is that they shall take it out by themselves. Let them keep their distance Our people want none of their memorials. We mean our loyal people-these millions who are governing, and who will continue to govern this nation. In their name, we say to these intermeddlers: Back to your place.

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OPEN HOSTILITY AND RIDICULE.

conserve, but to that which they are striving to destroy. All that is noble and venerable in the United States is associated with the Federal Constitution.-Times, Nov. 29, 1860.

It is evident, in short, that the dissolution of the United States, so far from being hailed as a profitable transaction, will be lamented in this country as the premature failure of a great experiment, and as a probable source of grave diplomatic embarrassment.-Saturday Review, Dec. 29, 1860.

It is in truth absolutely certain that any policy will miscarry, which assumes that England can be coaxed or bribed into a connivance at the extension of slavery.-Saturday Review, Dec. 28, 1860.

III.

ONTRAST this with the following in the Times ten months later-September, 1861:

CONT

If a clear foresight shows, and must show, that there must be two Federations, and that on no other footing will peace ever be made, it will be much better that it should come to pass after one year's war than after ten or twenty. It is not as if the Union or two Unions were the only alternative. As the war proceeds, no man can tell what new powers and combinations may arise, and particularly how far the Western States will endure the taxes and financial obligations necessary for the war. The advice we offer is only what the Americans have given to all the world. It is a hank of their own cotton,-a pipe of their own tobacco. Let them consider what they can do, and what neither they nor all the world can do. At present they are only giving a triumph to many a foe, for there is not a circle of old absolutist statesmen and diplomats who do not read the story of their difficulties and reverses with a bitter smile. They will hear with at least respect, perhaps with disappointment, that the North and South have agreed to part friends. In our belief, the forcible subjugation of the South would prove a hopeless task, even if all the States of the North poured their wealth unsparingly into the Federal Exchequer, but if they attempt to defray its accumulating charges with money borrowed at 7 per cent., they will find themselves engaged in an expenditure which no country in the world could ever support.

The Saturday Review (Dec. 7, same year) says:

It happens to be the unanimous opinion of nineteen educated Englishmen out of twenty, that a more purposeless and hopeless enterprise than the reconquest of the South by the Federal Government has never been projected by any ancient or modern State.

Two months later, it (Feb. 8, 1862,) says:

The North is just as foolish for trying to reconquer the South as we were, eighty-five years ago, for trying to reconquer North and South together. It is just as foolish as Englishmen were in those earlier times when they attached the idea of national glory and happiness to the conquest of France. It is just as foolish as Xerxes was when he led half the world against Athens, or as Napoleon was when he led half Europe against Russia. The mere folly is just as great and no greater, than in any of these cases. . . . . . If this war is to go on, the immense levy ordered by the President must actually be made. The 300,000 men must be forthcoming if Virginia is to be held. But they will not be forthcoming.

The Times, July 26, 1862, declares that "in a few months the independence of the South must be acknowledged, and it might with profit a twelve-month ago." Gladstone-claimed, and

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