the results of the State and Congressional elections should by that time have given a decided preponderance to the Opposition (as seems very probable), then a pacific and respectful representation from the great powers of Europe would have had some chance of being listened to, and might have turned the trembling scale. But just at the actual crisis there seems to be really no opening whatever for intervention.

In the second place, it is difficult to see how the proposition of the French Emperor can be regarded as having a friendly aspect. At first sight it sounds indisputably selfish, almost hostile to the North, and not far from insulting. At least we are much afraid that it will be so read out there. The suggestion is for an armistice

From The Economist, 15 Nov. PROPOSED MEDIATION WITH AMERICA. THE Emperor of the French has long been most anxious to take the earliest opportunity of endeavoring to persuade the American belligerents to come to terms, and has proposed to our Government and to that of Russia to join him in his conciliatory overtures. The despatch in which M. Drouyn de Lhuys has embodied the ideas and suggestions of his master is now before us. It is understood that the project has been somewhat coldly received by both governments and that the emperor is surprised and disappointed at such reception. Russia has not absolutely declined to join in the proposed measures, but neither has she accepted; and the feeling of the British Government is believed to be precisely by sea and land for the space of six months, similar. The reasons are obvious enough; and we are satisfied that a brief statement of them alone is needed to convince the country that Lord Palmerston is right. Our desire for the termination of the disastrous contest is at least as earnest as that of France, our conviction of the hopelessness of the war is as strong, our readiness to seize any opportunity of acting as peacemakers to the full as great;-but we cannot see that the present moment is a favorable one for friendly interposition; still less can we see that the proposal of the emperor is one which we could either hopefully or even decorously endorse and support. A few moments' reflection will suffice to make this plain.

which are to be employed in endeavoring to find terms of accommodation. The armies are to suspend all operations, and the naval squadron is to raise the blockade. Nearly every circumstance of such an armistice must, it is obvious, tend to the advantage of the South. It would play their game almost more effectually than the most successful campaign could play it. That it would play ours as well-that it would supply France and England with the cotton they so sorely want-that it would open to their merchants the market for their wines, their coffees, their hardware, their clothing, which they so greatly miss-is only certain to render it more distasteful to the Northerners. The first operation would be, of In the first place, the conjuncture is not course, by the opening of the Southern very happily chosen. The Federals have ports to European trade, that the Confederjust collected their new levies, and are pre- ates would be able to sell all their accumuparing for a renewal of the contest with lated stock of cotton and tobacco at very greater inveteracy, and on a larger scale high prices, and thus raise funds to meet than ever. Mr. Lincoln and his friends are the demands of the war if the war should menaced by the return of the Democratic be renewed. It would enable them to imascendency,—an ascendency which might be port all the military stores, guns, ammunifatal to their power if not penal to their tion, and uniforms, which would render persons, unless they can win some fresh vic- them more obstinate and more formidable tories, or display some encouraging and foes than ever. It would at once fill their impressive vigor. We have not received cities with all the commodities needed for the slightest hint that European mediation daily comfort and consumption, the want of would be welcome at Washington, or would which has reduced them to such severe even be received without indignation. It is straits, and was relied upon by the North understood, on the contrary, that it is the as one of the surest means of compelling one thing which the Cabinet are most espe- them to submit. In a word, a six months' cially anxious to preclude. If, indeed, the armistice and cessation of the blockade is emperor had waited till next March, and if precisely the thing-is, indeed, almost the

Are Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maryland

included in the Northern or in the Southern Federation ?-for both claim them. Must not our "mediation" under such circum

stances have the character rather of proposals to two generals than of negotiations opened with two nations?

Again. What distinct ideas have we as to the basis of accommodation to be suggested? We, in this journal, have more but is it one which either England as a nathan once sketched out a possible scheme, tion, or France as a Government, would be willing to adopt? If separation were the fundamental assumption, the North would cry out. If reunion, on any terms, the South would repudiate the idea at once? Could we ask the North to surrender the Border States, the loss of which would reduce the "United States" to little more than a long narrow territory, lying in a somewhat inhospitable climate? Could we tell the South they ought to hand over to the tender mercies of the North their brethren in Kentucky, Tennessee, or Maryland, who hate the Federals as

only thing the Southerners want ;-and it | the Secession ordinance? or those which are is for that very reason just the thing which now occupied by the Confederate forces? we could not decently ask the Northerners to grant. Moreover, another effect most disastrous to the Federal cause, would probably result from the armistice proposed. A large part of the Federal army would melt away, and when once dispersed we apprehend it would be impossible to re-collect it for the purpose of renewing a desperate and weary strife. The new levies, no doubt, might turn the suspension of hostilities to good account by improving their discipline and drill; but what would become of those thousands who are utterly tired and disgusted with the prolonged and profitless decimation they have undergone,-whom, whether officers or privates, it is most difficult even now to keep steady to their colors, —who, in a word, are "skedaddling" day by day, in a fashion which makes it impossible even for the military authorities themselves to ascertain the numbers actually under their command and available for action? All who could possibly get leave and all who could slip away unperceived would re-intensely as the Carolinians themselves? Are turn to their homes, and could never be enticed back into the ranks. All this is so undeniable and so clear that, if the proposition had emanated from this country, the universal voice of America would have been raised to denounce it as the most flagrant proof that could have been afforded of British partiality towards the Confederates and of British spite against the Union, as the worst of the many affronts and unkindly acts to be resented when the day of vengeance should arrive. It remains to be seen how it will be regarded at Washington now that it emanates from that power which they have so long persisted in representing as their peculiar friend and ally.

we to ask the Confederates to pay any portion of the enormous Federal debt which has been contracted in order to subdue them? Or, without going so far as this, how are the old debts and the old obligations to be adjusted between the North, which is the most populous and the most wealthy, and the South which has carried off the richest and the largest portion of the soil? Is the Mississippi to be the Western and the Ohio and the Potomac the Northern boundaries of slavery, and would Jefferson Davis consent to such an arrangement? If not, and if we are to advocate the claim of each State to say freely which Confederacy it will join, what prospects are there that Abolitionists Much as we should desire impartial media-in America or their sympathizers here will tion in this deplorable quarrel, in some form that would have a chance of proving acceptable, yet it is impossible to be blind to another and at present apparently an insuperable difficulty in the way. In order to propose terms of negotiation or of armistice, it seems indispensable to have distinct parties to treat with-visible governments with defined territories as well as to have in our own minds something like a basis for accommodation to suggest. Now, though we know who is the head of the Confederate Government, and where the Confederate Congress sits, we do not know of what the Confederacy con- Since this article was in type, the Gazette sists. "The South" has no boundary, no of to-night has published Lord Russell's deascertained number of States within its lim-spatch, declining to act at present in the its. Is it to be held to embrace all the Slave manner proposed by the Emperor of the States? or only those which originally signed French.

permit a negotiation based upon such a broadly democratic notion? Whichever way we view it, the difficulties are tremendous, and we scarcely see how we can hope to intervene as pacificators with much effect till both parties are weary of the contest, and ask Europe, as impartial spectators, to assist them in contriving a conclusion which both desire, or till the events of the war have more accurately defined the relative strength, position, and frontiers of the combatants than has yet been done.

From The Journal des Débats.
THE AMERICAN QUESTION.

PARIS, Nov. 14, 1862.

serting that the North is requested to commit suicide. But without making use of this strong word we will say, with whosoever will reflect a single instant, that it is proposed to the North to accept to-day, willingly, those terms which would be offered as preliminaries of peace at the end of a war, in which Europe, united with the South, should have gained a decisive victory. For what could be at first demanded of the North, after it had been conquered by Europe, other than that it should release its grasp and treat amicably concerning the regulation of the conditions of existence of the new State? The English press is then far from wrong in foreseeing that the North, thus besought in politest terms to lay down its arms, will answer simply: "Come and take

OUR readers know what has been the invariable opinion of this paper upon the American question; they will therefore appreciate, without the necessity of further explanation upon our part, the sentiments excited in us by the despatch published in this morning's Moniteur. We perceive with pleasure that this document is full of respectful consideration for the United States, and that the language of our Minister of Foreign Affairs does not transcend the bounds of the strictest impartiality. The French Government expressly declares in this despatch that it desires to abstain from the expression of any opinion on the origin or issue of this conflict, and that it does not assume to ex-them." ercise any pressure upon the negotiations1 which it desires to see opened between the belligerents. It even gives it to be understood (and this is the most comforting portion of the document) that if America sends the European powers about their business, they will submit, and be content with the honor of having made a diplomatic effort in favor of peace.

One of two things must then happen; either we shall retire with the refusal we ought to expect; or we are determined beforehand to impose by force the mediation which we offer in the guise of friends. War, then, with the North is the inevitable conclusion to which this policy must lead, unless we abandon it, with a regret at having entered upon it. Is such a war really deBut it is out of the question, under cir- sired? and have we reflected well upon it? cumstances of such gravity, to be satisfied We will invoke here no argument of moralwith words, and it is necessary to go straight ity or justice. We will not ask our contemto the bottom of the matter. What is it in- poraries of the press, who daily preach a tended to demand definitively of the United European crusade against the United States, States? A suspension of hostilities for six and who claim for France the honor of ormonths; which implies, if it has any signifi-ganizing and leading it, what injury the cance, the raising of the blockade established United States have done to France-what on the coast of the Southern States. Is wrong, what insult they have been guilty there any chance whatever of seeing a prop-of towards us,-what right, divine or huosition of this nature entertained on the other side of the Atlantic? That it would be welcomed with grateful acclamations in the camp of the slaveholders, that it would be received at Richmond as the tidings of their deliverance, and the baptism of the new State, is not to be doubted. Nothing more natural. The South has never either hoped for or demanded anything beyond the suspension of hostilities and raising of the blockade; and in truth, after such a step, a treaty of peace would be a simple formality to be looked for with certainty. But, for this very reason, what sentiment can a proposition of this nature excite at the North? It is virtually not only the suspension, but the end of the war that the North is asked to proclaim. Would it be possible to resume such a struggle after having once suspended it at the invitation of foreign powers? To accept this proposition is simply to recognize in fact the existence of the Southern Confederation, and the final dismemberment of the republic.

The Morning Post is therefore right in as

man, they have transgressed in obeying that instinct of self-preservation which animates States as well as men, in making a desperate effort against their dismemberment, their debasement, the loss of their rank in the world. Nor will we remark that the United States are no more holden before God or before man to supply us with cotton, than France, torn by revolution and civil war in 1792, was to furnish Europe her ordinary contingent of wines and silks; and that to give the world's sanction to such motives, as sufficient justification for a war, is to accustom man to take the life of his fellow-creature without being able to allege a good reason. Finally, we will say nothing of slavery, nor of the French flag which covered the cradle of that republic; we are aware that such arguments are out of season, that it is fashionable at the present day to smile at them, and that the attraction of a bad cause exercises the same powerful influence over a great number of our contemporaries, which the words liberty and justice had upon the hearts of our fathers.

We will then lay aside the arguments of souls; and he concludes that it would be which appeal to the conscience, and, ad- safer and less costly to feed the workmen dressing ourselves directly to the material thrown out of employment in England, upon interests, those undisputed rulers of the turtle soup, champagne, and venison, for ten world, will counsel those of our fellow-citi-years, than to carry on such an enterprise for zens who show themselves so eager to en- six months. He adds, moreover, that if he gage in a war with the United States, to ask were the actual President of the United themselves why England has hesitated, from States, and embarrassed by the internal disthe beginning of the contest, to adopt such cords of the North, he would see without a course: why, even to-day, with the temp-regret a foreign intervention, which should tation of a French alliance before its eyes, put an end to all dissensions and fuse the the Morning Post repeats that the English wills of all its citizens in a common effort Government is resolved not to intervene. for the salvation of their country. Who is more deeply interested than England in the destruction of the American Union ? Who desires with greater ardor, and for so many good reasons the final defeat and irrevocable dismemberment of the United States? Whether England bethinks her of her present sufferings and contemplates her deserted factories, or ponders her future grandeur, and devours already with her eyes that vast southern territory, which, once separated from the United States, must fall so naturally and completely under her influence; or again, revels in anticipation in the humiliation of the American flag and annihilation of a maritime rival, whose growth has increased with every day. England cannot contain her hopes, and every morning, in the land of Wilberforce, the voice of a hundred journals ascends to Heaven to invoke the divine blessing upon the arms of slaveholders. The pro-slavery papers of Paris may do their best, they will never succeed in being more English than their London brethren on the American question.

But the passions of England are always tempered with prudence; and if, on the other side of the Channel the patriotic desire to see the United States conquered is universal, the idea of intervention is anything but popular. We cannot but be surprised that those of our papers which attach ordinarily so much importance to the opinions of Mr. Cobden, and quote him so often as an oracle on more than one subject on which his authority is doubtful, pay so little heed to his recent speech upon American affairs. Few Englishmen know the United States better than Mr. Cobden. He has travelled through them, lived there, kept up numerous relations with them. How does he treat the project of re-establishing peace there by a European intervention? He treats it as ridiculous; and I venture to affirm that he proves it to be so. He takes into account the distances to be traversed, the populations to be conquered upon their own soil; he recalls the fruitless struggle maintained by England against her own colonies, when their population did not exceed three millions

It may be indeed, that this supreme trial is needed by the United States. Despite the obstinate courage which that people has shown in the saddest days of this civil war, it seems as if two things had been wanting, up to the present moment, to enable them to strike a decisive blow, and put an end to it. Military talent has not revealed itself among their leaders; their Government, moreover, does not appear to be quite cqual to the emergency. Philosophers who are in the habit of treating with severity or contempt genius in its application to the conduct of war, have here a grand lesson before their eyes. How much mourning would have been spared if the United States had had at hand some one general capable of shedding blood only when bloodshed was necessary, and of gaining one single victory, worthy of the name, in the place of a dozen indecisive battles. Military talent has been less wanting to the cause of the South; but it will only serve to delay defeat: whereas had it appeared on that side where is the strength as well as the right, it would have precipitated the war to its end. But time is needed to enable an industrial people, sceking fame and fortune in the arts of peace, to furnish their generals with an army really efficient and capable of serving as an instrument in the hands of genius-should a genius arise.

To these too peaceful habits, the growth of domestic quiet and liberty, must be attributed the comparative feebleness with which the Government of the United States may be charged in the prosecution of the civil war. It has hesitated too long to make use of the legitimate and formidable arms which the question of slavery has placed in its hands: it allowed itself to be lured too long by a hope that it could reconstruct the Union, without resorting to all the rights of war, without interfering, at least during the struggle, with the internal affairs of the States, without striking a blow at that institution, which after all is the only serious cause of so many disasters, and which has brought the republic within a hair's breadth of its ruin.

The Federal Government appears at last

enlightened as to the imminence of its peril, whether large or small, is at present shut out and also as to the full extent of its rights and of the European market by the blockade. duties; but perhaps it may be necessary, in But it is most unfortunate that their hazardorder to stir the heart of the American peo- ous enterprise should be interrupted by anple to its depth, to set in motion the popu- nouncements of diplomatic attempts to raise lation of the West and North, to throw the the blockade. It appears that the French whole nation into the struggle, that the in- Government has at last formally invited evitable and tangible image of this peril be England and Russia to join in an application set before their eyes. Perhaps it may be to the belligerents for an armistice, which necessary that the foreigner should set his might give an opportunity for negotiating a foot upon their soil, to electrify them from peace; and as governments are in the habit one end of the country to the other. Per- of feeling their way before they commit haps, it may be, that a foreign flag must float themselves by regular overtures, it may be before New Orleans by the side of the ban- assumed that the courts of London and St. ner of slavery, for the farmer of the West to Petersburg had previously received notice feel that the mouths of the great river form of the project, and that they have made up part of his magnificent inheritance, and that their minds on the answer to be returned. his country extends thus far. On that day, At all events, the policy of France is cereither the very rocks of America will trem-tainly consistent. The blockade would have ble with wrath, or the American people will have deserved their fate, and have existed for an instant as a great nation, to show only how a great nation may fall.

From The Saturday Review, Nov. 15. THE FRENCH PROJECT OF MEDIATION.

POLITICAL rumors which end in nothing are generally mischievous; but the injury which arises from reports of intervention in America is almost unprecedently great. The starvation of Lancashire is caused, not by a deficiency of cotion in the world at large, but by an absence of sufficient commercial inducement for procuring it from the countries where it is grown. No merchant is bound to ruin himself by a speculative order for a commodity which may suddenly be thrown on his hands in an overstocked market. Lord Russell has sufficiently puzzled traders by publishing within a single fortnight two official estimates of the stock of Southern cotton, as consisting respectively of two million and of four million bales. It may, however, have been the duty of the Government to circulate as widely as possible all the information within its own reach, although it may be unreliable and contradictory. Manufacturers and merchants may still be induced to encourage Indian imports by the knowledge that the American stock,

been raised many months ago but for the steady persistence of England in the neutral system which American newspapers charac teristically ascribe to national cowardice.

Unless the French Government had been either prepared to act alone, or assured of English co-operation, no plan of intervention would have been formally proposed. It is impossible to assert positively that the assent of England has been withheld, but, on the opposite supposition, some of the gravest members of the Cabinet must have been guilty of unaccountable indiscretion. Mr. Gladstone's Southern sympathies were only expressed in the theoretical proposition that Mr. Jefferson Davis had succeeded in making a nation. Since his Northern tour, Sir G. C. Lewis and the Duke of Somerset have

publicly explained the cogent reasons of policy and of law which prohibit the immediate recognition of the Confederacy. It is certain that neither statesman can have anticipated the early concurrence of his government in a mediation which would practically assume the independence of the South; and as the campaign has since taken no decisive turn, it is difficult to understand what reason or excuse could be offered for a sudden change of policy. Every minister must be fully aware of the commercial disturbance which is caused by any prospect, however remote, of opening the Southern ports. The French Government is of course at liberty to interfere, either alone or in concert with Russia; but if England stands aloof, an offer of mediation will be nugatory, unless it is followed by a dangerous and doubtful employment of force. It is true that the advocates of the South assert that the Federalists desire intervention; but nothing in the conduct of the Washington Government, or in the language of its supporters, tends to confirm their statement. If Mr. Lincoln has really invited French mediation, he has utterly bewildered