would substitute a direct trade from Charleston and New Orleans, with low duties on imports, for the circuitous commerce and the extravagant tariff of New York. There seems no reason why, after an interval, the supply of cotton from the Southern coast should not be as large as it has been, or why it should not be paid for in a great measure by goods imported from Europe. That such a change as this in the trade of the world would be beneficial to England and France, and would add a fresh guarantee for peace, there can be little doubt. If the iron-masters and cotton-spinners in the North still persisted in demanding the privilege of plundering their own people (as they certainly would do) it is to be hoped that the eyes of the Western States would soon open to their true interests. At any rate it would be difficult to enforce the customs' duties now exacted in regions into which the St. Lawrence and the great lakes penetrate from the eastward, and the Mississippi from the south. It would seem to be absolutely necessary to any settlement of the present differences, that the freedom of this latter river should be secured. The city of New York would acquiesce very reluctantly in a separation which deprived it of the privilege of being the port and the money market of the South. We do not know what the effect of this feeling might be. The southern portion of the State and the city itself have interests not identical with those of the northern and western districts, and the mandates of the Legislature at Albany have not always been accepted with perfect complacency in the commercial capital. A struggle would as now be carried on in the North between Portland and Boston, for that portion of the trade of the West which did not pass down the Mississippi or by way of New York. The lakes and the St. Lawrence offer, during eight months of the year, a more favourable route, and if the railway to Halifax were completed, the New England States would find in the British colonies formidable rivals for this traffic. Wheat would be stored at Quebec and Montreal, and sent by railway to Halifax or St. John after the navigation of the St. Lawrence had closed; and at these ports cargoes for Canada or the western States would be landed. It is not impossible that the construction of this road through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia might influence materially the political course ultimately taken by the Western States. When the tax-gatherer, that doctor for a diseased imagi'nation,' as Jefferson called him, shall have knocked at their The whole passage is exceedingly apposite to the present mo doors for a certain number of months, or years, the populous and powerful States of the West will begin to weigh calmly the amount of the tribute for protected manufactures which they will have to pay to Pennsylvania and Massachussetts. Their enthusiasm for the Union may have diminished by that time; they sell their wheat to Europe, and the mining and agricultural interests grouped round the lakes and the head waters of the Mississippi may choose to seek a less restricted commerce, and greater freedom of action, in the establishment of a Western Confederacy. What is to become of California? The monstrous fiction of a coasting trade round Cape Horn, asserts its unity with the Government at Washington, so far as foreign nations are concerned; but we have lately seen free citizens who wish to go thither, that is, who desire to pass from one part of the United States to the other, stopped because they may be evading the conscription. This does not look like unity; and if the fabric goes to pieces, California must, one would think, set up for itself. Utah and the Mormons will probably enjoy their own institutions a little longer without molestation. Much may depend on the life of Brigham Young, who is evidently a man of great ability. But after all, New England and the central States of the Union contain in themselves abundant elements of good government, and of commercial prosperity, not perhaps sufficient to enable them as a great and formidable Power to defy the world, but sufficient to secure their own independence and the happiness of their people: a state of things infinitely preferable to a divided empire, tainted with slavery, and distracted by the jarring interests of the South. Whether they could easily man their navy and their merchant shipping, if England deals prudently and kindly with her own maritime population, may be questionable, as it has been with the United States; but there seems no reason why they should lose their hold on the carrying trade of the world. It has sometimes been ment: The increase of taxation, made imperative by the great 'military preparations authorised by Congress, contributed a good deal to cure "this disease of the imagination; " indeed, the "Doctor" 'observed Jefferson ironically, "is now on his way to cure it in the ""disguise of a tax-gatherer. But give time for the medicine to ""work, and for the repetition of stronger doses which must be "administered. The authorised expenses for the year are beyond "those of any year of the late war for independence, and they are ""of a nature to beget great and constant expenses. The purse of "the people is the real seat of sensibility." (De Witt's Jefferson, p. 228.j argued that a separation from the Southern States would increase the naval force of the maritime and commercial portion of the Union. We confess that we do not see the force of this reasoning, or understand how the union with those States which furnished the materials for the largest export trade in the world, can have crippled the maritime energies of New York or Boston. It is the protectionist spirit of the North, not the agricultural interests or the slave prejudices of the South, which has done its best to diminish what it could not annihilate, and which still acts as a clog on the commerce of America. But there remains another objection to our views which must be met, however vaguely it is stated. There are those who tell us that, in forming our opinions and our wishes with reference to the struggle in North America, we, as Englishmen, are bound to discard all selfish considerations,'-that we ought not to allow our sympathies to be swayed one way or the other by our own interests. We do not deny the obligations of national morality. We fully admit that every people is responsible for its acts, and for the way in which it exercises its influence over others. A violation of national faith, or a wanton provocation of the greatest of all evils-war-is never committed with impunity. As it is, however, with private, so it is with public, morality; the providence of God has ordained, that the real prosperity of nations, as of individuals, and the good government of the civilised world, should be worked out by the action of each seeking, within certain limits, that which is for his own interest. When a nation oversteps those limits there is a Nemesis waiting patiently to avenge the crime- a Nemesis not the less sure because the retribution is not always undergone by the generation which committed the offence nor understood by those on whom it falls. What is the meaning of the instinct of patriotism and the love of one's own country, except that men, in dealing with other nations, should keep steadily in view the welfare of their own? On no other principle can a state maintain its place in the civilised world, and on no other principle do we assign honours and rewards to our statesmen and our soldiers. On no other principle, certainly, can the prolonged war of the North against the South be for a moment defended. If this be so, why are we in this case to discard all selfish 'considerations'? Why specially on the question of Secession and our sympathy with the South or North, are we to neglect the element of advantage to England? It can hardly be said that the Government of the United States in their dealings with us have set us the example of unselfishness, although their feeling has been sometimes adverse to us, when there was no apparent interest to guide it in that direction; as for instance at the time of the Crimean War. As a people, it is not our business to say what interpretation of the American Constitution is the right one. Whether we approve or disapprove of the municipal laws and institutions of the South, their independence of the Government at Washington is not the less a fact. If it be manifestly for the advantage of England to acknowledge that fact by recognising the national character of the Southern Confederacy, we cannot see why their morality, for which we are not responsible, should stand in the way of such recognition. Neither the peace of the world nor the triumph of good over evil will be promoted by shutting our eyes to facts and events on such grounds as these. But, on the other hand, we do not say that it is for the interests of England wisely considered, at the present moment to recognise the Southern Confederacy. We are inclined to believe that Lord Palmerston's policy has been hitherto rightthat at this moment the acknowledgment of the South as a nation would of itself effect very little, and might cause to England evils greater than those which it would remove. If this be so we have nothing to do but to lament the civil war which is raging in the United States, and we must bear as well as we can the suffering of Lancashire, whilst we wait patiently and calmly for the course of events. No. CCXXXVII. will be published in January, 1863. INDEX. A Amari, M., his Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, reviewed, 348. Auckland, Lord, his Journal and Correspondence, reviewed, 113-his Australia, Explorers of, 1-Capt. Sturt, 7- Major Mitchell, 9- B Bacon, G., Plain Facts as to Excise Duty on Hops, reviewed, 491. Bonar, Mr., his Manufacture of Beer in Bavaria, reviewed, 491. Bunsen, C. C. J., his Egypt's Place in Universal History, reviewed, 80. Burke and Wills, their Australian Exploring Expedition, reviewed, 1. C Cairnes, J. E., his Slave Power, reviewed, 549. Curtis, G. T., his Oration at Boston, reviewed, 549. D Darwin, C., his Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Döllinger, J. J. I. von, his Kirche und Kirchen, reviewed, 261. |