right of seizure in the case of the Trent,' and admits our claim to restitution solely upon the ground that the vessel was not taken into port for legal adjudication. We, of course, take a much broader view, and assert that the act was substantially wrong. It was the violation of neutral rights, and not the nonobservance of a rule of procedure, of which we complained. Besides, we find that Mr. Seward still characterises the war between the Federal and Confederate States as an 'insurrection' and a domestic strife,' so that he has not even the pretence of claiming for his Government the rights of a belligerent Power, to which exclusively the right of search belongs. But we need not trouble ourselves with Mr. Seward's bad logic; we are content with the fact that our demand has been complied with. Some allowance may be made for the false position in which the Federal Government was placed by detaining the prisoners until public feeling in the Northern States had become so excited that it was impossible to release them without incurring a loss of popularity.

We are

Fortunately this last dispute has been one in which our worst enemy could not pretend that we were the aggressors. far, however, from supposing that attempts will not be made by the press in America to inflame the animosity of the populace against England, and make them regard a simple act of rightful restitution as an insult and a wrong. We have seen it there said that this is an affront deliberately put by us on America in her hour of difficulty, the memory of which will be treasured up by her until a day of reckoning arrives. With those who hold such language it would be hopeless to argue. Their occupation would be gone if they did not continue to stir up bad passions, and mislead the people they profess to instruct. But we would with confidence appeal to every man capable of reflection in the Northern States, and ask whether Great Britain could possibly have acted otherwise, or done less than she has done in demanding the surrender of the Envoys? The whole of Europe has pronounced that we were right, and it can be no humiliation to a powerful State to make reparation for the wrongful and unauthorized act of one of its officers. We therefore earnestly hope that any momentary feeling of irritation will pass away, and that the relations between the Federal States and this country will continue to be amicable. But, at all events, they are now undeceived as to the real attitude of England. They must see that it is dangerous to try her patience too far. Her forbearance will not be again mistaken for the whispers of fear, or attributed to the dictates of self-interest. We have shown that for the sake of restoring to the protection of our flag four strangers--for whom Vol. 111.-No. 221. personally

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personally we cared nothing-we were resolved to engage instantly in war. Not even the felonious and unheard-of threat of confiscating the whole of the property owned in America by British subjects made us falter or hesitate for a moment in our course. The heart

of the people was stirred to its inmost depth by the feeling that the national honour was at stake; and there was no sacrifice which they were not prepared to make to defend it. Those who venture to assail it in future will do so under no mistake as to the consequences. The lesson has been read: we hope it will be remembered. And whatever may now be said of conciliatory letters, it must not be forgotten by ourselves that until we had evinced this determination by the despatch of large and formidable armaments, every act of the American Government went to show that they fully intended to retain the prisoners.

We deplore the war that is raging between the Federal and Confederate States, but we doubt whether it is for the real interest of either that the whole of the North American continent south of the frontier of Canada should be held under one democratic government. The aggressive character of the people, the confidence they felt in their constantly increasing strength, and their contempt for many of the rules which regulate the intercourse of the old monarchies of Europe, held out prospects little favourable to peace. What they called their manifest destiny was territorial aggrandizement; and every fresh accession of territory seemed only to whet their appetite for more. It was impossible that this could go on without bringing them into collision with the nations of Europe, which have interests on the other side of the Atlantic too great to be sacrificed to the ambition of one overweening Power. There is verge and room enough on the vast continent of North America for two or three, or even more, powerful republics, and each may flourish undisturbed, if so inclined, without being a source of disquiet to its neighbours.* There will be no loss of anything which conduces to the general

To show the colossal extent of territory and power still left to the Northern States we will quote the following passage from Mr. Spence's book, p. 319 :— There are now nineteen free states, of which the area is 993,684 square miles, and there are six territories which, excluding those named, comprise an area of 1,168,000 square miles. Thus the total magnitude of the Northern Power would be 2,161,684 square miles. Now the combined dimensions of four of the five great European Powers are together 625,000 square miles. Thus the Northern territory would be three times as large as that of four of the great Powers of the world together. There are eight kingdoms of Europe of which the population in 1850 was 20 millions, the same as that of the Northern States. Of these the combined area is 120,000 square miles. Hence the domain of the Northern Power would be eighteen times as large as that of eight European kingdoms joined together. Again, France is not considered a small country, and it would be twelve times as large as France.'

happiness

happiness of mankind. For the contest on the part of the North now is undisguisedly for empire. The question of Slavery is thrown to the winds. There is hardly any concession in its favour that the South could ask which the North would refuse, provided only that the seceding States would re-enter the Union. Mr. Secretary Seward himself proposed that the Personal Safety Laws, passed by the several States to counteract the operation of the Fugitive-Slave Law, should be repealed, as contrary to the Constitution. If they are so, we may remark in passing, the Supreme Court of Washington has, by virtue of the powers delegated to it by that constitution, the authority to annul them. General Fremont has already been cashiered for proclaiming the emancipation of slaves belonging to the disaffected in the Western States. Away then with the pretence on the part of the North to dignify its cause with the name of freedom to the slave!

No stronger proof could be given of the earnestness of our goodwill towards America than the desire so uniformly expressed in this country that the fratricidal war between the North and the South should cease. We have urged this in every possible way; and it is impossible to doubt that we are sincere. For, if we were actuated by those feelings of jealousy and dislike which it is the habit of too many American writers and speakers to impute to England, nothing could serve our purpose so well as the prolongation of a struggle of which-while we believe the conquest of the South to be a hopeless dream, and the re-union of the States in one all-powerful Republic an impossibility-the certain effect will be to cripple the resources of the North, and to plunge it in difficulties of which no man can foresee the issue. We say nothing of the present misery arising from the broken ties of relationship and friendship, of the interruption of commerce, and the destruction of capital. But the Federal States' Government is contracting a debt of appalling magnitude, which threatens to transcend in rapidity of formation and rate of increase all that has been known in the previous history of nations. The debt must be paid, or, if funded, the interest must be paid, unless a national bankruptcy is proclaimed. And to do this taxation must be resorted to in a manner hitherto wholly untried in the United States. Democracy has been able there to carry on its government because the pressure of want has been but partially felt, and the presence of the tax-gatherer has been nearly unknown. But with heavy taxation will come discontent, and with discontent riots, and riots will soon ripen into rebellion. In proportion to the magnitude of the debt will be the temptation to Secession. Already emigration to

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a considerable

a considerable extent from the State of Maine to New Brunswick has taken place from fear of future taxation. Secession will be an easy though not an honourable mode of escaping from the tremendous liabilities which will follow in the train of the present war. We speak with less scruple of the probability of this, for in fact it was the refusal of some of the States to pay their share of the expenses caused by the War of Independence, and the want of authority to compel them, which chiefly led to the revision of the Articles of Confederation and the adoption of the Constitution of 1789. Besides, an enormous army will have to be disposed of, inured indeed, if the war lasts, to habits of discipline in the field; but the most dangerous of all classes when disbanded and unemployed. Or is it to be kept on foot when the war is over, at a vast expense, as a standing menace to Canada-for we see that this is openly talked of-and is a deadly struggle with England for the possession of that colony to follow the failure of the attempt to subjugate the South? We may laugh such an attempt to scorn while the Canadians feel as they do. They are as loyal as they are brave, and with the assistance of England will defy all the efforts of America to conquer or annex' them. As to the attempt to subjugate the Confederate States, supposing it succeeded-what then? Is the North prepared to hold the South by the same tenure as Austria holds Venetia? and is there a statesman in the Union who believes that in future it could be held in any other way?

But the idea of a Federal Republic of which the one half is in deadly hostility to the other, and coerced into a hateful partnership, involves a practical contradiction. It would no longer be the union of free States, but a tyranny. In such an anomalous position of things it would be as unreasonable to expect prosperity or peace, as it would be to expect domestic happiness when a wife has been forced by a decree to cohabit with her husband. A conviction of the truth of this is forcing itself upon the minds of those who have most at stake in the continuance of the struggle. We know that the language of the moneyed classes in the Northern States privately is this: We must avenge the disaster of Bull's Run. Our national honour requires a victory; but if, after that, the Confederate States still renounce the Union, let them go.' We think it very problematical that even that one victory will be obtained. The Confederate army will have the choice of ground, and unless some strategical blunder is committed-of which we have as yet seen no likelihood from the way the Confederate forces have been handled-they must be attacked in a position strong by nature and fortified by art. The

North

North may have to confess a second time that it is 'whipped,' and then there will be two defeats to avenge; and the chances of a third battle must on the same principle be tried.

But in the mean time if, as we believe will be the case, the Confederate States are strong enough to maintain a separate Government, keep an organized army on foot, and hold their own against all the efforts of the North, the question will seriously occur how long the recognition of their independence by Foreign Powers is to be delayed. Neither England nor France has imitated the example set by the United States in such emergencies; although if a precedent had been wanted to justify a hasty admission of the South into the fellowship of nations, it might easily have been found. At the end of 1848-the great year of revolutions-Hungary revolted from Austria. A civil war raged, in which America had not the remotest interest nor the faintest pretext for interfering. But she stood on the tiptoe of expectation, ready to extend the hand of brotherhood to the Hungarians the moment they were able to grasp it. In his Message to Congress in 1849, the President of the United States said :

'During the late conflict between Austria and Hungary there seemed to be a prospect that the latter might become an independent nation. However faint that prospect at the time appeared, I thought it my duty, in accordance with the general sentiments of the American people, who deeply sympathized with the Magyar patriots, to stand prepared upon the contingency of the establishment by her of a permanent Government to be the first to welcome independent Hungary into the family of nations. For this purpose I invested an agent then in Europe with power to declare our willingness promptly to recognise her independence in the event of her ability to sustain it.'

Tried by this test, the Confederate States may be thought already to have made good their title. At all events if the war is much longer protracted, the time must come when the words of Lord Castlereagh, addressed in 1822 to the Spanish Minister in London, with reference to the contest between Spain and her South American colonies, will be applicable to the civil war now raging in North America. He said that

'So large a portion of the world could not, without fundamentally disturbing the intercourse of civilised society, long continue without some recognised and established relations; and the State which neither by its counsels nor by its arms could effectually assert its rights over its dependencies, so as to force obedience and thus make itself responsible for maintaining their relations with foreign Powers, must sooner or later be prepared to see those relations establish themselves from the overruling necessities of the case under some other form.'

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