tration of that wrong, however flourishing might have been the insurrection in the South, and however important the persons captured might have been." gates of the sea. Never before in her active history has Great Britain ranged herself on this side. Such an event is an epoch. Novus sæclorum nascitur To the liberties of the sea this Power is now committed. To a certain. extent this course is now under her tutelary care. If the immunities of passengers, not in the military or naval service, as well as of sailors, are not directly recognized, they are at least implied; while the whole pretension of impressment, so long the pest of neutral commerce, and operating only through the lawless adjudication of a quarterdeck, is made absolutely impossible. Thus is the freedom of the seas enlarged, not only by limiting the number of persons who are exposed to the penalties of war, but by driving from it the most offensive pretension that ever stalked upon its waves. To such conclusion Great Britain is irrevocably pledged. Nor treaty nor bond was needed. It is sufficient that her late appeal can be vindicated only by a renunciation of early, long-continued tyranny. Let her bear the rebels back. The consideration is ample; for the sea became free as this altered Power went forth upon it, steering westward with the sun, on an errand of liberation." * Mr. Sumner, Chairman of the Com-ordo. mittee of Foreign Relations, made the delivery of Messrs. Mason and Slidell the occasion of an elaborate speech in the Senate, in which he asserted that the transaction, as it had been managed by Great Britain and the United States, had furnished a legal precedent, affecting the rights and privileges of neutrals of the utmost value. Approving of the action of the Government in the surrender of the ambassadors, he maintained that their seizure without taking the ship into port was wrong, inasmuch as a Navy officer is not entitled to substitute himself for a judicial tribunal; that had the ship been carried into port, it would not have been liable on account of the rebel emissaries, neutral ships being free to carry all persons not apparently in the military or naval service of the enemy; that dispatches were not contraband of war so as to render a neutral ship liable to seizure. In considering these propositions he aptly exhibited the position of the two parties to the discussion by an illustration from Shakspeare. "In the struggle between Laertes and Hamlet, the two combatants exchanged rapiers; so that Hamlet was armed with the rapier of Laertes and Laertes was armed with the rapier of Hamlet. And now on this sensitive question a similar exchange has occurred. Great Britain is armed with American principles, while to us is left only those British principles which, throughout our history, have been constantly, deliberately, and solemnly rejected." The result in his view was a great triumph. 'Mr. President," he added, let the rebels go. Two wicked men, ungrateful to their country, are let loose with the brand of Cain upon their foreheads. Prison doors are opened; but principles are established which will help to free other men and to open the The In this simple manner, disembarrassed of the grave perplexities which seemed to beset the subject, diplomacy peacefully handled a matter which at the time seemed to be portentous with all the horrors of a great maritime war. case will always be of interest as an important precedent in international law. It bears a lesson not less significant to the moralist and statesman of the danger to which two highly civilized nations may be exposed by an imperfect understanding of one another's motives, the excitement of popular clamor, and the unbridled license of a free press. The outburst of indignation, the loss of temper, the misstatement of facts, confusion of ideas, the * Speech of Mr. Sumner in the Senate, January 9, 1862. THE ENGLISH PRESS. illiberal and unworthy suggestions of the English press on the receipt of the news of the capture of the Confederate ambassadors, were all based upon the idea, utterly without foundation, of a violent aggression upon British rights in a hostile spirit by an unfriendly nation. For weeks a fanaticism of hostility to the United States seemed to possess the British public. We may smile now as we read the plethoric denunciations charged with fury and malice, but they were irritating and sad enough at the time when they were coupled with the active preparations for war by the British Government. Not even in the first fury of the invasion of Russia. it was said, were such violent imprecations uttered, or such belligerent designs manifested. "The blood and spirit of John Bull," said the London Chronicle of November 30th, "appear to be thoroughly aroused upon the subject of the American insult to the British flag ;" and any one who would learn what such an exhibition was like, may acquire the information from a perusal of any file of the newspapers of the ensuing month. Captain Wilkes, a courteous gentleman, with whom the British public might have been supposed to have been better acquainted, from his scientific pursuits, was absurdly converted into a desperate ogre, full of senseless fury-something between a rogue and a pirate in his assaults upon British virtue. His portrait was thus drawn in a journal of large popular circulation:* "Captain Wilkes is unfortunately but too faithful a type of the people in whose foul mission he is engaged. He is an ideal Yankee, swagger and ferocity, built up on a foundation of vulgarity and cowardice these are his characteristics; and these are the most prominent marks by which his countrymen, generally speaking, are known all over the world. To bully the weak, to triumph over the helpless, to trample on every law of courtesy and custom, willfully to violate * The London (Sunday) Times. 147 all the more sacred instincts of human nature; to defy as long as danger does not appear, and as soon as real peril shows itself, to sneak aside and run away-these are the virtues of the race which presumes to announce itself as the leader of civilization and the prophet of human progress in these latter days. By Captain Wilkes let the Yankee breed be judged!" Similar malicious nonsense was uttered. in far higher quarters. If the journal just quoted was not to be judged by the loftiest standard, what could be said for the cultivated Saturday Review, the organ of the University men, with its pride and punctilio and lofty superciliousness? It had been the pleasure of this journal throughout the American difficulty, to suggest doubts and disparagements, and throw contempt on the Northern cause. Its language now was that of studied insolence. "The American Government," it proclaimed, "is in the position of the rude boor, conscious of infinite powers of annoyance, destitute alike of scruples and of shame, recognizing only the ultimate arbitration of the strong arm which repudiates the appeal to codes, and presuming, not without reason, that more scrupulous States will avoid or defer such an arbitration as long as ever they can.' Punch, which, with all its comic exaggerations, is fairly supposed to represent the prevalent sense and feeling of the British people on all popular questions, was ludicrously offensive. Two of its caricatures, when the fever in London was at its height, at the beginning of December, were aimed at poor Wilkes and his unfortunate act of patriotism. In one of these a huge truculent sailor of Her Majesty's service, confronted a peaked, diminutive Bobadil, of the make usually accorded to slave drivers, whose petty stature was eked out by an American flag. "You do what's right, my son," says the swag-bellied Britain, “or I'll blow you out of the water." "Now mind you, sir," says the same pretty personage to a splay-footed, knock-kneed ship of gigantic size which had been rerepresentation of an American Commo- cently completed to the admiration of dore, "no shuffling-an ample apology-all England, was fitted out in haste for or I will put the matter into the hands of my lawyers, Messrs. Whitworth and Armstrong." Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, was, somehow, throughout the affair, an object of especial hostility. He was absurdly charged with the project of uniting South and North in an attack on Canada, with a bitter hostility to England, and the Times, forgetting all sense of decency, in an editorial article reported a silly story that "during the visit of the Prince of Wales to America, Mr. Seward took advantage of an entertainment to the Prince, to tell the Duke of Newcastle he was likely to occupy a high officethat when he did so, it would become his duty to insult England, and he should insult her accordingly. Any nonsense seemed worthy of publication in the excited state of the public mind. Nor were these exhibitions of feeling confined to idle talk. The Government itself gave currency to the alarm by the energy and rapidity of its warlike demonstrations. Throughout Sunday, the first of December, there was the greatest activity at the Tower of London in the packing and dispatch of twenty-five thousand stand of arms for Canada. A Royal Proclamation appeared on the fourth, prohibiting the exportation of "arms, ammunition, military stores, including percussion caps and. fuses, and also lead." Shipments of saltpetre were stopped at the Custom-House. No insurance could be got on American vessels. The shipping interest was thrown prostrate. The already considerable naval squadron on the North American and West India stations were largely reinforced. Powerful ships were mustered on all sides, both for the regular service and for transports. Whitworth and Armstrong guns were in requisition. The heavily armed Warrior, the boast of the British navy, an iron clad steam immediate service. The Persia, the most expeditious of the transatlantic steamships, was taken from the mail service to New York, to transport troops to Canada. Various batteries and battalions of famous regiments were forwarded to the probable seat of war, as it was considered in the excitement of the hour. The naval preparations made for the reinforcement of Admiral Milne on the North American and West India stations would, it was expected, place at his disposal at the beginning of February, for the blockade, if necessary, of the Atlantic ports, a fleet of sixty-five sail, including seven line-of-battle ships, thirtythree frigates and twenty-five corvettes and sloops. "Of the squadron of frigates," said the London Times, "each vessel has been carefully chosen for its great sailing speed, high steam power and heavy armament; and never yet has such a fleet of picked cruisers been sent against any enemy." The list included, beside the Warrior, the newlybuilt iron plated vessels the Black Prince, Resistance and Defence, which it was confidently asserted, could pass unharmed by the harbor defences of New York, and dictate their own terms of peace by laying the fleet broadside unto the streets of that city.* In the midst of this reckless depreciation and threatening tumult, one manly voice was heard to assure America of the sympathy of the great middle class of England. The eloquent John Bright, the representative of the Manchester school in Parliament, the tribune of the people, and the sturdy defender of liberal principles and progress, in a speech at Rochdale on the evening of the day of the royal prohibitory proclamation, took up the cause of the injured United States. He called to mind the origin of the civil war, not as with the colonies, in Times, January 7, 1862. SPEECH OF JOHN BRIGHT. 149 the war of Independence, in taxation, for ing troops to Canada, deprecated the the representation of the South, by virtue policy of arming to the teeth in time of of its slave privileges, was in excess; peace. It was significant of the exnot, as had been alleged, on account citement caused by the Trent affair that of tariffs, for they had been passed while Lord Shaftesbury, who was supposed to the South was dominant in the national share these views in November, now decouncils, but in a question of a graver clined an invitation to a united prayercharacter. "For thirty years," said this meeting at his favorite Exeter Hall, on calm observer, "slavery has been con- the ground that his presence might instantly coming to the surface as the diffi- terfere with the idea that the country culty of American politicians. The object was united on the redress question. of the South in seceding is to escape from the votes of those who wish to limit the area of slave territory." He pointed out the geographical, the moral necessity of the struggle, and vindicated the course of the North. He thought the seizure on board the Trent might be unauthorized, and presciently pronounced that reparation would be made. Deprecating war, he dwelt upon the number of Englishmen who had emigrated to America, upon the unprecedented development of the North, and prayed it might not be said among her growing millions "that in their darkest hour of need the English people, from whom they sprung, had looked with icy coldness on the trials and sufferings of their terrible struggle." The friend and associate of the great commoner in political life, Richard Cobden, also spoke for peace. He thought the question suggested a complete revision of the International Maritime Code. On a previous occasion, at the same place, he said, "My friend, Mr. Bright, and myself have been called the two members for the United States," and, looking to the enlargement of the cotton producing area, had expressed his regret "that the most extensive, the most ingenious, and the most useful industry that ever existed on this earth, should have been dependent almost exclusively for the supply of the raw material upon an institution, the institution of Slavery, which we must all regard as a very unsafe foundation, and, in fact, to the permanency of which we can none of us, as honest men, wish God speed." He also, in reference to send When the appropriation for the army expenses, incurred by the British Government in its conduct of the Trent affair, were under discussion in Parliament in its next session, Mr. Bright, from his seat in the House of Commons, prefaced a pungent review of the course pursued with the remark, "It is not customary in ordinary life for a person to send a polite messenger with a polite message to some friend or neighbor, or acquaintance, and at the same time to send some man of portentous strength handling a gigantic club, making every kind of ferocious gesticulation, and at the same time, to profess that all this is done in the most friendly and courteous. manner." In conclusion, he added that he was rejoiced to see a remarkable change operating from day to day, in Parliament and out of it, since the course of the American Government had been known. "There is a more friendly feeling," he said, "towards the Washington Government. A large portion of the people of this country see in it a government, a real government, not a government ruled by a mob and not a government disregarding law. They believe it is a government struggling for the integrity of a great country. They believe it is a country which is the home of every man who wants a home, and, moreover, they believe this-that the greatest of all crimes which any people in the history of the world has ever been connected with-the keeping in slavery four millions of human beings-is in the * Speech at Rochdale, June 26, 1861. providence of a power very much higher than that of the Prime Minister of England, or of the President of the United States, marching on, as I believe, to its entire abolition."* General Scott, a few days after his arrival in Paris, published a letter dated the 2d of December, in which the case of the Trent was stated with great sagacity and moderation, and the action subsequently taken by his government at home presciently indicated. "The two nations," said he, "are united by interests and sympathies-commercial, social, political, and religious, almost as the two arms to one body, and no one is so ignorant as not to know that what harms one must harm the other in a corresponding degree." The words of the venerable Nestor were poured like oil upon the troubled waters. Doubtful, however, of the issue, he hastily returned to America by the steamer which had carried him to Europe. happy position-the severe trials which Simultaneously with the agitation of the Trent affair in England, no little excitement was produced by the cirIn America the denunciations of the cumstances growing out of the arrival British Press and the warlike prepara- at Southampton of the Confederate war tions of the Government, were received steamer Nashville, in which it was at as thunder out of a clear sky. Con- first supposed Messrs. Mason and Slitrary to the predictions and suppositions dell had sailed from South Carolina. abroad of a popular desire in the United This vessel which became noted for her States for a war with Great Britain, and depredations on the high seas and for an overwhelming manifestation of this her success in breaking the blockade of feeling, never was the voice of the peo- the Southern coast, was a side-wheel ple more calmly uttered or their defer- steamer of about 1,200 tons, built in ence to the Administration more assur- New York, and previously to the rebeledly exhibited than in their acquiescence lion had been regularly running between in the whole treatment of this matter by that city and Charleston. After the the Secretary of State. The popular secession she was retained at the Southfury was all on the other side of the ern harbor, and fitted out as a ConAtlantic. Undoubtedly much soreness federate war steamer. She was armed was created by the affair; but it arose, with two 12-pounder rifled cannon, and not from an unwillingness on the part of carried a crew of eighty men. Her the American people to do justice in the commander, Captain Robert B. Pegram, premises, or, if that were asked, concili-a Virginian by birth, had passed nearly ate the offended pride of England, but from the conviction forced upon the nation of the utter lack of sympathy with its cause, or of consideration for the un thirty-two years in the United States Navy, in which, at the outbreak of the rebellion, he held the rank of a lieutenant. He had been in service in the Paraguay and Japan expeditions, and of late had been engaged in the Coast |