YANKEE MEDITATIONS ON EUROPEAN WAR. Ti any thing can abate
the war-mania which has taken possession of certain journalists on both sides of the Channel, it will be the following cool calculations, which we copy from an American news- paper of some reputation— "A general European war, or even a war between England and France alone, would he advantageous to this country, provided we took good care not to he entangled in it. It is to be presumed that the belligerents would direct their efforts mainly to the destruction each of the other's commerce. Cruisers and privateers would swoop upon the merchant-ships of France and England; and this would throw the carrying-trade of both, or at least a very considerable portion of it, into our hands. The agriculture and manufactures of both na- tions would suffer reduction—necessarily followed by a greatly-increased con- sumption of our agricultural products, and the opening of new markets to our manufactures. Such an impulse would be given to our industry, in every de- partment of its exercise, as we have not known for many years—exceeding even that imparted to it by the tariff of 1842."
Nothing cools bullies so much as to find their vapouring laughed at instead of being admired. And nothing can be more ridiculous than two countries provoking each other to war while a third stands by calculating how much it is to gain by their quarrel,—ex- cept, indeed, the two dunghill cocks commemorated by Meg Dods, whose battle was watched with such eager interest by Dr. Redgill in the expectation that the carcass of the one which fell would be rendered more tender by the excitement of the fight. We leave it to the decision of Lord PALMERSTON'S organ, or of the editor of the National himself, whether it is likely to add to the dignity of England and France to begin pecking and cuffing each other in order that the United States may grow rich by taking up those lucrative pursuits which we relinquish to indulge in that amiable amusement. The remarks of the Yankee editor do, it must be confessed, resemble the cogitations of one of those honest gentle- men who have been known to offer their services to bold the coats of pugilists, and to make off with them in the heat of the fray. This, however, may be forgiven him, if the mental absence he has shown in thinking aloud shall have the effect of making our game- cocks of the press ashamed of their crowing.
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