THE CAUSES OF AMERICAN BITTERNESS.
THE feeling towards England in the Northern States seems to increase in bitterness. The proclamation of neutrality is regarded as a quasi-recognition of the South, and, though admitted to be legal, is denounced as an official surrender •of the principles of freedom. Mr. Gregory's motion, which elicited only four cheers in the House of Com- mons, and was silenced before it had been withdrawn, is re- garded as a quasi-official act, presaging open alliance with the South. 1,.iland is taunted with servility to cotton, with' false pretences of liberality, and with a wicked delight in the, suffering of the States. She is menaced with the future vengeance of the North, the stoppage of her supply of cotton, the ruin of her trade, the assistance of America in the next rebellion of the Irish. This virulence is nottonfined to the New York press or to those American Irish who do so much to interrupt the friendship which steady commercial' intercourse must produce. The irritation is as unreasonable in Philadelphia as New York, among the politicians at Washington as in the "literary " circles of Massachusetts. It will be increased by the sudden resolution to despatch, troops to Canada, a decision which, though dictated by thee plainest necessity, will be accepted by the imitable jealousy of the North as a menace against themselves. The colony, since the Crimean war, has been almost denuded of troops,' and in restoring our strength to its old level, we do but pro- vide against the weakness which tempts irregular assaults. The act, however, is not likely to be fairly judged, and de- spite the similar policy adopted by Napoleon, and the warm sympathy expressed by Lord John Russell with the Union, we must expect the continuance of attacks as irritating to our sense of justice as to our national pride. The Americans are, for the moment, transported beyond the influence of common sense ; and seem blind to the most patent signs of political opinion. With all England sympathizing, more or less heartily, with the North, they persist in regarding her as a covert enemy, and seem positively anxious to change an ally, who happens to be quiescent, into an open and most' dangerous foe.
It is perhaps expedient, before national irritation over- comes English reason, to inquire whether there is any justification, or that failing, any palliation for these out- bursts of arrogant bad taste. Justification in its full sense it would, we at once admit, be impossible to find. The British Government has as yet done no one act intended to increase the resources.of the South. The proclamation of neu trality does, indeed, arrest Canadian assistance, and perhaps gives the South a standing which rebels do not ordinarily en- joy, but no other course short of alliance with the North could possibly have involved less advantage to the slave-owners. Had the whole matter been suffered to sleep, without official action of any kind, the South might have secured in our ports the privateers with wham the Northern Navy can dispense. Avowed alliance with the North, on the other hand, would have been contrary to our steady policy of non-intervention between rulers and their subjects, and a slur on the compe- tence of the Union to maintain its own integrity. The North can hold its own, and our clear duty was to avoid embittering the contest by interference in either direction. In a calmer moment Americans will, we believe, recognize this as the only course open to England to pursue. But while there can be no justification there may be many palliations for the present American tone. A proud race, with their vanity full fed by an uninterrupted career of political' success, the Americans have been taught to regard them- selves as the strongest of existinu° powers, as abstaining from dominance only because the Old World was scarcely worth the trouble of interference. On a sudden the mighty State, of whose prestige every American was so proud, falls help- lessly in two, threatening to crumble into fragments yet more minute. The strongest section, feeling keenly that the disaster is but temporary, that its resources suffice either to compel reunion or commence anew the career of development, indignantly denies that its position has been changed. Like a banker during a run, who knows that appearances are against him, but knows also that he is solvent, the North examines every friendly face for the coldness it expects, but is .
none the less determined to chastise. In such a temperevery incident, however slight, is sure to be interpreted as indicat- ing design. Every failure of respect betokens triumph ; every oiler of assistance sarcastic pity. It is because America may be supposed weak that the American .diplomatists ex- change hauteur for arrogance, that Mr. Lincoln threatens to chastise interference, that Mr. Seward writes to Mr. Dayton letters condemning all European politicians. There is want of courtesy in this manifestation, and perhaps want of judg- ment too, but a friendly nation may well do what a private friend would attempt—wait calmly until, with the calamity, the spasm of suspicion has passed by. The aggressive pride of the hour is' not the result of •deliberate thought, but an in- stinctive movement of self-defence against an attack antici- pated, though only in imagination. It may be annoying, as it is certainly impolitic, but impertinence does not justify the sufferer in abandoning a principle.
Another and even stronger palliation is to he found in the acute sense entertained by every American of the 'im- portance of European aid. The Southerners, owing appa- rently to some personal relations with the diplomatists at Washington, are persuaded that Europe is already favour- able to their cause. The cotton crop, they argue, mud be imported, and as the season draws near the blockades will be broken, and the war reduced at once to an invasion by land alone. The North, on the other hand, believing itself able utterly to crush the mutineers, still holds that the speedy issue of the contest depends on the blockades. If the South can continue to sell cotton unrestricted, she will have funds for a succession of campaigns. The case would be still worse were England the active ally of the South—and this is the secret fear of every American—for the blockade would then be extended to the North, and the South supplied with those munitions, the want of which will speedily close the war. Deceived by the diplomatic tone our Parliamentary leaders habitually adopt, the Northern orators evidently believe England at heart strongly with the South, and know- ing well how tremendous a power their old ally can, if neces- sary, exert, look forward with dismay to the protraction of the war. So strong is the impression of the effect English hostility would produce, that the secret secessionists of the North earnestly pray for interference, as the one event which would produce the possibility of compromise. The Northerners, hating the idea of compromise, are frantic at the thought of a compromise produced by pressure from without. The stake is too great for men to be altogether calm. 'They feel as the English felt when Louis XIV. acknowledged the Pretender ; and however unjust their apprehension, it is dictated by a feel- ing which Englishmen in other cases are the last to reprehend.
But the last and, in our eyes, the best palliation of their tone is to be sought in this. The conscience of the North is satisfied with its cause. Feeling always that the struggle, whatever its nominal object, is really for right against wrong, freedom against slavery, constitutionalism against military power, they cannot imagine why men, free like themselves, should hesitate to aid the cause to which they profess devotion. Forgetting the endless coil of Federal rights and State preten- sions, Acts of Congress, and election legalities, in whidh they themselves have enmeshed the great issue really In- v olv ed, they expect, on the plain ground of morality, the sympathy they have done nothing to secnre. England, they say, "professes to hate slavery ; our war is against slavery ; unless, therefore,her hate be hypocritical, England is with us." The first postulate is correct, and the deduction one every Englishman will draw ; but the second remains, up to this hour, only a hope or an assumption. Let the North once distinctly proclaim that issue, declare that the object of the war is the extinction of slavery, that no peace is possible which shall leave slavery in existence, and in the unanimous response of Englishmen even the dread of a cotton famine will be removed. The better Americans believe that this issue is stated, that the death throe of slavery is drawingnigh, and so believing, they look on our lukewarmness as treachery, not only to them but to humanity. It is, consequently, from the very best and calmest Americans, from Boston either than New York, that the most earnest denunciation comes. The feeling is the more bitter because our statesmen, true to their dread of all enthusiasm, persist in talking only of the material interests involved. Fellowship with a slaveowner is more impossible to Lord John Russell than to Mr. Seward ; yet the Foreign Secretary, questioned as to his policy, would talk of Northern wheat, and quote tables about the cotton of the Confederacy. He would meet famine and short time together sooner than check t,lie emancipation of the slave; but till the hour for action comes he will talk like Mr. Gregory, as if England had not an aspirOon beyond cheap calicoes. Americans cannot understand this reticence. Secure of their own motives, they forget that those motives are not visible to the world, and hate with the virulence of sincere Puritans who believe Christianity attacked. There is no violence like that shown by a man whose interests and whose principles tend to the same end, whose present and future are equally at stake. This is not an emotion which Englishmen, however they may regret the action it involves, can heartily contemn.
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