AMERICA AND ENGLAND.
[To TEE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your article, "America and England," in the Spectator of August 14th will be read here as a proper and righteous protest against the unfriendly, if not consciously insulting, attitude of the United States Government, as represented by the Olney and Sherman despatches, and the speeches of the politicians on both sides during the recent Presidential Election. It may be questioned, however, whether you are right in believing that this unfriendly attitude is not sup- ported by the American people,—is not, in fact, the outcome of the temper which rules our kinsmen over the water at this moment. In Mahan's "Influence of Sea-Power on the Wars of the French Revolution and Empire," the great American writer (Vol. II., final chapter) points to the initial error of the Revolutionary Government before the outbreak of war. It was the delusion that while the English Government was neutral, or hostile, the English people sympathised with the Revolution, —as at first so many influential people undoubtedly did, and continued to do until that sympathy was withdrawn through the violence and bloodshed of its progress. "It was a natural delusion, fostered in the hearts of the sanguine Frenchmen by the utterances of many warm-hearted friends of freedom in the rival nation and by the more violent words of a limited number of revolutionary societies." These were supposed to represent the feeling of the British nation as distinguished from its Government. Once at war, the British Government and people presented a united front and common action, which never failed till the final peace was triumphantly attained. The American people are but the English people inheriting the same tenacity and endurance in different surroundings. Let us not have any illusions because all that is hest in America reciprocates the universal feeling of kin- ship felt for Americans here. That the whole nation is in sympathy with the Government would be shown in a moment
at the outbreak of war.—I am, Sir, &c., L. D.
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