ENGLAND'S ATTITUDE AND THE WAR.
`TF there was ever any doubt as to England's attitude in regard to the war it is now, we are glad to think, entirely over. As we ventured to predict it must be, Eng- lish sympathy is with our own flesh and blood,—chiefly, no 'doubt, because they are our own flesh and blood, but also because the British nation believes that America is on the whole fighting for a just cause. Occasionally, no doubt, Englishmen get puzzled as to the merits of the con- troversy over Cuba. They hear it daily shouted through the cables that all the best people in America are for peace, that only the Jingoes and the " wild men" support the war, and finally, that the war is the outcome of stock-jobbing intrigues and of plots formed by capitalists who want to annex Cuba and exploit it, and not unnaturally they are inclined to doubt whether the American people are not being dragged against their will into a war of which they disapprove. The corrective of such a view is to recall the policy of General Weyler in Cuba—let any one who wants to realise the results of that policy look at the reproductions from photographs in Thursday's Daily Mail —and the stubborn refusal by Spain, even after his recall, to grant to the island even the rights which we give to a Crown Colony. We do not fill all the posts in Jamaica with men sent out from England, and allow the native- born none of the berths under Government. Note, too, that the Wall Street magnates have throughout the recent crisis been lobbying for peace, and remember that all idea of annexation has been specifically repudiated by the Resolution of Congress. No doubt there are noisy, and disagreeable, and undignified, and unscrupulous elements in American politics as in those of this and all other countries, and no doubt, also, they have played a part in the present crisis, but, taken as a whole, it is not these elements which have prevailed to produce the ,war. Looking at the matter broadly, we are inclined to echo, with a difference, the words of Chatham—was it not? —about the great Rebellion :—" There was oppression, there was ambition, there was sedition ; but you shall never persuade me that it was not the cause of liberty on the one side and of tyranny on the other." There may be Jingoism, there may be selfishness, and there may be greed ; but no one shall persuade us that it is not the cause of humanity and good government on the one side and of callous pride and savage ineptitude on the other. 'Americans may not be acting as if they were angels in trousers, but they are obeying a wholesome and legitimate instinct in saying that they will not tolerate Armenian massacres, or worse, at their very doors.
But though America may expect, and will receive, sym- pathy here, and:that moral support which she very naturally values and desires when it comes from those of her own kin, she must not be surprised or annoyed if she receives plenty of criticism from Englishmen. As a nation we are nothing if not critical, and as a nation we shall watch closely and comment shrewdly on every move in the terri- ble game of war which is about to be played. With the British race criticism is a habit, and an Englishman will criticise with deadly distinctness and directness the actions of his father, and much more of his children and grandchildren. Let Americans remember also that this criticism will be more severe in their case than in that of the Spaniards, not because we are less, but because we are more favourable to them than to their enemies. We shall require from our own flesh and blood a standard of rectitude and good-faith and fair fighting which we should not demand from any other nation. This may seem unfair, but it is the fact. If the Spaniards put themselves in the wrong, and do things deserving of our censure, they will be passed by with comparatively little notice as actions such as are to be expected from foreigners. If the Americans do anything which appears to us to be a falling away from grace, public opinion here will be in a ferment. For example, if a Spanish cruiser had been blown up in New York Harbour under circum- stances of the gravest suspicion—the thing is, of course, impossible, but we may use it as an illustration of our meaning—our Press and our people would have rung with expressions of indignation. The thought that such a thing could have happened among our kindred would have sent the nation into a frenzy of annoyance. When it happened in Havana public opinion was comparatively calm. We were sorry, but our people felt that even if the suspicions proved true this was only one more proof of what Southern races will do when they grow mad with injured pride and the black spirit of revenge. To put it in a word, the use of the dagger does not shock us among Southerners as it does among our own people. America, then, as we have said, must be prepared to stand the fire of criticism in detail to which she is sure to be subjected from this side of the Atlantic. She will, we hope, have the good-sense and the patience to realise its true nature, and to re- member that it does not show any animosity, but merely the desire that America should acquit herself in a way beyond reproach. Let her remember, too, that if we were engaged in a war and America were standing out, her people and her Press would treat us to just the same stream of disagreeable and yet well-meant criticism. A proof of what we are saying is to be found in the sort of talk that has been heard at dozens of clubs and dinner- parties. Half the world has been carping at the way in which the Americans have been conducting their quarrel with Spain. The President has been called weak and accused of not knowing his own mind. The " yellow Press " has been denounced as a scandal to civilisation. The Senate and the House of Representatives have been described as wanting in dignity and seriousness. In a word, the talk has all been that America, is putting her- self in the wrong. Yet if any wholehearted and thick- and-thin defender of America's action intervenes—and there are always some of these in every gathering, whether it be assembled in a third-class railway-carriage or a club smoking-room—with the declaration that if America were to be attacked by Europe we must come to her aid, the whole company will protest with one voice that such is their unalterable opinion. They are our own flesh and blood, and we will stand by them in an instant if the foreigners join against them.' That is the universal feeling, but the holding of it must not be allowed for a moment to take away the Briton's inalienable right to criticise and to suggest that this or that matter is being utterly mismanaged. That is a sacred privilege, to be as jealously guarded as trial by jury or any other palladium of the Constitution. It is indeed to this resolve to criticise at all costs which must be attributed so much of the ill blood caused during the war of the North and South. England was not really hostile to the Union, but she could not forego the right of criticism. As we know now, Lord John Russell was always at heart on the side of the North, but that did not prevent him and his colleagues nearly criticising the two countries into war. No doubt we shall do better than that this time ; but, as we have said, criticism there will and must be. If America is wise she will not mind it, but merely remember that it is a characteristic of the race. We are not, and do not profess to be, an agreeable people, but when a member of the family is in a fight our hearts, if not our tongues, are in the right place. So much for the attitude of our people. The attitude of our Government also requires notice. Unless and until, which is most unlikely, America has to face a Con- tinental coalition, our attitude as a nation will of course be one of strict neutrality. But neutrality is of many kinds, and must vary with new conditions. In laying down the conditions which will govern their neutrality we do not ask that the Government should do anything which will injure Spain in the struggle, but we feel sure that if a choice between two courses has to be adopted, the Government will be expected by public opinion here to adopt the course which will show friendliness to the United States. We shall refrain from taking either side, but if it is necessary to show a bias the bias must be towards the States. There is yet another set of conditions which must be carefully weighed. In framing the conditions of neutrality our Government must consider what are the conditions which we shall expect and require to be observed at sea if and when we get engaged in a struggle with a maritime Power. We must not blow hot and cold, and adopt a course now which we shall want to repudiate hereafter. It is a com- plicated problem, and one which we cannot attempt to enter upon here. We merely desire to insist upon the fact that the decision will be a momentous one, and also to express our belief that our aim should be to secure the maximum of freedom for commerce. If we are ever at war our only risk will be the cutting off, or rather the imperilling, of our food-supplies by foreign cruisers and privateers. The main thing, then, is to secure freedom for neutrals to bring us corn and meat.
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