Amid the preposterous reports that come back from America respecting
what has taken place in this country, are satisfactory signs that the Americans never reciprocated the ideas of grave hostility which. were engendered here by caprice or ignorance. They sustain the discussion on the "questions " with the British Government, and reproduce Mr. Crampton's circular to the Con- suls at New York and other towns, for the purpose of showing that he desired to avoid any infraction of the American law. There is no necessity to reopen that question. That Mr. Cramp- ton desired to avoid breaking the law, must be believed by every Englishman as it is by the really representative classes in Ame- rica. Breach of law, however, is not easily avoided by simple instructions on paper, when disreputable agents, who are as cor- rupt as reckless, are to carry out the instructions. However, that question has passed. The novelty is, that the American papers should persevere in discussing it for the purpose which we have mentioned. Thus, the International Journal reviews the subject at length, in order to exculpate Mr. Crampton. "It will most forcibly strike the mind of every reader," says the journal," how anxiously he sought to make all persons respect the law in this business.' The proceedings were taken against the agents by persons in office, who were personally the friends of Mr. Crampton, and who expressed their friendliness at the very time that they were moving technically. We stated as much at the time when the first irritation arose: the weight of evidence in the American journals has at last proved too strong for any journal in this country to resist.
