The blockade.
--We are beginning to fear that the
Yankees will not maintain the strict blockade they have proclaimed.
First, they begin to require funds, and second, the recent manifestations of the
English press all tend to indicate a sympathy for the
South, which must soon find vent in a more substantia manner.
Cotton, or rather the want of it, is indirectly a
casus belli;--and just so soon as the
North attempts to prevent the departure of English bottoms from our ports with an article so needful to the welfare of millions of British artizans, just so soon will the imperious
North find itself involved in difficulties beyond the circumvention of her shrewdest political machiavel.
Our statesmen have already initiated a policy concerning this staple which secures us all the income we desire.
The question, therefore, recurs whether the
Federal Government will hesitate between the choice of a war with
England, which would necessarily result from an interference with English commerce, and a blockade of our ports, which at best is only an annoyance to general commerce, and without effect upon the grand object for which it was designed.
Cotton is the sinews of war. It is also the muscle of the working classes of
Great Britain.
They must have it or starve, and
England will never permit them to rise in revolution as long as she can secure free ‘"ingress and egress"’ of our ports.
The Northern papers are already shaking over the threatened interference, and the only fear now is that they may be induced to submit to the demand of
England, and thus stave off that martial demonstration which is sure to follow from the present attitude of affairs between the two countries.
