Another Beecher Stowed.
The
London Athenæum applauds, in terms of extravagant eulogy, a book which
Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler has published against the
South.
The
Athenæum says
Mrs. Butler went to the
South willing to judge slavery fairly, but the scenes of oppression and cruelty she witnessed were too much for her, and she had to return to the
North.
Her book, in the opinion of the
Athenæum plays havoc with Southern chivalry and with Southern women, and even throws into the shade
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.
We recollect, many years ago, (we do not like to say how many, for gallantry would forbid us to intimate even indirectly that
Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler is an old woman,) seeing the popular
Fanny Kemble when she first appeared upon the boards in the
United States.
She personated, on that occasion, Juliet, and never was passionate and self-sacrificing love more powerfully represented.
But when she came to be linked in the bonds of matrimony with a real
Romeo, she made the poor victim the the day he was born.
The
Romeo of
Shakespeare met a fate which was mercy itself compared to marrying such a Juliet.
A more complete virago and termagant never afflicted an unhappy son of
Adam.
Finding that she could not be master and her liege lord a slave, Juliet betook herself to the independence of separation, and the book she has just published is but one of many ebullitions of interminable spleen and rancor against her husband.--She is one of the most strong-minded, strong bodied, bilious, and spiteful old women who infest the cold latitude, and our only wonder is that she has not long since received a commission of
Colonel of horse from the
Lincoln Government.
The wrath and vengeance of this desperate old female are of little import in comparison with the anti slavery bigotry and intolerance manifested by the
London Athenæum in its comments on her book.
Mrs. Butler has spent most of her life in Yankeedom, and never, since she left the stage, has been considered a person whose sayings and doings were of importance on any subject.
But the
Athenæum is one of the oracles of English literature, and it is sad and astonishing to see how prejudice and bigotry can blind the eyes of those who ought to be instructors of the people.
English abolitionism is the most rabid, inveterate, and insensate of all abolitionism.
It is totally blind to the fact that
England stocked the
South and the whole world with slaves, forced them upon the
South in opposition to her remonstrances, and never abolished slavery till she hoped by so doing, in the little island of
Jamaica, to ruin the negro labor which she had herself introduced into the
United States.
She ignores, what all the rest of mankind knows, that, whether to negro slaves, Coolies or Sapoys, she has ever been the hardest master on the planet.
To these things, which ought to make her at least charitable and tolerant to those upon whom she forced slavery, and who treat their slaves better than-she did, she seems perfectly insensible.
She has used the slavery issue to break up the
United States and avenge herself for the Revolution and the late war. One would think she might be satisfied now with her work, but blood enough has not flowed yet. Well, let her go ahead and hug the negro to her heart, and hound on the
Yankee villains to their deeds of robbery and rapine.
The end is not yet. Whichever way this war terminates, she will not be the gainer.
She has offended the
North mortally, and, should the
North succeed, there will be a debt to pay which will bankrupt the prime agent of this Exeter Hall war. Should the
North fail, which all enlightened Englishmen predict, the
South will remember who it was that prevented other nations from recognizing her independence, and give to
France — chivalric and generous
France — every advantage for obtaining the trade, commerce, and manufactures of this country.
