The race after the Alabama.
The last foreign arrivals convey to us the information, through an abolition sheet, that a screw steamer was in a few days to leave a British port to go in quest of the
Alabama.
The intelligence is afforded by an abolition sheet, and the enterprise, it is intimated, is one of individuals who have lost heavily by the captures of the
Alabama.
The vessel fitted out, it is claimed, can outrun the
Alabama, and is to be manned by a British crew, and commanded by a man who has lately been an officer in the
British navy, and who is complimented by his abolition eulogist as one able to cope with
Captain Semmes.
Of course, he must be a considerable of a man on the sea !
What credit is to be attached to this boasting announcement, we are unable to say. If there is such a scheme for catching the
Alabama in progress among the
English Abolitionists, the United States Government is at the bottom of it, and furnished a part at least, if not all, of the funds.
But what if the statement be true ? And what if the
Yankee Government is the prime mover in the matter ? Has not the
Yankee Government been using its best exertions for two years to catch
Captain Semmes ? And may we not conclude that they will hardly be able to do more now than they have done, although aided by the
British Abolitionists ?
Captain Semmes will be able to dispose of the new enemy and her boasted commander we doubt not; and it is more than probable that the
British sympathizers with the
Yankee barbarians are only preparing another wreath to adorn his brow, so often graced with the laurel of victorious achievements.
We do not feel any anxiety about this announcement, but rather regard it as fraught with advantage to our cause.
If the enterprise takes such form as to impose an obligation on the
British Government to institute any proceedings, and it falls to do so, the moral effect of its delinquency will inure to our good, while we need not fear the enterprise itself.
If it should not assume such a form, and yet have so much of an existence as to be known to the people of
England, the effect will be to increase popular sympathy for us — to aid us in pressing upon public attention in Eng- land and elsewhere the pending struggle in this country — a struggle which cannot be let alone in
Europe, and which must in good time involve it in some manner or other, and we think hardly to our disadvantage.
We may calmly look on, hoping for little or nothing; but, happily, at the same time fearing nothing from
Europe.
