England and the North.
The reported determination of the
English Admiral off the
American coast to break the blockade is giving special uneasiness, as well it may, in those Northern cities which have sought to take away our liberties for the benefit of their commerce.
That such an interposition by
England will take place, sooner or later, is what they feel to their heart's core.
The extraordinary exasperation manifested towards
Great Britain by the
Northern press finds its solution, not in anything she has done, but in what with good reason, they apprehend she will do. In declaring her perfect neutrality between the two sections, and even in acknowledging the
South as a belligerent, whilst, as yet, she has accorded us in relation to prizes taken by our privateers, none of the rights of a belligerent nation, she has given no just cause for that outburst of indignation which has issued from the whole Northern press.
The real motive of all this outcry is that the shrewd, commercial mind of the
North not only recognizes in
Europe its real rival, but is aware that her manufacturing and commercial necessities render it indispensable that her supply of cotton should not be interrupted.
She now has on hand, we believe, enough for three months only, and it is not likely she will wait till that short period has expired before she provides for the future.
Cotton she must have — that the
North understands as well as the
South.
Hitherto the
North has endeavored to delude
England with the idea that cotton would be forwarded from the
South by railroad to the
Northern ports, and then, when this game was blocked by the determination of the people and the law of Congress not to permit a bale to leave the country in that manner, they swore they would come and take it But that was an oath more easily taken than fulfilled.
They have not yet got tobacco country, and the cotton region is more distant still.
Even if they could seize the
Southern seaports and centres of the cotton trade, the coveted prey would not be there, for the cotton factors have requested the planters not to send it from their plantations, the underwriters refuse to insure it in transits, and the planters themselves are keeping it at home, and will rather burn it than permit it to fall into the enemy's hands.
These facts cannot be without their influence abroad, and it is a through conviction of their truth that makes the
Northern press so irritable, and even belligerent, towards
England.
The influence of the great
battle of Manassas, in this point of view, cannot be overestimated.
It was all important to the
North, in more respects than one, that the war should be ‘"short and sharp."’
Richmond and
Memphis in their hands by the 20th of July, and
England would have assurance that the rebellion would be put down, and that she would get her cotton supply in time.
For that purpose the greatest army that this continent has ever seen, the most formidable in numbers, the best equipped and provided, was hurled upon the
Southern forces on the 21st of July, and hurled there only to be dashed back in the most ignominious rout and ruin that history records.
Let the
Northern journalists give what false explanation of it they please, they cannot explain away the fact.
Let them talk of masked batteries and of superior numbers, and of a causeless panic which made ‘"the grand army"’ take to its heels like a herd of frightened deer,
England will observe that the masked batteries and the superior numbers, and the possibility of another panic, are as much in the way of future operations as of past.
She has been led to wait till the
North could get her the cotton, and
Manassas will lead her to conclude that she cannot wait much longer.
We doubt whether she will be disposed to wait till
McClellan can get up another army, better than the last.
Most devoutly do we hope that the
North will be made to feel her heavy arm. Not that we desire English interposition for the sake of Southern independence, for we have already shown our ability to maintain that with our own arms, but for the sake of vengeance on the wretches who have made a war of avowed plunder and rapine upon an unoffending people, and are conducted that war with atrocities unknown, except among the Sepoys and Druses.
A just Heaven will yet visit them in their own homes for their horrible crimes.
