The American crisis in Europe.
the Queen's proclamation — the Union permanently dissolved — a Quasi recognition of the Southern Confederacy--Extracts from the English Press, &cFrom the flies by the steamship Etna we find the following in relation to the troubles which now exist on this side of the continent: The Queen's proclamation. Whereas, we are happily at peace with all the sovereign Powers and States, and whereas, hostilities have unhappily commenced between the Government of the United States and certain States styling themselves the Confederate States of America; and whereas, we being at peace with the Government of the United States, have declared our royal determination to maintain a strict and impartial neutrality between the said contending parties; we therefore have thought fit, by and with the advice of our Privy Council, to issue our royal proclamation, and we hereby warn all our loving subjects and all persons whatever entitled to our protection, that if any of them shall presume, in contempt of this proclamation and of our high displeasure, to do any acts in derogation of their duty as subjects of a neutral sovereign in said contest, or in violation or contravention of the law of nations, and more especially by entering the military service of either of the contending parties, as commissioned or non-commissioned officers, sailors or marines, or by serving as officers, sailors or marines on board of any ship or vessel-of-war or transport of or in the service of either of the contending parties, or by engaging to or going to any place beyond the seas, with the intent to enlist or engage in any such service, or by procuring or attempting to procure, within her Majesty's dominions, at home or abroad, others to do so, or by fitting out, arming or equipping any ship or vessel to be employed as a ship-of-war or privateer or transport by either of the contending parties, or by breaking or endeavoring to break any blockade that has been fully and actually established by or on behalf of either of the said contending parties, or by carrying officers, soldiers, dispatches, arms, military stores or materials, or any article considered or deemed to be contraband of war according to law or the modern usage of nations, for the use of either of the said contending parties; all parties so offending will incur and be liable to the several penalties and penal consequences by the said statute, or by the law of nations in that behalf imposed. And we do hereby declare that all our subjects and persons entitled to our protection, who may misconduct themselves in the promises, will do so at their peril and of their own wrong, and they will in no wise obtain any protection from us against any liabilities or penal consequences, but will, on the contrary, incur our displeasure by such misconduct. Victoria. Given at Richmond Park, May 13th, 1861. Views of the English Press. [From the Manchester Guardian, May 14th, cotton spinners' organ.] It must surely be abundantly clear to every one but Mr. Lincoln and his advisers, that the Union is permanently dissolved; that the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States cannot get on together in peace under one Government; and that the worst thing that could happen to either would be for them to be joined together by force — for nothing else will make them one. Why, then, in the name of common sense, should not each go its own way; each under the institutions which suit it best? Here we have a case similar to one in which a husband and wife, after having led a cat and dog life for forty years, find themselves divorced; what friend of either, with knowledge of their antecedents, would seek to bring them together again? No crime having been committed, and no mutual obligations having been incurred, who would think twice before he advised them to separate without delay, lest surrounded by old causes of irritation, and constantly reminded of old grudges, one or the other should do something which might stand in the way of an honorable parting? We do sincerely hope that, when a sufficient quantity of the bluster and ‘"bunkum,"’ which it is the weakness of our friends over the water --and we all have our weaknesses — to indulge in, shall have been expended, a common sense view of the case will be taken; and that, if part they must, the parting may be peaceful. The London Times of the 14th instant closes a long article on American affairs with the following view of the prospects of the campaign: ‘ Where events are influenced by ever-changing circumstances, acting on wavering politicians and impetuous mobs, it is more than ever difficult to calculate future, and it remains to be seen whether the Government will carry on the war against Virginia as against the Confederates, or whether Mr. Lincoln, having redeemed some of his pledges and secured the Capital, will be inclined to moderate counsels. He, no doubt, has the chance of winning victories, and of acquiring a character for energy and firmness. He may, not content with assuring the possession of the two little Northern slave States, inflict grievous injuries on the Confederates by blockading their ports, interrupting cultivation, and even tampering with their slave population. But, on the other hand, it is more and more evident that a war for the subjugation of the South is an enterprise of which the Washington politicians have not as yet conceived the magnitude. In this case superiority of strength on the one side would be balanced by desperation on the other. The young lawyers and clerks and farmers who have hurried to Washington must be drilled and disciplined for a long war in a sparsely inhabited, unhealthy, foodless country, where they will be engaged against an enemy hot-blooded and obstinate at all times, and roused to fury by the invasion of their soil. The occupation of what is geographically the larger half of the late Union will have to be accomplished by a militia stationed among a people who will look upon them as they look upon Indian savages. The only alternative is to enforce a blockade and to let the rebellion ‘"sting itself to death."’ Whether this policy is likely to be successful, those who know the Americans can best judge. ’ The probability of a new complication engages the attention of the London Times. It says: ‘ The extradition case which excited so much sympathy in this country a few months ago, derives fresh importance from the progress of recent events in America. Should the Secessionists succeed in gaining for their new Confederation a place among sovereign States, the Ashburton treaty will virtually lose its applicability to such crimes as that of which Anderson was accused. That treaty provides for the surrender of persons charged with specified crimes, upon the requisition of the United States or of any one of the constituent States of the American Union. The benefit of it therefore cannot be invoked by any States which shall have obtained from us a recognition of their independence; and for the present no appeal is likely to be made to it in a similar case by Mr. Lincoln's Government, or any of the Northern States. The provisions of the Fugitive Slave law ‘"have never been very faithfully carried out even in time of peace, by the Northern States."’ What sort of magnanimity may be expected of them in time of civil war, it is not for us to say. Hitherto there is no sign of a servile insurrection, and the African races have shown too little capacity of combination, even in their native country, to make any general rising very probable. ’ The Liverpool Mercury, in speaking of the blockade and cotton supply, says: ‘ The position of the British people who will be the greatest sufferers by the terrible convulsion which is now shaking society and disturbing all the peaceful pursuits of industry in the United and Confederate States of America, is that which resides in the northwestern district of England, consisting of Lancaster and Cheshire, and in the western districts of Scotland in and around the flourishing city of Glasgow. These districts not only find in the Northern and Southern States the best market for the products of their industry, in common with the whole of the mining and manufacturing districts of England, but they also derive from the Southern States much the greater portion of their supply of cotton and tobacco, and from the Northern States a large, if not the largest, portion of their supplies of grain, flour and provisions. In addition to these commercial relations, the ports of the Mersey and the Clycle are interested to a great extent in the shipping trade of the Atlantic, which is placed in considerable peril by the blockade of the Southern ports and by the issuing of letters of marque, which will soon cover the Ocean with privateers, who at the best are only one degree removed from pirates. Lancashire and the west of Scotland, containing between them a population of at least 4,000,000 inhabitants, are thus deeply affected, not only as producers, but as consumers and as shipowners by the civil war which has broken out between the people of the Northern and the Southern States. It requires much greater sagacity than we possess, or indeed than is granted to man, to foresee all the evils that may be involved in this terrible conflict. The Northern States, however, will themselves be exposed to so much inconvenience from the threatened blockade, as to render it doubtful whether they will be able to continue it for any very lengthened period. The manufacturers of New England generally consume from 500,000 to 600,000 bales of cotton yearly; and if the American Government should entirely close the ports of the South, their supply of cotton will be cut off as completely as the supply of this country. The money market review, a journal recently started in London, as an organ for the bankers, (in opposition to the economists,) says that the sympathies of the commercial and business classes of England are with the Confederacy, and talk about the progress towards completion of steamers to run to their ports from Liverpool. ’
