The English press on American Affairs — a Blast against Seward's emigration circular.
[From the
London Herald, Sept. 2]
Mr. Seward's motive in addressing the emigration circular of the 8th of August to the diplomatic and consular agents of the
United States is apparent.
He desires to deceive Europe on the subject of the condition of the residuum of the Republic over which he and Mr. Lincoln, in the fullness of time, have been called to rule. Europe is, if possible, to be convinced that the war of Southern subjugation bears as lightly on
Washington and the masses of the
Northern States as the
Russian war did on
London and the masses of the United Kingdom; or as lightly as the italian war did on
Paris and the
French.
War, the world knows, rages; but he would have the world believe that it does so far away from the haunts of industry, the seats of commerce, and the agricultural districts.
If he is believed, further food for powder may be expected from the Irish, French, and German ports.
The Federal diplomatic and consular agents have, accordingly, their work before them.
They must be up and doing like patriots, remembering that they are receiving pay from the
Federal Treasury, and that just now they escape the Tax bill as well as martial law and the apprehension of the draft.
No matter that at the moment, the
Glasgow Herald tells us,
Mr. Mason, the
Confederate Commissioner, is the guest of
Mr. Stewart at Mardostown, and will next visit
Mr. Ellice, at Glenquoich,
Mr. Adams, the
Federal Minister, will, we fear, be obliged to ‘"stump"’ the Provinces.
In no other way, at the moment, can he aid his Government so well; and as the
President himself has been on the stump recently, bashfulness will not be admitted as an excuse.
To be sure, the duty is unpleasant, involving nothing less than the assurance that black is which, and the converse; but, then, there is the example of the gallant
Captain of the
Tuscarora doing the strangest work that ever fell to the lot of a naval officer.
Were that officer in the least thin-skinned he would rather give up his command than linger on a coast from which, every now and then, he is ordered off by an armed vessel, and in the ports of which to obtain coal it is necessary to resort to as many shifts as are brought to light frequently before police magistrates in the case of those who obtain goods fraudulently.
The Captain of the Tuscarora, however, does not head trifles, and stands all the better with his countrymen for his disrespect to English fleeting. No doubt so will
Mr. Adams and the consular agents and ministers of the
Federal Government in other countries, if they now uphold the
Union cause against all odds, and proclaim to the world that this is the time for the distressed to emigrate.
Nowhere else, let them say in the words of
Mr. Seward, can the industrious laboring man and artisan expect so liberal a recompense for his services as in the
United States, for at no former period have the agricultural, the mining, and the manufacturing interests been so prosperous as they are at present.
Next year, if the war lasts as long, the real pinch will be felt throughout the West and North.
Just now a large wheat crop is being secured, because at seed time the farmers felt secure, confident and well to do. How in many parts the
Indian corn is to be carried seeing it is always late enough to suffer more or less from the autumn frost, is a question which may be easier put than answered.
But presuming that the farmers will struggle through the harvest, and turn in their hogs and cattle to eat only a moderate portion of the
Indian corn, is it likely, under present circumstances, that the usual breadth of winter wheat will be sown? --Impossible.
The farmers' turn to ‘"skedaddle"’ has yet to come, and the few improvements on an American farm are not a strong inducement to stand by the soil Then, across the lake.
Canada offers one hundred acres free to every male settler to be possessed in peace.
This is a grave danger to the
Northern States--one which threatens them with speedy ruin.
Unless within the next few weeks winter wheat is sown in the
Western and Northern States, a deficient crop will be reaped next harvest, and unless life, liberty, and property soon become secure, the preparations for spring seed time are sure to be on a much diminished scale.
Then will come the real pressure of the present war Ceasing to produce food for their own consumption, and only producing other things for soldiers to destroy, the end would soon be reached.
Every emigrant drawn from these shores, and from the shores of Continental
Europe, by the falsehood of
Mr. Seward and the representations of diplomatic and consular agents of the
United States, would be cruelly, infamously, and criminally deceived.
They would be the victims of designing, unprincipled, blood-thirsty men. Lured from peace, liberty, and law, they would be in a land possessing neither — a land already suffering from the throes of dissolution. --
It is better to be a starving operative in Lancashire than to be a thriving citizen of the Northern States at the present time. 
