"Hope from Outside."
The
Enquirer is but just in its remark, in its leader yesterday, on this subject, that this paper does not intend to "recommend any relaxation of our own exertions at home" in this war on account of "hope from outside." The article in this paper, which the
Enquirer in part makes a text for its own, stated certain grounds for the belief that
England and
France would never allow the restoration of the old North American Union.
The idea is quite rational, and its entertainers are complacent enough to think it irresistible to the great powers themselves!
But it may be entertained without abating our own exertions in the least.
In this war we can only safely depend upon ourselves.
This paper has, indeed, represented the exigency of final dependence upon foreign aid as only less painful and humiliating than submission to Yankee rule — to which last give us anything in preference, and from which Gd, in his Infinite mercy, protect us ! We concur entirely in the
Enquirer's view, therefore, of that strait which would throw us upon the helping hand of foreign nations as one low in itself, and in which, possibly, we should have to pay a very dear price.
It is needless to say that thus far we have proven that we were independent of foreign aid, and since there was no present occasion for it, and none in prospect, we see no reason against the proposition in the fact that no such aid has been offered.
If there is one sentiment unanimously entertained by the people of the
South, we believe it to be this: That we can have no certain and complete independence-- no independence without drawback, and which places us equal among the nations unless we achieve it by our own manhood and constancy, our bravery and prowess in the field.
On this point the
Enquirer and we are always agreed.
About the other it is matter of little importance.
We trust and believe that it will never be tested.
Our nation should, indeed, hope for nothing from the other side of the
Atlantic save recognition.
That has been so long delayed that all hope has nearly died out, and it may be all the better that it has. But the
Confederate public can at least stand unaffected by a little speculation touching a remote and improbable contingency.
No man's hand will relax, we trust, because it is said that in the last extremity foreign powers would interfere to ensure the separation of the
South from the
North; or that
Providence had decreed the disruption and spitting in pieces of the Federal Union.
That "last extremity" we should fight harder to avoid than anything short of subjugation to Yankees, and we should remember that we are but the
instruments to work out this just decree 
