The Daily Dispatch: June 8, 1861., [Electronic resource]

---

---

The Machiavellian policy of Great Britain towards the United States.
[from the New York Herald, June 2.]

The details of the debate in the House of Lords, on the 16th ultimo as received by the America's mails, and published yesterday, gives us particulars, respecting the language used on that occasion, of the gravest importance, and of a far more aggressive nature towards the United States than had been previously reported by telegraph. Our correspondence by the America, published this morning, still further developed the offensive policy of the English Government.

The Lord Chancellor, who is the authoritative exponent of the Palmerston Ministry in the Upper House, had not only repudiated the maritime code adopted by the Treaty of Paris, but had gone so far as to pronounce that the United States has no right to punish British privateers in Jefferson Davis' service as pirates! He added that the war of the Confederated States against the North was a just one, and their rights as belligerents was ‘"admitted."’ His words are: ‘"No one--i. e., no English subject — ought to be regarded as a pirate for acting under a commission from a State admitted to be entitled to the exercise of belligerent rights, and carry on what might be called a justum bellum. Anybody dealing with a man under those circumstances as a pirate, and putting him to death, would be guilty of murder."’ Lord Kingsdown followed the Lord Chancellor and announced that ‘"England had recognized the seceding States as a body possessing the rights of a belligerent;"’ that the ‘"extravagant order of the Washington Government in reference to privateering was a mere brutum fulmen; " or, if not, that it was a piece of barbarity which would raise an outcry throughout the whole civilized world."’ Earl Granville, a member of the Cabinet, threw in his sneer at the blockade of the Southern coast, asserting that ‘"mere paper blockade would not be recognized."’ and commented upon the ‘"agreement of Paris as not effectuating a change in international law, excepting as regards those Powers which signified their acceptance of it,"’ thus ignoring the last clause of the Paris treaty, by which those who ‘"might hereafter"’ accept it were placed on a par with those who had done so.

If those Peers who adhere to the Palmerston Ministry were thus explicit in their quasi hostility to the United States, the Lords of the opposition were still more so. ‘"I apprehend, "’ said the Earl of Derby, ‘"that if there is one thing clearer than another, it is that, by the law of nations, privateering is not piracy — that no enactment on the part of any one nation can make that piracy as regards the subject of another country, which is not piracy by the law of nations, or by the law of that country. The Northern States, therefore, must not be allowed to entertain that opinion."’ ‘"It is very important,"’ he added, ‘"that her Majesty's Government should not commit themselves to the doctrine that the United States are to lay down the principle of a universal blockade, and that that blockade would be recognized by her Majesty's Government."’ Lord Chelmsford commented upon the serious step taken by the British Cabinet, in ‘" admitting the Confederate States to be entitled to the rights of belligerents,"’ but it was clear that ‘"Southern privateers could not be treated as pirates."’ The Earl of Ellenborough was of the opinion that some of them had been ‘"hanged already,"’ and feared the consequence of the conversation that had taken place, which, by the way, his own interpellations gave rise to.

All this means cotton, cotton, cotton, and a greedy craving, on the part of the aristocracy and governing classes of Great Britain, to humble a nation, become a first class Power in the world through the force of democratic institutions. The insidious representations of Lord Lyons, similar to those of Sir Henry Bulwer, some years ago, have contributed to confirm the idea that the United States can be insulted, and her wishes disregarded, with perfect impunity. The press of London, and, to a still greater degree, that of the manufacturing districts of England, has fallen into a panic respecting the probable effect upon trade of a blockade of the Southern ports; and the conjuncture is deemed a favorable one to decry and villify us, and hold us up to the world as destitute of either energy or strength.

Volunteering in the Colonial army has already been winked at, and such moral aid as Great Britain is now rendering to the Montgomery Government, had been rendered. Let her remember that the Revolution of 1776 reacted so terribly upon France that the dynasty which governed it, with the proud aristocracy that surrounded the Bourbon throne, were swept away as moths before a whirlwind, ere the lapse of a single decade, and that there are signs of outbreak visible in Great Britain which would lead to proportionably greater disaster. The duty of the Administration at Washington is, in the meanwhile, clear. An immediate understanding should be arrived at, through Mr. Adams, with Lord Palmerston; the hostile attitude assumed by the Court of London should be changed, and the course that has been pursued by Lord Lyons should be marked as it deserves, either by giving him his passports, or obtaining from him a proper amends for the mischief he has made.