American Affairs in Europe.
preliminary Symptoms of recognition — Cotton and the blockade — the Attorney General of England on the crisis, &c.From the tone of the English press, there is little room for doubt that, before many weeks shall have passed over our heads, the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by these two powerful nations will be a settled question. We submit the following extracts, which we think worthy of the attention of our readers:
Prince Napoleon reports in favor of a recognition of the Southern Confederacy.[Paris correspondence of the New York Herald, November 2]
Paris Oct. 18.
--I was not mistaken in the information I gave you in my last, as to the favorable report Prince Napoleon had given to the Emperor of what he conceived to be the chances of success of the South.
The fact is now notorious, and the language he has held to more than one of the Ministers here makes it evident that, in his belief, the Union is broken forever.
It is easy to see that the Government journals have become more Southern in their views since his return.
The ‘"Constitutionnel"’ of this morning inserts a letter from Manassas, flatly contradicting all that has been said about scarcity of food or difficulties of any sort among the rebels.
We are all watching with the most intense interest your military movements, and whatever may be the views of the government, I am now more than ever satisfied that all popular feeling is on the side of the Union.--Prince Napoleon told his cousin that he did not believe--
- 1. In the power of the Federal army to gain any important victory over that of the Confederation.
- 2. That, admitting the possibility of the fact, it would on the morrow of victory be as far off from its object as before.
- 3. That the whole Union, as comprised by the North, was a rope of sand. He gave his voice in an early recognition of the South I have not the slightest hesitation in stating this, as I am sure my information is authentic.
Cotton and the blockade.
[from the London Times.]
Even now it is said that there prevails among certain classes in Lancashire a wish to see our Government take a more active part in American affairs.
The manufactures are beginning to be indignant that the great staple of the world should be withheld, and all Europe brought into discomfort or actual want, in order that the ambitions States of the North should extend their way over a people who have rejected it, and who. according to the canons which American writers themselves have laid down, should be allowed to choose their own institutions and work out their own destiny.
As the interest of a people is, so, for the most part, will be their principles.
Whatever may have been the feelings of the Manchester world on slavery, whatever may have been their opinions on English interference foreign quarrels, they take in this question the part of the cotton growers of America.
If the North does not emancipate the slaves, why should it forbid the transmission of the produce which slavery gives to mankind?
No principle is involved in the contest, and no Englishmen, they think, may, with a safe conscience, take which side they like.
Their interests bid them to assist the South in getting their cargoes across the Atlantic, and, as we keep up a large navy, it will be better employed in raising the blockade of Charleston and New Orleans than in cruising between Mediterranean ports or lying at anchor at Spithead.
To break the blockade of the Confederate ports is therefore likely to be the counsel of the extreme party among the manufacturers.
That such a step would be taken by our Government they will, perhaps, hardly venture to hope, but they may think that a loud outcry, producing a chance of a collision between the two countries, may dispose the people of the Northern States to come to terms, and put an end to the war.
Thus the two communities which live by cotton — the growers in the Southern States and the manufacturers here — may be found combined in the same policy — that is, to enforce the acknowledgment of Southern independence by embroiling England with the North.
It is beyond a doubt that the Southern people have all along counted on such demands being made in England as those of which we are now speaking.
We should be sorry that any such convictions should gain ground in the South, for it is no part of our duty to interfere in this unrighteous quarrel, and we feel sure that England would rather undergo much suffering than break through the plain rules of international law. Having recognized the Confederates as belligerents, we are bound by laws which admit of no doubt or debate to respect the blockade which the Northern States have established.
This blockade has been duty notified, it has already been acknowledged by our Government, and submitted to by our naval officers on the station.
To break it in any way would be an act of war against the Government of the United States, and any hostilities which might follow would constitute an unjust war on our part, which, whatever its issue, would stain the reputation of this country, and expose us to the just reproaches of the Americans in after times.
Such acts, we feel sure, England will not commit, even to save her great manufacture.
Whenever the Northerners have established an effectual blockade, they will be free to keep it up, without interference on our part.
But here another consideration arises.
Is the blockade everywhere effectual?
It certainly is not. As might be expected, when a few frigates and corvettes undertake to seal up three thousand miles of coast, there is in the great majority of places no blockade at all. Few only of the American vessels are steamers, and these are not of the fastest class.
The consequence is that vessels are running the blockade every day. The Federal authorities are just now in a great passion because a steamer — the Bermuda — has got into Savannah with a large cargo of munitions of war. That such a thing can be done at one of the principal Atlantic ports show how ineffectual must be the general blockade of the coast.
We would therefore remind the Government of Washington that it is only a real blockade that foreign nations are bound to recognize.
But we must also remind our Lancashire friends that the event also shows that the cutting off of the cotton supplies is the work of the South as much as of the North.
If ships can get in, they can also get out; and, if the South desired to send us cotton, it has not lacked the opportunity.
But it seems to be quite true that all cotton exportation has been forbidden by the Confederate Government in order that foreign nations may be forced to take a side in the quarrel.--It would ill become England to make herself the tool of such machinations.
The Attorney General of England on the Cotton crisis.
[From the London Herald, Oct. 18.]
On Tuesday night Sir William Artherton, Attorney General, and M. P. for Durham, addressed a meeting of his constituents in the Town Hall in that city.
The chair was occupied by Mr. John Henderson.
The Attorney General observed in his speech: Sir William next referred to the subject of the foreign policy of the country, citing and expressing his adhesion to the words employed by Eart Russell at the banquet in Newcastle on the previous evening.
With reference to the American war, Earl Russell had observed that nothing but mischief would appear to be possible from a continuance of that war. The sword did not bind, it sundered: and it seemed to be next to impossible that, in the event of one or the other of those States being victorious in the field, a union should be brought about in consequence which should either resemble the original Union or which should have in itself either the elements of advantage or durability.
It must be the wish of every one that unfortunate struggle might come to an early close, and that bloodshed in those countries might cease.
But that struggle had an aspect rather important to us in its bearing upon the commerce and industry, especially of the Northern parts of this country.
Let them take the once of the county of Lancaster, with a very extended population, with millions upon millions of capital invested in mille and ma
chinery, in the manufacture of cotton.
The employment of the people, the employment of capital, the employment of machinery, all depending upon the raw material, and withdraw cotton from Lancashire, and how bread was to find its way to the months of the workmen, it was very difficult to understand.
Therefore it was impossible, without hazarding any prediction, to look this great evil full in the face, and to consider the possibilities of the coming winter without great alarm — at least anxiety.
It was to be hoped, however, that an overruling Providence might bring about events, the circumstances of which we were at present unable to discern or predict.
The blockade again Questioned.
From the London Shipping Gazette, October 19
The question now for the consideration of our Government and that of France is, how long shall the present state of things be suffered to continue?
How long is maritime commerce to be embarrassed to suit the views of the Cabinet of Washington!
If we are to acquiesce in the capture and confiscation of British ships and their cargoes, which commit no offence except that they happen to enter a port contrary to a proclamation of which they may not have heard, or, if they did, which was unsupported by the presence of an armed force — if ports like Charleston, Wilmington, and Beaufort are to be under blockade at the same time and at the caprice of the Federal Government, or of those who do their bidding — England may as well at once reverse her policy, and acknowledge once more the validity of paper blockades.
Short time in the Stockport Mills.
[From the Stockport (Eng) Advertiser, Oct. 17]
As we anticipated, the fruits of the present partial working are thus early beginning to exhibit themselves, for in those parts of the borough where the machinery of the mills has positively ceased to run, the hands are driven to the necessity of seeking temporary existence for themselves and children by supplication for relief.
