The foreign
Secretary of
Great Britain, Earl Russell, has never let slip an opportunity, this war began, of dilating upon the sacred regard of
Great Britain for treaty obligation and the rights of neutrality.
If we might erode the assertions of that gentleman, the
Government which he represents in, and always has been, the most harmless, quiet, and unobtrusive Government that ever existed.
It would be, according to him, a crime to draw down the wrath of Heaven, manifested in a manner that should be as a sign and a moral to all future ages and generations of men, should the power of
Great Britain be exerted to raise the blockade by means of which the
Yankees hope to ends the ‘"Rebels"’ of the seceded States.
To so great a pitch has this sudden passion for justice ascended, that the foreign minister hesitates not to abandon the policy formerly ina by the treaty of
Paris, founded on seamen sense and concurred in by all the naslens of the civilized world.
A blockade to be respected, says that treaty, must be effectual The
English gloss upon that text was ostentatiously published to the world, in advance of the present blockade.
If as many as three vessels ran it, it was to be considered ineffectual.
It is very certain that instead of three, at least three hundred have run it, yet so supercilious is Earl Russell's reverence for neutrality, especially when its only effect is to injure a slaveholding people, who are the rivals of the
British empire in the production of section, that he gulps down his own words with a readiness which shows that the process is natural, and rather pleasant than the contrary.
In spite of the declarations of the
English Foreign Secretary, the world will be able to see at a glance that his boasted
neutrality in, so far as we are concerned, nothing more nor loss than hostility of a most deadly and most active character in disguise.
The
Yankees, by their superior fleet, have free aces to the ports of
Great Britain.
They buy and bring here, for our subjugation or destruction, everything in the shape of munitions and arms that the workshops and laboratories of
Great Britain affair.
They obtain in vast quantities powder.
saltpeters, sulphur,
Armstrong gene, Bofisid rilles, and whatever else they have a need for. We, having no ships, have no means of obtaining these things.
The ports are closed to us as effectually as though a prohibition had been laid by a special act of Parliament.
We submit that it is a very one-sided species of neutrality that gives every advantage to one party, and impasses every sort of obstacle on the other.
If two parties engage in a fight with nothing but their bands, and while they are in the very heat of the conduit a by-stander hands one of them a sword, with whish he dispatches his antagonist, the law will hardly hold surah by-stander guiltless, let him pretest as loudly as he may that he is entirely neutral.
If there had been any intention on the part of the
British Government to observe a real neutrality, an order in Conneil would have forbidden the sale of all warlike stores, munitions, and vespers to both parries.
It would never have pargetted the one to take advantage of its superfluity in ships to furnish themselves with what the other could not obtain.
It has been charged by the newspapers of the
Confederacy that Earl Russell has made a with
Seward, by virtue of whish the letter is engaged to send as much cotton to
England as she wants, provided the
British Government r not the blockade in the
inter. There are strong reasons to believe that this charge is just.
Indeed, if the reports received from
France be true, it might be established in a sense of justice.
These reports bear, that, up to the 23d of January, the
Emperor retained in his speech to the
Chambers, delivered on the 2th, a paragraph in whish he expressed his determination to disregard the blockade.
On that day, however, he received a communication from Earl Russell which sed him to strike it out-- Now, we maintain that no communication but one satisfying the
Emperor that he could obtain a plenty of cotton, without breaking the blockade, could possibly have had the effect this one is represented to have had; and Earl Russell could have been authorized to make none such unless he had been tampered with by
Seward.
Admitting that this compact with hazard be real, it is difficult to imagine a more infamies transaction.
The foreign
Secretary perfectly must be obtained by plundering those to whom it rightfully belongs.
He places
Great Britain, therefore, in the attitude of what is called in the vocabulary of slang ‘"a
feuss."’ that is to say, a resedas of stolen girls.
The
Yankees are to overrun our country, murder our citizens, burn our bouses, and seize our cotton; and upon the success of an enterprise conducted in this spirit Earl Russell stakes his chance of obtaining the supplies requisite for the
English looms !. Is not this making
Great Britain a party to this war?
Is she not made to say to the
Yankee pirates, ‘"burn, murder, rob, exterminate these people, and seize their effects; we will any all you can steal?"’ What differences in there between the attitude of
Great Britain at present, as she is represented by her Foreign
Secretary, and those respectable gentlemen in
Havana and
Matanzas, who, in the good old days than existed before Tacen called his heavy hand upon them, stood as factors between the pirates and the public, and sold at round prices upon land the silks and lease of which they had plundered the ships at sea?
Was such an insult ever before given to a nation conferred by the very Minister giving is to be a ‘"belligerent power?"’ Did the representative of a great nation ever before offer such a bonus to murder and piracy?
‘"Go,"’ says Enssell to Reward, ‘"plander these rebels and send the spells here; we will give you the highest market price for them"’
Let as hear no more of British neutrality.
It is a neutrality which deer nobody any good but our enemies.
It is of the same character with the Prussian neutrality during the Polish war of 1861.
When ever a Polish corps, repeating before their oneness, entered the
Prussian territory, they were seized, disarmed, and kept as prisoner.
When a Prussian corps entered under the same ciream they were fed, shushed, protected from the Polish, and, as soon as there was no
Langer any danger, act at liberty to go again and fight against
Poland.
The neutrality of Promise was altogether on one side, and so is the neutrality of
Great Britain.
