Newspaper accounts.
The English idea of intervention-the London Times thinks that France should take the lead, &C.
[From the London Times, June 14]
The task of intervening even in the most friendly way between the two hostile communities in
America is one of so much delicacy that the country will gladly leave the matter in the hands of the
Government, to choose such an opportunity and mode of action as it may think proper.
The statements of Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell last night were to the effect that the
British Government, at least, has no intention of offering nictitating at present, and that no proposals on the subject have been made by the
French Emperor.
We should desire nothing better than that
Napoleon or the Czar, who are the two most popular sovereigns across the
Atlantic, should, either separately or connately, press on the
Americans the counsels which would be indignantly rejected if offered by us.
European mediation had better begin on the continent.
All that we can now say has already been said by our politicians and by the press, The speeches of two or three Cabinet ministers and too well known opinions of almost every man of note in either house are equivalent to anything that the
French Emperor can disclose to the
Americans by a formal offer of mediation.
The
North knows we the opinions of this country, and, without further official communication, will feel assured that we give a tacit assent to any recommendations which other Powers may make in the interests of peace.
Without, therefore, pretending to divine the secrets of the
French Emperor, or to say in what form and when his opinions will be expressed, we may admit that this country must allow him to take the lead.
There exists so general a desire in
Europe to bring this war to an end, and it is now so clear that the
Union can only be restored in name, and by coercing a determined and unanimous people by military force, that every day will increase the number of continental politicians who think as we do. Lord Russell, who confines himself to deprecating mediation at the present time, and who alludes to the probability of some future action of the kind, will probably find the way to the re-establishment of peace, smoothed by the beneficent counsels of our neighbors.
The time may come when this country will be able to offer its assistance to settle the dispute without certain misrepresentation or repulse.
In the country districts, at a distance from the points occupied by the
Federal forces, there would be less expression, because there would be free scope for lawlessness and violence.
The execution of the
Federal laws, or the collection of taxes, would be impossible in places where a Federal official would be looked upon by the fierce and maddened Southerners as little loss odious than a panther or a rattlesnake.
A few thinking men at the
North are looking forward to such a state of things, and are candid enough to admit that they know of no greater calamity for themselves than complete success; but if, as seems more than possible, the resolution of the Southerners avails to protract this war from month to month, then the time must come when the intervention of
Europe will be demanded by the interests of humanity, and perhaps accepted willingly by the exhausted combatants.
This country may, then, with prudence hold itself in readiness to support any proposition which may be urged by its more favored neighbors.
What the Manchester cotton men think of mediation.
[From the Manchester Guardian, June 13]
* * * There are many objections to the scheme of the joint mediation which appears to be on the tapis.
Our hands are not so free in this matter as these of the
French Government, whose relations with
America are not embarrassed either by ties of relationship or by recollections of recent rivalry.--But the Emperor Napoleon has gratified the taste of his subjects for foreign influence in many worse directions than that which he is now again represented to be thinking of; and he will have our active sympathy and approval in any steps he may take for the simple purpose of putting a stop to the most crying scandal which the 19th century has witnessed For ourselves, we shall rejoice if the struggle can be any way ended without interference on our part.
The London Times on the "nationality" of the rebels.
[From the London Times, June 12.]
It is plain that the time is approaching when
Europe will have to think seriously of its relations to the two belligerents in the
American war. A contest is raging of which we can predict nothing but that every week will add to the hatreds of the two communities, and will spread ruin wider and wider.
The state of affairs disclosed to us by the last advices deserves anxious consideration.
It cannot be doubted that we are approaching a time when a more important question even than that of an offer of mediation may have to be considered by
England and
France.
The Southern Confederacy has constituted itself a nation for nearly a year and a half.
During that time the attachment of the people to the new Government has been indubitably shown; immense armies have been raised, the greatest sacrifices have been endured, the persistence of the
South in the war, through a long series of battles — some victories, some defeats — has shown the ‘"
force and consistency"’ which are looked upon as the tests of nationality.
Wherever the
Government is unmolested, the laws are administered regularly as in time of peace, and wherever the
Federal have penetrated they are received with an animosity which they resent, as at New Orleans, by a military rule of intolerable brutality.
The vision of a Union party in the
South has been dispelled, as the Northerners themselves are compelled, with bitterness and mortification, to admit.
All these circumstances point to but one conclusion: Either this war must be brought to an end, or the time will at last come when the
South may claim its own recognition by foreign nations as an independent Power.
The precedents of our American colonies, of the
Spanish colonies, of
Belgium, and of
Tuscany and
Naples the other day, forbid us to question this right when asserted by the
Confederate States.
It is our duty to anticipate this possible event, and it may be wise as well as generous for statesmen on this side of the ocean to approach the
American Government in a friendly spirit with the offer of their good offices at this great crisis of its fortunes.
