American affairs in Europe.
the intervention of
England — rebel all
Federal
Generals Vallandigham and
Lincoln's Cabinet — the
Confederacy as a Rising
power, &c.
The mails by the steamer
Africa, with
European dates of the 30th, give some additional news of interest besides that published in the telegraph summary from
Halifax, printed in the
United States papers.
We give some extracts from the
London papers:
The intervention of England.
[From the London Times, May 23.]
Mr. Roebuck has given his constitute at
Sheffield, with great fidelity, what may now be considered the general opinion of ordinary Englishmen on American affairs.
It does not militate against that opinion that we have arrived at it slowly, with some vacillation and perhaps inconsistency, and that the practical result of the opinion in the case of the
British public is to sit still and do nothing in the matter.
That is the point at which we are obliged to part company with
Mr. Roebuck.
His fervid temperament does not allow him to wait for that encouragement which all the rest of us deem necessary to an acceptable and effectual mediation.
We can wait "one, or two, or three, or four years," because we know it is of no use to mediate earlier, and that wars of that sort commonly take at least that period to run themselves out. * * * If we really wish to form some reasonable augury as to the length of this mutual destruction, we ought to turn to the civil wars still raging in
Mexico, in
Central America, or those portions of
South America which have followed the example of the
United States in an emphatic repudiation of
European precedent and authority.
So we think
Mr. Roebuck has only spoken with the language of hope when he suggests that the war is ripe for British intervention.
It is possible, indeed, that there are among the
Federals many who secretly wish for such an intervention; there may be some who wish for a war with this country as an escape from the present difficulty; but no such private wishes can constitute a call for mediation, still less for armed interference.
Mr. Roebuck expects that war with the
Federal side would give us cotton, and would do us no more good, or harm, as far as we are concerned, than we may very reasonably doubt.
We will not imitate the confidence of the
American tone in their prognostications.
Considering that we should have to operate at the distance of several thousand miles, that Ironsides are a novelty, and that we do not know so much of the
American waters as they do themselves, we are not so sure that we should raise the blockade as speedily as
Mr. Roebuck expects.
This, however, would not be the whole of our work.
We should have to protect our ports, our rivers, and our shipping, not only at home and in
North America, but all over the world.
If we once began such a war, our own experience suggests that we should persist in it a long time, even though beaten the first three or four years. So, having regard to the want of call, the difficulty, the chance of defeat, and the probable length of the enterprise, we should be very sorry indeed to throw ourselves into this struggle.
Mason and Slidell Negotiating in Paris.
[Ports (May 20) correspondence of London Port.]
Some fresh efforts are said to be making by the
Southern envoys at
London and
Paris with the view of obtaining the recognition of the States of the
Confederacy.
As the
French Government took the lead in a peace policy, perhaps
Messrs. Slidell and
Mason have doubt less more hope of making an impression at the Tuileries than at the Court of St. James.
Mr. Dayton, the
United States Minister, and the partisans of the
North, as far as I can learn,
repudiate all idea of making peace with the South. They say that the
Government of
Washington will assuredly continue the war; that the resources of the
North must finally exhaust the
South; and that the United States Government can carry on hostilities for five years more.
The Imperial Government has already learnt how useless were its benevolent efforts to bring about a suspension of hostilities.
The American people are not like any other people of the globe; they have not taught themselves to obey any feeling or sentiment but that of their own passions.
North and South alike have never known defeat, and
Americans have been educated to believe that all they can desire they can accomplish.
It is hopeless, I fear, to put any confidence in the efforts of diplomacy.
If the
English Government were to make representations, I have no doubt that
France would willingly join.
If
England recognised the
South,
France would do the same.
France desires to harmonize her policy with that of
Great Britain.
The Envoys of the
South say--"What amount of victories on our part are required before you acknowledge us?" The
North exclaims--"If
England and
France acknowledge the
South as an independent Government and power, the
United States will declare war, and the mercantile navy of
England will suffer." On this side of the water no one seems to discover a solution of this difficulty, with a most difficult people; and, I fear, nothing can or will be done.
Vallandigham and the Lincoln Cabinet.
[From the London Times, May 23.]
If we would conceive the earnest longing of the
Northern people after their lost Union, we must consider the outrageous indignities to which they will submit from those who promise to restore it. Although the
Government of
Mr. Lincoln confessedly has the respect of no body of men in the country; though he himself is a person of neither ability nor dignity; though some among his chief advisers are known to have misbehaved themselves in a manner which any other country would punish by expulsion not only from office but also from society; though the
military commanders are incapable, and the war languishes, and the men desert through want of confidence in their leaders, yet the majority of the
North shrinks so much from the prospect of a divided Republic that it will allow people whom it looks upon and talks about as imbeciles and jobbers and braggarts to commit any act of tyranny under the pretence of maintaining the
Union.
It does not believe in them; it would be glad to get rid of them and replace them by better men; but they are in power; they stand as the representatives, however unworthy, of the
United States; and, hoping against hope, the people of the
North obey them because opposition might seem like an abandonment of a cherished design.
We do not think that in the days of
England's fiercest struggle with the
French Republic the
Government of
Pitt would have ventured on such an act as the trial by court-martial of a private person for making a speech against the war, and recommending his hearers to agitate constitutionally for the overthrow of the Ministry.--Yet it was for an offence precisely similar that
Mr. Vallandigham, one of the most prominent politicians of the
West, has been sentenced to two years banishment to a miserable islet — a sentence graciously commuted by the
President into expulsion from his home and from the limit of the
Northern States.
He has appealed to the
United States Court at
Cincinnati; but this tribunal hesitated to grant a writ of
habeas corpus, and
Gen. Burnside attempts to forbid it to act. In the meantime, though it is said that the press condemns the conduct of the
General, there is so much apathy that we cannot doubt that
Mr. Lincoln may banish or imprison his critic at his pleasure.
A Government with such power ought to do something great, yet it appears every day more plain that the
Cabinet of
Washington is formidable only to its own helpless citizens.
A New twenty-one gun ship for Captain Semmes.
[From the London News, May 28.]
It is said that
Capt Semmes, of the
Alabama, is about to change his flag and hoist it upon a more substantial but equally fast ship.
Capt. Bullock, who for the last year and more has been in this country superintending the construction of vessels for the
Confederate service, is now about to leave the
Clyde, and will probably call at
Cardiff with a large iron vessel for the
Confederates.
Capt. Bullock will afterwards take the new privateer to a port at present "a secret," and there transfer the command to
Capt. Semmes.
The command of the
Alabama will then devolve upon
Capt. Bullock until such time as
Capt Moffit, of the privateer
Florida, is enabled to take command of the
Alabama.
The
Florida will then be under the guidance of
Capt. buttock until
Capt. Jones is appointed.
The last trans for in easily surround for
Capt. Bullock is more of a naval than an or experienced seamen.
The new vessel on which
Capt. Semmes before his flag, is a huge
iron screw vessel, mounting twenty-one and, as we have before stated combines the two great requirements of a men-of-war-speed and strength.
The Southerns Confederacy a Firing power.
The London
Times, commenting on the
French operations in
Mexico, says:
‘
One thing is certain, that all history demonstrates the incompatibility which extra between the
Spanish and
French character, and the Mexicans are to a great extent of Spanish blood.
In the mean time the Southern Confederacy, Anglo-
Saxon race, begins to rear its gigantic proportions and to spread its powerful mail over the
Gulf States.
Its people have proved themselves to be a military race and possessed of the highest characteristics of courage, self-denial and perseverance and occupying a commanding position, as they do, between the two vasts districts of North and
South America, they will most undoubtedly at some future day, whether as a republic or military despotism, or a monarchy, or late whatever form of government they may eventually subside, control to a great extant the destinies, not only of their own States, but also that of those with which they are connected.
Whether they will view with favor the of French interests in
Mexico, if such be contemplated, is a question which the future development of events must be permitted to solve.
’
