between his Government and Lord Aberdeen | when the two Governments were quite united with regard to this question. The President as to the aims to be kept in view and the first drew attention to the fact that Great course to be pursued. If the two GovernBritain did admit a wide distinction of prin- ments can come to a similar unanimity again, ciple between the universal international law there is no reason why the abstract point authorising the cruisers of any nation to should not again be waived. What concesboard and search a vessel of piratical ap- sion, then, do we recommend? Any practipearance, and the right claimed by her to cal concession whatever that shall not parainquire into the nationality of a suspected lyse our efforts to suppress the slave trade: slaver; and proved that she admitted this any concession that will convince the distinction by promising and frequently giv- American Government that our commanders ing adequate indemnity for the delay and in- do not wish to detain any ship except on a convenience of a visitation to merchant ships real presumption of its being a slaver, and erroneously challenged as slavers, though no are quite desirous to concede the same right such claim could possibly be urged for seem- that we claim for ourselves to the commanding pirates. The President then goes on to ers of the American squadron. One emisay:nently practical suggestion has, for instance, been suggested by the New York Times, that every cruiser in the English squadron should have on board an American lieutenant to examine the suspected ships hoisting American colors, while every American cruiser in the anti-slavery squadron should have on board an English lieutenant to perform the same duty for any English flag of doubtful authenticity.

"His Lordship declares that if, in spite of all the precaution which shall be used to prevent such occurrences, an American ship, by reason of any visit or detention of a British cruiser, should suffer loss and injury, it would be followed by prompt and ample remuneration.' And in order to make more manifest her [Great Britain's] intentions in this respect, Lord Aberdeen, in the despatch of the 20th December, makes known to Mr. Everett the nature of the instructions given to the British cruisers. These are such as, if faithfully observed, would enable the British Government to approximate the standard of a fair indemnity. That Government has in several cases fulfilled her promises in this particular, by making adequate reparation for damage done to our commerce. It seems obvious to remark that a right which is only to be exercised under such restrictions and precautions and risk, in case of any assignable damage to be followed by the consequences of a trespass, can scarcely be considered anything more than a privilege asked for, and either conceded or withheld on the usual principles of international comity.... Denying, as we did and do, all color of right to exercise any such general police over the flags of independent nations, we did not demand of Great Britain any formal renunciation of her pretensions; still less had we the least idea of yielding anything ourselves in that respect. We chose to make a practical settlement of the question."

Now what was done in 1843 may well be done in 1858. No English statesman would care to ask any American acknowledgment of our right of visitation, if, without any settlement of that matter, the United States would agree to a "practical settlement" of the question between the two Governments. In 1843, in the words of Mr. Webster, "neither was any concession required by this (the American) Government, nor made by that of her Britannic Majesty,"-simply because the abstract point could well be waived

Now it is the plain duty of England to do all in her power to make it evident that no ambitious motives,-no motives of pique,mingle with her purposes in this matter. She may do this by any measure short of an abandonment of her work or of destroying its efficiency, by any measure that will bring home to the United States that our policy is dictated by a desire to render the service more effectual, and not by any shadow of desire to lord it over the navy of another country. But to give up entirely the practice of visiting suspicious vessels, would be utterly fatal to a policy which has long been one of the most honest and earnest national characteristics of the British Government. Every slaver might and would in that case run up an American flag, simply to avoid visitation; and our squadron might as well be recalled altogether as set to intercept vessels which could at any moment save themselves by the display of the Stars and Stripes. Let any needful apology for the past, let any desirable concession for the future, be made which does not interfere with the principle for which we have so long witnessed. through English perseverance can the nations of the world ever be banded together in or der to put down this detestable traffic. If Great Britain once withdraw from that position, the reaction in favor of the slave trade, already great, would be rapid and terrible. But if Great Britain adheres firmly to her duty, she should at any rate prove to the world's satisfaction that she asks nothing from others which she is not prepared to grant for herself, and cares not at all whether

Only

it be for the present assumed to be a right, or a privilege, or a temporary compromise, by virtue of which we carry out plans essential to the success of our scheme.

From The Saturday Review, 12 June.
OUR ARMED ALLY.

Down to the middle of the present week, the Commission for inquiring into the best means of manning the navy was not yet issued; and if the Channel Fleet is to take the sea this summer, the existing machinery must be made to serve the necessary purpose. It is not surprising that a feeling of alarm, which may soon become a panic, should be rapidly spreading; for the majority of naval officers would probably be ready to avow that France at this moment holds the keys of the Channel. At Cherbourg and the other military ports of France, a force greater, perhaps, than our own is far more readily available. The French ships are fully equipped, the supplemental crews are collected in barracks; and at a few hours' notice they could be placed on board in perfect secrecy and safety. The increase of the army, the completion of the Cherbourg railway, and the recent summons to the seamen of the mercantile marine, are all circumstances which, in connexion with the unsettled appearance of political affairs, naturally tend to excite uneasiness. The inscription of sailors has been suspended, and there may be no present reason to apprehend a rupture or an invasion; but it is no trifling evil that in a time of apparently profound peace this country should be compelled to consider the prudence of arming. The Government may probably have received assurances and explanations which are necessarily unknown to the community at large; but unless the preparations on the other side of the Channel are speedily discontinued, it will be indispensable, even for the purpose of restoring public confidence, to make considerable additions to the strength of the navy. If a conflict should at any future time unhappily take place, the ultimate maritime superiority of England will be conclusively proved. To a certain extent, and in the absence of immediate menace, it may be better to rely on the consciousness of superior strength than to incur expense and provoke hostility by the constant display of force; but occasion from time to time necessitates precautions against the humiliation and temporary disaster which might follow a surprise, and the English Government ought to place the country in such a position as to ensure its supremacy at sea on the very shortest

might look calmly for the results of movements which are perhaps unintelligible rather from confusion of purpose than from any inscrutable profundity of design. The apparent understanding between France and Russia, the wilful revival of disturbances in the Turkish provinces, and the French armaments which have been in preparation by land and sea, will be interpreted by different observers in a more or less alarming sense, according to their various temperaments; but the recent policy of the Imperial Government, whether it is significant or unmeaning, is undoubtedly a series of blunders. The French nation was willing to hope that the loss of liberty and of self-respect would at least receive some compensation in the maintenance of confidence and peace; nor is there any population in Europe less willing to incur additional burdens to gratify the ambition of its rulers. The indistinct menace of war, in itself disquieting, will provoke contemptuous indignation if it proves to be idle and ineffective; yet, on the other hand, it is evident that peace can only be disturbed by some wanton and deliberate aggression. The enemies of the Emperor probably do him injustice when they allege that he is obliged to humor the insolent caprices of the army; but the letters of the French Colonels, and the assassination of M. de Pène, prove that military license, though it may not be tolerated as a necessity, is kept alive as an available instrument of power. The public feeling is entirely averse to gratuitous schemes of conquest, and national vanity will certainly not be flattered by the exhibition of an aimless and fictitious pugnacity.

The foreign policy of the Empire has been puerile in its unsteadiness since the conclusion of the peace. By skill and good fortune, France had raised herself for the moment to a position in which she appeared the arbitress of Europe; but, although courted by Austria and supported by England, instead of persevering in the policy of the war, she suddenly threw herself into the arms of Russia, and began to tamper with the independence of Turkey. The new system is one which has often been recommended by French politicians, but it involves a condemnation of all the expense and loss which were incurred before Sebastopol. France has nothing to offer to her new ally except facilities for conquest in the East; and yet even the unintelligible efforts to favor the Bolgrad fraud, and to detach the Principalities from the Ottoman Empire, were but an insufficient compensation for the conquest of Sebastopol and for the Treaty of Paris. Russia was perfectly justiThe political danger may be overrated, but fied in welcoming the new alliance, but France it can scarcely be called imaginary. With has no equivalent to receive for the prostituour fleet in an efficient state, Englishmen tion of her influence in the East. In peace,

notice.

the new political combination excites suspicion | harbors of Great Britain to patrol the Chanin every part of Europe, and in the event of nel as closely as the best watched street in a general war it girdles the French territory London. There are tools, and skilful arms with alarmed and irreconcilable enemies. to wield them, which could convert any farm The renewal of the policy of Tilsit would in the southern counties into an impregnable necessarily revive the coalition of Aspern and fortress in a week. Military men may be Wagram; and perhaps the best proof that correct in their opinion that an invading no invasion of England can have been con- armament might effect a landing; but little templated at Paris is supplied by the menac- skill or knowledge, except a confidence in the ing movements which have placed Germany spirit of the country, is required to prove that on its guard. Louis Nopoleon's present every portion of the force would have ultidiplomatic game is a waste of time, as there mately to choose between death and surren is fortunately no stake on the board, but it der. Since the close of the great European does little credit to the skill of the player. war, there has never been so large a force of If the Western alliance, which, according to regular troops as that which is now collected official statements, is still cordial, were dis- within the United Kingdom. The militia solved, there is little doubt that England regiments still under arms would supply a could select her confederates at pleasure body of more than 20,000 excellent soldiers, among the remaining Powers of Europe; for and a large number of those who were reeven Russia would not hesitate to court the cently disbanded might, under the pressure friendship of the State which has the greatest of an invasion, be recalled to their standards opportunity of checking or of promoting her in a week. The country which, after forty aggrandizement. years of peace, within eight months from a wholly unexpected rupture, landed 54,000 unequalled troops on an enemy's coast 3000 miles from home, would assuredly not fail to defend its own shores in half the time with double the number of men.

It is not pleasant to discuss the mode of guarding against the hostility of an ostensible friend and ally, but discussions on the national defences become necessary when French ships appear in the Adriatic at the same time that new fortifications are constructed along the Mediterranean coast. It is also desirable to protest against any exaggerated panic, and it may be safely asserted that no French Government, except under the influence of madness or of desperation, would, under present circumstances, attempt an invasion of England. If the attack were made, the result, according to all calculable probability, would be to replace the rival nations in the same relative position which they occupied on the morrow of Waterloo. The strength and resources of the British empire have been tried on many fields of battle in almost every part of the world, but no nation can put forth its whole energies except in defence of its own soil. With the largest military and naval force of volunteers which exists in the world, England sometimes presents a disadvantageous contrast to the Continental Powers from the absence of compulsory powers of enlistment; but if any foreign enemy desires to relieve us of a self-imposed restriction, it is only necessary that his forces should threaten our shores. The first rumors of invasion would give the Government a conscription of a million of men. The sight of a hostile fleet off our dockyards would revive, or rather supersede the powers of impressment; and two hundred thousand trained seamen, on board innumerable vessels, would laugh at the puny preparations of an enemy who, by making all his maritime resources habitually available, would have exhausted them in a single campaign. There are steamers enough in the

It is difficult to dwell on the certainty, not of freedom from invasion, but of victory, without giving way to the temptation of unseemly boasting; but the enumeration of English resources is an argument in favor of the probability of unbroken peace. The ruler of France is not, as far as he has yet shown, an enemy, nor is he a fool or a madman; and he is perfectly familiar with the military and naval statistics of all his neighbors and allies. If he is indifferent to the ruin of his finances, and to the probable overthrow of his dynasty, he may possibly commit the crime of involv ing Europe in war; but when his legions de mand with irresistible vehemence employ ment and plunder, a prudent leader would direct their march North, East, or South, but assuredly not to the inhospitable coasts of the British Channel. There are conquests perhaps to be made, or contributions to be exacted, on the Continent, and there is, in case of misfortune, a retreat; but the narrow seas would, for a defeated army, be harder to recross than the Rhine.

From The Saturday Review, 12 June. THE AMERICAN QUESTION. Ir any thing which the Times does could astonish us, we might regard with surprise the tone in which it has thought fit to adopt with respect to the very difficult and dangerous questions which have arisen between the Governments of the United States and of Great Britain. Any thing more mischievously unpatriotic could hardly be conceived, even

in columns which for the last few years have are ashamed, on the unhesitating_assumption been sedulously devoted to writing down the that the English policy and the English aucivil, military, and moral reputation of Eng-thorities are hopelessly in the wrong. land all over the world. What is the state We are asked, "Are we really to go on of affairs which has called forth this cry of for ever with these anti-Slave-trade squadpeccavi on the part of a journal which rons?" If there ever was a question on claims to speak in the name of the English which the Government of England, acting people? A " low "has been got up by the under the direct and powerful pressure of filibustering class of the Slave States of English opinion, has taken a deliberate course America, who are making a tool of the na--and, in spite of the sneers of the Times, tional jealousy of England in order to destroy a system set on foot, with the nominal concurrence of the Cabinet of Washington, for the suppression of a traffic which the law of the United States has declared to be a piracy. At present we are utterly without reliable information as to the foundation of fact on which this clamor is raised. All that can be said is, that the greater part of the alleged grievances are grossly absurd and manifestly

untrue.

we will venture to say a course worthy of a great Christian State-it is on this question of Slave-trade suppression. By the zealous and indefatigable efforts of our most eminent statesmen of all parties, we at last succeeded in establishing a system which we undertake to predict this country will not be the first to abandon, even though it were a thousand times less effectual than it has actually proved. England, by her moral weight, was enabled to obtain from all the Powers of civilized It appears that, even at Washington, there Europe a treaty by which they bound themare men who are capable of displaying a selves to co-operate in active measures for the common sense and moderation which the suppression of this nefarious traffic. And Times must supremely despise. Mr. Mason now this "crusade," as it is contemptuously took occasion to remind the Senate that as termed, is to be sneered away, by likening it yet they had no foundation to go upon with to some cock-and-bull story of a corporal's respect to the rumored "outrages," except guard which was left to take care of greatnewspaper accounts. Hereupon the New coats in Portugal. Is it true that, since the York Herald, in a spirit, of which Printing quintuple treaty of 1841, England has seen House-square must be positively jealous, re- reason to regret the policy on which she had marks:-"We have already stated that Mr. embarked, or to relax the efforts in which Mason is an old fogy, which, in our under- she had solicited the co-operation of Europe? standing of the term, is a man who is afraid Those efforts have already been crowned with of a fuss. On what ground does he ask the signal and unlooked-for success. Of the two Senate to delay its honest and patriotic ac- great slave markets of the world-Cuba and tion? Because we have nothing but news- Brazil-one has been completely closed, and paper accounts.' Does Mr. Mason know thus half of the gigantic iniquity has been what newspaper accounts' are? We will for ever stayed. The traffic of Cuba alone tell him what they are. Newspaper accounts, remains, to the shame of the Governments of Mr. Mason, are the thoughts and deeds of America and Spain. So far is it from being the day. They are the life-current of the true that the English nation has shown any public mind. They have in them, in the disposition to flag in the "crusade," that tojournalism of a single day, more truth, logic, wards the close of last session, on the motion wit, knowledge, eloquence, and power than of Mr. Buxton, an address to the Crown was can be found in all the puny journals of the unanimously voted by the House of ComSenate for twenty years past," &c. &c. Really, mons, praying Her Majesty to employ still Mr. James Gordon Bennett, we think we more stringent measures for carrying into have heard all this before. It sounds to us effect the policy of 1841. To this prayer the very like imported thunder. However, the Queen returned the following reply :—" I Yankee editor has at least this distinguishing have received your dutiful address, praying merit, that he uses what he is pleased to call that I will employ all the means in my power "the thoughts of the day"-and which he in order to put down the African Slave-trade, characteristically considers a sufficient substi- and to obtain the execution of the Treaties tute for facts-on the side of his own country, made for that purpose with other Powers. and not against her. But the itch of self- You may rely on my earnést endeavors to detraction seems so strong upon our English give full effect to your wishes on this imporjournalists, that all "their wit, logic, elo- tant subject." And then, one Saturday quence, and power"-the less said about morning in June, 1858, we are to be asked,-. "truth and knowledge," perhaps, the better-"Is it necessary to add to what we have said. are exclusively devoted to demonstrating the before on the obvious certainty that this antinecessity of an instant capitulation to a sense- Slavery crusade must come to an end?" less clamor of which all rational Americans And the whole matter is represented as a

mere bit of red-tape routine, which goes on | handed workmen, unlucky speculators, disapnot because any one in the world cares about pointed politicians, men of every class who it, but simply because officials are too lazy to have seen and suffered the worst of the Old put a stop to it. If we really are tired of the Country, the worst of all being that they inpolicy to which we have pledged not only herit our restless, moody, ill-contented naourselves, but the whole civilized world-if ture"-if our concessions are to be limited we took up the suppression of the Slave-trade only by the demands dictated by malevolent as a whim, as the Times and the Univers pretend to believe, and are prepared, either from caprice or fear, to abandon a cause in which England has reaped more honor than in all the fields in which she has bled and conquered at least let the change be honestly avowed, and the recantation be made with the publicity it merits. Let Parliament return to the foot of the throne, and solemnly conjure the Sovereign to desist from the efforts to which it so lately invited her.

hostility, our national humiliation will certainly not stop short at the question of the Slave-trade. Having laid down so wide a basis of cowardice, we may make up our mind to unceasing intimidation on their side and universal capitulation on our own.

a

But if the Times has menaces with which to threaten, it has also baits with which to allure. It appears that we want a counterpoise to the hostility of emigrant Irishmen ; and this we are offered in the friendship of The arguments by which we are urged to the Southern Slave-owners, at the trifling cost this cowardly capitulation at the first sum- of abandoning our prejudices against the mons of the New Orleans filibusters are great "institution." "If the cotton-growers worthy of the cause on behalf of which they were, by the suspension of the Slave-trade are enlisted. We are to give up all attempts agitation, left to the natural operation of their to suppress the Slave-trade because America sympathies with the cotton-buyers, quarrels "must one day have fifty times our territory, with England would become doubtful party and ten times our people"-because "it has questions, instead of furnishing a common no armies in India, no fifty colonies to be fund of popularity to conflicting demagogues.' governed, no immense navy in commission" And this is the policy which the "leading because "the time must come when we journal" gravely recommends to the English shall have to contend on unequal terms with people. It is curiously illustrative of the the United States on their soil, their shores, blunders to which omniscience is prone, that their seas, and generally in the New World." journal which specially plumes itself on its We say nothing of the prudence or the sympathy with popular opinion should at this patriotism of this line of reasoning, used in moment be urging the English people to the hearing of a people proverbially aggres- throw overboard Uncle Tom, for the purpose sive, and who are not unlikely to treat as it of securing the good-will of Simon Legree. deserves, a nation which avows itself afraid. The notion of negotiating an offensive and It is enough to say that it proves too much, defensive alliance with a section of the as yet, for the stomach of the English nation. United States against its own Government, on If this argument is good for the question of the basis of connivance at the Slave-trade, is the Slave-trade, it is good for any other mat- an inimitable example of profound policy and ter of dispute which may arise between the lofty morality. The sublimity of such an two Governments. If we are to give up to original defies the possibility of caricature. America, without remonstrance, an obligation The necessities of international relations to which that Power, in common with our- sometimes impose upon a free people conselves, has bound itself by a solemn. treaty, nections not very agreeable to conscience and merely because it is " a fast-growing younger taste; but when it comes to our "illustrious brother, very saucy, self-willed, and more free and faithful ally" the nigger-driver, the limits for physical development than bound by of political baseness seem to have been reached. moral ties," where are these concessions, What makes this craven tone doubly unavowedly extorted by terror, to stop? Sup- justifiable is the undoubted fact that it is pose the Northern States, "more free for wholly uncalled for. It is not necessary for physical development than bound by moral us formally to acknowledge that a war with ties," to be " saucy and self-willed" enough the United States would be a great misforto intimate their intention of taking posses- tune to this country. We did not require sion of Canada. If we are to surrender any the assurance of Lord Malmesbury that there thing and every thing to clamor, however is no need for alarm. A war with the groundless, for no better reason than that United States is out of the question, for the the population of the United States includes very simple reason that the United States a class "who have been already worsted in have not at hand the means of making war. old home quarrels with us a starved-out We remember a story current during the Rus peasantry, ousted tenants, dispossessed cot-sian struggle,of a conversation which took place ters, the younger sons of younger sons, left-between an English, and an American officer.