The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

1038

We must remember these truths when deal-
ing with the case of an ambitious and 3 outhful
country like the " United States." There has
been too much incorOMerate spfaking and in-
temperate writing on OW presett inisundet-
standing, which some,Reigons are' abtious fk.
fan into a flame. WX, firedi Mt
.411 along
that the carrying otti of the Feign Enlist
ment Bill would be ticampied Aatleahiptit
difficulties, and some Of Stir wOirst aitticip&
tions have been realised. But whatever may
have been the mistakes or impolicy of official

personages, superior or subordinate, we can
Only sineerely hope that a war will not hastily
be precipitated between two great nations of
the same ancestors and language.
It is singularly unlucky for the interests of
pace between England and the States that
Lord PALMERSTON should be the Prime Minister
at such a critical time. At no period of his pro-
longed career was the Viscount popular with
the Americans. During our last struggle with
the States Lord PALMERSTON was our Secretary-
at-War; for this Methuselah of Ministers was
one of the official concoctors of the ill-arranged
expedition at which the gallant PAKENHAM
fell, near New Orleans. Officially antagonistic
to the Americans in his early days, when
advanced to the Foreign-office, the conduct of
Lord PALMERSTON, in relation to the Boundary
question, was exasperating beyond precedent.
The language, also, in subsequent times, in
which the reckless Viscount denounced what
he called " The Ashburton Convention," is still
remembered, not to his credit, by the most
.accomplished statesmen in Europe. Every
journalist, also, must recollect that long series
of astounding articles in which day after day
-the conduct of Lord AsnsturroN was arraigned
.In the most insulting invectives. Those
speeches of the Viscount, duly chronicled,
powerfully fanned the flame of discord in
America. They aided Mr. O'CONNELL and his
'repealers in their insolent defiance of the law.
They did enormous inischief at the time ; and
.the memory of those speeches and those
•writings is still rankling inimany an American
breast. Nor can we be surprised at the
irritated tone of some ill-informed American
writers and speakers, when they observe that
-this vehement denouncer of the " Ashburton
Convention " is now the First Minister in the
Cabinet of England.
In this respect, however, the Americans,
like some Continental politicians, absurdly
exaggerate the status of Lord PALMERSTON.
He is only a Premier by chance. In no sense,
can he be accepted as " a representative man" of
England. He never was the chief of a party
in Parliament, nor is he now. A clique of
Whig families use him as a temporary screen
to hide their great monopolising power. We
entreat of the Americans to be assured that
their old official and personal antagonist does
not belong to that order of statesmen whose
utterance is the voice of one of the great poli-
tical confederacies of our Legislature. This
Premiership is little better than the " accident
of an accident."
But, as it is certainly most unpropitious'
that Lord PAtmeasroN should be the First
Minister at the present juncture, wo must
. call the attention of the Americans to certain
facts, that reverse the present state of affairs
entirely, out of the category of former colli-
sions with their gallant and aspiring country.
in the first and second wars with the States
France was hostile to Great Britain; in 1855
France is our ally. In the War of Indepen
dence England had to divide its fleets. In the
Channel and in the West Indies large French
squadrons menaced our mercantile marine ;
and in those days, also, a Spanish fleet was in
existence, which required our attention else-
where. Since then our naval power has been
augmented to an extraordinary si ze,and our huge
ships are infinitely better adapted for blockading
the whole coast of America than for taking
Cronstadt. The ruin to American commerce
by a prolonged blockade of its chief emporia
of trade need not be enlarged upon. No doubt,
as some of the American journalists assure us,
we should have to calculate on buccaneers—
fierce, desperate, and piratical—flesh and blood
realisations of Mr. FENIMORE COOPER'S nau-
tical novels.
Well, even an armada of buccaneers could
not do England the fearful damage that its