The Press.
London, England, 1856-07-05 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1856.

our agents ; that their conduct was that of a
spy and informer who watches in silence the
movements of parties whom he designs as his
victims, who pounces on them at a disadvan-
tage, and then suborns wretches to support by
perjury a charge founded in the deceitfulness
of his own discreditable proceeding. How
different, he exclaims, would have been the
conduct of the British Government :

Why, if any foreign agent in this country were supposed
to be acting at variance with British law, does any man
suppose that our Minister for Foreign Affairs would not
send to him the very nett day after receiving such infor-
mation, ask him for explanations, sift the matter to the
bottom, and allow no misunderstanding to exist? Is that
the conduct of the American Government ? No.
Blackening the conduct of the United States'
Government to the utmost extent of his power,
he asserts that, inasmuch as her Majesty's
Government did not think it expedient to
dismiss Mr DALLAS, " the question which has
" arisen between the two countries has been
" terminated, so far as the two Governments
"are concerned, in a manner deemed satisfac
" tory to both."
According to his representation, the gentle-
men on the Opposition side of the House alone
prevent a cordial reconciliation with ;he
United States. His language is all amicable ;
theirs is all bellicose. Only through their
absurd notion that England has been treated
with contumely is a feeling of irritation
kept up !
In what sense is the extraordinary as
sertion true, that the question id dispute
" has been terminated in a manner- satisfae-1
" tory to both Governments"? The British;
Government is still without an Envoy at
Washington, and is still without Consuls at
the chief ports of the Union. The inconveni-
ence of such an exceptional state of thing!" is
obvious. Suppose any circumstance occurs on
one side. of the Atlantic or the other which
in the opinion of the United States' Govern-
ment requires that prompt explanation which
in all cases of international misunderstanding
Lord PALMERSTON insists is so desirable—the
American Administration will he unable to
receive authentic assurances from the British
Legation. It will have to wait for informa-
tion, on perhaps the most urgent matters, until
despatches can bo sent to and fro. And in
critical cases, what fire may not blaze forth in
the interval?

While the question of dismissing Mr. DALLAS
was in suspense, we had not the least doubt
that Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration, hold-
ing the opinions it did on the unjustifiable
conduct of the United States' Government,
should have resorted to measures of retaliation,
or should have left to other hands the task of
composing the quarrel. For why is the ac-
ceptance of the dismissal of Mr. CRAJLPTON
and the British Consuls felt to be humiliating
to this country? Not from the act itself, apart
from all considerations connected with it, but
because our Government, which the Premier
declares is the country in such cases, main-
tains that the dismissal was undeserved and
unjust. In what position, then, does England
stand? She submits to injustice without an
attempt to retaliate. She pockets a gross
affront, and in the face of the world sees her
agents disgraced while declanng that they
are disgraced undeservedly. Who submits to
undeserved wrong but the coward who dares
not, or the wretch who cannot, resent it?
It is this which really humiliates England,
which places her in a false position towards
the United States, and which will be attended

imply vengeance,
reproof beti
insult • or,
the United
cause for offence
and that, therefore,
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STAMPED STXPENCI.
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at no distant date with bitter and mortify-
ing consequences. That party in the State
which has uniformly held that the Foreign
Enlistment Act was an error—that it was
im-
possible to carry it into effect without giving
just cause of offence to foreign Governments—
that the difficulties which have resulted in the
United States were, without any fault on the part
of our agents, inevitable from the very nature
of the Att—might have given to the United
States* Government satisfactory assurances
without compromising, thethe national honour.
But Lord PALmErts•ros's Administration could
not du so. Retaining its place as the head of
the country, and retaining all its opinions,
it receives with sullen submission the disgrace
of its officers—.rut daring to support, not ven-
turing to disavow them ; and revenges itself
for its degradation by taunting and insulting
that Government whose superiority it has
reluctantly been compelled to acknowledge.
We know what the result of this policy must
be. It must lead to further estrangement. The
open quarrel produced by the dismissal of Mr.
DALLAS might have led both countries to re-
flection—might have inspired alarm, and
might, eventually, have brought about a
cordial reconcilement. But the quarrel will
now smoulder ; the elements of conflict will
be kept in activity, and but a chance breath
will be required to fan them into a flame. It
is false—more false than any statement eve
made by a British Minister in Parliament—
that the question has been disposed of " in a
" manner satisfactory to both Governments."
The whole speech of Lord PALMERSTON shows
the utter falsity of this assertion • and when
that speech is read in the United States--
when it is considered by the Cabinet at
Washington—the effect will be more disquiet-
ing than if the bolder course had been taken
of declaring that Mr: DALLAS, who presented
the despatch announcing the dismissal of
British officers from the States, had been de-
clared to be an unacceptable Minister to this
country.
We have a few words to say to the two
parties who, for the present, agree to support
Lord PaLmassros in his place—the gentlemen of
England and the commercial community. The
first think the honour of the country safe in
his hands—the second conceive that they can
bind him over to keep the peace. Both are
deceived. lie has sacrificed the national dig-
nity already, and he is surely preparing the
way for such a misunderstanding between the
two countries, and for the generation of such
violent anianosities. as no explanation will be
able to remove. He has swerved from the
straight. plain path of principled statesman-
ship, and, of the two direct courses open to
him, has combined the difficulties of both in
the middle way he has chosen.

Neither consistently with national honour,
nor with true policy, was it possible for this
country to have done otherwise than-1. To
have treated the dismissal of Mr. CRAMPTON
end the Consuls as an act of injustice, impera-
tively demanding, not retaliation, which would

No. 166.—V0L. IV.
'Alt ',fuss.
4044-

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