The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-27 00:00:00

TO TEI IDITOZ Or TEI DAILY NEWS.

Sza,—The sinking of the Florida seemed, by its fatal
opportuneness, to defy a charitable construction.
And it unfortunately coincided with the wishes
expressed by some who ought to have taken a
higher view of the real interests of their country.
Mr. Sumner, in his pamphlet on the case, says :
" If the American commander, who undertook this
business at Bahia, had done it completely, there
would be little difficulty now. There were fire and
water both at his service. He might have burnt
the Florida, or scuttled her at once, and his offence
would have been no greater than now, while
his government would have been relieved from
embarrassment. It is hardly cynical to
say of such an omission in the words of Talleyrand,
that 'it was worse than a crime —it was a
blunder.'" When a senator of the United Stake
and the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations allows himself to suggest such a
mode of avoidiagesabserassment, his countrymen
must not be astonished if, in less partial quarters,
unfavourable impressions are apt to prevail. I did
not believe for a moment either that the govern-
ment of the United States had inspired the destruc-
tion of the Florida, or that the nation would
approve of it. But I confess I feared, and more
than feared, that this was another instance
of that irregular patriotism on the part
of subordinates which the comparative laxity of
the American system of government has hitherto
permitted, and which has been recently exempli-
fied in the seizure of this vessel by Captain Collins,
and in the letter of General Watson Webb.

I am now, however, convinced that, in spite of all
probabilities, the occurrence was entirely acci-
dental ; that the vessel was unseaworthy before
the collision ; and that after the collision every
effort was made to keep her afloat before she was
abandoned. Of this I believe the world will be
assured when the results of the formal investiga-
tion are laid before it by the government, which
cannot be done too soon.

At the same time it would be vain, I fear, to con-
tend that the action of this government, in relation
to the case of the Florida, has been such as the
warmest friends of Amtrica would have desired.
To restore the vessel and her crew at once to the
jurisdiction of Brazil, from which she had been
wrongfully taken by the rashness of a subordinate,
was the course which the highest morality and the
highest policy alike prescribed. It would have been
hard, uo doubt, but it would have been glorious—
all the more glorious if other nations, iu similar
cases, bad not behaved so well. The moral effect
produced upon the world would have been worth a
great victory.
The path of virtue has not been made smoother
to the American people on tole occasion by the ma-
lignant denunciations of a part of the English press,
to which it is the weakness of Americans to pay too
much attention, when they had better fix their
thoughts exclusively on the requirements of their
own honour. Mere denunciation, especially when
coming from those who by their previous hostility
have forfeited the position of moral censors, never,
I believe, helped any m►n or nation to do right.
Nations as well as men owe a kinder and more
generous duty to their fellows when struggling with
temptation.

The language of the American prow in regard to
this question, as you will not have failed to observe,
has been perfectly honourable. It presents a
marked contrast to the language of the same jour-
nals, or some of them, in the case of the Trent, and
is one an many indications of the elevation of
national character which this struggle, with all its
evils and horrors, has produced.
I leave America assured of the loyalty of the
people to their institutions, convinced of their power,
and their determination to achieve the gigantic
task which they have undertaken, and hopeful of
their destinies as a nation.—l am, &c.,
New York, Dec. 10. GOLDWIN SMITH.

THE WIDOW OF _ A VETERAN PHILAN-

THROPIST.