The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-28 00:00:00

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No. 165.—V0L. IV.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1856.

STAMPED ....SIXPENCE.
UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE.

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they felt was necessary to their position. Our
hold of the Canadas was regarded with alarm,
not on account of their probable industrial
growth, but because it was conceived we re-
tained them solely on account of their mili-
tary positions, and as a means of invasion at
any moment. This jealousy was the more
natural, and the more excusable, as the policy
of the Republic was entirely adverse to the
maintenance of a largo armed force of any
description.
It is time that these misunderstandings
should cease—that the United States should
distinctly learn that we entertain no jealousy
of their growth—that we do not anticipate a
contest with them, or wish to prepare for it;
but that, on the contrary, we regard their
prosperity as our prosperity, and are well
assured that they cannot advance in any
element of greatness without a corresponding
advance on the part of this country.
The nearest approach to such policy on our
part was during the last Administration of Sir
ROBERT PEEL, when Lord ASHBURTON was sent
to the United States to settle the long-dis-
puted question of the Oregon boundary.
No one doubts the wisdom of that treaty now.
But what was I,o:d PALMERSTON'S opinion of it
in 1843? He brought forward a distinct
motion against it, which was so coldly received
by the House that a count-out on the second
night of the debate was the result.
The speech of Lord PALMERSTON was more
remarkable than his motion. The latter might
be regarded as a party move, but in the
former he expressed his real sentiments. He
treated the United States as the natural
enemy of this country, and viewed the whole
question at issue, not as matter for friendly
arrangement, but as ground on which a battle
should be stoutly fought. Lord ASHBURTON
having the first move, did not make the most
of his position. He gave up six or seven
points at once, when he should have contested
each one of them ; and, strangely enough, he
protested against the fitness of the negotiator,
on the ground of his social connection with
the United States :

PALMERSTON and CLARENDON are fighting their
battle, a band of States' adventurers have
possessed themselves of the Government of
Nicaragua. We are rapidly losing the ad-
vantages anticipated from the Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty, while ostentatiously making a display
of a powerful armed force to convince our
opponents that we mean to fight the battle in
earnest.

u

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1858.

IT would be strange if in this age of progress
in all knowledge conducive to the well-being
of man, some advance were not made in the
political science which concerns him most of
all. The statesman has need, from time to
time, to look at the results of experience, and
to shape his policy not only by the actual
wants of his time, but with reference to prin-
ciples which, whether springing from social
growth, or from discoveries in the art of
government, have proved most beneficial in

Of all mischievous acts that the demon of
discord could desire, none could be more mis-
chievous than the reinforcement of our West
Indian fleet in the autumn of last year. Lord
CLARENDON'S own account of this step was,
that it was taken " for the protection of British
" interests against any attack that might be
" made upon them, and to be prepared for
" events which they had done nothing to pro-
" yoke, and which they would still do their
" utmost to avert." (Papers on Recruiting in
the United States, p. 123.) Assuming this
explanation to have been correct, how could
the measure be viewed otherwise than as a
menace to the United States' Government? In
that light it was regarded, and it led directly
and immediately to a considerable vote for the
augmentation of the United States' fleet.
The grounds on which the reinforcement was
sent out—as the fitting out of Russian ships
in the American ports, and the concoction of
"a great conspiracy for promoting insurrection
" in Ireland " (Lord CLARENDON'S own words)—
were subsequently shown to have been utterly
unfounded. But the mischief of the threat
could not be undone. It opened the eyes of
the States' Government to the insecurity of its
position, and it resolved on the formation of a
powerful fleet, that it might be safe from such
menaces in future.

operation.
We know how our American ()Monks were
governed a hundred years ago. Their highest
posts were a refuge for the needy hangers-on
or decay footmen of great noblemen. There

was no person so low or base as might not
hope to be appointed an American governor,
if he happened to possess a patron in high
station. Our colonies were considered as
chiefly valuable for the patronage they con-
ferred till Mr. GRENVILLE, in an evil hour for
his fame, conceived the ides that they might
be made to contribute to the coffers of the
State, as well as to the necessities of cour-
tiers and statesmen. His attempt to shear
the wolf has taught us some useful lessons.
We do not think it wisdom now to rule our
colonies as if they were held for the sole bene-
fit of the mother country. We do not want
to keep them under ; we are not jealous of
their prosperity; we do not attempt to derive
any other advantage from them than must in
evitably arise from the mutual connection.
Lord ELons's administration in North America
has shown the perfection of which colonial
government is capable. The secret of his suc-
cess was confidence in the people. He trusted
them, and he was trusted by them in turn.
Their suspicions and animosities were at once
disarmed when they learnt that his only aim
was to accustom them to govern themselves,
and that he was anxious to afford the freest
scope to their progress in every possible
manner. When the Home Government ceased
to be regarded with distrust, it came to be re-
garded with love. The policy of repression
has been tried, and failed; the policy of deve-
lopment has been tried, and has eminently
succeeded.

From broils of this kind, leading to aug-
mentations of force, we never shall be free,
until a different policy is acted on, and the
two Governments can feel perfect c,)nfidence
in each other's amiable intent. When such
relations are established, we shall hear no more
of the Monroe doctrine. Free from all grounds
of disquietude, the people of the United
States will regard the apprehension of Euro-
pean hostility as a dream, and will be anxious
to draw closer the ties which bind them to
the Old World, instead of contemplating their
severance.

The noble lord was both a British subject and an
American citizen. . . . Were two countries to agree
to choose a mediator between them, they might very pro.
perly select a person who had an almost equal affection
for each, but when a Government appointed a Minister
to fight for them an adverse battle with another negotiator,
whose feelings were all enlisted on one side, then it was fit
to choose some person who had no private connection with
the other party.

We demand that our policy towards the
United States shall be the same in character
as our policy towards British North America;
that it shall be friendly and frank ; not adverse
to the expansion of their power, not per-
petually inventing checks and repressions,
not fighting battles, even in diplomacy, not
struggling to obtain petty and worthless ad-
vantages of position, but cordial and concilia-
tory. Let this policy be acted on for a few
years. and the jealousies between the two
countries will vanish as they have vanished
between this country and the Canadas.
The pacific policy which
is not less ours. A conf

In this passage we have an indication of the
principle by which Lord PALMERSTON has been
constantly guided in his intercourse with the
United States. He supposes that the in-
terests of the two countries are necessarily
adverse, and while he is fighting his battle,
and exciting the alarm of the United States'
people, they press forward, and either obtain
the country in dispute by colonising it, or
seize upon some territory of more than com-
mensurate advantage. It was shown at the
time of this very debate, that on th 3 spot
where Sir ETOWARD DOUGLAS (then Governor
of New Brunswick) had in 1828 arrested, tried,
and imprisoned an American citizen for en-
croachment, a United States' fortress had
been erected to receive a garrison of the State
of Maine, Lord PALMERSTON in the interval
having the direction of our foreign affairs, and
constantly fighting a battle with the United
States' Government.

Is it certain that, if we had acted upon this
same policy towards the United States, it
would not have been attended with the like
results? To whatever cause it may be re-
ferred, the Governments of the two countries
have never been cordially allied since the in-
dependence of the Union was declared.
There has been jealousy and perpetual fear of
encroachment on one side and the other. Our
statesmen have feared that the Union would
advance too rapidly, and become too powerful ;
and statesmen on the other side of the At-
lantic have continually fretted under an appre-
hension that some plot was afoot to curb their
power, and to prevent that expansion which

two countries might darken
world. England, like the Ui
a great future, though our pa,
in a different direction. We

the East the arts and indi

partially left it. So vast an(
our fields for extension, tha

conceive no limit to them.

of the statesman to look beyoni
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and in idea to invest his

Exactly the same kind of action is now
taking place in Central America. While Lords

mortal life. Not only is there no reason to
suppose that England may not, for the next

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