The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-23 00:00:00

"MANHATTAN."

Out of doors it is common to hear it said that
many years have passed since the London press
displayed in the service of the WWII nation a
tenth part of the zeal and ability. with'which it has
done the work of the great American Slave League.
This is only half the truth. The fascinations of
slavery not oulv stimulate but seem almost to
create talent : they are the one thing for which
latent genius has been waiting through long years
to call it into active being.

Two years agothere was-a daily London newspaper
of venerable age and settled character, the name of
which had in some way come to be a synonym of
leaden dulness, the common jest, the butt of every
wit. Looking back to-day over the interval, we are
bound to acknowledge that the one pre-eminently
original and fertile journalistic conception of that
period is due to our unconsidered contemporary.
Therefore, whether it be to Sairey Gamp or L J.
Brutus, we care not ; we will do homage to the
Nei-bite/ *raid.
Two years ago it was • serious question with the
Heml4l how the English nation might possibly be
prepared to look favourably upon an attempt—the
first in history—to build a State on the foundation of
slavery. At this diatanceof time it is necessary to rt3cal
the fact that it had not then become fashionable to
palliate the wickedness of that institution ; it was
too early to say that it was scriptural and apostolic.
Some caution was necessary. Our contemporary met
some of the difficulties in a common-place way. But
there was one part of his task to which he was
impelled alike by tradition, policy, and predilection.
Along with a prejudice against slavery there
lingered in the English mind a certain respect for
the free States of the American union.
Diplomatists, ministers of monarchical govern-
ments, and noblemen had travelled there, and
had said and written that they found the Americans
an orderly, law abiding, educated, religious people:
the impression was one to be destroyed at any
expense of pains. If readers could be thoroughly
disgusted with the North, it is clear that they
would not be so ready to condemn the South on a
comparison. It was at the call of this requirement
that the genius of the Herald rose to the boldness
of invention. The commonplace expedients for
malting impressions—moral portraiture, testimony,
all-reports were too weak and too slow. Then it
was that our contemporary conceived the bril-
liant idea of dispensing with all round-about
methods, and straightway setting up a model
Northerner, a representative man, replete with
every quality an American republican should not
have, and keeping him permanently before the pub-
lic in his columns. We have called this &bold inven-
tion. It was so in more senses than one. For a paper
extravagantly Southern in its advocacy to set up
a correspondent at New York, who should rave
for the North, as nobody would be permitted to
rave for it in!a journal friendly to the Federals, was
very much as if we should print letters concentrat-
ing all that is offensive in Tory pretensions and de-
liver them to the perusal of liberal readers, with
the signature of " A Conservative." Such a pro-
ceeding would probably be charged with bad faith ;
but our contemporary doubtless relied on his estab-
lished reputation for impartiality. At all events he
carried out the design, and behold—Masnarrsw.
Let us glance at the features of this representa-
tive Northerner, deservedly so dear to partizans of
the South. Manhattan is before all things a swag-
gerer. Not a liar : by no means. A liar discerns
falsehood from truth, and prefers it : a swaggerer
does not take that trouble, but simply chooses the
aspect of things which suite him. It is the coun-
terpart of this trait that Manhattan is as truculent
as words can depict him. When things seem to be
going well, he is a bully, and threatens "Jeff
Davis," as he calls him, and all his crew with
penalties too horrible for description ' • when battles
are lost by the Federals, he is for executing
the Northern Generals. He is always either
proposing tyranny or despairing, of the Republic.
Of course he is a " sensationwt • ' every American
is more or less, but Manhattan beats the New
York Herald hollow. No matter what the story,
or on which side it is, the man who will bring it
him hot and strong may always have him. Now
the South is going to be squelched out of hand ;
and now the whole Northern concern is going to
everlasting smash. The language of the letter is
that of the New York "bars," and the "views"
are such as may be picked up at those places in
the intervals of gin-sling and cock-tail. Such
is the Herald's model free American, and
in taking a last look at him we must
say, speaking from the Herald's point of view, that
if " Manhattan" had not been discovered it would
have been necessary to invent him. A character
more repugnant to Englishmen could not have been
devised. Life at Warsaw would be more endurable
than life among the " Manhattans," if such •
people exist. In any tribulation that may befal
our contemporary,
,if he is wise, he will hold fast to
" Manhattan as long as he bolds fast to the cause
of the South. .. . . . . .

_
But here we must take leave to interpose one
remark. The character of " Manhattan," where-
soever he may date from, is not Northern but essen-
tially Southern, and it is strong enough to over-
power his assumed rat. His tyrannical disposition,
his constant preference for violent and lawless ex pedi-
eats, his political ignorance, tell more truly than
words that his ways and habits have been formed
in a slave community. Only those who do not
know American society will question this diagnosis.
Manhattan may borrow the language of a New York
rowdy, but he is more at home among the Baltimore
" plug-uglies."
Having caught your Manhattan, the next thing
is to know how to use him. Here again our con-
temporary has shown great judgment. It is diffi-
cult to answer for oolong a time, but we believe we
may say that from the beginning of his correspon-
dence until now, the Herald has not once appealed
to Manhattan as a witness to facts. He was
wanted for higher uses. His part was to flit
about before men's eyes, cursing and swearing
and doing everything that is improper, as a horrible
specimen of the sort of persou that republican in-
stitutions produce. To bring him formally into
court, put him in the witness-box and expose him
to a crow-examination was the last thing to be
thought of by a pro-Sot:them journalist. This is
the grow blunder which the Times male on Friday,
quoting him as this " honest American." It is like
killing the goose that lays the golden egg. To be
sure the bird does not belong to the Times, which
may perhaps think that goose has cackled long
enough.