The Express.
London, England, 1847-07-05 00:00:00

PAPER WAR WITH AMERICA.

BIB,—I represent a class, which the advance of
civilisation and the increase of commercial intercourse
between the two greatest commercial countries of the world
have combined to render somewhat numerous. I am an
American, for many yean resident in England. With an
abundance of American feeling—with all the rights and all
the obligations of American citizenship resting upon me—m 3
pecuniary interests are English, and my home is in England;
and, as a matter of mere commercial er pecuniary considera-
tion, the prosperity of England is more important to me
than that of any other country of the world ; while, in re-
turn, I, of necessity, assist to swell her revenues, through
the multifarious channels of taxation, direct and indirect.
The advantage which any country must derive from such a
body of resident foreigners as that to which I belong, is
obvious and ncognised.
Men seldom "quarrel with their own brad-and-butter; "
sad, in common with many of my countrymen, I came to
this country, with the most friendly feelings towards its
government, its institutions, and its people. I cherished the
recollection of everything which should unite England and
America in the bends of brotherhood . their common origin,
their common language, their common faith, their commu-
nity in civil and religious liberty, and stronger than all, their
common interest ;—that common interest, the bonds of which
the Almighty himself bath latelystrengthened and cemented
in rendering America, as it were, the provision store-house
of Europe ; and unmistakably indicating (what the rela-
tive and comparative condition of the two countries should
long since have shown) that the mission of the United States
is to produce, while that of Great Britain is to manufacture.
I delighted, sir, to muse upon these things: and when
men talked of hostile collision between the two countries ; of
an unnatural contest between parent and child ; when the
Oregon cloud " gathered blackness," and lowered ominously
upon the Western horizon, I spoke of these things as " cast-
ing out fear ;" I pointed to them as the escaped few from
the Deluge might have painted to the rainbow as the token
that the elements should not again be allowed to work their
unrestrained will for thus, I thought, this Iris-like blend-
ing of the faith, feeling, fame, and interest of the two
countries, might extend its arch across the intervening sea,
and be accepted as a token that the elements of discord—the
" envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitibleness," which
were characteristic of a departing era—should never again
darken that one sky which o'er-arches both England and
America. . .

Bat, sir, the "gentlemen of the press" cannot content
themselves to let this placid atmosphere remain unclouded;
they must darken and bespatter this blue sky with ink, and
arouse and stimulate passions even blacker than itself. They
do not seem to have acquired even the experience of the
itinerant musician,--they do not "know the value of peace
and quietness." A fault or folly can neither exist, nor be
imagined to ex ist, on the western shores of the Atlaatic, but
the English press must seise upon it es a vulture would
pounce upon carrion--the taste being as degrading and 1
revolting in the one case as the other.
If the fault or folly really exist, the probabilities are in
favour of its being grossly exaggerated in the course of narra-
tioll, or if exthgeration of facts be wanting, en amiable spirit
of bitterness develops, itself in comments, in such a manner
as amply to supply the want of mere vulgar misstatement.
Those men " on whom the tower in Siloam fell " were not
more closely identified in their doom, than the English press
(with one or two honourable exceptions), are in feeling, as
regard. America and everything American. England has,
in sober truth, been so long the unquestionable superior of
all the other nations of the world, in many prominent traits
of character, that she cannot regard with patience the rivalry
of the upstart child, who seeks to share with her the reputa-
tion of being the freest, most generous, most moral, and
most enlightened country of christendma. This feeling of
impatience, and of something between anger and contempt,
pervades nine-tenths of all that is written and spoken in
this country in reference to America ; and a moiety, at least,
of the other and more amiable " tenth," is made up of diplo•
matte generelitiee, or of after-dinner speeches, where " the
American minister," or some one of his " distinguished
countrymen" is present ; and which, consequently, have
every conceivable merit. except the trifling one of sincerity.
The evident feeling of the English press, generally, though
they may hardly confess It, even to themselves, is, that any

approach to candour in speaking of America would blunt
the. point of many a charming paragraph, or, perhaps,
entirely destroy the paragraph itself. Like the Italian
sonnetteer, who" had known, himself, the weight of praise,"
I bare known the temptation which the chance to form or
point • paragraph produces, and could well excuse the want
of self-denial in this particular, were America still the terra
incognito of 30 years since, when steamers were not, when
our international commerce was in ita infancy, and inter-
communication imperfect and infrequent. But now, the
United States have emerged from the condition of infancy to
that of youthful manhood; and wish their venerable parent
to learn tho difficult lessen, that her maternal rights do not
confer the privilege of under-estimating, and treating with
authoritative superciliousness and unfairness, all the actions,
rights, and feelings of her independent offspring.
The feeling so universally manifested by the English prise,
is unfair and unworthy and has a tendency to keep up an
irritability of feeling, which both countries may, at no dis-
tant period, find cause seriously to regret. But there are •
few journals in this country, upon whom a heavier respon-
sibility rests, and to whom • deeper and darker guilt
is chargeable. Foremost among these stands that monument
of insincerity., that immemorial follower of the public opinion
which it should lead, the London Times—a, camel as
" firmly fixed " to its principles (self-preservation to wit) as
a weathercock is to a steeple, and reserving to itself the
same happy facility for frequent and extraordinary changes
of position.
Of late, and especially since the outbreak of the Mexican
war, the Times has given to my countrymen especial cause
of complaint. The last drop in the cup of bitterness was so
article published on the 10th of May last, in reference to the
capture of Vera Crux. This article has called forth, from
the great daily journal of the United States, a reply which,
I may safely say, it has reluctantly uttered, after enduring
the abuse and misrepresentation of Years in comparative
silence. The New York Courier and Enquirer has been the
constant and unflinching opponent of the anti-English feel-
ing which the New York herald and some of the minor
journals of the United States, have endeavoured to create
and foster. The Courier and Enquirer has at last yielded
to renewed provocation, and uttered an article (quite unpre-
cedented in its columns) by way of retaliation. I inciene
this article, and solicit for it your careful consideration ; for
it shows the inevitable tendency and probable result of a
continuance on the part of the English journals of this system
of irritation and insult towards my countrymen.-1 am, sir,
your very obedient servant, AXOLO-KNICILIABOCKEIL.
• Landon, June 33, 1847.