The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-28 00:00:00

Secretary.

which we published yesterday, it will be
seen that the offensive articles which have
appeared in that paper, have been most severely
spoken of in the States Congress. What its writers
have already said of the CLAYTON-BULWER treaty is
fresh in the mind of the public, and what it may
still have to put forward will most likely be couched
in the same unwarrantable and unmanly tone of
defiance. The mercantile community have not
forgotten that journal's advocacy of

lie Sound

Dues, and although its scribes chew that the
whole affair is sealed so far as the English mer•
chant is concerned, by making the British people
pay 1,200,0001. as their share of the capitalisation
scheme, they still fix on the United States, and

hold their citizens up to the contempt of the
world. Such base conduct, if pursued by the
Press of this country generally, would most
certainly lead to bloodshed between the two
countries.

But fortunately for both nations the hirelings of
Printing House-square do not guide the public
opinion of these Isles. They may think
they see the possibility of creating a
war-party in Middlesex who would venture

to plunge us into an unholy strife with our

own flesh and blood ; but it would not be well for
them to pit such a nest full of unnatural birds of
prey against the moral, national, and commercial
voice of the North. In the Central American
question, we are bound by the words used in the
CLAYTON-BULWER treaty, and by the distinct inter-
pretation given to those words in Lord Jourt
RUSSELL'S despatch, of 19th of January, 1853---
"Our policy is to do all that honour and humanity
" require on behalf of the Mosquito nation. But
" we intend to adhere strictly to the treaty of Wash-
" ington, of the 19th of April, 1850, and not
".to assume any sovereignty, either directly or indirectly,
" in Central America." After this assurance has been
placed on record by the people of England, through
their responsible representative, are we to be
dragged into a war with the States ? If so, what
becomes of our national integrity, of which the
London Times talks so loudly? Again, with regard
to the Sound Dues, if we are such drivelling
idiots as to pay 1,200,0001. to get rid
of a species of ocean taxation, which can
only boast of an origin but one degree removed
from piracy, is that any reason why the United
States should be equally idiotic, and continue to
pay them for one moment longer than they
agreed to do so? In 1826, the States entered into
a treaty which bound them to pay these dues up
to the 14th of April 1856 only, according to the
London Times' own showing, and that time has
been prolonged according to recent advices to the
14th of June next; after which day, the American
mariners or exporting merchants will pay no more
Dues. The Americans only stipulated to pay
these taxes for a definite period. That period
expires on the 14th of June next, when
Al4acY says :—" Let there be no more Sound
But then our cotemporary's Copenhagen
Correspondent points out to his war-chief, that
these Dues may, with a little ingenuity, be mixed
up with the treaty of Vienna, and the States made

Dues

to appear as though they were oppo.e,d to the
general policy and interests of Europe, as defined
in that precious piece of waste paper. Not satis-

fief with

shuffling

intermeddle in the affairs of Denmark, and th

States, the Reciprocity Treaty recently entered into
between this country and America, with regard
to the navigation of the St. Lawrence is adroitly
brought into the discussion ; and, finally, to scare

us out of our wits, we are told that
'of the Union at least speak of seizin_
" Danish Wt;st Indian Is 1(

lhe journals
upon -the
s, especially St. Thomas's,

"as reprisals against the Danish Government,
" should it exact the payment of Sound dues, by
" American vessels passing the Sound after the
" expiration of the treaty of 18',Z6. Many British
" subjects being settled in those islands, and St.
" Thomas's being an important British postal and
" packet station, it is to be supposed that the British
" Government would not look with indifference upon

" such an act of violence on the part of the United
"States." It is to be hoped that it will take something
more than the execution of these threats to induce
us to go war with our best commercial Allies, to
secure to Denmark an income del ived from plun-
dering the commerce of the world.

St. Thomas's is unquestionably a postal and

packet station for England, and there are certainly
some British subjects living there; but what of all
that? If Denmark should be silly, or dishonest
enough to attempt to enforce the payment of
these Dues after ,the time specified for their
continuance has expired, and the ,United States
should make reprisals, and take the Island of St.
Thomas's, what should we lose by the quarrel
The Island would be left where it is, we presume;
and the lives and property of Englishmen would
be respected in the West Indies, as much as they
are in any other part of the Union. We should
not be one jot worse off, if the. States took the
whole of Denmark into their own keeping.
Knowing all this to be true, let the
public watch diligently the acts of those
who would involve us in war with the
Americans. That the London Times would willingly
lead a few crusaders into such an enterprise is
quite certain, and that its editor would put the
baton of a field.marshal into the hands of Lord
CLARENDON has been shown on more than one
occasion within the last week or two; but the
exploit is too daring for the politicians of these
days, and too dishonourable and blood-thirsty for
the enlightened, moral, and religious spirit of the
age. The pet Earl must try his hand at war in
some very different quarter, if he should consent
to being made a cat's-paw by his admirers among
the lieges of Blackfriars.