The Express.
London, England, 1861-12-30 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, DEC. O.

Di-aura the few days that must still elapse
before the reply of the Federal Government can
reach this country, every item of American news
has of course an absorbing interest, and is scruti-
aimed with peculiar vigilance and from almost every
point of view. Even floating rumours of the
vaguest kind will naturally be received with
avidity ; nor ran it be considered surprising if they
acquire for the time an exaggerated importance.
This will probably be the case during the next
twenty-four hours with the telegrams we publish
this morning. In the main they are, it is true,
very much what we might have expected to re.
ceive. But their various statements are, at the
same tune, so brief, so confused, if not contra-
dictory, and so confined to the mere feeling of the
moment, that they scarcely enable us to judge
of the general unpressioo produced by the
English demand at New York, while they
throw no real light whatever on the
probable action of the Federal Cabinet. Telegrams
from the City of Washington steamer, which carried
not only fuller news of the effect which the seizure
on board the Trent had produced in England, but
also the Government despatches on the subject,
arrived at New York on the I:ith, and the tele-
grams from that city we publish this morning
describe the date of public feeling during the
three following days. They all agree in stating
that the excitement produced by the unexpected
intelligence was extreme. The shock on the Ex-
change was at first so great that teaand coffee were
withdrawn from the public sales, while public se-
centime and the rates of exchange were heavily
allotted. This feeling of strung excitement seems
to have been general throughout the city, but,
as might naturally be expected, as soon as the first
surprise was over, the agitation began to subside.
The account next day takes a decidedly quiet and
pacific tone. " Public feeling has been calmer,
" and the idea prevails that there will be no
" war. There is a great disposition to do what is
" right." The fresh news brought from England
by the Jura, which arrived at New York the
next day, seems to have revived and increased the
excitement. The same telegram, however, states
that " the Washington Cabinet is discussing the
" demands of the English Government with mode-
" ration;" adding, " the general impression is that
" the Southern Commissioners will under no
" circumstance+ be given up." But up to the
date of the latest intelligence this is merely an
impression, nothing, it is clear, being really known
at New York about the discussions or the inten-
tions of the Federal Government.

The main fact of them telegrams is, that the
news from England had produced a shock of sur-
prise and a feeling of strong excitement in New
York. And this is precisely what the previous
news from America, received during the last few
days, would have prepared us to expect. Almost
everything had conspired to lull the New York
public into a state of false security on the subject
of the Treat. The capture of the Comminketers

produced at first not only considerable excitement
but some doubt, the lawfulness of the act being
actively debated by the leading journals. Several
decided that the seizure was informal, while some
went further, suggesting that it might be necessary
to restore the Commissioners. A number of noon&
rate authorities, however, came forward to justify
the capture, on the ground that it agreed with the
spirit if not with the letter of international law,
and was thus, if technically wrong, substantially
right. Amidst the general exultation at the
seizure of the Commissioners and the
enthusiasm in favour of Captain Wiuteit, this
style of reasoning was naturally enough accepted
as conclusive. It was generally understood that the
capture was in the main justifiable. Meanwhile, the
higher legal authoriticsof the United States, as well
as the Federal(:overnment, were whollysilenton the
subject. In the popular mind, therefore, the first
notion of a serious difficulty or possible canine
with England in the matter had nearly psesed
away. This was the state of the public feeling when
the first news of bow the seizure bad bests reesived
in England arrived, and curiously enough this, in
part at least, helped to confirm the current isa•
pressiou. The indecision of a leading contempo-
rary, whose early hesitation as to whether any
outrage had been committed, has been amply
avenged by reiterated and noisy assertions that it
could sever admit of any doubt, strengthened the
conviction at which many of the New York journals
had previously arrived. The .b.emabtfr..sinerc.,
for example, which had originally doubted
the lawfulness of the capture, says, after receiving
the first decision of our contemporay on the sub-
ject, " The people talk, but the London Tema,
" the great leader of the anti-American interest,
" gives up all idea of founding a quarrel upon it,
" and concedes the American right." That being
the impression which the first news of public
feeling in England on the subject produced, the
shock of surprise caused by the later news is per-
fectly intelligible. The tidings flashed by the
City of Washington's telegrams would of coarse
be as astounding as they were unexpected. Hut
sifter the first surprise