The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-19 00:00:00

Obiligua

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1852.

"Absolute Reciprocity" appears to have been at
length recognised as the principle of conciliation—
perhaps we should say, as the means of reconcilia-
tion—between the American and English Govern-
ments. It is tolerably well understood by this time,
on both sides of the Atlantic, that the Fisheries
question is now in a fair way of being brought to a
permanent and satisfactory settlement. After a great
show of angry feeling in the chambers of Congress,
the e
and a somewhat indecorous display of blustering and
braggadocio on the part of a no less distinguished orator
ALy IpEpliWl broughtEI T
to a
R
wnh
unexpect-
edly lemlVr
appears to have
and statesman thabnneen
rapid and, if possible, a still more unexpectedly
fortunate conclusion. gow now about the " sound
and fury signifying nothing" of our good friends tt•3
legislators at Washington t How about that exceed-
ingly warlike oration spoken—marvel to relate, not by
a stump orator with a bowie-knife in his • girdle, and
a plug of tobacco in his cheek, and a
patent revolver in his coat pocket, but—by
the Lord cf Marshfield,
the BURKE of Congress,
the most important and the most gifted among all
the candidates for the
Presidency
? How about that
speech of yours, Mr. W EMTER—that speech dictated
less by the ardour of
patriotism, it would seem, than
by a passion for claptrap and a tenderness for the
adulation of a mob ? How
the Committee F •
on Foreign Relations—resembling
very marvellously the bubbles mentioned in the fan-
tastic but melodious verse of SPENSER--
" The bubbles blowen up with wind,
Which being prickt do vanish into noughts."
Unlike the " little wanton boys that swim on blad-
ders" for ever and ever in the flowing rhythm of
SHAKSPERE—the loud-speaking advocates of war in
Washington ere submerged very summarilftby the
unlooked-for reconciliation effected by her MAJESTY'S
Government. The self-sufficiency that: buoyed them
up has been punctured very adroitly by the keen
diplomacy of the Foreign Department in Downing-
street. How do they feel ?—these Bobadils in
speech and Parolles in action—how do they
look ? What do they say ? We should like to
encounter one or two of them some fine day saunter-
ing down the shady side of Broadway.
Seriously—there is much cause
.for exultation in
the happy issue of these negotiations about the North
American Fisheries. The result proves
enough that the charges of precipitation, and yet at
the same time of lack of promptitude, directed against
the DERBY Administration, are alike unfounded.
The precipitation, it was said, bad reference
to the seizure t of fishing vessels in the Bay
of Fundy, and the lack of promptitude to the
delay in bringing the matter to an amiable settle-
ment. It was insisted that some warning ought to
have been addressed to the authorities at Washington
before the fishing smack was seized in the bay, upon
the waters of which it had encroached. Why—
common sense tells us at once, plainly enough, that
the treaty of 1818 was warning enough in all con-
science. What more could possibly have been ex-
pected. You don't usually warn a thief to take his
hand out of your pocket, if absence of mind has
se far con fused his notions of meum and
team. Here: had the United States' fishermen been
industriously dragg;eg their nets within a distance
from the British North American coasts against
they had been expressly prohibited by stipulation,.
" signed, sealed, and delivered." Well, that wee
admitted—on all hands it was admitted, But—then
it was coolly objected that the violation of the
treaty had extended over so long s period that it wee
really too bad for the British Govern-
ment to interfere, 'without first of all, in a
gentlemanly way, announcing its intention
to adventure upon that interference. This was well
enough in itself, as a child might at a glance have
perceived. Take the conduct t be pursued towards
the pickpocket again by way of illustration. Be-
cause some gentleman has been _ coolly helping
himself whenever his humour listed to your,
snuff-box, and your pocket-book, and your
handkerchief, and the rest of the little
knick-knackeries of your personal paraphernalia—
you must by no means prevent the
continuance of these nefarious proceedings
until you have first of all warned him of your inten-
tion. Had you objected to these pleasant kind of
eccentricities in the first instance—well and good—
Mat would have been altogether different. But to
allow fish to be caught over and over again, month
after month, and year after year, in prohibited lo-
calities, without evincing any disposition to " pick a
quarrel" with the fishermen for their encroachments
—and then suddenly, without a syllable by way of
preparation, to swoop down upon! them and bodily
carry off a smack out of the quiet waters of the
Bay of Fundy—it was really nothing more or 1 ess
than absolutely monstrous and unendurable. That
was the reasoning of Mr. WEBSTER ? It was
the logic of the Committee on Foreign Relations at
Washington. It was the argument used with all the
coolness in life by the more warlike section of the
American community. Hence the charge of precipi-
tation directed against the British Government. The
precipitation being proved—by the fact of a long,
long tedious series of delays, extending back almost to
the treaty of 1818. Certainly this was clearly one
of those transparent proofs known under the
generic
title of self-evident propositions. Then, as
to the lack of promptitude—Here
romptitu • de— Hre i e
s the whole ques-
tion about our North American Fisheries already
close upon a thorough and amicable settlement !
Obviously,therefore, in reference to this much-
latine
DERBY Cabinet has acted
boldly, Nigorously,
all vindicated the and patriotically. It has first of
then honestly and rightstif of
England. It has
new arrangements With tehet iorly entered upc a
American Govern-
ment. Those arrangement, -
Indicate the cor-
rectness of the supposition to which we
nave utterance only the other day.....„
amelY, that her
MAJESTY'S Ministers ere in a fair Way of developing
the Free-Trade sys'am under the kindred term of
Reciprocity ! Absolute Reciprocity is now, • m fact,
accepted as the guiding principle in the conduct of
the present negotiation. And that principle of Re,i.
proct
•ty is • being carried out by them, moreover—a,
it once more repeated—with promptitude and without
,lion.

It was the gorgeous
i " h
AtIGUSTUS, at the close of a
mencement in tyrannic usurpation,
" Sol also
found Rome brick and left it marble.
and
whit that d
itse
had
d glorious boast of
might the the Fourteenth Lours have
spoken of Paris as
he found and made it. Our Second CueELEs had a
like opportunity, after the great fire of 1666, but he
neglected it. The plan submitted by Sir C
rnan WREN, the architect of St. Paul's, would
given wide thoroughfares to the good city of London'
but the owners and occupiers of land opposed any
alteration which would have made wide instead of
haveiusT°-
narrow streets, and the Monarch was not sufficiently
arbitrary to compel his good subjects to do what
albeit itit might appear, for the moment, to trench on
their
rights of property, would eventually have in-
creased their value, and also have made the City as
distinguished for' its wide and open streets as it
now is for its narrow thoroughfares and lanes
confessedly inadequate for the traffic: which en-
deavours to find its way
through them. Let any one,
about four in the 'afternoon, try and pass from the
Mansion-house to the Strand in a vehicle of any de-
scription, and he will painfully find that his progress
can be made on foot with more facility and in far less
time. The main streets are overcrowded. The
traffic is too much for them. It is painful to witness
the 'hourly confusion which is the result.
Of late years some attempts have been made by
the Corporation to remedy this evil. The opening of