The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-25 00:00:00

the Southern States of America, and put an end to the war

I observe that the ideas which pervade the public mind—at
least, which pervaded it in the two cases I alluded to—is
that this affair in America is to be settled in a peculiar way
according to the dictates of those particular parties. (Cheers)
Prom the beginning of this lamentable convulsion, from
'which you have suffered so much, one of the great funda-
mental errors in the conduct of statesroen, in the conduct of
Governments, and in the conduct of a large portion of the
influential classes in this country, has been that they have
made up their minds there can be but one issue to this war
in America, and that is, separation between North and
South. I told you when I was here last—when that spirit,
if possible, was more rife than now—that I did not believe
the war would issue in that way. I have stated the same
opinion since in the House of Commons, yet I declare to
you that, looking at what is called in cant phrase London
eociOty—and society is, I must tell you, that upper ten
thousand with whom members of Parliament are liable to
eorae in contact at the clubs and elsewhere—looking at the
ttaing class, if I may use the phrase, that you meet in these 1
purlieus in London, nineteen-twentieths of them have been
tormuil! convinced from the first that the civil war in America
teZtt.l.ly end in separation. How far the wish was father
tetaheught I will not pretend to say. (Cheers.) I be-
been I";:mtlithe conviction has been a severe one, that it has
of tetritord'ed on the belief that, looking at the vast extent
'was imoYu't?ecupied by the insurgents in the civil war, it
could be troblue.they could be subjugated by any force that
been a moat faht against them by the North ; but there has
classes to wh• lamentable display of ignorance among those
'eh ref
duct of the organs e erred, if you may judge from the con_
exponents of their
views.! the press, which may be considered the
something wendea,,, The errors in geography have been
bear no comparison, described
rivers, with which ours can
natural
as running into one another
in defiance of their
position, and an utter igno-
rance exhibited of the „jai
ater.ce of old cities with 100,000,
or 150,000 inhabitants—vut
—where I have myself seen a shipping ports for raw produce
closes
of steamboats moored
side by side. Your ruling
You don't find it in the be4s
oisoknow nothing of this.
eftord and Cambridge
which the undergraduates are
can pass their examination. It is itf,, 4.two Study before they
resources that this opinion has beet,
~,,e_r_,lgnorance of these
accident, perhaps, more than anythitgluti_t:: but I, whom
quainted as well with the statistics wediene,haialsdmlabdeelieavce"
country as of my own, have never beli of that
now less than ever, that I or any One in nos
vast
two separate nations
(nibsviith,- confines
will ever live to see
of the present United States of Arne ea. re‘'seera.) At nth"
same time I tell you candidly that if it
ewvertee not on one
causee
I should—with the parties upon
objectattenaPt t 0
commenting—regard as hopeless wanlidosuseleswssthle have
been
subjugate the Southern States. Ris the.and. purpes,,
with which the war was begun that in my opinion renders
success to the Secessionists impossible. (Cheers.) If the
moral and intellectual population of this country had not
t
been systematically misled upon that question eyvewNo%uld
have been unanimously of that opinion. (Cheers.)once 'three
told in the House of Commons by ono who was
great champion of democracy and the rights and privileges
of the unsophisticated millions, that this civil war was ord..
ginated because the South wished to establish ree-tra e
F
principles, and the North would not allow it. I travelled
in the United States in 1859, the year before the fatal shot
was fired at Fort Sumter, which has had such terrible re-
verberations ever since, I visited Washington during the
session of Congress; now I carry a flag, and wherever 1
go whenever I travel abroad, whether it be in France or
America, Austria or Russia, I at once become the centre
of all those who have strong convictions and purposes
in reference to Free-trade principles. (Hear.) Well, I
confess to you what I confessed to my friends when I
returned,,".. that I was disappointed when at Washington in
' because there was so little interest felt on the
Free-trade question, there was no party formed, no public
agitation,
t
r_
Ere was no discussion whatever upon the sub -
ject of Fea-trde and Protection, The political field was
wholly occupiedslavery. uear.) I
by one question, and that question was
I have not seen ettedwill mention an illustrative fact which
mind it is conclusive on this
subject. In De„,beir, t°
, ;while Congress was sitting,
and e
when the country •,: 186°
as in
an agony
of suspense, fearing
the impending rupture, Congress appointed a committee of
their body, comprising members, being one representa-
tive for every State then in the Union. That committee,
called the Committee of Thirty-three,
11, 1860, to January 14, 1861. They 'ere
Nvaat
ofrom December
instructed
Congress to inquire into the perilous state of the
by
Union,
try to devise some means by which the catastrophe of
and
cession could be averted. thereHerel-r is a report of the proceed--
ings of that committee ;
e 40 pages.
I have read
line. The representatives of the Slave States were
every t.; es of the Free ---
invited by the representav States to state
candidly and frankly what were the terms which they re-
quired in order that they might bontinuo peaceable in the
Union. In every page you ;ice their proposition brought
a