The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-03 00:00:00

_EVENING,_ JUNE 3, 1869.

their influence with free thou_ ght_and free action
• within the law ; —individual liberty to the extent
compatible with good government. - Two such con-
flicting motives must clash in the event of both at-
taining their objects ; and if Russia could succeed'
its securing a dominant influence in the East and
the Republic in the West, the material would be
prepared for a great conflagration. But these are
the mere conjectures of the future, while the Diplo-
matic Review deals with the present and the imme-
diate past. It is clear that as a grain-growing country
Russia is the co:npetitor of the great Prairie States;
and it is towards these States that political power
in America gravitates. What Russia requireS, to_
produce grain enough to feed Western Europe, is
Ocap carriage. If she can get Western Europe to
construct her railways from her ports through her
corn-producing provinces, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
and lowa will be brought faCe to face with a
powerful competitor. The full meaning of this
cannot be realised at a glance, but its influence is
the most hostile of all things to the progress of the
United States. It implies the cessation of emigra-
tion to America ; it implies cheap labour for
the manufactures of Western Europe ; it strikes
then simultaneously both at the Atlantic States and
at the Western States, hitting indirectly at the manu-
fac• urers of the one, and directly at the farmers and
settlement of the other. The Government of Russia
is the most profound in the world ; no sen itne:.t
there obtains a place, for that powerful nation is
ruled on the sole principles of self-interest, broadly
as regards the empire, narrowly as regards the
dynasty. To play the two sections of the Anglo-
Saxon people against each other is no difficult mat-
ter, although when glanced at by an outsider, hav-
ing no interest in the little game, the folly of the
race might appear incredible in permitting it. Two
kindred people, having a language and literature in
common, laws based on the same code, the same re-
ligion, and professing much the same principles of
liberty, having identical commercial interests, agree
to neutralise each other while played on_ by a
country essentially differing from both, but radi-
ally opposed in politics, and competing in com-
merce with that one of the two whom Russia has
artfully persuaded is its dearest friend and ally,
while in truth it has a commercial interest in the
welfare of the other. It is time fur Americans to
consider wherein the progress of the United States
and of Russia run in the same groove. Surely the
,elliance is not based on Russia being a big country ;
on Russia having a " manifest destiny ;" or because
Russia hates England ? Indeed, the more closely the
subject is investigated, the more diffisult will be
found the search to discover the reason for theroman-
tic attachment professed by Republicans for a great
and wise but despotic power, having everything in
opposition, but nothing in common. The views so
hostile to Russia of the Diplomatic Review we re-
' prcdace, but do not endorse. What the writer
says is that the Autocrat has skilfully committed
England into signing the Declaration of Paris not
to attack her trade in case of war, while not only
has the Republic declined to join, but its freedom
thereby acquired has been indefinitely increased by
the fatal precedent established by England against
herself in the cruise of the Alabama, giving the only
nation she fears at sea the greatest latitude to prey
on her commerce, while she remains defenceless
being bound by the Paris Declaration not thus to pro
tect herself against the military powers. If it were
not that both the principles and interests of the
American Republic are, in truth, opposed to those
of the Russian Empire, the position into which Eng-
lish statesmen have allowed England to drift would
be such as to furnish little encouragement to the
upholders of representative Government. It is
painful to record that what has already been accom-
plished by the leading exemplars of that system
against each other, as well as the chaos. which
reigns in all the other Republics of America, might
form the best arguments yet furnished for despots
and oligarchies. Nor can it be gratifying to Re-
publicans to find that in the great debate in the
Cortes on the question of a Republic versus a
Monarchy for Spain, that America did furnish
powerful arguments adverse to the Republican
form of Government ; but we propose next week
to allude more fully to this subject.

revealing the saw-dust within, and danced it be-
fore the people as the bantling the country desired
to-nurse. - On the other hand, it showed them their
real 'grievance and the remedy, bidding them in
words of wisdom, seek that in equity and fairness.
Now people do not like to be rudely stripped of their
hallucinations. When IsAIAH told Israel, in the
language of sarcasm, what contemptible bits of
wood were the idols set up to worship, doubtless he
bitterly offended many, for though truth pays in
the end, honesty is not at the beginning the best
policy. The attitude of the New York Nation, in
the face of the present difficulty, is in a small way
like that of the Spectator during the Civil War; but
we consider the New York paper to argue even more
under the guidance of pure reason and untainted
by prejudice. The effect has doubtless been very
considerable, for false position after false position
had all its fortifications demolished and the garrison
left hare. It is at such a juncture that a paper so
conducted is peculiarly valuable, for its arguments
reach the leaders of its party, and they rule at
Washington. No men, not so blinded by prejudice
as to be unable to sea the force of its reasoning,
could fail to be influenced, and it will be found
that both countries in the end will owe no small
debt of gratitude to that most ahle and most un-
biassed of papers. Several others in the American
metropolis might be quoted as arguing the question
with less of temper and more of judgment than
those of the English metropolis, the New York Times
and the Evening Post setting a good ex uuple. The
New England papers are perhaps the most bitter;
the Western are too busy discussing farms, pro-
duce, merchandise, and free trade, to take so deep
an interest in it, and the Southern are almost indif-
ferent. It was the ships of Maine, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and New York which were de-
stroyed. A predominating marine gives importance
to these Atlantic States, therefore their interests in
the question are far more important and direct, while
the Western view is towards its sentimental aspect
as connected with an element of which they know
little. In the South the position is peculiar, and
this fact should not be overlooked in New England.
There are no enemies aYankee has who hate him with
such intensity -as certain Southerners, of whom we
will take Admiral SEMMES as the exponent. The
war was the expression of this feeling against the
black Republicanism and Puritanism of New Eng-
land, ;-Jt ,was SEMMES who manned, armed, com-
manded. the Alabama, and through-her was enabled
to give so deadly an expression to his hostility. His
book lately published shows unmistakeably what
that feeling now is, and we can imagine the intense
delight and satisfaction with which he regarded
SUMNER'S.speech and England's reply. " This arm
may be paralysed," he says, " but its acts still live,
and work vigorously for the lost cause. I will not
have commanded that ship in vain if through her
means I have placed a barrier between New England
and Old England, and charged mines destined to re-
kindle the flames of war against the party who have
ruined, subjugated, and enslaved us." New Eng-
land then in handling the claims, so as to convince
Old England they are used only as a pretext for war
and an expression of undying enmity, is playing
Admiral SEMMES'S game, doubtless to his extreme
satisfaction, and those who think with him. It
gratifies Catholicism, the next most bitter enemy
of Puritanism, only in a lesser degree. Hence New
England, in leading in this hostile expression of feel-
ing towards England, does exactly what her most
bitter enemies desire. The people begin to see this,
and in consequence the press has changed in tone,
and there is nothing more distinctly announced in
that section of the Union than the determina-
tion of America to preserve the peace. As we before
observed, the West gives the matter little thought,
and the South is indifferent ; therefore according
to our summing up this is the tone now prevailing
in America. The hatred which found vent in Eng-
land against the Federals shortly after the outbreak
of the Confederate war hurt the North beyond
cure. That sentiment found a tangible grievance in
the depredations of the cruisers. Mr. JOHNSON was
sent to England to adjust the difference., and to
express the deep sense of injury felt by the people.
He did exactly the reverse, and in doing so
goaded his countrymen into extreme irritation.
That irritation found vent in tearing up the
result -of his work, and still more in the phil-
lipic of a leading Senator against England. Imme-
diately after the nation cooled down with a sensa-
tion of relief, and some of its learned and wise men
began to examine Mr. SUMNER'S arguments. ilow.•-
ever fairly expressing the irritation of the moment,
they were iound on examination to belittle calcu-
lated to uphold the demands, and the people now
appear fogook on with indifference at their dissec-
tion. 'Where the speech really. struck hard was in
England, where it has probably checked for many
a day the then growing tendency of the peop!e to
draw towards their American cousins.—An.glo- Ante-
eiette -Times.