The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-23 00:00:00

MR. ROEBUCK AT SHEFFIELD.

Mn. ROEBUCK manfully battles with his troubles at
Sheffield. He has appealed to the electors' sense of
injustice, has enlarged the programme which on
many points was far too narrow for one of the most
Radical of boroughs, and whilst he still supports his
former position with respect to the Sheffield
trades unions, he does not fail to explain his previous
career whenever it admits of explanation. The result
is a somewhat curious medley of consistency and con-
tradiction, repentance and inflexibility—leaving the
impression on the whole that, whatever may have been
Mr. ROEBUCK'S faults, the constituency he again seeks
to represent can claim no advantage over him. Per-
haps the most remarkable of the many notable
speeches Mr. ROEBUCK has made during the
present campaign is his last. The interpre-
tration he gives of the American war question
is truly original. His belief was, and is,
that the American people would become so numerous
as to be all-powerful among mankind. His object
was to prevent the United States having that
immense uncontrolled power ; and he urged that
England should acknowledge the South, just as America
acknowledged Hungary, when she was in rebellion
against Austria. " The moment that acknowledgment
had come, away would have gone the blockade of the
American shore, and there would have been an end
to the American civil war." Such a result would have
been muchto the benefit both of the separate States and
of mankind generally. Mr. ROEBUCK then proceeds
to describe an interview with LordPALmEnsToN, during
which thelate statesm an admitted that he held precisely
the same opinions as the member for Sheffield, but
dare not officially say so. " I had to look at the
destinies of mankind ; and I thought, for the des-
tinies of mankind, we should have taken that oppor-
tunity of separating the United States." It would,
perhaps, be waste time to stop and condemn this per-
sistence in error, after the last chance of justifying
such an error had vanished. On the subject of
America Mr. ROEBUCK is hopeless. " The interests of
humanity" should not be overlooked, but when they are
applied to thwart the interests of another State, they
generally mean selfishness. Does it escape Mr. ROE-
BUCK, that if the Americans become so powerful as
to dominate over the rest of mankindi such
a result will, in all probability, be owing to
their enterprise and prosperity, and to other
nations' feebleness and decay ? Great States
are rarely broken up in the interests of humanity.
Mr. ROEBUCK'S parallel illustration is particularly
unfortunate. The Americans recognised Hungary;
but foreign sympathy had the effect only of causing
the interference _of Russia and the final downfall of
Hungarian hopes. It is by no means certain
that our interference would have separated the
North from the South ; it might ; but if
if it had, would it have been a gain to the American
States or to the interests of humanity ? But most of
all are we unable to reconcile Mr. ROEBUCK'S sym-
pathy with the South with his anxiety for the free-
dom of the slave. There are many who think
that the abolition of slavery has for the present
produced the rno3t deplorable effects, but
there is none, except Mr. ROEBUCK, who can
believe that the independence of the South would
have emancipated the negro. Let us accept facts.
The slave is free, and America is a great and power-
ful whole. Mr. ROEBUCK would do better by shewhig
the Americans how they can escape the difficulties
which now beset them, rather than by constructinc,
absurd theories respecting the means by which those
difficulties might have been avoided.