The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-04-02 00:00:00

can," but nevertheless upon annexing it, it only remains
for England to say whether she is disposed to submit
to such an insult, and such a flagrant infringement of
the law of nations. Much as we should lament a con-
test with America, which would be, to say the least, an
unnatural warfare, it will be the wisest thing for England
to resist the aggression, and immediately to send such
a naval and military force to that quarter, as may put a
speedy termination to the matter. Sooner or later it
will be decided at the point of the bayonet, for Maine
is peofoled with a race of plunderers, who are above all
law and all control, and upon whom all argument, ex-
cept that of force, will assuredly be lost. Is America
in a fit state to go to war ? Who are the instigators of
the dispute ? To the first we answer, No ! Her finan-
cial system is rotten to the core. Her legislature is
too dependent upon democratic fickleness. Her ex-
ecutive is the mere echo of her legislature, and is un-
able against the will of the sovereign people to enforce
the law. Two and a half millions of slaves and co-
loured men, forming one-third of her population, are
kept in subjection only as long as she is at peace with
England. The tariff, so necessary for the welfare of
the northern states, is justly looked on as an oppres-
sion by the southern states ; and the diversity of inter-
ests is so great, in a country of three thousand miles in
extent, that the very greatness 9f its surface is a source
of weakness. To the second query we reply : Russia
is the instigator of the dispute. Her agents are scat-
tered throughout the States. Her ambassador is well
acquainted with his master's designs on our eastern
possessions, and nothing so well subserves the•policy
of Russia as embroiling Great Britain in a dispute
in the western hemisphere, that she may the more se-
curely pursue her aggressive designs in the east. The
Czar, by the folly of England, pushed his frontier to
Astrabad, distant only from Candabar, in Hinclostan,
800 miles; and as Persia is all but in his grasp, and
the Caspian sea his own, he may avoid the barrier of
the Caucasus, and pour his countless hordes upon Hin-
dostan, whilst England is engaged in defending her
Canadian possessions, and in quelling the tumults of
Ireland. The miserable creature who holds the
Foreign portfolio, and who is unable to see further
than his own nose, ought to be impeached for his
treacherous neglect of the interests of England, and be
driven from office by general indignation. Had he
common forethought, he would have strengthened our
relations with Persia—have formed a treaty offensive
and defensive with Circassia, that interesting and im-
portant country, which is the key of the east, and
which is peopled by three millions of the finest and
bravest of the human race—he would have prevented
the Northern Aristocrat from laying Turkey prostrate
at his feet; anct the outrage on Great Britain, when the
Vixen was so unjustly seized, ought to have been fol-
lowed by the instant appearance of ten sail of the line
in the Black Sea, and the destruction of the Russian
arsenals, without immediate reparation had been made.
But a Palmerston—the hack of every party, is Foreign
Secretary, and nothing but his retirement, and the
resumption of power by men of abler hands than he
and his colleagues, can save the country from spoliation
and disgrace. Firm and vigorous measures are neces-
sary for the salvation of our Eastern possessions,
and with them the security of the empire. Napoleon
knew well that England was most vulnerable in
her Eastern possessions. Hence his Egyptian ex-
pedition. Hence his voluntary exposure to the
burning sands of Syria, deeming no price too
great for the possession of Hindostan. What is our
East India Association about, that an indignant re-
monstrance is not made against the shameful neglect
of British interests in the East ? Are they imrticipes
criminis ? Or are they willing that Russia shall tread
in the footsteps of the Macedonian madman, and only
stop when the Bay of Bengal shall tell her she has no
more left to conquer ? To defend Canada, we must
defend India. To curb American aggression, we must
curb Russian ambition ; for, strange as it sounds, two
principles, apparently wide as the Poles, meet in a
friendly way to destroy civil and religious freedom.
'l'l autocracy of Russia and the democracy of Ame-
rica can consistently meet, for both are detrimental to
free institutions, and both are identified with despotism.
Should the United States persevere in her aggressions,
the Indians on her unprotected frontier, and the slave
population of her southern provinces, must both be
stirred up to assert their rights. Ten thousand British
troops in the Floridas, and a fleet of line-of-battle •
ships in the Gulf of Mexico, may find employment
for the United Slates, without throwing herself
into the arias of Russia on the-,-one hand, or
stirring up a Canadian revolt on the other. In
the mean time other markets should be sought for
cotton. There are plenty of spots on the earth's wide
surface where this valuable commodity may be grown,
and the more those markets are extended so as" o su-
perinduce its cultivation, the better it will be for Eng-
land, should America be so badly advised as to go to
war. We trust, for the sake of both nations, that this
event may not happen. England has always acted
honorably towards her since she became an indepen-
dent state, and she may find after she has undergone
much suffering, that with nations as with individuals,
honesty is the best policy. There are persons now
living who may see the United States become two
monarchies, unless they pursue that course of honour-
able dealing which is the best guarantee for the perma-
nence of their own institutions. Much more unlikely
things have happened, and will happen again.