Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1855-05-04
tCORHESPOSDENCE or THE FREE rntss
Letters from England.
no. NXNII.
Tbr Var ,yitb Py,s,o

no. NXVI1.
The War w,h Russia
LONDON, April jth, 1855
To me Editor ofthe Free Press
Unless this whole British people " from
Maidenkrk to johnny Groat's" and from
johnny Groat to Lands End, is not thorough
ly deluded, the present war against Russia is
not only iustfablc, but SO far as any war
can be, is noble enterprise. 1t was I'M
sought on the part Of England Every posi-
bic fort viz. National honor WIS moI' t.
avert it. No one rretends that it was the
creature Of royal, or ministerial, or party
ambition for not until the government was
reluctantly pressed into it by parliamentary
action, by public demonstrations, and even
by petitions to the throne. did it finally deter
mine upon the declaration OF war. The
people promptly responded to the call for
large increase of taxes indeed it is SAID that
taxes were never paid freely. 1t cannot
for a moment be supposed that England was
actuated in any part Of this struggle by hopes |
Of conquest or of territorial acquisition. y
man would be Missed down even in Manches |
for the war than a desire to protect a weaker
nation against the tyrrany of a stronger, and
to arrest despotism which threatens all
Europe.
Now when an American in England reads
in one of the foremost New York Journals
that there is nothing in the present war
deserving Sympathy he first denies and re-
3 Il. l.. l.. /
and then he begins to suspect the workings Of
thatvulgar jealousy which the press will never
let die. SO long a, Turkey maintained its
caus, alone against Russia, sympathy was
all with the former, but as if some portions
of the American Press had no positive attach
ment, to which they could afford to sacrifice
their hatred of the English, the moment the
English sided with Turkey, there was no
longer anything in the present war deserving
American sympathy. Avowed friendliness
toward Russia would be almost too bare
faced even for the Herald, but no less paper
than the New York Times seems to take
wonderful delight (uh dgne mclora hamma)
in misconstruing every act of English diplo-
macy or strategy, in deducing evil from every
seeming good if so be that any person or any
thing English can be impugncd by the deduc-
ton. Does the proyerb hold true in this
case that the press must echo and not create
public opiuion' And is the press still
obliged to feed this rancorous jealousy, Can
we never forget the wrongs Of revolutionary
times The abstract England, the England
which does not die with the generation and
the faction that wronged America, En- gland,
surely, has not done America such IL wrong
that we should feel bound to avcngc ourselves
upon her name to all generations. When |
read history, ! connect Geo. Ill, and Lord
North and their associates with faction
whom England as well as America has long
ago condemned, but | hear the voice of
England in Chatham and Burke and Con-
way, whom both England and America have
approved,
But now England mot faction) is engag-
ed in war which know not how you will
prove selfish, or cruel, or unjust, without
dstorting facts and feigning motives-a war
in which she takes the side of a nation
becoming every day more liberal, against
hutioH' ''COiuiIiS iuOIc iuOTe ueeDOtlCs--
! Well, after reading of the galantry and the
sufferings Of those men whom even you allow
to be brave, after reading the accounts OF
such herosm in daring and suffering as make
us all seem little by the contrast, we take up
newspaper from homo and find you chuck.
ling over Crimean generalshIp, shedding
crocodies tears over the tales of disaster
only to make occasion for abusing the gov
eminent ut home. You rake up old scenes
of British oppression to affect these scenes
of suffering, and you christen the Chapters
4" Retributiye Justice" An American in
England has always to answer many charges
against his countrymen. Fortunately most
of them are false and are easily refuted -
But when we are reminded of this stigma
upon our Press, either We are quite speech
less, OF we are obliged by the indignation of
our denial to make up for want of means to
justify it.
For my own part, Mr., Editor, think
great deal of blame is to be attached to news
paper correspondents, Why are they so
fond of prophesying evil, and Matching trca-
sons and strategems, and making you believe
that oil Europe is for ever plotting against
the United States sometimes think that
my letters must be very tame, for discover
no treaties of alliance against your peace, |
find no mare's-nests in the speeches Of for
eign Secretaries, and never have coniden-
tial disclosures from ministerial agents -
Indeed am sometimes afraid that | abuse
the English so little, in fact that | even say
so many civil things Of them, that | must be
intolerably dull.
/ 1t is very true that at this time the English
Journals are themselves full of complaints
against all sorts of men and measures, There
is hardly public man or an order, OF an
institution in England, which has not been
assailed in terms severe enough to satisfy
the editors of the Herald But YOU are surely
aware that no one makes more intcm perate
assertions than a person, Il succrc lover of
his country 1t may be, Who is eagerly urging
reforms, Ia this way some Euglishmen
quote Mrs. Stowe to prove that the American
pulpit is the slave of slavery from jealous
state suPcrintendcnts Of education, to show
that New England sshuol-houses are sheds, the
teachers ignorant, and the whole boosted
system rniserably defective from every news
paper in the land to show that our politi cal /