Washington telegraph., 1856-04-16
From Reynolds London Newspaper.
Notes upon the American Question.

! AsotOS QDUn I1G american HueSffn7
Many of my readers viii doubtless re-
member the famous defence made bv a
down-east lawyer N behalf of his client
the defendant in an action brought to re-
cover damages for the injury done to a
copper boiler that had been lent to him.
| :" In the first place." said the learned
pleader, we contend that the copper
was cracked when it was lent to us !; In
the second place that it was whole when
we returned it and in the third place
that We never had it at all The Times,
In Its leading articles upon the American
question during the last month or six
weeks, seems to have emulated the style
of reasoning adopted by the Yankee bar
rister- If all Its arguments and declara-
tlons on the point were summed up, they
would amount on behalf of the British
Government to precisely this -. La the
first place we have apologized for what we
have done; in the second place we were
justified in doing it; and in the third
place we never did it at ALL Every one
knows that the Times, being the most un-
principled journal in the whole world, is
as versatile as it is unscrupulous, and that
if one day it suits its purpose to hector
and bully, another day it will cajole and
entreat, it Will deny or affirm, admit or
repudiate, over and over again, in style
which might seem at the first glance to
be sheer laundering, but which is In real
lty the most dexterous exercise of an un-
principled f1aesse that ever displayed itself
in the sphere Of journalism. If the Amer
/ xat- h. Il
mind of the British Government or the
feelings of the British people, they must
look upon the former with disgust and in
| dignation, and upon the latter with pity
and contempt Perhaps in the first-men-
toned instance the Americans do enter
tain precisely the sentiments which have
indicated; but in the latter case they know
| full well that the Times no more expresses
the public feeling of this country upon
the American question at the present day,
than it did in reference to the Hungarians
some six OF seven years ago, when it earn
ed for itself the Infamous title of " the
Austrian Gazette" One of the most ex-
traordinary diatribes of the 31leading Jour
naP' on the American question, appeared
in its impression of last Monday 1t cool
ly asserted that " the whole machine of
American Legislation has been brought to
deadlock" But upon what ground did
the Times assume this most illogical pro-
position, and propagate this base false
hood! Just because there has been some
little delay in the election of Speaker
for the House of Congress. If Ameri-
can institutions be never brought more
nearly to stand still than they ROW are
| by this incident, they viii not ON that ac-
count suffer In comparison with our own
antlquated, corrupt, worn-out, rumbling
governmental machinery. Our institu-
tons have been for years past In such a
desperate state of deadlock, that if we
want new Ministry we must take to form
it four-ffths of the materials of which the
old one WAS constructed; or else the Brit
ish people must be banded as a shuttle
cock between two aristOcratic cligues of
whom all that can be said is ssthat it is
six of one and half dozen of the other;"
while In reference to both parties the men
tai ejaculation Arcades am5o' springs
up. The Times would endeavor to per
suade It's readers that General Pierce,
the American President, is the victim of
a clique which strives to force him into
a war with England; and it complains
that ''in America social tyranny compels
almost every man to choose his side and
take his part" 1t is perfectly true that
in the United States every citizen is a
politician-for the simple reason that ev-
I cry citizen enjoys the rights of one; and
: inasmuch as he possesses the suffrage, he
naturally and necessarily studies politics,
: that he may know how to use it. There
fore, if every American be compelled ''to
choose his side and take his part" it is
: not in obedience to any social tyranny
whatsoever, but arises from the fact of his
enjoying freedom which is known only
by name to the millions of serfs and slaves
in our own country. But while the Amer
lean institutions themselves lead all Amer
lean citizens to be politicians, the fierce
and selfish despotism of an oligarchy in
. this country excludes fve-sixths of the
population from any chance of showing
themselves as politicians at all. On the
one hand, therefore, the United States of
J North America present US the noble spec
) tacle OF nation of politicians exercising
verltably and actually the power of self
government,-every man possessing the
suffrage, and consequently every man stud
ying how to use it, and no one for very
shame's sake daring to exhibit an indif-
; ference for the great boon of freedom,-
} while, on the other hand, Great Britain
furnishes to the world the ignoble and the
degrading example Of a great nation be-
ing held in bondage By an aristocratic
clique nation consisting of one-sixth
portion of freemel and five-sixths unen-
: franehised slaves, serfs and bondsmen-
The Times may continue its diatribes as
long as it viii; but they assuredly Will not
prove without their uses while they force
upon the public comparison between the
: free, enlightened institutions of the Uni
| ted States, and the unjust, despotic, class
contriving system that prevails in our own
| country.
The Times insists that the British gov
ernmant has sufficiently anOlooZied fol