The Empire County argus., 1856-02-02
England and the United States.

Like the Good-natured man in Goldsmiths most
unjustly condemned comedy, MIR. Attorney-Ge Gener-
al Gushing seems likely to undergo the penalty of
universal repudiation There is no doubt that this
dexterous and ingenious gentleman considered that
he had made good hit when he made the cores
pondence with his District-A Atorney the vehicle of
angry invective and vapouring menace against
England and her Government. He thought doubt
less that he was riding upon the very crest of the
popular wave, and seizing an opportunity for dis
tinction such as whole life spent in popular arts
might never again afford. The result, however,
has not turned out exactly as MIR. Cushing calcula-
ted. From the English press he has nothing to
hope or fear; therefore we take no account of the
severe and wel-merited reprobation which his in
cendiary efforts have drawn down upon him in that
quarter Rut for the tone OF the American press
we really think Mr.. Gushing must have been Who'll
y unprepared 1t is another triumph of discussion,
another proof of the advantage of extended public
ity and of the beneficial influence of that press
which has so few friends and so many bitter enc
mics among our governing classes, that precisely
the same tone with regard to the American Attor-
neyGeneral has been adopted on either side of the
Atlantic, and that one may read the comments of
American and English newspapers on this delicate
and irritating subject without being able to dstin-
guise between the tone of Mr. Cushing's enemies
and those whom he fondy believed to be his friends
But least of all could Mr.. Gushing be prepared for
that which has fallen upon him-his reputation
by his own colleagues, whose cause he believed he
was serving, and whose language he thought he
was speaking Here, at any rate he might fancy
himself safe, but here also his nexorabe ill-fortune
has pursued him. and subjected him, according to
the American newspapers, to a formal Reputation
and disavowal.
Here, then, we take our leave of this unfortunate
gentleman, whose efforts to embroil England and
America by an abuse of his official position have
raised him to a momentary notoriety of which he
is by no means worthy, and pause to examine for
moment the state in which recent differences, now
SO happily passed away, have left the opinions and
feelings of both countries OF England we can
only say what we have said before-that since this
dispute, before it, she regards rupture with the
United States with unmixed abhorrence, believing
that she has everything to gain by the advance of
their prosperity and everything to lose by whatev-
er may retard or impede their progress and that
should war break out, every blow struck by our
hands against the welfare of America would recol
with equal force upon ourselves, so that we must
be doubly osers-frst, by the calamities we suffer-
and; secondly, by those which we inhict. No
doubt, the feelings of Englishmen have not been
wholly insensible to the parade of Russian sympa-
thy and the anti-English defamation which they
encountered from quarter in which the champ-
ons of freedom and the rights of man might have
expected other and kinder treatment. But we are
willing to concede to our neighbors the same ber-
ty OF criticism and comment which we so fully
claim for ourselves, and have right to be angry
if that liberty takes q form unacceptable to our
own prepossessions and views.
With regard to the feelings of America we are
happy to believe that this transitory difference
leaves Transatlantic critics better disposed to
us than it found them. Any who has watched
American opinion during the progress of the war
cannot but be struck with the extraordinary chan
ges which it has undergone according as the natu-
raj impulse of the people in favor of what is right
and just, the factious influences of party spirit
and jealousy in the ascendant. The first
emotion of the American people on the breaking
out of the war was undoubtedly favorable to Eng
land
To this succeeded a burst of anti English feeling
on the part of the exiled ''patriots of Ern" sup
ported, it would seem for some season or other by
the present Cabinet at Washington and whatever
influence it might command, rising till it reached
the eliminating point in the insolent manifestoes
of Mr.. Gushing, the menaces launched against the
English Minister, and those circumstances which
compelled the English Government to seek for ex-
plantations from the Cabinet of Washington From
this time symptoms of reaction have shown them
selves, or rather, we suspect the matter has been
no longer left to be trihed with and made capital
of by mere jobbing politicians, but has fixed the
attention OF the great mass of the American people
who content in ordinary times to allow their
interests to be endangered and their views msrep-
resented by some of the least trustworthy of their
fellow-ctizens. From the moment that the Amer
lean nation found it worth while to look to the mat
ter with its eyes, and take it into its own
eyes, and take it into its hands, all serious risk
of collision at end; and one is surprised to
find how exactly the people of America agree with
us In the very moderate, not to say disparaging
| estimate which we have formed of the talents and
intentions of their own Administration. The great
mass of the two nations think alike, the only diff
ference being that while the English Government
is fair representative of the opinions of the peo-
ple the American Government seems to represent
little else than its electioneerng projects and
the schemes and aspirations of the widest and
most desperate citizens, and can only be saved from
the most runous excesses by the direct Intervention
of that wealth and intelligence which has no rep
resentative among its members
With all the earnestness which an escape from
recent danger can inspire, would entreat the
people of America to consider the peril with which
such state Of things is fraught and the probabil-
ity that by abandoning the ordinary direction of
government to the least eligible hands, terrible
risk is incurred of involving the State in difficulties
from which it may be impossible to escape, except
by useless and sanguinary conflict. When will
this acute and far-sighted nation, whose individual
citizens peculiarly dexterous and active in
the management of their private affairs perceive
and act upon the great truth that it is idle to aim
at private prosperity unless at the same time eff
cien measures be taken to protect those public in
teress that are common to all When will Amer
ica recognize in theory and adopt in practice that
great and weighty truth, that no State can long be
prosperous and happy from the administration of