Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1857-03-28

greater than mere temporary outbursts of national
enthusiasm.
FROM THE RICHMOND ENQUIRER.
ENGLAND AND AMERIcA.-The generous hospitality
with which the officers of the Resoute have been well
coined by every class of the English people, from the
Queen to the commonay, repays thousand-fold the
of the present which is the occasion of the grateful
demonstration.
This spectacle of generous emulation in the race of
courtesy and kindness between two great nations is
not only very pleasant to look upon in merely social
aspect but is encouraging because of its political sign
fcance.
1t is with nations with northumberland there
many points of contact rough collisions viii some
times mar the harmony of their intercourse If it be
difficult thing for people to live together in the most
enearng relation without an occasional misunderstand
ing how much less practicable is it for rival commune
ties to co-exis in intimate social commercial and po-
ca connexion without now and then suspecting each
others friendship and good faith? The recent dispute
between Great Britain and the United States was Just
of those misconceptions and peevish ebulltions of
Immature which inseparable from the weakness of
humanity As there great principle or material
interest involved in the controversy so did frank ex
PLANTATION restore good understanding between the two
peoples
Any man who looks down below the surface of things
will discover the instincts and principles at the
basis of the American and British character and from
that affinity of feeling and unity of life will know what
degree of Importance to attach to any accidental COLI
sion between the two nations. The paths of their des
tiny parallel and though in the ardor of the race
they may fly the track and ose each othera little yet
they will clash from opposite aims and incompa
be interests but after the dust and heat of the contest
will finally meet together at common goal. We start
from the point and we for the same glory Of
one blood, Bible religion one literature one
law, one liberty with common ancestry for six CEN
turtles of heroic struggle against the powers of civil and
ecclesiastical despotism; with joint inheritance in
glory than which, whether in respect of literary fame
civil virtue or military prowess there is bril-
liant in the record of achievements with the same
conscience the same convictions and the same aspira
tons with the affairs, the prayers, the same
utterances of love- and the objects of reverence
with all this partnership of feeling, and memory and
thought and purpose what other relation is possible for
the people of the United States and the people of
Great Britain than that which happily subssts
between them? Then again, too, they driven toge-
Their and welded into closer alliance and rmer friend
ship by common enemies and common perils.
Say what will the British nation the only free
people in Europe If tomorrow the British Isles should
be sunk into the ocean, with all their precious freight of
wisdom and virtue and liberty achieved and consoldat
ed in established institutions there would survive
enough of free spirit and political experience wherewith
to reume the extinct orb and restore the lost sphere
And that precisely what the despots Europe would
gladly consummate Englishmen have some offensive
qualities with which they justly reproached by other
matte h,,4 ~ Lota
their love of liberty But we obnoxious to the same
prejudice and institutions regarded with even
greater enmy in proportion they still more popu-
lar We both possess the AngloSaxon exclusiveness of
character popularity of lfe and passion political
liberty and must survive fall together in the deye-
opment of the drama of history The idea of an ultimate
alliance of England and America against the absolutist
Powers of Europe when the time shall come to end the
struggle between liberty and desposm may be regarded
idle speculation, but the philosophic mind it is
a possibility, and not remote possibility either.
Events certainly be drifting in that direction
Meanwhile it is the policy of Great Britain and the
United States to draw closer the bonds of friendship
which bind them together for, besides being prepared
for the contingency of general crusade against free
government they will find present profit in cutivating
kind relations and good understanding The prospe-
rity of each is the interest of the other Our expanding
territory opens fresh markets for articles of English in
dustry and the increasing consumption of British manu-
features enhances the value of agricultural produc
tons. The course of British empire is eastward Anne
rcan power marches towards the setting sun and they
both scatter the light of Christian civilization in their
path Soon the two nations will girdle the globe and
there is why they should not shake hands as
friends when they meet in the development of their re-
spective destines.