The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-06-19
SUPPRESSION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.
ENGLIsH VIEWS on THE RIGHT oF SEARCH


ours everything goes on till it is stopped, or till
there is smash, or till the machine wears out
Everything that is paid to go on, ''goes on long
as it is paid. Officers in Church and State suecures
OF an KINDS, institutions innumerable, ego on" as
lntalibly and regularly quarterday comes round.
We are not sure that we not at this moment
maintaining the sufferers by the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes.
At least we have heard and read the grant for
American Loyaists and Toulon Refugees moved
and voted twenty times. Even without the induce
ment of pay anything official must go on till it is
stopped. During the great with France the
Commissariat officer of one of the West India
Islands was ordered to avail himself of some ship
ping from Nova Scotia to get his beeffrom Halifax;
and dozen years ago-a whole generation after the
original order-it was discovered that the order
still acted on, though there plenty of good
beef on the island, and the imported article was not
the better for the voyage.
To the colonial officials the rule of peculiar cur
rent of beef from point to another, at such dis
tances, great mystery as the mythical flow
asStthe Arethusa under the Ionian Sea. But they
}a only to do their duty, and the custom went on.
Besides, somebody had profit on the beef, and
somebody also on the freight. Do readers
remember the story-it is fact to our knowledge
of the corporaPs guard left during the Peninsular
War in charge of 10000 greatcoats? Everything
ment, which passed in the lump through somebody's
account
The soldiers married and had families, and lived
comfortable long after the TO- 900 coats had become
! one day it was found out the army estimates were
unconsciously swelled with the maintenance of
snug little Anglo-Lusitanian colony. A public
Office is but machine, and whatever is the
books must Ego on" as long pen ink and paper
are forthcoming. But in the case of these slave
trade squadrons there is inducement-so many ships
in commission, many officers in employment and
pay, so many ardent minds longing to read their
| names in the Gazette.
We may depend on it thing, of this sort will
"go on much faster and further than we reckon
upon. The stokers will feed the fires the engineer
will tie down the safety valve, and the train will
rush at double express speed till it beds itself in
cutting, topples over an embankment, dashes
through station into a popular thOroughfare.-
There can be only one end of such careers. 1t is
the oldest lesson of experience, Look to the end"
See betimes that you do not ego on" till it is too
late. Many captain has persevered in a danger
Gus course because he has begun it, and has com
mitted himself to its safety. In such case MILDLY
calls out to the lieutenant on the watch, 'Breakers
ahead;' ''Nonsense, its the light of the MOON In
one minute more the MILDLY has recovered from the
rebuke, rubbed his eyes, looked harder, and again
feels emboldened to cry out, "Breakers aheadr'-
Before the ship has gone another length it is wedged
on the rocks; it has ''gone on too long.
Is it necessary to add to what we have said before
on the obvious certainty that this Anti-Slavery
crusade must come to an end 1t might ego on
for this year. the next year. for 10 or 20 years.
but any one who who thinks for a moment on the
character of the Power with which we have princi-
pally to deal must see not only that the end will
come at some time other, but that the longer that
END is STAYED oil the worse 1t will be. 1t is the fast
growing son, or younger brother, rather lubbery
we may please to think at present, very saucy, self
willcd, and more free for physical developments
than bound by moral ties.
Let us not quarrel overmuch with this disagreea-
BILE stage of existence for it belongs to the youth
of men and Of nations. But this same Power must
one day have fifty times territory and ten times
our people. Beside receiving year by year from
the Old World the population of an English county,
it is more thrifty of its born citizens than we are
1t has no armies in India, fifty colonies to be
garrsoned, no immense navy in commission, scarce
ly even the pretence of an ant-slave trade squad
ron.
The time must come when, invincble as we NAV
be on our own soil, own shores, our own seas,
and anywhere on equal terms we should have to
contend with the United States on very unequal
terms on their SOIL their shores their seas and GEN
orally in the New World. To this must be added
the great popularity of their political constitution
1t is by means settled out there what the Union
may undertake and promise, and in this particu-
lar affair the Anti SlaveTrade Treaty is against the
conscience of many of the States, and the interests
ofnearly all, it is vain to expect that thing ofpaper
and ink will either compel the Union to sacrifices or
the several States to compliance. We see not whence
the virtue OF fidelity and constancy is to come;
where we are to look for the patriots who shall
stem any tide of popular evaporation at alleged
"British outrages.''
That those outrages are very got-up affairs, that
our cruisers have plenty of work to do if the treaty
Yankee skipper has an interest in making a noun
tain out of molehill grant to those who argue
from these considerations against being bullied out
| of a noble cause. But if it was necessary there
should be treaty-if, in order to successful opera
tons of our cruisers, it necessary there should
| be any understanding with the States-then, we
say it is quite obvious that this necessary condi-
ton fails altogether The ground sinks beneath
| our feet.
1t is not that shippers are pouring in complaints
and demanding damages, or that shipowners and
the public generally are getting up a breeze, but
that there Is no power in the Federal Government
OF the Union to stand by its own treaties and do
justice to its allies At the least the alliance is be-
tween British enthusiasm and American decencv.-
W e may all now see what that decency has done
mot one capture against fifty of ours and what it
| is likely to do against the combined passion of
Southern planters Northern merchants, the ship
owners of the whole seaboard, and the Anti-Brit-
| ishers of the whole Union.
vi course we shall be told these are the counses
of coward, and that setting the terrible
| example of yielding to the argument of might. We
might almost concede this. We might even confess
that IL the truth must be spoken, we are yielding
| to still worse argument than that of might We
are yielding to the argument of the United States
| Government being incapable of standing its ground
against the passions of pOpulace the interest
class; in other words to the argument of superior
weakness and immortality. But there are cases in
which courage is mere foolhardiness; and there
are also cases in which we incur not only all the
risks of our SIDE but also those of the antagonist
There are nations enough and occasions enough
In which we may show the courage of our race. If
anybody doubts, we may point to India at this mo-
ment where we are fighting against great diff
entities and odds those encountered by Cortez or
PlZarro. But even courage ITSELF if it be not I'M
nerved, at least listens to the voice of nature and of
reason when it finds itself face to face with its
| own flesh and blood, its own kith and kin. Who
are these people, so unruly, so provocative and
so glad to pick quarrel with us? Who
| are they upon whom mere animal courage would
goad us to an internecine war? They those who
have already been worsted in the old hsme quar-
rels with us. They starved out peasantrC
ousted tenants, dispossessed cottiers the younger
| sons of younger sons left-handed workmen, un-
| lucky spectators, disappointed politicians men of
| every class who have seen and suffered the worst
OF the old country, the worst of all being that they
inherit our restless, moody, illcontented nature
1t is an old grudge these noisy fellows are working
| out against us on American vantage ground. This,
then, is rather social than political quarrel and
as ill an occasion for heroic courage as quarrel
with Ireland or the populace of our English cities.
| But what is to be done, and what is the dan
ger that presses? 1t is simply the danger of that
official pis moment which ''goes on with whatever
1T has begun Great as is the power of office .'not
TO DO thing, its power to ego on doing it is still
greater. AT this very moment, it would SEEM from
the answer given the other night in the Commons n
mlschlet Is operating, ripening coming to a head
and producing, rightly or not a serious grievance
across the Atlantic, without word of communica-
ton with the British Government, and without any
knowledge OF the matter, except through the Amer
lean papers.
Will our government wait till the grievance has
festered to the regulation soreness? Will it do
nothing till, in the of month or two there
arrive simultaneously dry report corporations from
the squadron and an angry demand for damages
from the American Government? Something
might be done now with grace and dignity. Six
months hence we may find the two Governments IT.
retrievably engaged in a correspondence which,
after producing the angrest feelings on both sides,
will end in sulky permission to saucy young
cousin to do what he pleases on the other side of
the Atlantic. We wish to act with better foresight
than that.
What is Government doing? 1t had best at once
intimate to the American Government its readiness
to take any proper steps for obviating future dis
agreement without sacrificing those principles of
humanity recognized by both Governments. As,
too, it is not prepared to say that the cruisers have
been acting according to orders, it ought to express
readiness to inquire whether they have done so or