The national Republican., 1860-12-10
ENGLANDsAND SLAVERY.

In his letter Of the Sd instant, to the Rich.
mond Enquirer, Mr.. Secretary Floyd gives the
shareholders some seasonable and much.needed
warning, against the folly Of taking themselves
out Of the protection of the Union, and thus
exposing themselves to the pitiless storm of
hatred with which all Christendom regards ne.
gro slavery.
Mr.. Floyd says:
"H is a fatal error to suppose that The inter.
est Of England ioould prompt her 10. foster the
planting interests of the South. From the
Prince Consort, who sat silently by and wit.
messed the deliberate insult of an American
Minister by British peer before the congre.
gated intelligence of all Christendom, simply
because slavery existed in the United States,
down to the wretched cockney himself, forty
times the slave to suffering and circumstanc
beyond what any negro is to law-there is not
an Englishman who does not in his heart abhor
slavery, if he does not also abhor the country
where it exists.
"The South can never count upon the friend.
ship Of England, or upon her federation Of evils
not her own. Once within the reach of her
power, she will fix upon US forever the very
badge Of inferority which we are now ready to
destroy the Union to escape; and will foster
our products 80 far, and so far only, as may be
absolutely necessary to supply her wants. Eng.
land would insist upon making good her record
upon the slavery question. To sacrifice the
interests of q class, or even TO starve to death
few hundred thousand of her subjects in the
laudable task, would constitute very small
obstacle to her policy"
The following extract from an article in the
London Saturday Repie,o will teach the Gulf
States what they have to expect in the way of
forbearance from England towards their pro-
jects of extending slavery on the side of Mex.
leo:
"What sort of division of the unsettled ter.
ritory now belonging to the United States would
Southern Federations, nobody can pretend even
to conceive and this is the very difficulty which
seems to show that the severance could never
be effected without bloodshed. 1t is plain,
however, that every attempt of the Southern
States to expand beyond the territory absolute.
ly secured TO them, would be resisted, not sim.
ply by their Northern neighbors but By the
Uhole strength of European ciUiiizdtiOn. The
more reckless spirits of the South are pushing
on their quarrel, in the belief, that if they were
once disembarrassed Of the Union, they could
rend province after province from Mexico, and
fill each successive acquisition with their slaves.
But Europe trouid hare a cord in the matter.
1t is simply the incorporation of the North with
the South, which prevents European statesmen
from treating the annexations of the United
States as avowed extensions of the area of sla.
very. They cannot now upbraid q Confederacy,
of which more than half the members have no
slaves, with conquering and annexing merely
in the interest OF cotton and negroes but there
would be no scruple about taxing the Southern
Federation with designs which it would be at
no pains to conceal. Nor is there, we take it,
the slightest doubt that the free States would
rather assist than impede the efforts of Euro
pean diplomacy. The Monroe doctrine would
be destroyed by the very fact desperation, and
a Northern Union, once divided from the South,
would not be long in making the discourage.
ment of Slavery the cardinal principle Of its
foreign policy. In short, the measure of the
dangers of separation is the advantage now de.
rived from union. Slavery is sufficiently unpop.
ular in the world for mere saveholding Com.
monwealth to run no small risk Of becoming
the victim of q general crusade"
Certainly, this is not encouraging.
By going out Of the Union, the slave States
give up the chance, whatever it may be, greater
or less, of getting some portion of the present
Territories Of the United States, under cover of
the Dred Scott decision. Doubtless, the indem.
MITIGATION which they proposed to themselves
was the appropriation of Mexico, the restraint
Of the North being thrown Off But, at this
point, in steps England, aud declares for her,
self and for European civilization, that no such
procedure will be tolerated. In thus resisting
the extension Of slavery, England justly counts
upon the cooperation of the free States, be-
cause, in the language of the London ReuieW,
"a Northern Union, once divided from the
South, would not be long in making the dis
couragement of slavery the cardinal principle
Of its foreign policy"
!. As with the proposed seizure of Mexico, so it
would be with the proposed reopening of the
African slave trade. We are aware that that