The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-12-21
The English Press on the Capture of Slidell
and Mason,


and Mason.
The Baltimore papers have been filled of late
with the comments of the English journals on the
Mason-Slidel seizure. The grave issues involved
in the adjustment of this question renders it a
matter of the utmost consequence that an accurate
reflex of English opinion with regard to the mat
ter should be had. All accounts thus far received
concur in stating that the excitement created by
the arrest of the Southern Commissioners on board
of the Trent was intense in the extreme, and that
if the law officers of the Crown pronounce the act
of Captain Wilkes to have been illegal, whatever
steps the English Government may think proper
to take to assert the dignity of the British flag,
will be heartily sustained by the people. The ac-
count that is given of the Indignation meeting
which was hed at Liverpool on the first reception
of the news by the La Plata, is ofitself significant
enough of the course that popular opinion would
take when the whole of the facts concerning the
stoppage of the Trent became more perfectly
known. The London Times, in an article on the
subject, which is cautiously worded, carefully
balanced, and was evidently written for the pur-
pose of calming down the popular heart until
such time as the Government had decided on the
proper course to pursue, makes use of one ex-
preston which is too remarkable to be permitted
to pass without notice. 1t speaks of the Com
missiopers and their Secretaries as having Teen
kidnapped" That single opprobrious word
stamps the nature of the transaction from the
point of view taken by English journalists gene
rally; but, when to what they esteem an act of
kidnapping, is superadded the ndignity perpe-
trated upon the English flag, it is easy to con-
ceive how strong must be the popular indigna-
tion and how necessary it became for journal
Of so much influence as the Times to soothe,
rather than to exasperate to still intenser de-
gree the strong sentiment of indignation which
has beenAdeveloped by a mere knowledge of the
simple fact and before the more damaging par
ticulars were publicly known. The Times, how
ever, after a dispassonate review of the case
cannot yet believe-though the evidence to the
contrary is strong-that it is the fixed determine
ton Of tho Government Of the Northern States to
force quarrel with the Powers of Europe. At
the close of the article, Mr.. Seward is admonished
that, whatever may be the issue, whether the act
be declared legal or illegal, "the voices of the
Southern Commissioners sounding from their
captivity are q thousand times more eloquent in
London and Paris, than they would have been
fthey had been heard at St. James and the Tu-
illeries."
The structures of the London Ne0s, in regard
to the stoppage of the Trent, are particularly Sc
we're. This is the more remarkable from the fact
that the News has heretofore warmly defended
the Federal Government. The Neus declares
that through the act of Captain Wilkes ''the
United States Government has struck its best
friend in the face" and demands that the act be
disavowed and atoned for. II styles the seizure
Of the commissioners more than gross outrage,
and declares it to be the duty of the British Gov
eminent ito insist on ample, complete and imme-
date satisfaction The Federal authorities
must disavow the act, restore Messrs. Mason and
Slidell, and tender the fullest apology. Nothing
short of this reparation can be accepted" Such
Is the language of the organ of the English Libe-
rails.
The London Chronicle asserts that "the blood
OF all England will be aroused by the latest in.
tsliigeuce from America" that the Federal an.
thorities ''could scarcely have acted with more