Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-27


nae american civil yVar IN europe-
Views Of Inc British and Erench Press on
the suhieet-A Later aid Amended I'm
aliak Optsion.
Iron the Manchester GuardianJ
The progress Of civil discord In the
American Republic has been attended bya
marked change IN public feeling in this
country respecting IL At 6rst ~incrednlity
ives the prevailing sentiment. The evils OF
o disruption Of the Union appeared so great
and paipable, and its good to any party 90
obscure and questionable, that people In
England could not imagine the possibility
Of SC ruinous a course being actually
adopted. We are well accustomed ourselves
to the threats with which beaten politicians
console themselves for their defeat, aud we
supposed the bluster Of the Southern States
on the election Of President Lincoln to pos
sess about the same amount Of significance,
and no more. The Secession OF South Caro-
lima and her cOnfederates scarcely occa-
stoned more excitement. The dispute was
still regarded as one certain to end without
leading to blows, whether that end were a
reconciliation or disjunction. The bloodless
csnnonade Of Fort Sumter was little cslcu.
lated TO dispel the prevailing impression,
and the English public rather wondered
what was TO be the next scene in 30 singular
a drama than felt any Of the grave anxiety
which accompanies the approach of a real
catastrophe. The passing events were often
discussed in a tone of pleasantly, and the
Americans were in some quarters warned to
be less fond in future of exalting their in.
situations over those of the Old World.
But the news which Immediately followed,
and which showed that the hostilities at
Charleston, however innocuous in them
selves, had been accepted on both sides, as a
declaration of war, produced a great and
sudden change. ALI traces of the levity
which had previously mingled in our COM
ments, vanished at once, and gave place to
expressions attesting the deep though MOURN
full interest every. where felt in the opening
struggle. Separated and irritated as the two
countries have been from time to time by
trivial but annoying differences, England
has never forgotten the ties of kindred which
connect her with the States, but has exulted
in their evident successes, and grieved for
what she deemed their errors, much as a
father exults or grieves over those of a fa-
vorite child. To be on terms of close aud
cordial friendship with the North American
Republic has ever been her foremost desire,
and she has always rejoiced to see the liber-
ties, won so dearly by herself, cherished and
perpetuated by her trasstlantic kinsfolk. In
the same degree England must lament the
terrible contest which now threatens to rend
the nation she has loved so well. Utterly
powerless TO allay the storm, and compelled
of necessity to remain entirely neutral be-
tween the belligerents, she can but trust that
the evil will ultimately result in good, and
give her best wishes to that party which
best deserves success.
A rough but sure instinct has already told
this country to which side its sympathy is
due. The very arguments addressed to it
by the Secessionists were sufficient TO show
their true character, and to put them in the
wrong. England" they said, ''can not do
without our cotton, and, therefore, can not
afford to be against US. An embargo on our
ports means for her a rebellion in Lanca
shire" The mere use of such an argument
is sufficient to show how utterly the Amer
can slave. owners misunderstood the feeling
of those whom it most concerned. 1t is one
of the class which betray the motives actu-
atiUg those who use them, by exhibiting
their notions of the inducements likely to
operate upon others. 1t supposed that En-
glishmen were simply hypocritical in their
protestations against slavery, aud would
throw their objections to the winds in order
to secure their own material prosperity. 1t
has already received its answer. This coun-
try proved the sincerity of its aversion to the
horrible system, by the price it paid for the
emancipation of the slaves in its own colo
MES. But it has never been slow to recog-
ulLt Aut uilLlNuiIiIo LIZ nav OPpOoNu q
similar step in the United States. So long
as slavery was there regarded in the light
thrown upon it by the first founders of the
Union, as a great but inseperable evil, so
long its existence was treated by EDglishmen
as an occasion rather for pity than ~reproach.
1t was not till they saw it openly defended
as a blessing, justified by texts of Scripture,
supported by ministers of the Gospel, that
they began to revolt against the people who
nonIA rnasntain unnh nntronaOna doctrines
Now it has often been remarked, and by
NJ. de Tocqueville among others, that the
negro race is viewed with stronger antipathy
in the free States than in the slave, and we
ere accused Of a certain inconsistency in
burlipg our censures at the latter, where the
blacks are, in many respects, we'll trested,
and admitted to familiar intercourse with
their white owners, while we spare the former,
where they are generally regarded as outcssts
from society. But first, it is scarcely true
hat we have spared the intolerance of the
North, although we have admitted our in
ability 10 judge it properly, from want Of the
requisite experience; and, secondly, we do
not allow that there is any parallel between
the cases. In all material results, the an.
tipsthy felt in the North is not one moment
to be compared for evil with the actua
slavery existing in the South. 1t has really
none of the ffightfully demoralizing infu,
ence exercised by the peculiar institution
the involuntary servitude," or any othel
name by which the South, in some conscience
smiIten moment, has sought to diguise il
distinguishing characteristic. When thu
ladies of Charleston subscribed to present
token of their admiration to the rufian whit
struck down Mr.. Sumner on the floor of tn
Legislature at Washington, the power of thi
influence was displayed in a manner NOR
convincing than could be done by any mum
Der of Uncle Toms. This ia the source of tn
feeling which decides the partnership Of En-
gland in the present conflict, even while W,
see clearly enough, with Tocqueville ant
other observers, that slavery is only an acct
dent in the dispute, and that its real obiec
lies deeper, in the differences pointed out b,
Mr.. Seward, in one of his election speeche
last Summer.
1.-THE controversy" then said the Senate
for New York, sis between two classes @
white men-ope having negroes, an aristo
cratic class, that wants to extend itself owe
the new Territories, and the other people
who have no negroes, and won't have any
and who mean that the aristocratic sectio
shall not be extended. 1t is an eterus
question between classes, the eternal ques
ton between the few privileged and tn
many upprivileged, between aristocracy an
democracy, and the nation that is willing I
submit to such an aristocracy, the riding {
the privileged, booted and spurred, over th
unprivileged, deserves no better fate tina
that which befals the cowardly and the IN
worthy. Every mar arriving here froI
Austria, Hungary and Naples, finds
another form the irrepressibls conflicts whic
crushed him out an exile from his nativ
land.n This we believe to be in the mai
true, and we are glad to think that politics
liberty, as we'll as moral justice and th
right of defense against unprovoked aggreI
sion, is on the side of the North in tn
great quarrel. But although slavery ma
not be the actual source of the contest frol
the moment this began, it has furnished ii
:. distinguishing badge of the combatant