The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-10-31


been made to the Treasury Department To
these applications, however, no answer Is re-
ceived, and month after month is permitted to
eiapse without any notice whatever being taken
OF matters which, in the present troubled state
OF the country, should be treated with the ut
most promptitude Wherever the fault belongs,
II would DO well for Mr.. Chase to have It cor
rected, and the recurrence of similar grievances
prevented for the future.
The sneaking Policy or the British Gov.
eminent.
The secret wish Of the British government
is to see this republic destroyed. We have
presented too great an example of the success
of democratic institutions, and become too great
maritime and commercial rival, for Great Bri-
tain to regard us with complacency. The South
ern rebellion affords, in her eyes, some prospect
Of the desired result. She therefore watches
carefully and anxiously, but is afraid to act or
speak in open hostility; for she well knows that
wo are capable of becoming formidable enc
nay. She closes her eyes to the real objects for
which we are fighting, and affects to deplore
that the people Of the United States should be
contending, as so many States of the Old World
have contended, the one side for empire and the
other for power. She recognises no patriotism
in our motives, no love of liberty, no noble inn
pulses. She gives us no credit for struggling to
preserve the great legacy bequeathed to us by
the founders of the republic. Instead Of yiew-
ing it as she viewed Ito Irish rebellion, In her
own case, she compares this contest with the
dynastic wars of Europe. and she calculates the
ultimate consequences with cold cynicism
which only confirms us in the impression that
England would rejoice over our downfall. But
in this, ifpenny wise, she is pound foolish. The
permanent disruption cf the United States would
be blow to liberty all over the world, and
could only be accomplished by European inter
ference; and how much would Europe suffer in
the struggle? We would show the nations Of
the Old World that we are powerful enough to
inAict train of disasters, apart from their loss
of trade with this country, that could not fail
in making them bitterly repent Of having ever
involved themselves in the contest.
Our remarks have been suggested by re-
cent speech of the British Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, delivered at a banquet at Newcastle,
wherein he alluded, at considerable length, to
the war in the United States with sneaking
vagueness which is characteristic Of bis govern
ment towards this country. Ho would have
gone farther than to compare the war here
with the contentious of the States of the Old
World for power and empire, but he knew il
would arouse the feeling of twenty-thrcc mil
lions of loyal people in America, and he was
afraid to do that He therefore contented him.
self with dealing out Lis opinions about the
| impossibility of the North ever again being at
peace with the South. "If this quarrel could
be made up" he remarks, should we not have
those who differed from Mr. Lincoln at the last
election carried back into the Union? and thus,
| sooner or later, the quarrel would recommence,
and perhaps long civil war follow" He goes
on to picture the state of anarchy which he leads
his hearers to believe. must follow the possible
! subsection of the South, and confidently asks,
"On the other hand, supposing the United
States completely to conquer and subdue the
Southern States; suppesing that should be the
| result Of long military confict-supposing
that should be the result Of some years Of civil
war-should we not have the material prospe-
| rity of that country in great degree destroyed;
should we see that respect for liberty which has
| g long distinguished our North american
brethren, and should we not see those Southern
men yielding to force, and would not the North
be necessAated to keep in subsection those who
had been conquered, and would not that very
materially interfere with the freedom of ma
| tons. And, if that should be the unhappy re-
! suit to which we at present lock forward--if by
means such as these the reunion of the States
should be brought about--is it not the duty Of
| those men who have embraced the precepts Of
| Christianity to see whether this conflict cannot
! be avoidedY 1t is we'll that Lord Russell is so
practiced master of the diplomatic art of con-
veyng what he thinks without saying itin plain
| words; but his caution and studied vagueness
| only serve to remind us of the snake in the
| grass, and TO show more clearly than before the
] ungenerous sentiments which the British gov
eminent entertain on the subject of American
| affairs
I
| The Legislative andidates-The Broken
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