The Portland daily press., 1862-12-16

obligation because the property of Lancashire
is able to bear the burden. The sufferers are
not thereby reliered; and, remember, they are
our friends. Time also must elapse before the
resources of the county can be brought into
full operation; and meanwhile the American
contributions may save many lives even.
The London Times and Gen. Mcclellan.
1t will be remembered that when Bull Run
Russell, the special correspondent" Of the
London Times, with Gen. McClelan's consent
to follow his army to the Peninsula, had snug
ly slowed himself on board a government
transport, with his carriage, his horses, and
servants, by order of Secretary Stanton he
was directed to "walk the plank" taking his
traps with him, and was thus refused the priv
ilege which he sought of hanging upon the
skirts of our army operations, that he might
dsparage and traduce us before the world in
the columns of the Times. 1t is remembered,
too, how he went off suddenly to London, dis
gusted alike, of course, with Stantons dis
courtesy, and with republican notions of civil
ity to staggering attaches of the English
press.
From that time the Times, as was to be ex-
pected, fell to abusing our government in
general, and the Secretary of War in particu-
lar, and TO lauding nobody on this side of the
water-if we except the rebels-but Gen. Nc
Clellan, and those who have thought, through
the weight of his name and influence, to break
down the ad ninistration, and raise to life up
on its ruins dead and defunct party organi-
cation. But if any man ever had reason to
pray, in relation to foreigners as well as ma
tives, "save me from my friends" that man is
Gen. George b. Mcclellan. Not more dis
Greet than have been John Van Buren, Fer
nando Wood, and the Belfast Journal, has been
the London Times, in its attempts to exalt
Mcclellan head and shoulders above all the
rest of his countrynien; and not more trans
parent have been the meanness and unworthi-
ness of the motives in one case than in the
other.
In the Times of Nov. 25th is an article in re-
laton to Gen. Mcclellan, which is interesting
in showing how this European mouth-piece OF
slaveholding secession agrees with its sympa-
thiZers on this side Of the Atlantic. In the
first extract we ask the reader to notice the
statement that Mcclellan is the only Northern
General whom the enemies of the North re-
spect, and that he is the foremost man of a
party coming into power:
He (McClelan) is the foremost member of
party which is coming into power. He is
the only man among the Northern Generals
trhom the enemies Of the North respect: and
perhaps we may even say that he is the only
man among those Generals whom the world
at large respects. Yet, while he is in camp
surrounded by his friends, late one night a
missiye is put into his hands from President
who seems to have lost all influence, and from
a Government which is sinking daily into con-
tempt, and Immediately this powerful Gener-
al lays down his command, sinks into private
individual, and with short farewell to his
men, goes away into retirement, and almost in
to exile.
In the following see how adroitly allusion is
made to coup d'etat, and how easily it might
have been accomplished if American soldiers
had been the ignorant, passive, unpatriotc
hirelings that the Times imagines them to be,
Judging, probably by what it knows of the
mercenary troops Of its own country:
He (McClellan) appears to be the only man
in America who admits that the law has any
force. Ii Mcclellan had wanted precedents
or pretexts for tossing his official dismissal in
to his camp fire, neither was difficult TO find,
nor far to seek. Ii it was proper to resist by
military force the process of the Supreme
Courts, and 10 deny the habeas corpus writ in
cases of arrest of American citizens, surely
great necessity might have been pleaded to
prevent the action of a mere State Secretary's
letter: and il the whole municipal laws and
individual liberties of America are rightly sus-
pended under the plea of military exigency
surely similar plea might have justified a res
olution of Gen. Mcclellan not to leave his ar
my leaderless while in the face of the enemy
The Times seems TO understand the feelings
of the Democrats in this country; a. any rate,
it speaks for them, and intimates that they
would have applauded an attempt on his part
to subvert the government:
To strike down this party then even at the
head of the Army of the Republic was an act
OF vigor which might have had important con-
sequences had the Generals ambition been
equal to his opportunity. If Gen Mcclellan
had refused obedience there is great reason to
believe that the army would have stood by him.
and that large party Of the Democrats
tcoutd hare dppiduded him.
Here follows more of the same kind. mingled
with twaddle about Saving the Constitution
from the Presidents violation; bat the
reader will probably agree with us that the
Times respect for our Constitution. and its
fear of its violation, are paralleled only by the
demonstrations of Messrs. Van Buren,, Wood.
d Co., in the same general direction. The
Times says:
To save the Constitution by force from the
forcibe violations by the President would
have been fair party cry But Mcclellan
has preferred to play the part of the model
constitutional Democrat; he yields obedience
even to Mr.. Lincoln, that he may show his
zeal for the Constitution, and with a smoth-
cred complaint of doubt a2d coldness" in
some quarters, he turns aside from the possi-
Ole dictatorship 20 till his New Jersey farm.
In the following is very distinct intimaton
that Mcclellan has more confidence in Jack
son and Lee, than he has in Burnside, and that
the latter's failure to cope with the rebel gen.
erals will afford qualification to Mcclellan.
This is the kindness of the Times for the late
commander the army fthe Potomac
bold, patriotic man might have been daz-
Zed by the glory or impelled by the duty of
daring everything in order to put an end to
the present outporing of blood and arresting
the present rush to ruin; but so far as the
world knows Gen. Mcclellan he was likely to
see things in different light. While matters
are going so well for him and his party there
is no need ofany great coup. No doubt Gen
Mcclellan has confidence in Lee and jackson