Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-01-16
RIVERSIDE LETTERS.
No. l.


Special Corresp N Hence CT the Daily Bersld.
R,vRRsrpE, LUp,0 w. VT,
JANUARY 18TH, 1862.
To THp EDITOR or InE HERALD: SIR
That in Gen, raj the citizens of the United
States have bren ignorant practically OF the
Theory OF f rropean Politics for so long is
strange indeed but that many of us should
have been unconscious that we have been a
FIRST Clas, Naratime Power for the last for
ty years, is stranger still. The recent affair
of the Trent has proba bly, enlightened some
of us and it must be painfully apparent to
the American mind to-day that we have Ia
ken place in the European family. San
Francisco, New York, Washington, New Or
leans, are as near to London for all inferno
tioual purposes q. e, in respect 10 the rapid
ity of the transmission Of government DIS
patch, S. as St, Petersburg and Constantine
pie are. The writer of these articles has
frequently received letters from America, in
London, quicker than from the c'pi,al of the
largest empire in Europe We start, then,
With the proposition that the Great Maratilne
Powers of to day are in the order of prece-
deucr,
1st, The United Statcs
q, Russia.
81, France.
Alb, England
5h Pros,ia.
III, Austria.
9Th, Iraly G.e, tho new Kingdom of V:
IIore Emanuel, comprising all the peninsula
Except Rome } and perdops,
8 h, Sptn, lately held by English and
Continental politicians to be deserving a
place at the foot of II c " family table"
In taking this position, as We are now
bound to do, we must expect to a,q,re many
new principles, both Of foreign and domestic
politics. We shall he required to support a
large standing army, pr, baby the largest in
the world. We shall b, obliged TO build a
navy, comprising principally the new st,l OF
mail clad slips of war and finally, il We
expect TO maintain in full ,i.or the Monroe
doctrine, we must acquire, perhaps, a liue
culture, and lose much of that spirit o.
spread-eagleism which has urdeniaI Is
characterized the Universal Yankee Ma
| ton" At time, TOO, when our deepest pc.
Iitica thinkers consider foreign war as i'm.
minent at any moment, and when orr Pre-.
mier recommends to Northern Governors the
putting the coast aud English frontier in q
state of defence against foreign aggression
it may be well TO examine in a plain anC
familiar way into that complicated system
commonly but improperly styled the Bal
d ance Of Power; p and to inquire somehN!
about that foreign way of " doing things
which VIC must sooner or later inc, itably
adopt, and to post ourselves up " somewha
in the principles of International Law anC
the Comfy of Nations. Before we tax,
leave of these interesting topics an investiga
ton of the actual status ard relative strengtl
of the eight members Of the European fami
ly may not be without its uses-and vii
. conclude with detailed personal account @
the most prominent European Statesmen
Kind readers of tue Herald, YOU will per
ceive that we have long aud perhaps har,
row to hoe but we viii divest the subject a
well as may be of unnecessary technical ties
we faithfully promise to make no knott
Latin quotations from Groius or Bryr
) kerohoeck. From bis arliest youth the WI
ter has lahored hard to become thorough
: versed in European politics and history, an
!, recent residence abroad, together with som
! acquaintance with foreign statesmen, will en-
! able him to write on these sui jects with grea
{ er accuracy than otherwise he could bring I
bear. lie arroeates neither the lofty claim
! of the rbetorieian nor the profundity of tn
SGran, and desires only to be of some seryic
j TO his countrymen in these times which tr
. mems souls. The times which most try men
souls are precisely the times which requir
the greatest nerve, the most powerful brawl
and the most accurate information for til
brain.
Let US consider, then, first, the Probabil
. ties of a War with England.
, C. L. D.