The Portland daily press., 1862-12-17
Wednesday Morning, December IL, 1862.
Mr.. Motley,s Letter.


We give below an extract from the letter of
Mr.. Motley, our minister in Austria, to Secre-
tary Seward, containing the scathing review of
Mr. Gladstones speech. Mr.. Seward has call
ed this letter 1.-THE gem of the correspondence"
We regret that we have room only for what
follows:
The manifesto of the English Chancellor of
the Exchequer at Newcastle has, doubtless,
engaged your attention, and you are better
able TO decide than / am how much weight is
to be attached to those remarkable instances
of sympathy with the Shareholders and their
cause.
only allude to it in passing as forming a
portion of the historical record of these times.
1t is the first public, although unofficial, re-
sponse of an English minister TO the emanci-
patton proclamation of the President. / do
not believe it to represent the policy either of
the Government or the nation.
The speech, so far as it is related to the
United States, was a consummate work of art,
and suggests the Grafton which the great dra-
matist has imagined for Marc Antony, arous-
ing the citizens OF Rome to fury over the dead
body of Caesar. There is the same elaborate
depreciation of hostile feeling, the same subtle
and successful tanning of flames of hatred in
his hearers, under pretense of cooling popu-
lar frenzy:
Good friends. sweet friends, let not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honorable"
says the Roman.
"Why, gentlemen, they are our kin: they
were, at any rate, If they are not now, our Gus
toners and we hope that they ,ciH be our
customers again 7" says the Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
A people struggling for its life against the
most tremendous oligarchy that the world has
ever seen, awakens not his respect, but his
pity. He is anxious, therefore, that people
so Inundated should be treated with due COM
passion. "Let us bear with them all we can"
To assure people thus battling for freedom
against slavery-for law, order, and social pro-
gress against despotism, avowedly founded
on slavery as its corner-stone-that il is sure
to be defeated. and that the sympathies of the
world are with its antagonist, is, it seems, the
true way of "manifesting a kindly temper"
10 do this is to observe great caution about
adverse criticism
The cup Of humiliation and shame is ready
for them, it appears. "They are still endeav-
oring to hold it far from their lips they have
not yet drunk of the cup which, notwithstand-
ing, all the world sees they must drink Of"
Enjoying thus the advantage OF reading the
future with perfect accuracy, the orator in
structs his hearers TO initiate his Christian for
bearance, and not TO trample on the downfall
en-. He earnestly hopes that England will do
nothing to inflict additional shame, sorrow or
pain on those who have already suffered much,
and who will probably hare TO suffer much
more"
Those W no know-as what American does
not-the deeds of daring by men, of selfdevo-
tion by women, the almost fabulous generosi-
ty of all, the countless traits of individual he
roisn andschivalry with which the simple an
mails of so many families, rich and poor,
throughout our land, have been filed, during
this dark but most honorable epoch of our
history; those who know what great peo-
pei is now doing and suffering in defense of
the free institutions bequeathed to them by
their fathers, will know how to appreciate the
epthet of SHANE" which an English minis
ter so genially bestows upon our name.
"Blistered be the tongue that speaks of shame"
is the only fit response to such rhetoric and
such prophecy.
But there were words in the Grafton TO
which it is to be hoped America will never re-
fuse its assent The Americans, it is admit
ted, 'have warm affection toward England"
England is "the country which, however they
may find fault with us from time to time, has
the highest place in their admiration aud re-
spect." This is perfectly true, and will,
trust, long remain so. But the England thus
venerated ard beloved of America is not the
England which speaks through the lips of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, aud which cheers
his prophecies of our humiliation and shame
1t cannot be denied that the tendency of
European public opinion, as delivered from
high places, is more and more unfriendly to
our cause. This is TO be ascribed, of course,
to the interruptions which the continuance of
the war causes TO material interests, and to
the increasing dislike in Europe TO liberal in
stitutions 1t would be weakness in us to ex-
pect sympathy from the privileged classe. !;
but the people everywhere sympathize with
us, for they know that our cause is that of the
people against an oligarchy.
They are not deceived by the reiteration of
the stale common-places about the wicked
war;" the miserable war;" the "causeess war;
Not one of the critics and prophets with which
the world swarms, and who are so anxious to
take the mote from their neighbor's eye has
ever suggested any possible project for the re-
storatton of peace They content themselves
with denouncing the war. 1t would be well
for these philosophers to ponder the motto
which the State of Massachusetts borrowed
from Algernon Sydney, and has borne for
nearly century on her seal;
"Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem''
The time comes TO all nations when they can
achieve peace AND liberty by the sword alone.
And when those blessings have been secured
as they can only be on our continent, which
the hand of God has indicated as the residence
of one people-by the re-establishment of our
Federal Union and popular institutions. now
threatened by the Shareholders insurrection
1t may be hoped that the American sword NAV
be sheathed for centuries.
Nor do | think that ontin,isrn ,,uo,;Io ,,r nm