Daily national Republican., 1862-12-12
RRuTIsH POLICY.


In his dispatch of the 2d of last August to
Gov. Seward, Mr.. Adams gives us the whole
secret Of British policy towards America in the
following few and plain words,
1.-THE sympathies Of the higher classes are
decidedly enlisted in the struggle, not from any
particular affection for either side, bat from
longing 10 see The political po,rer Of The United
States permanently impaired"
British statesmen have not always avowed
this motive, although they have frequently done
so. But they have never assigned any other
reason for their conduct, nor has any other
been plsusibly conjectured. We, Of course, re-
ject, as transparency idle and fiimsy, the sug-
geston, that they favor secession because they
need cotton, since Il Is manifest that they
could only hope to get their old supplies of that
article by discouutensnclng the rebellion, and
thereby assisting in the restoration Of peace in
America.
The actual reasoning of the governing classes
of Great Britain, as described by Mr.. Adams,
Is Just what we ought to have foreseen, and to
have been prepared for. As the world goes, ii
is sound reasoning, and adroitly as Governor
Seward states, in reply, the considerations
which should reconcile Great Britain to the
continued growth Of American power, we have
no sort Of belief that he has shaken, or can
shake, the opinion Of single Enghshman to
the contrary. II may be true, as Governor
Seward says 1t is in his always apt and felici-
Gus language, that traditions, and institutions,
and commercial character, will always incline
the United States to peace; but Great Britain
knows well that the best guaranty of security
and independence is power, and, for long years,
the first naval and commercial nation in the
world, Great Britain cannot sink 10 a second
position through the overshadowing growth Of
the United States without the most painful re.
pugnance. 1t is in vain that Gov. Seward as.
sures them that our laws, language, and reli.
gion, are substantially the same as hers. He
does not explain how that mends the matter.
If we spoke Dutch or Calmuck Tartar, instead
of Anglo-Saxon, and believed in the Koran. in
stead of the Bible, it is not obvious that that
supremacy in the affairs of the world which
we were attaining when this rebellion broke
out, would have been any more dangerous oi
offensive to Great Britain than 1t is now.
1t may be really true that British power de
pends upon the wealth, population, industry
and developed arts of the British Islands, but
that is not their received theory. Great Britain
is imperial, because her possessions dot the
globe, and the English know well that colonies
without naval supremacy, are only prizes tc
tempt the cupidity Of enemies. By what tenur,
would Great Britain have held India, after
few years more of expansion had linked thu
Pacific with the Atlantic coast of America By
what tenure would she hold Jamaica and Cana
da, with the population of the United State
only double what II now Is
1t is wisest, on all accounts, TO look at tn
fact and causes Of British opinion, Just as the
are. 1t is not malignity which induces BritIs
statesmen to desire the disruption of the Anne
rican Union, but self-interest. The case, there
fore, does not call for, or Justify resentment, a
we cannot nationally find fault with others 70
desiring their own advantage, where they d
not actually trespass upon our rights.