The Memphis union appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-08-06
How England Would Enjoy ssesssion.

How England Would Enjoy Secession
From the London News, July H.
Before we venture to presage the conduct
and demeanor of the Americans in this new
trial of their faith in their destiny and in Them
selves let think for moment achat WOULD be
oar oaon feelings under similar circumstances
In our own day the inhabitants O f
one-third of the United Kingdom, provoked
by the neglect of their just local grievances,
threatened political secession. Legislative in
dependence was openly avowed as the object
of millions of men and in the united Parlia-
ment itself the purpose was avowed and main
tanned.
The seeding portion of the empire was de-
clared to be politically overborne by the re-
mainder, and its social condition was said to
be peculiar and distinct, not understood by the
rest, and requiring separate laws. The terms
of the Y nion were declared to have been vio-
lated, and the spirit of the compact to have
been broken. Geographically, the line of sep
aration between. the two islands was deeply
and in 1elibiy marked and the lapse of time
not half as long as that which has sanctioned
the American Confederation-was net suffi-
cient to obliterate from the minds of those who
would have rescinded the Union with Ireland
the vivid recollection of the state of things
that existed previous to that act. Theoreti-
cally it was argued by the Irish secessionists
that if free to marry, they had a right to di-
vorce on grounds of neglect and cruelty
The injustice and the neglect were admitted
unreservedly by the best and wisest of our own
statesmen. But while they pleaded for redress
they told the Repealers of Ireland that the
Union they were resolved TO maintain at any
hazard. Among the liberal statesmen of Great
Britain there was on this point an unanimity
as entire, determination as unwavering, as
among the most conservative of their rivals.
On every other question of modern politics.
domestic, colonial, foreign, municipal, impe-
rial, financial, they differed again and again /;
but on this one great vital and essential ques-
ton, they never differed. Wellington and
Grey, Peel and Russell, Lyndhurst and Brough-
ham, Graham and Palmerston, all agreed that,
come what might, the Union must be main
tanned, the integrity of the realm must be pre-
served.
In one of the most brilliant and effective
speeches ever delivered by Mscaulay, after
reminding the Irish on how many questions
the Liberal party had fought side by side with
them, as they were ready to do again, he thus
warned them Of the infatuation of seeking to
dissolve the Union "The repeal of the Union
we regard as fatal to the Empire, and we will
never consent to it, never-though the coun-
try should be surrounded by dangers as great
as those which threatened her when her Amer
lean colonies, and France, and Spain, and
Holland, we're leagued against her, and when
the armed neutrality of the Baltic disputed
her maritime rights: never-though another
Bonaparte should pitch his camp in sight of
Dover Castle; never-till the four quarters of
the world have been eonvulsed by the last
struggle of the great English people for their
place amorIg the nations"