Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1862-05-08

remains with those authorities aud 10 longer with the
authorities of this State Of the numbers gathered at
Raleigh are not Informed nor would we speak II We
were nor of the means of armiug tem but may say
that these are sufficient to add considerably to General
Holmes Forces and enable him to provide more efficient
y fer the defence of exposed positions in his depart
meot That the General is disposed to do soto the
utmost extent of bis ability and of tie mears at bis
command No one will doubt.
The Richmond Dispatch thinks that Seward has COM
pleteIy oumaueuvred Lord John Russell, whom we
agree with that paper in regarding in all respects as
about the smallest specimen of a minister extant
The ready submission OF Seward to the English de-
mand for Mason and Sde with all its disgraceul pre-
varcation !; his assurances of getting cotton at an
early day by the opening of cotton ports to be occu
pied by the Federal troops, have had the effect of en-
aiding that efete ard most incompetent person to go
quietly to sleep and dream of his acutenes and of
his favourite BorraboolaGha Seward knew that the
capture Of all the cotton ports in the Confederacy
would not put him in any better position to redeem bis
pledge thar he the moment of making it, and he
made his most disrepabe submission to England with
the btterest hate ranking in his heart and only await
ing the moment when he might venture to show it
He begins think that he may take higher tone
and perhaps laugh at the idea of intervention for the
purpose of breaking The blockade of ports which
no longer in the possession of the Conederates while at
cost beyond all prect dent that the world has shown,
he has been accommodating naval ornaments of that kind
against which, the experience Of the Merrmac and
Monitor has proved, " wooden walls of 10
account.
England ard France fad themselves fairly, if not
fairly at least fully deceived. ouwitted and ready to be
de6d They find that they have missed their cslcua-
tons about cotton They also ird that they cannot do
without that staple and, fer the time being, they are
powerless.
| TIE game, d game has been adroitly played
aad if such game could eventually succeed the player
deserves the credit of almost matcbess cunning and dis
stimulation. For the time being he is the undoubted
master of the situation far the Western
Powers of Europe concerned, and We think
they begin to see it, and to feel it, as far as
the person at the head of the English Foreign
Office is able TO see feel anything. The fact is,
that England at present is deeply excited for the loss Of
its pretge its power and its manufacturing staple
France is only less sufferer by this contest than Eng
land but the great secretveness Of the French Empe
ror permits little to be known of bis feelngs-nothing
at all Of his probable of action. He has set
Of views and aspirations Of his own which mYste
res and threats to his neighbours and to than
bis island neighbour the ententscordiCIe to the contrary
Notwithstanding. That be appreciates the gravity Of
the crisis the recent visit of his minister to Richmond
affords evidence, but how he appreciates it, what
course be is most likely to pursue, who pretend t0
say?
Should any difficulty really arise between tie Wash
ington Cabinet and these OF London and Paris, it is
hardly to be expected that the latter will be quite
easily satisfied by the assurances of Seward they
have been that any feeling but that Of disrust should
pervale citations where mutual respect cannot be
enter aimed.