Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-05-17
Earl Russell on the Hip.

Bancroft, Lle American historian, nave
had with Mr.. Adams, our Minister at
the court of st. James, Lord Russell
complaining that Mr.. Bancroft in his
eulogy on the late President Lincoln
had misrepresented his lordship's SEN
timcnt and action and that Of the Brit
ish government in regard to our civil
war The Earl was represented as hav-
ing made haste to send word through
the palaces of Europe that the great re-
public was in its agony, that the repub-
lie was no more, that a headstone was
all that remained due by the law of ma,
tions to the late Union.
To this charge the English Secretary
says
LAS words pronounced on such an
occasion and by so eminent man as
Mr.. Bancroft may have an effect far be-
You'd the injury which my personal
character might suffer, | must request
you to convey to Mr.. Bancroft my de-
NAL of the truth Of his allegations, and
refer him to facts of totally opposite
character.
Soon after the news Of the resis-
| lance in arms of the Southern States to
the government of the Union arrived in
| this country, a member of the House of
Commons stated in his place that the
bubble of Republicanism had burst.
| replied in the same debate, that the
| bubble of Republicanism had not burst,
! and that, if the curse of slavery still
| hung about the United States, it was
England who had made them the gift
of the poisoned garment which was now
| their torment.
| In fact, | have never had any doubt
that, whether the United States consen.
| ted to separation or pursued the war to
extremity, the great Western republic
would remain, happily for the world,
a powerful and independent republic"
No doubt the Earl felt sorely aggrieved
for nothing $50 cutting as the truth
If he did really represent the Union
cause and treat the Republic as Mr.
Bancroft alleges, then indeed has tht
noble Russell been grossly libeled, on
the English maxim that "the greater
the truth, the greater the libel"
How completely Mr.. Bancroft has
convicted Russell, let the following
statement determine
Mr.. Bancroft says the passage which
Earl Russell ''cites contains these thre,
allegations That as British Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs he viewed
this Republic as the late Union that h,
sent this view of our country through
the palaces of Europe and that he mad
haste to do so. He then sets forth tn,
following proof:
On the 9th of May, 1861, Lord Johi
Russell, then Secretary of State 70
Foreign Affairs, wrote a dispatch tt
Lord Lyons, in which he described tn
condition of America as "the disruption
of a confederacy," and he further use
these words: Civil war has broken on
between the several States of the lat
Union. The government of the South
, | ern portion has duly constituted itsel
Her Msjesty's government do not wis
you to make any mystery of that view.
|, Here is irrefragable proof of my first a
legation"
, On the day on which the Minister {
/ the Queen thus wrote, he addressed
, dispatch to Lord Cowley, her Majesty
, Ambassador at Paris, designating OF
Republic as "the States which lat,
ly composed the American Union
'tthe late United States" t'the La
. Union" and he enclosed in that dispatC
for Lord Cowley's instruction, copy
t the above cited letter to Lord Lyon
: Having thus ostentatiously commune
e ted his view OF our country as "the la
q Union" he asked in return "to be mat
acquainted with the views of the Imp
: rial government" NV second alleg
ton is therefore true, in letter and
i spirit.
/ That Lord John Russell, as Secreta
a of State, was in haste TO do this, a
- peaIed from his not having awaited Il
- arrival of the American Minister of N
u Lincoln's appointment, and from tho
j. very letters of the 9th Of May, 1861,
re Lord Cowley and to Lord Lyons, for
those letters he confesses that he hi
not as yet received from Lord Lyo
a any report of the state OF affairs, and
the prospects of the several parties" b
W that on coming TO the decision viii
er was so momentous and unprecedented,
W acted on the reports of "some consull
a and ''of the public prints"
Is is true that twenty-four days az
Lord John Russell had officially {
W scribed our country as ''the disrupt
C. of confederacy," "the late Unit
States" "the late Union" he reproYee