The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-12-04
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND
Tuesday Morning, December q, 1866
Mr.. Stewards Diplomacy.

sSeward," says Count Gurowski i'm his
entertaining Diary, sis not traitor in the
strict sense; but the various ups and downs OF
his policy since March, 1861, his Sixty anu
,nety days prophecies, his utter want OF
earnestness. his offers of seats in Congress to
tbe rebels. his diplomatic, official assertions In
Anril and Nav 1851, that there is no war,
hat slavery will be preserved, and numberiess
similar FRANKS, made him the laughing-stock
uf European statesmen" Inanother passage,
The irascible Count suddenly bursts out with,
ooh, why has Congress forgotten to pass
law forbidding Seward, for decency's sake, to
make himselfridiculousp 1t appears that re-
cent performance of the Secretary's is more
serious than the lapses to which Gurowsli
deferred. The Atlantic cable has brought us
the singular news that the relations of Eng
land and the United States are not so salts
factory as would be desirable. We beg our
readers to observe the occasion for this dlplo-
matte cloud, as set forth by Thomas Hughes,
one of our best and frmest friends during and
since the war, in letter to the New York
Tribune, under date of November II. We
quote the passage referring to a recent dis
patch of Mr.. Stewards entire:
The sensation this week here has been the
publication kof Mr.. Stewards dispatch to Sir
Frederick Bruce ON the subject of the two
wretched men, Lynch and Mcmahon, who are
lying under sentence of death at Toronto. /
regret TO say that the impre ssion it has made
in England is one which all friends to both
countries must deeply regret 1t is regarded as
distinct threat, and threat conveyed in an
insulting and snobbish form, to serve the poll
teal ends of the writer, and pander to the
bombastic instincts of your mob A moderate
and Liberal paper, such as the Pail Mall Ga
zette, interprets it thus: I'VE will enjoy the
pleasure Of debating to you and giving you Or
ders till it suits our convenience to take pos
session of your dominlons You are only ten
ants on sufrance, and we will make you feel
it." This is their rendering of the dispatch,
and 1 own agree with it. When a Secretary
of State permits himself to write, "Good rela-
tions are Away, difficult and delicate in states
that are adjacent to each other without being
separated by impossible boundaries" having
regard to the circumstances Of the case in Can
ada, one can only conclude that he means bull
lying. We all know, as well as you, that the
whole of our North American possessions or
the main land may be overrun at any time be
fore we could throw any force into the country
which could make head against your armies
We are sensitively alive to the fact that the
time of the year has just arrived when it is vir-
Canada, however pressing the need may be,
and under these conditions we appreciate high
ly the taste of your Secretary's dispatch. am
very sorry for it, 1 own. Notwithstanding
much that has seemed to me petty, and I'M
worthy of man called to the front of a free ma
ton in such a crisis as yours, have always
tried to keep up the respect which acquired
for Mr. Seward when reading the debates on
Kansas questions years ago. The dastardly
attempt ON his life, associated as it was with
the martyrdom OF your grand old President,
revived those early feelings strongly, and it is
with considerable regret that / am obliged to
throw him overheard III his dispatch means
nothing for us on this side, and is intended for
home consumption, and as a bid for the Irish
vote, it might have been done at any rate in
far better taste.
Now ifthis ismerely blunder of Mr.. Stewards
it is bad enough. But there is a rumor abroad
that the President and his Prime Minister are
deliberately seeking to divert attention from
their miserable blunders at home by involving
the country in foreign war. IF this is the
case, Congress cannot take the matter in
hand too early. There is no plausible excuse
for war with England at this juncture. The
attempt in cool blood to stir up such quar-
rel would be misdemeanor of the grasest
kind.