The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-28
France, En- Gland, and the United States
New Holy Alliance.
From the Herald.

From the Herald. .. ....-
In the present relations between France,
England, and the United States, there is one dis
tinctly visible iact-England and France find 1T
very difficult to struggle against the conse-
auences of the great error in relation to the
United States to which they committed them
selves some few years ago. At the very begin
ming of the war against the Union the probable
result of the war was fully discussed between
the Emperor Napoleon and Lord Palmerston,
and the deliberations and conclusions of those
distinguished politicians were reelected with
more or less fidelity in the English papers,
which at the same epoch informed the world
in lofty periods that the great republic was no
more; that the United States was no longer to
be numbered in the catalogue of nations; that
there was nothing left OF US but CongeIles of
dscoIdant communities which would soon an
nihilate one another, and that the great expeL-
ment OF popular sovereignty had ended III
sudden but positive collapse. French policy
and British policy were Immediately shaped
upon notions of that stamp. 1t was assumed
that our power was gone; and in Europe it is
the morality of great nations that where there
is no power there must be no respect and is no
law. Any one may seize what the owner can
not defend. France began her proposed spolla'
ton upon us by taking up position and con-
centratlng troops in Mexico; and England, more
practical and blunt gave US the benefit OF her
neutrality, by which she drove from The seas
maritime power OF the world.
But, after all, the great Republic did not 90
down. So Tar from the collapse OF our Govern
ment ensuing we came out stronger than ever,
and the facts that forced us to battle and to the
exertion OF ou1 power first taught to us and to
the world the hnlmagined extent OF our develop
\ ment. Peace might have hidden for another
4 hali-century the important truth that under our
free sy stem we had grown to be the first mill
tary nation of the earth, if measured by the
! power that we were capable OF applying to the
purposes of war. This demonstration of our
vitality y-of the vitality due to our republican
system-r reacted terribly against those who had
been so eager TO determine Our quietus under
the "crowner's quest law OF their ambitious
views. Its great lesson as to the power OF popu-
lar government tended to shake down thrones.
This was so felt in Germany that the arbitrary
Minister of the Prussian King deemed il worth
while to commend his policy to the nation by
proposing to base IL on universal suffrage. How
1t was felt in France we may dimly guess when
we see that in spite of the whole fabric of police
and the infinite surveillance exercised, the
Latin quarter is now full of secret societies. and
that arrests are being made every day. Its effect
In Great Britain is seen in the impulse and in
tensity it has given to the movement of the
masses against the 6ristocratic system that ap-
pears IN the thin disguise OF movement for Par
lamentary reform, and also in the spread OF
Fenianisn, that at this hour endangers English
! RUE in Ireland. e.. '.
Our European enemies did what they could
| TO escape from their false position. France
made the farest protestations in relation to
Mexico, and England declared, with all the
vebemence and volubility OF which she was
capable, that the injuries done us were not
Intentional, but only the inevitable results OF
| defects in her laws; and she promised to amend
the laws. But there were in the case some
scarcely surmountable points OF dignity aud
national pride 1t was hard for them to swal-
| low The Graught that circumstances commended
| to their lips. They made wry faces. France
has delayed till the present hour the fulflment
of her promises, and is just as much in Mexico
| as ever. ..-r-H .r.
ENGLAND is just about naming a commission
to revise the laws that offended us; but she is
doing it with spirit that promises no remedy
for the evil. She is apparently determined that
If her laws are revised, it snail be done in
| the face of all the argument against 1t that un
compromising hostility to the United States can
suggest. Such Is the significance OF the ap
pOintment on the commission of Mr.. Haroourt
the "Historicus" whose utterances ON inter.
national law seemed SO admirable to the Lon,
don Times 10 what other light could any one
regard the appointment on the same commission
OF Mr.. Gregory, the member for Dublin, whose
advocacy in the House of that kind of neutrality
illustrated by the Ata9dpaq cannot have. beei
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