The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-11
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER II, 1869.
ENGLLSH COMMENTS ON THE
CUBAN QUESTION.

CUBAN QOHOIION.
THE telegrams from London indicate that
great interest is felt in England in the Cuban
policy of Grants administration. The British
Journals are intensely anxious to know what
Minister SicBles is doing what Marshal Ser
rano is willing to do, and to what extent the
American Union is likely to be involved in
the Cuban complication.
Part of this interest is legitimate and
proper, for the bloody drama now being en-
acted in the ''ever faithful isle" naturally
elcits the attention of the civilized world,
and so many denOuen,ents are predicted that
men naturally wonder which is the correct
one. But many of the British comments are
prompted by discreditable motive Our
treacherous cousins across the water are in
tensely anxious that we should make false
step which they could adduce as a justification
for their Infamous course towards America
during the late war in this country. This is
in the last degree contemplate, and we are
sorry to see London journal which bears
the name of the Telegraph engage in so paltry
business. 1t said yesterday that if the
United States should now aid Cuba, it would
logically follow that 'then England in 1861
acted in manner Americans now emphati-
cally sanction, and that by recognition Anne
RIGA would "take a step which the practical
world would regard as an auspicious exculpa-
ton of England from responsibility to Anne
rica." Great Britain granted belligerent
rights to the Confederacy in few weeks after
the first gun was fired on Sumter. She did
not even wait to hear the representations of
the new minister appointed by Lincoln, but
with an indecent haste, unparalleled in
the history of diplomacy, she ex-
tended a friendly greeting to the
rebellious organization which avowed its de-
termination to establish in the nineteenth
century, a government founded on human
slavery. Then came supplies of arms, munl-
tions medicines, and clothing, such as Great
Britain had rarely contributed to the aid of
an avowed ally. Union soldiers were con-
fronted on every battlefield with British
muskets and British cannon, and while the
Rebels were supplied with aid and comfort in
every possible shape by British blockaders,
the piratical Alabama was fitted out in British
ports to prey on American commerce. When
this action is contrasted with the stringent
SulOiCChOhI VI Jul AOuVldlltJ ldMo, OhC
seizure of Cuban expeditions, and the avoid
ance of recognition of the insurgents after
they have been battling a year for indepen-
dence, anything our Government is likely tc
do hereafter will not make a true
parallel to the policy of Great Britain.
The propositions submitted by Minister
Sickles at Madrid are also understood, there as
well as here, to be in the true interest of both
the contending parties; and whether the
Spanish government accepts or rejects them,
it will not fail to regard the action of the
United States as friendly and honorable. If
Congress should recognize the Cuban insur-
gents at the next session, after so much has
been done to prevent unlawful interference in
the conflict, and at the same time to bring it
to termination satisfactory to the mother
country as well as the colonists, such recogni-
tion would not have a particle of legitimate
bearing on the Alabama question; and if the
London Telegraph did not feel that it has a
very bad and indefensible cause to bolster, it
would not have resorted to such a contempt
bic quibble.