The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-20
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToP1cs-CoMPnED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH
SENTIMENT VERSUS ACTION--MR. SUM
NER AND THE ENGLISH PRESS.

The English press seems to us to have fallen
into the same error in regard to MIR. sumner
speech that our people did in regard 10 Cne
pro-Southern speeches ueiFg ~ ~, H. drin,r
Englishmen in the British Parliament during
tbe late civil war. In all popular or reprosen-
tatiye governments, theapubllc men ana rheIorl-
clans are permitted n great latitude OF express
eior They are often the mOuth-pleces OF the
sentiments of the people, and great deal OF the
nonular excitement effervesces by TINS sate vent.
Not unfrequently they hold and express opl-
Mons of their own which are even more eX-
treme than those of their constituents or tol-
lowers.
Under despotic or purely aristocratic govern
ment, such men are kept silent by the response
bilites of their position or by the orders OF a
superior power; and when they do speak, their
words are justly supposed to mean almost as
much rs actions. If the leader OF the Imperial
party in the French Corps Legislatif, enjoying
the confidence of Napoleon, should arise and
deliver q vigorous indictment against Germany,
and demand an enormous indemnity for national
injuries, the world would naturally and justly
suppose that the governments themselves were
excited against one another, and that war was at
hand.
We fall sometimes into the same impression
when the statesmen of constitutional govern
ments utter sentiments and frame arguments in
strong opposition to the views OF rival govern
ment. Thus, during the Rebellion, when Earl
Russell said openly that 1.-THE North was strug-
Cling for empire and the South for indepen-
dence," when Mr.. Gladstone in public address,
spoke of Mr.. jefferson Davis ''as having formed
q nation" when Mr.. Roebuck uttered in Parlia-
ment his fiery philippics against the Union,
and Mr.. Laird was cheered by an immense
majority for his connection with the equipment
of the Rebel rams great numbers OF nervous
and excitable people here rushed to the conclu-
sion that Great Britain about to recognize
the South and break the blockade Indeed, we
now know that propositions were made to her
by France to this effect and there is no question
that nine-tenths of the upper classes of the
kingdom would have favored such a measure.
The sentiment of the aristocratic classes, and of
the Government itself, was undoubtedly warmly
for the South.
But with all popular governments there is
vast chasm between sentiment and action.
English statesmen were very ready-too ready,
as it has turned QUITO utter TRADES against the
North the press was crammed with abuse; the
Parliamentary orators argued with point and
vigOr against the cause of the Union; but when
it came to putting all this excitement into legis-
lative action, when the question of the Rebel
rams was up, or that of recognizing the blockade,
no open step was ever taken by the British Gov
ernment The English administration of those
years could easily have made a preteXt for
breaking the blockade, or recognizing the South
as q nation. But in managing the affairs of such
complicated societies as are those of Great
Britain and the United States, there must be
great caution taken in letting feeling hold the
helm. The interests involved are too vast, the
dangers tooIgigantic, to permit sentiment to
guide the relations of governments.
Mr. Charles Sumner, who may be described
without invidiousness the rhetorican of the
Republican party, has recently, in his position
as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions of the Senate, delivered highly rhetorical
Indictment against the British Government. He
undoubtedly expresses in it the sentiment of
three-fourths of the masses of the nation; he
may express the feeling of General Grant and
his administration; but for the public to sup
pose, as the British press seem to do, that this
oratOrical statement is to be the basis of
negotiations or to be followed by legis-
lative or governmental action corresponding,
seems to us in the highest degree puerile.
Mr. Summers rhetoric, General Grants feel
ing, or the prejudices of the masses of
the country, will have nothing to do with Mr..
Motley's negotiation, or any overt action of the
administration, or any public proceeding look
ing towards peace war The chasm between
Mr.. Summers oratorical Indictment and war is
wider than the ocean, General Grant or Secre-
tary Fish are not the kind of men to let senti-
ment run away with them. And if they were,
the nation has great ballast of common sense
and Christian feeling to keep them from being
hurried into horrible struggle by rhetoric and
prejudice However in the matter of the Ala
bama claims Mr.. Sumner may represent the
anti-English prejudice and hatred, he is not just
the man in whose wisdom the nation would trust
a difficult negotiation, or under whom they
would rush blindly to war.
He is not ,even from the character of his mind
and the course of his Studies the best authority
of his country on questions of international law.
The people generally are no more ripe for war
with Great Britain than they have been any time
for the last eight years. Mr.. Summers Grafton
has made no change in popular feeling. His
Indictment is frequently considered exaggerated
and the bill of costs absurd. Its value the
effort of a statesman may be measured by the
fact that if the Government OF England acted
according to the feeling it has universally called
out there we should not get penny OF damages
or breath of apology.
The rejection of the treaty is indeed quite
another matter, and OF most serious character;
but it is to be judged entirely on its own merits,
and not from the rhetoric OF the Senator Its
worst effect-and we hold that to be most inn
portant for both nations-is to place the Ala
bama question in the limbo OF unsettled ques-
tons for n generation to come.
DANGERS OF THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.
From the NJ Y. World.
During the war; everybody who had any repu-
tation for judgment or sagaclty was of opinion
that the prodigious expenditures of that period
of waste and destruction would be followed by
widespread financial disaster and distress. Mr..
Bright in his speeches abroad, Mr.. Chase in his
reports at home--persons as little disposed to be
croakers or alarmists as anybody in Europe ol
America-expressed this opinion with grea
positveness and emphasis. We have gone OF
four years since the close OF the war, and appa
rently their gloomy predictions have been beeC
by the event. The cost of living has indeed
been high; but there has been no great revulsiol
in trade, no great stoppage of industry, no panic
We have kept the wheels of business moyin!
with more or less efficiency and success, unit
the country has concluded that, although w
have danced, it is, after all, no very seriou
matter to pay the fiddler But abundant sign
begin to thicken upon us that the predicted evi
day has not been ayerted, but only postponed
Atlast. we are apparently on the eve of payin
the heavy penalties of a gigantic war.
By what means have the consequences of ou
prodigal expenditures been so long postponed
10 Dpp