The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-06-10
An Enwlssh View 0fehe Oha noos e1n war
with tho United states.

An Eng.,sa View orshe on.ness era war
with tho United States.
In tho following article, the London speo-
tator, an able and influential English Jour
nal, discusses the ohanoes and cost Of . war
with the United States. The Spectator
seizes at once upon the root Of the diffioul-
ty, Wig: that the Union has South which
it cannot despise and dare not trust, and IN
touching upon the questions Of finance, the
defence Of the Canadss, and the power Of
Great Britain to support Q huge army and
powerful navy, the English editor writes
with Straightforward frankness altogether
different from the rant and bluster which
ill the Northern Radical journals when
they hound an TIE 1nasscs to demxad
Canada or War:
"Why do Americans think us weak? Be-
cause we could not defend the Canadian from
tier2 Possibly not; but we should infallibly
try to do it, and Americans, who on this point
at least are not unfair. will acknowledge that
to destroy British army Of hundred thou
sand men, backed by the Canadian population,
and by feet sufficient to blockade every port
north Of the Potomac, would be task reuuir-
ing all their resources. That effort would over
tax us We made it in 1857, sending an army
five tunes the distance, and, after three years
OF war which covered continent, that army
remained in India, with its strength unbro-
ken or increased, while at home another still
greater had gathered in reserve. But we have
Eeland9 Has not tho Union South, or do
Northern Americans believe that the senti-
ment Of 1rishmen toward us is worse than that
Of the Southerne,s toward them England,
If forced into this horrible war, would and
could stop at nothing, aoo,ld and could r>ttly in
Virgi'aia the men Of the lost cause behind q
aoeU-arpointed Europeam army, supported by
population north and south, in Canada as in
Virginia, which would know that in her victory
alone could their security be found. The backsp
Are we an enslaving power, or is the Indian
constitution intolerable to colored men? Even
then. when this had been attempted and the
Union was assailed on two sides, from north
and south in each direction by four millions Of
men rallying round that hardest OF kernels,
British army, we should have exerted but one
fifth Of the strength we displayed in the PEN
insular war, when, with Ireland included, we
were'but fifteen millions. We are twenty now
without Ireland. We had then q million OF
men on foot, and drove through Spain SOL
dier who welded, when the war began, re-
sources in men even greater than those at the
disposal Of General Grant. Our finances A
debt double that OF America-that is, an addi-
tion of three hundred millions to our debt
would but leave us where the Union is now, for
she pays double interest on her loans. In
1915, for every pound an Englishman received
he paid Is. cd. to the State. He now pays 2s.
The difference alone would yield one hundred
and twenty millions year-that is, support
the war without incurring debt. But then our
commerce? There is no saying what resources
thirty millions Of Anglo.Saxons may find in
their energy and patriotism; but we are Anglo
Saxons also, and at first all naval advantages
would be on our side. The Americans are de-
ceived by Parliamentary talk. There is no
feet in existence which could stand three
months before our own; our merchant navy
outnumbers that OF the world in combination,
and earth itself is but coaling station for
Great Britain. From Reliogoland to Hong
Kong, everywhere we have harbors, docks,
Goals, cannon Our sailors are the same in
race, in training, in courage, as the men who
followed Farragut; our officers the same as the
men who blockaded the South; our vessels the
result OF a competition to which America has
been but par y. Why should we be defeated
any more than our cousins Istit not at oil
events, possible. that efter-slaughtsr and ruifiA
such as might make devils vince, we should
emerge for the moment masters OF the sea- with
our commerce as secure as at present, and our
maritime prestige higher than ever? Look at
it how we will. war between America and Eng
land is mere destruction, mere loss, civil
war in which the only possible gamers are the
enemies OF both; but why in that contest of
suicides should we not be at least the last to
perish Because the Union is 80 large? Com
pared with the territories OF Queen Victoria, it
is speck on the earthis surface. That SEN
tence is nonsensical, we acknowledge, but it is
true, and is as sensible as the argument it re-
flutes. 10 war, concentration is everything.
not desperation, and we have the population OF
the entire North concentrated in territory
less extensive than Pennsylvania and New
York. The policy which crushed the south
cannot be applid to us; for when we had lost
the lives the South has lost, oil we should feel
would bo that our existing emigration had
been diverted to an unforeseen purpose. There
is something shocking to ourselves in the
mere use OF such an argument; but the war
against which we use it would be more shock
ing still-a war between equals. between broth,
ers, q civil war spread over earth, q war in
which every incident OF slaughter would have
the moral effect OF massacre, q war in which
every victory on either side would be sheer
ioas, war without o limit or q conceivable
end. We could gain nothing by the war, even
II we triumphed, and America nothing, for
Canada is not worth doubled debt; while IL