The Portland daily press., 1869-05-28

the most obviously unfair and annoying thing
about it. The Senator hardly expected such a
storm, and is more than ever convinced by it
that the hostility he ascribes to the governing
classes IN Great Britain, was not at all too
strongly stated. OF John Bright's falling in
with the tide he spoke regretfully, though rec
Ognizing clearly that politically the great Eng
lishman had ARRIVED at the limits OF his pos
sibilities." "After all John Bright has become
only British Cabinet minister, and with all
the grandeur of his character there is a very
large residuum of John Bull in him. With
Golden" continued the Senator, there was
not enough of this to hurt. He was continen-
tai, nay, more, cosmopolitan in his character,
which can hardly be said Of Mr.. Bright
Abiding to the criticisms made on his inter-
national law dicta and quotations of authori-
ties, on which subjects he has often been
charged with dogmatizing, Mr.. Sumner allud-
ed to the fact, probably forgotten by most per-
sons, that he was Immediately after his admis-
ry's advice, as the lecturer before the Cam
bridge Law School. For two years he devoted
himself to International Law and being then
IL the prime of his young manhood, worked
exceedingly hard at his subject, reading with
omniverous appetite everything relating to his
great theme. Men who obtain thorough
knowledge of subject at that age are not apt
to forget it in however slight degree, and a
very little trouble enables them in after life to
keep "posted." So it is no wonder with this
carly brdluluS tutt ut SuOulu uo 81 thoroughly
acquainted with his subject as to appear even
to dogmatiZe.
There is another fact which lends force to
the Senator's severe criticism of England's
treachery to her traditional anti-slavery senti-
ments. 1t is this. His first visit to the old
world was in 1888, and he spent at that time
considerable period in England, where he was
especially noticed by the leading lawyers and
jurists, Lansdowne Brougham, Denman, Pig
OFT, and the other great judges and counsellors
of the period At that date England was in
the full blaze of her glorious self graduation
over West India Emancipation, and the sue
cessful workings of the Middle Glass Reform
Act. 1t was q period of transition, during
which mutual admiration had full sway. Car
lyle and Ruskin had not so far brutalixed the
English brain as to have made it possible for
Governor Eyre to live unpunished, nay, even
feted and honored. The Plutocracy had not
quite got control. Hence Mr.. Summers
warmth in writing of English treason. Prob
ably there comes memory of that period to
sting with new force English animosity to
the critic
But m lst close. It is said that there ex-
lists marked divergence between the Senator
and the President on the question of Minister
Motleys instructions. The Senator, it is
affirmed, desired that they should be full and
definite; while the President was contented
with general directions, leaving events to
shape themselves, Mr.. Sumner would have
America formally announce her willingness to
reopen negotiations on the new basis; while
the President is content to wait until Great
Britain notifies us of her desire to renew them.
Mr.. Sumner wants to get the vexatious Ala
bama matter out of the way at once the
President cares more just now for the reor-
ganization of the Treasury aud the faithful
collection of the revenue. After that is well
under way, which will probably be within q
year, he will be ready to attend to the Ala
bama and our other outstanding accounts, if
Great Britain has not in the meanwhile
forestaled him by initiative action.
SPECTATOR.