New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-25


leading and most influential weeklies, The Spectator
fought for you at the risk Of absolute ruin for its
circulation is chiefly among the very class which
was most unfriendly, and whose rrejudices were
faithfully represented by The Saturday RerieO and
The Times In the same way The Laily Rercs and
The Morning Star never faltered for moment, and
great number of the best provincial journals took up
and steadily maintained your cause, specially after
the appearance of President Lincolns proclamation.
If, again, you like to appeal from the press and
from anonymous writer's to those WHO wrote and
spoke in their Names the case IN ,ur favor is at
least as strong. Carlyle and Ruskin nay be quoted
perhaps as strong sympath2ers with te Rebellion,
but they never wrote deliberately and seriously on
the subject, and other authors of n'te so far as
remember openly took the same side. Surely Mil,
and Sir Charles Lyall, and Goodwin Smith ought to
neutraze these two names and Calriess admlra-
BILE volume, published in the first year OF the war,
and putting your strongly az 20, could wish,
was never answered. and remains the most effective
English publication touching the great truggle Or
look at Parliament Not only was vte hostile TO
you ever given but the friends of the REBELLION never
dared even to take division, and hrGregory, the
member for Galway, n comparatively unknown man,
was the most weighty politician who openly adyo-
Gated interference while such men al Bright and
Forster were always ready to answer him. Even
in the House Of Lords tho great majority of
the Peers, il they were at heart unfrlendly
to you, at least kept their own counse, and when
You VIGOROUSLY represented by snchmen az the
Duke Of Argyll, and Lords Granville, Kimberley.
and Houghton, who made no secret of tier sympa-
thies with the North, | can't think yoJ have any
right to be sore. You will say that the foremost
man of our Liberal party. Mr. Gladstone spoke pub
licy of Mr.. Jefferson Davis as having made nation.
But he has as publicly owned his mistake and done
Justice to the steadfastness and heroism ofthe people
of the Northern States What can yon ask OF
public mani Outside the Houses OF Parliament
and the club world our case is even stronger When
your reverses at the beginning Of the war were
crowding on you fast and thick, and even Lowell was
writing
In six months wherell the people be,
IF leaders look on revolution
Ez though II was cup Of tea,
jest social elements in sOlutOni
the Southern sympathzers here talked Big about
testing popular feeling in England by pubic meet
ings and appealed to the cotton operatives and the
working class generally, to protest againit war
which was causing them very severe suffering. What
was the answeri have been at many public meet
ings in London in the last twenty years, but have
never seen one approaching in numbers or enthusiasm
that which flooded Exeter Hall. filling not only the
great Concert Room and every other public room III
the building but the neighboring streets in reply to
that challenge. In all that vast crowd, broken up
rs it was into six seven public meetings, there
was but one feeling of hearty and thorough sym
pathy with you, and confidence that tho Union
would be saved and Slavery abolished. lt did the
business once for all for the Metropolis. True there
were no lords, eminent public men, among the
speakers but surely YOU of all people, are not going
to take up the old arstocratc ground and ask have
n Dl.nrfa hell
Those who malign yon most among us
say, that is precisely what you do care
for; that tho sympathy you long for
is that of our fine gentlemen and ladies,
hunkeyism being as rampant with you ~ With us.
We don't believe them but shall never silence them
Till we can show that You appreciate the fact that
nearly all the brains and heart of England we're on
YOUR side Well as | said just now, the first meeting
really settled the question in London, and the able
and active agents of the Rebels backed by the ma
jority las readily allow of our upper classes, never
dared try the experiment of n public meeting.
In Lancashire the attempt was made and was a
ludicrous failure, while the Union and kmancipa-
ton Society of Manchester held large and enthusl
astic meetings everywhere in the midst Of the poor
"demurringp operatives, who never for moment
ninched from their principles and everywhere
stcrnly refused to lift finger or pass resolution
good folks say all that may be true, but still young
nation intimately related by blood and language
TO an elder one-so intimately indeed that forany
purposes. except government, they are scanely
TO be distinguishcd-is justified in expecting
consideration and sympathy from precisely
that portion of the elder which on Jour
own showing was most hostile in this case-thit is
TO saw from the most cultivated classes. So think,
too and so we not only thought, but said for our
years and said as plainly as iiercely, asyou
could have spoken yourselves You seem to foiget
that this very of blood to the actors rosed
mems passions here almost strongly rs If we lad
been in the fight ourselves. Your war divided us
more sharply than the Cora law or Reform questions,
and there was much strong personal feeling
excited, and more old friendships were lOoseIHd,
than by both the others put together. We tlen
urged these same arguments, and tainted Southern
sympathizers here with the hollowness of their ms
called culture which hindered them from recogiz-
ing the nobleness of work and of young natOnOf
their own stock fighting great battle for eqial
rights before the law, and made them sympathze
with the side which gloried in the very wo'st
kind of aristocratic traditions. But it is tine
that this plea of elder and younger should be dropped
"Alaxima debetur pueris reverenta" IS an excelent
rule. but it doesn't apply now. TO quote Mr. Lowell
again. without admitting the latter superatiw:
"Earth's biggest country's gather soul, and risen
up earths greatest nation" You at least rich.
as strong. as populous we are, and have been
proved by fiery trial. OF all this you are perfectly
aware, and you would promptly and rightly resent
any attempt to treat you on any other footing tan
that of perfect equals. For your own sakes andfor
the sake of your friends here and elsewhere, it is
time that YOU took this position quietly and definitely
and gave I'D asking or looking for apologies which
Won Yourselves would be the last nation in the word