The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-20

set OF men 70 triumph by a series of out
RACES on all the opinions which have the deep
est root in the English mind. One of the
most dangerous and, as it has turned out, one
of the most short-sighted of their
follies, consisted in the insulting
contrast which they we're always
drawing between England and the United
States. There, we were told, is the Teducti0
dd dbsurdum of all your historical prejudices.
You have only to abandon everything on
which you pride yourselves--your monarchy,
your aristocracy, and your restricted suffrage
and you shall see what ycu shall see. You
will never have great war; you will never
have ON unscientifc tariff, your public men
will never job, your judges will administer |
an lncorrupt justice upon trifing salaries, |
and, instead of the miserable British Consti- |
tuition which goes ''like Captain Cuttle's |
watch you will have written constitution |
upon which doubt will never arise. The !
inevitable result of this line of eulogy was,
that the United States came to enjoy the sort
of popularity which attaches to the good boy
of the family who is perpetually held up as
an example to his idler brothers and sisters.
But there we're sources of resentment be-
sides more directly traceable to the Americans
themselves. 1t is certain that before the war
Engishmen knew far less about the United
States than might have been expected, but
they did know something They knew, for
oAhInple, JnbJ once year England playeu
throughout the States much the same part
which is played by Guy Fawkes on the 9Th of
November. They knew that, under cover of
defamation against poor stupid George III,
everything which distinguishes England from
America was vilifed and ridiculed, and that
on this theme schoolboys habitually wrote
essays, and all the fledgling orators of ma
ton of public orators tried their rhetorical
wings. They knew that censures of every
~lsf.l II - -
oratorical devotion to which the few assembled,
but (harder still!) that they were the CON-
monplaces which everybody had at his COM
mand, and used with the utmost freedom.
Where an Englishman in after dinner diff-
culties stammered out that he was ''unac-
customed to public speaking" we were told
that halting American wandered off at once
into denunciation of Great Britain and the
British.
1t cannot be answered to this that hard
words break no bones for the Americans
have always told us that between nations they
do. Nor can it be said that abuse of England
was never INDUCED in by the representative
mon of the country. Ambassadors are of all
men the most representative to a foreigner,
and we have book written by an American
minister, who was here less than ten years
ago, which throws curious light on the treat
ment which England habitually received from
tury had passed since any tangible public
wrong had been SO much as imputed tG her.
1t is possible that the remarkable volume re-
Gently published by Mr.. Dallas will chiefly
interest Americans by its social chit-chat; but
| it would be profitable reading if they studied
| the evidence which it affords of the language,
| the temper, and the policy of the representa-
| tives of their country before Alabamas and
| recognitions of belligerency were so much
| as dreamed of. AS to language, it is one of
| Mr. Dallas peculiarities that, whenever his
| feelings become too much for him, he breaks
| out into Latin. When he writes of the de-
| gradation into which England, as he sup
| posed, had lapsed after the peace of Paris, he
| can only exclaim, 'fuit, fuit." When he has
occasion to notice the diplomatic triumphs
| which, Notwithstanding our national dishonor,
he admits to have been won by Lord Palmer
ston, he is driven to add, ''heret lethalis,"
| which he explains as meaning there is that
| thorn of America in his side" AS for tenn
per, the Minister'S undisguised sympathies
were not only with despot in Russia during
the Crimean war, but with revolted mercen-
aries in India during the Sepoy mutiny. AS
for his policy, he did his utmost to egg on
his Government to push to extremities the
| paltry grievance about recruiting which had
| its origin in an oversight of Mr.. Champion;
he was distinctly disappointed when the
British Government did not send him
| MS passports; he demonstrated with
Baron Brunnow against the concessions
made by Russia at the Crimean peace, and
instructed him how his master might have
avoided one of them by making it condi-
tional on the assent of the United States,
which assent Mr.. Dallas naturally pledged
himself should never be given. The ques-
| tions directly at issue between the United
| States and England the American Minister
| avowedly did his best to render difficult or i'm
possible of solution. Acknowledging that
| England was anxious to get out of her entan-
| clement with the wretched Mosquito protec-
torate by any means which would leave her
honor untarnished, Mr. Dallas openly aimed
at forcing her to eat dirt or to fight. There
| is not one spark of evidence in his pages that
he had the faintest conception of the offices
| of concilia ion which international law assigns
to ambassadors as their primary duties, if we
except few hollow protestations made in his
| public, which his private letters for the most
| part cynically contradict
Since Mr.. Dallas left this country the
| United States have acquired a glorious his
| tory, and they have furnished the world with
| ample proof that they have an imperfect
| Constitution. American patriots will no
| longer be compelled to fiEd their sole food for
| self-esteem in their successes against English
men, and English radicals will no longer
| contend that American institutions are the
| sole known security against war; debt taxes,
| and corruption. The cross account of ill
usage and ill-feeling will therefore be closed,
| perhaps some day, but, as we said at start
ing, no statesman ought to acknowledge its
| existence.