The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-05-22
of England and tho United States, nnd
It's Glorious Promises TO the World.

4
We expect tomorrow. and we may have
to-day, the ratification of the great treaty of
peace between the United States and Great
Britain, now awaiting the action Of the SEN
ate. We call it the great treaty Of peace,
because, from the spirit in which it was
approached, discussed and agreed upon, from
point to point, by the joint High Commission,
we have seen that peace was recognized as
the paramount object and controlling purpose
on both sides, and because we know that in
the establishment of cordial relations of peace
between the two great nations OF the English
speaking races a new career of prosperity
and progress Is opened to both and all their
people and new march of their civlizng
and Christianizing forces begins OF the most
glorious promise to the four quarters of the
globe and the remotest islands of the sea.
How wonderful and astonishing have been
the political revolutions of the last ten years
How amazing the change which has come
upon her Britannia Majcsty's government
since the first Bull Ran in reference to the
manifest destiny" of the United States
That first battle of Bull Run, one of the most
important in its far-reaching consequences to
the whole civilized world, was accepted by the
government and ruling aristocracy of Eng land
as ioreshadowing the inevitable breaking up of
the great American Union into two or three
fighting republics OF the South American
schools; and that battle was accepted by Louis
Napoleon as creating 6ne opening for
French balance of power, political and CON-
mercial, on this Continent. Hence the one
sided neutrality of England, with all
its said and comfort to the enemy"
in our late terrible struggle against
gigantic Southern rebellion for tho life of
the nation; hence the armed occupation and
imperial protectorate of Louis Napoleon in
Mexico. England had been aeitating for thirty
years the abominations Of American negro
slavery, and, with The opportunity at last
offered her 10 rejoice in the prospect of its extir-
patton, she declared her sympathies and gave
all her moral and material support possible,
short Of actual war; to the cause OF slavery in
supporting the pro-slavery cause of the $50
called Confederate States" And yet her pol
icy and her purpose in the denunciation and
in the vindcaiion Of American slavery were
the same-the breaking up of the United States
into group Of fighting and revolutionary re-
publics OF the South American order, whereby
our popular institutions would be brought into
disgrace among all nations to the advantage
Of the "diyine rights Of kings" and aristocra-
cies, and whereby England might hope to gain
the practical control of the political and COM
mercial affairs of North America.
This was the game Of England in the United
States, in her thirty years agitation Of Amer
can slavery, in her belligerent rights of JEFF
Davis. and in that neutrality which has
brought her at last to an honorable settlement
OF those Alabama claims. Louis Napoleon, in
his Quixotic Mexican adventure, was inGu-
enced by similar IDEAS lie expected, from
the inevitable dissolution of the powerful
American Union, an easy fu!flnent of his
scheme in Mexico, and alsS, it has been inti-
mated, the absorption of California, Texas
and Louisiana, in the progress Of events But
the little affair under that famous "Appomat-
tox apple tree" destroyed all these great
expectations Of England and imperial France
Lonis Napoleon gave up his grand Mexican
idea and retired; England bagan 10 explain
and protest that she was honest in her neu-
trality and glad of The success of our Union
cause; but still 1t was not till the downfall
of Napoleon, her righthand man and confed-
crate in all this business, that she began to see
and that peace with the United States bad be-
come to her the first necessity in a new dip!o-
matte departure.
Thus we may safely assume that we are in
no small degree indebted to the armies Of Ger
many for Engands satisfactory recognition,
at last, of our Alabama claims. In this view
there is something amusing in the thought
that we may trace this treaty of Washington
to The Emperor Napolsons quarrel with King
William over General Prim's nomination of a
Hohenzoilern as King Of Spaia But for that
quarrel there would have been no war be-
tween France and Germany, and had there
been no war between them Napoleon might
have been this day the recognized arbter of
Europe, and still SO closely bound up in his
entente c0r9$ass with England on American
affairs as to make England as imperiouc and
as cxacting now toward the United States as
under Pamerston and Russell With the fall
Of Napoleon on the other hand, and with the
restoration of the French republic, and with
the significant agitation and progress of popu-
lar ideas which have followed even in England,
we have the results before us in the satsfac-
tory peace arrangements Of the Joint High
Commission.
Such is the amazing revolution accom-
pllshed in our relations with England since
the FIRST Bull Run. The Appomattox sur
render took much Of the concet out Of her
Majesty's government; bnt the capture of
Napoleon has turned out as glorious victory