The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-26

Of Americs-Mr. GIadstone's Expedlents.
There lie lesson underlying this whole
Alabama discussion that should not be for
gotten by those who look for genuine under
standing between the United States and Great
Britain. The English newspapers seem to
have awakened from kind Of editorial
stupor and to find that their clamors have
been premature and vain On one side we
have seen press that is regarded as model
Of decorum and dignity, free from passion and
impulse, wrought into state Of high anger
over the aggression, the chicanery, the
per6dy Of America. The humorous journals
have had cartoons peculiarly offensive to the
United States, Uncle Sam being compared to
the Butcher Baronet Tichborne now in New
gate, while Punch has singled out the HERALD
for especial censure and ridicule Mr.. Glad
stone has dissolved himself into correspond
ence with some anxious Bohemian, while
Mr. Dlsraeli has no keener subject for his
taunts than the embarrassments of the
Ministry. Even the Daily Ne0s, the one
journal which has been especially kind to
America, has had series of paroxysms of the
hand, the American press, which has gener-
ally been regarded as sensational, and Ameri-
can statesmen, who are supposed to be some
what empirical in their ideas of law and
comfy, have shown calmness and dignity
in the discussion that have surprised their
English critics.
The English view of the question has been
mi nnn cd an 0kl, - L.
1t being an extraordinary fact that many of
our leading journals in New York are under
the control of subjects Of the English Grown.
While In England the tendency of the press
has been to affect continental public opinion,
and ultimately the Commissioners represent
Ing foreign Powers In America, the English
press has made war upon the administration
as having been guilty of trick or make
shift, or an effort to control public opinion In
favor Of General Grant. There is singular
tradition In England that when President
seeks to win popular support he foments an
angry feeling towards England. and the
average British mind is under the impression
that the whole difficulty is an ingenious expert
ment on the part Of President Grant to secure
his reelection; that England is to be harried
and vexed and leased to induce the Irish to
support his canvass, and that when the cleo
ton is sure there will be no more questions
raised. On the contrary, we see the reverse
as plainly as can be seen. This whole ex-
element was simply the necessities of the |
Gladstone Ministry, taking advantage of the
ignorance of England-perhaps we should say
the incredulity and jealousy of Eng
land. We remember in Mr.. Dickens Pick
wick sketches the author makes one of his
characters advise another that if he desired
to earn some money he should visit this coun-
try and write a book abusing the Americans
to pay the expenses. That Mr.. Dickens was
serious in his humorous suggestion was shown
in his following the example himself shortly
after. The English mind has always been
prepared to believe anything of America that
was discreditable, and the English news
papers in this country have pandered to this |
infrmity by belttling American institutions
and holding up England as an example that
we cannot too thoroughly initiate. The evil
dence will show that the English Minister fol-
lowed the same line of reasoning, and that he
took advantage of constitutional inArmty of
the English character to secure his administra-
ton from the danger Of an excitement on
domestic questions.
When we speak of constitutional infrmity
Of the English character we do not mean it in
an offensive sense. The English mind cannot
forget that the Americans were rebels that
our grandfathers held the same attitude to the
Crown that the Fenians hold to-day. Our
nationality is, therefore, tainted, and by the
measure of his loyalty to the Crown and his
alteration of sacred majesty the English
man looks with suspicion and aversion upon
nation that sprang from treason, and
the heads Of whose founders should have
bleached on Temple Bar. He has seen this
reasonable confederation, with its rebel flag,
rise in less than hundred years to have
more population than Great Britain itself,
and with territory capable of support
ing as many people as China. He thinks with
modification and regret of the failure of the
statesmen of George the Third to retain these
splendid dependencies, and feels that but for
successful rebellion England might to- day be
mistress of the American Continent and her
fleets controlling the Pacific and Atlantic.
But for that rebellion the empire of Great
Britain, stupendous as 1t is, would have
reacheda splendor dimming that of Rome, and
making it truly the ruler of the world. The
Parliament Houses Of Westminster would have
representatives from India and Australia,
Canada and the United States. This union Of
colonies, which to-day would have been the
greatest appendage Of the English Crown-ths
true centre of its wealth and power-the
"Greater Britain" as Sir Charles Dixie puts