Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-06-19
JUDAH P. BEN5AM1N.
Incidents of His European career.


n. Y. Tribune
The death of Judah P. Benjamin, and
all that is said about it, revives memories
OF the time when the United States was
going through the terrible storm, the
bursting Of which he FASTENED. Powers
and Prlncipalities on this side of the
ocean were all literally at that period on
the side Of the South. The diplomacy of
Thurlow Weed was much more impotent
to affect them than he in his recently
published correspondence complacently
seemed to believe. The friends of the
Union were few and far between in Eu-
rope. In the French press there were
some good men and true. In the English
press one might count them on ones fin
gers. The Times, which was then far
more powerful than it is now, the Stand
ard and the Post, with the greater part
Of the English weeklies, were for seces-
sion. j. Z. Benjamin was writing for
the Telegraph. He had the different ex-
changes on his side, as we'll as the Lon
don clubs, the aristocracy, and what is
now called society" the whole shipping
interest of England and France, the I'm
derial Court and courtiers, with the ex-
ception of DR.. Evans, whose Quaker
breeding kept him on the right side, and
the correspondents of the whole English
press in France, with the exception of
Mr.. G. M. Crawford, of the Daily NelCS,
and the young lady who wrote for the
Morning Star, and is now Mr.. CraWford's
wife.
Not many weeks ago I met J. P. Ben
jamin as he was paying an afternoon
visit. We conversed about the great
diplomatic struggle which was waged
more than two decades ago. He told me
that he and Davis calculated we'll their
chances, and that they were beaten by
small and secret influences, which re-
minded him of the mouse gnaWing
through the net in which the lion was
caught. One of them was that which
was brought to bear on Lord Russell by
Mr.. Crawford through Sir John Harding,
then Queens Advocate. If England had
refused to recognize the blockade, he
said, France would have gone with her,
and the North must have yielded. Mr..
T. B. Potter was worse opponent than
Mr.. Golden, because he had then health
and wealth, and would stop at nothing.
He never knew when he was beaten, and
if he met with Rebuilt only stimulated
him to renewed efforts. Mr.. Benjamin
was also well aware of the danger in
f1icted in England on the Southern
cause by Mr.. Walker, at that time the
editor of the Daily Ne1OS, and now of the
London Gazette, and by Edward Pigott
the foreign editor of the former paper
He told me that his London agent, and
later he himself, did their best to get
around both these gentlemen. They
next gained a millionaire who had an
interest in that paper, which he has
long since disposed of. Mr.. Benjamin
wrote an article which the fnancier cop
led and sent as his own to Mr.. Walker
for insertion. The later, who was man
of high and independent spirit, returned
it to him with thanks and refused to
publish it, on the ground that it was not
in harmony with the line the journal
had taken up.
Mr.. Benjamin was greatly amused at
the credit ThurlOW Weed gave himself
for having influenced Morny by appeals
to National feelings and other such senti-
ments. Morny only understood Bourse
considerations. He was cOld-headed and
cold blooded and fond Of luxury as
King Charles dog. Slidell's daughters
would have been invaluable at the Tuil-
cries had England refused to recognize
the blockade and the Emperor followed
suit. Louis Napoleon was completely
with the South. He used to go to the
meetings of the Confederate Committee,
which were held at the Tete Noir tavern
Court was in the neighborhood. To at
tract him some comicat persons used to
be invited whose business it was to deal
in a sort of conversation which is euphe-
mistically termed here gGaClOjSe.
Mr.. Benjamin was fond of the society
Of English barristers. I knew him, when
his doctors ordered him not to make the
slightest physical exertion lest he should
rupture a blood-vessel in his heart, to
climb five flights of stairs to visit an old
member of Lincoln's Inn who is the
correspondent here of a great journal.
There saw him shortly after the news
paper controversy took place in New
York about his alleged offer to make a
son of Queen Victoria King or Emperor
of the Southern States of America AS
he spoke with great difficulty, hest
tated to question him on the subject
But my desire to obtain information on
a point of great historical interest got
the better of me, and l asked him what
was "the real truth"
"The letter." he said, sis a fiction, but
to some extent founded on fact. I have
always gone on the principle of speak
ing to fools according to their folly.
There was, twenty years ago, among the
upper classes of England a general desire
to believe that the republican form of
L I
government WAS al Impossible On0s
They went in for Maximillian in Mex
leo, and when Ohio was turned out of
Greece began to look around for another
Prince to raise to the throne from which
he had fallen. It was imagined that the
British colonies were future kingdoms
for children ofthe Queen, and was con-
stantly asked by letter, and verbally by
Englishmen not only of high position
but of more than average intellect,
whether it would not be better for the
South to have monarch than a Presi-
dent I humored this idea or fancy, and
said on many occasions to persons whom
I thought would advantageously echo
my words, that the best thing that could
happen the Southerns would be for
Queen Victoria to make them a present
of her second son and place her third
son over Canada. This produced an eff