The times., 1898-12-19
The English Alliance,


1t strikes us that the Hon. Michael
Dayitt is making an unnecessary amount
of talk over the more or less remote
danger of an alliance between America
and England. He and we ought TO remem-
Der that IL such an alliance were feasible
or presently desirable 1t would include
our British-Irish friends. and how they
would be injured in the transaction Is
perhaps difficult to discern.
But, as a mattoc of fact. the people
of the United States are not wildly anx-
ious for a formal alliance with Great
Britain, largely because nothing of the
kind is in the least necessary. Mr.. Davitt
gives himself superfiuous anguish in con-
nection with the Clayton-B -Buiwer treaty
about which a great deal might be said
that would be unpleasant and TO no pur-
pose. The late Lord Lytton was not
unlike other diplomatists of his country
and tion. 1t was his ambition to
make a treaty with the Yankees that
would rebound To the, credit of his EN-
pire. He accomplished the purpose, as far
as he was concerned, with considerable
shrewdness. The Elgin treaty was float
ed through on champagne Lytton took
the more direct course and fioated his
scheme, 1t is said, with the assistance
of six thousand pounds sterling. He earn
ed his peerage handsomely. The American
people were sold out, and there we are.
But there was little matter in con-
nection with which the British govern
ment perhaps made mistake. The Clay
ton-Bulwer treaty provided that a small
party of woodchoppers on the Mosquito
Coast should be allowed to remain, but
that the queen should never attempt a
lodgment on that shore. Well, the wood
choppers have grown to the proportions
of thriving colony. There is nice
British dependency located in the coast
country which was to be religiously
avoided. and the old Clayton-Bulwer
treaty is not worth the match it would
cost to set it afire.
No sensible person on this side of the
water regards it seriously. II is hard TO
understand why Mr. Davitt or anybody
else across the Atlantic should. The en-
tente between America and the mother
country is a matter of convenience and
necessity The continental powers have
promoted it strenuously. II is all very
well to say it is lie that they wanted
to interfere in our war with Spain. and
that England stopped them from doing
So Such assertions do not cost men
like Michael Davitt solitary cent; but
here in Washington we know they are
not true On the contrary, we are but
too well aware that several of the Old
World nations did try to intervene in our
affairs and were warned off by the cabi-
net in London.
That matters little as to the main ques-
ton The American people are not en-
tranced with the idea of British or any
other alliance. They would be un-
grateful If they did not remem-
ber what their English relatives
have done for them. But that
does not mean that they should conse-
quently pick quarels with France or Rus
sia, or that they should not Insist upon
the control of the American inter-oceanic
canal.
There is altogether too much fear of
the improbable. That Clayton-Bulwer
treaty must be abrogated by notice, and
the Nicaragua Canal must be never any
thing but an American ditch. AS the
country is amiably but absolutely deter
mined upon these propositions it does not
seem TO US that there is any immediate
prospect of a dangerously entangling al
lance with "perfidious Albion" and
Michael Davitt and his kind may rest
in peace.