Year: 1861

in the United States of North America have
fortunately assumed the character of open war.
Such is the tranquil comment of the royal speech
upon the events in the new world which have fall
len so Unexpectedly upon the of Europe
Our Queen has reflected, with an excellent ideli-
ty, the feelings of her people. After the first
surprise was over. and when the "'God bless me,
you don't say so?" had been said, we think we
never heard of battle in which IS 900 men seem
to have been engaged on each side, and which fell
so blank on the public ear, and engaged so little
European inserest The tact is, We do not like
to laugh, and the sense of the ridiculous comes
too strong over US when We would be serious. 1t
is great battle without the dignity of danger or
the painful interest of great carnage There are
all the ridiculous incidents OF stark fear and rabd
terror without much real peril and with very lit
tie actual suffering. We begin to feel that we
have been cheated ous of our sympathies When
this war broke out we English all pictured to our
selves two earnest sections of the same population
interlaced in mortal combat, warning to the knife
and to the death. We received by mail little
samples of an atmosphere of blood and thunder
and war and wounds. All America appeared to
us, poor dupes, like fresh exploded mine-all
smoke, and fragments and torn limbs. We fan
ced our kinsmen reckless, furious, flying at each
Others throats, and careless of their own safety.
At the s2me time they shaking their knives
at each other, they were shaking their fists at
We trembled for what we were fated to see. We
held our breath for the great shock OF battle be-
tween these two young giants. We shut our ewes
against the deadly struggle. We eare calmer now.
We are all calmer. We are satisfied that these
warlike athletes, who issuing such dire threats
against any one who should dare to offer to sepa
rate them, are not so very reckless. Since their
dissensions have assumed 1.-The character of open
war" they have been carried ON upon strictly hu
manitarian principles. If We are to believe an
American Press, an American battle has never
been so dangerous an American passenger boat,
and not much more than an American rail
way The hostile forces shell each out of strong
fortresses without losing single life. They fight
battle in Western Virginia which determines the
fate of district 1T the expense of less than
score of casualties; and great stand up battle Is
fought between $50. 900 men, ending in a panic
and twenty miles run; and when the "Grand
Army of the Potomac" reaches Alexandria the
New \ ork Herald, reports that "the killed on
our side Will be between three and FIVE hundred"


Ii is very dificult to guage the solidity of any
thing American-even of Il great battle. We
I know that there great rout in front of that
/ gap which runs up into the hills, for rep
resented in the ruck, and may say that we saw it
with our own eyes and heard the cannonade with
our There is probability. also, that
! the number of men present at the battle amounts
TO the high figure of $50 900, for both accounts
seem to agree on this. Beyond these facts, how
ever, everything seems vague ard uncertain. The
advance of the "Grand Army of the Potomac"
reads in the American papers like burlesque of
/ the progress of Xerxes to the HelleSpont. The
great Federal victory of Bull Run, which was
flashed over the Northern States and recorded in
the Northern papers, was a thing lowering for
hours, while vet IN print, upon the confines of
/ fancy and possibility. The abect rout, the ulti-
innate reality, was what we could have least be-
lieved. Perhaps we ought to have anticipated
that the same ferocious men who had burned up
the homesteads on their line of march would speed
back over the embers with pale faces in their pan
ic fight. But this never did occur TO us. 1t re-
qures the testimony of the Americans themselves
and the witness of our own correspondent TO sug-
gest to that l5, 900 American patriots fled for
| 20 miles in an agony of fear, although no one
was pursuing them, and that IS 900 other Ameri-
can patriots abstsned frcm pursuing these 15, 900
enemies because they were not informed how
| stark frightened these were. Even the artillery
were not captured, but picked up The guns
were left behind because they impeded the fight
| of the artillerymen, and they might have been to
great extent carried off if the apprehensions of
the gunners would have allowed them to take ad-
vantage of the leisure which the prudent conquer
or was ready to afford. On the other hand, our
correspondent thinks that the panic had gone so
right to the heart of the North that if Gen. Beau
regard had the enterprise to follow up his ad-





into Washington City itself. All that the North
ern press says upon this subject is to congratulate
themselves that the enemy did not know in what
fright they were


This is not our account of this battle 1t is the
American account. lt is the account of the Few
York papers, alternating as they do between
shrieks of victory of agony, and of vindictve des
pair If they have only lost between 300 and
500 men, il seems to us to be very cheap lesson.
See what they have gained by it. They have
found out now that the spirit of patriotism, and
even the instinct of combat, does not prevent
Northern volunteers from goIrg offin body under
pretence of their time of enlistment being up, al
though the morning of the combat may be come
and the cannon may be sounding in their ears.
They have found out also that even Northern
army can, without much good military reason
given lose its attraction of cohesion, and dissolve


into mob They have also found out that the
/ Southerners not to be walked over like part
! ridge manor, and they have some military heads
among them. OF course, we must expect them
/ to meet these hard facts by certain quantity of
/ bluster. The must call out few more millions
of volunteers, and they must make confident de-
mand upon an incredulous world for few more
hundred millions sterling. But behind all this
there must rise gathering doubt that the South
ern nut is too hard to crack, and that the military
| line, a matter of business, does not answer.
/ The North has now made its experiment, and not
only has it not answered, but the process has not
been encouraging. As matter of habit, and to
ease the American mind, a certain quantity of
threats and tall words may be necessary, and they
NAV pass. But they will be of small avail against
1 the facts they now stand. In the face of the
picture of that screaming crowd-the Grand Army
| of the Potomac, &c, those great words from
the expectant gentlemen at W ashington lose every
charm.


! These people do all in their power to ALLEVIATE
our sympathy, for they are amenable neither to
courtesy nor TO misfortune. Nothing civilizes
them. They seem to think that at all seasons
and upon all occasions England is a safe target
for their insults and their threats. The either
feign very well, or else they positively think they
can influence our policy by their bluster. There
was a moment, on the Dist of july when victory
was supposed to be with the ''Grand Army of the
/ Potomac" and the most popular newspaper in
/ New York seized the opportunity to show what
use our excellent friends proposed to make of
their victory The first thought was revenge
upon England. After some taunts at what are
supposed TO be our recent recantations. the organ
of New York moderation continues:


s'And row, forsooth, because the Queens Gov
eminent sees fit to stultify itself, not daring to
carry into execution its implied threats, and pro-
hibits the entry of Southern prvateers into British
ports, we are required to let bygones be bygones,
and even to ignore that any dspleasure has ex
isted, The absurdity and inconsistency of ac-
knowedging the equal belligerent rights of the
Rebel States. and then snubbing them from sheer
cowardice and fear of the consequences, bestows
no title to consideration, will lesurely repent
ance for hastily offered indigiities be considered
the slightest atonement, when the time shall have
come TO resent them. Both England and Spain
mas rest assured that just retributon will be Wis
tied upon them for taking advantage of our do
mestic disturbances to further their cvn selfish