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THE CONVULSIONS OF AMERICA.

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EVERYBODY who has thought, talked, and read much about America of late, must feel that English opinions on the subject, as rendered by the tone of our press, have been qualified by the medium that transmits them. Nobody in private life talks about our Transatlantic kinsmen,"-nobody desires to claim peculiar ties with the performers in the absurd and barbarous dances which the American nation executes round its idols of the hour, any more than with the worshippers of Mumbo Jumbo. Our conversation on the topic is not silly or sentimental. We do not speak of the least sanguinary of civil wars as the terrible and fratricidal struggle which is drenching America with blood." It is not a fact, as is sometimes asserted in print and public speeches, that every Englishman worthy of the name deplores the separation between North and South. view commonly taken by Englishmen, who do not on that account consider themselves unworthy of the name, is, that every day tends to justify the judgment and policy of the South in withdrawing from a system, the results of which are what we contemptuously witness. We do not desire above all things that the struggle should be at once concluded, no matter how; because a conclusion which would leave the South at the mercy of a vindictive, unfair, and ungenerous enemy, would gratify nobody. We do not lament over the unexampled display of weakness made by the great Republic, because we knew that such weakness existed, and it was not for the interest of truth nor of the world that it should any longer be disguised, or allowed to vaunt itself as matchless force. Nor do we, as a people, desire to accept any slight, shifty pretence of reparation for the recent ruffianly outrage, which may be held by some among us, to whom honour is but a fantastic name, to

absolve us from the necessity of war; for previous insults from the same quarter still remain unatoned for: and now that we have, at enormous cost, and with patient and self-denying efforts, amassed an armament which adequately represents the power of England, we should have no objection to employ it in administering a sharp chastisement to the vainglorious people who have so often cheaply defied us. Sentiments, conciliatory even to poltroonery, and pacific even to disgrace, are frequently ascribed to us; yet they have no real origin in the heart of the nation. It would be impossible for the national vanity of America, hungry as it is, to extract any nourishment from what is expressed on the subject in the conversation of intelligent Englishmen. When they read the speeches of American public men, and the articles of American newspapers, they feel only scorn for the blind followers to whom such blind guides are possible. They are unable to see anything peculiarly tragical in the fact that half-a-million of men have been brought together in arms to hurl big words at each other across a river. Nor do we see anything in the circumstance that America was first colonised from our own shores, to induce us to treat with extraordinary indulgence the composite population with whose manners, customs, and character, we have so little in common. What truth can there be in the plea of relationship as an inducement to conceal our real sentiments, when we so loudly derided our own fellow-subjects of the Irish Brigade, who went forth from among us to make themselves ridiculous? And why should we conceal our contempt when absurdities far more mischievous, and on an immensely extended scale, are committed by those whom twaddling sentimentalists term our American cousins"?

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There is always in England a party remarkable for its excess of candour in self-abasement. Like Mawworm, it likes to be despised. Its sense of what is due to an adversary "o'erleaps itself and falls on the other side." Especially, when the nation is committed to a course which demands united action, there is sure to come some set of noodles with their preposterous array of arguments for the other side. We believe these men would regard the virtue of their mothers and the honesty of their fathers as open questions that, if the family honour were assailed, they would calmly prepare to argue the matter, with a bias towards the assailant-that, if a ruffian were to spit in their face, their first impulse would be to afford him an opportunity of removing the stigma by presenting him with their own pocket-handkerchief. They are allowed to assert themselves without much contradiction, because some of those who despise them give them credit for being well-meaning though weak and foolish; and others think their silliness so transparent that to refute it would be beating the air. Such palpable dissenters from public opinion, though they may pass among foreigners for more than they are worth, can never be seriously received anywhere as expressing in any appreciable degree the spirit of the nation. It is not of these we speak as having misinterpreted our feelings in the present case. It is of the general deprecatory tone adopted by our journalists and public speakers, for this year past, in discussing American affairs. No doubt their intention has been to appear as conciliatory as possible to a people with whom we have such extensive commercial relations, and whose impatience of censure is only equalled by their disregard of the national feelings of others. But, while it is an error in any case to suppose that commerce between nations is dependent on sentiment, in the present instance we have ample proof that the feelings of

jealousy, dislike, and intolerance, which the Americans evince for us, could scarcely be aggravated by the statement of our real opinions. On the other hand, we believe that the serious attention which we have bestowed on their doings has had no inconsiderable share in perpetuating the self-delusions in which they wrap themselves, especially their ability to subjugate the South, the magnificent spectacle which they are exhibiting to the civilised world, and the general awe which is felt of their might by European Powers. It is a remarkable fact, and one that may puzzle future historians, that, in the same year, we, a people having no more sympathy with mob-rule than with despotism, viewed the downfall of despotic dynasties not only without pity but with derision and contempt, yet preserved a respectful demeanour while a worse and more hopeless tyranny was every hour growing more despicable and ridiculous. We discuss the statecraft of the Americans as if it really were directed by statesmen capable of planning and executing operations of finance and policy. We speak of the operations of their army and the designs of its leaders as if they had established a claim upon the consideration of a sensible people who have some reputation in war. We repeat or refute the assertions, prophecies, and denunciations of their orators and journalists, as if any human being, even the speakers and writers themselves, could consider them entitled to a particle of credit. The apparent consequence is, that they imagine they are impressing the old decried and worn-out Powers, who have so long regarded their great and free institutions with envy, with a profound respect for their military skill, their wonderful sagacity, the unrivalled perfection of their political system, and their indisputable claim to be regarded as foremost among the nations of the earth. Through their politicians, their journals, their public meetings, and their actions, they frankly

write themselves down as they are, in the broadest characters, yet we refrain from accepting the description given on such undeniable authority. It is in vain that they gesticulate, tumble, and perform the most extravagant antics: we persist in regarding the dreary farce as a grand melodrama, or even a tragedy. We, who ground our best claims to consideration as a nation on the great men, great actions, great works, and great principles which illustrate the massive volume of our history, grant the claim of this people to greatness on the single ground of material prosperity. And although happily we are as far removed from universal suffrage as from autocracy, and although the aspect in which Republicanism appears unmistakably in America has caused the democratic tendencies of our own institutions to be powerfully arrested, yet we continue to appear reluctant to draw from passing events deductions which would seem to reflect upon democracy.

This course we believe to have been injudicious and unfortunate. Had the Americans been permitted to see the true reflections of our minds-had they been aware of the extent and depth of the contempt with which we have regarded their doings-it could scarcely have failed to modify their conduct of the civil war. Nor, as a question of policy when we would avoid war, do we think it advisable to dwell on our pacific disposition as the key-note. To profess a disinclination to fight is not the best way to deal with a bully. Even were it true that we would sacrifice everything for peace, and that Messrs Bright, Cobden, and Joseph Pease were the great representatives of English feeling, it would be impolitic to say so. But when we are giving proof of our readiness for war on sufficient occasion, there seems more than ever reason to regret that we had not given the Northern Americans the word more plainly before the blow. They have seen us solicitous to observe a neu

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trality, the operation of which was unfavourable, even unfair, to the South. They have seen us foregoing our undoubted right to recognise the Southern Confederacy, and permitting them to enforce an ineffectual blockade which was most injurious to our interests, and which the law of nations would have warranted us in disregarding; and they have heard us professing a desire for peace above all things. They remember the patience with which previous insults have been borne by us, and they take a childish delight in shaking their fist in the face of a great strong country. And, accustomed to hear us deprecate, as something scarcely to be thought of, an appeal to arms, the natural consequence is, that when they have gone so far as to place themselves in the predicament of having to choose between humiliation and war, they are almost universally persuaded that we shall bear this insult like the rest. Had our language been different from the first-had we given them plainly to understand that we meant to use our strength on due provocation, even the mob that originates, and the cabinet that conveys, their vulgar affronts would lower their tone of defiance, and would never have pushed matters to their present extremity.

really.

Lest we should be wrongly ! thought to confound a whole people in one contemptuous verdict, we cannot too often reiterate the fact, that the best class of Americans would be an honour to any country. They are often men of extensive reading, thought, and information. They have generally travelled much, studied much, and learnt much, and are consequently free from the intolerance and arrogance that characterise their less cultivated countrymen. Their taste in literature is often fine, and improved by an acquaintance with the classics of many nations. They take wide and liberal views of public affairs, which they discuss in a tone equally removed from superciliousness and fanaticism. These should be the

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natural leaders in their own country; and were they, we need hardly say that we should speak with respect of the policy and public opinion that bore the impress of their minds. But it is precisely because these men are excluded from public life that we contemn the system that rejects them. Constituted as the political arena is, they cannot enter it, nor would they if they could. They would shrink from the idea of wading through the mire that surrounds the Cabinet and the Presidency. None discern so clearly as these men the faults of American institutions; they feel even more strongly than ourselves all that is most admirable in our own; and democracy is detested by none more cordially than by those who have been deprived, by its agency, of their birthright. Let it be understood that, in speaking of the politicians and governing classes of America, we separate these men, who possess ability, refinement, liberality of view, and honesty of purpose, altogether from the mob and the political adventurers who mutually give and receive the impulses that determine the course of the nation.

We have said that, in our view, it is to be regretted that the apparent faults of democracy should be so tenderly treated. We are all ready to join in reprobation of absolute government; but when did any civilised absolute government show less claim on our indulgence than the American Republic? What despotism has displayed so little moderation in prosperity, so little dignity in adversity, less selfcontrol, less wisdom in council, less courage in the field? Is King Mob a more agreeable or remediable despot than King Francis? The gravest charge against absolutism is, that it may place the liberties of the people and the conduct of public affairs in the hands of weak and incapable men. But to what country shall we look for hereditary princes less fit to wield the destinies of

nations than the obscure and commonplace man whose decrees now stand in the place of public law in the North? It may be said that at least he is the choice of the nation. But was he chosen by the intelligence of the nation? Or, to take lower ground, does he represent the material interests and responsibilities of the nation? Not at all; he is the choice of a numerical majority of a people who have derived the principal accessions to their numbers from the scum of Europe. Every four years the constitution is in travail-all mankind are invited, or rather commanded, to watch the interesting event-all is convulsion-the throes of the mountain are prodigious, and the latest result is Mr Abraham Lincoln. The great achievement in self-government of this vaunted democracy, which we have been so loudly and arrogantly called on to admire, is, to drag from his proper obscurity an ex-rail-splitter and country attorney, and to place what it calls its liberties at his august disposal. No country furnishes so many examples as England of great men who have risen from humble beginnings. But it would have been impossible for him, or any of his Cabinet, to have emerged, under British institutions, from the mediocrity to which nature had condemned them, and from which pure democracy alone was capable of rescuing them. Are the best Americans willing to accept Mr Abraham Lincoln and Mr W. H. Seward as their best men? If not, can they substitute better men? If they cannot, what other proof is needed of the inefficacy of their boasted institutions? An imbecile executive above, a restless, purposeless multitude below, linked together like a kite tied to a balloon, and drifting at the mercy of the air-currents, while respectability, moderation, and sense are pushed aside, or dragged helplessly along,-such is the spectacle presented, in the first storm, by the Model Republic. A gallant army, whose energies have been

displayed chiefly in flight-a free country, whose judges are overlooked by sentries-disinterested patriotism, that requires to be bribed with eight per cent-a united nation, where the elements of dissolution are rife-a practical people, who are spending more than they possess for an object which they cannot define, such are a few of the results of those remarkable institutions that have been recommended for our imitation as immense improvements on our own.

Of course we do not blame Mr Lincoln for being President. But we venture to pity him. No man is more unfortunate than he who is in a conspicuous position for which he is manifestly unfit. What had this ill-starred man done to merit such a visitation as to be set at the head of an unruly nation that is going to pieces in convulsions? His antecedents are respectable though not illustrious. He is said to have exhibited considerable dexterity and muscular power in the splitting of rails. He may possibly be a good attorney, though we should never have selected him as a legal adviser. Had we done so, we should have expected to find him an oracle of the cloudiest kind, and, as a rule, arriving at a clear comprehension of the facts a few weeks after the case was decided. In his public compositions he is distinguished chiefly for a disregard of grammar and an infatuated fondness for metaphor. He gets laboriously on to a figure of speech, which generally runs away with him, and, after exhibiting him in various eccentric postures, leaves him sprawling in an attitude highly unbecoming in the President of a great Republic. Still, to find metaphors unmanageable is no great crime. A man may be unskilled in composition, or even an indifferent lawyer, without meriting such a fate as that which we deplore in Mr Lincoln. It may be said that he sought the post which he so uncomfortably occupies, and has no right to complain of its inconveniences. But he may reply,

that other Presidents no better than he had got on very well, and that he only bargained to be, like them, the captain of a fair-weather ship. On such a plea he may possibly be absolved of presumption, but the absolution of the President is the condemnation of the system that renders him possible.

When the council of a nation meets, we and other countries that enjoy any degree of political freedom expect to listen to men capable, not only of expressing, but of guiding and controlling popular opinion. Many, of course, may be found in the assembly whom the nation would be unwilling to accept as the exponents of its spirit. But there will also inevitably be many who are marked for eminence, and none, as a rule, can command attention or gain influence, except in proportion to their abilities. But no man looks for light or guidance, or self-control, to the Congress that has just assembled. The vote of approval of the buccaneering attack on the Trent stamps the character of that assembly. In most countries the approbation of the people and of the Senate is the highest reward to which a citizen can aspire. what man of real merit or character could be incited to action by the prospect of praise which he must share with a Wilkes, and which has thus become degradation? It is true that the political system of America may answer the end proposed by all representative institutions, and that President, Cabinet, and Congress may truly reflect the spirit of the nation. But how can the most bitter enemy of their institutions add to the strength of the case contained in the two facts, that the American people can elect such men as they please, and that such are the men whom they please to elect?

But

If it were necessary that an American idol should perform anything really great in order to justify the panegyrics of his countrymen, we should look on General M'Clellan as the most unfortunate man alive. He cannot, unless he be more than

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