held all this from the knowledge of the English people, while all means were being earnestly used to inflame the popular mind to a degree that would render a war inevitable. If the English Government did not then intend war, why did it withhold the information which it had of our peaceful disposition, and of our willingness to make honorable amends for the seeming wrong.

It seems impossible to resist the conclusion, that England then thought that with a single blow she could establish the South and free herself forever from the fear and the rivalry of a great American Nation. She knew perfectly that America desired nothing more than peace and friendship with France and England, and unless she intended to force us into a war that would be fatal to our nation, why did she suppress the truth, why did she suffer the English people to be imposed upon, and goaded into fury by falsehood, and appeals to national jealousy and pride?

These things are referred to, not to stimulate ill-feeling or a desire for revenge, but because we should be admonished by the past what to expect in the future. These acts were the result of settled policy on the part of France and England both, as will be seen before the subject is dismissed, and that policy will not be abandoned, until great changes are wrought in the political relations of Europe. These Allied Powers may be actively hostile, or ostensibly friendly toward us, as circumstances may demand, but their national policy, in regard to both America and Russia, will remain unchanged until revolution sweeps over Europe.

The objects aimed at by the Proclamation are set in the clearest light by what has since occurred. It opened at once for England a great market for all kinds of munitions of war, and every other species of goods which, by swift steamers, and from her adjacent ports, could be run through the lines of our blockade. These goods would greatly increase the courage and power of our enemy, and enable the conspirators, in all probability, to compel a separation of our territory, and this would render impossible a great American Nation.

It enabled England to build a navy for the Rebels, arm and man their ships in her own ports, as she did the Alabama and others, and these could cripple our commerce in two ways, by the destruction of our ships at sea, and by rendering them everywhere insecure, so as to transfer even our own trade to the British flag.

These two things have come to pass with immense injury to us, they are results easily foreseen, were inevitable even, and we have a right, therefore, to believe that this was aimed at in the Proclamation. Nor can Americans safely forget one important part of the sad evidence of the hostility of England in particular, that nearly the whole literary power of the Kingdom was employed, as if in concert, to injure the cause of the American Government in the eyes of the world.

The most popular letter-writer of England was sent to this country with the scarcely veiled intention of presenting the North and its cause, in the worst possible light to the world, and of painting the conspirators as making a heroic effort for independence.

Not alone the TIMES, which in spite of all denial, reflects in the main more faithfully than any other paper the prevailing temper of England, but the graver Quarterlies, which had hitherto shown some candor in regard to our country, joined in the general outcry, and lent their powerful aid in misleading and inflaming the public mind, and exciting against us and our cause the prejudices of Continental Europe.

These things were not accidental. They were evidently parts of a general plan, all bearing upon one purpose, the success of the Rebel cause, the destruction of our National Union. The statements and arguments of the British Press were contrary to all the main facts in the case, and we cannot think that educated Englishmen were utterly ignorant of our condition and our purposes. We cannot but believe in the clear light of all the facts, that the intention was to make a case that should justify the hostile attitude which they had assumed.

No one will believe that it was any surprise, or thoughtless haste, or sudden irritation, that could induce cool, experienced British statesmen to ignore both the principles and practice of their Government in regard to conspiracy and rebellion, to forget that their island has been crimsoned with blood shed to maintain the authority of the regular Government, to cast behind them all the testimony and all the acts of England against human slavery, and place themselves, and the nation which they represented, by the side of conspirators, who were not only banded together to overthrow a regular Government, but to establish a slaveholding despotism.

It is evident, that motives of no ordinary power must have swayed the British Government in adopting such a course, and equally strong must have been the influence which swept France away from all her precedents, and severed the friendly relations which had been the growth of more than half a century.

The motives of both nations must be sought in the nature and purposes of their alliance, which will be more fully explained hereafter. In carrying out the policy agreed upon by the allies, a separate part was assigned to France, in the execution of which, England cordially sustained her, as she herself declared, for she was careful to assure the world, that she approved the movement of France upon Mexico, and she supported her words by the presence and co-operation of her fleet. Nor does the withdrawal of her ships, after the landing was effected, prove by any means that the ultimate aims of France were either unknown or not approved. Far otherwise. Great Britain has uttered no note of remonstrance; but, on the contrary, France is commended for daring to defy us on the subject of the Monroe Doctrine, and is given to understand that England will be pleased to see what is called a stable Government in Mexico, and this is a full endorsement of a most iniquitous scheme of invasion and conquest, the most wicked and causeless attack of the strong on the weak, which modern times have seen.

The work of France then, was not one of personal ambition only, it was a part also of the general scheme of both nations to humble and cripple the Great Republic, to check the growth of a naval, commercial, and manufacturing nation, England the while indifferent to the fact, that the success of the plan would overthrow free institutions and the Protestant faith on all this Western Continent.

Spain and England politely escorted the French fleet and army to Mexico, and then left France to plant her army on shore, to begin a causeless war, and capture the Mexican cities, to proclaim a Government in opposition to the wishes of the people; to establish, indeed, a vast French camp on the flank of the Republic, with wishful eyes turned on California, Texas, and the mouth of the Mississippi, declaring her purpose to be, to check the progress of the Protestant Republic, and reassert on this Continent the supremacy of the Latin race and Roman Church. Such are some of the acts of these miscalled neutral powers, and prudence demands that we should study carefully their meaning. What are the national necessities of these two Governments, out of which this policy has sprung? This question requires an answer.

CHAPTER IV.

THE REMOTER CAUSES WHICH HAVE SHAPED THE NATIONAL PICY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

In studying the course of these Allied Powers toward America, it is not necessary to assume that it has been dictated by any special hatred of the American people, that all the old friendship of France has been suddenly turned to gall and bitterness, or that England is watching to repay the ancient grudge caused by the separation of our colonies.

There is no such animosity between these nations and our own as demands a war. Left to their own impulses, the people of these countries would not only live in peace, but would gladly cultivate friendly relations. But whoever builds a hope of continued peace, merely upon the absence of hostile feeling, or upon such popular friendship as may exist, will surely be deluded. France and England will be governed only by considerations of national policy. Back of all friendly feelings, whatever they may be, back of all influences of the ties of race, language and religion, which might otherwise move England, are the stern necessities of her British policy, by which she will be inevitably controlled.

England's commercial and manufacturing interests, England's power and supremacy among nations, these will be first considered; all else will be coldly thrust aside. The English people may be suddenly kindled into a perfect blaze of wrath, as in the case of the Trent, but the moment it was seen that British policy did not then demand a war, the angry fires burned harmlessly out.