England could use this allied strength, first, to humble and cripple Russia, and then give such attention to the rising empire of the West as should prevent us also from growing too strong.

Intimations of this kind fell from English statesmen, and the TIMES' Oracle and the Quarterlies echoed their sentiments. The following are examples:

"The Alliance with France does not regard the East exclusively, but has reference to affairs in both hemispheres."*

"Our transatlantic cousins will become a trifle less insolent and overbearing, when they find that the fleet which 'summers' in the Baltic can, without cost or effort, 'winter' in the Gulf of Mexico, and our statesmen will not again need to speak with 'bated breath' in the cause of humanity and justice, from a dread lest the spirit of the country will not, or the energies of the country can not, bear them out in assuming a loftier tone."†

"When Russia is settled, France may safely abate her army, and England her navy, but neither must disarm. If they do, not only will other Powers cease to respect them, but they will cease to respect each other. We must still be able to say 'No' to our lively young brother across the Atlantic, if he wants Cuba without paying for it, or takes any other little vagary into his head."+

"England and France together are strong enough to bind nearly all the world over to keep the peace."||

There seemed to be a general English wish, that when

Sentiment expressed by Lord Clarendon, and indorsed in France.

North British Review, November 1854, written when England thought Sebastopol had already fallen, or might be regarded as captured.

Blackwood, November, 1854.

Blackwood, November, 1854.

"Russia was settled" attention should be given to the United States, and a general expectation that it would be done-that, in some form, France and England would interpose and humble the pride of the Great Republic. On the part of England the Alliance was formed, first, to secure herself, at least for a time, against France, then, if possible, to crush or hinder her two rising commercial and manufacturing rivals, Russia and the United States; and when the secret notes and conversations of the time shall come to light it will be revealed that, in its original conception, this contract was an Alliance both against Russia and America, with the intention as definite and real, of attacking in some form the United States, as was the plan of war against Russia.

The occasion of our rebellion was eagerly seized as the fit instrument for our destruction, and every step of England and France has been taken to carry out the spirit and intention of the original Alliance. France, as has been stated, was operating upon a wider plan, and with a deeper purpose. Her scheme was one of universal empire, with the prestige of the Latin race and church restored both east and west. This was in sympathy with English policy, so far as it went, but sne had also a grander ambition of her own.

When France attacked Russia, it was not simply one State against another, it was the Western Latin Church striking once more for the supremacy of the world. When, subsequently, Louis Napoleon attacked Austria, it was not to free Italy, as Italy since has learned, but to place France instead of Austria at the head of Catholic Europe.

The French Emperor, with his troops guarding the Pope at Rome, is again the "eldest son of the Church." On this eldest son the Papal power now rests its hope, and the movement upon Mexico is simply another step in the scheme of recovering the lost power of the Latin race under the lead of France, and to restore on this continent the supremacy of the Papal Church by crippling a free Protestant Republic.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CRIMEAN WAR.-IT WAS BEGUN BY FRANCE.-1T WAS IN ITS ORIGIN A RELIGIOUS WAR, AN ATTEMPT OF THE PAPACY TO REGAIN ITS ASCENDANCY IN THE EAST OVER THE GREEK CHURCH.

Americans cannot fully understand the motives which have governed England and France since the outbreak of the rebellion without studying the nature and purposes of the war against Russia in the Crimea. That war was the first part of a plan, of which the other was to cripple the United States either by State craft or by arms, whenever the opportunity should come after Russia was "settled."

The general principles and purposes which originated the war against Russia were the same which have guided these allied Powers in their hostility to the American Republic. The United States in the West occupied the same position as Russia in the East, and Mexico is the western Turkey to be sustained or occupied against our growing power. England looked at it then as now, from the commercial stand-point, fearing a rival in the West as in the East, while the object of the Papal leaders who urged France into hostilities, was to restore in the East the strength and prestige of the Roman Church, as they now propose to do the same thing in the West by a French occupation of Mexico, and as much more of the American continent as circumstances may allow.

For the same reason that the Allies interfered to prevent Russia from opening an eastern route to India by way of the Black Sea, the Caspian and the Aral, do they now pro

pose to block up our American western road to Asia; and the same policy which causes the reopening of the ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez has also planned the French ship canal across our American Isthmus, and made surveys and maps, not only of Central America and Mexico, but of our whole Pacific coast. The plan of the Allies in the East was the exact counterpart of their plot against the United States, a plot which the rebellion has only in part revealed.

The Crimean war, then, should be carefully studied by Americans, in order to understand the real motives by which France and England are governed.

During the progress of the siege of Sebastopol, the author of this work wrote as follows in reference to the attack upon Russia, and the quotation is made for the purpose of showing how events have justified the warning, and to convince Americans that the views then set forth were correct, and that the dangers pointed out were real.

"The interest of the United States in this struggle is second only to that of Russia, and to a great degree is evidently identical with hers. When Russia is settled,' what remains but to settle the United States also, inasmuch, as the North British suggests, the Allied fleets can spend their summers in the Baltic and their winters with us. Let those whose sympathies have flowed so freely for the Allies consider the tremendous stake which our country has in this contest. It is quite natural, and entirely right, that American Christians should cultivate the most friendly feeling with our fellow Christians in England, and that we should be grateful for the kindness with which her public servants have regarded our missionary efforts in Turkey, and that we should feel a deep interest in her as our mother country and as a Protestant nation, and it would be an act not only of folly but of wickedness to excite against her a causeless hostility.

"But it would manifest still greater infatuation if we should suffer these things to mislead us in regard to the

actual character of this war, or close our eyes to the manifest designs of the Allies, or fail to perceive the selfish, arrogant spirit that rules their policy. Let Americans be careful, lest by a misplaced sympathy they not only sustain a wrong, but endanger their own country.

"It was natural that Americans, in the beginning of this conflict, should cheer on France and England with their sympathies and their prayers, for then it appeared to be what they so loudly declared it was, a war of freedom against despotism, of civilization against barbarism; and it was expected that the yoke of enslaved nations would be broken. But can it be expected that Americans should still feel deeply interested in their success when it is so clearly shown by testimony and by actions, that this assault upon Russia has been prompted by no generous motive whatever, by no hatred of despotism, no desire for the deliverance of the oppressed, no kind regard even for tottering Turkey-but simply with the unrighteous design of checking the growth and hindering the prosperity of a neighboring nation, which might dispute with them their commercial supremacy, mingled, on the part of France, with the personal ambition and personal pique of her sovereign, and the intention of restoring supremacy to the Catholic Church; and when, moreover, it is virtually declared that so soon as Russia is settled,' the affairs of the western hemisphere will receive attention.

"The fact will not much longer be concealed from the world, that the true question involved in this war is whether France and England shall be the joint dictators of the world, domineering over all oceans with their navies, and prescribing limits to the growth of nations; whether they shall be permitted to say to Russia, 'You shall advance no further eastward,' or to the United States, You shall neither have the Sandwich Islands, nor Cuba, nor Mexico, and you, and all other Powers, shall dwell within the limits which we think proper to allow.' This is the real significance of the Eastern war, to which the United States will do well to give heed in time.

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