The Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1872.
We hardly know what can be urged against the American view of the Alabama claims. It is so long since the events occurred that led to the dis-
pate between Great Britain and the United States, that they had almost passed out of memory. There can bo no question that there was much remissness on the part of the Home government in the matter, and that had greater decision been manifested, the complications sought to bo resolved would have been avoided. But governments arc not always able to do as they will. Popular feeling very often overrides their best efforts to maintain peace. At the time the privateering expedition took place of the vessels complained of, the duties of neutrals in wars between nations were not well defined, nor are they even up to this hour. In the case of the United States too, the caso is aggravated by the Americans regarding the attempted separation of the South from the Federation as rebellion. There is no doubt that most of the merchants of England were inclined to support the secession of the South. They were not manufacturing nor mercantile states : their in- ' terests were more thoroughly identified with England than with the Northern States. Disguise it as they may, the war on the part of the North was undertaken through mixed motives. The abolition of slavery was a leading thought with many, but the enforcement of a protective tariff, intended to exclude the manufactures of Great Britian from Southern consumption was not a less powerful motive, and it was not in human nature that men who had embarked immense capital in machinery and shipping, with a view to the prosecution of a specific traffic, should desire the success of a section of a country designing to rise upon its ruin. With barely an exception, the population of Liverpool, where the Alabama was built, were desirous that the South should succeed. As the seaport of Lancashire, the cotton trade was of immense importance; and not only so, the shipowners of that port were keen competitors with the Northern States for the carrying trade of the world. For many years prior to the outbreak of the war American ships were successful rivals in the world’s trade. Wood was cheap, and their builders skilful j the old fashioned ideas of English naval architects induced them to sacrifice speed to carrying capacity, and through the suicidal tariff of Great Britain, American ships could be fitted out and sailed at less freights. The civil war broke out during a transition period, and the destructive raid of the Southern privateers hastened the resumption of Britain’s naval superiority ; the Northern carrying trade was all but annihilated, and the change from the use of wood to iron as ship building material, lias once more made British ships the carriers for the world. There can be no doubt that these results have caused soreness in the American mind, and that not a tew would very gladly embrace the opportunity of revenging themselves by destroying the mercantile marine of Great Britain. But the price would be too heavy. England, though willing to avoid a war that would be disastrous to both countries, is able to take a very formidable stand as a naval power, though all the navies of the world were opposed to her; and the United States has too much at stake rashly to enter upon such a contest. Equally threatening difficulties have many times been got over since 1815, the last year of the last war with the States. A settlement of neutral claims arising out of that war was arrived at in 1826 ; there was a dispute about the, Americans helping the Canadian insurgents in 1837; another when Alex. M‘Leod was charged with arson and murder, for setting fire to the American steamboat, Caroline, in 1839 ; a third respecting the boundary between the United States and the British possessions in 1842 ; a fourth respecting the north-west boundary in 1846 ; a fifth about the fisheries on the coast in 1852 ; and in 1855 there was a slight dispute about the Foreign Legion enrolled and organised by Great Britain for service in the Russian War. In many of these differences an equally angry tone was indulged in by the people and the ' Press as seems to be now the fashion at Horae. Yet the good sense of the majority in both countries ultimately prevailed, and peace was not disturbed. In the present instance a resort to war would be a most disastrous termination to the efforts to establish a precedent for referring national disputes to an international tribunal. The course has been advocated by the soundest thinkers for so many years,'that it would be a sad discouragement were the idea to gain ground of the impossibility of settling such matters amicably. There can be no doubt that there have been on both sides provocations arising from the unscrupulous conduct of subjects of both countries. If the United States have suffered through the outfit of the Alabama and other vessels, Great Britain has suffered through the Fenian raids on Canada and in Ireland. What claims, if any, have been made for these we
are not informed. Possibly, if any have been put forward, they will rouse equal temper in the States as the Alabama claims in England. It is lucky for both countries that “ tall talk ” very much resembles the noise steam makes while rushing through a safetyvalve : it tells that the pressure is great, but the boiler won’t blow up.
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Evening Star, Issue 2828, 12 March 1872, Page 2
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929The Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1872. Evening Star, Issue 2828, 12 March 1872, Page 2
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