SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH PRESS

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 396, 23 August 1856, Page 4

SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH PRESS

England and America. — The practical question now remains to be answered." If the two countries have no just yrounds of quarrel, —if the prosperity of each" is bound up with i hiit of the other,—if. as Mr. Dal'as says, no one in tiie Uni'ed Sutes wishes for war, why is there a continuance of these threats and recrimvsations ? It cannot seriousiy be supposed that England lias any desire to stain a continent and every ocean with blood i-, order to retain possession of a protectorate over a red Indian chief who rules a tract of swamp and forest in a pestilential climate which is '.h« terror of every European. Nor can.any sensible nvni conceive tint the precise puint in the enlistment question which still leinains unsullied is a matter of interest to people.in this' country, or that they even understand what it is. Every one knows that the English people only wish to he honourably rid of these paltry dssp'ijies. It is, indeed, quke passible that oven this Mosquito question ,'tud the r-cniitiag-ofnce question might breed a war of v/iiich the .generation which began it mifdit .not see the cud ; for the history°of the )vovld is full of suuh follies, uud when there is a

wish to fall out the subject matter is rather the occasion than the cause. But every one tells us—ami we doubt not with sincerity—that on neither side of the Atlantic is there any such embittered ferling. "Tf there be war," says Mr. Dallas, "it tnusi be in spite of uniform, steady, persevering, frank, and honourable conciliation," on the part of America. If so, then it is clear enough there will be no war at all. These questions might be settled in a few hours by two men of sense, determined to come to an amicable conclusion. We wantnothing, and the Americans, if the truth be told, have need of as little. If even thsre weie solid advantages in dispute, it is certain that war would not have procured them for either people. Few persons have, we think, considered what a contest between the Anglo-Saxons of the Old and the New Woild would be like. Probably no war of which the memory has reached us would be so wide in its operations, so lasting in its duration, and so disastrous in its results. The sails of the two nations whiten every sea ; their traders are to be found wherever the.c is a harbour or a navigable river on the globe. The wUole of this vast commerce would be, if not destroyed, at least ' impeiilled,,' disordered, and diminished. It would be essentially'a war of piracy and pillage. We should probably lay in ruins all the flourishing cities of the Atlantic coast, while the homesteads of the Canadian frontier would be blazing far and wide from the inroads of American free corps. Protectionists may have their own notions of the commercial results,.but we fancy the first consequence of a rapture would be the ruin of half the properties in the Southern States and the stoppage of almost every mill in Lancashire. But we need not speculate on the details of a conflict which every man must fe.el would throw back the human race for a century to come. Nor would the conflict be short. The two nations are distinguished beyond any on the globe for stubborn pride and invincibleobstinacy. The first atrocity committed on either side would be the signalfor a relentless and exterminating war. The original question would soon be forgotten, and. the struggle would continue •^because the pride and animosity of the two nations demanded it. It is such evils asthe.se that Mr. Dallas deprecates in his speech, and we trust that the sentiments he enunciates will influence the negotiations with which he is intrusted, and lead to a speedy settlement of disputes which are only important because they are little understood.— Times.