Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 410, 8 October 1856, Page 6

Extracts.

THE AMERICAN QUESTION. [From the "* Times ' June 19.] It is impossible to foresee the effects of the Crasnntoa quarrel. No one who is not profoundly ignorant of human nature can suppose that such an act can have no ulterior results beyond the dismissal of one ambassador and the toleration of another. Although diplomacy may smooth the asperities of the rupture and policy may acquiescence in an affront, there are consequences which, as neither of the two governments has considered, so neither of thorn will be able, to modify or divert. "Whenever Englishmen and Americans mcct —whether abroad cr in British possessions—there will be for some to come 111— disguised c rastiousness of a triumph on one side and ill-smothered sentiments of resentful' humiliation on the other. How long feelings of this nature cap. predominate without leading to some awkward practical development it is not for us to say ; but it is clear that their long repression during peace must add intensity to the exasperation of any future more opeu conflict. That such a catastrophe would be'em. tittered by the recollections of the recent dispute, and that these would tend to masrnisy calamities, in themselves sufficiently great, seems ;o be the idea of a leading party in the Ur.ited States, who have taken an early opportunity to make a demonstration against the Auti-Engiirh adherents of Mr. Pierce. The democratic Convention has nominated as its candidate for the Presidency .Mr. Buchanan, in preference to the present occupant of the White-house. Although this selection is not, indeed, so indicative of a pacific and inoffensive policy as could be desired, it, at all events, proves th.it the whole people of the United States are not inspiivd by that hatred of Great Britain which animnted the- counsels of Mr. I Pierce and his Cabinet. Of the two men proposed for th->ir selection, they are better pleased with the cleverness of Buchanan than the open hostility of Pierce. Buchanan has " done" the Britishers ; Pierce would eat him bones and all. The former accords better with the present humour of the Amencan people. They can chuckle over the clever address which killed two birds with one stone, and reconciled the amenities of diplomacy here wirh the pretensions of patriotism there. But they are not at. present disposed to sympathise generally w;th the more truculent, predilection* winch savour of the bowie-knife and the riii'.'. For ihis we miyb-; thankful, not only on our own ac::oii:.t, but on theirs too. *Tlie us.;nni;}iHj which w-uld hive re-elected Mr. Pierc- to the Presidential chair must have involved. i:s a certain consequence, the • af!-?!i?nption of a p ,l:cy pregnant with n:>L>!u>>.. usirrvxxlm and insult/ It would huve proc-l:!i:n<;d to the world that h.iticefi.rii the Govenrnenl of the Unit; d Slates was pi^h/ed. ur.d s!, e people of -he Uniled Blahs wi-j-f?. dir.o'-fi. to ;i system wid.'rb. wlnie it. uffi-d or \ ;«>:.■}.-d <jn; wM.rd. laws <,f i;!t-J-!.a*.i->lV.il I;,:-'. •.)•*;:■-. ;,t ii.i; ■<,;■., iU . «],„,.. rr-:-sh htw.s f-r il- -rxn cunu,nu;ucv or pridt;; u:;d it would imi be fiHHciil to ibresee twiit fcucii a t'yst.ia once pj-niiitlcJ

through weakness or encouraged by connivance^ must, sooner or later lead to a rupture with European States, and, among them, with this country. And what a war that would be ! We forbear to detail the peculiar means of mutual annoyance which each of th« contending parties couid bring- into the field. We forbear to compute the items of injury which they might respectively inliict. and suffer: —on the one hand Boston, NewYork, and New Orleans dismantled, shattered, depopulated, and in flumes ; on the other. Liverpool, "Manchester, and Birmingham subjected, not to the same indignities, but to equal misery by the loss of their trade. We leave to the. commercial imagination, an imagination which in our days is more active than any other,' to reckon the losses, the bankruptcies, the ruin of private families and of associations, which must follow such a struggle. That both countries could survive the strife and in s, very short time repair their looses is probable enough ; but what time would suffice to heal reciprocated injuries, and cool the hot torrent of aiiirry passions ? More important far than this — f or it cO n«e/ns not two nations only, but all civilizpn 1 Europe, afte* England and her Transatlantic child had inflicted- these deep and senrchine wounds on each other— when e acb had drunk madly of the othev s blood—-what would be the prospects o* European librrtv r At the present moment a dark, thick cloud htm as over Italy, Germany. Senia, and Turkey. It is onthe cast, of the die that they rise free from their time-hardened bondage, or that their fetters be rivetted more tightly f°r ever. At such a. crisis, is it of no slight moment that

the two kindred nations who enjoy the greatest, freedom of speech, thought, and institutions should be embroiled in a warfare which would bequeath the hitter legacy of endurinsr find rancorous hatred r It is no secret that the great sovereign powers of Europe, who look with dreod and detestation upon those institutions which give to the governed a voice in the government of their country—and this definition includes nearly fill the great Powers—are meditating-a project for smothering the nascent liberties of those states where thought is not vet. stifled by the censor, nor speech falsified by the spy. A dexterously concerted plan of operations may strangle the young liberties of Europe, and throw its people hack into the darkness and degradation of the middle sges. Ouch done, this cannot be undone. But., to do this, one thing is especially needful as a precedent condition. It is, above all things, necessary that England should bo. either distracted or dibilitated by some engrossing and dangerous contest. Whatever diverts her attention, drains her resource's, or endangers her influence, gives an accession of strength to the monarch who ha^es liberty, and every tyrant who abuses his power. But how great does this accession become if her energies are consumed in a parricidal quarrel with that kindred race which, with h>r language and blood, has inherit-ed her traditions of law, liberty and ; self-government! What would not the | despotic sovereigns give to s?e England and ! ihe United States committed to a lorry and i desolating war ! Such a strife would seal I the fafe of free institutions for centuries ; j perhaps for ever. It would crush the germ jof consHtuti-na is:n in Sardinia. It would I consign the fair p-ovinces of Rome and Tuscany to the et3rnnl sway of a priostly caste and Aus'r'a1! soldiers. It wouid give fnH rein to the flrarbiiious caprices of the j NenpoHfun tyraMl. It would strangle i Protcst:iiifis;n in Austria. It would destroy .fr ■('. >] ■cech and nc'ion everywhere : and ■ \vo:i'<i I»a\-r. no hn|)(>. no rr;sou''eo, no redrfss, nave in the wild outburst of de-mltory i!i-:iinc(;lioii, <>v the capricious veuyeanco of

the cowardly stiletto ! We know not if these things have been considered by the American people. If they have not been so, they are at least worthy of their meditation. Meanwhile, we venture to regard as,an indication of less pronounced hostility the demonstrative preference which they they have given to the civil diplomatist over the.martial and bellicose President.