MR. GLADSTONE ON THE AMERICAN QUESTION.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 18, 9 January 1863, Page 3

MR. GLADSTONE ON THE AMERICAN QUESTION.

It is not very usual for a Minister holding my office to detain a public assembly upon subjects of foreign policy, but there is one question of .such ''engrossing and absorbing importance, and so deeply and intimately connected with the touching matter to which I last referred, that I cannot avoid saying a few words upon it. I mean, of course, the deplorable, though, in my opinion, not doubtful struggle which is now proceeding in America. I for one, exercising my own poor faculties as best I could, have never felt that England had any reason connected with her own special interests for desiring the disruption of the American Union. I can understand those who say that it is for the general interest of nations that no State should swell to the dimensions of a Continent. I can understand those who say— and I confess it to be my opinion — that it is greatly for the interest of the negro race that they should have to do with their ow:r. masters alone, and not, as has hitherto been the case, with their masters backed by the whole power of the Federal Government of the United States. (Hear, hear.) Pray observe that that has been the state of things subsisting heretofore, and which some persons, I think mistakenly, have thought it desirable, in the interest of the negro, to maintain. The laws by which the slaves have been governed have been laws not made by the Federal Government, but. by the owners of slaves themselves, while for the enforcement of these laws the slaveowners have, under the constitution of the United States, had a right to call in aid the whole power of the American Union. (Hear.) I can, therefore, very well understand the arguments of those who think that it is not to be particularly desired, in the interests of the negro race, that the American Union should be reconstituted. But I confess that, for reasons which I need not now explain, I do not think that England has had any interest in the disruption of the Union, and my own private ©pinion has been that it would be rather for the interest of England if that Union had continued. I am aware that that is not the opinion -generally entertained, but at any rate we must all feel that the course •which her Majesty's Ministers have endeavored to pursue — namely, that of maintaining a strict neutrality, — has been a right course, and has expressed the general sense of the community. Where two parties are greatly exasperated -with one another, it is not at all unlikely that he who desires to maintain a strict neutrality between them will offend both, because the state of mind in which his conduct will be judged of by either is not one in which you can fairly expect from them perfectly impartial conclusions. But what we may expect is that our honest observations of neutrality up to this date will be recognised, and this unhappy struggle shall have ceased after when all the circumstances shall he calmly reviewed. (Hear.) I must confess, however, that it appears to me that if either party has a right to find fault with us it is the Confederate rather than the Federal party. If we have deviated at all from neutrality, our deviation has been against the Confederates, and not in their favor. The course we have taken has been this: — We have preserved a perfect neutrality, but we have permitted the export of arms and warlike stores. "We have permitted it to both parties — to the Confederates, whose ports were blockaded, and to the Northerners, who have been able to import whatever arni3 and stores they pleased. (Hear, hear.) I believe that that course has been right and just, and the statement of the fact proves that at any rate we have not had a bias influencing the policy of this country against any fair claim to consideration on the part of the Northern States. (Hear.) But now, gentlemen, I would for a moment make an appeal to you on behalf of the people of the Northern States— l mean so far as regards our appreciation of their position. Greater-allowances are to be made for heat and exaggerrtion in the state of public opinion in that country under present circumstances than, perhaps, could ever before fairly be claimed for any other nation. Only consider what their previous history has been. They have never drunk the bitter cup of misfortune, disappointment, and mortification. They have had but to will that a thing should be done, and it was done. Their course had been a source of prosperity and advancement without example and without a single break. Well, it is not in human nature that a people who have been subjected to an experience so nattering, and so soothing to human self-love as that, should at once learn with a perfect good grace to accommodate and submit themselves to the necessities of their condition. It is easy for us to do si when we suffer. We have gone through the very agonies of this dismemberment against which the Northern people of the United States are now striving. We have gone through it, and now know that it was not a bad thing for us after all. (Hear, hear.) But they have not gone through it, and I say let us bear with them all we can ; let us not- allow ourselves to feel the smallest irritation when -we see ourselves adversely criticised on the other side of the water ; and let us be very cautious about indulging in adverse criticism upon them on this side of the water. (Hear, hear ) Depend upon it that that course, steadily pursued, will bear its reward ; and it is a course which upon every ground of courtesy and Christian feeling they may expect that we should continue in. They" are our kin. They were, if they are not now, our customers, and we hope they will be our customers again. (A laugh.) But they have shown also, when their good feelings could have fair play, that they entertain .warm affections towards England. Whatever momentary irritation may cross the mind of that people, never let us forget their reception of the Prince of Wales. (Hear.) Let every Englishman eugrave upon the tablets of his heart the recollection of that memorable day, and if occasionally he feels tempted to anger by seeing his country misapprehended, or it may be misrepresented, let him calm his tendency to excited sentiments by that recollection. (Hear, hear !) It is the more necessary to do this bscause I think we are pretty much of one mind as to what is to come. We know quite well that the people of the Northern States have not yet drunk of the cup— they are still trying to hold it far from their lips — the cup which all the rest of the world see they must nevertheless drink of. We may have our own opinions about slavery; we may be for or against the South ; but there is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an aimy ; they are making, it appears, a navy ; and they have made what is more than either — they haTe made a nation. (£,ou.d cheers.) I cannot say that I have viewed with any regret their failure to establish themselves in Maryland. It appears to me too probable that if they had been able to establish themselves there the consequence of their military success in that aggressive movement would have been that a political party favorable to them would have obtained power in that State, that they would have contracted actual or virtual engagements with that political party, and that the existence of those engagements hampering them in their future negotiations with the Northern States, might have created a new obstacle to peace. (Hear.) Now, from the bottom of our hearts we should desire that no new obstacle to peace should start up. We may anticipate with certainty the success of the Southern States so far as regards' their separation from the North. (Hear, hear.) I cannot but believe that that event is as certain as any event yet future and contingent can be. (Hear, hear.) But it is from feeling that the great event is likely to happen, and that the North will have to suffer that mortification, that I earnestly hope that Englishmen will do nothing to inflict additional shame, sorrow, or pain upon those who have already suffered much,, and who will probably have to suffer more. (Hear.) It may be that a time might arrive when it would be the duty of Europe to offer a word of expostulation or friendly aid towards composing the quarrel. If it be even possible that such a time should arrive, how important that when that word is spoken it should address itself to minds not embittered by the recollection that unkind .things have been said and done towards 'them in Europe,

and above all. in England, the country which, however, they may find fault with it from time, to time, has, Aye know, the highest place in their admiration and esteem. — (Chee s.)~ The Chancellor of the Exchequer at Newcastle