Latest from Europe.
the recognition question — views of the London Press--Mr. Gladstone's speech on American affairs, &c., &c.
The latest intelligence from Europe is contained in the mails by the Australasian, from Liverpool, on the 12th. The British papers are much occupied with American affairs, which are discussed chiefly with the relation to the probability of an early recognition of the Confederacy. It was reported that the ‘"Southern Association"’ in Liverpool had agreed to a proposition which has for its object the memorializing of the British Government for the recognition of the Confederate States. It was also said that the members of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce were about to petition Government as to the necessity of recognizing the South. The Liverpool Post, of the 11th, says:
‘ "Two of the highest class Liverpool houses received, yesterday evening, telegrams from headquarters in London, that the British and French Governments have lost no time in announcing that they are resolved on persisting in a policy of perfect neutrality."
’ The London Commercial Daily List says it is enabled to state that there is no likelihood of an immediate recognition of the Southern Confederacy.
The city editor of the Times asserts that the feeling among the commercial classes of London is as strongly opposed as ever to any action on the part of the Government towards a formal recognition of the dissolution of the Union, and he says that there is a suspicion that the desire for such a recognition comes rather from the North than the South.
The London Times, in some speculations upon the results of the Maryland campaign, concludes as follows:
‘ Of course the contest is henceforward only for boundary. Maryland was one of the great difficulties. The South could not abandon that State with honor and could not hope that the North would ever surrender it.
Maryland has now had an opportunity, and as she has not risen to accept her deliverance, the Southern Government may well conceive itself absolved from any imperative obligations towards her for the future. Sooner or later a time will suddenly arise when this question of boundary will assume an absorbing importance.
’ The Daily News editorially disputes the idea that the South would willingly, in the event of a separation, concede any of the Border States, and adduces evidence tending to prove quite the contrary.
The Morning Post draws a parallel between Lincoln's Government and that of the Ex-King of Naples, and charges President Lincoln with proceedings closely resembling those which preceded the downfall of the Neapolitan throne, and says: ‘ Francis of Naples failed, pursuing a similar course, why should Abraham of America succeed? It questions whether Europe, in the event of any signal victory attending the Confederates, would be justified in longer withholding their recognition.’
Mr. Gladstone's speech.
The following is a full report of Mr. Gladstone's speech on American affairs, at New Castle, England:‘ I, for one, said the right honorable gentleman, exercising my own poor faculties as best I could, have never felt that England had any reason connected with her own civil interests for desiring the disruption of the American Union. I can understand those who say 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 own opinion — that it is greatly for the interest of the negro race that they should have to do with their own masters alone, and not — as has hitherto been the case — with their own masters backed by the whole power of the Federal Government of the United States. [Cheers.] Because, pray observe, that has been the state of things that has subsisted heretofore, and to which some, I think mistakenly, in the interest of the negro, have thought it desirable to return.
The laws by which the slaves have been governed have been laws made not by the Federal Government, but by the owners of those slaves; but the enforcement of the laws made by the owners of the slaves has not rested in the hands of the owners of the slaves alone. They have a right — a constitutional right by the Constitution of the United States--to be supported against their own slaves in the execution of the laws that the slave-owners have made by the whole power of the American Union. I can, therefore, very well understand the argument of those who think that it is particularly to be desired in the interest of the negro race that the American Union should be reconstructed. But I must confess, for reasons that I need not now explain, that I do not think that England has had any interest in the disruption of that Union; my own private opinion is that it was rather the interest of England that the Union should continue. I know that it is not an opinion generally shared; but at any rate, gentlemen, whatever view we may take of that, I think we all feel that the course which her Majesty's ministers have endeavored to pursue — namely, that of maintaining a strict neutrality under all circumstances that have heretofore passed — has been a right course, and has been the expression of the general sense of the community. [Cheers.]
There is, and there can be, no doubt that where two parties are in great exasperation, it is not at all unlikely that he who observes a strict neutrality will offend both; because, in point of fact, the state of mind in which his conduct is likely to be judged of for the moment by either disputant is not a state of mind in which it is fair that we should expect from them perfectly impartial conclusions. But what we may naturally expect is this: that an honest course of neutrality will be recognized — that course, I mean, which we have pursued up to this day — will be recognized after this unhappy struggle has passed away, and when the circumstances shall be calmly viewed. But, I must confess it appears to me that if either party have a right to find fault with us, it is the Confederate rather than the Federal party. [Hear, hear.] I mean this: If we have deviated at all from neutrality, our deviation has been against the Confederate rather than the Federal party. 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 two parties — to the Confederates, all of whose ports were blockaded by the Northern fleet, and to the Federal, who have had perfect power to import whatever arms and stores they pleased. I think that course has been the right and just course; but I think the very statement of the fact proves that at any rate we have not displayed a bias unfavorable to the claims of the Northern States. [Cheers.]
But no, gentlemen, I would for a moment make an appeal to you on behalf of the people of the Northern States--I mean so far as regards our appreciation of their position. Greater allowances are to be made for heat and exasperation in the state of public opinion in that country under present circumstances than perhaps could ever fairly be claimed by any other nation. Only consider what their private history has been. They have never drank 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 has been a course of prosperity and advancement without example and without a single break. Well, gentlemen, it is not in human nature that a people who have been subjected to an experience so flattering, so soothing to human self love, should at once learn, with a perfectly good grace, to accommodate and submit itself to the necessities of our human condition. [Hear, hear.] It is easy for us to suffer. We have suffered before. We have gone through the very agonies of those dismemberments against which the Northern people of the United States are now struggling. We have gone through it, and now that we have gone through it we know that it was not a bad thing after all. [Hear.]
But they have not gone through it, and all I say is, let us bear with them all we can. Let us keep towards them a kindly temper; let us not allow ourselves to be adversely criticised on that side of the water; let us be very cautious of adverse criticisms upon them from this side of the water. Depend upon it, that course steadily pursued will bring its reward, and it is the course which they have a right, upon every ground of good will, courtesy, and Christian feeling, to expect that we should pursue. [Cheers.] Why, gentlemen, they are our kin; they were, at any rate, if they are not now, our customers, and we hope they will be our customers again. But they have shown also that, under all circumstances, when their good feeling could have fair play, they have warm affections towards England. Never let us forget, whatever momentary irritation may cross the minds of that people — never let us forget the reception of the Prince of Wales. [Cheers.] Let every Englishman engrave upon the tablets of his heart the recollection of that memorable day; and if occasionally he may be tempted to anger at seeing his country misapprehended, or even misrepresented, let him calm his tendency to excited sentiment by that recollection. [Cheers.]
And, gentlemen, it is the more necessary that we should do this, because I think we are pretty much of one mind as to what is to come. We know quite well that people — I mean the people of the Northern States--have not yet drank of the cup; they are still endeavoring to hold it far from their lips; they have not yet drank of the cup which, notwithstanding, all the rest of the world sees they must do. [Hear, hear.] We have our own opinions about slavery; we may be for the South or against the South; but there is no doubt, I think, about this — Jefferson Davis and the other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made what is more than either — they have made a nation. [Enthusiastic cheering, which was prolonged for some time] I cannot say that I, for one, 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 in Maryland, the consequence of their mili- tary success in any aggressive movement would have been that a political party, favorable to them, would have been formed in that State--that they would have contracted actual or virtual engagements with that political party, and that the existence of these engagements hampering them in their negotiations with the Northern States, might have formed a new obstacle to peace. Gentlemen, from the bottom of our hearts we should desire that no new obstacles to peace may be formed. [Hear, hear, and cheers.]
We may anticipate with certainty the success of the Southern States, so far as regards effecting their separation from the North. I, for my own part, cannot but believe that event is as certain as any event yet future and contingent can be, [Cheers.] But it is from feeling that great event is likely to arise, and that the North will have to suffer that mortification, that I earnestly hope that England 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. [Cheers.] It may be that a time might arrive when it would be the duty of Europe to offer a word of expostulation, or of friendly aid, toward composing the quarrel. It is even possible that such a time as that may arrive, how important it is that when that word comes it should address itself to minds that are 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, we know holds the highest place in their admiration and respect. [Enthusiastic and prolonged cheers.]
’
The London Press on Mr. Gladstone's speech.
The London Times remarks that it can hardly be alleged that Mr. Gladstone has gone beyond the bounds of official reserve in the statement that Jeff. Davis has made a nation of the South. If any community ever did earn the name of a nation, the Southern Confederacy have. It is the bare fact. Is need have nothing to do with the politics of the question. It is wholly independent of moral considerations. Mr. Gladstone concludes very reasonably that the rebels, who are a nation, will remain so, and that their nationality will not be absorbed back into the Union.The London Daily News says it does not find fault with Mr. Gladstone for recognizing the progress which the South has made in establishing its independence; but, since he spoke of British counsel as a possible element in the final settlement, could he not have said one word in favor of saving from the curse of slavery the vast countries which fall to one or other of the combatants, but whose destiny is at present undecided.
The London Star thinks Mr. Gladstone's speech will tend to revive among the rebels (which, perhaps, as much as any other, lured them into rebellion) the hope that the English Government would, in the end, be induced to lend them at least an open sympathy and moral support.
The London Herald says Mr. Gladstone's words are of course not the more hap-hazard expressions of individual opinion. They will be taken as the deliberate sanction of the Cabinet, of which he is a member. It will now be understood throughout Europe and America both that the English Government are convinced the time has come to recognize the independence of the South.
The London Globe says it has no authority to announce the day or hour the recognition will be given on the part of this country, but it is clear it cannot be deferred long, and in any other case there is no doubt it would be given sooner. The sincere repugnance to countenance or encourage, by any premature act, the formation of an independent slave power, can alone account for the delay in this instance.
The London Shipping Gazette can hardly suppose that Mr. Gladstone expressed sentiments at variance with those of his colleagues. Possibly he has been premature in the announcement of his views. At Manchester, recently, he publicly expressed confidence in the success of the Southern cause.--He is, at all events, deliberate and consistent. If the opinions he has given utterance to are not shared by his colleagues, it is difficult to understand how he is to continue, in his present association, to advise the Crown.
The Star enlarges upon the warm reception given to the proclamation by the American press, and denounces the Submissionists as a party of men who refuse to adopt a just policy while they ‘"wall over the lost profits on traffic with slaveholders." ’
The London Daily News retracts its half way censure of the proclamation, and now admits that it will produce good results.
The New York Express has the following, which we alluded to yesterday, and now give in connection with the above extracts from European papers:
‘ Reliable information has been received in this city, from semi-official sources in Europe, that England and France are of on the accord in regard to their line of conduct towards this Government. Lord Lyons, who was to have returned to the United States in the Australasian, was detained at the last moment, by order of Lord John Russell, (Her Majesty's Secretary for Foreign Affairs,) to await further instructions in consequence of the President's abolition proclamation. His Lordship's departure was then fixed for October 25, (last Saturday,) and on his arrival at Washington he will positively inform Mr. Seward of the programme decided upon by the European Powers. Instructions similar to those of the British Minister will be forwarded to Count Mercier, the French Minister at Washington, by the same steamer which will bring the English Minister back to this country.
We are also given to understand that our Government will soon be informed that England and France have decided upon the recognition of the Southern Confederacy, if the joint offers of mediation and armistice to be proposed to Mr. Seward are not accepted. At any rate this Government will be duty notified of the intentions of England and France in this respect, and, as these powers are fully aware that any offer of mediation on the basis of separation will not for an instant even be listened to by our Government, united endeavors will then be made by all the European ambassadors in Washington to obtain an armistice of four or six months between North and South. These foreign Governments are under the impression that if once a cessation of hostilities can be effected a calmer spirit will succeed, which will enable the two sections to negotiate.
The utmost endeavors will be made shortly after Lord Lyons's return to Washington, by the whole corps diplomatique of Washington, to bring about such an armistice. Only then when all these offers of mediation and armistice shall have proved of no avail, will the South be recognized simultaneously by England and France. Aside from the fact that these Powers would now look upon the South as a de facto Government, they fear that an insurrection of the slaves in the South, as a consequence of the emancipation proclamation, will take place after the 1st of January, and hence, in order to afford protection to their own citizens residing there, are compelled to grant protecting power to their agents in the several Southern cities, which as things stand just now, they do not possess.
They fear that the Confederate Government, unrecognized as it is, may at any time tell their Consuls in Charleston, Richmond, Savannah, and elsewhere, that there is no diplomatic relation existing between the Confederacy and Europe, and they can therefore not permit them to act in a consular capacity. It is to guard against such an emergency, and to afford their own citizens residing in the South ample protection under the ægis of their regularly appointed agents, that England and France will claim the necessity of recognizing the new Confederacy.
’
