Jonathan and John Bull-Pent-up wrath
The people of the South, who know the Yankees well, and perfectly understand the men who now guide their affairs, know that neither they nor their Government will ever make reparation, apology, or atonement, when the demand for either is not backed by the power to enforce it. Does any man with sense enough to keep out of the fire believe that Mason and Slidell would have been surrendered to a demand from Mexico or Portugal, or Denmark? Would the tiger voluntarily surrender the fawn?--or the hyena his exhumed food?--or the anaconda the victim within his folds? Neither would the Yankee restore anything ill gotten, or atone for any outrage unless coerced to do so by a force superior to any he can exert. Very naturally be becomes the lasting enemy of any who may extort restitution or amendment from him. He cannot brook the deprivation of his gratifications either of his malice or his selfishness. Therefore when the Yankee Government gave up Messrs. Mason and Slidell--whose fates it had prefigured and gloated over with a brutal satisfaction like that enjoyed by the Cyclop over the victims in his cave — it gave them up with smothered wrath and in ward promises of revenge upon the power that demanded them.From that day the Government and the people of the North have been storing up wrath for the English nation. What boots it that they are permitted without restriction to obtain in England everything they desire — arms, ammunition, and all the materials of war? What matters it that England time and again protests her neutrality and submits her vessels to the terms of a Yankee blockade which is not in the law England herself has set up, a legal one? She gets no credit for her professions, and her respect of the blockade is attributed to fear of the Yankees on the sea. If the Confederates get a gun from England by all the dangers of the blockade, it is added to the account against the British. If our Government buys up an old boat from an Englishman and mans her with brave men to fret and damage the commerce of the Yankees, it is entered in their anti British memorabilia as a grievance that nothing short of the overthrow of the British Government will atone for! In short ever since the war they have been storing up malice against the English for a future day. Their press and their public men are continually muttering the thunders of this prospective storm.
We have man indirect way — via Hamilton, Bermuda — received an article on this subject copied from Harper's Weekly, a well known exponent of Northern sentiment, most extensively sustained and read by Northern people. It expresses more exactly the views and policy of the Yankees in their relations with Great Britain than any article we have seen. We invite attention to it:
There has never been a time when hatred of the English was so deep or so wide spread as it is at present. There has never been a period at which war with England could have been more generally welcomed than at present — if we were free to engage in a foreign war.
Yet we do not believe that war imminent.--We cannot afford the luxury. The struggle in which we are engaged taxes all our resources, and to carry it safely through to a successful issue will require our undivided energies. For this reason we do not anticipate that our Government will declare war against England — though it has ample ground for doing so; or will even declare an embargo, or seize British property to recompense our ship owners for the losses they are suffering through the piratical acts of British vessels.
Our one just now is to suffer everything from foreigners for the sake of concentrating our whole force on the suppression of the rebellion. When this is done, we shall have time to devote to our foreign enemies.
So soon as the restoration of the Union has been achieved, we look to see energetic measures adopted by the Government for the settlement of accounts with England. We expect to see every man who has lost a dollar by the depredations of the Alabama paid in full, with interest, by the British Government.--The amount can always be collected in the port of New York. Half a dozen British steamers and a score of British ships seized and aid at auction by the United States Marshal would go far to make a balance. And when England next goes to war let her look out for retaliation. Though her antagonist be only some Hottentot chief, the ocean shall bristle with American cruisers bearing his flag, and England may rely on it, that for every peaceful American trader that has been burned during this war by British pirates, ten British vessels will then be destroyed. The next war in which England engages will be the end of her foreign commerce. We mistake our countrymen greatly, if, at the end of twelve months, they leave a ship bearing the British flag afloat in any sea from the German Ocean to Behring's Straits.
We do not suppose that these terrible threats — these promised revenges postponed to a convenient season--will disturb the equanimity of John Bull. He is not easily disturbed. He, too, has interests which sometimes induce him to smother as well as postpone wrath. He will likely, influenced by this policy, continue to be neutral — continue to flout Southerners, set watches upon their agents, and increase the difficulties of their intercourse with their friends abroad, and also continue his explanations and protestations of neutrality to the Yankees. In the matter of Yankee revenge John Bull may rest assured that it will be indulged economically and profitably.--Harper's foreshadowed piratical co-operation with the "Hottentot Chief" presents the war of the Yankees on England in a form altogether agreeable to them. It is the general robbery and spoil of a very rich commerce which would pay very well. So let the British look out! If they get into trouble with a Hottentot they had better, in advance, buy up his brother barbarians of the North by paying them all their losses by Alabamas and Floridas, and add enough of gold to heal their wounded honor and appease their indignant and virtuous wrath before they proclaim war with their immediate antagonist. If they do not, they will be universally robbed and pillaged until they will be commercially and financially ruined. If Mr. Bull knows the value of a bribe, he could never employ one more profitably than in such a case with the Yankees.
