The London Times affects to believe the absurd falsification of the Northern Government that the Confederate Commissioners at Fortress Monroe proposed to Mr. Seward to unite with the North in war against some foreign Power (England or France), and leave the questions at issue between themselves in abeyance till the foreign war was ended. The Times must know by this time what amount of confidence to put in Northern allegations; but it suits its purpose to profess faith in this transparent invention. There is no luxury to some minds so great as cringing to the strong, except it be bullying the weak. Mr. Seward has got England by the nose, and gives it a vicious tweak whenever she raises her eyes from the dust. Her "rigid neutrality" will not answer much longer; and we shall not be surprised to see her, ere long, throw off that disguise and accede to all that her master at Washington may demand.
It is needless to say that the people of the South never dreamed of making such a proposition, as the Times credits, to the Northern Government, and that there is at least one foreign Power now on this continent with which, under no circumstances except those involving our own honor, would we possibly consent to engage in war. That Power is one which, in the first Revolution, stood side by side with us on the heights of Yorktown and helped us to achieve our independence; which has been our well wisher and faithful ally since that event, and never sought, by open hostility or secret undermining, to bring this Republic to the dust; and while it frankly expressed its regret at the dissolution of the Union, has maintained, in reality, a neutrality which, in Great Britain, only meant an impartial distribution of injuries to both belligerents. France, the chivalric, the heroic, the military master of Europe, if not the friend of the Confederacy, has not been its enemy, and we hope never may be. The British Government we have never known except as our open or secret foe.
