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    official opinion of Paris . Moderation , dignity , faith , were attributed to the Emperor AiiEXANDBB—violence ,, rapacity , and a desire to degrade the public enemy were , lay implication , imputed to Lord Palmeeston . A JTreiHJh spirit presided at the Conferences , an English spirit began to revive at home . Meanwhile , however , Parliament had assembled in London , and some faint efforts at political opposition were made . Mr . Dis-BAii « l broke down in an attempt to place his own principles of foreign policy in favourable contrast with those of the Premier ; Lord

    C ! A .: r : bndon repressed the disaffection m the House of Peers ; Lord P aimers-ton caught upon his buckler the darts of the Tory and independent benches , and tossed them with fanciful ease ; even Mr . Roebuck was baffled and disconcerted . Only Mr . Beight succeeded in rousing a brief debate ; but his arguments were unpopular , and , though they left their mark , the Administration succeeded in silencing all discussion , and ^ protecting the Conferences from that most illegitimate of English influences , the influence of Parliament . Little excitement

    followed the announcement of the treaty . While the French were delighted to be relieved from a war in which their interests had never been , engaged , the English , accepted the peace with ' a contented sort of discontent , ' and took the illuminations as a palliative . Then , for one night , London wore a glory ; and while the holiday multitude

    glowed to see the pearl fire and the red rockets , there was many a wistful notion uttered as to the hypothetical results of One More Campaign . However , Peace had been signed , and it was necessary to make the best of it ; so the Guards were dined—badly in London , but sumptuously in Edinburgh and Dublin-r—and England went once more her accustomed way .

    What was the year " bringing for France , exhausted by the Russian war ? The article in the Moniteur against the English press , the revelations of Cayenne , dear lodgings , scanty food , the bull-victories of Bayonne , the blue and gold pavilion of Biarritz , the Imperial infant , and the masquerade hunts of Compiegne . Not one imperial concession to liberty , not one liberal adhesion to the Empire . Discontent among the working classes , financial embarrassments , the penalties of public gambling , Prance liable , by the accident of any day , to find herself in the midst of a revolution . So in Austria . Her Italian

    provinces are devastated by the tax-gatherer . The Emperor is received in silence at Venice , and dares not visit Milan . From , Naples , he hears that his Bourbon brother has received a bayonet-stab from one of his military children , and he receives a hint on the arb of government , illustrated by eight hours of torture , inflicted upon , a man with whom every just mind sympathizes deeply . What a contrast

    between the Boldver and the king !—the ' aseaeain , ' first agonized by Iroqnois torments , and then brutally put to death , and the tyrant , guarded by mercenaries , haunted by a terror which will some day change into remorse , and living in the midst of daggers , many of which do not strike him only because they cannot penetrate his pretorian enclosure ! A sovereign of another quality , in Berlin . t >

    repares to make war by right divine . Expelled from Neufch&tel , chiefly for violating the conditions of his tenure , this preacher of pence makes ready for an invasion o f Switzerland aa though he were about to hunt down a wolf ! Should his armies ever arrive at the Swiss frontier — which is exceedingly doubtful , owing to the protest of Wurtemberg , and the attitude of the neutral Powers—they will encounter such a reception as may startle the moony pedant from hia dreams of divinity . No

    doubt he and his kindred on the thrones of Europe anticipated a large increase of their prerogative over the smaller constitutional Powers , from the dispute between Crreat Britain and America . As if Uuatan J ( Belize , the Mosquito Indians , or all fche logwood , coffee , cocoa , or sugar plantations in Central America were worth one blow struck between Captain Seymour and Captain Habstein ,

    the American and British navies personified on the deck of the Resolute ! Happily , that cloud has drifted away ; we find ourselves in cordial amity with the XFnited States ; we are looking round for a Minister to represent us at New York ; and , instead of being called on to assist in the obsequies of the "Onion , we see James Buchanan laying the foundations of domestic tranquillity throughout the Northern continent of America .

    In the west and east of Asia we have two difficulties—a Persian war , and a collision with China . Both , perhaps , have been partially actuated by a belief which is entertained by the Government , that , as the Russian war somewhat impaired our prestige in Asia , it is judicious to insure the deference of the Asiatic population by maintaining a vigorous line of policy from , the Persian Grulf to the Yellow Sea . In the case of

    Persia , however , our quarrel is clearly just ; while at Canton , so far as the circumstances have yet been explained , no blame is attributable to Sir JbHir Bowrino or Admiral Seymour . A retrospect at home shows little progress in legislation , or the purity of social manners . Two or three commercial reforms , a county police hill , a reformatory movement , and some powerful pleas in favour of education , are to be balanced against the mighty swindles of Middlesex and Tipperary , the Bugeley , Leeds , Dublin , and metropolitan murders , and the utter bewilderment of our jurists in search of penalties for offenders .

    The last year casts its shadows over the next . No one will be astonished by the recurrence , at any moment , of the convulsions of 1848 . That one truth indicates the kind and the degree of progress that has been made abroad . At home , what is our task ? It seems hopeless to obtain , a reform of our foreign policy , which is , by turns , the prerogative of a "Whig or Tory minister . But the nation is gradually educating itself to a

    familiarity with the affairs of the Continent , and our diplomatic relations with the great Powers . Knowledge of this kind is useless unless applied in the form of direct pressure upon the Administration . In other respects , the paramount necessity of the new year is a great change in © unparliamentary institutions ; for Parliament , as ifc exists , is the machine of corrupt parties , and the constituencies are hotbeds of venality .

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    the anglo . american alliance . An American officer haa just struck his flag to an English naval commander , surrendering his ship , and yet tlie act was a deed of victory . Captain Hartsteik struck hia flag on board the Resolute , on Tuesday , and gave up the ship to Captain Sjsymoue , of the British navy . He did so , he said , " with a pride totally afc variance with our professional ideas , " and the pride of the oflicer can be

    weu understood . Many thoughts must have crowded into Captain Hartstjsin ' s mind at that moment . It ia comparatively but a short time since this country , after making a treaty with the United States to guarantee the neutrality of a passage across the American isthmus , first endeavoured to back out of that compact , and then , to cover its own bad faith , endeavoured to establish against the statesmen of the Union the most treacherous purpoao in framing

    the treaty . Hailing in this crooked endeavour , our Government yielded up the island in dispute , and the whole points of the contest ; still , however , unhandsomely accompanying the really humiliating concession , with a continued charge of sharp practice against the Union . What was the reply of the American G-overnment- ? Firm in exacting a compliance with rfcs just demands , in the matter both of Central America and the Enlistment quarrel , the American Government continued a perfectly frank conduct towards our own ; and when the opportunity

    offered , in the drifting of the Resolute to American hands , it seized the occasion for a touching testimony of sympathy , of goodfeeling towards the whole people of this country , and of respect even tor the national Government . It may be said that the United States , with a peculiar grace and generosity , returned good for evil in making that handsome present of the Resolute to the English nation through Queen Tictoeia ; and in striking his flag to Captain Seymoub , Captain Hartstiein was actually crowning that victory .

    ¦ If , indeed , Englishmen will but understand themselves and their relation to their Government , there will be no further chance of disputation between the American Republic and our Commonwealth . It was this idea which inspired the brief address of Mr . Cbosskey at the Portsmouth dinner on Monday , last week . " Although , " le said , " it had fallen to the happy lot of America to inaugurate this auspicious event in th « annala of nations , he had no doubt that had the relative positions of the two countries been changed ,

    England would have done just as they ( the Americans ) had done ( loud cheers ) ; and she Lad no greater wish than for some opportunity to occur wherein she could prove that she was not to be excelled in such acts even by her first-born daughter , America . ( Cheers . ) England must rejoice in America ' s prosperity , ev « n as America rejoiced when she heard of the increase of British prosperity and the extension of the British empire inlegitimate directions . The world was large enough for both nations to fulfil their respective destinies without coming into conflict with each oth . er . ( Prolonged cheering-. ) The East seemed peculiarly England ' s sphere of action , wtile the West would appear to be the sphere in which

    America , rather than England , should exercise the influence which the Anglo-Saxon race had never failed to exercise among a scmi-barharous people or over undeveloped countries . At all events , it was their duty to cherish the present kindly feelings existing between them , to avoid all talk of war , and to he chary of each other ' s honour and feelings as they would of their own , for hard words too often led to hard blows . ( Cheers . ) When he heard the possibility of a war between the two countries , the idea appeared to him to be so unnatural that he found himself repeating , with tho transposition of a few words ; an old nursery rhyme , as familiar on . their side of the Atlantic as on this , and it might not lie inappropriate on the present occasion to repeat the lines :

    • Let dogs delight to bark and bite , For God hath mado them so : Lot Turks and Russians growl and flght , For 'tis thoir nature to . 4 Anglo-Saxons should not lot Their angry passions rise , Thoir great big hands wore never inado To tear each other ' s eyes . ' ( Cheers and laughter . ) He ( Mr . Crosskoy ) recommended both English and American mothers to adopt this version in teaching their children , as a war between England and America would be so dir <* a catastrophe that it would be execrated by all lovers of their kind ; it would be a violation of tho first principles of nature , and in disobedience of tho law « f tho Great Ruler of tho Universe . " ( Cheers . )

    Those who sat round the table would observe that in the reports of Mr . Gbosskey ' s speech one clause was omitted . If we mistake not , -while speaking of the support which England vrould always receive when she needed it , he alluded moro especially to the support which tho Americans would givo if England were sustaining the cause of Liberalism in Europe . This is exactly what Wo have always said , and . it gives us pride and satisfaction , to have tho testimony of Mr . CitossKEY to the same effect . "What man could hetter understand the relation of the two countries than that American who ia

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    12 THE IfEADER . [ No . 354 Sattjbpay ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 3, 1857, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2174/page/12/