November
next, the Union party will have a clear majority and will bring
the seceding States back into the Confederation. He then hopes to
place himself at the head of a strong Union party having extensive
ramifications both in the North and in the South, and to make 'Union
or Disunion, not Freedom or Slavery,' the watchwords of political
parties." It can scarcely escape notice how significant, even at
this early period, is the use in this dispatch of the word
"confederation" as applied to the United States,--a use never before
made of it in diplomatic communication since the establishment of
the Constitution, and indicating, only too clearly, the view to be
taken by the British Government of the relation of the States to
the Union.

Whatever may have been the estimate at home of the policy attributed
to Mr. Seward, it was certainly one which would commend itself to
the sympathy of a friendly nation, and one, to the success of which
no neutral power would hesitate to contribute all the aid it could
rightfully render. The dispatch of Lord Lyons was received in
London on the 18th of February, and on the 20th Lord John Russell
replied as follows: "The success or failure of Mr. Seward's plans
to prevent a disruption of the North-American Union is a matter of
deep interest to Her Majesty's Government, but they can only expect
and hope. They are not called upon nor would they be acting
prudently were they to obtrude their advice on the dissentient
parties in the United States. Supposing however that Mr. Lincoln,
acting under bad advice, should endeavor to provide excitement for
the public mind by raising questions with Great Britain, Her
Majesty's Government feel no hesitation as to the policy they would
pursue. They would in the first place be very forbearing. They
would show by their acts how highly they value the relations of
peace and amity with the United States. But they would take care
to let the government which multiplied provocations and sought for
quarrels understand that their forbearance sprung from the
consciousness of strength and not from the timidity of weakness.
They would warn a government which was making political capital
out of blustering demonstrations that our patience might be tried
too far."

THREATS FROM LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

It is impossible to mistake the spirit or the temper of this
dispatch. It is difficult to account for the manifest irrit