ts
marvelous display of courage and endurance it could not prevent
the final success of the Union, there was no longer difficulty in
arresting the building of the iron-clads on the Mersey; then the
watchfulness of home and colonial authorities was quickened; then
supplies were meted out scantily; then the dangers of a great slave
empire began to impress Ministerial consciences, and the same Powers
prepared to greet the triumph of the Union with well-feigned
satisfaction. But even if this change had not occurred the condition
of repressed hostility could not have lasted. It was war in disguise
--not declared, only because the United-States Government could
not afford to multiply its enemies, and England felt that there
was still uncertainty enough in the result to caution her against
assuming so great a risk. But the tension of the relation was
aptly described by Mr. Seward in July, 1863, when he said,--

"If the law of Great Britain must be left without amendment and be
construed by the government in conformity with the rulings of the
chief Baron of the Exchequer [the _Alexandra_ case] then there will
be left for the United States no alternative but to protect themselves
and their commerce against armed cruisers proceeding from British
ports as against the naval forces of a public enemy. . . . British
ports, domestic as well as colonial, are now open under certain
restrictions to the visits of piratical vessels, and not only
furnish them coals, provisions, and repairs, but even receive their
prisoners when the enemies of the United States come in to obtain
such relief from voyages in which they have either burned ships
they have captured, or have even manned and armed them as pirates
and sent them abroad as auxiliaries in the work of destruction.
Can it be an occasion for either surprise or complaint that if this
condition of things is to remain and receive the deliberate sanction
of the British Government, the navy of the United States will
receive instructions to pursue these enemies into the ports which
thus in violation of the law of nations and the obligations of
neutrality become harbors for the pirates? The President very
distinctly perceives the risks and hazards which a naval conflict
thus maintained will bring to the commerce and even to the peace
of the two countries. But he is obliged to consider that in the
case supposed, the destruction of our commerce will probably amount
to a naval war, waged by a