nded on the basis of
the divine nature of slavery, the first time that so preposterous a
pretension was ever put forward by the audacity or the impudence of
men.' Had something like this been said to the agents of the rebels, and
had the English press supported the same views, the rebellion would have
been at an end ere this, and the commercial relations of America and
Europe would have experienced no sensible interruption. English
interests, in an especial sense, demanded that the rebels should be
discouraged, and discouragement from London would have rendered
rebellion hopeless, and have promoted peace in Savannah and New Orleans.

But it was not in England's nature to pursue a course that would have
been as much in harmony with her material interests as with that high
moral character which she claims as being peculiarly her own. There
appeared to have presented itself an opportunity to effect the
destruction of the American Republic, and England could not resist the
temptation to strike us hard: and, for almost a year, she has been to
the Union a more deadly foe than we have found in the South. We do not
allude to the _Trent_ question, for in that we were clearly in the
wrong, and Mason and Slidell should have been released on the 16th of
November, and not have been detained in captivity six weeks. Secretary
Seward has placed the point so emphatically beyond all doubt, that we
must all be of one mind thereon, whether in England or America. England
might have been moderate in her action, in view of her repeated outrages
on the rights of neutrals, but no intelligent American can condemn her
position. It is to other things that we must look for evidence of her
determination to effect our extinction as a nation. She has, while
dripping with Hindoo blood, and while yet men's ears are filled with
accounts of the blowing of sepoys from the muzzles of cannon by her
military executioners, absolutely demanded of us an acknowledgment of
the Southern Confederacy's independence, on the ground that it is
inhuman to wage war for the maintenance of our national life. She has
compared our mild and forbearing government with the savage proconsulate
of Alva in the Netherlands! She has charged us with waging war against
civilization, because we have employed stone fleets to close entrances
to the harbor of Charleston, though her own history is full of instances
of their employment for similar purposes! She has encouraged her traders
and