SUCCESSFUL BRITISH DIPLOMATIST.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 16 December 1913, Page 8

SUCCESSFUL BRITISH DIPLOMATIST.

In noticing Lord Newton's recently i issued biography of Lord Lyons, the Saturday Review, which is no admirer -oi: the^ characteristic American attitude towards Great Britain, writes very • bluntly about the Trent affair, which 1 happened when Lord Lyons was British Minister at Washington'-. I "The swaggering Seward and the | , braggart generals and . admirals and secretaries (it says) raged in vain round the well-bred English nobleman, who never argued, talked politely and evasively about his instructions, and never yielded an inch. The question .of contraband and the i;ights of neutral , vessels .is perhaps the most difficult of all the problems of international law. t During the whole controversy regarding the capture of the Confederate agents Slidell and Mason from, the British steamer Trent, Lord Lyonsj never expressed an opinion .to anybody, and refused to discuss the matter. Lord Lyons, with, an insight that amounted to genius, read, the American character through and through. He told Lord John Russell, who was a;t the time Foreign! Secretary, that the dan- j ger was the conviction of the. American people and their politicians thac Great Britain would submit to any \ humiliation and impertinence rather than go to war with the United States; and that in pursuance of, this idea the American Government would carry bullying as near as possible,, to the point of combustion."' As regards the 'way in which the I only diplomatic success we have scored ! against the Americans for very many j years was. gained, the Saturday Review contributor writes: "Lord Lyons' formula for meeting these tactics was, be mild in language, especially on unimportant things, but very firm in 'conduct. This formula succeeded perfectly, as it deserved, being the precept of a wise statesman. But Lord Lyons must have failed if he had not been supported by a Foreign Secretary of Lord John Russell's courage. We are afraid that if Lord Granville had been at our Foreign Office between 1861 and 1864 England would either have been forced into war or have eaten the leek in the sight of Europe. On reading this part of the ■correspondence we cannot help asking why was England afraid of going to war wi+h the United States? At the time when Seward was blustering and threatening Lord Lyons iiv his own drawingroom —Lord Lyons tells us that on one occasion he had "to join the ladies" in order to avoid hearing what Seward was saying—at the time when Captain Wilkes was openly violating "the" riphts of neutrals, the, United States had no navy, and a regular army of 16,000 men. while they were collecting a huge rabble of volunteers to engage the armies of the Confederacy. Great, Britain could have crushed America like a rotten apple, | either at the time of the Trent or the j Alabama affairs*. Why,-then, were we I so nervous? The answer is—Canada, j The nervousness was,, we think, unfounded. It is true that Canada had an indefensible frontier; but if the \mericans had invaded Canada the British Navy could have laid New York arid. Boston in ruins, and the Confederate armies, would have captured the- other Northern totfni."