REPUBLICAN MORALS AND MONARCHICAL POLICY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 412, 15 October 1856, Page 2

REPUBLICAN MORALS AND MONARCHICAL POLICY.

(From the " Economist," 14th Juno.) The question as to the permanent and deliberate policy to bo pursued by this country in its rotation with the United States is far wider, graver, and more difficult than that which concerns the settlement of ik? present dispute between the two Governments. That may bt arranged in several ways, or may not be arranged at all. It may be compromised : it may be-suffered to drop ; it may be a matter for the continued interchange of hostile diplomatic notes; it may be fanned into an actual war by angry, indiscreet, or dishonest politicians ; or it may issue in speedy hostilities, without any deliberate intention on the part of either Government, in case any hot-headed naval commander or ill-meaning consul should proceed to some irrevocable action which their superiors may not choose to disavow, and which may arou.se the fiercer passions of one or other people. In this last possibility, undoubtedly, lies the real danger. Reckless and unscrupulous as we believe President Pierce and some at least of his Cabinet to be. we acquit them of being so mad or so wicked as designedly to force on a war for their own party purposes. They go so near the critical line of demarcation, because they i'ancy there is no danger of stepping over it. if they had thought hostilities probable, they would have been far more shy of provoking them. But their subordinates may easily go over the precipice on the verge of winch they' have been content to walk. They, as well as we, have ships of war on the Central American Station : with what instructions furnished we know not. L nder these circumstances it is obvious that an intemperate or blundering captain on either side may "bring on a collision, and the first shot fired may place the dispute beyond the control of any Minister. Therefore, though it is understood. that the last despatches from the Government at Washington have been couched in a tone an amicable solution of our differences, we cannot but feel deep anxiety as to the result, _ But we will suppose the matter settled for the time without blows, either by a reference of the dispute to arbitration, or by an abrogation of the unlucky treaty which has given rise to suck discrepant interpretations. The main question to which we drew attention last week will still, however, remain behind. Sooner or later,' .slowly or rapidly, decently or brutally, on one pretest or another, with, or without disguise, it is certain that the United States will°seek'to extend their sway by process of absorption and annexation over the whole of Mexico and Central America, and to stretch their republican empire from Maine to the Isthmus of Panama. In contemplation of this prospect, what is to be the policy of Great Biitain ?* Are we called upon to prevent this consummation ? Could weprevent it ? Ought; we, in wisdom and in ngnteousness, to endeavour to prevent it ? \ It is no doubt painful to all just and generous minds to stand by and witness wiw oppression inflicted 1 y t] c strong upon the weak, to be spectators of high-handed iniquity, to permit arid m a manner to connive at, spoliation and , injustice., but not interposing to forbid them. ! 1«e oest instincts of our nature would, in pri- | vate life, revolt against this acquiescent inaction but as nations we must not be guided simply »>y our own instinctive feelings, howeveV amiable, generous, and powerful they may be • we must take into account a wide range of considerations; we must endeavour to' a«ee»tain wiiat course of action is likely on the whole to be.most conducive to good, and what policy tm-rejore, an enlightened sense of duty would lead us to adopt. .Now, though nations must never perpetrate wrong, it \,y no means follows that tliev ai-p bound or would bo wise or ri«?ht in all cases to interfere to prevent its perpetration. Each case must.stand upon its own merits. We are not charged with the general pu!i<-e of the universe' We cannot undertake knight-errantry throughout the whole world. We may interpo^to protect our immediate friends, or" special allies or close conneetions,those to whom we an- bound by affection, those to whom we are linked by interest, —without entailing upon ourselves the obligation to defend also the distant and the unrelated. We may properly enough take up arias to resent one wrong or to beat back one

encroachment, yet with equal propriety decline to punish analogous wrongs elsewhere, or to repel Jill similiar encroachments. We must do what wo etui —what most concerns us- —what lies within our special power, our close cognizance, our easy roach. It is no accurate or cogent logic that would constrain us, because we have protected the weak and bullied the robber in Europe and at home, to pursue the same | course at the antipodes and in another hemisI phere. To do so would be simply out of our power and beyond our scope. It is a policy which we could not carry out, and which therefore we should not be wise and .ore not called upon to undertake. In many cases we should not be able to pronounce a certain and authoritative judgment, and in many more we should not be able to enforce our sentence, or to enforce it without doing more harm than good. To announce that we disclaim the vocation of righting all wrongs and punislmig all crimes all over the world, may possibly be an encouragement to the wrong-doer, but it is an encouragement winch we cannot help affording. Therefore, though we nee clearly whither the aggressive and avaricious passions of the United States are leading them; though we hold their absorbing and annexing policy to be criminal and unchristian ; though we are convinced that like all other crime it will entail its own certain and bitter penalty.—yet we do not hesitate to say that it is not for England to take upon herself either to award or to inflict that penalty. On thehend of the guilty nation be the condemnation and the consequences of the {guilt. 'We could not hinder the ultimate absorption by the Anglo-Saxon republicans of the whole of Central America if we would ; and we are by no wans certain that we wouid if I we could. For, in the first place, all experience has shown us that the weak caunot permanently be protected against the strong, unless in the most peculiar and exceptional cases. It would not be for the welfare of the world that they should be so protected. It is not for the good of humanity that a sickly existence should be artificially prolonged. But'even, were it it desirable, it would not be possible as a continuance. In the case of races, it is especially impossible. You cannot prevent the Red Indian from being graJually crushed autl effaced by the white man, and it is avowedly idle to attempt it. You cannot for ever uphold the semi-civilized, semi-Spanish, degej nerate Mexicans, or rlicaraguans—with their incurable indolence and their eternal petty squabbles with their effeminate habits and their enfeebled powers—against the # hasting, rushing, unresting, i inexhaustible energies of the Anglo-Saxon Americans. Criminal, coarse, violent as they often are, it cannot be denied that they rule and conquer by virtu of a superior manhood. And you can no more enable the Spanish Creole to make head again the laukee adventurer, than you can preserve the Australian savage side by side with the Scotch or English settler. You may prolong their unavailing struggles ; you may postpone their dying day ; but would you thereby be doing any real good, or conferring any real kindness on the feebler races? Is it not certain that the lot of those fine provinces will in the end be'higher and happier under American than under Mexican and Spanish rule, —that their resources will be more fully and more rapidly dc-Vflopod,—that their resources will be nobler mid grander,—that the humanity they will sustain and give forth a century hence will be more advanced, an! more morally and intellectually deserving of existence ? Is it not always a mistake to see cto maintain the lower against "the higher civilization ? And though these considerations and this conviction are no justification to the United States for their aggressive and piratical policy—since fraud and violence must he always crimes—yet they are an ample justification to us for not taking up arms to oppose that policy, which—sinful as it is—we cannot regard as ultimately noxious to the world. '

Again, we can have no interest-in upholding the present wretched and feeble governments of Spanish America. Our interest lies all the other way We wish ourselves for no extension of territory oil that continent. We are half inclined to regret that we hold any possessions at all there South of the Union Uwmnff no territory, we desire only prosperous industrious, civilized ,-,nd wealthy customers Central America peopled and exploits by Anglo-Saxons will be worth to us tenfold its present value We have no fear that our ships will be prohibited from crossing Hiat Isthmus when the two seas shall be jo.ned by a canal. Neither BS philanthropists nor as merchants then.fV,re-n«ilK.r as friends of progrees nor as lovers of lucre-can we have any wish to oppose what we yet must perceive are the designs of Am nca and what in the eye of morality we cannot too decidedly condemn. But we are prepared to go still further, and to say that, looking at the matter as politicians, we see every ground for anticipating good from the dreaded and the guilty consummation, and every reason from abstaining from all active intervention

tonvcrt.it. We incline to believe that (the questions of ltuntan colonization and Mosquito protectorates oncu formally disposed of) this consuming tion may briug nt once peace to England, retriliu" ■tion'to the criminal ambition of the Americaii Government, and ultimate and incalculable aid to tbe best interests of the human race. We \ QO \ (0 the severance of the Unaou into two or three separate States as the event which will he live snlvaiioii of America and the security of Europe j we are satisfied that the extension of the Federal territories towards the South will bring about that severance : and there can be no doubt that the only thing which could postpone that severance and bind the Northern States to the guilty and suicidal policy of the Federal Government, would be our interference to oppose it. The New England States and the Free States generally are well aware that these seizures and annexations towards the tropics are done mainly in the interest of slavery, and un that account they are vehemently hostile to all such proceedings. If left to themselves, and unirritated by foreign intervention, they will take up the matter 'as one vitally affecting the great internal question of the Union ; for they feel that their success or failure, their position, their preponderance are the points really and imnicdia= tely at issue; the absorption of Mexico and Central America renders the indefinite augmentation of the Slave States not only possible but certain ; and in the severance of the Union will the Free States then be compelled to seek emancipation from the degrading _ connection and the indelible blot. A federation embracing such irreconcileable and dia-c,-/ metrically opposed elements cannot be maiiitaiiicinf when once a solution of the dividing question has ' been made hopeless by being postponed for ever , ai <l an empire reaching from Maine to Panama from the topics to the frozen ocean—cannot be long bound in one chain or governed from one centre. The severance of the Union has long ' loomed in thi distanceI —usually as a fear, latterly almost as a hope; the actual condition of the slavery question evidently drawing to a crisis, indicates that tbe day for its realization is probably near at hand, if we do not mar the evolution of the problem by external oppo.-ition ; and when the great Republic is split up into three, Europe and America will both be saved. The States, thus divided, will no no longer be formidable externally—they will mutually keep each other in order, ami compress, control, and civilise each other. Boundless tracts of unpeopled territory may for long years keep the West in a state of senii'barbarism—but their barbarism will no longer lie formidable to others. Unfettered fields for slave labour may render slavery comparatively pemianent ; but the slave republic will at least be homogeneous, will display its own defects and bear its own burden and its own reproach. And the North, liberated at length from the millstone round its neck and the cancer at its heart, will rapidly improve in tone and character, and embody the civilization of Europe with, the youth and freshness of transatlantic energy.

England and Spain; a Contrast.—ln 1800 England—after her revolutions, her civi' wars, her formidable struggle against the French Revolution —disputed with France the first place in the affairs of the world. Mie ha-* no rival on the sea. She puts one foot in Malta, the other on Gibraltar. She has founded one empire in Asia, and in America another, which may one day eclipse her. She has advanced from greatness to greatness. She has produced in all the ranges of thought geniuses** which have no superior. Lastly, she is governed,« as were Athens and Rome in their best days; by a race of men whose political wisdom is illustrated by incomparaheeloquei.ee. In ]800, Spain, notwithstanding the virtues of her heroic population, so sober, so patieiu, so generous, so pious, so superior on all these pom's to the English race, Spain, preserved by her religious unity from an abundant source of discord and mi<foriune—Spain is nothing! All is gone—institutions, politics, civil guarantees, riches, credit, influence, navy, army, commerce, industry, science and literature—all have simultaneously vanished. Fiom f ,11 to fall, from despot to despot, from favourite to favourite, she has become nothing better than the prey of a Godoy. 1 nt and Godoy ; these two nam-s sum tip and exp.am the destinies and the differences of these two great Christian nations at the beginning of the mne<centh cent my. On the one hand life! on tlie o'Jur death ! how can we explain such a diCc.ence ? liotesauts, and all tho.se who look on Luther's Reformation ;,s an era of progress, have a ready answer: Protestantism makis England's greatness; Catholicism causes Spain's decline.— The Politic* I Future nj England. By the Comle dc Monlahmbert.

lmi Holy Placks.—The Marquis de KorbinJansoii, who was sent some time ago to Jerusalem by the iM-ciich Government, for the purpose of inquiring into the encroachments m;.<le nt different times by the Greeks upon the holy places belonging to the Latins, has at length accomplished his mission, and is now on his way hack to France. Among tbe holy places in question is the great church of St. Mary, at Bethlehem, the nave and four nisles of which, exclusive of the choir, have become a kind

ss, j>{ bazaar, often frequented it would seem, by the * prising generation of the above-ment oned town as a play-ground. In the evening the women assemble there to enjoy the coolness of the place, ami the Bedouins of the .neighbourhood make it • Vncir Council-room, where they adjust differences among themselves. The choir is in the hands of "Greeks and Armenians, who celebrate their worship * -there, and nothing is left to the Jtoman Catholics 4 but a small chapel, which cannot contain one-fourth I ©fthe Latin population. The other sanctuaries, the ' restitution of which is claimed by the Latins are— i the great dome of the rotunda of the Holy Sepul- ] clue, the monument and small cupola enclosing the f tomb of Jesus Christ, the stone of the unction at | the foot of Golgotha, the seven arches of the Virgin | behind the Magdalen Chapel, the church of the * Sepulchre of the Virgin of Gethsemane, and the birth-place of our Saviour in the crypt, under the i choir of the church of Bethlehem. During his stay at Jerusalem, the Marquis de Forbin-.Tanson was , decorated with the Order of the Sepulchre by the ' Latin Patriarch, who is the Grand Master of that a Order.— Times.