MEDIATION.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1720, 3 September 1862, Page 9

MEDIATION.

It is plain that the time Is approaching when Europe will have to think seriously of its relations to the two belligerents in fhe Arneridan War. A contest is raging of which' we can predict nothing but that every week will add to the hatreds of the two communities, and will spread ruin wider and wider. The state of affairs disclosed to us by the last advices deserves anxious consideration. Along an immense frontier, from the ocean to the Missisi sippi, armies amounting at the lowest estimate to nearly a quarter of a million on each side were opposed in military operations which the Federal commanders admit must be slow, toilsome, and uncertain. Both in Virginia and Tennessee the North had been checked in its advance by want of men, or by the difficulties of transport and commissariat, and most of all by the determined attitude of the Confederate armies. Although successful in the Spring campaign, and favoured with a most important and unlooked-for victory in the capture of New Orleans, yet at this moment, when the strain of the war really begins, the Northern Power is seen to reel and stagger under the magnitude of its exertions. The Confederates, besides their reliance on their unhealthy climate and their vast and trackless territory, are encouraged by several late encounters, in which they have inflicted defeat on the invaders. The gunboat battle below Richmond, and that which took place in the West the other day, must have given them a new spirit, and in the expulsion of the Federals from the Valley of the Shenandoah they have gained a victory which has at least produced a wide-spread sense of insecurity. But it is with the contest as a whole that we are concerned. There must be now, we think, but one opinion about it. The war has become a war of hatred and vengeance, in which each combatant has pledged himself to fight to the last, and in which the extermination of one party gives the only hope of peace. One word has been in the hearts of men of reason and feeling for some time past, though the passions of the hour in America have prevented it from rising t» their lips. That word is “ Mediation.” That North.and South must now choose between separation and ruin, material and political, is the opinion of nearly every one who, looking impartially and from a distance on the conflict, sees what is hidden from the frenzied eyes of the Northern politicians. Two distinguished members of the British Government —the Foreign Secretary and the Chancellor of the Exchequer—have expressed this opinion in forcible language and hare thereby brought down on themselves a storm of reviling from the American press, and even the American pulpit. The tamper in which the honest judgmentofEnglighrnen has been received in a matter in which they have observed the strictest neutrality shows that we have been wise to refrain from offering advice, or from hoping that any friendly interference of a kindred people would be received with good will at Washington, But it is possible that another nation will be listened to more calmly than the “ Britisher." That France must be conciliated is almost as much an axiom of American politics as that England ’ must be slighted and rebuffed. We cannot be mistaken respecting the desire of. the French Emperor to bring the war to an end. The interest of France in the supply of cotton, and in the prosperity of the people who both in North and South have hitherto spent their money with Such profusion on her manufactures, makes the Emperor anxious to restore quiet and the old commercial relations. His strong good sense, aided by political experience and a careful study of the science of war, assures him that the present contest will be quite fruitless and that each wound inflicted on the territory and pride of either combatant will probably rankle to future generations. We may. conclude, then, that the remarkable article which we copied from the Constitu'ionnel yesterday is not without some political significance. It expresses too acurately the opinionsand wishes of the ablest men on both sides of the Channel for it to be regarded otherwise that as an important document. In the opinion of the writer, battle after battle maybe fought and rivers of blood may be shed without producing a solution of the a question. The courage and the success of the * y North cannot dissipate the heats of a Southern • cummer or avert the sickness they bring with them. The resources of the North cannot provide a garrison for a country equal to France, England, and Austria put together, and it is to be doubted whether the Federals, who hare exaggerated so much their smallest victories, are really able even to defeat the armies which are now drawn up before them. Why, then, should not France offer an amicable Mediation ? With the object and the spirit of this article we agree completely. It seems unnatural that this struggle, involving ruin to millions both in the New World and the Old, should go on, and that the statesmen of Europe should offer no word of counsel or remonstrance, but look with placid eye on the madness of the Americans and the distress of their own people. We do not yet know the spirit in which a communication from European Governments would be received by the Washington Cabinet. It may be it would flame with real or affected indignation, it may be that it would be influenced by the feelings which secretly animate so many at the North, and confess itself glad of an opportunity to bring to a close a con-; test which otherwise might go on till both sides were ruined past redemption, Any offers calculated' to compose these enmities will therefore we think have the approval of all classes of Englishmen. Nor can we admit that the proposition of European Powers should be delayed because at the present moment it is not likely that the Federals will assent to the only terras acceptable to the Confederates; in fact, the only terms on which negotiation could take place at all—>a separation and the establishment of a new and necessarily reval Republic on American soil. Although at this moment the Federals may reject any interference, yet it may not be the less expedient to make the offer. We have to look not only to the present but to the future. We have to consider what will be necessary should this war continue indefinitely, without producing the ever-promised ever-delayed, restoration of the Union. It cannot be doubted that we are approaching a time whan a more important question even than that of an offer of Mediation may have to be considered by England and France. The Southern Confederacy has constituted itself a nation for nearly a year and a half. During that time the attachment of.tbe people to the new Government has been indubitably shown; immense armies have been raised, the greatest sacrifices have been endured, the persistence of the South in the war through a long series of battles—some victories, some defeats —•has shown the “force and consistency” which are looked upon as the tests of nationality. Wherever the Government is unmolested the laws are administered regularly as in time of peace, and wherever the Federals have penetrated they are received with an animosity which they resent, as at New Orleans, by a military rule of intolerable brutality. The vision of the Union party in the South has been dispelled, as the Northerners themselves are compelled, with bitterness and mortification, to admit. All these circumstances point but to one conclusion. Either this war must be brought to an end or the time will at last come when the South may claim its own recognition by foreign nations as an independent Power. The precedents of our American Colonies, of the Spanish Colonies, of Belgium, and of Tuscany and Naples the other day, forbid us to question this right when asserted by the Confederate States. It is our duty to anticipate this possible event, and it may be wise os well as generous for statesmen on this side ot the ocean to approach the American Government in a friendly spirit with the offer 'of their good • offices at this great crisis of its fortunes.