SIR F. HEAD ON INTERVENTION.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1742, 15 November 1862, Page 5

SIR F. HEAD ON INTERVENTION.

Sir Francis Head has addressed the following letter to the Times :

“ As Mr, Roebuck and your well-informed Liverpool correspondent, ‘ S.,’ have concurred in recommending to the pah lit that the civil war now raging in the disunited States ot North America should be extinguished by the immediate intervention of the Powers of Europe, 1 beg, in opposition to their recommendation, to he permitted to submit to your readers the following observations on that important subject. “ For nearly half a century there has existed throughout England the Christianlike, and, in truth, I must add the commercial sentiment, that on no account whatever should wc embark with the United States in a war, in which Great Britian would have everything to Joss and nothing to gain, more than Cain gained when he rose up and slew Ids brother Abel. “ Instead ot appreciating tins fraternal, or rather paternal feeling, the Americans astutely determined to turn it, as they turn everything, info dollars ; and accordingly, firmly relying on Old England’s desire for peace, they continued to make upon her a series of groundless demands for territories, fisheries, apologies, &c., each ending with the six stereotyped monosyllables, ‘Wo must have this —or war!' Moreover they proclaimed it to be their ‘ destiny,’ firstly, to obtain for their Washington Confederation everything on the continent of North America which, in their own opinion, belonged to it ; and, secondly, under their Monroe doctrine, to capture, by force of arms, everything that didn’t belong lo it. “ Now, when it is considered that the above was (ho fixed policy of the 34 United States—that the hatred and jealousy especially of the people of the Northern States against England were implacable—-that with the will to quarrel with her, or join with any European nation in quarrelling with her, they possessed the gigantic powers (lately developed) of suddenly raising for war 1,500,000 and within a year, say, 300 millions of money, surely wo cannot be too thankful that it Ims pleased the Almighty to permit the people of the United States, not only with their own hands and of their own accord, to break into pieces their own Union, hut to exhaust upon each other the passions and materials for that furious war which it would have been beyond the powers of our salesmen to prevent them much longer from waging against the peace, happiness and prosperity of England. “ On the bursting out of the fearful fratricidal struggle, it would have been madness fur England to step forward and endeavour to re-unite and re-cxcito them to prey upon her vitals instead of upon their own. But, although there were not wanting false philanthropists to advocate this suicidal measure, it was fortunately rontjct'ccl impracticable by tho Northern

States threatening to declare instant war against any nation of Europe that should dare to interpose in their quarrel. “ Under this restriction, which either belligerent has a right to impose, it must surely be evident that the simple, dignified course for England to pusue is to abstain from interfering in the American contesr, until, i under the guidance of Providence, the cure of a great | political public evil shall have been completely effected. | “Mr. Roebuck a few days ago, in presence of his j consituents at Sheffield, stated ‘ that in the ardour and j enthusiasm of his youth he had looked upon the won- I drous fabric which had been raised by the great heroes of 1 the American Revolution as a wondrous effort of human skill—as the millennium of mankind,’ yet be honestly confessed, ‘ I have lived to see that all shattered—split asunder—America divided into two, and 1 think likely to be divided into five, and for ever ceasing to be the United States of America. My first feeling was grief. My present feeling is one of rejoicing. I say an irresponsible people, possessed of irresponsible and almost omnipotent power, is a people that cannot be trusted.’ Mr. Roebuck accurately describes the fallen condition of his former clients, and yet ho instantly drew from his own premises a wrong conclusion..

“ No person is more competent than Mr. Roebuck to assist the propricter of a large estate in legally subdividing it in whatever manner he may think proper to direct. But if Mr. Roebuck were to find the said proprietor, possessed of irresponsible and almost omnipotent power, to be a man ‘ that could not he trusted,’ and if Mr. Roebuck, moreover, could not inform even his own mind whether the estate was to be divided ‘ into two parts or into live,’ would he not boldly declare to the great man that the moment for his professional intervention had not yet arrived ? And if this he true, on what grounds could Mr. Roebuck, at Sheffield, in con • tradiction to his own assertions, end hi.s clever speech by the following appeal ?—‘ I entreat the noble lord (Palmerston) to weigh well the consequences of what ho calls perfect neutrality.’ ” “ At the present time, as regards the contest in question, ‘perfect neutrality’is not only a virtue, but a necessity, simply because neither the dis-United States themselves nor the nations of Europe know the terms upon which the existing struggle could possible be adjusted.

“Indeed, at this moment the people of the Northern and Western States are so ignorant of their own affairs that, in their estimation the value of their paper and paste-board bank-notes for a halfpenny and upwards is only 1 0 per cent, less than their amount in sterling gold ! In a few weeks the fatal truth must reach their minds. On the Ist of September an invading army of taxgatherers must inevitable produce among them further secession, with a sweeping repudiation of all Federal debts. Without their fuel—money—the flames of war must quickly subside. And when defeat, sickness, desertion, dishonour, disappointment, despair, humiliation, an 1 insolvency shall have conjointly created among them an earnest desire that Europe should condescend to settle for them principles, and especially details, which they find they arc utterly unable to settle among themselves, then, I humbly submit, the hour will have arrived when England with dignity and friendly feelings, may consent, either separately or with other nations of Europe, to consummate for the dis-United States of North America a permanent disruption of their republic.”