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THE CONFEDERATE WAR STEAMER NASHVILLE.

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Survey. Attaching himself to the for- affair, "the steamer Nashville now lying tunes of the South, he was commissioned in Southampton waters is a hideous by President Davis a lieutenant in the blemish upon our nineteenth century navy of the Confederate States. Three civilization. A wild beast, or a bird of of the officers of the Nashville, Lieuten- prey is an object of dread, but not of ants Fauntleroy and Bennett and a abhorrence. The Nashville is both-a midshipman named Cary, had been in floating den of brutalized human beings, the action at Manassas or Bull Run. making destruction the immediate business of their lives-the destruction of unarmed and unoffending ships, carrying on a peaceful traffic upon the common highway of nations. If Captain Pegram holds a commission or a letter of marque, the law of nations-to our shame be it said-will have nothing to say to him; but the moral sense of mankind will still pronounce his achievement an outrage on humanity." Great Britain, in fact, by the Neutrality Proclamation, had committed herself to the toleration, and, in a certain degree, to the support of such outrages against a nation with which she was at peace. The Nashville was allowed the same protection in her harbor, and looked upon in the same light as the United States steamer James Adger which preceded her, and the Tuscarora which speedily followed her.

Leaving Charleston on the night of the 26th of October, the Nashville escaped the vessels of the blockading squadron off the harbor, made her way in safety to Bermuda, where she obtained supplies of coal and stores from the inhabitants, while her officers were received with cordiality by the best society at St. George's; and leaving the island on the 5th of November, crossed the the Atlantic to the British coast, where, off the entrance to the Irish Channel, on the 19th of the month, fell in with the ship Harvey Birch of New York, three days out from Havre. With his guns unlimbered and decks ready for action, Captain Pegram, flying the Confederate flag, bore down upon the packet and ordered her captain to haul down his United States flag and come on board the Nashville. This demand was complied with, when Captain Nelson was informed that he was a prisoner of war by authority of the Confederate States, and was ordered to send his crew on board the steamer as quickly as possible. On reaching the deck they were put in irons. The Harvey Birch, meanwhile stripped of her fresh stores and provisions, was set on fire, and in sight of her captain and crew burnt to the water's edge. The Nashville kept on her course to England, steamed up the English Channel, and entering the port of Southampton, the prisoners were liberated and their necessities supplied by the United States Consul.

The arrival of the Nashville under such circumstances afforded a striking test of the British Neutrality Proclamation. "Pirate or privateer, Confederate or corsair," said the London Star of November 22d, in an article on the

The last named vessel, one of the new screw corvettes of the American navy, mounting nine guns, commanded by Captain T. A. Craven arrived at Southampton on the 8th of January, and anchored in the harbor a mile from the dock where the Nashville remained ready for sailing, having received supplies of coal, water and provisions. The Tuscarora kept her fires up, her officers watching the slightest movements of the Confederate vessel, ready to pursue her to sea, and, if possible, to effect her capture or destruction. The official authorities took every precaution to prevent any infringement of the neutrality of the port. Captains Craven and Pegram were reminded of the international law requiring an interval between belligerent ships leaving the harbor; and the frigates Dauntless and Shannon, at the Isle of Wight, were kept on the alert to hinder

any attack in British waters. Various manœuvres were practiced by the Tuscarora to secure a meeting with her antagonist at sea.

To set a limit to the embarrassments arising from the protection given to the combatants, an order was issued by Earl Russell from the Foreign Office on the 31st of January, prohibiting "during the continuance of the present hostilities between the Government of the United States of North America and the States calling themselves the Confederate States of America, all ships of war and privateers of either belligerent, from making use of any port or roadstead in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or in the channels, islands, or in any of her Majesty's colonies, or foreign possessions or independencies, or of any waters subject to the territorial jurisdiction of the British crown, as a station or place of resort for any warlike purposes, or for the purpose of obtaining any facilities of warlike equipment." In agreement with the course taken by France and Spain, any armed vessel of either party entering a British harbor

was to be allowed to remain there not longer than twenty-four hours, except under stress of weather or absolute need of repairs, when supplies were to be permitted to be taken in only for immediate use. In case vessels of both the belligerents were in the harbor at the same time, an interval of twentyfour hours was required between their departures.

At length, after nearly three months passed in the Southampton docks, the Nashville took her departure on the 3d of February. The Tuscarora which had been sailing in the channel, returned that morning to the Isle of Wight, when her officers were notified by the British authorities that the Nashville having given notice of her immediate departure, Captain Craven would be required to remain behind the prescribed twenty-four hours. The Nashville accordingly was enabled to get to sea under favorable circumstances, which precluded any attempt at her capture. The Tuscarora remained two days at Southampton, when she sailed to Gibraltar to maintain the blockade of the Sumter.

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IN connection with the exhibition of | study of the times. We have in a preBritish feeling in the affair of the Trent, noticed in the last chapter, it may not be amiss to present some of the more marked declarations of English statesmen which up to this time had, with

or less of authority, influenced public opinion on the motives and probable termination of the struggle in America. The public opinion, indeed, of England in regard to the rebellion, as an index of the political fortunes of two great nations, will present hereafter one of the most instructive subjects for

vious chapter* glanced at some of its main conditions and alluded to the apparent incongruity where a people, pledged in so many ways to the support of constituted authority and to sympathy with the cause of human freedom, was ranged on the side of a wanton rebellion devoted to the maintenance and extension of slavery. The secret of this inconsistency was, from one motive or other, a paramount distrust of the growing power of the United States,

* Chap. xxviii., vol. 1.

ENGLISH OPINIONS OF THE WAR.

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and a belief that somehow the interest ture under one President, and carried of Great Britain, or at least of the their merchandise under a single flag. classes holding the unfavorable opinions, And so far from thinking that these sepwould be promoted by the separation of arations will be injurious to the future the North and South. Divide and gov- destinies of America, or inflict a blow ern, is an old maxim of political craft, on that grand principle of self-governwhich it was evident was not overlooked ment in which the substance of liberty on this occasion. The wish in this mat- consists, I believe that such separations ter was, doubtless, father to the thought. will be attended with happy results to At any rate, it is curious to note at how the safety of Europe and the developearly a period and how firmly the con- ment of American civilization. If it clusion was established in the minds of could have been possible that, as popunumerous leading Englishmen, that the lation and wealth increased, all the vast continuance of the States of America continent of America, with her mighty under one government was neither prac- seaboard and the fleets which her inticable nor desirable. Looking over the creasing ambition as well as her extendrecord of these opinions, we find them ing commerce would have formed and from different points of view, with some armed, could have remained under one memorable exceptions, terminating in the form of government, in which the Execsame result, Their unhesitating decla- utive has little or no control over a poprations of the apparently inextricable ulace exceedingly adventurous and exembarrassment of the situation, afford citable, why then America would have a very appreciable measure of the reso- hung over Europe like a gathering and lution and strength of the American destructive thunder cloud. No single Government in asserting its rights and kingdom in Europe could have beendignity. strong enough to maintain itself against Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, whose a nation that had once consolidated the claims to attention rested on his position gigantic resources of a quarter of the as a large landholder and representative globe. And this unwieldy extent of of the English aristocratic social system, empire would have been as fatal to the as well as on that success in literature permanent safety and development of by which he had held the ear of the America herself as the experience of all reading public throughout the world for history tells us an empire too vast to a whole generation, on the 25th of Sep- maintain the healthy circulation of its tember, 1861, in an annual address be- own life-blood ever has been, since the fore the Herts' Agricultural Society at world began, to the races over which it Hitchin, took occasion to present his spread. By their own weight the old views of the conflict in America, which colossal empires of the East fell to ruin. he affected to regard as a philosophical It was by her own vast extent of dostudent of history. "That separation," minion that Rome first lost her liberties, said he, "between North and South under the very armies which that extent America, which is now being brought of dominion compelled her to maintain, about by civil war, I have long foreseen and finally rendered up her dominion itand foretold to be inevitable; and I ven- self to the revenge of the barbarians she ture to predict that the younger men had invaded. The immense monarchy here present will live to see not two, but founded by the genius of Charlemagne at least four, and probably more than fell to pieces soon after his death, and four, separate and sovereign common- those pieces are now the kingdoms of wealths arising out of those populations Europe. But neither the Empires of which a year ago united their Legisla- the East, nor the Commonwealth of

Rome, nor the Monarchy of Charlemagne that the South should agree to enter could compare in extent and resources with the continent of America; and you will remember that the United States claimed a right to the whole of that continent, and the ultimate fate of America under one feeble Executive -the feeblest Executive perhaps ever known in a civilized community would have been no exception to the truths of history and the laws of nature. But in proportion as America shall become subdivided into different States, each of which is large enough for greatnesslarger than a European Kingdom-her ambition will be less formidable to the rest of the world, and I do not doubt that the action of emulation and rivalry between one free State and another, speaking the same language and enjoying that educated culture which inspires an affection for all that enlightens and exalts humanity, will produce the same effects upon art and commerce, and the improvements in practical government which the same kind of competition produced in the old commonwealths of Greece."

Earl Russell, the head of the Foreign office, in a speech at a dinner given to him at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in October, said of the elements of the American question, that while he believed slavery to be the original cause of the conflict, yet that the two parties were not now contending upon that question; nor yet with respect to Free Trade and Protection, of which much had been said in England, "but contending as so many States of the old world have contended, the one side for empire, the other for power." His views of the probable nature or result of the conflict were expressed in these reflections "Far be it from us to set ourselves up as judges in this matter, but I cannot help asking myself, as affairs progress in the contest, to what good end can it lead? Supposing this contest ended, by the reunion of its different parts, and

again with all the rights of the Constitution, should we not again have that fatal subject of Slavery brought in along with them? That subject of Slavery which caused, no doubt, the disruption, we all agree, must, sooner or later, cease from the face of the earth. Well, then, gentlemen, as you will see, if this quarrel could be made up, should we not have those who differed from Mr. Lincoln at the last election carried back into the Union, and, thus, sooner or later, the quarrel would recommence, and, perhaps, a long civil war follow? On the other hand, supposing the United States completely to conquer and subdue the Southern States, supposing that should be the result of a long military conflict, supposing that should be the result of some years of civil war, should we not have the material prosperity of that country in a great degree destroyed, should we see that respect for liberty which has so long distinguished our North American brethren, and should we not see those Southern men yielding to force, and would not the North be necessitated to keep in subjection those who had been conquered, and would not that very materially interfere with the freedom of nations? And, if that should be the unhappy result to which we at present look forward, if by means such as these the reunion of the States should be brought about, is it not the duty of those men who have embraced the precepts of Christianity to see whether this conflict cannot be avoided?"

The Earl of Shrewsbury, in a speech before the City of Worcester Conservative Association, October 30th, regarding the question from the point of view of his order, saw "in America democracy on its trial and how it failed. He was afraid that the result would show that the separation of the two great sections of that country was inevitable, and those who lived long enough would, in his opinion, see an aristocracy established

LORD STANLEY'S ADDRESS.

in America." On the same occasion, Sir John Pakington, a member of Parliament and ex-minister, declared his belief that from President Lincoln downwards there was not a man in America who would venture to tell them that he really thought it possible that by the force of circumstances the North could hope to compel the South to again join them in constituting the United States."

Sir John Bowring, the eminent scholar and ambassador, a writer on public affairs of reputation, in a letter written to a friend, which was printed in the papers of the day, evidently regarded the separation of the two portions of the Union as a probable if not desirable result. "Your American fratricidal war," he said, "is the most dreadful event of modern history. No doubt it will be controlled and directed for good, but that it should end in any thing but a separation of the North from the South seems to me quite improbable if not impossible. I do not think the Federal Government has shown any disposition to put down slavery, or is entitled to sympathy on that account. It does not appear to me that you are justified in calling the Southerners 'rebels.' Our statesmen of the time of George III called Washington and Franklin by that name. I do not be lieve the cotton lords have had any thing to do with the opinion which you believe to be unfriendly to the United States, but which assuredly it is not. I never knew a question in which there was so much unanimity of views among our wise and good men as this. We want you as freemen, as philosophers, as statesmen, as Christians, to settle in peace what war will never settle. As you are now unfortunately engaged in a policy which compels-or, at all events employs-acts of despotism which would seem incredible, and are taking measures against British subjects, which we should tolerate from no other government, I think your North would be stronger

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without a discontented South. If.it choose to tax itself by monstrous and unfriendly tariffs, and to repudiate the doctrines of free trade, so gloriously triumphant elsewhere, so be it, but let it not blame the South for throwing off the fetters. We want you to be strong, your policy makes you feeble; rich, you are doing your best to impoverish yourselves; brotherly, and you are engaged in Cain-like slaughtering; happy, and what woes are in all your households; peaceful, and you are busied in wide wasting war. I write very friendly tc you. My heart is full. I love America too well, too many dear and valued friends, not to desire her progress and prosperity. I have no interest to bias my judgment, and all my prejudices have been on your side of the Atlantic."*

Lord Stanley, in an address at Lynn in November, handled the American question, if not with sympathy for the North, at least with discrimination and respect for its motives in accepting the conflict. He had travelled in the United States in the summer of 1848, he said, at the time of the disturbances in Ireland, and had been amused to find well informed persons attach serious importance to those movements, and even recommend the immediate recognition of the independence claimed by the rebel agitators. There were intelligent people in America, he thought, who might be equally amused with English criticism on their affairs. He himself "did not think it reasonable to blame the Federal Government for declining to give up half their territory without striking a blow in its defence. They have met with an armed insurrection, and they have opposed it by an armed resistance." long it was wise to continue that resist. ance appeared to him as a matter of policy, the great difficulty of the question; for he held the opinion which, as he asserted, generally prevailed in England,

How

* Sir John Bowring to Dr. Macgowan, Larksbear, Exe. ter, November 7, 1861.

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