concurrence or
our neutrality, first Russia, then Austria, and by dealing with
them generously to make them his friends in any subsequent quarrel
with us. . . . Next he has been assiduously laboring to increase
his naval means, evidently for offensive as well as for defensive
purposes, and latterly great pains have been taken to raise throughout
France and especially among the army and navy, hatred of England
and a disparaging feeling of our military and naval means."

Is it not strange that, even with such apprehensions, the destruction
of the Union was so welcome in England that it blinded the eyes of
her statesmen and her people? They should surely have seen that
the establishment of a Latin empire under the protection of France,
in the heart of the Spanish-American Republics, would open a field
far more dangerous to British interests than a combination for a
French port in Africa, and that in pursuing his policy the wily
Emperor was providing a throne for an Austrian archduke as a
compensation for the loss of Lombardy. There was a time when Lord
Palmerston himself held broader and juster views of what ought to
be the relations between England and the United States. In 1848
he suggested to Lord John Russell a policy which looked to a complete
unification of the interests of the two countries: "If as I hope,"
said His Lordship, "we shall succeed in altering our Navigation
Laws, and if as a consequence Great Britain and the United States
shall place their commercial marines upon a footing of mutual
equality with the exception of the coasting-trade and some other
special matters, might not such an arrangement afford us a good
opportunity for endeavoring to carry in some degree into execution
the wish which Mr. Fox entertained in 1783, when he wished to
substitute close alliance in the place of sovereignty and dependence
as the connecting link between the United States and Great Britain?
A treaty for mutual defense would no longer be applicable to the
condition of the two countries as independent Powers, but might
they not with mutual advantage conclude a treaty containing something
like the following conditions:--

"1. That in all cases of difference which may hereafter unfortunately
arise between the contracting parties, they will in the first place
have recourse to the mediation of some friendly Power, and that
hostilities shall not begin between them until every endeavor to
settle their difference by such me