the Union either by the illusion of hope or by an expectation as yet
ill-founded." It was the wisdom of the serpent, eager, and conquering
eagerness.

Under the cloak of a pretended neutrality, the ministry have had
opportunity to watch the course of events, to connive at aid to the
Rebellion, and to leave themselves unembarrassed when the success of
one side or the other should make it expedient to declare in its favor.
It has been with the greatest difficulty that Mr. Adams has been able to
bring the Foreign Office to exert its authority against violations of
that neutrality. Vessels, known well enough to be in the service of the
Confederates, or intended for their use, have been allowed to escape
from the Clyde, and to put into British ports to refit. Frequent
conflicts on questions of international law have arisen, in which our
Government has invariably insisted upon the known precedents set by
Great Britain, and which that power has generally deemed it prudent to
follow. In the case of the Trent, if we lost the possession of two
valuable prisoners of war, we at all events, by promptly disavowing the
act of Commodore Wilkes, set England an example of fairness which she
has been loath to follow, but which it would have been folly totally to
disregard. Yet it has been apparent that the British ministers have
borne us no good-will. Whatever justice has been done us has been done
grudgingly,--with the moroseness of an enemy who is compelled to yield.
While Lord Russell has been cautious how he offended our Government in
acts, his repeated sneers in Parliament, at dinners, and on the hustings
have exhibited the rancor of a jealous mind. There has been no hearty
will to do justice, no word other than of discouragement. Even the
amicable assurances which customarily pass between the statesmen of two
nations seem to have been dropped. We believe that any American would
rather bear the manly and outspoken denunciations of the Earl of Derby,
consistent and honest in his hostility, than the sly, covert
insinuations to which the Foreign Secretary gives utterance, at the very
time he is advocating a favorable course toward us.

The ministry have constantly been met with the fact that our Government
has assumed throughout that the Union was to be preserved, and both the
act and the possibility of secession forever crushed. They cannot have
failed to observe, that, while the inevitable fortune of war has at
times brought momentar