l rival of England.
The man who seeks to undo all this, to destroy what Bourbon and
Bonaparte sacrificed so much to effect, is the heir of Bonaparte, and
the expounder and illustrator of Napoleon's ideas; and the power that
places herself resolutely across his path, and will not join in his plot
to erase us from the list of nations is--England! In a romance such a
state of things would be pronounced too absurd for invention; but in
this every-day world it is nothing but a commonplace incident,
extraordinary as it may seem at the first thought that is bestowed upon
it.

That England governs France in this matter of intervention in our
quarrel is clear enough, as also are the reasons why Paris will not move
to the aid of the Rebels unless London shall keep even step with her.
France asked England to unite with her in an offer of mediation, which
would have been an armed mediation, had England fallen into the Gallic
trap, but which amounted to nothing when it proceeded from France alone.
England withdrew from the Mexican business as soon as she saw that
France was bent upon a course that might lead to trouble with the United
States, and left her to create a throne in that country. As soon as
England put the broad arrow upon the rams of that eminent pastoral
character, Laird of Birkenhead, France withdrew the permission which she
had formally bestowed upon MM. Arman and Vorney to build four powerful
steamships for the Rebels at Nantes and Bordeaux. France would
acknowledge the Confederacy to-day, and send a minister to Richmond, and
consuls to Mobile and Galveston and Wilmington, if England would but
agree to be to her against us what Spain was to her for us in the days
of our Revolution. But England will not join with her ancient enemy to
effect the ruin of a country of the existence of which she should be
proud, seeing that it is her own creation.

Why, then, is it that there is so much ill-feeling in America toward
England, while none is felt toward France,--England being, as it were,
our shield against that French sword which is raised over our head, upon
which its holder would bring it down with imperial force? Principally
the difference is due to that peculiarity in the human character which
leads men to think much of insults and but little of injuries. We doubt
if any strong enmity was ever created in the minds of men or nations
through the infliction of injuries, though injuring parties have an
undoubted right to