have already seen what ties were severed-what long-continued efforts were made by this same people when the only motive that existed was the desire of self-government. Success was then achieved through a long and often dismal career of losses and defeats, by the simple power of perseverance. The policy to be adopted now by the leaders of the South needs no invention. They have but to retreat and endure, leaving time and space and the expenditure of the North to decide the contest. Defeats in battle occurred before; perseverance triumphed in spite of them. This knowledge indeed gives now a support which their fathers had not. With them it was a desperate venture, of which the end had to be darkly conjectured. Now, to the force of their example is added the sustaining power of full knowledge of that result. And the prize that allures ambition is incomparably more dazzling than any hope of the earlier time. There was then the desire of independence, with no accompaniment of other gain. The colonies had no material interests to be promoted by the attempted change, and there were some that looked to suffer and did suffer heavily for years. Here, to the old desire of independence and self-government, is added the escape from the thraldom of Northern monopolists, and liberation from a rule not only regarded as alien, but felt to be repulsive.

There will indeed glitter before the eye of the aspiring an empire in the future far beyond that

of the colonist-an empire extending from the home of Washington to the ancient palaces of Montezuma-uniting the proud old colonies of England with Spain's richest and most romantic dominions combining the productions of the great valley of the Mississippi with the mineral riches, the magical beauty, the volcanic grandeur of Mexico and commanding the materials of commerce throughout this wide expanse, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, no longer trammelled by the restrictions nor taxed by the cupidity of others. To these as incentives to effort or motives for endurance, those were feeble that sustained this people in their previous struggle. Here are objects that stimulate ambition, inflame imagination, enkindle hope, engrafted upon others that address themselves to reason and to justice. All know the tenacity with which in every age and country nations have clung to the thought of liberty. And no instance can we find where, in addition to that impulse, there were motives so powerful as these. In this view we must expect that the people of the South will maintain this struggle for their independence as arduously, and for as many years, as were needed in the first instance to acquire it.

What, then, must be expected as the issue of the war, in this anticipated perseverance of the Southern people? We have seen that they possess the advantage of greater experience and natural aptitude, both in political and military

affairs-that their habits are better adapted to the hardships and dangers of war, to authority in command or alacrity in obedience that their choice of positions more than supplies the place of numbers-that the financial effects of the war will be to them of comparatively easy endurance-that they have in their favour space and time—and that ample motives exist for that perseverance which is all that is requisite to insure success.

Hence we conclude that the attempt to subdue such a country and such a people is a lamentable delusion-attempted, not as the decision of calm judgment, but the rash result of that unreasoning excitement to which the people of the North are now subject. If this be so, it follows that a continuance of the war can have no other result than to leave the people of the South in possession of the political liberty they now possess, and to burthen the North with a crushing load of debt, that will have purchased nothing but taxation to themselves, and bitter memories to descend as a baneful legacy to future generations.

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

WE have observed that this country is not a dis-
interested spectator of the present conflict, but, on
the contrary, is even now suffering from its conse-
quences, whilst soon the largest branch of our
industry will be paralyzed, not from incidents
inevitable in war, to be endured with resignation
and long-suffering patience, but from a deliberate,
and, in our judgment, unnecessary act of one of
the belligerents. As our population more or less
depending on the cotton trade is estimated at four
millions, the amount of destitution and woe that
may be inflicted by the sudden deprivation of that
material, is such that the mind shrinks from the
attempt to gauge it. For how many years is this
to continue? We see nothing to prevent the pre-
sent war from lasting, as civil wars have always
endured, for a long series of years, unless, indeed, a
financial collapse of the Northern power should
bring it to a sudden termination. A
A year will
very soon have elapsed since the formation of the
Southern Government. In that time the people
of the North, so far from having made any pro-
gress in the contest, are clearly further from the

U

subjugation of the South than at the commencement of the campaign. They have expended an enormous sum, sustained a deplorable defeat, and exposed the hollowness of their military system; they are now dividing into parties rancorously opposed, and their forces remain within sight of the original starting-point.

It has been strongly urged that we have no right to think of the position of our own working class, or to give any heed to what may appear our own interest in the eventual result, and this on the ground that great principles are at issue which command our deference. One of these is that love for law and order, which, it is argued, should enlist our sympathies with a Government struggling to crush rebellion. This argument is weakened in its force when it comes from men who, so far in their history, have never themselves permitted an opportunity of sympathizing with rebellion to escape. As each of the colonies of Spain revolted none were so eager to encourage the rebels; and when the attempt at insurrection occurred in Canada none were more prominent actors than American citizens, under the name of "sympathizers."

This, however, would not affect whatever merits there may be in the plea. Assuredly there is no disposition in this country to lean in favour of turmoil; but we cannot realize an act as that of rebellion or treason or piracy, simply because these names are applied to it.

We are told that in the