English and American Influence in the World.
The Americans, though pursuing a policy of economy and disarmament far more unhesitatingly than we have done, contrive, nevertheless, to command as much respect as if they were armed to the teeth, whereas we, with armaments far more extensive, are told that we have lost our title to the consideration of the world. It is worth while inquiring how such facts, if facts they are, can be accounted for or explained. The first and most obvious reflection is that a nation of 40,000,000 of people, rich, industrious, energetic, and intrepid, must comprise resources which no enemy could venture to despise. The Americans had no army in 1860, but in 1862 they had hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the field. They had no navy, and yet in a few months' time they produced a powerful fleet of new and formidable fighting-ships. In the course of five years they raised and spent upward of £600,000,000; and such is the magnitude of their national resources that what they did in the civil war they could certainly, on a similar impulse, do over again. All this is true; but we, also, are a people of 30,000,000; our wealth and credit are practically inexhaustible, and the most inveterate alarmist would not scruple to admit that our national spirit, once roused, would be capable of any efforts or sacrifices. One advantage, it must be owned, the Americans do certainly enjoy—they are a long way off. It is a “far cry” to Washington, and the Prussians observed as much to our correspondent in explanation of their patience under American offendings. But this consideration does not touch American commerce, or the liabilities of the navy, which, as the President remarks, is the only instrument at the command of the Union either for national defense or the enforcement of any foreign policy. We must look elsewhere, therefore, for the explanation we are seeking; and it will be found, we believe, so far as it is applicable at all, in the known readiness as well as ability of the Americans to fight, notwithstanding their practical appreciation of the benefits of peace. Their exposed points are comparatively few, their resources are unbounded; and though they do not desire war, they would not be slow to accept a challenge. We, on the other hand, have many points exposed, we make no secret of our aversion to war, and it is alleged that almost any provocation might be offered with impunity. In these considerations there is a certain force; but we must now say that, in our opinion, the contrast itself from beginning to end is more apparent than real. We do not believe that what is sometimes said of us is actually thought either in America or elsewhere. The people who taunt us with reluctance to fight, are mostly those who, for purposes of their own, desire to see us fighting. As a matter of fact, we may take it for granted that foreign States have not the mean opinion of us which we are occasionally pleased to suppose. That we are not sudden or quick in quarrel, they know very well; but power is truly formidable, and that when we begin a war we are not in a hurry to leave off. To a certain extent, they may presume, no doubt, on our love of peace; but at the bottom they take a juster measure of our temper and resources than might be inferred from their occasional sneers and our own candid comments. When it was declared that England, by the mere expression of her will, could have prevented a war between the two most powerful nations of Europe, the belief itself might have been false; but the state of opinion which it implied was far nearer the truth than that which has been since represented for our warning.—London Times.