Such Words Coming From Us, Or From Parties Among Us,
Cannot Justify Those Threats Of War Which We Hear Spoken; But That
They Should Make The Hearts Of Men Sore And Their Thoughts Bitter
Against Us, Can Hardly Be Matter Of Surprise.
As to the result of any such war between us and them, it would
depend mainly, I think, on the feelings of the Canadians.
Neither
could they annex Canada without the good-will of the Canadians, nor
could we keep Canada without that good-will. At present the feeling
in Canada against the Northern States is so strong and so universal
that England has little to fear on that head.
I have now done my task, and may take leave of my readers on either
side of the water with a hearty hope that the existing war between
the North and the South may soon be over, and that none other may
follow on its heels to exercise that new-fledged military skill
which the existing quarrel will have produced on the other side of
the Atlantic. I have written my book in obscure language if I have
not shown that to me social successes and commercial prosperity are
much dearer than any greatness that can be won by arms. The
Americans had fondly thought that they were to be exempt from the
curse of war - at any rate from the bitterness of the curse. But the
days for such exemption have not come as yet. While we are hurrying
on to make twelve-inch shield plates for our men-of-war, we can
hardly dare to think of the days when the sword shall be turned into
the plowshare. May it not be thought well for us if, with such work
on our hands, scraps of iron shall be left to us with which to
pursue any of the purposes of peace? But at least let us not have
war with these children of our own. If we must fight, let us fight
the French "for King George upon the throne." The doing so will be
disagreeable, but it will not be antipathetic to the nature of an
Englishman. For my part, when an American tells me that he wants to
fight with me, I regard his offense, as compared with that of a
Frenchman under the same circumstances, as I would compare the
offense of a parricide or a fratricide with that of a mere
commonplace murderer. Such a war would be plus quam civile bellum.
Which of us two could take a thrashing from the other and afterward
go about our business with contentment?
On our return to Liverpool, we stayed for a few hours at Queenstown,
taking in coal, and the passengers landed that they might stretch
their legs and look about them. I also went ashore at the dear old
place which I had known well in other days, when the people were not
too grand to call it Cove, and were contented to run down from Cork
in river steamers, before the Passage railway was built.
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