FROM PARIS.; The News of the Battle of Bull Run Attacks of the Press Upon the North-Reports of the Recognition of the Southern Confederacy-Danger to be Apprehended From England, &c.
Published: August 24, 1861
From Our Own Correspondent.
PARIS, FRIDAY, Aug. 9, 1861.
Adversity makes enemies. Everybody now finds a kick for the defeated party at Manassas. In all, or nearly all, the accounts that are sent to Europe of the deplorable affair, the North is talked of as a used-up and defeated party. In Europe, so much is thought of the first battle of a campaign, that whoever gains it is regarded as the probable winner of the last. The journals are not sparing in their taunts, but none of them quite reach the crushing irony of the London Times, in its issue of Wednesday last. It is a well-known fact that people prefer to read attacks rather than defences of a cause, whether good or bad; and on this account the public in France and England have been fed lately almost entirely on falsehoods and sarcasms against the North. With the noise, therefore, that has been constantly made against the cause of the Union, it is not surprising that we hear now of Bourse reports, both here and at London, to the effect that, the Southern Confederacy has been recognized by France. The reports are absurd, of course, but they are valuable indices of the current of events. The friends of the Union, strong in the justice of their cause, have taken little pains to stem the tide of misrepresentation and abuse which has been poured forth lately through the European Press, to prejudice and poison the public mind, for they felt that the Union Army at a proper time would give a better reply to all these slanders than any they could make. The affair at Manassas has now placed a new arm in the hands of the Southern Party and their colleagues, the European haters of Republican institutions, with which to attack the Union Party. Fortunately, we have the most positive assurance that the Emperor of France is determined to stand a neutral observer of the fight till it is finished, and one or the other party renounces the struggle; and since that is all the Government of Washington asks of him, we cannot see any occasion for alarm or uneasiness as to the recognition of the Southern Confederacy.
It is to England that you must look for danger, not on the subject of recognition, for that only occupies secondary ground, but on that of cotton and the blockade. If New-Orleans, Mobile or Charleston be not opened by January to the exportation of cotton, you will have trouble with that Power. And if England sees herself obliged to provoke further the displeasure of the friends of the Union, she will see that it is her interest that the Union be permanently dissolved, and crippled in all its parts. The London papers are boldly discussing this subject of the blockade in connection with the next cotton crop, and what is more significant still, Englishmen in this quarter no longer disavow the sentiments of their papers as not being those of the English people. We already know what the sentiments of the English Cabinet are; if the people of England only halfway sustain the Cabinet, the question is decided against us.
Our power and prestige abroad are gone, and this is the most cruel and most criminal feature in the conduct of the originators of the great rebellion. It would have been no disgrace to have been crippled in our power by a combination of foreign nations; but to see America crippled and humbled by Americans is quite a different thing. A man has a certain right in general to do what he pleases with what belongs to him; but this right does not extend to the striking of his mother.
Would it not be strange if you could derive, all the way from Paris, the plan of campaign of JEFF DAVIS and his Generals? One of the Paris correspondents of the Independence Belge, who is evidently in relation with the Southern agents at Paris, writes to his paper since the Manassas affair, among other things relating to that event, the following:
"By private letters from America relating to the terrible fight at Manassas, we learn that the Confederate Government is not disposed to compromise the fruits of its victory in assuming the offensive against its beaten enemies. It will content itself with guarding its extensive lines of defence, and will only decide upon a diversion on Washington in case the National Army shall attempt to penetrate the Southern States by the Ohio and Mississippi."
Since the article from the Journal des Debats, which I sent you ten days ago, that paper has published two other articles on the American question, both against the North, and both very ably written. We may, therefore, perhaps class the Or leanest [paper among the converts which the Southern agents have been able to make to their cause. The Patrie also has lately gone over to the enemy, while the Constitutional is also there, not from principle, but because accident has placed its American columns in the hands of a Louisianian and a Secessionist. To these three journals may be added the legitimize and Catholic sheets, the Union, the Monde, and the Gaze-te de France, who oppose the North of course, because they detest free institutions and republicanism under any form. We can only claim now as decidedly ours the Opinion Nationale, the Siecle and the Presse, the three liberal and democratic papers of Paris. Fortunately they are the three papers of Paris the most read, and we can well afford to see the Patrie, the Constitutional and the Journaldes Debats, Bonapartist and Orleanist ,sheets join hands under the Slavery flag Of JEFF DAVIS with the ultramontane and reactionary sheets, like the three cited above. Things have ablast found,, their proper level; the company is now properly sorted; we have the Emperor and the liberal, progressive Press; they have fallen into companionship with the monarchical, anti-republican, reactionary Press. We wish them joy of their society.
Gen. WEBB expresses himself only in general terms in regard to his interview with the Emperor He was eminently satisfied with His Majesty's views on the American question.
To-day the Emperor gives a grand review at Paris to his guests, the King of Sweden and his brother, the Prince OSCAR. It will be made up of the garrison of Paris and the Imperial Guard. Some surprise was manifested that the Empress should leave Paris within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the King of Sweden at St. Cloud. But it appears that the Queen of Sweden, who isat the springs on the Rhine, and consequently insight of the French frontier, refused to accompany her husband to St. Cloud, and the Empress, taking this as a personal offense, did not deem it proper to help her husband do the honors to the King during his stay. Her Majesty has gone to Pau. MALAKOFF.