relations, and almost always treaty engagements with that foreign Power. The revolted society is endeavouring to bring about such a change of circumstances, as to annul those engagements, so far as they relate to itself; and, if successful, claims to have brought about the change, and to be in a position to substitute new engagements. The claim is in derogation of existing treaty engagements, and ought, therefore, to be examined with due regard to the sanctity of their obligations. To be good, it must be based on fact. The circumstances must be completely changed, and the sovereignty of the mother country ousted by the sovereignty of the revolted province. If less than this be the case, the recognition of the independence of the revolted province by the foreign Power, involves some breach of faith to the mother country. Conducted thus with bad faith, or even with rashness, recognition is not only dishonorable to the foreign Power, but prejudicial to the revolted province. It justly exasperates the mother country, and gives fresh force to her efforts. Recognition can serve the interests of peace only when conducted with regard for precedent, and in a manner not unfriendly to the mother country. It then becomes the verdict of an unprejudiced by-stander, that the time has come for the mother country to retire from a hopeless contest. This verdict may carry weight with the calmer portion of the mother country. Earlier recognition cannot.

If we apply these principles to the case of the Confederate States, it must, I think, be clear that they have not achieved independence. Their case differs from that of the Spanish American States in one respect; there is no doubt of their having an established government. No rival faction opposes President Davis. But the government is not in full and undis puted exercise of sovereignty within the territory over which it claims authority.

1. War is being waged in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. A portion, at least, of the last is subject to the authority of the North. From the mouth of the Potomac to the mouth of the Mississippi, the Northern States have never receded from the command of the

waters which form an integral part of the country. The blockade is effective. The impossibility of erecting Prize Courts has caused the Confederate States to deviate from the rules of war, and send out a public vessel-the Alabama-to capture prizes, with the intention of not carrying them in for adjudication by a Prize Court. Their justification rests on necessity; the necessity proves their want of sovereignty. There is nothing to call for even limited recognition. The dominion over the ports of St. Domingo acquired by the negroes, which justified the limited recognition of the "anomalous black government," in order to change the character of the island from one of hostility in law into one of friendship in law, in accordance with fact; the extensive commerce which rendered necessary the recognition of the separate political existence of the Spanish American States, apart from their ultimate independence; both these circumstances-the extensive commerce and the dominion over the ports-are wanting here.

2. The territories of the Confederate States are undefined. The northern and western boundaries, and the south-western boundary towards New Orleans, are all unsettled. President Davis has made an army-he has probably made a nation; but he has not led the nation into the promised land; he has not made an independent sovereign State.

Still, no one who has watched the contest can doubt the result; the boundaries will be settled, the Northern States will be driven from the possession of the waters which they now command, and the Confederate States will be independent and sovereign. Recognition will then become a question of policy. Till then, the inconveniences of absolute neutrality are not so great as often represented. Recognition, apart from intervention and its accompaniment, war, will not open the ports, or bring over one bale of cotton. The real inconveniences of non-recognition begin when the time for recognition has arrived; when the cessation of the contest leaves the energies of the nation free for trade, and diplomatic intercourse is required in the interests of commerce. When that time arrives, the valour, the skill, the self-denial, and the patriotism displayed in the formation of the Confederate States,

will command a favourable hearing for their claim to be admitted into the community of nations. The claim will be allowed, as it ought to be allowed, not only for the protection and regulation of our own interests, which, protected or unprotected, must be affected by the new State, but also for two more cogent reasons -in order not to leave any civilized nation without the pale, and therefore only partially under the influence, of the public opinion of other nations; and in order to follow the great principle of acknowledging facts. But no Englishman, I should hope, can feel for the Confederate States the smallest enthusiasm. Most of us believe that the world will gain by a division of the overgrown empire of the United States. Many of us anticipate that the cause of negro emancipation will also gain. Very few have any faith in the anti-slavery professions of the North, nor has our faith been strengthened by the late proclamation. On the other hand, it is impossible not to think that the negro population will occupy a stronger position in relation to their masters, when those masters are no longer supported, as hitherto, by the moral and physical power derived from union with the North. The greater facilities for escape on a long frontier, and the jealousy with which the North will watch the South, must tend to improve their condition. There is no inclination among us to underrate the difficulties of emancipation; for the security of the State it should be gradual; we should hail a step towards freedom-the slightest advance from slavery to serfdom. But no such prospect is held out by the statesmen of the South. Slavery is put forward as a fundamental institution. The English Minister to whose lot it may fall to make the recognition, after recording his admiration of the struggle thus crowned with success, will have to add, that England would be false to her traditions if she could welcome with heartiness a State, which, at the moment of its entrance into the community of nations, openly professes principles solemnly condemned by the whole Christian world.