024

LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar.

1865. only title to existence as a Republic is that you are supposed
&ir.60. to be superior to what we were sixty years ago. Had you
returned the ¢ Florida ’ to Bahia without a moment’s delay,
cashiered the captain of the ¢ Wochusett,’ and offered to pay
for the support of the survivors who were dependent on
those who were killed or drowned in that wicked outrage,
your friends would have felt some inches taller here. That
would have been the true answer to the taunts of our Tory
press, énd not the disinterment of the misdeeds of our Tory
Government to show that they did something almost as bad
as the Federal commander.
“1 was much pleased with your speech on the Canadian
difficulty in the South, when you spoke of avoiding all
quarrels with other countries, and devoting yourself to the
one sole object of putting down the rebellion. I am not
blind to the fact that very grave questions will stand over
for adjustment between your country and ours. Some of
them, such as the injury done to your whole shipping interest
 by the losses and destruction of a port, can hardly be
settled by governments. They will, I fear, invite future
retaliations on our shipping by citizens of your country, if
we should ever go to war. But all these questions must be
postponed till your war is ended, and then probably the
whole world may be ready for a thorough revolution in
international maritime law. It will be for you to show the
way.”
The topic of national expenditure kept its place in his
mind, and the plans for the defence of Canada stirred his
liveliest disgust. He expressed his views in two elaborate
letters to Mr. Gladstone, with a sort of forlorn hope that
they might through him obtain a hearing in the Cabinet.
Excepting Mr. Gladstone himself, however, and Mr, Gibson,
there was nobody in the Cabinet who felt the least inclina~
tion to listen. Even Mr. Gladstone thought that his corre=