Make MEN your leaders, people, if you dare Most wisely for you, and provide a kind Under the royal mantle England keeps A serpent brood; of whom, from time to time," Away to some free land, whose ardent clime, Sunset of England's glory gilds his coils, And sheds a gold light on his bloodless face; He weaves, admired, his diplomatic toils, And ruins statesmen with a gentle grace; Prudent and cool, with tact and bonhomie, He ousts the rugged sons of liberty. Who can resist his subtle instigation, The bribe and flattery felt but still unseen? Satan deceives a woman-he, a nation, With arts more powerful as they are more mean. Shame on the coarse tools of Machiavel, Supplanted by these new envoys of Hell! Boasting and bold, a different agent comes, And brags his mission to the public ear! Up, freemen of the North! look to the spy ! In specious ambush, working for your doom. The steel falls first on traitors for the sin. Fell, with the smile of faith upon their lips: Wouldst thou give murderous license to the black, The master who reins in his sensual will? Freedom is but a guardianship of laws Held by the people: but the wolf and bear, Weakness and wickedness are friends, and then And then come nations to the mortal hour, Lo, the smart orator! his bitter brows Knit in the sharp folds of denunciation: Fact upon fact and scorn on scorn he throws, A madman hurling firebrands!--all his passion In the echo dies; his spirit is not approved; 'Tis not by selfish fury men are moved. Another comes: Such state no victor king Clear on the air: Delighted murmurs rise: "What majesty of soul his words reveal!" Then followed the applausive thunder, peal on peal. He spoke of peace, union and brotherhood, And the strong passion shook his aged frame; Like a gray cloud, that on a sultry close Exulted, deeming his Olympian mouth Then burst the thunder of his eloquence, New courage, and the exulting Continent, Such be thy rulers, Land, in these more blest The golden head "LONDON ASSURANCE;" OR, YANKEE NEWSPAPERS. SIR HENRY LYTTON BULWER versus A NEW SONG TO AN OLD TUNE. AIR. "And back recoiled, he knew not why, "It is clear that Great Britain does not intend to relinquish her hold on San Juan; and that in open and flagrant defiance of her stipulations she still both assumes dominion' and exercises it in the most arbitrary manner in Central America. San Juan is as effectively "occupied" by her as Liverpool. These matters must soon come up before Congress, and we have a right to expect that both Houses will thoroughly investigate them. If the Clayton and Bulwer Treaty is not regarded in its direct and obvious provisions, it is very certain it will not be in its more obscure ones. A rigid adherence to its terms should be insisted on, or it should be abrogated."-New-York Tribune, Dec. 4th, 1850. "Since the appearance of our last, we have received intelligence which gives us ample reason to believe that the recent outrages on American rights at San Juan and its vicinity, have been in no manner instigated or countenanced by the British Government, and that they will be promptly buked if not expressly disavowed. That the British officials at San Juan and vicinity have been expressly and repeatedly ordered from London to refrain from molesting or interfering * with American citizens or vessels in any port of Central America, or upon its coasts, we are fully assured; that those orders have ere this been received and will henceforth be obeyed, we will not doubt. We are not so clearly assured, but have good reason to believe, that the British occupation, protectorate, or whatever it may be called, will soon be withdrawn from 'Greytown,' and all that part of the Central American coast, as we trust it also may from all Central America, so that the amicable relations of the two countries may be preserved and secured by a full and faithful execution of the terms of the Clayton Treaty. With this no new treaty is needed, and the withdrawal from Nicaragua of the insolent and mischief-making Chatfield would dispel the last cloud hitherto obscuring the prospect of continued amity. "There really is no excuse for trouble in that quarter."-Same paper, next day, (Dec. 5th, 1850.) "The Express, dilating on the late British asre-sumptions and outrages at the mouth of the San *Juan, says:— We beg leave to express the opinion, not hastily or unadvisedly given, that neither Great Britain on the one hand, nor the Executive or Mr. Webster on the other, have any such designs as | friend or enemy hint the remotest disbeare imputed to them by the Sun and Tribune! "Will The Express be good enough to state frankly, promptly, and clearly, what designs' in reference to this matter have been attributed to 'the Executive and Mr. Webster' by The Tribune? We are anxious to know.”—Same paper, day after, (Dec. 6th, 1850.) "We now notify The Express that we consider every such statement in its columns as that The Tribune had imputed 'designs' to 'the Executive and Mr. Webster' with respect to the recent British outrages in Nicaragua, as the meanest kind of falsehood, and as morally of the nature of forgery."--Same paper, day after that again, (Dec. 7th, 1850.) lief in your new assertion. Thus, a writer Ir may not be in accordance with the well-known etiquette of Review circles to notice the errors or follies of the newspaper prolétaire, or daily talking class; as unfortunately the Republic of Letters, like republics of a more material and less infinite existence, is prone to imitate the class distinctions and the vices of monarchy. However, we, having a profound contempt for the mock "respectable," and being disposed to assert on all occasions the principle of fraternal equality, mean now and then to descend from our dignity, when the descent can be effected for our own gain, and the amusement or improvement of our readers. To the large mind of a Review, the loftiest political tumbling, and the smallest news paper fanfaronade, abound in themes of equally profound thought; and as there is nothing below the consideration of the true philosopher; as Sir Isaac Newton made great discoveries from the falling of a rotten apple; so we think in the falling of the Tribune, as recorded in the above extracts, our readers will find the germ of an elaborate science, of which our popular newspaper editors are the most facetious and indefatigable professors-the science of taking the extreme sides of a question in turn, without being committed to either, and without offending anybody. An admirable science, requisite to be known that you may get on well in the world, and maintain the principles you profess, without seeming on the whole to differ with principles of a directly opposite character; requiring, too, considerable practice before you can assume the necessary ap-level with his own. pearance of honest credulity one day, in that which you contradicted the day previous, and the still more necessary deportment of violent and virtuous indignation, should And however agreea ble it may be to either of our Whig newspapers, to make the other sommersault with the dexterity of one of the Ravel family on a tight rope, yet if in doing so the honesty himself, and higher than Mr. Bulwer, Lord Palmerston himself, together with every agent and minion from Chatfield to the last Mosquito policeman, have publicly declared that treaty naught; set it at naught; and in open and public violation of it have held San Juan, arrested and disarmed American citizens, detained and threatened to sink ships of the United States on inland American waters, seized and imprisoned their officers, and even compelled them to acknowledge British sovereignty in Central America, by obliging them to call the old Spanish "San Juan de Nicaragua" by the name given to it under the baptismal hands of the reverend Chatfield-in flattery of his superior Lord Grey-"Greytown." These outrages have been unremittedly practised—and are now being practised. And while a public treaty is thus belied, the man must be very urbane to the servants of the British embassy, or very worshipful of editorial tumbling, who will attach to any verbal assurances, though they may be quite sufficient to stultify a legion of editors, the smallest credit. of Mr. Webster, which no human being doubts, is to be coupled with British or Punic faith, or with faith in the verbal assurances of the reckless and double-dealing representative of the Russell Cabinet here, whom no human being, after what has occurred, can trust; if, we say, the honor of the Whig party, or of any party presuming to rule these United States, is to be represented as identical with the honor of England, or that of Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, then it must ere long fare ill both with that party and these United States. Disgrace and doom must result to any party or nation which is so blind as to pin its faith and its interests to public falsehood, or proven treachery. And deeply as we know the American nation trusts in the integrity and national spirit of Mr. Webster-deeply as we know it trusts in the political integrity against foreign machinations of that party which owes its birth and its proudest laurels to repelling with republican sturdiness the aggressions of Great Britain, yet after the duplicity and baseness displayed by Mr. Bulwer since his arrival in this country, Not that we mean to say that no assurances upon this very question of Central America, have been given-nor do we mean to say we are confident, no matter what authority they may not have been believed, even in may endorse him now or henceforth, that presence of the manifold evidences reaching the people of this Republic will never again us by every mail from the Isthmus, directly trust in his promises or assurances, or the belying them. Mr. Bulwer, or Sir Henry honor of his Government. If an American Lytton Bulwer, if he pleases, is a man of party desired political damnation, we could the most confounding assurances. He asnot suggest to it a speedier or easier mode sured Mr. Clayton of his deep respect, while of effecting it, than by taking the person he was writing a letter to Mr. Chatfield peror character of Sir H. L. Bulwer under sonally disrespectful of our Government and its wing. The Tribune cannot have strong- Secretary. He assured Mr. Clayton of his er personal assurances of the intentions own good faith, and the good faith of his of Great Britain in one direction, than we Government, in fabricating a treaty, while have public assurances in the other. No he was writing to Mr. Chatfield to disregard personal assurance can be stronger than and break that treaty. His consistent a solemn public treaty, to which with double-dealing has only been matched by good faith pledged, the British Cabinet his singular effrontery and most remarkable has formally affixed its ratification, the success. A polite man of the world, he is seal of its monarchy, and the signature assiduous in his flattering attentions, and of its minister. The parchment deception known as the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, ford, or any alliance which either has or may have, distinctly bound, and by Mr. Clayton's decla- to or with any State or people, for the purpose.. ration was intended to bind, the British. of occupying, fortifying, or colonizing Nicaragua, Government to abandon the exercise of all power, whether as protectors or armed occupiers of Central America.* Mr. Bulwer We extract from Art. I. of the treaty "as tified:" "Nor will either [G. B. or U.S.] make use any protection which either affords or may af Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America, or of assuming or exercising dominion over the same." The entire treaty has been already published. It would be the more useless to republish it, as its reckless violation by the British authorities, and the defence of that violation by Lord Palmerston and Sir H. L. Bulwer, have rendered it, as binding on us, null and void. |