It is surprising that Earl Russell should intimate his dissatisfaction that we have been less quick to offence from France than from England.  The reason why we should not, in his opinion, feel so is the very reason why we should.  He thinks, because our relations have been more intimate with England, because we speak the same language and inherit the same Anglo-Saxon genius, that therefore we should be more patient with her.  But these circumstances seem to us to aggravate the treatment we have received at her hands.  It has appeared to us unnatural that a nation so identified with us should mistrust us, and embrace every occasion to slight us where they could safely do so.  The closer the tie, the deeper the wound.  Besides, despite the common ground upon which England and America have stood, the past bequeaths us little grudge against France, much against England.  France was the patron, England the bitter enemy, of our national infancy.  Our arms have never closed with those of France; we have fought England twice, and virulently.  Our diplomatic intercourse with England has been a series of misunderstandings; that with France has been, in general, harmonious.  In later times, French essayists and journalists have been tolerant of our faults, and eloquent over our virtues; and not a little good feeling has been produced among our educated classes by the fairness and acuteness with which one of the greatest of modern Frenchmen, De Tocqueville, has considered our institutions.  On the other hand, the English press and the English Parliament have been outspoken in their contempt of America; and the offence has been enhanced by the peculiarly insulting terms in which the feeling has been expressed.  Such facts cannot but intensify our chagrin at finding that power which we had always regarded as our companion in the march of modern progress ill-disposed to sympathy now in the time of our trouble.

Mr. Seward has well expressed our attitude towards England in a few words:—­“The whole case may be summed up in this.  The United States claim, and they must continually claim, that in this war they are a whole sovereign nation, and entitled to the same respect, as such, that they accord to Great Britain.  Great Britain does not treat them as such a sovereign, and hence all the evils that disturb their intercourse and endanger their friendship.  Great Britain justifies her course, and perseveres.  The United States do not admit the justification, and so they are obliged to complain and stand upon their guard.  Those in either country who desire to see the two nations remain in this relation are not well-advised friends of either of them.”