21st May. Writinc on the arrival of the Boer Peace delegates in the United States, whither they had gone finding it hopeless to persuade any Evropean Power to intervene, the leading papers in New York, as we learn from Reuter, "deprecate deluding the Beers with false hopes. They, i.e, the Peace delegates, will merely be used as
Jndoubtedly the constitution of the ats in the Presidential campaign." United States is one of the most splendid efforts of its kind that was ever compiled, and under it the United States: has thrived remarkably and become one of the greatest Powers the world has seen: but it may be doubted whether if a conference of historians, philosophers, and practi statesmen were convened in this present to draft a constitution, they would not put some farther restriction on the suffrage, or make some change in the mode in which the President is elected. The number of voter has grown so large, and there is such a large irresponsible element of naturalised citizens, whose existence was never contemplated by the framers of the constitution, that the managers of the Presidential candidates find it necessary to make use of arguments in which they do not themselves believe, but which they think will sway the large masses of politically ignorant voters. There isin the States unfortunately a large mass of voters of this kind who in the main are unfriendly to Great Britain, and they are still attracted by anything that looks like twisting the tail of the British lion. The Republican and Democratic leaders alike know the service that Great Britain was able to render to the States during the late war with Spain, and they know that there is [nota real cloud of any kind on the had not considered that any evidence relations between the two countries, who may be called upon sooner or later to make a stand together against other hostile Powers. Yet in' as in every year of a. Presidential election, the votes of the masses are endangered by any. exhibition of friendliness that can be represented opponents as truckling to Engind; and even those who are friends of Great Britain at heart disguise their sentiments for fear of losing votes. telegraphing on the 13th of April the New York correspondent of the " Times " says:
The probability that x resolution of Boer sympathy will be adopted by the Republican National Convention is asserted other authorities than the one 1 quoted yesterday, They opposed to it, All personally desire an English triumph in South Africa; but all pt will be made, and think chether it can he successfully resisted; or whether, for the reason already given, it would be yeo polities to re-ist. All say that if before the Convention is_held Lord Roberts were to win a decisive victory nothing would. be heard of Boer sympathies as an element in American pol tics. One of them explained ingenuously che origin of these sympathies, Tt not merely that a powerful Monarchy is attacking two small Republics, though that ¢ nuts, but because the small Republics are maki good fight, is the sporting instinct which is at the bottom of the feeling for the Boers." He added:—' Had England never gone to South Africa the growth of American good will revive when she 'e, but she must: not. on of both polit is country. They dono either sympa cout ters in which interests are in-"ved, all negotiations between England ud the United States are, by tacit consent of oth sides, suspended. Tt is considered for the interest of neither that any of the several pending issues should be pressed while the Presidential election is undecided. ves no requests, and y no refusals, The conditions of political agitations are not the only reason for this inactivity. The attitude of the Senate is one reason. The last Anglo-Am ican treaty ratified by that body! re ted to the disposition of land held by sh subjects in the United States at their death. To the treaty itself there no objection; there was no ground for opposing its ratification, but the Senate assented so reluctantly that further experiments were thought undesirable.
Mr. Morgan's Nicuragun Canal Bill yeater-'The refusal of the Senate to proceed with
day is vot regarded asa test vote. Tt meant only that Mr. Lodge's Philippine Bill was entitled to precedence. The Senate and the House are both for the canal; s9 is the President, if it is honourably attainable, but they are unlikely to agree this session on any particular measure, though all partis will so mmeeuvre as not to seem opposed tothe canal, which the country desires. When asked a Senator whether a Bill openly violating the Clayton-Bulwer treaty could pass Congress, he' answered You must rémeniber that the inter-ational education of our legislators began very recently. They are in the Kindergarten period."
The best people and the best papers in the states know perfectly the baselessness of such arguments as, among others, the New York "Life" uses to discredit England. They know that the Transvaal was tpt, in reality, a Republic at all, but a limited and very corrupt oligarchy, but the ignorant masses are led away by the name " Republic." and are content to condemn Great Britain as a" Monarchy," though the British Empire is in reality just as truly a Republic as the United States is. The leaders on both sides in the States know perfectly well that there is no idea in England of crushing the Dutch in South Africa, and that the Boers will have just as much freedom and a much better gove ment when they become British Subjects: but for a Presidential!eandidate or his managers to say so might imperil votes. A telegram received the other day said that those who were anxious to puta spoke in Admiral Dewey's superfluous wheel j were asserting that he is an Anglo-philo. Every' leap-year, which' is also the Presidential election year, we Britishers have to expect to see acertain opposition to our country paraded in the States: but it is only manufactured and distributed for electioneering purposes, and it is recalled and put away as soon as the election is over. Now that the United States has become an Asiatic Power, the friendship of Great Britain is more valuable to her than ever. We have exactly the same interests in China, and by working together we can obtain more satisfactory results than if one of us fought for his own hand. On the other hand, the rapid success of Lord Roberts in South Africa renders any even temporary sympathy useless to the Boers, Even when the "'Times" correspondent wrote, he said that neither political party in the states thought that either sympathies or political action arising out of them would seriously affect Anglo-American relations. This is still more unlikely now that the end of the war is within sight, and the Boers have shown by not being even able to take Mafeking how much their power has been over-rated, and how much they miscalculated it themselves. Whoever is elected President of the United States next November will, we may be sure, find it to the true interest of his country to be friendly with Great Britain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.