5,
1863, that unless England desisted war would result. England yielded.
But, according to the old German proverb, "A cat cannot resist catching
mice," she secretly permitted the fitting out of privateers (the
Alabama) for the Southern States and was finally forced to pay an
indemnity of $15,000,000. England gained, however, more than she lost by
this interpretation of neutrality, for by the aid of her privateers
American maritime trade passed into English hands and was lost to the
Americans.
May God's vengeance fall on Germany! She has violated Belgium's
neutrality! the English piously ejaculate. They call themselves God's
chosen people, the instrument of Providence for the benefit of the whole
universe. They look down upon all other peoples with open or silent
contempt, and claim for themselves various prerogatives, in particular
the supremacy of the sea, even in American waters, from Jamaica to
Halifax.
England's policy has always been to take all, to give back nothing, to
constantly demand more, to begrudge others everything. Only where the
New World is concerned has England, conscious of her own weakness,
become less grasping, since Benjamin Franklin "wrested the sceptre from
the tyrants," since the small colonies that fought so valiantly for
their liberty rose to form the greatest dominion of the white race.
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