In consequence, when an English built privateer, which has been sold to Jefferson Davis for Southern paper, takes refuge from a Northern war ship in any harbour, in any part of the world, belonging to England,--the Northerner is warned off by our authorities. On one occasion, Lord Palmerston sent two ships of war expressly to watch the Federal vessel Tuscarora off Southampton; and see to it, that when the privateer Nashville escaped, the Tuscarora did not pursue without giving her twelve hours’ start. What more could we do, if we held it a right of these privateers to plunder and burn at sea (as they do, against all international precedent) the merchantmen of the Northerners, without even the adjudication of a prize court? Worst of all, the English port of Nassau is a permanent rendezvous for steamers watching to break the blockade. All this is, according to Earl Russell himself, merely a logical deduction from his having (most gratuitously) declared the South belligerent. And then it is pretended by our press, that “belligerence” is a “mere matter of fact,” which we cannot help acknowledging! These steamers from Nassau, by the arms and ammunition they have brought to the South, have alone sustained for eight months past the “fratricidal war” about which our Southern sympathisers whimper. English policy alone has lent vitality to the war. In the summer of 1861 Earl Russell publicly gave utterance to his celebrated sentence, that the North is fighting for empire, the South for independence. England now understands what the “independence” means. Mr. Forster, M.P. interpreted it well,--freedom of robbery, rape, murder, and lynch-law. The “empire” for which the Union fights, is simply its own country, vital to its national existence, not a distinct adjunct, such as to England is Canada, against which Earl Russell made war “for empire” in 1838. His words had the effect of proclaiming, that in his opinion the cause of the South was a righteous one; and the inference was, that he would be glad to aid it, whenever he could. In the same summer a large reinforcement was sent to Canada; and the Times at once explained, that this was intended to strengthen the province against the North in certain contingencies. It was inevitable for South and North alike to infer, that the English ministry was on the look-out for an opportunity of striking a blow in favour of the South, and _therefore_ wished first to make Canada safe. For none but a madman could imagine that President Lincoln in that crisis would volunteer to attack England. Thus the South was still further lured on to believe that we should help her at last.