Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1859 — The London Times on the War and the Commerce of England. [ARTICLE]

The London Times on the War and the Commerce of England.

The London Times of the 14th, in its city . ic.le, has the following remarks upon the possible effects of the war upon the commerce of England, in the event of that power being involved in hostilities. The mo.-t important question in connection with the possibility of England finding herself involved in war is: what effect will it -have upon our commerce! In the old war with France, the suspension of our maritime supremacy would at any moment have sealed our ruin; and the grand effort of Napoleon was to acqure a European combination such as should exclude us from every port. So long as the profits of our enormous trade remain undisturbed, we are sure to tire out our opponents in every struggle. May we count upon being able now, as heretofore, to secure that r suit? Many looking at the fact that the French fleet is alleged, in number and power of guns, to be superior to our own, and contemplating the possibility of its being aided by that of B Russia, are disposed to entertain misgivings. But these persons omit to recognize the alterations effected by the lapse of a generation in the international maritime law. Under no conceivable circumstances of temporary, or even of prolonged disaster, could our general commerce now be interfered with. We might, for a time, lose our carrying trade, but that is the utmost injury they could inflict upon us. The doctrine, accepted during the Russian war, and subsequently confirmed by the Paris Congress, that free ships make free cargoes, has settled this point definitely. Our interchanges of goods,therefore, would go on with nearly as much steadiness as ever. Although the whole of Europe might be arrayed against us, the business would be conducted by the United States. Their ships would bring us cotton, (yarn and all other staples, according to our requirements, and would in turn distribute our manufacture over the world. Thus we should go on, buying, selling and making money in our old fashion way, while oar opponents were suffering exhaustion under the effects of financial mismanagement, commercial prohibitions, and the depressing influence of conscriptions. It will be urged, perhaps, that in the event of all our ports being blockaded, even the American marine could then be of no service to us; but that is a contingency which few Englishmen will think it necessary to discuss. Such a course would soon make that power a party to the quarrel. But it may yet be said that, although the inviolability of neutral vessels was so recently affirmed by France, Russia, Sardinia, Austria and Turkey, as well as by this country, the three powers may, if it should suit their purposes, disclaim it with as little scruple as they have lately shown in stultifying their decisions at the same Congress, regarding the Danubian principalities. There is no room for any such apprehension. Those who attempt to set aside the new principle must do so at peril of immediate war with the United Suites. It is a matter on which the Washington Government will entertain no question, and the first interference with an American vessel would be followed by an instant demand for satisfaction. Happily, therefore, the bearings of the case are now entirely independent of the wishes or decisions of the continental powers, whatever dreams may be nourished, of fulfilling to the letter, the traditions of the first empire. That of forming coalition to that end, and to ' ."troy the commerce of Great Britain must considered, by the progress of 9-ve been shorn of nearly all its terrors.