278 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
evenly balanced in private sentiment with respect to the | 
struggle when it was in progress, the direction which public ime 
opinion has since been taking is towards the Republican party . 
and the policy of the North. q 
This drifting of the majority of Englishmen towards al 
acquiescence in the unity and prosperity of the States will it 
receive a severe check if the American Government perseveres | 
in its most unjust treatment of the Alabama question ; for it will 
convert many to the opinion that perhaps, after all, we should” 
have done ourselves and the world generally a great service 
by assisting in the partition of the Union instead of remaining” 
strictly neutral in the quarrel. Ifthe Americans insist upo nf 
keeping up ill-feeling by refusing to settle amicably these 
outstanding claims ; if they continue to make mountains of | 
molehills, and think it worth while to risk a war, which 
would be thrice as expensive as that which they have just ' 
waged, for the sake of gratifying a vague feeling of jealousy 
which has no real foundation, they will receive from us but } 
very few emigrants and very little capital. 
So much has been said and written, even within the last 
few months, on emigration, that I will not attempt to discuss / 
the subject in detail; but I have, in conclusion, one simple — 
scheme to propose, which I consider eminently practical, and 
which is the result of much reflection and of some experience. 
A would-be emigrant generally finds it almost impossible 
to obtain reliable information; he knows nothing, as a rule, 
of distant lands; and those, unfortunately, to which he pro- 
poses himself to go, lie far away on the outskirts of civilisa- 
tion, and quite beyond the beaten track of ordinary travel. 
He knows nothing of the expense, nothing of the require- 
_ ments, nothing of the chances of success or failure, and it 
_ often happens that when he has reached the country of his 
