[Extract.]

Mr. Marsh to Mr. Seward.

No. 37.]

Sir: The news of the settlement of the difficulty between the United States and England on the affair of the Trent has been received in Italy with lively satisfaction, and although on the question of the legal right the opinion of lawyers and statesmen was nearly unanimous against the seizure, yet I believe that, both here and elsewhere in Europe, the conduct of the American government, as now understood, is thought to have been not only more dignified, but at least not less honorable than that of England.

The violent and mendacious language of the British press now receives the condemnation it deserves, and I have no doubt that the cause of the Union will be essentially advanced in European estimation by an event which the President and his cabinet have, with such wisdom and skill, converted from an apparently unlucky accident into an instrument of good.

The result will serve, I think, to do something towards dispelling an error almost universal among European statesmen, and which I have seldom passed a day on this side of the Atlantic without having occasion to combat—the assumption, namely, that the American Union is less a republic than an unbridled democracy, of which the federal government is but a blind instrument

The illumination in some of the great cities on the receipt of the intelligence of the capture of the commissioners, the compliments to Captain Wilkes, the various spirited resolutions proposed in the House of Representatives, were cited as evidences of a popular feeling which an Executive elected by the people would be powerless to resist, and nothing short of the actual result of the affair could have convinced Europe that in this, as in most other important crises, the government is left free to initiate the national policy. * * * * * * *

I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

GEORGE P. MARSH.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.