Alexandria Gazette

Respecting the diplomatic difficulty between this country and Spain, the Philadelphia American of Monday has the following editorial:

Our private advices from Washington inform us that Mr. Webster addressed a long and able communication to Senor Calderon de la Barca, on Thursday last, covering a full exposition of all the questions and principles involved in our relations with Spain, and making suggestions, which if adopted in the proper spirit—as they are likely to be—will lead to a happy and immediate adjustment of all embarrassments between the two countries. If the accounts with which the public has been already enlightened in this matter be, as they doubtless are, well founded, it cannot be doubted that the distinguished Secretary of State has bravely vindicated the rights and honor of his own Government, while he has treated those of Spain with the proper and considerate regard due to its position and to our relations with it. The United States could well afford to yield much in this controversy, without compromising the national dignity; but there is a very wide difference between voluntary, amicable concession, and exacting demand.

There is every reason to believe, as we stated several days ago, that all these difficulties will be soon arranged, and that a few civil letters will be found a more easy and economical mode of settlement, to both parties, than brimstone and broadsides. When friendly nations go to war about etiquette, it is like two familiar acquaintances resorting to "pistols and coffee," because one accidentally happened to pass the other without the usual cordial salutation. War, besides being an expensive entertainment, is opposed to the genius and spirit of our institutions. We are taught to be a peaceable people; and, as a means of being so, to fulfil all obligations with foreign nations, and leave them to manage their own concerns.—This is an old-fashioned principle, to be sure; but it is one on which this Government was started, and by which alone its integrity and stability can be preserved. Although the temper of the times is progressive, and we are willing to ride on the wave of progress, experience is still entitled to respect, and the proved wisdom of the past, to at least a decent reverence.

We are also informed that Prussia joined with France and England in their representations to this Government in regard to the Cuban matter, observing of course, the same external forms of decorous communication. The only wonder is that, as this business was begun, the rest of the European Powers did not take a hand in the farce, since it would probably have amounted to the same thing in the end. Their non-interference has saved the treasury the cost of the ink and paper which would have been consumed in multiplying answers, and spared the copying clerks in the Department of State so much additional labor. How Prussia came to put her finger in the pie is rather mysterious, especially as her "patch" is rather inferior to that of Austria.

But it is to be presumed, as Mr. Webster was able to stand under the terrible onslaught of Prince Schwarzenburg, who addressed him as Secretary for the "Council of New York"—supposing that to be the government of the United States—he may bear up against the threatening wrath of Prussia, especially when she plays third fiddle to England and France. There is a maxim in law which might find a diplomatic application in the present instance—de minimis lex non curat.