The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-16 00:00:00

bore on its front the evidence of its doubtful
humanity. A gradual emancipation is what real
humanity as well as ccmmon sense would teach,
and that is what it is to be trusted the South will
ultimately carry out. President LINCOLN, who
loves a joke, will certainly be inclined to smile at
the concluding paragraph of the address, in which
a fervent aspiration is expressed for that " good
time coming," when perfect equality will exist be-
tween white and black, and no regard to race or
colour is held before the law. Mr. LINCOLN must
be very well acquainted with the fact, that such is
very far from being the millennium of Northern
dreams, and that whatever may be the wording of
the law, white citizans will be anything but willing
to admit the negro to freo end equal companion-
ship. But the Emancipation Society, which is "so
very kind" to the virtues of the Federal Adminis-
tration, contrives to be "a little blind" to their
faults; and the peculiar satisfaction with which
they have noticed the moderation of the proceed-
ings of General BUTLER in New Orleans, the firing
on the hospitals at Charleston, the desolation of
the Shenandoah Valley, and the burning home-
steads and ruined cornfields that mark the progress
of Northern generals, is certainly not shared by
their countrymen at large. The open declaration
of the Federals to ppocure success by any
means, 'whether by starving out the Southern
people or by wholesale expatriation of them as
recommended by BUTLER in his recent address at
New York, or by the application of " Greek fire
to the people and hell fire to their leaders," as
advised by the Minister of a Christian religion, all
comes under the cover of the wide and conveni-
ent cloak of humanity. In this country we have
long ago learned to estimate such professions at
their real value, but it is a little too much for Eng-
lish gentlemen of various ranks and professions to
offer the congratulations of their countrymen to
the head of euch a system, and in the name
of the fervent sympathy which Englishmen
every where feel for freedom, and their untie
nimous hatred of slavery, to felicitate the
American States en the continuance of this cruel
and purposeless war. Mr ADAMS was not inclined
to pledge himself or his Government to any uncome
promising theories about slavery. He declared,
indeed, that the settlement of the slave question
was a necessary preliminary of peace, but he
honestly avowed the restoration of the Uuion to be
the one great object. The Chicago nomination
was the object of his dire invective, and in spite of
the smooth speeches and wholesale approbation of
of the gentlemen before him, he was well enough
acquainted with the actual feelings and temper of
this nation to be unable to refrain from some covert
attacks upon those Englishmen who did not share
their views. The fact is, that Americans, like
foreigners, are well aware of the independent action
of English politicians and enthusiasts of all degrees,
and the proceedings of the Emancipation Society yes
ter day afternoon are as much an exponent of popular
sense and sympathy on the American question as the
visit of the members of the Peace Society to the
CZAR on the modest request of the Liverpool mer-
chants of famous memory, that the Emperor of the
FRENCH would kindly favour them with his pri•
vale opinion on the probability of a war.