The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-12 00:00:00

The Weather—Sun Office, July 12, 1864.

THERMOMLTER.
This day at Two o'clock .. 69

Barometer-30.10.
IVIND—N.W. ; moderate breeze and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, ih. 10m.—Afternoon, 7h. 34m
roe-moa.Row.-Morning, 7h. 58m.—Afternoon, Bh. 28n1

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 12, 1864.

By a happy provision of the British Constitution
the SOVEREIGN can do no wrong. The Ministers are,
however, generally ready to make up for that defi-
ciency. We have at the present moment a beloved
and popular SOVEREIGN, and we have also in the
'-Ministerial Cabinet noble lords and right honour-
able gentlemen to whom assuredly neither of these
epithets can, with justice, be applied. Last night
the House of Commons received a message from her
MAJESTY, meaning, Of course, her MAJESTY'S
Ministers, in reply to the address on the result of
the Conference. That the Ministers should congra.
tulate themselves upon
their dearly bought victory
is natural enough,
and we are not disposed to
quarrel with them on that account.
But we must
confess that we are some
what amazed at the
almost ironical assurance
with which the reply
has been framed by the Royal advisers. " I am
happy," so runs the official missive, it to be
assured of your satisfaction at the course I have felt
it to be my duty to take ! ' If the framer of the reply
is assured of the satisfaction of the House of Cum-
mons by their recent proceedings, that conviction is
probably entertained by no other individual in the
empire. Anything but "satisfaction" was apparent
in every word that fell from every independent
speaker. Those who from other considerations
thought it right to vote with Ministers took care
to express their dis-satisfaction with those proceed.
ings ! Knowing this, fully aware of this as they
indubitably are, there is almost an air of effrontery
or at least of a covert irony in the paragraph in
which her MAJESTY'S advisers allude to the " satis-
faction" of the House of Coinuons:

Our conservative contemporaries the Herald and
the Standard of this morning, contain a rather
remarkable article, commenting in " slashing"

- -------...--_
terms (there is really no other word for it) upon
that portentous mare's nest discovered by Mr.
CAVENDISH BENTINCH, the rumoured compact en-
tered into between the Irish Catholic Members and
the chiefs of the Conservative Opposition. Only
that we regard this absurd canard as really too
contemptible in its way for one moment's serious
consideration, we should be tempted to quote
the article, here referred to, in its entirety.
As it is, the division list has caused Mr. BEN-
TINCK'S extravagant hallucination to melt into
thin air—leaving, still vibrating as it were, upon
the tympanum of our memory, a very ludicrous
sense of that gentleman's noisy outburst of virtuous
indignation !

There is always something of import in American
affairs, something that calls for remark, or suggests
comment and reflection. It is not likely that so

peculiar a state of things could go on for so long a
period without giving rise to strange events, and
developing principles and awakening feelings that
take us by surprise who are living in a calmer state
of being, and under the influence of more equable
sentiments. Besides the more striking and start-
ling incidents of the war, there is continually to be
met with some more peaceful change or calm alte-
ration which comparatively silently, but not the
less surely, does its destined work and effects its
purpose. The letter from Colonel MARSHAL AN-
DERSON exhibits symptoms of a new secession, end
merits attention from all who watch the signs of
the times, and take heed to the chances and dangers
which are so rapidly effecting so marked a revolu.
tion in all the old American habits and feelings.
This letter in question is an admirable one in its
way. It is imbued with an earnest love of liberty
in its best and truest sense, and the writer seems
deeply convinced of the mistakes that have been
made by those who are confusing the shadow with
the substance, and doing things in the cause, or
professing to work for the cause, of that freedom
which is in reality outraged by their every actc.on.
It is no matter of surprise that men of intelligeno
or spirit should by this time be heartily ashamed
of their friends, and begin to speculate upon the
advisability of pursuing a war which is so rife in
spoliation and so barren in honours. In this letter
Colonel ANDERSON desires to withdraw his name
as a "candidate for Presidential election in the
Twelfth Congressional District of Ohio," and the
reasons he gives for so doing are very cogent ones.
He explains that he " prefers the sanction of his
own conscience to the approval of men or multi-
tudes," and this praiseworthy notion is well carried
out in his address. In the first place, then, he
declines this nomination because he is diame-
trically opposed to a continuance of the war, and he
cannot advocate for any man Rho is in favour of its
prosecution. Indeed, it is matter of astonishment
that before this juncture, more have not been
heard to exclaim in the words of Colonel ANDERSON,
" I now fully realise and comprehend the meaning
of the term 6 horrida bells: " There are many home
truths in this letter which will not find much favour

in the sight of the generals who have so sullied the
name of soldiers, and departed from the rules of all
honourable war. An example of toleration and for-
bearance in the midst of strife is here given in the
mention of HANNIBAL, who was for thirty years
in the Roman empire, in the heart of an enemy's
country, bat who left friends behind. Colonel
ANDERSON from thence argues that the American
armies have violated the laws that they should
have respected, and lays down maxims which
are certainly never attended to by those now in
arms. How many sad lookers-on have acknow-
ledged the want of the influence of these elevating

...
sentiments since the commencement of the civil war.

Principle should not be sacrificed to popularity,
and "better suffer defeat, contending for the right
and principles of freemen, than obtain success by
fraud and falsehood." The conclusion at which
the Colonel arrives is that a Western Confederacy
is now desirable. "If we cannot have our glorious
old Union," he exclaims, " let us have GoD and
Nature's Union. Let us follow the bright and
sparkling waters of the Ohio down to the Father
of Waters, to the ocean of peace. The greatest and
grandest valley in the world claims us for her own ;
let us acknowledge her claim." Thus does this
earnest writer promulgate his views and express
his convictions. There is no doubt that he will find
many to join their testimony with his, and to
attempt to withdraw themselves from a state of
things that has become so intolerable, and also eo
discreditable, as the present contest and its mode
of procedure. "I am tired of working for Yankee
taskmasters; I hate their selfish meanness; I am
in favour of a Western Confederacy," are strong
words, and are indicative of a new order of things
that will not be very palatab'e at Washing-
ton. Men do not thus discourse upon pub-
lic matters until their minds are pretty well
made up by long experience of evils, and until their
endurance has reached a pitch beyond which it
cannot go. The concluding remarks of Colonel
ANDERSON on the subject of the Union are well
worth notice. He says emphatically that his
proposition is founded on the fact that the " original
Union" is dissolved. It is time that this idea should
obtain among the States, and thus operate to arrest
the progress of further violence and stay the course
of devastation. Not until the honest and manly
sentiments of the writer of this epistle are current
among the people to whom they are addressed, can
we hope or expect that the horrors of a war that
outrages all the best feelings cf humanity, and is
here truly designated a " war of desolation on
women and children" shall cease, and a better time
succeed. Whether Colonel ANDERSON'S proposals
are carried out or not, there is a satisfaction in meet-
ing with such statements, and in dwelling upon the
sensible language here employed, instead of perus-
ing the bombastic and pretentious expressions so
freely made use of by the self-deluded orators of
the cause of the Union. This letter is not long, but
it contains a masterly exposition of the unworthy
character of the war, an earnest expression of con-
fidence in the principles of real liberty, and a true
explanation of the present state of things in
America.

Railway catastrophes seem destined to succeed
one another with startling rapidity, Our railway
system is indeed so extensive and so complicated
that occasional disasters are not to be wondered at,
and perhaps it is rather a marvel, considering the
immense number of trains running daily to and fro,
the ignorance or indifference of the men frequently
employed in their management, and the reckless-
ness which repeated security brings, that we do
not oftener hear of accidents. Still it is very
much to be questioned whether we have attained
the greatest degree of security to life and limb
possible under an improved method of locomotion,
and it
very much concerns the public interest that
this end should be reached. It is not many weeks
since the eagerness and gaiety of a fashionable race
week was interrupted by a startling catastrophe,
and those who watched the corpse of a
passenger
by the ill-fatid train carried to the little rural
churchyard which he had passed is health and
security on his pleasure trip a short week before,
could hardly avoid moralising ea the risks incidena
tal to railway travelling, as well as the uncertainty
of We, This lamentable disaster has scarcely ceased