The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-15 00:00:00

the Prussian official press. Did not the German
public know the value of those denials they would
cease to canvass the authenticity of despatches of
such vital importance to their liberties ; but they
are too conversant with all the conditions before
them to allow themselves to be for one instant de-
luded into the idea of giving the slightest weight to
an official denial on such a subject. They ask with
perfect reason what other course was left to Bis-
marck but to deny his own despatches; had he ac-
knowledged their authenticity nothing could have
prevented that European war which he is so de-
siroUs
to anticipate by the league be has formed,
but which is:still impending. The Emperor could
not in the face of Europe and of his own subjects
have submitted tamely to the consolidation of a
combination proclaimed by Bismarck in one of
his letters to be specially directed against him-
self. How could the Prussian Mister admit
that he wrote that despatch and yet expeel to keep
the peace ? Of two evils he chose the least ; te2r
will it be the first time in the history of diplomacy
that a statesman has denied a fact to avert the
disasters of a war ;—for such a war as France
might wage with Prussia upon the strength of
those despatches could not fail at the present
moment to be most disastrous. just as it is a
great advantage for a Government to dissolve Par-
liament upon some popular cry with which to go
to the country, so the Emperor would have
appealed to Europe with the despatches in his
hand in which the authors admit they have deter-
mined to destroy its liberties. What other course
was left for Bismarck but to deny them P
Federal Germany appreciates the dilemma he
was in, but is none the less watchful or alarmed.
The Prussian official press strives in vain to restore
confidence, and the very energy of its efforts proves
how inopportune our revelation has been, and how
seriously it has impeded the prosecution of the
Prussian policy. There can be no doubt that it
will compel Bismarck to make concessions to Liberal
Germany which he would not have thought of had
he not felt the necessity of lulling their suspicions
and making some amends for the conspiracyof which
he has been convicted against their liberties. We
may hope, then, that we have done good service to
the cause of Liberty, and it shall not be our fault if
we do not do more. So far from being deterred,
either by the denials of the Prussian Minister, or
the abuse which has been abundantly lavished upon
us by his official journals, we shall hope ere long to
publish some further despatches of a still more re-
cent date. We are perfectly prepared to enter with
the Prussian Minister upon a contest of assertion
and denial, but we would beg him to bear in mind
that when at last his denials prove valueless, he will
not have improved his position by persisting in
them. Meanwhile we have waited in vain for any
repudiation on the part of the Russian Government.
In reply to a question by Mr. A. Seymour, a few
nights ago, Mr. Layard Bain the Government knew
nothing about them, thereby admitting that they
bad never been denied. We have no doubt that it
Mr. Layard will refer to a despatch from Lord
Napier, dated some time about the middle of Feb•
ruary, lie will find mention made of one of the
despatches alluded to by Prince Gortschkoff. It
is now quite clear that, so far as England is
concerned, no fear of our opposition to a Holy
Alliance influenced those who were engaged in
renewing it. The effect of the Government majority
the other night would have dispelled any such
alarm had it existed, and the impression which,
until then, had only been gaining ground, has now
become a fixed idea, which may at any moment prove
erroneous, that no Continental question, no alliance
of the strong against the weak, or of despotism
against liberty, will induce us to take up arms. So
far as we are concerned, then, the Holy Alliance
may imagine it may proceed with impunity. The
reasons that France has hesitated to act in Europe
is simply that she conceives herself deprived of an.
ally upon whom she had depended, and in her
struggle against banded despotism she will only be
able to count upon the nationalities which are op-
pressed. It is probable that these are not quite ready
and that the train is not yet laid as it should be.
Should peace be arranged between Denmark and the
Allies, it is possible the struggle may be indefinitely
postponed; but inasmuch as whole Rations are intes
rested in seeing the war which seems drawing to a
close extend over the length and breadth of Europe,
we shall not believe in the establishment of a per.
manent peace until the changes which may take
place in Germany have received the sanction and ar-
proval of the Emperor Napoleon.
HERALD.—That man must be endowed with an
almost American credulity who continues to doubt
that the independence of the Confederate States is
an accomplished reality. If, at the outset, Mr.
Seward himseii had been asked how long he de-
manded for the accomplishment of the enterprise
his Government had undertaken, he would cer-
tainly have been satisfied with a single year; and
would have been content to allow that, if at the
end of that period the Confederates could still keep
the field in Virginia, the European Powers would
be entitled to recognise their independence. Three
years have almost elapsed since the first defeat of
the Federals, and during the whole of that time
the Confederates have fought, not as Spain fought
against France during the uneasy reign of Joseph
Bonaparte, not as the Spanish colonies fought
against Spain, not even as our own American colo-
nies fought against the armies of George 111., but
as Russia fought Napoleon in 1815, or as Frederic
11. defen2ed himself spinet Austria in the Seven
Years' War. The war has been waged for the most
part on Southern soil ; it has so far not been a war
on equal terms, that the one party has fought for
empire and the other only for independence. But
it has in no way partaken of the character of an
insurrectionary as distinguished from an interna-
tional war. The Confederate Government has, from
first to last, held a position of perfect equality with
that of the Northern States. It has administered
with undisputed authority the affairs of its OWN
country, and the Federal Government has been un-
able to exercise any other than a military power
there, and that only within the territory covered by
its own armies. The State Governments have gone
on as regularly as ever ; the administration of the
civil law is as perfect in the South as in any Euro-
pean country, and while in the Northern States the
necessities of an aggressive war have been held to
require the exercise of a militay authority superior
to the law, the civil authorities have never been
over-ridden by martial law in any Southern district
not actually invaded or threatened by the enemy.
to deny to such a Government the status of inde-
pendence accorded to Nicaragua or to Greece cer-
tainly seems the height of absurdity, and this im-
pression is not weakened when we look to the
military operations that have taken place. It is
true that at sea the Federals have been able to main-
tain a decided superiority, and that a blockade,
efficient enough to impose very serious difficulties in
the way of the export of any bulky commodities,
has been maintained at every port which has at
once so good a harbour and such means of commu-
nication with the interior as to be available for
commercial purposes; but it is also true that the
Federals have hardly gained a single naval success,
and have sustained several naval disasters. It is
true also that they have been able to occupy several
points on the vast extent of Southern coast which
are commanded from the sea, and to obtain the
control of a considerable portion of the inland
waters of the South. They have also penetrated
at various points the long and indefensible frontier
line, and pushed their armies far into Southern
territory. But they have not been able to con-
quer a single State ; and the chief fruit of three
years of warfare, besides the disputed possession
of Tennessee, is a wide-spread devastation and a
considerable havoc among the labouring popula-
tion of the South. Hundreds of homes and farms
have been destroyed, and thousands of negroes
stolen, of whom the majority have perished
by disease and neglect ; some towns have been
burnt ; two or three, which lie at the mercy of gun-
boats, have been occupied; and this is all that has
been achieved. The Southern armies have sus-
tained no great disaster in the field ; they have in-
flicted half a score of the most terrible defeats re-
corded in history. Their capital, with a sort of
bravado, was planted near their most endangered
frontier • army after army, to the number of several
hundred' thousands, has been hurled against it, and
completely shattered; a quarter of a million of
corpses are manuring the plains of Virginia—and
with this result, that Richmond is now stronger
than it ever was, and very much safer than Wash-
ington, and that, instead of asking whether Grant
can take the city, men, both North and South,
are expecting to hear that Lee has taken Grant's
camp, and that a third of the invading army has
been left in the hands of the victors. Sherman has
followed up the long and cossly march which last
yean had brought the Federal army of the West to
Chattanooga ; he is not so very far from Atlanta;
but while no one fears for Atlanta, all the friends
of the North tremble for Sherman and his army.
Charleston has been attacked in vain ; and after
crushing repulses, the Federal besiegers are driven
to amuse themselves by a bombardment which,
hough it succeed in killing now and then an inno-
cent child, or murdering a bride at the altar, might
be continued for a hundred years without
bringing the city any nearer to a surrender.
Mobile and Savannah are found unassailable.
In Louisiana the Confederates have gained over
Banks a victory perhaps the most complete and
decisive of the war. The importance of that
victory is dwarfed in our eyes by distance from the
scene of our chief interest and by the gigantic mag.
tude of the operations in Virginia ; but it has a very
,erious bearing on the position of the contending
s te
dPowers. It has driven the inveders out of Arkansas
insr o
crushedand them in Louisiana. It has half- de,
y
wholly paralysed a powerful fleet and

...-0
a considerable army. It has released some '20,000
Confederate troops against Sherman's rear. There
is no Federal army in Tennessee capable of resisting
the light forces which have been sent thither by
the Confederates. Such is the position of effairs
after three years of war ; and, looking upon it, does
any man who values his reputation for sincerity'
dare to say that the subjugation of the South is.
still within the bounds of rational probability.r
Every month of war improves the relative posl'
tion of the Confederates. The worst, is over for
them; their severest sufferings have heel: endured.
the period of their extreme depression is 'elesed.;,
they have passed the crisis at which the resCeree;
accumulated in peace were completely exhaust °d'
they are no w depending on those which they pro-
duce, and can continue to produce, in spite of war.
They have completely adapted their social, induse
trial, and political organisation to their present state,
and find themselves able to provide amply for all
their needs. Their supplies of food,clothing, ammu-
nite.Cn, and arms are increasing—their losses in war
do not apl.-seer to be greater than the natural growth.
of the popui,tion can replace, for of the wounded
only those who are crippled quit the army, and
these take the place of Ale-bodied men in civil oce
.!'
cupation, who are thus rent:ered available for the
army, and the only permanent
.iminution of their
force is measured by the number ot" killed—always
a small portion of the butcher's bill.
on the other hand, grow weaker every daj.. Their
army is disbanding itself as the regimentsFedereie,
coCriPlete•
their term of service, and they find themselves un-
able even to replace the retiring veterans by s.ll
equal number of raw recruits. Their currency is
sinking with extreme rapidity,and a financial crisis,
which may occur to-morrow, can hardly be long
postponed. Their Government shrinks from
conscription, and cannot do without it—discontent
grows every day, and a disaster in the field might
shake the power of the President to its foundation,
Under these circumstances, it seems perfectly'
absurd that the policy of European powers should-
be influenced by an affectation so palpable as that
of uncertainty as to the issue of the war. No
sober politician considers that the independence
of the South has yet to be achieved—it is only in
diplomatic dispatches that statesmen speak of the
Confederate States as a merely inchoate nationality;
but, unhappily, it is by diplomatic language and
not by expressions of personal opinion that Europe
can influence the feelings or the conduct of America-
If Lord Russell would speak to the Confederate
Government as every one speaks of it, he would
secure for England a warm and faithful ally, whose
friendship would do more than an army of 50,000
men to protect the frontier of Canada. If England
and France would speak through their Governments
the opinion of their people—if they would accord
to the Government of Richmond that recognition
which it has received from the public opiniod Of
Europe—they would do very much to bring the war
to a close, and spare the lives of tens of thousands
who must otherwise perish before the North will
consent to confess itself beaten. The ill-will of the
North towards this country is already so bitter that
we can hardly exasperate it. The United States
would go to war with us now if they dared ; they'
will not be the more likely to dare it if we prove
our contempt of their menaces by recognising th'3
South. On the other hand, if we wait to recognise
the Confederates till we cannot help it we shall
have no claim on their friendship and no right 03
their assistance when the North does find the claw
rage to quarrel with us. Recognition, then, so far
from tending to precipitate war, is the best possible
guarantee for permanent peace between ourselves
and the United States ; and if either Parliament Or
the Administration were capable of a courageous
and far-sighted policy, Mr. Lindsay's motion might
have a chance of being carried, and of rendering
material service to the country and to mankind'
But to submit such a motion to a house which has
just approved Lord Russell's betrayal of Denmarict
and in which the authors of our Polish and Anieri'
can policy have an obedient majority of eighteen,
is simply to invite defeat, to give an advantage to
the Northern faction in Parliament, and to coup"
teract, by an adverse parliamentary vote, whatever,
effect may be produced by the manifestation 0'
English feeling out of doors, in sympathy with the
South and in confident expectation of her complete
and speedy triumph.