The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-23 00:00:00

A Perilous Position.

The Buffalo Courier of the 9th instant says :
"It has been known that Farini, the funanahulist,
who several years ego was Blondin's rival on the
tight rope at Niagara Falls, was making prepara.

tions to ford the rapids above the American Fall on
a pair of iron stilts constructed for the purpose. The
exhibition was to hava come off on the loth.. Early
yesterday morning, we learn, the foolhardy man went
out to rehearse the dangerous feat. He succeeded
in getting more than half across, at a point between
the Falls and the Great Island bridge, when one
of his stilts broke or gave way, and he was instantly
in the rapids. Fortunately the place of his accident
was directly above Robinson's island, a small piece
of wooded land which lies to the right of Lunn
island and very near the brink of the American fall.
He succeeded in struggling to the shore of this is-
land, and dragged himself from the water. He had
apparently sustained a painful injury in one of iais
limbs. The poor man was soon discovered sitting
very composedly on a log at the edge of the island.
A. large and not vcry sympathising crowd collected
on the Goat Island bridge and elsewhere, but up

to yesterday afternoon not any effort had been
made to rescue the unfortunate man. In fact,
our informant tells us that in a few hours
public curiosity seemed to have sated it-
self, and scarcely any excitement was visible.
Farini's frightful perch is about 800 or 1,000 feet
below the bridge befo're spoken of, and undoubtedly
a rope could be floated to him, and thereby a
cable perhaps be swung, by which, if the man is not
too muzh exhausted or injured, he might be able to
effect an escape. It is feared, however, that before
anything is done he will be incapable, from lack of
food and nervous excitement, to help himself. At
present he can be distinctly descried, cool enough
apparently, but making not the slightest effort to
attract attention or signal for relief. He is in his
tights and bareheaded, and is seen frequently to rub
and press his wounded limb. A more frightful pre-
dicament than that he is in could not easily be con-
ceived. We understand that some persons suppose
Farini to be playing a practical joke, or to be prac•
tising an advertising dodge. It is scarcely possible
that this can be the case, or that any such felicitous
results can come from such a desperate-looking state
of things. From the latest reports it appears that
Farini was still a prisoner oa Robinson's Island,
about 200 ft. above the American Falls, and where
the rapids have a tremendous velocity. His part-
ner had succeeded in effecting a line of refreshment
communication with the forlorn stilt-walker, who
had been in his uncomfortable position over 40 hours.
What steps are being taken to rescue him, if any,
were not known. A. large crowd was expected
down from Buffalo and Rochester to see the sad
spectacle. The condition of this poor fellow was
really heartrending. He was within speaking dis-
tance of the shore, but the throngs who had assem-
bled to witness his critical situation were powerless
to help him."

TRIALS OF NEW LlFEBOATS.—Yesterday some
harbour trials were made in the Regent's Canal
Dock with two new lifeboats belonging to the National
Lifeboat Institution, and built by the Messrs. Forrest, of
Limeli,use, under the superintendence of the society, Tho
self-rightiug and othpr properties of the boats were found
in every way satisfactory. One of the boats, which is 36
feet long, is to be stationed at Porthdinllaen, on the Car-
narvonshire coast. She is a splendid boat, and is well cal-
culated for the important service she will have to perform
on that dangerous point of the coast, where last winter
several distressing shipwrecks t3ok place. The cost of this
boat has been given to the institution by Lady Cotton
Sheppard. The other lifeboat is 32 feet long. She is to be
stationed at Cardigan, and is in every way suitable for
such a station. The cost of this lifeboat and of three
others has been collected by It. Whitworth, Egg , of Man-
chester, amongst his friends and fellow-townsmen. She is
called the "John Stuart," after a gentleman of that city,
who, thoroughly appreciating Mr 'Whitworth's benevolent
exertions, promised to give him a
specified sum towards the
cost of each lifeboat he would succeed in collecting. Thus
stimulated, Mr Whitworth has persevered, and raised about
£l,OOO in donations, and about £2CO and £3OO in annual
subscriptions. The institution has now 137 lifeboats under
its management, and invites the co-operation of experienced
\and influential persons on the coast to increase that number,
in order to station a lifeboat on every point where it can be
shown that shipwrecks occur, and where a sufseient number
of boatmen or fishermen are residing to work such boats on
occasions of emergency.

Prospects of Peace in America.

(Front the Times' Correspowlerit.)

CLIFTON HOUSE, NIaGaEA FALLS, Aug. 8.
The long and fiercely-contested battles of North
and South have decided nothing but the courage of
the combatants and the hopelessness of Southern
subjugation. The North has boasted of its wealth,
of its inexhaustible resources, of its teeming mil-
lions, and of its determination to restore by force of
arms the perished and vanished Union, which it
insanely believed to be better than peace, law,
liberty, and prosperity ; while the South has replied
to the bravado by the calm assertion, which it has
made good by valiant deeds—that though its re-
sources both in men and money, are inferior to those
of its adversary,the difference was more than compen-
sated by the indomitable spirit of its people, who
will under no circumstances renew the partnership
which the sword has cut asunder, and who will
carry on the war for 30 years, rather then make or
listen to any terms that shall not rest upon Southern
independence as their basis. Fighting has but in.
creased the obstinacy of the Southern people; bat
it has had no such effect upon the Northern. Defeat
is no disgrace to men who are struggling for their
liberty and their firesides. On the other hand, the
invader feels defeat to be a humiliation. His con-
science tells him that he is foiled in a bad cause, and
that were the conditions of the struggle reversed, he,
too, would shed the last drop of his blood for home
and independence. Such is to-day the feeling of the
North. The failure of Grant's campaign, and the
awful losses by which the fact has been established,
have not encouraged the people to incur new sacri-
fices. They have not inspired them with hope that
which today the cause looks so black will look
brighter to-morrow, On the ccntrary, they
have inclined them to compromise and peace.
The people have palpably lost heart. They do not
respond to the President's call for another half a
million of men, although they know that unless new
armies be immediately raised they will not only be
unable to continue the offensive war which they
have now weged with varying fortune for nearly
four years, but to guard their own fields from the
enemy's cavalry and their cities from his torch.
They never had much faith in the administration of
Mr. Lincoln and the impracticable, jealous, and self..
seeking functionaries whom he called into office, but
whom he can scarcely be said to have admitted into
his councils, and that little they have lost. Neither
have they any faith in their militery leaders.
General Grant, from whom so much was expected,
has proved no better than his predecessors, and will
speedily be thrust aside to make room for some
other hero of the same calibre rash enough to try
the impossible, and to be as ignominiously dismissed
in his turn as all who came before him. The de-
preciation of the currency fills the commercial and
professional classes with alarm ; the rapid rise in
the price of all the necessaries of life goads the
working men and their families into perilous discon-
tent, which, were it winter instead of summer,
might burst forth at any moment into formidable
ric.ts, if not into organised insurrection.
It is at this crisis that the present hostelry on
the Canadian side of the Falls of Niagara has bee
come the centre of negotiations which promise the
withdrawal of the differences between North and
South from the arbitrament of the sword. As the
Republican party, under the leadership of Mr. Line
coin, either cannot or will not make peace, and will
not listen to any proposal of compromise that does
not involve two conditions which the South will
not accept—restoration of the Union and abolition of
slavery—the Northern friends of peace, who hope
to elect a peace President in November next, have
taken counsel with such Southern exiles and friends
of peace as have congregated on the Canadian fron-
tier to ascertain whether there is no common
ground upon which the whole weight of the Demo-
cratic party might be brought to bear against the
war faction, and on which a peace candidate might
be nominated at Chicago on the 29th inst. The
South, through Messrs. Clay and Holcombe, the
fully-authorised agentsof President Davis, demands
an armistice and the calling together of a National
Convention, as prescribed by the Constitution, for
the consideration of all matters in dispute. The
Democratic party of the North, no longer hopelessly
split into two sections, the one advocating war, and
the other peace, has made up its differences on all
minor and major issues, and resolved to support at
Chicago a candidate for the Presidency who will
pledge himself to these terms. As it is feared, if
not known, that Mr. Lincoln, in his insane
desire of re-election will, under the plan of re-
construction, which gives the right to a tenth part
of the population of any State in the military occu-
pation of the Federal armies to perform all functions
of election that belong to a clear majority of the
whole people, endeavour to elect himself by the aid
of the soldiery, and by the exclusion from the polls
of all persons who will not take a test-oath of un-
conditional loyalty to the Union, it has been resolved
by the leading Conservatives and Democrats who
are now and have been recently assembled at the
Clifton-house that measures shall immediately be
taken to defeat this purpose. At the Chicago Con-
ventien it will be emphatically and distinctly de..
Glared that any State carried on behalf of Mr. Lin-
coln and Mr, Johnson by bayonets or by test-oaths,
or by the rotten votes of a tenth of the population,
shall be counted as having voted for the Chicago
nominees; and that if such nominees shall receive a
clear majority of the electoral vote, inclusive of that
of the Border States of Kentucky, Maryland, Dela-
ware, and Missouri, they shall be considered duly
elected as President and Vice-President of the
United States, and shall be inaugurated accordingly.
The nominees, whoever they may be, will be re-
quired to pledge themselves to take possession of the
Ue rernment should they be elected in the manner
specified, and to maintain their position at all hazards.
It is understood that the Convention will organise
committees of vigilance in every town, village, city,
and district of the North to support the constitu-
tion, and to resist by force of arms, if necessary,
every usurpation or encroachment on the part of
Mr Lincoln and the Federal Administration or
authorities, civil or military. Thousands of lead-
ing Conservatives and Democrats, comprising men
of the greatest wealth, position, and talent in the
country, are already pledged to serve upon such
committees, and are ready to stake their lives,
fortunes, and honour in defence of the platform on
which they have resolved to stand, and of the
parity and freedom of election. If Mr Lincoln is to
be President for another term he must be elected
fairly, or a new civil war will break out in the
North, in the interest of the wrongly-defeated, but I
legitimately-chosen candidate. Such is the present
condition of the Presidential. question as far as the
Democratic party is concerned. Within the next
ten days or a fortnight it will assume a still clearer
shape. Possibly by that time, if not earlier, the
candidates whom the party will support will have
made up their minds to assume all the risk and all
the honour of the position. Gen. M'Ciellan might
have been the man, had ho chosen, but ho had let
slip the opportunity. His civic courage was not
equal to the cacasioe, or •he has allowed himself
to be o verpersuaded by timid advisers. Per-
naps, too, he has preferred the chance of
being Commander-in-Chief under a civilian Presi-
dent, elected on this basis, as more congenial to his
tastes and habits than the office of Civil Governor.
At all events, whatever chances he may have had
of the Presidency have disappeared for ever; and
Mr Dean Richmond, chairman or president of the
New York Central Rail way,
rules in his stead as the
favourite of the United Democracy. That gentle-
man has taken time to consider, and will probably
make known his decision within the present week.
Should he accept, he will be the nominee of the
Chicago Convention on the platform of an armis-
tice and a convention of the States. If the Demo-
crats be really united, if they have truly made up
their minds to hold together in support of their
candidate, their candidate is certain to obtain a
majority of the electoral vote, and to be the legal
President of the United titates. If Mr Lincoln,
however, be determined to win, per fas aut nefaa,
there will be a conflict of powers that will convulse
the country and carry the fire and bloodshed of war
into regions that have not yet felt the miseries of
civil conflict, or know of them but by the depre-
ciation of the currency, the derangement of trade,
and the augmented cost of subsistence.
A short time will show whether the governing