The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TTMES.—It is an unfortunate characteristic of
General Grant's operations that the more closely
they are viewed the less satisfactory they appear.
The second report of one of his battles is invariably
worse than the first, making his losses greater and
his achievements smaller than they were originally
supposed to be. What was his design at Deep
Bottom seems to have been unknown even in New
York, but we are now assured, after the usual
fashion, that at that place and on the Weldon
Railway he lost in a single week 12,000 men. The
results, meanwhile, are so absolutely unimportant
that General Lee treats the Federal army with
perfect unconcern, and not only despatches large
reinforcements to Atlanta, but marches away him-
self, if we may believe the report, at the head of a
formidable corps. The Confederate commander is
now said to be in the Shenandoah Valley, and it is
reasonable, therefore, to look for important intellie
genre from that quarter. The Southern army
already in these parts, under the command of
General Early, comprises some 30,000 of the best
troops in the service of the Confederacy, and if
these are reinforced by other divisions under
General Lee himself, and opposed only by Sheri-
dan and his levies, it seems natural to anticipate
some decisive operations. Nothing, indeed, can
be more extraordinary than the position to which
affairs have been brought by the course of the cam-
paign. General Grant has reached Richmond, has
i
skirted t by a flank movement, has left it behindl
him, and is now engaged in some unintelligible ope-
rations a few miles south of a small town, itself
some miles south of the Confederate capital. Gen.
Lee, after first protecting Richmond with his army,
now apparently considers it able to protect itself,
and has marched away to the North, with the view
either of threatening Washington or of carrying
the war into the Federal States. In fact, at the two
great centres of action—Richmond and Atlanta—
there is simply a dead-lock, while the interest of
the campaign is once more transferred to the early
battlefields of the war. As for the siege of Mobile
Admiral Farragut has discovered that the place
cannot be approached. The harbour has been closed
by an ironclad sunk in mid-channel, and Mobile is
pronounced inaccessible to the Federal squadron.
In the meantime the political campaign is far more
eventful and invested with far more immediate in-
terest. There the issue cannot be delayed, nor the
contest indefinitely prolonged. A few days, .indeed,
will now bring us a most important, if not decisive,
piece of intelligence. On the 29th of August a
Democratic candidate for the Presidency was nomi-
nated at Chicago, and that nomination will, in all
probability, govern the election, and with it the
course of the war. It may be observed, too, that
as we have war news at this moment up to the 27th
ult. we may regard it as certain that neither Grant
nor Sherman nor Farragut could have achieved
anything likely to influence the proceedings of the
Convention in favour of the War party. The sups
port which Mr. Lincoln and his partisans might
possibly have derived from the ur capte of Atlanta
or Mobile is now past hoping for, and the resolu.
tions of the great political meeting will nave been
taken on the assumption that the campaign of
1864 will end as unprofitably.for the North as those
of the years preceding. That last chance for the
Republicans has been lost, and the misgivings of
the party may be clearly discerned in the proposi-
tion now reported, that Mr Lincoln and
General
Fremont should retire together, and make way for
some new candidate for the Presidency more popu-
larly acceptable than either. Everything now tends
ie the direction of peace, or, at any rate, towards
the suspension of war ; and the Americana appear
to be embracing this new policy of negotiation with
the same impulse which first hurried tnem into civil
conflict. It must not be supposed that the Northern
people have yet accepted the idea of Southern inde-
pendence, or relinquished the hope of restoring the
Union. All they have learnt at present is that
the Union is not be restored by war. The
Seceding States are not to be coerced into
fraternity, and all the fabulous expenditure of
the last four years has been utterly lost.
.That
much seems to be at length understood, but still a
large section of the party now rapidly acquiring
ascendancy both hopes for a reconstruction of the
Union by process of negotiation, and encourages it-
self with the reflection that war can be once more
tried if these hopes should fail. The " War Demo-
crate" are ready and eager to accept an armistice at
present, but only with the expectation of accom-
plishing by parley what they have found themselves
unable to accomplish by force. If they nominate
General MiClellan as their candidate for the Pre-
sidency, they will simply be employing him once
more on his original mission, only they will place
him at the head of a new force and arm him with
new weapons. Instead of being Commander-in-
Chief he will be the chief of the State, and he will
negotiate with political opponents instead of meet-
ing hostile armies in the field. A Parliamentary
road to Richmond is the essence of the new policy.
A broad view of this kind is all that can be taken of
these remarkable events. The more secret views
of parties are of course hidden from us. We can
only tell at this moment that the party or aggre-
gate of parties desirous of suspending the war and
substituting amicable negotiation is strong enough
to compel others, with more or lees sincerity, to
accept its policy. It seems by no means improbable
that the policy of a n armistice will be adopted even
by Mr. Lincoln himself, so that in any event the
Presidential election would bring the close of hosti•
lities for the present. Then follows a mighty
question—Will the war ever be renewed ? It the
South should refuse on any terms to re-enter the
Onion, will the Northern people, who now admit
that war has brought them no good, recur to
that arbitrament in hopes of better fortune ?
P. erhaps a majority of them would profess that
intention at the present moment; but to us,
on this side of the Atlantic, it seems very difficult
toimagine that two Governments which have had
such bitter experience of war should ever delibe-
rately renew it after a taste of peace. For the first
time, however, during the whole of this contest we
are brought within sight of its probable end, and
it is curious to reflect with what suddenness the
prospect has at last arisen. Beyond doubt the con-
victions which it expresses must have long been
gaining strength in the minds of the Northern
people, but still they found little utterance till the
other day. That they are now proclaimed so loudly
is due to the double opportunity presented b. y the
Presidential election and the acknowledged failure
of the last campaign. The hopeless dm:le:Hoek of the
armies in the field happens to coincide with the
period when the people are formally called upon either
to inaugurate a new policy or deliberately approve the
old one. They must put one decision or other upon
record, and a series of military failures, consum-
mated by the dreadful losses of the present year,
render it almost impossible to pronounce for war.
Had Grant's desperate enterprise been successful,
or had Mr Lincoln's lease another year to run, the
present crisis would probably not have been reached,
but the coincidence. of opportunity and impulse has
now brought it to pass, and we can only hope that
it may indeed prove the end of the struggle.
POST.—With reference to the remarkable speech
of the Duo de Persigny, which is still attracting a
good deal of attention, as well in this country as in
France, it has been contended that the success of
the . Empire is much more owing to the personal
qualities and the individual policy of the Emperor
than to
anything distinctive in the system. Now,
what the Due de Persigny said was, that Napoleon
111. had submitted to the French people a constitu.
tion conformable to the organisation, of society in
France, and it is replied, in effect, that the worth
of this constitution mainly depends upon its admi-
nistration. But clearly the same may be affirmed of
every system, and of every system in existence in
England, from that which is the foundation of our
Government to that which regulates the delivery of
our letters. The right of the Sovereign to negative
Acts of Parliament is, for example, part and parcel
of our constitution, though the prerogative h©s not.
been exercised for over one hundred and sixty years
In fact it is impossible to devise any syste aviand
especially a system for the government of a. in.,
which does not more or less depend upon. its admbi-
nistration. It would, indeed, be the
surdity to expect perfection in any system, and the
height of a_ -
Due de Persigny has not, as far. as we are aware,
ever assumed that the constitution oi the S. e.cond
Empire represents more than huan perfectibility,
All he urged at St. Etienne was that the Govern.
meat established by the Emperor haste.red to the
requirements of France, the gist of his contention
being that a system of government for the French
people should, so to speak, be judged of by its fruits,
by whether moteiep nded with their interests and
served to pro their prosperity, and not by com-
paring it with any other form of Government, or
with regard t.) theories of freedom which, though
working well in one country, might not be adapted
to the organisation of another country. Substan-
tially and practically, therefore, the objection we
have mentioned admits the force and accuracy of
the argument it attempts, not to refute, but to turn
aside. The. Duc de Persigny described the situation
of France fairly and candidly to Frenchmen, He did
not say that the constitution of the Empire was
suitable to all the world ; he did not hold it up to
Europe as a model; he did not even maintain that
it was not susceptible of amendment hereafter.
But he pat it to his countrymen that, as a matter
of fact, the system initiated by the Emperor, was,
under subsisting circumstances, one which ap-
proved itself to the nation. This, being entirely
evident and indisputable, has escaped contradiction,
and it seems to b..; admitted on all hands that the
Empire has succeeded. Bat then the sneers is;
ascribed to the Emperor personally ; or, in other
it is said that France acquiesces in a form of

word,

government which is not in harmony with her feel*
ings because it is wisely administered. It is compli-
menting the engineer at the expense of his machi-
nery. However, events that must still be fresh in
the public recollection do not bear out the supposie
tion ; and, looking under the surface of the revolu-
tions out of which the Empire arose, we are inclined
to think that it rests on a more solid foundation
than the popularity and prestige which attach to
the name of its illusOious chief. There can be no
doubt that Napoleon 111. did for France more than
any other man would have been permitted to do;
but the grand secret of his success—that, at least,
which has given te it all the appearance of per-
manency—consisted in the thorough appreciation
of the wants and wishes of the nation which he
exhibited and acted upon. The Government of the
Restoration, as it was in no sense the choice of the
French people, can hardly claim to be considered in
the discussion the Duc de Persigny's speech has
raised. But the Government of July, and the Re-
public which was roughly constructed upon its
ruins, both professed to proceed from the will of the
people, and did to some extent represent the opinion
of the country as far as they collected it. They
were made by Paris, and France accepted the bills
which its chief city drew upon it. But the Empire
was at once placed upon a broader basis. Napo-
leon consulted the whole nation, and throughout
his reign he has, before all else, steadfastly main*
tained the principle that was consecrated in his
election. There is nol a peasant in the remotest
corner of the land that does not feel he. has a stake
in the Government, and this feeling is strongest
precisely where it is likely to be most enduring.
The Emperor has not treated France as if he
only had a life interest in its estate, but has so
identified himself with the people that the personal
influence he oxercies is bound up in their mind*
with the system under which they have enjoyed.
prosperity, seen their power newly developed, and
expierenced the manifold advantages of a firm and,
strong Government. Of all men the Due de Pere
aigny would probably be the last to appear even to
deny to the Emperor, whom he has served well and.
faithfully in adversity as in prosperity, the high
distinction of being personally honoured and red
spected by, the French people ; but in interpreting
the constitution of the Empire he could not help
perceiving that it should and did repose upon
something that would outlive the wisdom and pru-
dence of its present administrator. The question
was, as he understood it, whether France had at
length obtained rest, whether the country possessed.
a system of government which could be preserved
with advantage ; and, reviewing the past and re-
garding the present, be came to a conclusion in
which there is every reason to believe a vast majority
of his countrymen participate. They do look upon
the Emperor as the founder of a system which has
given them liberty, which has relieved them from
apprehensions of anarchy, and which has revealed
to them the real sources of their strength and hape
piness. The sentiment may be right or it may be
wrong in theory, but its value is practically demon.
strated. France is not forgetting herself in dreams
of imperial magnificence, nor were the French ever
less disposed to neglect their own interests than
they now are. On the contrary they appear to
take an exceedingly businesselike measure of their
position, and, as is the way with people who are
doing well, turn a deaf ear to the suggestions of
change. They see on every side signs of progress,
political and social, and if they think, as it is plain
they do, that the road to which they have been cone
ducted, and on which they are steadily advancing,
leads to what nations should desire to attain—to
welfare at home and honour abroad—we cannot
suppose that a people so animated, and so acting
up to their sense of duty can go far wrong.

I

I