The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-08 00:00:00

of gold, which was to make them richer by a day's
fraud than they were likely to have been made by
20 years honest work such as they were competent
to perform, the despotic action of the Government
against the respectable journals that were deceived
has invested the case with an exceptionable and
wholly unmerited interest. Had Mr. Lincoln (for
it is now asserted that he alone and not Mr. Stanton,
is responsible for the suspension of the journals)
contented himself, as Commander-ineChief, with
discovering and punishing the audacious forger
as military or civil law would have allowed and
justified, the affair by this time would have blown
over, and Howard might have been hung or
shot, or sent to the Dry Tortugas or the Peniten-
tiary, without creating much ripple in the stream
of public opinion. But when Mr. Lincoln took
advantage of the accident that two newspapers
opposed to his Administration published the forged
document and suppressed those journals by military
force, though they were wholly innocent of any coin-
plicity with the forger or of any intention to de..
ceive, he made a mistake which may yet prove to
be the greatest he has committed during his tenure
of office. The suppressed journals were allowed to
reappear yesterday after a suspension of three days,
during which they suffered an amount of pecuniary
damage which they estimate at many thousands of
dollars, and the question remains whether they will
consent to suffer it without an effort to obtain
redress. The Federal Government has no right to
interfere in the internal affairs or the civil adminis-
tration of the law in any State of the Union. Mr
Lincoln 'as Commander-in-Chief may do many things
in New York or any other State on the plea of mili-
tary necessity. There was an imperative military
necessity to discover and to punish the forger, but
was there a military necessity to suppress two news-
papers and to ignore the laws of the State of New
York, which guarantee the freedom of the press,
and provide the penalties for the abuse of that free-
dom which are established in all civilised countries ?
That is the question which the Democratic party is
said to be determined to raise; and the first step
towards the settlement of which is alleged by several
journals to have been taken by the Governor of New
York. The District Attorney of this city has re-
ceived Mr Seymour's instructions to prosecute all
the parties who were concerned in the burglarious
entry and occupation of the offices of the Journal
of Commerce and the World. If this statement be
correct, General Dix will plead the order of tlae
President in justification, and there will tither be
a cause celebre of the highest moment to all Ame.
ricans—or a quashing of the proceedings before
the Courts by the reception of General Dix's
plea as valid and sufficient. If the plea be
received the majesty of the law will go the
way of the liberty of the press, and practical de-
spotism will have taken a greater stride than in
any previous occurrence of this humiliating war.
Governor Seymour has a great part to perform ; he
has the opportunity in his hands ; and if this story
be true—though some of the papers doubt it—it
looks as if he had the courage to undertake it.
The interdict has been removed from the office
of the Independent Telegraph line, on proof that
Howard's forgery never passed over their wires, but
was concocted in this city. Mr. Stanton accom•
panies his notification of the fact with no expression
of regret for the wrong committed upon the un-
offending clerks and operators, or for the pecuniary
damage inflicted on the company during five days'
suspension of their business. The suspension of the
Baltimore Transcript has not been removed ; but as
Baltimore is under the operation of martial law, and
likely to remain so, until the remote day when peace
shall again dawn upon unlucky Maryland, there is
but little probability that Gen. 'Wallace, unless he
have a strong hint from Washington to do so, will
allow the delinquent to reappear. But as the
7 ranscript never publishes leading articles, or passes
an editorial opinion on any political event, domestic
or foreign, it seems a useless waste of tyrannical
power to break so harmless a moth with the blow of I
a sledgehammer.

Although Howard's proclamation was but a
clumsy forgery, the annoyance of the Government at
its publication was less due to its audacity than to
the fact that it but too truly described the military
situation, and but too truly sketched the means
necessary to be adopted for retrieving it. But th,,
Government did not at that particular momen.„ 1„1
inclined to divulge to all the world its wan., of men,
and hence the more than customer; displeasure
which it vented upon all concern rtl in telling the
unpalatable truth in the guise of a fable. It is now
assetied, however, on tl
authority of no less a
P crson than Mr. Star.tl,n, that a draught for 300,000
men will be orr:acred for the Ist of July; and
the enrolling ',ffieers in this city and throughout the
North are, actively engaged in revising the lists for
that ',impose. The 'Government will need all the
17:01. At the moment at which I write this the
sound of drum and fife in Broadway calls me to the
window, and I see a regiment about 500 strong
marching towards the Battery. I learn that it is
the let Rogimeut of Massachusetts Volunteers,
whose term of service has expired, and who have
left the Army of the Potomac in its hour of sore
trial, if not of imminent peril, when every man is
of value, determined to return to their homes and
to study war no more. The people on the line of
route towards the steamer in which they are to em-
bark for Boston salutes them with no cheers, and
not a woman waves a handkerchief to give them
welcome. Another regiment, the Brooklyn 14th,
the term of which has in like manner expired, is
expected this evening, and will doubtless pass along
the streets with as little notice, Mr. Stanton may
well believe that a new draught is imperative under
circumstances like these, and the Government may
welt be anxious, if not alarmed, in view of the
chance of the great unpopularity and possible
failure of the measure.

The gold market, has been greatly unsettled
during the day, mainly on account of the vague and
unsatisfactory character of the news from Virginia,
and of the rumours of disaster to General Butler—

rumours, however, which cannot b 3 traced to any
authentic source. The highest point attained was a
premium of 88 at half-past one p.m. It afterwards
fell, however, to 84, at which it closed.

Fatal Accidents on the London, Brighton;
and South Coast Railway,

Yesterday a most distressing accident occurred
at Croydon, at the works for the construction of the
new extension line to the new cattle market, which
are now being carried out at this spot. During the
last three mouths a large body of workmen have
been engaged in making the new line, and yester-
day, while employed in removing the earth from a
portion of a wall which used to form part of the
old Brighton line, the mass,
from some at present
nexnlained cause, fell with a terrific crash, which
was heard for a considerable distance round. The
greatest commotion prevailed at the time, and when
the dust occasioned by the fall had cleared away it
was discovered that at least one poor fellow had
been buried beneath the ruins. All the workmen
were instantly set to work to remove the hundreds
of tons of brickwork and rubbish in the hope of
finding the body, but at the time the report was
despatched the poor fellow, whose death must have
been instantaneous, had not been dug out. On
Sunday morning last, between the hours of four and
five o'clock, the body of a woman, supposed to be
related to one of the workmen employed ou the
extension line above mentioned, was discovered on
the line adjiining the spot where the above accident
happened, most horribly mutilated. There appears
to be great snspiclon attaching to the ease, from the
Let that at the time the train ran over the poor
woman it was discovered that the legs only of the
decetts.Jl had been placed across the line of the
" four fool"--a most improbable way fora person to
commit suicide. In addition to the injuries which
the poor woman had received, her legs being com-
pletely smashed, she had a very severe contusion
over the right eye arid temple. It appears from
information collected on the spot that the driver of
the train noticed something on the line when it was
too late to atop the train, and he had an engine sent
down the line to pick her up. When discovered
the woman was quite dead, and she was immedi.
ately conveyed to the new tank-house at East Croy-
don, where an inquest will be held. The
shortly
decessrd was about 30
years of age.