The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Already the Message of the newly-
elected President of the United States has been de-
livered to Congress, and it will shortly be before
the public of this country. Very seldom has a poli-
tician had it in his power to iseus a document of
more importance to the world. It has been often
said with truth that an American President is an
autocrat for tour years. It he has a will of his own,
hr cau assert it against Ministers, and Senate, and
Heine of Repreeentativev, and State Governors and
State Legislatures. The only check on his policy
is the passive resistance of the people, or the fear
that if he becomes unpopular his chances of re-elec-
tion will be lost. Tnis second consideration cannot
affect Mr Lincoln, for he is certain of his reign for
another period of four years, and, according to
precedent, must then retire from the throne. Ex-
cept, then, from the irregular influence of public
opinion, be need anticipate no control from this
time to March, 1869. He can do almost every-
thing; he can prevent almost evelything ; and this
is a time wheu Every decision involves the lives of
thousands of man and the squandering of vast sums
of money. It is natural to look with interest on the
deliberate expression of such a man's opinions at a
time when he has received the highest honour which
his countrymen can bestow, and is able to address
them with the consciousness that his past policy
has been accepted by the great mass of the nation.
Elated by political success, freed from anxiety for
the future, certain that his name will be enrolled
among the few Presidents who have received the
honour of a re-election—an honour which has been
conferred on no man since General Jackson—Mr
Lincoln stands before the world independent and
powerful beyond what is granted to ordinary states-
men, The Northern people have chosen him, and
seem to have a singular confidence in his honesty
and independence, if not in his genius. They are
themselves broken into parties, agreeing in nothing
but the desire to save the Union ; and whatever
might be the course of policy chosen by the
President for his second term of office, there
would be no section strong enough to oppose him.
The Federal politicians have been for some time
speculating oa the policy which the forthcoming
Message is to indicate. The extreme Republicans
have been anxious, apprehending that the candidate
whose success they did so much to insure may
swerve from the doctrines to which he was thought
to be devoted. The more moderate section of the
Lincolnites has been correspondingly hopeful, hint-
ing that Congress wili not be urged again this De-
cember to that. policy of relentless war which is the
creed of the Abolitionists. The belief that the
Message will exhibit an assumed, if not a real, mo-
deration was general at the latest dates. Wnen
General Butler made a speech in New York recom-
mending an offer of reconciliation, and an amnesty
even to the leaders of the South, the conviction that
he spoke with authority, or under whet the French
call "inspiration," Was so general that the price of
gold immediately fell. Whatever may have been
the knowledge possessed by this officer of the Presi-
dent's intentions, his speech served to elicit an indie
cation that new offers of peace would not be viewed
unfavourably in New York. There is a sense of
relief and of hope at the prospect of something like
a negotiation with the enemy, which shows how
ready the great mass of the people are to make any
terms that will restore the Union. It is not for us
to gay whether this demonstration of opinion has
had an effect on the President's mind. A few days
will show whether Mr. Lincoln holds the forfeiture
of the whole landed property of the South and the
forcible emancipation of the negroes as acts already
complete, or whether he considers that his supreme
power authoriz.ei him to unmake as welt es make
decrees, and to restore to the rebels by one Procla-
mation what he has taken from them by another.
But we can only give for what they are worth
the speculations of the American politicians them-
selves. These are generally to the effect that since
the result of the late election was known, Mr.
Seward has gained in influence
i over the Presi-
dent, and that the Message will indicate an agree-
ment with that statesman's views. One newspaper
states, as if well informed, that Mr. Lincoln
will repudiate the factionswhich would establish the
present conflict on a sectional basis, and" will take
strong national ground, upon which Democrats and
Conservatives can have no hesitation to stand and
rally." The conclusion to which the Northern press
seems to have come is that the Message, while de-
claring the President's intention to continue the
war, will give hopes of some kind of negotiation
with the South, and perhaps of such an invitation
as General Butler foreshadowed. Inc people of
this country know, for they are told it by the Fe-
derals every day,how little their opinions are valued
and hew much their advice is suspected. Although
the bloodiest and most wasteful war in modern his-
tory is running its course in accordance with
our anticipations and contrary to the uni-
versal prediction of Northern politicians,
yet we shall be told we know nothing of
America and wish only evil to Americans. Let it
be so; but, though our words rney be of little avail
we will utter them as a duty we owe to two com-
munities with which we have long lived in friendly
and mutually beneficial intercourse. We sincerely
trust the rumours prevalent respecting a modificae
lion of Mr Lincoln's policy are founded on truth.
Firmly believing that this war, unless ended by
negotiation and mutual compromise, must go on
until the South be made, as one fanatic proposed,
" a howling wilderness," and the North prostrated
financially and commercially for years, we can only
welcome with pleasure anything that promises re-
conciliation. What the terms are to be—what rela-
tions, political or social, may prevail between corn.
ruenities now so hostile, can only be settled by
themselves. But this is certain—that no harm can
come from a cessation of the strife and a proper dis-
cussion of the questions between them. Better any
way of settling the difficulties which may have
arisen than the ravaging of Georgia by Sherman or
of Tennessee by Hood, and the rotting away of two
fine armies iu the mud of Petersburg. To negotiae
Lion it must come at last, end the sooner the
inevitable resolution is taken the better will it be
for America and the world. In this matter the
English people, whatever the Federals may think,
are quite disinterested. All that our countrymen
have dwelt upon from the beginning has been the
needlessness, the evil policy of a war of conquest,
and there are few Americans who, if in the early
days of 1861 they could have foreseen the task
before them, would not have joined President
Buchanan in bidding the South go if it wished it.
We, the bystanders, saw things more clearly than
they, the actors.. and we see them more clearly now.
Moreover, if out 'motives were suspected four years
ago there is no reason for a similar doubt at present.
Both Federals and Confederates thought us de-
pendent e.pon America for our very existence.
That notion must now be dissipated. We have
proved that we can do without the cotton of
South, and we cannot be accused of begging the
Federals to yield their claims in order that we may
feed the workmen of Lancashire. If they fight for
a few years longer and ruin the industry of the
South the cotton crops of the world will be raised
in our own dependencies, and givetthis empire a
monopoly of the supply for a generation at least.
So far as selfish policy might prompt a wish it would
be for the continuance of the war. Nor has Eng-
land lost by the contest as regards general come
merce. In spite of blockades and protectionist
tariffs in America the exports of this country have
increased beyond all expectation. There is no rein.
son of which we need be ashamed that we should
with this bloodshed to cease. With men of the
present age, however, humanity is not a mere empty
name, but a feeling which really sways the opinion
of nations, and disgusts them with slaughter when
they aro not maddened by actual participation in
the affray. It is this feeling., and no political self-
ishness, which prompts the hope that North and
South may compose their dfferences.
PosT.—Advertisements occasionally appear in
those weekly newspapers which circulate the most
extensively among persons to whom the acquisition
of wealth would be peculiarly acceptable, wherein
a philanthropist who burns to do good by stealth
but would blush to find it fame, announces that on
receipt of a dozen postage stamps enclosed to certain
initials at a certain address, generally a post-office
or a coffeehouse, he will transmit per return a dozen
distinct and infallible recipes for speedily amassing
a fortune. If the euTlcion could possibly be sup-
posed to enter the reader's head that the advertiser
had the remotest desire of gain, the question would
naturally suggest itself how the possessor of the
secret of making a speedy fortune in a dozen diffe-
rent ways comes to be reduced to the position of
having to seek for funds by tho sale of these valu-
able recipes at a penny a piece—why does he not
reduce them to practice for his own letnefit ? But
persons for whose benefit these philanthropists con-
struct their advertisements are believed to think too
well of their species ever to harbour so invidious a
thought. They would as soon think of a-king the
fortune teller iu rage, who undertekes for a penny to
point out where and how secret treasures of untold
gold are to be discovered, why she does not appro-
priate the precious deposit herself, and apply a
small portion of it in the purchase of decent app.
Fel. We confess we have never seen any of these
invaluable secrets for making a fortune, and don't
know what they ate like; but we should imagine
that one of them roust consiat in buying odd lots of
champagne wholesale at auctions, and selling it re-
tail at the various race which take I lace during the
season. This sort of traffic, it appears, will belikely
to yield a profit o f something like 2,000 per cent.
on each transaction , and if that is not the way to
aisles a fortune with all the rapidity that could be
&aired by the most sanguine speculator, we don't
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