The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-27 00:00:00

as we have here had them related to us.
General LEE did, only the other day, Cause to
be successfully undertaken and carried through,
that latest and almost we might 'say, that
most daring achievement of the Confederates—the
crossing of the Potomac, the advance into Mary•
land, the approach to within six miles of Washing,
ton ! Until the Southern artillery became audible
from the White House—of course to the intense
satisfaction of Mr. LINCOLN, the Federal
President, the President calling himself still 'kw
absurdly) the President of the United States.
True that the invading force has withdrawn from
the immediate neighbourhood of Washington, has
retired from Maryland, has recrossed the Potomac.
But—it has done so with flying colours! Unpur.
Isurd 1 " With immense plunder !" Adeitional

evidence having thereby been afforded that, wherts
soever he lists, General LEE can do p'.:e-
cisely whatsoever he lists ! He can send his
troops clean round to the other side of Washington.
He can cause them to cross and recross the frontiers
of the Federal territory. He can despatch them,
as one may say, to fire an ironical feu de joie
within hearing-distance from the White
House of Mr. PRESIDENT. He can do all this
while Petersburg is still threatened with bombard.
ment. While GRANT'S army still appears bent
upon striving, even now, to vanquish the main
army of the Confederates. While the Northern
commander still looks—doesn't go, but contents
himself with looking—in the direction of Richmond.
But—what is more than all this—Gen. LEE has again
shown that whenever he wants additional supplies.
instead of troubling the Eouthern President or the
Southern Ministers about it, he has only to send his
troops and gather in as much as he wants from the
Federals themselves. In effect LEE has within
the last few weeks shown himself once more to be
very much, indeed, like that Good Centurion in
the Gospel, who",has but to say to his follower go
and he goeth, come and he cometh, do this and he
doth it.

In spite of the severe criticisms which have been
passed upon it in some quarters, there will be no

dissatisfaction felt that the New Zealand Guarantee
of Loan Bill has passed through the second reading
in the Upper House. It did not reach that stage

without opposition, although the noble lords who

opposed it ccntented themselves with mere verbal

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censure. Some of them found fault with the origin

of the war, and some with the principle of giving

assistance to our colonies. Others objected to the

moral guarantee which such a measure would give

,o all the acts of the colonists; and again it was

suggested that it would b© wise to employ Sikhs

and— other Indian regiments rather than English

troops in such a campaign. When all has been said

however, little doubt can remain that the course

adopted is the best and wisest possible in the presen

state of things. Whatever the origin of the war,
whether disputes about land or money, or the natural
antagonism of the races, whether treachery on the
one hand or tyranny on the other were the most to
blame, or whether, as some suggest, the too evident
desire to conciliate the natives produced the very
evil which our authorities sought to avoid—it is
now certain that it must be carried out and brought

to the speediest possible conclusion. It will never
do to lay down our arms and allow the natives the
victory. If we suffer them to defeat us in a
war in which we have really put forth our
power, we may as well give up all hopes of colonise
ing and civilising New Zmiand. It may, un-

doubtediy, be wise and fitting to lend a willing ear
to the first whisper of peace, to pity the misguided
but bravo and skilful men who are thus wasting
their lives and land in a fruitless struFgle, and such
conciliation and mercy Sir GEORGE GREY evinces
evert inclination to show. " I should instantly,"
he says, in writing co the subject to the Home
Government, " listen to any reasonable overtures
that the natives in arms may make, and I should
avail myself of any opportunity that offers of ob.
taming permanent peace for this colony." But the
New Zealand Governor goes on to say that mercy
itself requires that future contests between the two
races should be as far as possible prevented, an a
nothing can be more likely to lead to a total dee.rue.
tion of the native race than a series of sued wars.
There are many tribes who have taken no part
whatever in the present struggle, so that it must
not be supposed that we are engaged in a strife
with the whole nation, but it is imperatively neces-
sary that those lockers-on should see the hopeless-
ness and folly of such a struggle as their associates
have now entered upon. The murder of Englishmen
could scarcely pass without reprisals ; if it had been
suffered to do so no life in the colony would have
been safe. When we come to the objection
raised in some quarters to the employment of our

_ .
troops in the colonies at all, it is still more
untenable than any grounds for opposition to the
war
,itself. The much vaunted principle of non.
intervention, which has been already carried to an
extent damaging to our honour and injurious to
our best interests in Europe, would by some among
us be now acted upon with reference to our own
colonies. Our sympathies appear to be narrowing,
until they can hardly extend to those of cur own
kin if they are aoross the seas, Our politicians of
the present day appear to be inclined to rush into
the opposite extreme from the mistakes of their
forefathers, who considered the colonies so much
a part of the mother country that they were
bound to contribute to her expenses. A wiser
and more liberal policy now shrinks from impsing
any obligation upon them, but we can scarcely
acquit ourselves of all obligations. It is granted,
of course, that the colonies are bound to contribute
in men and money to the protection of their coma•
try, and the dwellers in any of our settlements
must certainly have lost some of the most promi.
neat characteristics of their race if they shrink
from taking their fair share either of expense or
of danger. We have not had to complain of any
backwardness or want of zeal on the part of our
New Zealraid colonists, v, ho have mustered strongly
in their own defence. Ten thousand volunteers,
who have served with credit and even distinction,
have been raised among them, while a large
part of the expenses of tho war have been
cheerfully borne by them. With regard to the
Imperial troops engaged there, the colony has
undertaken to pay £45 a man from the Ist of
January next year. We have certainly, therefore,
no right to assert that the colonists are making
exorbitant or unreasonable demands upon us. If
the lives of the English soldiers are being risked,
so also are the lives of the colonists, It is their
property which is endangered, their homes which
are imperilled, their wayfarers and stragglers who
run the risk of secret murder. We can fancy,
besides, the injury which such a state of things is
inflicting on the trade and business of the colony,
and have, therefore, no right or reason to suppose
that our settlers would lightly or wantonly engage
in such a disastrous strife. It would be an ungra-
cious thing to refuse the assistance of men to our
colonists when they are willing to pay the expenses
of the
War, and especially to a settlement like New
Zealand, which, though thriving and prosperous
in times of peace, is as yet but in its youth. Unlike
the youth of its sister settlements in Australia, its
progress has been slow and gradual, and it can
hardly be regarded as sufficiently strong er populou3
I to meet the whole brunt of a struggle for life. It
must, besides, be borne in mind that the present
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