The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 12, 1864

There ib always something of import in American
affairs, something that calls for remark, or suggests
comment and reflection. It is not likely that so
peculiar a state of things could go on for so long a
period without giving rise to strange events, and
developing principles and awakening feelings that
take us by surprise who are living in a calmer state
of being, and under the influence of mere equable
sentiments. Besides the more striking and start-
ling incidents of the war, there is continually to be
met with some more peaceful change or calm alte-
ration which comparatively silently, but not the
less surely, does its destined work and effects its
purpose. The letter from Colonel MARSHAL AN-
DERSON exhibits symptoms of a new secession, and
merits attention from all who watch the signs of
the times, and take heed to the chances and dangers
which are so rapidly effecting so marked a revolu-
tion in all the old American habits and feelings.
This letter in question is en admirable one in its
way. It is imbued with an earnest love of liberty
in its best and truest sense, and the writer seems
deeply convinced of the mistakes that have been
made by those who are confusing the shadow with
the substance, and doing things in the cause, or
professing to work for the cause, of that freedom
which is in reality outraged by their every act:on.
It is no matter of surprise that men of intelligence
or spirit should by this time be heartily ashamed
of their friends, and begin to speculate upon the
advisability of pursuing a war which is so rife in
spoliation and so barren in honours. In this letter
Colonel ANDERSON desires to withdraw his name
as a "candidate for Presidential election in the
Twelfth Congressional District of Ohio," and the
reasons he gives for so doing are very cogent ones.
He explains that he " prefers the sanction of his
own conscience to the approval of men or multi-
tudes," and this praiseworthy notion is well carried
out in his address. In the first place, then, he
declines this nomination because he is diame-
trically opposed to a continuance of the war, and he
cannot advocate for any man Rho is in favour of its
prosecution, Indeed, it is matter of astonishment
that before this juncture, more have not been
heard to exclaim in the words of Colonel ANDERSON,
" I now fully realise and comprehend the meaning
of the term' horrida bella: " There are many home
truths in this letter which will not find much favour
in the sight of the generals who have so sullied the
name of saldiers, and departed from the rules of all
honourable war. An example of toleration and for-
bearance in the midst of strife is here given in the
mention of HANNIBAL, who was for thirty years
in the Roman empire, in the heart of an enemy's
country, but who left friends behind. Colonel
ANDERSON from thence argues that the American
armies have violated the laws that they should
have respected, and lays down maxims which
are certainly never attended to by those now in
arms. How many sad lookers-on have acknow-
ledged the want of the influence of these elevating
sentiments since the commencement of the civil war.
Principle should not be sacrificed to popularity,
and " better suffer defeat, contending for the right
and principles of freemen, than obtain success by
fraud and falsehood." The conclusion at which
the Colonel arrives is that a Western Confederacy
is now desirable. "If we cannot have oar glorious
old Union," he exclaims, "let us have GOD and
Nature's Union. Let us follow the bright and
sparkling waters of the Ohio down to the Father
of Waters, to the ocean of peace. The greatest and
grandest valley in the world claims us for her own ;
let us acknowledge her claim." Thus does this
earnest writer promulgate his views and express
his convictions. There is no doubt that he will find
many to join their testimony with his, and to
attempt to withdraw themselves from a state of
things that has become so intolerable, and also so
discreditable, as the present contest and its mode
of procedure. "I am tired of working for Yankee
taskmasters; I hate their selfish meanness ; I am
in favour of a Western Confederacy," are strong
words, and are indicative of a new order of things
that will not be very palatable at Washing-
ton. Men do not thus discourse upon pub-
lic matters until their minds are pretty well
made up by long experience of evils, and until their
endurance has reached a pitch beyond which it
cannot go, The concluding remarks of Colonel
ANDERSON on the subject of the Union are well
worth notice. He says emphatically that his
proposition is founded on the fact that the " original
Union" is dissolved. It is time that this idea should
obtain among the States, and thus operate to arrest
the progress of further violence and stay the course
of devastation. Not until the honest and manly
sentiments of the writer of this epistle are current
among the people to whom they are addressed, can
we hope or expect that the horrors of a war that
outrages all the best feelings of humanity, and is
here truly designated a " war of desolation on
women and children" shall cease, and a better time
succeed. Whether Colonel ANDERSON'S proposals
are carried out or not, there is a satisfaction in meet.
lug with such statements, and in dwelling upon the
sensible language here employed, instead of perus-
ing the bombastic and pretentious expressions so
freely made use of by the self-deluded orators of
the cause of the Union, This letter is not long, but
it contains a masterly exposition of the unworthy
character of the war,
principles
o freal earnest
liberty, expressionand a true
Of con-
fidenceue in the ip
explanation of the present state of things in
America.

Railway catastrophes seem destined to succeed
one another with startling rapidity, Our railway
system is indeed so extensive and so complicated
that occasional disasters are not to be wondered at,
and perhaps it is rather a marvel, considering the
immense number of trains running daily to and fro,
the ignorance or indifference of the men frequently
employed in their management, and the reckless-
ness which repeated security brings, that we do
not oftener hear of accidents. Still it is very
much to be questioned whether we have attained
the greatest elegree of security to life and limb
possible under an improved method of locomotion,
and it very much concerns the public interest that
this end should be reached. It is not many weeks
since the eagerness and gaiety of a fashionable race
week was interrupted by a startling catastrophe,
and those who watched the corpse of a passenger
by the ill fated train carried to the little rural
churchyard which he had nassed in health and
security en his pleasure trip a short week before,
could hardly avoid moralising en the risks inciden•
tal to railway travelling,
as well as the uncertainty
of life. This lamentable disaster has scarcely ceases

to be a subject of conversation when a new and
still more appalling tragedy is apparent. There is,
it is true, but one victim,but the circumstances of his
death aro so frightful, and appeal so forcibly to the
sympathies of everyone of us, that the effect pro-
duced on the public mind is greater than the sen-
Elation created by the Egham accident. An elderly

gentleman, well dressed, and wearing a massive
watch and chain, enters a first-class railway car.
riage on a metropolitan line. His journey is but of
a brief duration, merely extending from the central
station in the heart of the city to a northern suburb
a few miles distant, and still fully within the radius
of London. The hour is not late, the line is not

lonely, and the train was occupied by the usual ave-
rage of passengers, yet, under these circumstances
of apparent security, Mr. Br.IGGs falls a victim to
one of the most coldblooded, atrocious, and unpro-
voked murders on record. The only shadow of a
reason which can be adduced for the crime is the

sight of Mr. BRIGGS' watch and chain ; and wholly
insufficient as this motive would appear to be in

any case, the singularity of the case is heightened
by the fact of gold having actually been left in the
murdered gentleman's pockets. Whether the vi-
cinity of the station induced the murderer to hurry
over his work, whether the resistance of the sufferer

prevented his securing more than the watch and
chain, or whether the whole catastrophe was the
work of a madman, remains to be elucidated. We
can only ♦ery fervently hope that the criminal will
be brought to justice, and that the pub-
lic may, at least, have what security for the
future can be afforded them by the detection of the
crime and consequent warning to other ruffians.
For the bereaved family of the murdered gentleman
there can be only one feeling of deep and general
sympathy, but their afflictions brings doubly home
to every household the atrocity of such a crime.
In these days almost every father of a family
whose business draws him to the city, fixes his
home in one of the suburban districts, and one of
the boasted advantages of the intrusive Metropo-
litan railway lines is, that rapid and easy commu-
nication between such districts and the centre of
the Metropolis is rendered possible. But if such
a tragedy as this is to be possible, if a traveller
by a London line is not only to be liable to the
ordinary chances of accident from collision or ex-
plosion, but is likewise to incur the risk of a
frightful death from the hands of any ruffian who
may covet his watch or chain, then the attractions
of railway communication are very considerably
lessened. The fact is, that by our present railway
' arrangements there is a very defective protection
for passengers, and it is to be hoped that this
melancholy affair will induce the public to insist

upon some improvement. It is quite preposterous
that a person should be shut in for a given number
of miles, with perhaps a thief, perhaps a murderer,
perhaps a madman, with no possibility of commu-
nicating with the driver, or even with his fellow-
passengers who may perchance hear screams and
struggles, but are powerless to assist. Even in Ame-
rica, where human life is so lightly valued, and from
whence we have intelligence of a terrible railway
accident, things are better managed in this particu-
lar. Why should England, the mother of railways,
be so utterly incapable of dealing with the question.
Surely it is possible to establish some system of
communication by which at least travellers can
assist each other in waiting for the arrival at the
station. There are so many eases in which it is no
matter of idle fancy, but of life and death, to attract
the attention of the guard or the driver that it is
only surprising that railways have been suffered
to exist so long without some such possibility. Fire
is by no means an impossible accident, yet a person
might be burned to death before assistance reached
him. The simple expedient of a bell-wire run•
ning through the carriages would be a protection,
since if it were known that help could be obtained,
half the temptation to the crime would be gone. It
is not long since a desperate encounter took place
with a madman, on the very same line on which
the murder of Mr. BRIGGS has just occurred, and
had there been only one gentleman with the lunatic,
instead of two, the result would have been the same.
Can English ingenuity devise no means of solving
so simple a problem? Our railway companies had
better mak3 the experiment, for they are in a man.
ner responsible for the lives and limbs of their pas-
sengers, and they may be assured that the public
will not be satisfied with the existing state of

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

AIIEItICA.

REUTER'S EXPRESS.
RESIGNATION OF MR. CHASE.

LIVERPOOL, JULY 12.

A telegram received here from New York by the
St. Georgia via Newfoundland announces the re.
signation of Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury.

Droun

le Lhuys upo:

the Danish

Question.

FRANKFORT-ON.THE-MAINE, SUM 10.
The following is a correct summary of the circular
despatch addressed by M. Drouya de Lb to the
'upon the 28th of
diplomatic agents of the Emperor

labours of the June. The despatch tres!.-, of the

London Conference 2 d of the resumption of hosti-
lities.

After the statement that " the Plenipotentiaries
who met at London to re-establish peace between

Germany and Denmark separated, after having
c3nfirmed the inutility of their efforts, and the bel-
ligerent -parties immediately resumed arms," M.

Drouy de Lhuys "sensibly regrets that the labours
of t!le Conference have not had a more satisfactory
result," and he avails himself of this very opportune

occasion to recall " that it has not been the fault of
France that the concludon was not different,"

The despatch then continues,—
" We have not shut our eyes to the difficulties
which this negotiation presented, Thus, before its
commencement -we had used every effort :to obtain

the rneetin4 of the Conference upon the fittest con-
ditions to facilitate its task. We had especially

desired that a real armistice should be previously

cucluded for the entire duration of the delibera-
tions, and that the basis of discussion should be

determined in advance. The parties have been
unable to agree upon these two points, and although

this first difficulty inspired us at the outset with
doubts as to sae issue of the Conference, we have
none the less sincerely seconded this effort at
conciliPAtion. The Plenipotentiary of the Emperor
was, consequently, desired to support or to suggest
dvery proposition which appeared likely to
bring about an agreement. The point of
departure of the discussion was naturally,
first of all, to be sought in the arrangements of 1852.
We asked ourselves, therefore, first, whether, if re.

modelled so as to attain their object better, they
might not be made the basis of an equitable arrange-
ment, and it was in this sense that the representa.
tive of France expressed himself at the opening of
the negotiations. When, after recognition of the
impossibility of keeping the discussion upon this
ground, the English Government proposed an ar-
rangement giving the southern portion of Schleswig
to Holstein as well as Lauenburg, we did not hesi-
tate to agree to this combination. It had in our
eyes the advantage of taking into account the
national sentiment of the German population of
Schleswig, and of leaving to Holstein—increased by
this annexation—the right of deciding upon its own
f°:te. While lending our support to the English
Plenipotentiaries, we acted in perfect conformity
with the principles of our public law, and we
should have been rejoiced at an arrangement which
appeared to us acceptable to both parties. The
German Powers did not consider themselves able
to adhere to it. They claimed for the frontier a line
of demarcation which would have assured to Ger-
many the possession of the mixed districts, while
Denmark persisted in not adding this fresh sacri-
fice to those she had consented to make in abandon-
ing Southern Schleswig, as well as Holstein and
Lauenburg. While all the other combinations put
forward were thrown aside we suggested a last plan.
We recommended that the populations forming the
subject of dispute should be called upon to express
their sentiments, and thus furnish the Conference
with the necessary data for tracing the line of de-
marcation in the most equitable manner. We have
not been able to prevent the rupture of negotiations,
and the difference is again left to be decided by
arms."

The despatch concludes as follows :
"Opinion has shown itself sensibly moved by the
resumption of hostilities, and looks with disquiet to
the consequences so unequal a contest may entail.
For our part, we shall be unable to disregard the
bearing of events so directly effecting the interests
of all the maritime Powers in the Nortb, and even
those of the equilibrium of this portion of Europe.
We entertain the sincerest wiehes that the dangers
may be avoided which these events might bring
about; and, guided by the same sentiments which
have hitherto proved the rule of our conduct, and
desiring to maintain the impartial attitude we have
taken up, we are willing to hope that no complica-
tion will arise of so grave a nature as to necessitate
our embracing a cliff, rent policy."

Military Operations on the Gold Coast,

Some very interesting despatches on the subjec
of the A.shantee War were published yesterday
We extract the last despatch from the Colonial.