The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-22 00:00:00

he would come out at all. Meanwhile HOOD is en-
compassing Nashville, and destroying all communi-
cation by land and water; for he has established a
battery on a bluff on the Cumberland River, from
which seven gunboats sent to attack him were un-
able to effect his dislodgement. One of the gunboats
returned to Nashville disabled. One of his brigades
has moved towards Murfreesboro', FORREST is said
to have crossed the Cumberland and to be moving
towards Kentucky. There is evidently something
to be done in the kindred States of Tennessee
and Kentucky before Mr. LINCOLN can plume
himself upon their loyalty. In the old quarters
GRANT has been making a stir again, having been
reinforced by troops from SHERIDAN ; and BUTLER
has sent the Black Brigade across the James
River to attack the Confederates, for interfering
with his never. ending Dutch Gip Canal, In fact,
GRANT is urged to do something so as to draw off
public attention from the forlorn career of SHER-
MAN in Georgia, and THOMAS in West Tennessee.
We hear more of the new discovery of danger from
Canada, which seems to have suddenly sprung into
life. The Provost Marshal has urged upon all
officers to exercise " extraordinary vigilance'
against the anticipated invasion by the Confederates
from Canada. What this vigilance is to show itself
in is not stated. Possibly in some proceedings of
the Florida description. The truth is, as we obi
served yesterday, that all this talk about Canada is
very sigaificant, and simply proves the wisdom and
prudence of the colonies looking to their defences.
Whether it is meant as a threat, to keep England
quiet—for LINCOLN knows our Foreign-office is
easily frightened into submission—or whether, as is
more probable, the object is to have a pretext ready
for invasion, there is certainly more in it than meets
the ear. The Northern States do not seem in any
way too anxious to coneiliate the European Powers,
Mr SEWARD'S last achievement has been to pen a
letter to Mr ADAMS indignantly refusing the re-
quest of Lord WHARNCLIFFE to distribute aid to
the Confederate prisoners in the North. He says
"the prisoners need no assistance, and the offer of
British gold is a grave insult." Of course all
Yankeedom is in high exultation at such a rebuke
having been administered, and the Northern press
for the most part is full of triumph. The limes
says that in the letter British impertinence is fitly
rebuked; another journal considers that it puts the
possibility of a rejoinder beyond even British im-
pudence. The News, however, denounces the letter
as inhuman—no unfitting qualification, however,
for the professed friends of the negro. It is rather
late in the day for anything that the Federal
Government can do to excite surprise. They have
long ago shown not only an entire forgetfulness or
ignorance of all the ordinary courtesies and customs
of civilised countries, and a thorough contempt for
the recognised laws of nations, but they have like-
wise shown themselves entirely regardless of the
dictates of common humanity and good feeling.
The barbarity with which the war has been carried
on in the ruthless destroyal of the people's homes
and food, and in spite of the enthusiasm of the
Emancipation Society, is a disgrace to the nine..
teenth century. But at /east for that they
plead, though very insufficiently, the pretext of the
necessities of war ; but to refuse the minister, or
to allow others to minister to the wants of the un-
fortunate men who are help:ess in their hands,
unab:e to resent ill-treatment, or to injure their
oppressors, is a mark of narrow-minded cruelty
that would be despicable if it did not occasion so
much needless suffering. The Federals have not
hitherto treated their captives with so much care
and kindness that they need be surprised that we,
who in Europe are made of less callous stuff, should
be anxious if possible to modify their condition.
But, apart from the inhumanity, we cannot but re+
gard the afflir as a wanton and deliberate insult to
the mother country. We have yet to learn the
terms of SEWARD'S letter, but the tone of the New
York press on the matter is quite enough, even
without the accompanying explanation that it was
"sharp and ernphatical," It is not the first time
that Mr SEWARD has shown the skill of his diplo-
matic pen, and probably he and Mr WEBB have
both graduated in the same class. Oar Foreign
Secretary belongs to the same Charles the Second
school, who are always practising what is awkward
to practise, but in his dealing with America he does
not generally get so far as he does with Germany.
In the one case he puts " prave words" in
action instead of deeds, but in the other he
is careful and hesitating, even in his lan-
guage. Probably he will not dare to call
Mr SEWARD'S letter " an insult" in his turn: We
would advise the
,noble earl to bear in mind the
moral of the old quatrain—

Tender-handed touch a nettle
And it stings you for your pains ;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains."
A little more of such mettle would bring Mr.
SEWARD and his associates to their proper senses.
At present the nettles have it very much their own
way. Our continental neighbours are, however,
less to be trifled with. They are greatly incensed
by the omission of any reference to French doings
in Mexico, and one of the Paris journals goes so
far as to say that this slight will; probably have
the effect of hastening the recognition of the
South. It is likely enough that this will be done
by both France and England, after the act has lost
the grace of doing justice freely, by a sort of neces..
sity, when almost too late. Gallic chivalry and
English generosity have alike withheld their in.
licence. The issues of peace and war lay virtually
in their hands and they refused to use their power.
Had they spoken the word bold and manfully, the
slaughter and suffering of the last two years
might at least have been spared. Time enough had
then elapsed to prove the solidity of the Confede-
ration as an independent power, and to show the
reckless greed of the Nortb, to justify the great
European Powers in taking active steps to arrest
the tide of blood. But, however dilatory France
may be, England will probably be more 60, and
will delay until the opportunity has passed, and
she is compelled to follow the example of France
with so bad a grace as still further to incense both
combatants.

It would seem as if the new crusade, which is to
commemorate and distinguish our latter days, is one
against the numerous class of poverty-stricken
wretched individuals, who strive to earn a small
pittance to keep themselves from abaolute want.
What motives propel, what feelings influence, those
who exert themselves in such a cause, it is really
very eifflcult to determine; but the fact is patent to
the world, that so it is. The last grievance on the
long list of oppressions is the restriction placed upon
the trade of the poor "Boardman." These unhappy
persons are to be prohibited from plying their trade
in future—why or wherefore, it is impossible to
say, nnless upon the plea or pretext of causing
obstruction to the thoroughfares. While so many
hindrances must arise, surely a Small inconvenience
might be submitted to in order to afford a means of
livelihood to those who are incapacitated from more
Really if
active employments.,
We 6
hail
become
e we
go on much
longer like this,
capricious as the fabled princess wahsose
tarbed by a crumpled rose-leaf. For
fancifuland as
rwas dis-
est
the sake of
quiet and in the cause of order, hundreds are to be
marched off to prison or oonsigned to the tender

mercies of the workhouse if they are unwilling to
starve. It is idle to suppose that the busiest metros
polis in the world can be rendered such a peaceful
spot of undisturbed tranquillity. The excuse alleged
for the inconvenient prevalence of the numerous
railways that intersect all spots and turn out the
poor from their habitations, has been that the in-
crease of the locomotives will relieve the traffic. If
so, why is it so imperative to cause the removal of
these harmless labourers for their daily bread.
Allowing, for the sake of argument, that great
inconvenience was experienced, it would be worth
while to put up with something in order to ensure
a means of support to outcasts and helpless
beings, who are quite unable to engage in any
very complicated or arduous avocations. If half or
a quarter of the pains were taken to find employ-
ment for the pariahs of society that are so actively
employed in the warfare waged against them, how
different would be their fate, and how much more
would it conduce to the welfare and credit of
society ! It is a scandal to our wealthy community
thus to ignore the claims of those who are, by
the very law of right and reason, entitled to assist-
ance of at least a negative nature. The efforts
made by the charitable are chiefly directed to
the wants of those who are suffering from sickness,
or disabled by accident from taking their part in
the great family, of toil, and mingling in the hives
of human industry ; but there are " nameless
martyrs" who deserve our attention, and demand
some thought from all who appreciate the necessi-
ties of their case. The chief evil that is so bitterly
felt in these affairs, is the indifference that is ex-
hibited in so many quarters which from position
and interest can exercise such a paramount influence
upon their destinies. The chief authorities of the
realm seem to put all their energy into the prose-
cution of plans which have for their aim and object
the suppression or extermination of certain classes.
It is something after the fashion of Eastern despots
or Northern autocrats—such and such people are
in the way, they must get out of it ; it matters not
how or where, they must go. Some who think of
the ultimate consequences of all this arbitrary
arrangment, may ask, perchance, if this is a course
creditable to a Christian State, and worthy of
being upheld by those who pride themselves upon
their " people's right and laws." The liberty of
the subject is intrinsically the same with high or
low, and it is incumbent upon all who are
the guardians of the State and the trustees of the
nation's honour in regard to its sacred trust, the
poor, to regulate their actions a little at all events
by a higher law than that which classes them as
machines, to be adjusted as best suits convenience.
It is a wrong principle upon which we are acting
of late; the stipulations lately made with respect
to organ-grinders are a disgrace to those who ori•
ginated them, and they will have much to answer
for. When a poor persecuted wretch has been
driven from post to pillar, told to move on, for-
bidden to engage in this toil, persecuted from follow.
ieg that traffic, he may perhaps be tempted to enter
the haunts of crime, or else to end the miserable exis•
tence that seems begrudged to him. While the self•
sufficient deplore the crime of the suicide, or scoff
at the sin of the thief, does no warning voice tell
them at whose door the charge may be laid. We
hear plenty of what the poor may not, ought not,
shall not do, but who ever tells them what it is
that they ought to do. The only answer is, that
they should not have got into such a condition.
Since it is a recognised fact that thousands
are so situated, is it not more politic to leave them
a loophole for escape from sin, starvation, and
despair. It can hardly be in accordance with the
theories of political economy to overcrowd our
workhouses; it cannot consort with the wellbeing
of society to thrust them forth into the dark abyss
of crime, and it is not consonant with the principles
of humanity to leave them to perish. Because they
have not their good things in this world, that is
no reason why we should arrogate to ourselves the
right of sending them out to die in the streets,
victims to our high:y wrought civilisation. The
DIVES of our enlightened century is, in truth, a
terrible Moloch, but a reckoning will one day be
taken for his treatment of the LAZARUS, whose
penurious form crouched by the portals of his
palatial home of luxury. There is no more short-
sighted policy than to prevent the poor from earning
their scanty pittance by honest means, It is a; great
step gained when they will work and be content
to do something for themselves when bowed
down by age, worn by sickness, sorrow, and
the thousands ills to which flesh is heir.
They who, from mistaken motives of propriety, and
far-fetched ideas of order and regularity, pursue
their plans until these unhappy beings are crushed
and circumvented on all sides, are greatly to blame ;
and by the machinations of such measures and the
enforcement of such rules, where will be the gain
if the enforcement of the edicts have sown famine
and misery broadcast among the classes who can
least parry their attacks and escape from their
grim grt,sp ? The same principle pervades all
modern policy of a domestic nature ; it makes no
allowance for want and penury. All are classed
together—just and unjust, virtuous and guilty, if
they come under the generic term of poverty. It is
time that our legislators looked to all this, else
much of what has been done in the cause of Reform
and the interests of charity will be lost. It is
more justice than mercy that is demanded after all ;
more a comprehensive view of their necessities,
than a maudlin sensibility that prevents an
honest and salutary independence. It is sad to
dwell upon suck topics; too few consider the sub•
ject to be one of importance, and are too ready to
put it aside for more taking objects of interest.
The poor shall never cease out of the land we know
from the highest authority, but how different for
the good of all if those condemned to bear this yoke
are harmless, if not useful, members of the great
family of mankind, instead of additions to the
burdens of the State in its unions and its gaols,
proficients in sin and shame, a burden to them-
selves and a reproach to others. It cannot be a
loss of time or a waste of trouble to analyse the
defects and deficiencies in our regulations con-
cerning the poor, and especially those who are
carrying on their small trades, for much evil is
wrought by the exterminating practices now so
much in vogue. Little care is taken of their future
fate when they are put out of the way; but if in
our lists of casualties there appear more deaths
from want, in our records of crime an increase to
our criminals, it may be surely supposed that the
lists have been swelled from the ranks of those who
have been deprived of their calling, and who could
give a dark answer if any one put to them the in-
quiry of searching import and of loving presage,
" Whither goest thou ?''—on the world's highway.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS.—CaroIs, as the name ims
plies, are joyous songs for festive occasions, at ore
period accompanied with dancing. In an old vocabulary
of A.D. 1410' Carol, is defined as a Songe—in John Pals.
grave's work cf A.D. 1530 Chanson de Noel—whilst in
Anglo •Saxon times, according to Mr Albert Way, the word
was rendered Kyrrisle, a chanting at the Nativity. The
earliest carol in English, known under that name is the
production of. Dame Berners, prioress of Sr. Alban's in the
14th century, entitled "A Carolle of Huntynge." This is
printed on the last leaf of Wynkn de Worde's collectiou of
Christmas carols, A.D. 1521, and Milton uses the word carol
to express a devotional hytua,—Once a Week.