The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-14 00:00:00

SWANSEA VALE.

The half-yearly meeting was held at the offices, Swansea;
Mr Benson in the chair.

The report stated that the traffic was gradually increasing,
and when the junction with the Swansea, Neath, and Brecon
was completed it was expected that a large through traffic
would be brought over the line. After payment of interest
on the preference shares it was recommended that the ba-
lance, amounting to £737, should be carried forward to the
next account.

The report was adopted, and Mr Bath was elected a
director in the place of Mr Budd, resigned.

MONMOUTHSHIRE.

The report of the directors of this company states that the
traffic receipts were £9,862 more than in the corresponding
half of 1863. The gross receipts for past half year ending
June 30th amounted to £69,670, the working expenses to
£32,474, or 47 per cent. of the receipts, and the net earnings
to £37,095 ; against £59,707 gross receipts, £29,802, or 50
per cent., working expenses, and £29,905 net earnings for
the corresponding half of 1863, showing an increase of
£9,863 in the gross receipts, of £2,672 in the working ex-
penses and of £7,190 in the net earnings. The sum of £4,000
had been transferred to the reserved fund from the general
revenue account to provide for the cost of relaying various
portions of the company's railways, and for other contin-
gencies. Tho average rate of interest now paid on the bor-
rowed capital was LI Os 9d. per cent per annum. The gene-
ral revenue account showed that there was a balance of
£18,381, out of which the directors recommended a dividend
at the rate of 6j per cent per annum be declared, payable
on sth October next, leaving a balance of £317. The Cwm-
tillery branch railway had been transferred to this company,
and was now worked and maintained as part of the com-
pany's undertaking. The capital account showed that
£1,233,371 had been expended,leaving:a balance against the
company of £9,470.

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

41,

TIMES.—One of the bloodiest battles of the Pen-
insular tie ar was fought after peace tiad been con-
cluded, and it seems as if the great American
struggle would be crowned with a similar super-
fluity of carnage. While the most powerful party in
the North was proclaiming aloud its abomination of
the war and its resolute demand for peace, the North-
ern armies in Virginia and Georgia were engaged
in the most obstinate and sanguinary conflicts.
In Virginia the advantage remained with the Cone
federates, who had been the assailants ; ir. Georgia
the Federals, if the occupation of Atlanta is truly
reported, may claim the credit of the day. I3ut,
though Atlanta may at last have been occupied, the
covering army has not been routed, and a success
ful combination of Confederate forces threatens
Sherman with serious embarrassment. At Mobile
Admiral Farragut is displaying that tenacity of
purpose which has characterised the Federal tactics
throughout the present campaign, and if his progress
be slow, he exhibits at least no signs of discourage..
meat. But in the meanwhile a voice has gone forth
which may still the thunder of the cannon. The
Chicago Convention has not only declared the prins
ciples on which the Democratic party is prepared
to act, but has demanded, in the name of the people,
that negJciations shad be immediately instituted for
the suspension of arms. An armistice at once, a
conference as soon as possible—these are the cries
now resounding through the States of the North ;
and unless they can be disregarded—which is not
easy to suppose—eve may relieve ourselves from the
trouble of further speculations on the events of the
war. We trust the public will admit that they have
not been misguided by our comments on this obstinate
contest. The great fact which we asserted from the
first is now placed beyond reach of controversy. We
said that the North could never subdue the South,
and the North has now proclaimed the same conclu-
sion. After three years of the most desperate efforts
in which no expenditure has been spared and no
tactics have been left untried, a preponderating sec-
tion of the Northern people have put on record be-
fore the world their deliberate conviction that the
policy of war is mistaken and. hopeless, and that it
must bo superseded by a policy of conciliation and
compromise. This is the declaration made by a party
presumed to be unquestionably the strongest in the
State, and the expression of the principle has been
intrusted not to a successful or triumphant soldier,
but to a general who was the first to discover the
impracticability of the object on which his coun-
trymen were bent. No one knows better than
M'Clellan the barriers which separate Washington
from Richmond, and the frightful losses which have
been incurred without results by his successors in
command have established beyond question the
justice of his views. As if to stamp with still deeper
censure the policy of the Government, Governor
Seymour, of New York, the man of greatest mark
among the opponents of Mr. Lincoln, was elected
by acclamation to the presidency of the Convention
by which these decisive steps were taken, The
questions now before us are written in broad and
unmistakeable characters. First, will the actual
Government accede to the demand expressed by
the Chicago Convention for an immediate Armistice?
And, next, will the South accept the Armistice and
enter upon the subsequent Conference on any
basis except that of national independence ? As
regards the former of these inquiries, the world
has been much misled if the Democratic party is
not the strongest party in the Northern States—
strong enough, in the absence of any unexpebted
events, to carry in November next its candidate for
the Presidency, and to impress its policy in the in•
terval upon the existing administration. It is hardly
to be conceived that President Lincoln would employ
his brief remaining term of office in counteracting or
opposing the declared will of the majority of his
countrymen. We regard the Chicago Convention as
representing a majority of the people, because it has
been asserted throughout that the Democratic party
if united could easily outnumber all opponents—and
they are perfectly united now. Nothing occurred to
disturb the unanimity of the Convention. It was
" by acclamation " that Gen. M'Clellan was ulti-
mately nominated for the Presidency, and it was his
principal rival who conducted the business of the
meeting. The conclusion, therefore, appears irre-
sistible that the Democrats are winning, and the
pacific overtures which rumour now ascribes to the
Administration itself tend to show that President
Lincoln is more likely to adopt than to resist the
winning policy. Still it must not be forgotten that
the Republicans will be reluctant to retire from
power, that any signal success of the Federal arms
may once more place them in the ascendant, and
that if they should deem a peace policy undesirable
they will enjoy all the advantages of actual office in
maintaining the opposite policy. The resolution of
the Convention to resist by force any military inter-
ference at the approaching elections shows plainly
enough what misgivings are entertained, Although,
however, no confidence can be expressed on such
a point, we certainly think it probable that the
Chicago Resolutions will be adopted, and
that an armistice will be proposed. In that
event, will the South enter the Convention
of the Steles without a stipulation, expressed or re-
served, for the recognition of its national indepen-
dence ? It seems almost impossible to think so, for,
in that case, the South would be simply surrender•
ing all it has fought for at the very moment when
success appeared most sure. On condition of re•
entering the Union the Confederates might have
dictated their own terms in the very first year of
the war. At that time President Lincoln was not
committed to the principles of the Abolitionists, and
his avowed policy was Union—without slavery if
possible, but Union on any terms, Over and over
again the Federals allowed it to be seen that if the
Southerners would but shake hands once more they
might do with slavery as they pleased. It was only
as the strife became embittered that extreme views
prevailed, The other day, in conformity with these
views, Mr Lincoln met the envoys of the South with
a demand not only for the reconstruction of the
Union but the abolition of slavery. His terms were
rejected, but what will the South say when the
former is tendered without the latter ? The logic
of facts would teach us that it would, either openly
or by reservation, be rejected still; for if the Con-
federates refused such terms when threatened with
the untried power of the North, how can they accept
them when, by the confession of the Northerners
themselves, that power has been tried in vain ? The
Federals have failed in their endeavours to coerce
the Confederates into reunion, and they have ac-
knowledged their failure. The Confederates have
fought heroically for their national independence
and have proved their ability to maintain it. On
what grounds, therefore, or with what expectations
of success can they be now asked to yield what
they have been fighting for to the 'very men
who have been unable to wrest it from them ?
It appears to us more probable that the Demo-
crats should have disguised their genuine policy
than that the people of the South should have
evinced any readiness to compromise. The
Chicago Convention professes to stand by the Union
as stoutly as the Republicans themselves, but that
resolution probably expresses little more than the
reluctance of the North to part finally with a dar-
ling idea, and the natural unwillingness of a polie
tical party to alarm the public by the premature
confession of an unwelcome truth. We can very
well understand why the Democrats at Chicago
should shrink from blurting out the fact that the
South must go free, but wecannot understand why
the South, with success in its very grasp, should
forego the condition for which it first took up arms,
and on which it has perseveringly insisted through
t:?ree terrible years of trial. It is more likely the
arm.'etice will thate first step towards a perception
of the il'uth ; the North, after finding that the
South cannot be coerced, will find also that it cane
not be persuadcd, and that the reflection encouraged
by the interval gradually induce the Federal
States to relinquish what they cannot obtain rather
than recur to what has already been proved a hope.
less and ruinous struggle for it.
POST.—From its very frequency the discussion of
American politics has ceased to be attractive; and
though the inhabitants of the Northern States find
themselves on the eve of a Presidential election, the
issue of which cannot fail to exercise a mighty influx
ence on their future destiny, the reflections that cir-
cumstance might serve to call forth would be
found commonplace in the extreme. It is impos-
sible, however, to avoid contrasting the condition
of the republic on the last occasion on which the
Americans were called upon to select their Chief
Magistrate with what it is now, and to note the
extraordinary changes which the short space of four
years has served to work in a State believed to be
the most prosperous, if not the most powerful, in
the world. It is easy to be wise after the event,
and political writers would now experience but
little difficulty in demonstrating that the Republic
of the West contained within itself the seeds of
its own destruction. But, nevertheless, the dise
solution of that State undoubtedly took the world
by surprise, and that it was net anticipated
by Americans themselves is best proved by the
extraordinary efforts made by the established
Government to avoid the consummation of the
catastrophe. American statesmen long since foresaw
the possibility of a separation between the free and
the slaveholding States, and fearing the futility of
any attempts to maintain by force a connection
which the latter desired to sever, counselled an
amicable acquiescence on the part of the more
powerful section of the Republic. But what actually
did take place no one either in America or Europe
ever anticipated. That slavery might furnish a
motive for secession, and that the latter might give
rise to a civil war, were events far from improbable;
but that a war which should decimate the popula-
tion, quad deolation far mid wide throughout the

land, and bring the States to the verge of bank'
ruptcy should be waged for nearly four years cer-
tainly never entered the calculations of even the
most prescient of American politicians. However,
facts must be taken as they are found ; and, looking
back to the time when the Republic last chose its.
President, we can only marvel at the vast amount
of evil which the folly and wickedness of man have
been enabled to work within the comparatively
short period which has since intervened. Calling
to mind the circumstances which attended the la,st,
Presidential election, it may well be doubted
whether the complete severance of the South from
the North was necessary to secure for the latter
that protection which it had a right to demand.
For a long series of years the Democrats had coin'
mended a majority in the State, and the occupants
of the White House at Washington were invariably
men who represented and supported Southern in'
terests. The defeat of Breckenridge, the Democratic
candidate, and the return of his Republican or
penult, Mr. Lincoln, for the first time threw the
supreme power into the hands of a party which
made no secret of their intentions to attack that
peculiar institution in the South which not un4
justly excites the the abhorence of almost every
civilised State. But to strike at slavery as it exists
in the Southern States was in effect to attack the
rights of property, and the population of the South
would not have been human if they did not take
what they considered the most efficacious means for
the preservation of that which constituted almost
their entire wealth. It was not, however, their fault
that the Republic was rent in twain. Even after
some of the States had seceded, proposals were made
to Mr Lincoln which, if accepted, would have most
probably led to the re-formation of the Union ; but
these proposals the new President, confident in the
power of the Government, refused to accept. Com-
promise was a word which Mr Lincoln could not
bring himself to utter, and the only reply vouchsafed
to the Southern delegates was, that they must ull"
conditionally acknowledge the supremacy of the
Government, and submit without demur to its de'
crees. Placed in this position, the South had no
alternative but to spring to arms in vindication of
its independence, and before Mr Lincoln had fora
mally entered on office the war began. Then the
issue became different ; it was no longer whether
the Republic should be governed by this or that
particular faction, but whether a new State should
be permitted to establish itself entirely distinct from
that which had previously constituted the American
Union. Day by day the breach widened, and boo
comes more and more hopelessly irreparable. The
North fought for empire ; the South for independ-
ence; and both were equally confident of victory.
And so month succeeded month, and year followed
after year, until again the time has come round for
the State to nominate its magistrate; and now, once
more, after the lapse of four years, and ander °iv•
cumstances even graver than those which attended
the last Presidential election, American politicians
are engaged in that preliminary canvass which de'
termines the particular candidates who will in the
month of November next solicit the suffrages of the
entire people. It is not improbable that the Chicago
Convention will nominate M'Clellan, and that the
majority of the population in the Northern States
will ratify their choice. M'Clellan is a Democrat,
and if he had been elected four years since, instead
of Mr Lincoln, the severance between the North and
South might never have taken place. It is by no,
means certain, however, that his election now will
have the effect of bringing the war to an end.
Daring the earlier stage of the war, the Northers
Democrats distinguished themselves from the Re'
publicans by the moderation of their language, and
by the readiness which they evinced to make con"
cessions to the South, provided the latter moult'
once more enter the Union. But, as we have just
observed, the time when a compromise might have
been effected has long since gone by, and those who
still dream of a re-establishment of the Union in'
dulge in a vain chimera, the attempt to realise
which must of necessity prolong the war. Much will
depend, therefore, upon the language which Gen.
M'Clellan will hold, when he submits himself for
election, whether his advent to office can be hailed
as a sign of approaching peace. The North wishes
for peace, but it is not yet resigned to that division
of the Republic which is, nevertheless, an accorr•
plished fact. The South at no time desired hostili.
ties, and will now gladly lay down its arms if per'
mitted to do so. But it can only be on one conditlon•
The Southern States desire to be completely inde'
pendent ; they know that they can secure the
accomplishment of that desire; and nothing save
absolute political independence will satisfy theni•
The proposal now made by the South to the North
is extremely simple—it may be refused or it mai
accepted, but it cannot be evaded. If the new Presi‘
dent, whether he be M'Clellan or some one else,
should adopt a temporising policy, and endeavonf
to coax the South into doing that which it has bees
impossible to wring from it by coercion, the results
will be as disastrous as if Mr Lincoln, or any other,
uncompromising Republican, was placed at the beau.
of the Government. The re-establishment of the
Union has become an impossibility, and the sooner
that fact is recognised in the North the sooner Will
the war be terminated. The Southern Confederaci,
is now, and has been since the commencement 01
the war, as independent a Power as the Northern
Federation, and nothing really remains for the latter
but to recognise, with what grace it may, the
political entity of the new Republic, and bow With
submission to the unanswerable logic of facts.