The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-28 00:00:00

vulsions of the States, that the beginning of the
final end and overthrow of slavery has been wit•
nessed in this war. It would be sad, indeed, were
a nation to pass through such a fearful ordeal with-
out obtaining some great and lasting good.
Melancholy as it is to reflect upon the loss of life,
the wounds, the sufferings of body and mind which
have been endured in this war, the brave men
slaughtered, and maimed, and fever stricken, the
ruined and desolated homes, the ravaged and
wasted fields which are now to be seen where
a few years back all was peace and plenty. The
spectacle would be still more appalling if we res
garded it as utterly profitless. Doubtless great
ends will be worked out ur c msciously by the
workers, and the tide of bloodshed and pillage
now rolling over the once fair and fertile States
will sweep away much that disfigured as well as
that adorned them. The evil so tenaciously
cherished must be surrendered at last, but its
abandonment will have been rendered needlessly
painful. Emancipation is a work of too great
and complex a character to be fairly done in the
midst of war and tumult. It needed the calm
deliberation, the grave attention of earnest and
experienced men, of those who know well the
negro and his capacities. A sudden and vio-
lent enfranchisement of all ages and classes
of negroes is a very questionable boon,
and their enforced enlistment in the Federal ranks
is still less beneficial. Before their claim on their
old masters was abandoned a proper provision
should have been made by the state of work for the
able-bodied, of instruction and training for the
young, of maintenance for the sick and aged. A
mere stroke of the pen declaring so many millions
of men free at a word provided for none of these
requirements, and too late the miserable African
finds that he erred in trusting to Northern help and
promises. The work, if it was to be done compre•
hensively, should have been done gradually. The
slaves should have been prepared for freedom
by a gradual system of emancipation, such as
making it incumbent on them to continue in their
master's service for a term of years at
a certain rate of payment. Their bonds should
have been gradually lightened,
,till the limbs so
long manacled had time to regain their free use—
not have been snatched off with an abruptness that
made the very burden a loss. Emancipation was
emphatically a work for peace, and it demanded of
itself all the mind and sympathy of the nation ; but
alas! the one is as much wanting as the other in
the loud, boasting North. The negro is looked
upon askance, is shrunk from and avoided—and
however raady the professions of equality and hu-
manity, the active manifestation of any such senti-
ments is very much at fault. The negroes have
been great sufferers in this war, although their
misfortunes are less thought of, less talked of, and
less cared for, than those of their white
brethren. Whether dying in handfuls under
the Southern guns—for negro regiments are
generally put in the exposed positions —or
wandering houseless and starving about the
Northern streets, or falling victims to the popular
frenzy in New York, the slave race has as yet
little cause to thank the great civil war. Under
these circumstances, the existence of charitable as-
sociations for the purpose of assisting and relieving
these unhappy beings in their pressing necessities is
a very fortunate thing. No one can blame a slave
for claiming his freedom if possible, although such
an act may throw him houseless and friendless on
the world. Societies have been formed for his sacs
tour under such circumstances; and at a meeting
of one of these, Mr FORSTER, M.P., presided at
Bradford the other day. The hon. gentleman, in
advocating the claims of the association, addressed
his audience at some length on the question
of slavery, although from a point of view
quite opposite from that from which we
have been regarding it. He spoke of the sufferings
of the negro under the great change as an inevitable
necessity, to be deplored and to be relieved, but not
to be avoided. He assumed to this country part
of the responsibility, saying we had consistently
held up the value of freedom before the eyes of the
Americans, and had in a great measure been in-
strumental in stirring up a feeling in favour of
abolition. From this responsibility no English.
man would wish to shrink ; but emancipation was
never proposed by this country to be carried out by
fire and sword. Abhorrent as is slavery, as an
institution, in the eyes of Englishmen, they have
always had the good sense and justice to see that a
nation which had long tolerated and tacitly en-
couraged such a traffic, cannot at once fling off the
charge of it. Iniquitous as the slaveowner'e
profits may appear to Abolitionists to be, he has
a right to (Emend that they shall not be annihi-
lated by a stroke of the pen by the very form of
Government which not only tolerated but en•
couraged them. He has a right in such a case to
demand compensation for his loss, and such com-
pensation England, in the midst of her abolition
enthusiasm, felt he had a right to have. The States,
had they been so minded, might have made the
same bargain with their alaveowners at a much less
cost than the interest of the national debt which
they will owe to the war. But, despite Mr FoRSTER,
the war was not undertaken for the negro. It is a
struggle for the supremacy; abolition may be the
cry for the North when opportunity serves, but the
negro, emancipated or enslaved, is very little heeded,
Men who show themselves so regardless of the feel•
ings of common humanity in their dealings with
white countrymen in the South, are not very likely
to be sincere in their professions of tenderness and
affection for a race they habitually avoid, dislike,
and despise.

Lord MALMESBURY is not a frequent speaker, but
what he says is generally to the point, and his re.
marks on Tuesday evening were no exception to
the rule. The noble lord discoursed on various

topics of more or less interest, some of which bore
on public questions and foreign affairs. In treat-
ing of the Army and Navy, he observed that it was

to be regretted the system of concentrating
the army, instead of as in past times, distributing
it over the country. This is in 'a great measure

truer enough, as the county towns must feel the
difforence, while the advantages that are derived
from the camp fashion are not so 'proportionately
great as to counterbalance all other considerations.
In France, as the noble lord explained, nearly the
whole of the money spent in the army is spent in
France itself; but our colonies absorb a great
part of our army, and hence, with one
thing and another, the heavy sums that
are required for the support and maintenance of
our troops do not return to the people in this new
mode of conducting matters. 'This is worthy of
consideration, if only in an economical point of
view, because from one pretext or another there has
been of late a great willingness in some quarters to
cut down the numbers of the army below the mark
which safety and propriety would permit. Re-
specting the Navy the.noble lord did not hesitate to
affirm that care is requisite to rehabilitate its posi-
tion. It is a change of days from when every public
speaker was content to mention the theme in terms
of praise and high esteem, and rely upon the hearts
of oak to carry the frig of England in triumph
round the world. Now, when the flag is mentioned,
grave doubts are auggeated and sup, oeitioos inter-