The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-04 00:00:00

by what seems to us an extraordinary assump
tion of power on the part of the Executive,
The President preselibss the oath, prescribes on
what conditions the States in rebellion may re-
organise State Governments, and be recognised
and represented in Congrees as loyal States in
the Union. Any one of them with not less than
one-tenth of the number of persons who voted in
the Presidential election of 1860 may reorganise
themselves as the State, and have the full Federal
representation in Congress to which the State
under the census of le6o was entitled ! Why, the
President could easily, by the distribution of Fede-
ral offices end patronage in any acceded State,
unless there are fewer Union men than is pretended,
induce at least one in ten, if assured of Federal
protection, to swallow without scruple the prescribed
oath or any number of oaths he might prescribe,
and elect State and Federal officers whom he may
choose to prescribe. With the Federal representa-
tion of 11 States, who would be his nominees and
creatures, and the number from the other States he
could always command by the distribution of the
patronage of the Government, the Executive could
easily grasp for himself the whole power of the
Union, reign as an absolute Prince, perpetuate by
re-elections his reign during life, and reduce the
functions of Congress to that of simply registering
his edicts ; or, if it should now and then chow a
disposition to demur, he could, after the manner of
Louis XIV., hold lit de justice."
This question promises to be the question of the
day, until the renewal of hostilities in Virginia and
Tennessee shall divert attention into a channel more
to the taste and the understanding of the masses.
The Democratic party is in want of a good griev-
ance, and, if it be wise, it will make the most of the
chance which Mr. Lincoln, for his own ambitious
purposes, has so opportunely afforded it. Of late,
since the conscription has ceased to alarm the
working classes, and the arbitrary arrests have
been carried on with something like a show of
decency, the leaders of that party have not dis-
played much skill in their opposition. They have
for the most part contented themselves with vague
denunciations of the conduct, of the war, and,
though disapproving of the war itself, have for
ultra-prudential, if not cowardly reasons, forborne
to declare themselves in favour of peace. Governor
Seymour, their most conspicuous and in some re-
spects their ablest representative, has thus led him-
self and the party into a false position. Courage
in boldly declaring what most of them believe to
be the truth, that a voluntarly Union cannot be
restored by war, and that popular liberty both in
the North and the South is necessarily doomed to
extinction by the triumph of the Northern arms,
might yet extricate them from humiliation and place
them on a logical level with their opponents. There
is a peace party in the country which might become
an army, but is now a mob for want of leaders, and
which only awaits the coming of a few fearless
statesmen, or even of one, to grow into a phalanx,
and debate before the day of nomination of the next
Presidential candidates the one great issue of peace
or war, liberty or despotism. NJ such man of high
mark and paramount influence has yet appeared.
One by one those whose abilities and known sym-
pathies gave reason for the belief that they might
become the chiefs of the peace movement have fal-
sified the hopes inspired by their names and Ow:ace
ter and slunk into the rear, either to say Peothing or
to raise a hesitating voice in favour of the war,
which in their hearts they condemn, and of the ab-
solutism which will grow out of it. The explana-
tion seems to be not so much that they fear the
action of the Federal Government and the operation
of military law which might consign them to Forts
Lafayette, but that they lack faith in their country-
men. They do not believe in a following sufficiently
powerful to warrant them in running any risk.
And, more than this, they do not believe in the sta-
bility of the Union of the Northern States if the
principle of secession be established. While the
Southern States are convinced that they can hold
together under the terms of the new Union into
which they have entered, the Northern States, in
the opinion of such men as the Governors of Now
York and the New Jersey, must infallibly fall
asunder and go to war amongst themselves, as soon
as the independence of the South is admitted. " The
policy of peace and recognition of the South, which
the peace party recommend," says Governor Parker,
of New Jersey, "however sincerely entertained,
would certainly result in perpetual disunion,
and we should emerge from tho present
war only to be involved in other conflicts
not less bloody, which would inevitably
" flow from separation." The yet unconquered and,
perhaps, unconquerable South has no such misgiv-
ings of its own future. Why should the strong
North, already accustomed to a despotism, have less
confideucs ? And why should such ardent lovers
of liberty as the Democrats have so little reliance
upon the good sense and patriotism of the people
as to imagine they would ultimately prefer an
immense debt, an immense taxation, an immense
standing army, a military Dictator, and compul-
sory union with a population that has learnt to
hate them, to an amicable separation, combined,
as that might be, with the restoration of the
fast perishing liberties of the Republic ? War
affords no career to such men ; but what a career
might not peace open out to them ? Peace must
come sooner or later, as Mr. Lincoln acknowledged
in the early days when he had not tasted the blood
of his countrymen, and with it will come a chance
For true statesmanship to build up in the North and
West a greater and more homogeneous Republic
than the United States could ever have become in
partnership with the unwilling South.
It is announced to-day in Wall-street that the
last instalment of the Five-twenty Loan has been
taken up, and that the five hundred millions of
greenbacks which were invested in the purchase are
again in circulation. A doubt is expressed whether
the Government will undertake to ask for or accept
a new loan, on condition that the interest be paid
in gold, but few have any doubt that, sooner or
later, Mr. Chase must again become a borrower,
even if he can offer no better terms than the pay-
ment of the interest in greenbacks. The uneasiness
felt by the higher order of financiers upon the sub-
ject does not extend to the smaller fry of specula-
tors, intent on taking advantage of the speculative
mania of the day, and to gamble in stocks of any
description that promises a rise. These people do
not see, or care to see, far before them. Sufficient for
them to make money out of their own madness and
that of the crowd, and to make it quickly, lest the
madness should subside. There are others, however,
—and Mr. Chase himself cannot but be of the num-
ber,—who look upon the financial future with well-
founded alarm. The taxes are but half paid in, and
were they as fully collected as they would have been
in any country where taxation was not a new and
untried experiment, would not have yielded within
50 per cent. of the sums estimated, while the
expenses of the Government have largely exceeded
the calculations. At the same time, gold continues
to flow out of the country to pay for European
goods, while but small shipments of American
produce continue to be called for in that greater
outer world which Northern Americans once inn•
gined must starve if America were cruel enough to
refuse to feed it. Perhaps for some only of these
reasons—perhaps for all of them--gold persists in
maintaining itself at what Mr. Chase considers a
disloyal and ignorant premium. Possibly before
long a light will break in upon the minds of many
who still cling to the delusion that an inconvertible
paper currency is positive wealth, that a promise to
pay is a real payment, and that the Federal Go-
vernment can continue its present expenditure with-
out marching into bankruptcy.

The following is an extract from the Second Edition
(page 188) of the Trans:ation of the Pharrnacopceia of the
Itoyal College of Physicians of London, by Dr. G. F.
Collier, published by Longman and Co. :—" It is no small
defect in this compilation (speaking of the Pharmaeot.ceia)
that we have no purgative mass but what contains aloes ;
yet we know that hwmorrhoidal persons cannot bear aloes,
except it be in the form of Cockle's Pills, which chiefly
consist of aloes, scammony, and colocynth, which I think
are formed into a sort of compound extract, tho acridity of
which is obviated, I suspect, by an alkaline process, and by
a fourth ingredient (unknown to me) of an aromatic tonic
nature. I think no better and no worse of it for its being
a patent medicine. I look at it as an article of commerce
and domestic convenience, and do not hesitate to say, it is
the best made pill in the kingdom ; a muscular purge, a
mucous purge, and hydrogue purgo combined, and their
cffe,cts properly controlled by a dirigent and corrigent.
That it does not commonly produce haemorrhoids like most
aloetic pills I attribute to its being thoroughly soluble, so
that no tuidissOlVcd particles adhere 4;0 1,40 EatiC9l jam-
brane,'!