The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-30 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30, 1864.

Lord NAPIER'S good and wise Sovereign does not
seem likely to do credit to the trumpeter of his
praises nor bear out the assertions so confidently
put forth by his zealous adherent. The latest
accounts that reach us from Petersburg are most
unsatisfactory. It would appear as if, not content
with the excess of cruelty and extreme of devasta-
tion already perpetrated in Poland, it was resolved
by the powers that be in Russia to exterminate
that offending country altogether, to stifle the
existence of its people, and despoil the nationality
of its kingdom entirely. The task which has been
assigned to General BERG is a singularly ungra-
cious one, and he may well be pitied for his doom,
He is instructed to " cause an address to be signed
requesting the oomplete incorporation of the king.
dom of Poland with the Russian empire." Can
anything be imagined more inconsistent than this?
It is a paltry desire that is perfectly unworthy of
a great nation, and makes conquest degenerate into
barbarity, and the struggle for territory into the
spoliation of robbers. When, only a few months
back, all Europe was ringing out with the intelli-
gence of how bravely and determinately Poland was
resisting to the death her fell oppressors—how, as
one band of devoted patriots was struck down,
another and another still succeeded—it seems, in-
deed, a mockery now to make the trodden down
nation declare that they desire the exact contrary
of all their previous desires. Such conduct is a
scandal to the empire that enforces the decree, and
an outrage on the common sense and good feeling
of all the surrounding States who are witnesses to
the dastardly attempt. What can be the motive
for such aburd and cruel mockery P Heaven knows
that the Government of St. Petersburg arc not
backward to do wrong when it suits their turn and
serves their purpose. Neither the fear of God nor
the reproach of man can restrain them in their lust
for conquest or their thirst for rage. Why not
boldly declare that the Polish kingdom is hence-
forth, to all intents anti purposes, an integral
portion of the Russian empire ? No ode
yell prevent their so doing. There may
be a few eloquent despatches written, a little
diplomat►c squabbling, sonic curses, not loud
but deep, uttered by the persecuted few,
indignation felt by the many lookers-on who are
powerless to prevent the wrong they deplore, but
all will pass away, and the mighty autocrat will
have his way and carry out his intentions both in

the spirit and the letter. Why then, it may be
asked, is it considered necessary to insist upon this
show of a substance—this semblance of a reality.
It can do no good to their cause, for the tyrants to
affect the virtue that they have not, and to insist
upon playing the part of those who yield to de-
mands, and not of those who enforce arbitrary
measures at the point of the sword. Perhaps it is
intended that Poland shall drink the dregs of the
cup of bitterness, and not only behold her soil
drenched with the blood of her zealous children,
the flower of her youth cut down as by a scythe,
the glory of her manhood sent off to interminable
and distant exile, her women trampled on and her
infants ill-treated, but endure the humiliation of
witnessing the denial of the faith of freedom from
those who are not in a position to prevent the out-
r age. If so, it may at once and for ever be asserted
that such an attempt brands with shame and in-
famy those who devise and put into executiou the
fell decree and the barbarous mandate. Human
nature shrinks aghast from the contemplation of
such a project, and the natural sentiments of all
just and upright minds are in revolt at the bare
mention of such a nefarious and treacherous scheme.
The refinement of cruelty, the excess of extermi-
nation, however, rule the day, and run riot in the
unbridled license at St. Petersburg; and of late,
it would seem as if the Russians had determined
to excel themselves in perfidious schemes and subtle
plans to oppress, villify, and insult their indomi.
table opponents. The last devised decrees have
attacked the religious establishments in Poland, and
it would thus seem as if it were the object, aim,
and end of autocratic rule to spare nothing that
men revere or reverence, whether appertaining to
this world or the next. With one excuse or another
it has been found possible to close seventy-one
monasteries and convents, and thirty-nine other
religious houses, on account of their participation
in the Polish insurrection. Some severe re•
strictions are imposed upon those religious
houses that are suffered for the present to
remain in existence ; and doubtless, the in-
fraction, real or imaginary, of these regulations
w:11 furnish a pretext for future decrees being
emanated, which will result in their partial and
entire removal. When we ponder on these things
Mr. COBDEN'S words may well be employed—
" What next, and next ? when the once smiling
and populous land is a howling wilderness, when
the busy and intelligent population are scattered to
the ends of the earth, when the sad remnant that
remain to share the evil days of their dear country's
decline, are forbidden to worship at the altars of
their faith, and to assemble round the hearths of
their homes, then, and not till then, it may fairly
be supposed that Russian rule will exult in its
victory, and the supremacy of the mighty EMPEROR
remain unquestioned and undisputed." If this is all
that the progress of the present, the march of mind,
and the spread of freedom can impart, we shall be
reduced to search the annals of the past for prece-
dent, to tell us what to expect and how to hope for
relief or retribution. The Czar ALEXANDER may
be reminded that if some prophets do not appear
before ruthless sovereigns, and the handwriting on
the wall no longer shows their approaching doom,
the God who then sent forth the thunders of his
wrath and the terrors of his judgments upon the
oppressor, still looks down upon the tyrant and the
fell destroyer; and that a course as that now pur-
sued in Poland cannot fail to call forth frightful
conscuences for himself and his people. The
records of all ages concur in the testimony that the
ceuree of the tyrant is ever marked by evil, and
that sooner or later, if the persecuted are allowed
to fsll, their destroyers only rush on to their own
deferred destruction. The intelligence of tiaektst
few months tends to show the mistaken policy
those who have all along asserted that the beet and
wisest thing to do was to let Poland alone, and all
would be speedily and satisfactorily settled, It is)
pretty evident by this time that such has nok been
the case, but that grown reckless by no real resist-
ance, and irritated by the pretended stoppage in
tae way of mediation, the Russians seemed resolved
to attain the culminating point of iniquity ; and
while it is too late now to arrest their course, the
civilised countries of Christian Europe must deplore
the enactment of decrees that would have been a
disgrace to heathen nations in the darkest days of
their barbarism.

President LINCOLN has seemingly had enough
of the war, and having professed an uncompro-
mising war policy up till the last moment of re-
election in opposition to the Chicago platform, he
is now feeling his way towards the very policy of
conciliation and compromise that he previously
denounced. Safe on his throne for four years, as
he thinks, he begins to consider whether it may
not be prudent to reduce the premium on gold by
speaking, at least, of the possibility of peace. He
has selected for his mouthpiece on this occasion no
very lamb-like spokesman, but the terrorist of New
Orleans—he whom we may fairly say has done
more to bring the Federal arms into discredit than
any other man in the army or out of it. General
BUTLER declares that the result of the Bth of No-
vember having conclusively proved the Federal
Government to be the strongest in the world, it can
now afford to prove its magnanimity by offering an
amnesty, which shall include those civil and mili-
tary leaders who were heretofore destined for " hell
fire," while their subordinates were to be let off
with " Greek fire." President LINCOLN and
General BUTLER will, however, find that they have
miscalculated the strength of Southern resolution,
and if they intend making a proposition for peace
without any further concession, they will find their
efforts useless. Again and again has JEFFERSON
DAVIS, as the representative of Confederate views
and feelings, declared that the one condition by
which they would stand or fall was the recognition
of their independence ; and, after so long holding
out against heavy odds, and braving such terrible
hardships, it is not very likely they will now
abandon their standard when recent military events
have been all in their favour. It is preposterous
for ABRAHAM LINCOLN, with little more than a
third of the territory owned by the Secessionists,
to persist in the effort to subjugate the Southern
States by force of arms—even setting aside the firm
and united attitude of the people, and their devo.
tion to one idea. The military news is, as yet,
all uncertainty, and SHERMAN'S intentions are
variously conjectured. He is, apparently, planning
some important movement, and has certainly kept
his secret well, but his success is at best doubtful.
It is to be hoped that the results of the battle
which seems to be imminent will at least favour
the return of peace.

The inauguration of the Viceroyalty of Lord
WODEHOUSE has taken place with all due form and
ceremony. The good citizens of Dublin have given
him a cordial welcome, and the Lord Mayor has
entertained him at a sumptuous feast. A good
many wise men in both kingdoms are thoroughly
of opinion that the sooner the Lord Lieutenancy is
done away with the better, and that the nobleman
who now fills the office should be the very last who
supports the somewhat troublesome dignity. Still
the holders of such a view, though it is, un-
questionably reasonable and well• cunded, need
not hesitate to admit that Lord WODEEZOUSE

has at least gracefully entered upon his
new duties, and has professed high and
liberal principles, which time, however, has
yet to test. At the splendid banquet given to him
last week by the Mayor of Dublin, he made an in-
teresting address, in the course of which he touched
lightly upon the capacities and progress of Ireland,
skilfully avoiding those vexed personal and politi-
cal questions which are in all assemblies the seed
of discord, but in Ireland are dangerously exciting.
The great evil and drawback of the viceeroyalty is
the partisanship and favouritism that seems almost
inseparable from it, and the new Lord Lieutenant
boldly disclaims all such influences, though we
apprehend he will find it difficult to be always
altogether on his guard against their invidious
agencies. He admits that he belongs to a particular
party, and, indeed, he would find it very difficult
9r useless to deny it, seeing that beholds a Govern-
ment office in an Administration not very remark•
able for disinterested liberality to non-party men.
But Lord WoDemeuse denies that the fact of his
being a party man need prejudice his discharge of
his administrative functions. " I believe," he said,
" that there are duties superior to parties, and I
trust I shall never forget, as the representative of
the QUEEN, and as the chief of the Executive of
this country, that I owe to all parties and creeds
the impartial administration of justice without fear,
favour, or affection." This is the right spirit in
which the Governor of Ireland should eat, but it is
unfortunately very difficult to keep up
that standard in the throng of conflicting
interests and petty mat oaavres which sure
round every court, but especially a viceregal
one. The progress made by Ireland of late years
called forth the congratulations of the new Lord
Lieutenant, who remembered having served on the
committee of the House of Commons on the Irish
distress of 1847. He mentioned, and the fact could
not have been uninteresting to hearers, that it was
the first committee of which he had been a member,
and the evidence given before it, particularly that
given by the late lamented Father MATHEW, rela-
tive to the condition of the people, made a deep
impression on him. Since then the land has greatly
changed, and, although there is much that the true
friends of Ireland must long to alter and amend,
still none can deny the visible change which has
come over the spirit of the times since those days
of suffering and sorrow. In an agricultural country,
as Lord WODEHOUSE very justly reminded his
hearers, progress is necessarily slow. Even in this
country, notwithstanding all the capital invested,
the invention and intelligence applied, and the
greater security of life and property, our agricul-
tural development has not kept pace with our pro-
gress in manufacture, in commerce, and in other
practical sciences. This is partly, perhaps, owing
to the more cautious and deliberate nature of the
men who follow that profession, their unwillingness
to try new schemes, their tardiness to adopt new
theories ; but Mother Earth herself is unwilling to
be hurried, and the returns she makes for labour and
skill and the application of science and capital, if
sure, are commensurately slow. Ireland has be-
sides many serious drawbacks, and there are some
of them so pressing that they drive from her the
best and most industrious of her children. The
Irish statesman cannot see without regret the con-
stant stream of emigration drawing away the life-
blood of the country, and would rather see her
capacities developed to support her population than
her population diminished to suit her present pro.
duative powers. Ireland has, indeed, great capa-
bilities as well as great obstacles to contend against,
and he who helps and encourages her to help herself
is doing her good service. Lord WODETIOUSE con-
gratulated his heerers on the increased attention
that was being paid throughout the country to the
breeding of cattle, and also to the promised intro•
duction of a thorough system of drainages
an improvement absolutely essential to agri-
cultural prosperity. The cultivation of flax
was also touched upon by Lord WODEHOUSE as an
important feature in the brightening prospects of
the country. Even allowing for a speedy return of
the cotton trade to its former plenty and prosperity,
the flax manufacture is too valuable and too useful
to lose its hold. Ireland has always been cele-
brated for its linen manufacture, and it is satisfac-
tory to find the trade reviving, and 10,000 power-
looms are said to be now at work in Belfast. What
is an important point in considering this subject
is that the machinery used in the fhb manufacture
is also made in Belfast, so that Ireland must no
longer be reckoned as exclusively an agricultural
country. Such a notion, as Lord WODEHOUSE re-
marked, will always have great difficulties to con-
tend against, and it is very much to be desired that
the more profitable and remunerative employment
which manufactures and machinery affords should
by degrees be substituted for the unskilled and ill-
paid work of the present Irish labourer. All these
auguries are favourable Ifor the future of Ireland,
but how far they are fulfilled must depend a good
deal on her people themselves. The miracles of
our day, said Lord WODEHOUSE very truly, are not
wrought by magicians. " They are the miracles
of industry wrought by the hands of the labourer
and artisan, directed by the intelligence of the
manufacturer, the intelligence of the engineer, the
intelligence of the enterprising capitalist." These
are the miracles which Ireland needs, and which
she must work for herself if she is to emerge from
the clouds that have so long overshadowed her
path, into the sunshine of national prosperity and
contentment.