The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF T

TIMES.—In the depth of the Parliamentary recess,
at a point of the year almost equidistant from the
end of one session and the beginning of the next, the
annual banquet of the Lord Mayor calls upon our
statesmen for some popular observations on the state
of this country and its neighbours, the progress or
retrogression which the events of the time indicate,
and the hopes or fears which should affect us on
looking round on this rapidly changing world. We
have so many and such important domestic concerns,
we are bound by such ties of sympathy or common
interest to the nations about us, that the lapse of
three months since last a Ministerial speech was
made inspires a natural desire to hear the ever vary.
ing phases of human affairs commented on by those
who direct or express the national policy. Last even-
ing Lord Palmerston was able to congratulate his
hearers once again oo the general prosperity of the
country, and on that happy dulness of our annals
which contrasts with the alarms and convulsions of
foreign lands. The closing weeks of the year 1864
find England prosperous and contented, but not
without anxiety at the possible consequence of events
that are taking place elsewhere. It is as it' we looked
out :on the ocean and saw all calm immediately
around us, but far in the distance the signs of furi-
ous winds and a stormy sea. Here, at home, there is
positively no incident. The deep current of industry
and material advance sweeps on almost without a
ripple. In spite of temporary financial difficulties,
themselves the result of overeconfident prosperity,
the commercial progress of the country continues,
and wealth increases at a rate which passes all the
anticipations of politicians or Parliaments. It is need-
less to dwell upon the increase of trade, the general
well-being which is diffused among the people, and
the soundness of that commercial fabric which was
not shaken even by such a blow as the failure of
American cotton. Good people may almost think it
a tempting of Providence thus to reiterate our own
greatness and prosperity, but this material wellbeing
is the most couspicuons fact in our present history,
and its existence explains most of the political phe•
nemena which have surprised observers during the
last few years. No one who knows what the Eng-
lish middle and working classes were in former
days, and what they are now, can fail to admit that
the cause which has produced the present political
quiet—we might say political apathy—must be the
most important influence in our recent history. The
little interest which is felt in party and class strug-
gles at home, contrasted with the keen attention
that is given to what is passing in foreign countries,
must be reflected in the speeches of every observant
politician, and if he searches for the cause of it he
will find it in the fact that, for the first time perhaps
in our constitutional history, the general wellbeing
of the people has suppressed for a while political dis-
content, and weakened even the traditions of party
conflict, Thus it is almost necessary for a speaker to
dwell on the prosperity of the country, in order to
give a reason for there being so little of home poli-
tics to talk about. But the Premier did not fail to
remind his audience that even in our more fortunate
land there are not wanting causes of uneasiness.
For three years all classes in this country have been
filled with compassion for the sufferings of the people
dependent on the cotton manufacture of Lancashire.
The heaviest blow that could fall on our industry
had fallen—a blow under which both friends and
enemies thought the national prosperity must sink,
at least for a while. The tide of public benevolence
flowed strong and steady for the relief of the suf-
ferers, and up to this time the calamity has been met
with wonderful vigour and resource. But Lord Pal-
merston reminds us that allis not over yet. There is
in the renewal of Lancashire distress a warning that
the misery which the American contest has worked
is not at an end for us. The present winter will be a
gloomy one in the cotton manufacturing districts.
There are now great numbers out of work, and there
does not seem a prospect of improvement during the
coming months. But in tnis matter the nation will
not fail to do its duty. It has come so happily out
of the great trial, it has rejoiced so much in being
liberated from dependence on the American grower
and his Government, that it will do heartily all
that is necessary to carry the suffering portion of
the people through their hour of misfortune. This,
the only dark spot in the national prospect, only
makes the brightness of the rest the more con-
spicuous. Turning to the contemplation of foreign
countries, there is a far more varied spectacle. The
British dependencies, indeed, share the tranquillity
and progress of the mother country. The North
American provinces, under the guidance of politi-
cians of sense and moderation, and with the full
assent of the Home Government, are engaged in
forming a Confederation which will, we may trust,
give theca territorial security, increased prosperity,
and a wider field for the employment of individual
talent. But on the other side of the frontier war,
which becomes every month more savage and re.
Tentless, still prevails. Already the election which
gives the Federal Union its chief for the next four
years is decided, and there can be little doubt that
Mr. Lincoln will remain in office to carry on his
war of extermination against the Southern people.
These, on the other hand, are preparing for a new
and more deadly struggle by arming their negroce,
end meeting African with African in a quarrel
which the existence of the unfortunate race has pro-
voked. To the Brit'sh people it matters little
whether Lincoln or M'Clellan be the chief magis-
trate of the Northern States, but, looking upon
their own domestic tranquillity and the mutual
goodwill which marks the relations between the
mother country and the colonies, they cannot but
lament the psssinnc which have brought ouch
calamities on a kindred people, and they will
heartily join Lord Palmerston in hoping that the
two communities may shortly bring to an end this
horrible strife, which threatens the devastation of
some of the finest regions of the globe, and the
brutalising of a Christian people by a war which
ever increases, and must ever increase, in barbarism.
The Premier, in consideration of the festive charac-
ter of the meeting, abstained from alluding to the
two great European questions which have most oc-
cupied public attention during the past year.
Though he did not forget China and Japan, and
took the opportunity of uttering a well-deserved
eulogy on the two venerable lawyers who were prep.
sent, Lord Palmerston abstained from referring to
the dismemberment of Denmark or the Convention
between France and Italy, but these important
matters will be the more conspicuous to the mind of
the public by their absence from the Premier's
speech. The Danish war has been judged by Europe,
and the verdict is not likely to be reversed. Men of
every nation and of every party, Conservatives and
Liberals of England, Conservatives and Liberals of
France, have all denounced the spoliation which
has been accomplished in the name of liberty and
national rights, The other subject which has most
occupied the public mind of late is the convention
with respect to Rome. While events in the North
of Europe show that the reign of force is not over,
there are signs of a more cheering kind for the
newly risen kingdom of Italy. The Convention of
Sept, 15 promises to bring to a settlement one of
the two great difficulties which perplex Italian
statesmen. The French Emperor, halting between
his desire to please a portion of his own people
and his desire to do justice to an ally and
satisfy his own term of right, has fixed a term of
two years as the period beyond which his
occupation of Rome will not be extended. It is
needless to say more on this subject than that
every reflecting man has seen it, and a British
Minister might also fairly see in it, a most hopeful
prospect for Italy. In two years, we may trust,
there will be only one question left for Victor Em-
manuel's Government—how to persuade Austria to
relinquish a province which only weakens that em-
pire, and which, if transferred to the country 04
which it forms an essential part, would tend to
place the peace of the South of Europe on a more
secure basis. It would have been, no doubt, gra-
tifying to some of the Lord Mayor's guests to hear
a few words on those important subjects at a time
when foreign politics form the staple of our public
discussions. But we must be content to have these
matters more and more withdrawn from the sphere
of Mansion-house oratory, as the policy of the
Government becomes more and more influenced by
the doctrines of non-interference. A Minister will
rather narrow his speech to the commonplaces of
our national life than give it interest and piquancy
by remarks which may be troublesome hereafter.
POST.—Time must hang very heavily on an army
so numerous as that encamped on the south side of
the James River, and which, without being engaged
in any special siege operatiohs, is lazily waiting till
some unforeseen incident may occur which will
afford it an opportunity of taking possession of an
enemy's city. It is not surprising therefore that
its General should occasionally diversify the dull
monotony of a camp life by employing his army in
endeavouring to discover some weak point in the
lines of entrenchments which interpose between
him and the object of his desires. Operations of
this kind are called in military parlance reconnais-
sances, and if the troops engaged in them are nu-
merous they are called reconnaissances in force. One
might have supposed that, after having passed
nearly four months in the posision which be now
occupies, General Grant would by this time have
made himself perfectly acquainted with the nature
of the defensive works which bar the advance of
his army, and that on this point at least no fur-
ther information was to be obtained. It is certainly
not for want of trying that the Federal General has
failed to traverse the short space which intervenes
between him and the Confederate capital. He has
esplored the approaches on both sides of the river,
and only a few weeks since paid with a loss of up-
wards of 4,000 men for the barren satisfaction of
disc vering that the Confederate lines were at every
point impenetrable. We are now informed that he