The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-02 00:00:00

been a more flagitious robbery of the Government
by the mass of the wealthy population than was
ever before experienced in a civilised country. And
if the income and property tax is to produce no more
in the future than it produced last year, and no

other form of taxation is substituted, what is to pre-
vent a repudiation of the debt ? And is it not the
fear that this, after all, must be the result if the war

be prolonged, that keeps gold at so high a premium?
The debates on the expulsion of Mr. Long have
been brought to a close after four days waste of
time. Mr. Speaker Colfax, finding public opinion to

be against him, and the Republicans out of the

house to be as much scandalised as the ]Jemocrats

both in and out of it were disgusted, withdrew
tardily end ungraciously from the invidious position

into which ho had thrust himself, and c..ohn'ented to

substitute a motion of censure for one of expulsion,
which was carried by a majority of 80 against 70.

The only result upon Mr. Colfax is loss of repute,

and upon Mr. Long of an advance from the position
of a follower to that of a leader of the peace party.
The result upon the character of the house itself is
more deplorable than upon that of its Speaker.
The intolerant majority have shown a hatred of free
discussion unworthy of a republic, unworthy of a re-
presentative body, unworthy of American history,
and unworthy of a British ancestry ; and proved but
too surely that if they numbered the full two-thirds

of the Assembly which they disgrace they would ex-
pel the other third and usurp the Government. If
under a monarchy, which Americans affect to con-
sider less adapted to liberty than a republic, it was
iever thought of expelling a Chatham, a Burke, or
a Fox for advocating peace with a revolted depend-

ency of the Empire, these degenerate descendants

of British grandfathers might well ask whether they
were themselves worthy of the liberty which they
would deny to others, and whether they are not at

heart despots and tyrants, only to be kept in order
and in their proper place by the still greater despot
whom the war is nursing and training to rule over
them ? Such a despot, if he come, will find every-

thing prepared for him. The men of money are
longing for him, the press will worship him, and the

politicians will lie down in the gutters that he may
tread upon them, pro ✓ided he will afterwards give

them place or subsidy to reward them for their

baseness.

A curious revelation has just been made by Mr.
Thurlow Weed, which, if correct, shows two things
—first, that Mr. Lincoln's desire for re-election

dates only from the year 1863 ; and second, that
prior to that time he was of opinion that a candidate
nominated by the Democratic party would be elected
in 1864. " Soon after the elections of 1862," says
Mr. Weed in the Alban?„ Evening Journal, "Mr.
Lincoln remarked to me that, as Governor of
the Empire State and representative man of
the Democratic party, Governor Seymour had
the power to render great public service, and that if
he exerted that power against the rebellion for his
country he would be our next President. I think
Mr. Lincoln authorised me to say so from him to Go-
vernor Seymour. At any rate, I did repeat the con-
versation to him. But the gentleman's procliviti.::s
were in the wrong direction. Garerner Seymour
made his bed with Vallandigham, thus depriving
his country of the advantages of his high position,
and himself of a golden opportunity." It may appear
to Mr. Weed and other Republican leaders that Mr.
Seymour made a mistake when he refused to join
his political fortunes with theirs, and. declined to
abandon his life-long convietin in favour of the
State-rights of New York, and the Constitution of
the United States.,
power that be Plor the sake of any chances of
or to ar 4 might have obtained by becoming a
renegade ; b
-':,r. it does not so appear to his friends,
one who thinks an honourable opponent
m-...re respzet,ible than a time serving and unprincipled
supporter. Governor Seymour's "proclivities," as
Mr. Weed terms them, arc in the direction of peace,

economy, law, liberty, and a Union to bo maintained
by mutual consent, not by force and conquest; and
it is only in so far as he has seemed to turn from
these, and to support the war, which in his heart he
condemns, that he has lost influence. His fault as
a public man, which he shares with fully one-half
of his party, is, not that his principles are wrong,
but that he lacks the courage to act up to them.
If ho desires to be President of the United States,
ho has certainly not weakened any chance which he
may ever have had of attaining that once easy but
now perilous position by his adherence to the Con-
stitution which Mr. Lincoln and his associates have
temporarily overthrown. Governor Seymour is
sees a
love
astute enough to see that the President's favcur
can do nothing towards nominating a successor. It
la his disfavour which gives strength to his rivals
and invests them with importance. He treated
General Fremont with injustice, and one-half of
his own party will aid to put General Fremont in
his place. He behaved to General M'Clellan with
gross ingratitude. and deprived the army of its
best General at a time when there was scarcely
another General in the service fit to be a
corporal, and the consequence was that Gene-
ral M'Clellan became the idol of the Demo-
cratic party, and is the most formidable of all the
candidates now in the field for the Presidency. Mr.
Weed has alike mistaken Mr. Lincoln's influence
and Mr. Seymour's strength. Every day that passes
..diminution ibdne uar
ytt
yi on nd
aboved
sof to .11tdlhorem. Ln popularityii
dominion,
,o l
i n s
the po fo pt uhh
highest
rmhi [eeysn
who t,
whilen
every
ranks of whom Mr. Seymour is placed, and in which
he could not have maintained himself if he had
o
oohavi
els
dr
ns
oe convictionsrrvse ehy i
Seymour,
coou
country
t however,rtyo
ohravhei sj
pomianruetsydt
n
cfoaillfns e,
he to
would
bbMee re
.bolderLs it
in the evil times that are so rapidly approaching.
If men of his talents, honesty, and principles keep
silent and inactive when they should speak out,
and, if need be, peril their lives and their fortunes
in the public service, the cause of American liberty
is lost, and a nobler inheritance than the Union is
at an end for ever.
The tide of emigration pours into this city like a
flood. One vessel from Liverpool brought upwards
of 930 souls at the commencement of the week, and
as scarcely a day passes without one or two arrieals
in steam or sailing ships, each as heavily' laden with
human life as its decks will carry, it would seem as
if the expected average of 5,000 per week would soon
be overpassed, and that as many as 1,000 persons a
day would for some time to come be withdrawn from
the European and added to the American popula-
tion. Mr. Seward, however, is not entirely satisfied
with these arrivals. They include too many women
and children, and too many decrepid old men—
" simious and simi-human," as they were once de-
scribed by Mr. John Mitchell—to be quite to his
mind. He wants able-bodied men only, and though
his desire and the motives that prompt it are in
accordance with those of the majority in both
Houses of Congress, his proposition to pay the cost
of transferring a few extra thousands of Irish to the
hungry shores of this country has not met with
much favour. It is true that the small sum of
25,000 dols,scareely more thanl3soo sterlingewhich
he proposed that Congress 'should devote to the pur-
pose, would do little more than bring out one good
shipload, such as arrived in this port on Monday.
It is possible, therefore, that the House of Repre-
sentatives may only have given his draught of a
bill a cold reception, because it proposed to do so
little, and that it will be prepared to do more
favourably hereafter upon some larger project.. But
if now or hereafter any agents of the Federal Go-
vernment land in Ireland in search of able-bodied
men, whose passage they offer to pay to America,
it should be understood, once for all, by the British
Government and the people, that they are wanted
as soldiers only, and not as workmen, and that the
ordinary emigration from Ireland and Germany
is rapidly
filling up the gaps in the ranks of labour
which the war has created. There may be
Patriotism in the undertaking, as tho Ame-
ricans understand the word, but there is neither
benevolence nor philanthropy. " Food for powder"
is what the Federal Government demands ; and, as
young Americans no longer desire to offer them-
selves as aliment to pamper the ;;reedy maw of the
We.r Demon, young Irishmen and Germans must be
sought, if craft or cash can procure them. Perhaps,
had Mr. Seward asked for a million dollars be might
have attained them, but 23,000 was palpably too
small a sum to be taken_ into consideration.
To-day was announced to be the last of voluntary
enllstmena in the Federal army, after which the