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

vote of both parties together ; that the frauds every■
where perpetrated were " stupendous" and capable
of proof by clouds of witnesses; that not only were
minors and non-residents allowed and er couraged
to vote, but that the voters were carrie I from town
to town and from point to point by railway trains
expressly put on for the purpose, and voted re-
peatedly in the same and in different counties, un"
challenged by the Republican officials who had
charge of the polling places. The 60th Massachusetts
Regiment, stationed in Indiana to keep the peace,
though not entitled to a single vote in a State of which
they are not citizens, voted en masse for Governor
Morton, and not only voted once, but some of the
men 10 and 12 times over. The facts are notorious
in Indiana, and the proofs have been largely corros
borated by the letters of soldiers to their friends—
letters never intended for publication, but which
have found their way into the Indiana and New
York papers. Some of them are exceedingly naive,
and do not appear the less authentic from the un-
consciousness of the writers that they committed a
wrong in so voting, or an indiscretion in avowing it.
Such frauds are vary apt to exasperate a losing
party even in ordinary times ; but in extraordinary
times like these, when the fiercest passions are
raised to boiling heat and the most tremendous
issues are involved, it is vain to deny that they are
in the highest degree unwise and perilous, and may
contain within themselves the germs of greater
commotions than the country has yet been doomed
to experience.
As the last draught for 5C0,000 men has only been
nominally enforced, and is admitted to have scarcely
produced 100,000 men—a number insufficient to
keep up the effective force of the army to the point
at which it stood before General Grant began to
hurl his legions against the cuter defences of Rich•
mond and Petersburg, and lose them by tens of
thousands at a time—there is a talk of a new and,
this time, a real conscription to be enforced as soon
after the Presidential election as shall seem pru-
dent to the new President, whosoever he may
be. With all its wealth of men and money, and
all the resources of immigration from Ireland
and Germany, the North is unable to maintain
and replenish its armies to anything like the
extent necessary for the work it has undertaken.
Neither Grant, nor Sheridan, nor Sherman, nor
Rosecrans has an adequate force to subdue Lee, or
Longstreet, or Beauregard, or Price. The
Southern Generals are in the same predicament,
and if they gain a victory are prevented, by want of
men, from following it up promptly and turning it
to ulterior account. Both sides will therefore make
the greatest possible exertions during the ensuing
winter and spring to place new armies in the field ;
and as the North claims that it has a hundred thou-
sand negroes under arms, though the assertion must
be received with the deduction rendered necessary
by the national vice of exaggeration—and that they
make under proper leadership as good soldiers as the
whites, it has long been urged upon the Confederate
Government that, in default of other troops, it would
not only be expedient but wise and just to imitate
the example, and call out an army of a quarter of a
million of ablebodied ;slaves to fight for the indea
pendence of their masters, their own liberty to be
guaranteed to them hereafter as a reward for loyal
service. The Southern people have shown a great
disinclination to resort to such a measure, not because
it would be necessary to emancipate so large a
number of their most valuable slaves, but from a
feeling of pride of race and blood, and a sentiment
that it is derogatory to their dignity to owe the in-
dependence of their country, in any degree whatever,
to the aid of the negroes. But as the slaves, when
engaged in the agricultural work which without
their help would have had to be performed by white
labourers, were, in fact, doing as much to aid the
cause of Southern independence as if they were
fighting its battles in the field, and,moreover, as they
were largely employed as teamsters and waggoners
and were as useful in all the spade work of the
trenches as if they had been of the purest Caucasian
blood—there were really no valid arguments
against their employment as warriors except two.
'rho first was that they might not make good
soldiers, or might turn their arms against their
masters ; the second, that the elevation of any
considerable number of negroes to the dignity of
defending the country would be a virtual emanci-
pation of the whole rats—which the South has
declared to be impossible. It would appear that these
objections have gradually loss, weight, or a meeting
of the Governors of no less than six of the Confede-
rate States would not have officially recommended
to President Davis and the Confederate Congress,
as they have recently done, the immediate enrol-
ment in the Confederate armies of every male per-
son in the South, of suitable age, capable of bearing
arms, and irrespective of colour. The South 71;s
hitherto clung to slavery, because it saw no way to
abolish it, without cruelty to the unprepared negro,
or ruin to the staple productions of the country, but
if the suggestion of the Governors be acted upon, as
seems probable, it will prove to the world in the
most emphatic manner that it does not fight for the
maintenance of slavery, as the North pretends, and
as some in Europe still believe, but for indepen•
deuce. In conversation lately with two Southern
gentlemen in Canada, high in the confidence of the
Confederate Government, I was informed the senti-
ment of the Southern peeple towards the negroes
was so kindly that there was nothing in the world
that could be done to ameliorate their condition that
the South would not gladly undertake. " Under
every provocation to revolt and murder their mas-
ters and mistresses," said one of these gentlemen,
" not a single negro has proved false to his protec-
tors. There have been a considerable number of
fugitives wherever the Northern armies have pene-
trated, but in no instance has a negro lifted his
hand in violence against his master or his mistress.
Plantations on which are 300 or 400 negroes have
been governed by one aged white man, too decrepit
to go to battle, and others equally large have been
left wholly to the management of women, in the
absence of their husbands, fathers, or brothers in
the field. Never in any case has there been
a difficulty. The negroes have worked in their daily
routine without a murmur, and as quietly and sub-
missively as if the land were not convulsed with the
fiercest struggle ever known. And if we Southerners
hate the Yankees, and not without reason, our ne-
groes hate them quite as cordially as we do. I see
no objection to arm them. They will fight for their
masters, if their masters lead them, and they will
not only fight but fight well. They are good, an
affectionate, and a docile people. They deserve any-
thing we can give them. They do not, however, de-
serve to be suddenly emancipated and thrown on
their own resources, for their careless, joyous na-
ture, left free to display itself without the judicious
but firm control of a more provident race, would
speedily convert them from slaves into paupers."
" But," I inquired, " if Sou raised an army—say of
a quarter of a million among them—would you not
offer the reward of liberty to them and their wives
and families ?" " Certainly, but under conditions
which would educate and prepare them for the en•
joyment of a boon which they would otherwise be
unable to appreciate."
If these indications of a change of policy on the
part of the South towards the negroes should not
prove fallacious, the ultimate emancipation of the
race may be effected, not by a vindictive people for
the purpose of more easily subjugating their white
brethren, but by a grateful people, anxious to re-
ward them for timely aid in the cause of national
independence. The advantages to the negroes of
the Southern arrangement over the Northern are so
palpable and obvicus as scarcely to require enume-
ration. The main advantage, however, is, that the
South has the power to emancipate them, while the
North has not.

desperate remedies. England is deeply interest%
in this question, and not only for her concern int"
maintenance of peace, but because a great ao.
English have been foolish enough to throW aWcao
their money into the bottomless pit of the Italian
'Treasury, or the dismal slough of Italian putbo
works, and more will probably fall victims to t
it
desperate efforts which the Italian Governreeti
making to relieve them of their hard cash• i!gr,3oril
affairs at home, which are in the opinion 01 .`",,ery
Palmerston so prosperous and eatisfactorYi ere,;,sed
differently regarded by the commercial eTtoal
whom his lordship addressed. :Many of his en',lfeof
had been living during the last two months a,'ltheir
intense anxiety; they had seen, not only
legitimate profits swallowed up by the high raibii
discount, but they had seen their property ter'ieff
depreciated, their friends and neighbours absols
eot
ruined, and hardly dared to hope, however Olcriic,
themselves, that they might not be ruined to Pe: 00
and none could feel assured on Wednesday' t 118" big
danger was over. Lord Palmerston mocked
of
auditors in talking about the satisfactory 80teon•
Europe and the general prosperity of the c°,o/
try. Europe is in the most critical and tT'tbot
condition ; so far from there being no prospee're it
its general tranquillity will be disturbed th%cf;
little prospect that tranquillity can be preser'qy
and England can only be called prosperousf'co
man suffering under a violent attack of diseasBo,
be described as in excellent health. Absurd, II
Slap
ever, as were the Premier's reasons for °los
nothing about the very important questions 3•013,
which the public expected some remark from bstis
we are certainly not disposed to blame his 500
nence. We hope we may take it as some sig° il/
the lesson of last year has not been witheatd
effect, and that the noble lord has resoLilepateo
keep a civil tongue in his head," and not tur'w to
foreign nations before whom he has ultirnstevhigg
bow. It is really a great relief that he said not'cei.
about Denmark or Italy. We are spared the tad
tain humiliation of seeing hi 3 declarations
with contempt. Lord Palmerston has himselagi
an end to that system of lecturing foreign fit
of which he is the author. He has carried it se of
that even the justifiable advice or reccons'reacete
England is disregarded. Let us hope that thesd
serve which he has thus learnt to practise
he has equally imposed upon Earl Russell. It oot
be but a small gain that the Premier (I°BBo
bluster after dinner if the Foreign Sc° 001
blusters in his despatches. As the Premier is 01
a man to sacrifice himself while ho spares hiBicriE
rival—and such reticence must have been a lie
fice—there is a chance that in sleeting his °cc/10
Forte
eo
he has locked up Earl Russell's pen.
England, if it should appear when Parlil i
etl
meets that the Foreign Secretary has not scrAitpoti6 l
single despatch about the convention, 811%0
about the Dano-German question, save his
ei.'; it
to Herr Von Bismark's impertinent ironY,
pity that the Premier was not as reticent;lool'
America. This profession of regret for the, hiSI
shed.and desire for peace has been repeated 011
so often that it becomes quite nauseous. 01,
noble lord had really been desirous of seeies'pto
war brought to an end he would have et.cceeec'
the wise proposal of the Emperor of the .'-robl'
of the success of which no one can entertain a;o6'
Mr. Gladstone took occasion to deny that a° ntetf
diate dissolution of Parliament is now i
plation. We quite believe him, but his den',
unnecessary. The Conservative party hale 13es sta'
themselves too vigilant. But thnt a feWsce,e[oev,
Lord Palmerston did intend to dissolve Par" 8100
in the course of the present month is a fs,t
which there can be no doubt, and even lv.voeo'
stone did not venture to deny it. The vi(iii,`B,,eo°:
the Conservatives disconcerted the plan• pri; to t;',
vernment saw that its opponents were De' of'
taken by surprise, and, of course, the yeerDrojecli,
made that discovery abandoned its clever PretSji'l
The annoyance at the failure is, however, elc'ese
and its organs are instructed to deny that tbei:001:
any such intention, in language the yell
perance of which itself shows the falsitY "orios'
denial—a falsity further established by the O of~efe
absurdity of the declaration that the result„
registration has been so favourable that ti""
ists will serve their purpose better.