The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-10 00:00:00

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Federal navy was incompetent too
all events, unsuccessful in accomi
it not to strike these over sangui
that the British navy might not in the case sup-
posed be quito so powerless as tl i 8 t of the United
States; that the enterprising alai skilful people
who built the Florida and the All hams for " the
Emperor of China" might be able ti ) build 40 or 50
or 100 better vessels for the British Government ;
and that their commanders might tx. Ake very short
work both of the ships and the nee kE of any pirates
hailing from Federal ports who s henild venture to
come within 100 miles of them ? It would be con-
sistent with the dignity of the A merjean Govern-
ment and people to devote thei r energies to the
capture of the ships that so distilt b them : but it is
neither consistent with dignity n or reason to con-
tinue to whine over their lo sses wif hout striking a
blow, or to talk of reprisals again st Great Britain
for acts which the British Govern, vent has neither
committed nor sanctioned.

PRICE .4d.
STA3IPED:....Sd.

against the union of influences whie will be brought
to bear in opposition to him ; that his character as
a temporiser and men of shifts and expedients has
tended to prolong the war during his first term,
and would tend still more injuriously to prolong it
during a sE coed ; that the patronage of the Govern-
ment had been so rapidly and enormously increased,
and so loosely placed under his management, as to
render the application of the one term principle
essential to the safety of the Republic ; that in Mr.
Salmon P. Chase are united more of the qualities
of a good President than are to be found in any
ether available candidate ; that his record is cleat
and unimpeachable; that he is a statesman of rare
ability and an administrator of the very highest
order; that the discussion of his fitness for the office
has developed an amount of popularity and strength
in his favour which has astonished his warmest
admirers ; and that, all things considered, nothing
but systematic and faithful effort on the part of his
friends and supporters is necessary to overcome all
possible obstacles to his election. It is no wonder
that Mr. Lincoln's friends should feel scandalised
at such a prommeiamiento, and that the most indis-
creet among them should call for the dismissal of
the Secretary unless he will publicly disavow the
proceedings thus commenced in his name. In any
other country Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Chase could not
conveniently meet at the same table for the trans-
action of public business, and the chief, for his own
comfort's sake, if not for that of his dignity, would
be compelled to dismiss his too ambitious subordi-
nate and look out for another Minister. But it is
probable that Mr. Lincoln, rather than encounter
the peril of a break-up in his Cabinet, will submit,
with his characteristic good humour, to the slight
put upon him, and if ho be really anxious for the
very dangerous honours and patronage of a second
term, that he will trust to the agencies, civil and
military, legal and financial, which are still and will
be for a twelvemonth in his grasp to set aside, un-
dermine, and otherwise defeat the schemes of an ad-
versary, who, however formidable he may be, will
be less formidable in proportion to the number of
candidates that may yet be brought forward. With
three Republicans in the field—himself, Gen. Fre-
mont, and Mr. Chase—and only one Democrat,
with the chance of at least two more in the persons
of Generals Butler and Banks, the President may,
perhaps, be able to play a game that shall checkmate
Mr. Chase, even if the operation should lead to the
election of Gen. M'Clelian. Meanwhile, Mr. Chase
is too powerful to be lightly interfered with.
The Chase manifesto, however, has already had
one result which its framers did not anticipate. It
has virtually defeated a measure which has for the
last week been under discussion in the House of
Representatives, and the object of which was to
authorise the Secretary of the Treasury to enter the
gold-market whenever he pleased and sell his sur-
plus gold. In face of his enormous issues of paper,
gold, as obstinate in following its own laws as water,
that will find its level, persisted in standing at a
premium of nearly 60 per cent. above greenbacks,
in spite of all the hopes, wishes, and efforts of Mr.
Chase to bring it down to 25. It has long been
suspected and asserted that Mr. Chase occasionally
exercised to the extent of a few millions the power
scught to be conferred upon him by Congress ; but,
however the truth may be in this respect, it was
deemed advisable that a privilege so important
should be legally conferred upon him. The measure
was accordingly introduced into the House of Re-
presentatives. Its supporters contended that the
premium on gold was maintained by the nefarious
arts of gamblers and speculators ; that such gam-
bling wag immoral and unpatriotic ; that the depre-
preciation of the prier currency thereby expedited
end maintained was treasonable, inasmuch as it gave
aid and comfort to the enemy, and that whenever
\lr. Chase hadatt -atirplue of gold derived from the
Customs duties above the stuns required f,r the
payment of the interest on the national debt, he
should be allowed in the public betrilf to sell it in
open market. It was further urged that the know-
ledge that Mr. Chase had such a power in his
hands and could at any moment exercise it would
tend to depress speculation and keep gold at a
moderate premium. The objections to these argu-
ments were many and cogent. The power thus
vested in the Secretary would be too much for
ordinary honesty to be proof against ; he would be
virtually the despot of prices and arbiter of every
man's fortunes ; he would be enabled by a hint of
his intentions to put unearned millions into the
hands of his friends, relatives, and supporters ; and,
more than all, he might, if privileged to be a
seller of gold, sell too much of the commodity, and
perhaps find himself by a falling off in the Customs
duties or some other cause, compelled to buy back
what ho had sold, or break faith with the public
creditor,—a condition of affairs which would infal-
libly send up the premium to a far higher rate than
that from which he might have reduced it by hie
unwise intermeddling. These arguments had the
effect anticipated, and decided the Committee of
Ways and Means to report against the proposition.
It was still thought,however, up to yesterday morn-
ing, when Senator Pomeroy's circular appeared,
that means would be found to secure the bill a new
hearing. But that document immediately altered
the state of affairs. All the friends of Mr. Lincoln,
of General Fremont, and of General M'Clellan took
the alarm lest powers so mighty as theee should be
employed in promoting the electioneering canvass
of the Secretary. As these three sections, composed
as they are, not alone of the Republican and Demo-
cratic, but of the nondescript parties, form at least
threcefourths if not nine-tenths of the House, the
measure is doomed, and gold and greenbacks will
be left to the operation of natural causes, to find
their value untampered with by any greater
gambler or financier than such as congregate in
Wall-street and William-street, and make day
hideous with the uproar of their trade.
The recent news from Europe has been received
with unmitigated delight by that amiable section of
the people of this country who hate Great Britain
as ardently as they love the Union, and to please
whom Mr. Seward threatened to hold the British
Government responsible for all the damage inflicted
upon American commerce by the Alabama and the
Florida. They rejoice that the Danes and the
Germans have come to blows and indulge in a
1 romantic, but possibly baseless, vision of a general
European war as the immediate consequence.
Crowns are to be melted up for old metal ; the
purple robes of Kings and Emperors are to be
trailed through the gutter ; thrones aro to be con-
verted into material for bonfires ; the old nation-
alities of Ireland, Poland, and Hungary, but not of
the Heptarchy, are to be restored ; Republic insti-
tutions are everywhere to be established; and such
a din of battle is to be kept up for the next 20 years
in the Old World, that America is to bo left to its
own devices, without danger of foreign interven-
tion, and, more agreeable than all, Great Britain ie
inevitably to be dragged into hostilities with one or
more of the great Powers of the Continent, in
which event Federal capitalists and shipbuilders
are to fit out privateers for the foes of England and
sweep British commerce from every sea and OCen
of the globe. "We should not be human," says
one of these sweet-tempered observers of European
politics, "if we did not feel some little satisfaction
li 1
at the prospect. As soon as eg.and is at war we
shall commence building vessels for the Emperor of
Caine, and the English flag will be driven from
every sea, as ours has been." The spite of this
writer blinds him, and the class to whom he appeals,
to many little facts that ought to be taken into the
account before England or the world can accept his
Iconclusions as positive certainties. The Federal
Government has 12 war ships now in commission
which it cannot tend to sea for want of sailors.
The capture of tho Alabama and the Florida wen-
a duty urgently demanded of the Federal navy.
and the Northern people would have been almost
as mach delighted with either achievement as with
i the enrrendar of Richmond or Charleston ; yat 'ht.!