The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The state of things disclosed by all the
intelligence and all the opi2ions from America is one
wholly unintelligible, either upon the professed cha-
racter of the great cause now trembling in the
balance, or on all our own notions of the last agony
of an empire. A large army of real soldiers, fight-
ing not for an abstraction but for their free homes,
amply provided with all that is absolutely necessary
for war, but with a garden of Eden before them and
a desert behind, have broken through the flimsy line
of Federal defences, and planted themselves securely
in a central point, equally threatening, if not com-
manding, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington.
With regard to the points which have hitherto
formed the basis for the defence of the capital, Gen.
Lee was considered at the last date to be actually in
the rear of Washington. He had turned the thin
and pretentious Federal front, extending from near
Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock, to Harper's
Ferry, on the Potomac, and left General Hooker
watching an imaginary foe, but little disposed to
advance in quest of the shadow, far away to the
south and south-east of Washington. The design
had been foreseen, but foreseen in vain. That
might, indeed, be simply the incapacity of the
coterie of lawyers who sit in the Federal Cabinet
and command its armies. But for more than a
week the danger had been not only foreseen, but
present ; not only present, but advancing by sure
and not very slow steps into the State of Pennsyl-
vania. The alarm had been sounded, and the Con

stitutional appeals had been made. The Governors of
Nev' York and New Jersey had sent considerable
bodies of militiamen with an alacrity which ought to
have shamed both the State authorities of Pennsyl-
vania and the War Department at Washington.

But after the first effort New York had declined to
send more, and New Jersey, on a Constitutional pre-
tence, had withdrawn the forces already sent. From
New England nothing more was to be expected,
and, se for the Federal forces, they are everywhere
except where they ought to be; and unless Penn-
sylvania chose to be ravaged, or make terms with
the invader. she would have to find her own defen-

ders. But, to say that all was panic, depression, and
indifference is only to describe the universal break-
down of the defensive system. There was that which
was vastly worse for the Federal cause, which has
been now the evident secret of its long weak-
ness, and which produces the paradox of an ap-
parently accepted defeat. Everywhere—at Penn-
sylvania, New York, and Washington—public
opinion was expressing itself strongly if not loudlyagainstaainst the Federal Government, and even the
Federal cause. It was not merely that no con-
fidence was felt in the President, his Ministers, or his
Generals, but there prevailed a positive wish that
the Confederate President might establish himself at
Washington and dictate terms to the Union. There
has been nothing like this in history—at least
nothing with which it could fairly be paralleled.
There have been stories of great cities and empires
distracted and weakened by factions, which• even in
the last hour kept up a war within the gates, only less
ruinous than that which raged without. There have
been stories of empires so degenerate and so devoid
of patriotism that it was impossible to recruit the
ranks or replenish the coffers of the garrison. Half a
century ago there were those who hailed the advance
of the Allies in \ o France because they believed.the
Imperial cause hopeless, the country exhausted, the
star of victory fallen, the destiny accomplished.
That was simply to be beaten in a more than mortal
enterprise, and to find the whole world more power-
ful than one man. But from the first it is now clear
there has been a strong underground current and an
obstinate protest, even in the heart of the Federal
side, against the Federal cause. For this we have
been long prepared. Every visitor to the States has
long been struck with the fact that the elements of
wealth, of high education, of refinement, and of
social importance have had no place in the politics
of the Northern States. There men with these qua-
lifications have been virtually ostracised from public
affairs. Neither were_they wanted nor did they want
to obtain seats in the Legislature or take office in the
Government. The: ruth was,they understood and
felt the complieations which. rendered it a gross
hypocrisy to maintain on the one hand a high tariff
and an aggressive policy, and on the other hand to
denounce the institution of slavery, which formed
the chief basis of wealth, territory, and aggression.
These men, at once so politic in their intelligence
and so unpolitical in their lives, knew that if the
Union was to endure it could only be by mutual con-
sideration, and by cherishing, rather than destroy-
ing, the sovereignty of each State. They now speak
with more chance of a hearing, when all depends
upon hearing them ; and they seem bolder to speak
when they speak not for place and power, but for the
restoration of peace and the salvation of their coun-
try. They are not compromised in the Federal cause.
Mr. Lincoln is not their man, and they have nothing
to say to the Generals to whom the lives, the treasure,
and the honour of twenty million people have been
committed. They are under no obligation of secrecy
or submission ; so they speak and are heard. It
is needless now to ask why they have not spoken
before. There is not a State in the world which does
not throw important portions
or
sor fanthnether. peopleE Even
nt
in
political life by one accident
pt his
ncountry.lthere i 0 arennumbers
so
wh
nweiht with
as every
s
, are
in the political calculation. The popularth einstitu-
tionsFree of the United States, especially
in
States, have thrown out and insulrarteendtivtheeanvdernynmenekn
who would have been their best corrective
But this is no conquest, if, i
indeed, that is the event
which is shortly to beexpect .
when the conquerors
01
warh
a sh nanslypr madeoved
are invited as deliverers. I
anything that was known befforellei it
it more evident that, on the whole, 0e Southern
temperament and the social organisation of the
d command. That is a matter in
South produce the men best qualified to govern
an ep dendent of
moral principles and political opinions. Rome was
at once the slave market and the mistress of the
world, and the very men who never appeared but
to show a natural superiority over the rest of the
human race wore themselves slaveowners. Whether
they made the best use of their superiority, and
whether they were as good as they were great, is
another question. In this country we are accustomed
to ascribe certain moral deficiences to the aristocra-
tic class in the comparison with that engaged in
manufacture and trade, and the latter claims to it-
self a large share of the virtue supposed to be cha-
racteristic of England. With this estimate it is un-
necessary to interfere ; but be it ever so correct, it is,
nevertheless, equally true that the habits of govern-
ment and command are more natural and familiar to
the higher class than to the lower, that is, to the gen-
try.than to the trading class. Even when the fact is
resisted, and when it is urged that such a state of
things ought not to be, and there are good moral
reasons against it, the fact is all the time admitted.
We mean, then, no defence or palliation of the
moral condition of the Soathern States, when we
admit that they produce the best soldiers, the best
Generals, the best Statesmen, the' best public func-
tionaries of all kinds in the Union, and are thereby
proved to be the nearest approach td a governing
class. A fact is not the less a fact because it has its
dark aide, its dangers, and perhaps even a ziecidedly
objectionable character. England has no iel.terest
to maintain the moral superiority of the South, for
it is to Southern Statesmen that she owes the
numerous insults she has received from America,
and the generally impracticable tone of Ame-
rican diplomacy. But this is only a fresh
testimony to the resolute, persistent, uncompro-
mising temper of the Southern States, and their
power of carrying their point when once their
honour or their pride is engaged. That is a senti-
ment and a habit very likely to prevail against the
calculations of self-interest and mercenary motives.
It is the way that small States have become great
and have changed places with their masters. Such
is the trial of strength we now KC in America. War
is simply a trial of strength, and it seems to prove
the South the stronger.
DAILY NEWS.—The time spent, in each session,
in the discussion of Cotton-supply from India will
not be wasted if the effect of the argument should
be to rectify the popular notion of the sort of people
who live in India, and the sort of life they lead. In
course of years, it is to be hoped, both humanitarians
and economists may learn to speak more fittingly
of the Indian farmer class than they do at present;
and that they should do so is important. because
their so called practical suggestions are, oftener
than not, grounded on a thoroughly false notion of
the capacity and character of the class they under-
take to pity and manage, or show how to manage.
We are so accustomed to hear the native farmer
groaned over as a helpless sort of savage, victimised
by civilisation, and the tyranny which accompanies
it, that the absurdity does not strike us till we hear
somebody else talking in the same way of some other
class with as little reason. For instance, we laugh
when we read in foreign newspapers of speakers and
writers who avow that their sympathies, in regard
to the India of 1857, are with " the poor sepoys."
If we could inquire what notion these compas-
sionate persons have of" the poor sepoy" we should
find it not much further from the truth than the
parliamentary and popular notion in England of
" the poor ryot." The proud and menacing soldiery
which kept our Indian empire in jeopardy and its
rulers in anxiety for years before 1857 is not more
unlike the hungry, naked, grovelling, whipped, in-
sulted, and outraged poor sepoy of the American and
German imagination, than the intelligent, indus-
trious, well-to• do farmer of an accessible and popu-
lous district is unlike the conception of " the poor
ryot" entertained by those who suppose him to be
as far below the Irish conacre of 20 years ago as an
Asiatic and a heathen must be, eceterispeeibus,
below a European and a Christian, though a papist.

On each occasion of a debate there is now usually
somebody who speaks well of the capacity and
position of the cultivators of India ; and in course
of time this testimony may operate to the advan-
to.e of the landed interest of India and the ma-
nufacturing interest at home, as well as of good
government and a friendly understanding all
round. On Friday evening there was a good deal
of such testimony. Four of the principal speakers
on Mr. Caird's motion delivered their opinion that,
on the subject of cotton-growing in India, the
ryots were quite as able to teach as to learn, and
that they have not only the usual faculty of self-
interest, but a rather uncommon ability in putting
it to use. The strength of the habit of supposing
that the poor ryot wants to be protected, and ma-
naged, and taught how to do everything, appeared
in Mr. Cobden 's horror at the account of rural life
given by Mr. Stnollett, and at the advice to let the
farmers alone, to manage their tillage in their own
way. The facts afterwards related by Mr. Craw-
ford and Mr. J. B. Smith ought, however, to make
all Lancashire, and all champions of " the poor
ryot," pause, in order to consider whether their way
of going to work to get cotton, or to impeach the
motives and doings of everybody who takes a dif-
ferent view, is correct or prudent. What are these
ryots like ? What is their life? and how far is it
likely, in its natural course, to yield cotton to as,
and the profits of the crop to the cultivator ? We
ought to know this before we listen to proposals
that Government shall take the matter out of native
hands, and go to work to grow cotton in India as
the French Government is doing in Algeria. Mr.
Bazley tells us how the authorities at Paris are ir-
rigating and preparing the soil in Algeria, while
the authorities in London and Calcutta are doing
nothing of the sort in India. What help the ryots
really want is in the shape of roads and markets.
Government is helping with the roads, and, in so
far, with markets. But the most effective sort of
market in this case is one which other parties could
manage better. In every cotton-growing district

there should be some place where the growers may
carry their produce for sale, 'with a certainty of
selling it, if of certain quality, and for ready money.
By such a method, which would include an orga-
nisation for preparing, packing, and transmitting
the cotton to port, more of the material might be
obtained, in better condition and sooner, than by
any great scheme for opening up waste lands. Let
waste lands be opened up, by all means ; but let
not expectations of relief from our present difficulty
take that direction. We can obtain much cotton
now from India, and more and more hereafter ; but
before we can obtain the advantages that India
would naturally yield, we must learn to understand
and appreciate better the native farmer, whom we
have no right to despise in his own function, and
who can and will give us what we want, if we take
him into frank consultation, instead of subjecting
him to the insult of interference and the burden of
Government protection.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

. _,~

HULL-TuEsDAY.

The wheat trade since our last report has been very dull.
and under the influence of brilliant weather millers and
dealers show but little inclination to operate. At to-day's
market there was but a moderate supply of English
wheat, which was taken off slowly et is under last week's
currency. Foreign neglected, at is lower. Grinding bar-
ley steady. Beans and peas sold at last week's rates. Oats
dull, and rather cheaper.

Wheat.... Old white.... per qr ... 47s Od to 50s Od
Old red

„
New white .. ~
New red .... „
Barley.... English malting 36s Od to 37s Od
Grinding
Saal and Oderbruck

Holstein and Danish 2Bs Od to 29s Od

Grinding
Oats Fnglish, old
Archangel and Riga, per st osl2ld to 13d
Friesland and Dutch osl3d to oal3/d
Swedish and Danish Osl2d to osl3d
Beans ....English, old, per qr 43s Od to 45s Od
... _ . _. .

42s Od to 44s Cd
40s Od to 42s Od
New ptiiegke. on

Egyptian
Peas Foreign boilers
36s Od to 38s Od
Grinding ..
,; —5 Od to —8..0d
Tares .. a akpring,.t
Indian Corn
Linseed, feeding
crushing
Linseed cakes (Hull) £lo 0 oto £0 0 0
Foreign Bl5 oto 9 0 0
Rape cakes 6 2 6to 0 0 0
Bones 5 5 oto 510 0