The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING-, SEPTEMBER, 21, 1863.

...ma. XL.

T: £ CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(1-4'Y om the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 8.

Thee. American mind is greatly troubled, or, in
Amer i can phrase, "exercised," by the creation of a
moor .i:chy in Mexico, under the protectorate of the
Emp ,error of the French, with the goodwill and con-
sent of Great Britain and Spain. Such an event is
hel. 1 to be equivalent to the recognition of the
SoT Ahern Confederacy, and its final establishment as
an independent power. The Democrats and the
R epublicans—the peace party and the war party—
a' ,a alike indignant. Had Great Britain alone been
tie originator of the project, there can be little
q nestion that it would long ago have been made a
c asta belli by the Federal Government, that the
dry bones of the defunct Monroe doctrine would
have been galvanised into the semblance of vitality,
and that an army of occupation would have found
in Montreal that scope for its valour which is ne-
cessarily denied it in New York. But, with France
the case is different. France was once and often the
enemy of England, and is therefore entitled to the
gratitude of all true Americans. France aided Wash-
ington to make rebellion successful, and it is in some
degree the founder of American independence; there-
fore, much must be forgiven to so early and so
powerful a friend. But there are some things not
to be tolerated even from France ; and the establish-
ment of a monarchy in Mexico is one of them. But
how to resent it is the question. The fire-eaters,
the blusterers, and the Bobadils call for im-
mediate war ; but the Cabinet, finding that the
subjugation of the South is much more than it
can manage, is content to await the further develop-
ment of events, before it compromises itself, even
by a protest which the Emperor of the French may
be in a mood to treat with contemptuous silence.
It is thought, under the circumstances, that Mr.
Seward will trust to the chapter of accidents, and
especially to the chance that the Archduke Maxi-
milian may refuse the perilous dignity, and, in
default of any one else, that not even Mr., or
Prince Patterson, Bonaparte, will lend himself to
the schemes of his cousin of the Tuileries. But the
:feeling of anger is none the less bitter; and as it
seems to be at this moment the predominant one
among American politicians—professional and non-
professional—and of all ranks and degrees of men,
it is possible that Mr. Seward may endeavour to
make capital out of it in order to strengthen his
party at the ensuing elections and catch the vote of
such wavering War Democrats as prefer the Union
to liberty and extended territory to happiness. But
the Emperor is master of the situation, and the

Americans know it. They know, moreover, that if
he carry out his Mexican designs he will have the
moral, if not the military and naval support of Great
Britain, and that the reconstruction of the Union
will be utterly impossible, unless the South, in a
revived love for the Monroe doctrine, should forget
its insults, forget its wrongs, forget the Emancipa-
tion Proclamation, forget the blood of its best and
bravest sons poured out like water for the last two
years in countless battlefields, forget its ruined
homesteads and its devastated provinces, turn gall
into honey, and its immortal hate not only into
inn but into love, and in this beatified state of mind
unite with the North to drive Franee out of Mexico
and England out of Canada. The hope that such
may be the solution is but the shadowy reflection
of a needle's point, and yet there are thousands of
otherwise sensible people who indulge in it, ane
call upon Mr. Lincoln to stultify and humiliate
himself, his Cabinet, and his party by proposing an
amnesty and reconciliation with the South with this
object. But if you ask these worthy souls what they
would propose to do in case the South should reject
the proposal, and what verdict the Americans would
afterwards pass upon Mr. Lincoln for so ignomini-
ous a failure, they have no reply to make.
Another phase of the American mind in reference
to this question deserves notice. Wilde the South
manifests the loftiest self-reliance, and has not the
slightest misgiving of its power to stand alone,
the North continually asserts the impossibility of
any Northern Union, if the South be taken from its
grasp. United with the South they can defy the
world—disunited from the South they must drop to
pieces. Such is the invariable cry of the war
Christians, the war patriots, and the whole Repub-
lican party. Mr. Everett—who was once of opinion
that the " wayward sisters" should be allowed to
depart in peace, but who veered round to the oppo-
site faith as soon as the "stars and stripes," the
flaunting lie and the hate-polluted rag," immorta •
heed by Mr. Greeley, was shot down at Fort Sum-
ter in 1861—sees no hope for the North, if the
South should win its independence. In a letter
read to the Springfield Convention immediately
after Mr. Lincoln's, in which he urged the people
to forego, during tho progress of the war, even
their right of criticising those in power, he gave
expression in this cowardly sentiment—or, per-
hops, it should be called instinct—which seems to
possess and actuate the whole Northern people.
" Considering," he says, " the war which has
been forced upon us by the ambitious dema-
gogues of the South as a question of na-
tional life or death ; that to have the doctrine of
secession established at the mouth of the rebel
cannon is simply to consign the country to a
future of eternal Border war, and to lay its dis-
honoured fragments at the feet of foreign Powers,
I cannot bat think it unpatriotic, for the sake of a
party triumph to make political capital out of the
diffice.ities, or, if you please, the errors unavoidably
incident to the conduct of a war of such gigantic
dimensions." It was not thus that British states-
men, of the rank in which Mr. Everett would like
to be placed, spoke and acted during the rebellion
of the American colonies. They did not desire to
silence the free opinion of the country. They did not
choose to hound on the Administration of the day to
its own ruin. They did net despair of England even
if the empire should be dismembered ; and did not
fear that the brave old land would continuo to be
as great and brave when separated, although at the
cannon's mouth, from her reluctant colonies as she
had ever been before. The result proved how wise
as well as how patriotic they were. But Mr. Everett
and the Northern politicians seem to be above learn-
ing a lesson from the history of England. They have
forgotten the traditions of liberty. They love em-
pire so desperately that they have no room in their
hearts for any other affection. They belie their own
glorious origin when they talk as they do, and
superabundantly prove their readiness for the
strong despotism which is surely coming to bind
together the "broken fragments" of a Union which,
on their own, showing, is certain to fall to pieces,
as soon as it shall have a strong and independent
neighbour of their own blood and language to the
south of the Potoroko. It is not thus that freemen
—worthy to be free should either think or act ;
and not with such craven misgivings that the North
separated from the South can ever succeed in
making itself a great nation,
while public attention is almost exclusively di-
rected to Mexican affairs, and the slow
progress of
the attack on the defences of Charleston, varied by
an occasional twitch of discomfort
-whenever a
rumour crosses the Atlantic of the launch of a new
Confederate war steamer, there are indications,
ation of
, perhaps, et
neither few nor faint, that the Federal occe-p
; and that
Louisiana, with the exception
the city
of New Orleans, is seriously endangered
events are on the eve of taking place in that quarter
-which will render nugatory all the cost and sacrifice
incurred by the capture of Vicksburg and Port
Hudson. General Banks is an excellent officer, but
the Federal Government cannot or will not spare
him men sufficient for the heavy task it has set him.
He is a good administrator and man of business,
bat, being presumptuous enough to keep a con-
science, and to wish to act as becomes a gentleman
and a Christian, he has found it impossible to govern
New Orleans on the system of his predecessor. He
neither insults women, imprisons men unjustly,
levies black mail to enrich himself, or in other modes
plays the part of the brutal Bsshaw which Butler
rendered so popular among the spectators of the
drama who happened to be so far out of reach of the
stage as New York and New England. It is true
that the subordinates of General Banks arc not so
pure as himself, and that he has been unable to pre-
vent, or even to discover, many acts of cruelty and
o:tertian whieh have been practised in his name.
The results are that Federal rule in New Orleans

and throughout Louisiana is as hateful as in But-
ler's time, and that resistance has assumed a shape,
secretly as well as openly, which is likely to prove
unpleasantly to the Northern Government the in,
conveniences of keeping a Poland without employ-
ing a properly qualified butcher and a terminator
to hold it in subjection.
The great object aimed at in the siege and cap-
ture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson was not the
mere possession of these places, but the opening of
the Mississipi from St. Louis to New Orleans to the
trade of the West. The object has not only not been
obtained, but has been thwarted and prevented by
the Government itself. In order to crush more ef-
fectually the spirit of the Louisianians and of the
citizens of New Orleans, and to throw all possible
chances of money-making into the hands of the few
" loyal" inhabitants who yield a real or pretended
allegiance to the Federal Government, and of those
speculative "loyalists" of the North who have fol-
lowed Butler or Banks to the South with the hope
of turning a dishonest penny out of the miseries of
that once rich but now sorely oppressed and impo-
verished region, no one not known to be " loyal,"
or who will not, if challenged, take the oath of fealty
to the Union, is allowed either to send a cargo up
the river or to receive one if it comes down. If a
merchant in St. Louis, Memphis, or Cairo consigns
produce or other goods to any one in New Orleans
with whom he was accustomed to trade before the
outbreak of the war, there is great danger that the
goods will never reach their destination, for the
consignee must take the oath of allegiance before he
is permitted to touch them. And if it be remem-
bered that about nineteen in every twenty of the
commercial classes of New Orleans sympathise with
the Confederates in heart and abhor the Govern-
ment at Washington, it will be seen that the up-
river trader has but small inducement to resume
his trade in the old channels through which he was
accustomed to run. Nor is this the worst part of
the business. The rule in New Orleans applies to
the whole of Louisiana. If a man buys a coat for
himself, or a dress or shawl for his wife, or any
article whatever that he wishes to take or sand
beyond the city boundaries, he must first apply
to a permit agent, to whom he must pay a tax
of five per cent. on the cost of the commodity.
He must next take the " permit " to the Pro-
vost-'Marshal and personally await—it may be
for a whole day—the certificate in writing of that
functionary that all is right. If a sugar planter
desires to purchase a barrel of flour, pork, lard, or
beef in St. Louis or any other Western city, he
must go through the earne:process. In like manner
if any merchant of New Orleans would purchase
sugar or molasses from a planter up or down the
river, he must pay five per cent. on its assumed
value for a "permit," and on its arrival 2c. per lb.
for Internal Revenue Tax, and 5 dollars for " hos-
pital fee." If a permit to bring cotton into the
city is required, the applicant must deposit 20
dollars per bale, as the tax levied at random upon
its presupposed quality and quantity ; and if upon
proceeding to the depot where cotton was supposed
to be stored he finds that the planter has not the
quantity or is indisposed to part with it, or that
freight has risen to an all but prohibitive rate, ren-
dering the trade uncertain of profit, he has to memo-
ralise the Provost-Marshal for a return of his deposit
and wait months, perhaps, before he can receive either
the money or an answer. And on the least sus-
picion, or perhaps from the mere caprice of that
functionary, he may be required to take the oath
of allegiance to a Government which he detests ;
which if ho fails to take, his deposit becomes
forfeited, and he himself may be consigned to prison
for contumacious disloyalty. Under circumstances
such as these it is not surprising that trade on the
Mississippi is anything but brisk, and that the per-
secuted people, condemned to take the oath or to be
ruined in their business, should take it with a men-
tal reservation, and only wait until the pressure of
Federal occupation be removed to give, with heart
and hand, that allegiance to the Confederate Govern-
ment which has been extorted from their lips by
the agents of an administration which they would
despise if it were weak, and which they abhor be-
cause it is powerful. Thousands of such worse than
useless oaths have been imposed upon the mercan-
tile community of Louisiana since the nominal open-
ing of the Mississippi; oaths taken with a flippancy
and sometimes with an insolence that ought to con-
vince the Federal authorities, who know the ante-
cedents of the persons subjected to the ordeal, of the
little eeeasele7, for the pr..,eut ur the future, COO-
tained in such hard or such light swearing. Re-
cently a merchant, known in the slang of the
Unionists for his "secesh proclivities," was desirous
of sending some goods from Memphis to New Or-
leans. He applied to the Provost-Marshal for a per-
mit, and the Provost-Marshal, knowing his man,
asked him pointblank the question, " Are you a
loyal citizen ?" "No, sir, I am not in your sense of
the word loyal." " You can have no permit unless
you will take the oath of allegiance." " I will take
it," he replied, and did so accordingly. " Now, rir,"
rejoined the Provost-Marshal, " you have taken the
loath, do you know what it means and implies ?''
" Perfectly," said the merchant, " it means a pad-
lock on my mouth, and implies a bayonet at my
rear." The word thus emphasised may be rendered
more truthfully, if more coarsely, by an em-
phatic Anglo-Saxonism, if the substitution ac-
cord with the taste of the reader. Another
merchant in circumstances somewhat similar was
asked to take the oath as a preliminary to a
very ordinary piece of mercantile business. He
took it without scruple, and when ha had done so,
coolly told the Provost-Marshal that he considered
him no better than a highwayman. " You have
extorted an oath from me," he said, " as Dick Turpin
might have extorted a purse of money. I yield the
oath because I am powerless in your hands, and
resistance would be useless. But I consider that I
have been robbed, and, should circumstances per-
mit, I will resume possession of my oath as if it
had never been stolen from me."
It is evident from such facts as these that those
Western people who have speculated on the renewal
of their former trade with Louisiana have not much
reason to congratulate themselves on their prospects,
and that Vicksburg and Port Hudson might almost
as well, as far as their interests are concerned, be in
the occupation of the Confederates as in those of
the Federals. The planters have little to dispose
of, and the disposal of that little is rendered unne-
cessarily difficult by the mingled tyranny and cor-
ruption of the Federal officials. Such is the com-
mercial aspect of that once teeming region. Nor is
the military aspect any better. General Banks
conquered the country of the Bayou Teche in April
last, but the small force he left to maintain posses-
sion has been overpowered and overwhelmed, and
according to the latest accounts is in full retreat
towards New Orleans. General Grant, in view of
this new difficulty, has been ordered to take Banks's
place • and Banks, always ready—as a preux che-
caller should be—to do the duty assigned to him, is
to take a command in Texas, and hold himself pre-
pared to checkmate any designs which the French
Government may have formed on the Rio Grande
and in the port of Alatamoras.
Though not of any particular importance, a little
incident which has just occurred may be cited to
show the inferior materiel out of which the officers
of the Federal army is composed. This inferiority
is one of the most patent facts in the daily history
of America. In other countries an " officer" and a
" gentleman" are supposed to be synonymous terms.
A "rowdy" private, if properly drilled, disciplined,
and led, may be converted by time and experience
into a brave and excellent soldier ; bat a " rowdy"
oflicer--a frequenter of bar-rooms and grog shops,
a profane swearer, dirty alike in his person and his
language, and
and not promotedmilitaryoto
reasons,
Enbloethers
military
rank for poli-
tical
lande
yb i
tnog
gi nocvaepr
etairmso,atghoo
at
eheei
daernmtfiyosfwwaar
remains a c' rowdy
f governing himself, is not
, except as a bully and a
stlycrhanotffi.
Department to reform
eadn dwtiht he
ceTr sw, ob
u
determination of the War
the matter unsparingly, have done much to weed
out these black sheep and supply their places with
men of a higher character. From a recent meeting
of the army chaplains—gentlemen who receive the
allowance of 100 dols. a month and rations, and who
consider themselves aggrieved at not being placed
in every respect on the same footing as captains--
it would appear that there are rowdy clergymen in

the Federal army as well as rowdy soldiers and
rowdy officers, The grievances discussed by the
chaplains were threefold. The first was that their
pay was deducted during sickness, while that of
captains was no:; the second, that they were not
recognised as entitled to transportation for their
baggage; and last, and worst of all, that they were
insulted by the officers and laughed at by the men,
and that no measures were taken by the command-
ing Generals to enforce the attendance of the
soldiers at prayers. One of the principal speakers,
a " clergyman" from Pennsylvania, discoursed of
these and other hardships in a style which was
enough to prove, irrespective of the first two
grievances, that the third was irremediable, and
that no soldier of any religious feeling would
tolerate compulsory attendance at any prayers
prayers which such a person might offer. " I
lately went," he said, " to see the colonel, and had
the colonel's fist under my nose as an answer to my
complaint. I drew off, as you may believe, and
swore to make guano of the colonel, or any one else
(so help me God) who interrupted me in the per-
formance of my duty. More than that, I let him
know that I had once been a blacksmith, and cau-
tioned him, if he valued his bones, to keep out of
the reach of my sledge hammer." Clearly this
" reverend" person mistook his vocation, and should
either have stuck to his forge or joined the army
as a private soldier. The wonder, however, is that
with such colonels and such chaplains the rank and
file of the army behaves as gallantly as it does,
and that it is not hopelessly demoralised by the
many bad examples which are set before it by those
whose duty it should be to elevate and improve it.
The panic in the stock-market has partially sub-
sided. The small speculators have been ruined .
the larger ones have been crippled and taught wia'.
dom ; but no failures among the higher order of
bankers and brokers have occurred to strengthen
the existing alarm. The " ring" of great capital-
ists, who by their combinations contrive to keep up
the price of shares in some particular lines, are
again at work to bring these fancy stocks to their
former rates, but as yet with only moderate success.
Gold maintains itself within a slight fraction of
recent advance, the brokers of Mr. Chase not being
in a position to affect a fall while their chief is in
the market as a borrower of fifty millions of one
sort of paper, to be reimbursed in another. The ge-
neral belief is that there must, of necessity, be a
further fall in stocks and a steadily advancing pre-
mium on gold, and that the panics of the New York
Stock-market are likely to be intermittent until the
grand finale and smash, which may be cleverly post.
poned, but which cannot be prevented by all the
skill of Wall-street and all the prudence of the
Financial Minister.

WEATHER PROGNOSTICS.

(From Cresu;lek's Weather Guide.)

If the cloods in the west are red, with a tinge of purple,
it portends fine weather, the reason being that the air,when
dry, refracts more of the red and heat-making rays than
when moist ; and as dry air is not perfectly transparent,
those rays are rtflected in the horizon. A coppery or yellow
sunset, on the other hand, foretells rain. A very certain
indication of wet weather is produced by precipitated water.
Ihe observer, though, must not confound the halo with the
corona. The former is a luminous circle seen round the
moon or sun, with a diameter of 20 or more degrees ; whilst,
the corona is a number of coloured rings formed immedi-
ately about the moon's place. When the rainbow appears
in the morning, it is a sign of wet ; when in the evening, of
fine weather. The reason given by Sir Humphrey Davy for
this is, that as the rainbow can only bo seen when the
clouds depositing the rain are opposite to the sun, it follows
that the morning rainbow must be always in the west, and
the evening one in the east. Now, as most of our rain comes
with a west wind, a bow in that quarter would indicate that
the storm was coming towards the observer ; on the other
hand, a bow in the east would indicate that the storm was
passing from him.

Fair weather is betokened by the swallows flying high ;
the insects on which these birds feed are always to be found
in the warmest stratum of air, and the swallows conse-
quently follow them. Now as hot air is lighter than that
which is colder, it will always occupy the higher position;
when, therefore, the swallows are seen flying high,we know
that there is no fear of descending currents of colder air ;
but when they fly low, the warmer air will probably be in-
vaded by a colder stratum descending, and a deposition of
water is liable to be the result.
With regard to what may be learnt from the appearance
of the sky and clouds, the following general directions will
be found useful. As a very good collection of these pheno-
mena, together with the inferences drawn from them, have
been brought together by Rear-Admiral Fit zroy, in the pub-
lications issued by the Board of Trade, we cannot do better
than by quoting the paragraph itself--" If the first indica-
tions uf (lay HOG are seen above a bank of clouds, it foretells
wind; if the first streaks of light are low, and come from
or near the horizon fair weather may be anticipated. Soft-
looking and delicate clouds foretell fine weather, w,th mode-
rate or light breezes ; hard-edged, oily-looking clouds, wind.
A dark gloomy-looking blue sky foretells wind ; but a bright
light blue sky a continuance of fair weather. Generally the
softer clouds look, the less wind may be expected; but the
harder, more ragged and rolled they look, the stronger will
the wind be. Small inky clouds foretell rain; light scud
driving across heavy clouds, wind and rain; but if witiaout
a background of denrer clouds, wind alone. Not unfrequently
clouds, at different elevations, will be observed to be going
in different directions : whilst the lowest stratum of cloud
is moving in the same direction with the wind, the higher
and light clouds may be flying across in altogether another
course; when this is observed to be the case it is usually
a sign that the wind will shortly change to the direction in
which the upper stratum of air is moving. After fine clear
weather the first appearance of a change in the sky are smal
curled or spotty clouds, followed by a gradual cloudingl
in the sky, from an overcasting vapour. The harder
the murky sky appears, the more likely to foretell wind ;
if it looks watery rain may also be expected. The more
distant and higher the clouds are, the more gradual, but
extensive, the coming change will prove. When misty
clouds and vapours seem to hang or to be spread out over
heights, it is a sign of wind and rain; if they rise and dis-
perse themselves, the weather will improve."
The foreknowledge to be gleaned from the close and dawn
of day may be briefly stated as follows, as laid down by
Kaemtz :—Since the appearances of twilight depend on the
state of the sky, they may serve to foretell, to a certain ex-
tent, the weather of the following day. W hen the sky is
blue, and, after sunset, the western region is covered with a
slight purple tint, we may be sure that the weather will be
fine, especially if the horizon seems obscured with a slight
smoke. After rain, isolated clouds, coloured red, and well
illuminated, announce the return of fine weather. A twi-
light of a whitish yellow, especially when it extends to a
distance on the sky, is a sign of bad weather for the mor-
row. Generally, we must expect storms when the sun is
of a brilliant white, and sets in the midst of a white light
which hardly permits us to distinguish it ; the probabili-
ties of bad weather are still more increased when light cirri,
that give the sky a dull appearance, appear deeper near the
horizon, and when the twilight is of a greyish red, in the
midst of which are seen portions of a deep red that pass into
grey, and scarcely permit the sun to be distinguished—in
this case vesicular vapour is very abundant, and we may
calculate on wind and approaching rain.
The signs to be drawn from daybreak are somewhat
different. When it is very red we may expect rain, whilst
a grey dawn announces fine weather. With regard to the
appearance of the clouds, the following inferences may be
derived. In fair weather the sky is seldom quite clear of
small groups of cirrus. Continued wet weather is attended
with horizontal sheets of this cloud, which subside presently
and pass into cirro-stratus. Before storms they appear
lower and denser, and unusually in that quarter from which
the storm arises. Steady high winds are proceeded and at-
tended by streaks running quite across the sky in the direc-
tion they blow in.

We might sum up those sources of information by re-
marking that, generally, natural, easy, and delicate tints
with undefined and woolly clouds, foretell fine weather ;,but
unusual hues, with striking contrasts of colour, and hard,
sharply-marked outlines, usually precede wind and wet
weather. There are some few other sources of foreknow-
ledge which, though not nearly so reliable as the ones
we have just enumerated, yet demand some attention from
the prudent farmer ; we shall therefore give some of them.
Dew is an indication of fine weather, as is also fog. When
smoke from chimneys does not ascend, but takes a crooked
course, it is a sign of a change for the worse• The habits
and cries of animals are also taken to bo a guide ; and, to a
certain extent, they aro so. Sheep are observed to jump and
play in an unusual degree before rough and wet weather.
In winter when they lie Ruler a hedge, and seem to be un-
willing to go to pasture, it is a sign of a coming storm•
When peacocks cry much it is an indication of bad weather.
If cocks begin to crow while it is raining, it is said to be a
sign that it will soon be fine. The flight of wild geese to-
wards the west, the early appearance of the woodcock and
fieldfares are signs of coming cold.
It has also been asserted that the habits of the spider may
afford some hints as to the weather, If the weather be likely
to become rainy and stormy, the spider fixes the terminating
threads, by which the entire web is suspended, unusually
short, and in this state awaits the impending change; on
the other hand, if these threads be long, the weather will
be proportionately serene. If the spider ba completely inac-
tive, rain will follow; but if, during rain, their wonted
activity be resumed, the rain will soon cease and fair wea-
ther will ensue. From vegetable life we may also draw
some conclusions. The down of the dandelion will close in
bad weather, but will expand when it is fine. The pim-
pernal is also a well-known example of a natural weather•
indicator; vflzen the flower closes its loans it will be wet;

but, when it opens them in the morning, it is a sign of a
fine day. _ _ _

After what we have said aboat the uncertainty and diffi-
culties in the way of progno3ticating the weather in our
country, many hours in advance of the change, we need
hardly add that the eye shoulQ always be ready to detect
the slightest indication of any change. Let not the farmer
doubt but that careful and constant attention to these points
will prove of infinitely more U3O to him than all the empiri-
cal predictions extant.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY REVIEW.—Mr. Lincoln, in his letter
to the Republican Convention of New York, seems
to pledge himself to a policy of total subjugation
when he expresses a well-founded opinion that no
possible compromise can secure the maintenance or
restoration of the Union. The strength of the seces-
sion is, as he candidly admits, in the Confederate
army, and the offers of scattered civilians who pos-
sess neither political nor military power are wholly
inoperative and worthless. It follows that the Union
can only be restored by the utter defeat of the army,
and a perfect triumph would to a certain extent,
supersede the necessity of negotiation or compro-
mise. As the army of the South is identical with
its population, Mr. Lincoln virtually allows that the
Confederate States are all but unanimously opposed
to reunion. It is certainly not impossible that they
may ultimately be forced to submit, but if the war
were terminated it would still be necessary to pro-
vide for their administration. Mr. Lincoln's sup-
porters have devised an ingenious plan of govern-
ment by minorities, composed of traitors who have
deserted the cause of their states and of Confederacy.
The voters who are willing to take the Federal oath
of allegiance are to elect State Governments, mem-
bers of Congress, and Senators, and to constitute a
privileged aristocracy in the midst of disarmed and
helpless enemies of the Union. The Republican
projectors hope that by degrees the Northern im
migrants will be strong enough to Corm a perma-
nent garrison in the South, even if they fail to ex•
pand into a majority. The entire scheme reproduces,
with unconscious aceuracy, the mistaken methods of
subduing Irish disaffection which were tried by
different English Governments in the seventeenth
century. The only excuse for the anachronism
consists in the difficulty of devising any alter-
native. The President may not be respon-
sible for the plans of his unauthorised ad-
visers; but, in repudiating compromise as
impracticable, he pledges himself first to conquer
the South, and then to govern it against its will,
either by open force or with an admixture of trans-
parent fraud. After all, Mr. Lincoln's letter seems
to be little more than a repetition of the phrases
which make up the resolutions of the Convention.
It matters little whether the Republican platform
was originally devised at New York or at Washing-
ton. Except as cutting him off from all opportu-
nity of altering his policy, this doCument would
have excited little attention, had it not been for
the extraordinary style, combining the homely joco-
sity of a backwoodsman with the grandiloquence of
a sentimental novelist, in which a man so highly
placed at so momentous a crisis finds it natural or
thinks it expedient to discuss such topics as the
policy of wholesale abolition, the fortunes of the
army and navy, and the possibility of peace. Per-
haps there are Americans who are capable of being
ashamed of the vulgar frivolity of their chief magi-
strate in a great political crisis. Facetious refe-
rences to "Uncle Sam's web feet," and repetitions
of every slang party phrase in the American dialect,
indicate something wrong in the state of political
society, as well as the coarseness of the President's
mind. His opinions will probably suit the Repub.
lican Conventions, but perhaps their leaders may
be reminded that the next candidate for the Presi-
dency will be better qualified for his duties if he
had had the advantage of an ordinary advantage of
an ordinary education.
SPECTATOR.—The two humourists who are at
present virtual dictators of English and American
policy, and, each in his way, almost perfect repre-
sentatives of the political feeling of their respective
nations, offer many curious points of comparison in
the way of contrast or resemblance. It is, of course,
not the least of those contrasts that the one is essen-
tially a noble and the other essentially a peasant;
the one a man of the world and of society, the
other a rail-splitter and an attorney ; the one a man
saturated with the diplomatic traditions of half a
century, the other fresh from local politics and vil-
lage squabbles. But it is a difference of greater
moment that the one was chosen because he had
long excited admiration for his shrewdness, ease,
and audacity; the other because he had never
excited admiration or attention at all out of
his native State,—the one because he was con-
spicuous, the other because he was obscure.
It is still more to the purpose that the
English statesman's present power is a temporary
trust, held only during good behaviour, the Ame-
rican's a constitutional lease, guaranteed for a short
term of years ; so that in the aristocratic country
the minister's power, given because he was popular,
depends on the endurance of his popularity, in the
democratic, the power given because he was ucknown
is wholly independent of the qualities he evinces
now that he is becoming known. These are the
most striking contrasts. On the other hand, so far
as each has gained personal influence of his own
with his. own nation, he has gained it much in the
same way by interpreting its asterege wishes and
will sagaciously, by anticipating their expression
vigorously, and " putting his foot down " boldly,
with strong lucid sense, and with something of
cynical humour, on a national policy, cot too heroic
in Drnfpgßinn }lnt nn...c.,1137 toned down to suit the
common places of country feeling and resolve. No
doubt Mr. Lincoln's personal popularity in Ame-
rica is nothing at all in comparison with Lord Pal-
merston's here. The Northerners area little ashamed
of the rather vulgar personality which figures so
prominently in this great crisis of their history.
His mind has shown itself stow and hesitating,
though never irresolute when once decided, and his
dignity has not been equal on most occasions to ruling
his own Cabinet. The consequence is that he has
only within the last few months gained any per-
sonal, as distinct from his official, political influence,
and perhaps it is even cow not very large. Still he
is undoubtedly rising in popular esteem (!) and some
of his political professions of faith have had a sin-
gular success in reading off as it were the inmost
thoughts of the millions of Yankee farmers whose
political creed we in England are least able to un-
derstand. And these occasional dicta of Mr Lincoln's
certainly take a grasp of the American mind not at
all unlike the holdwhich Lord Palmerston's happiest
expositions of English policy take of the English
mind, and for very much the same sort of
reason. They are both strongly logical as well
as lucid in mind, though the American's
style is sometimes obscured by its deficiences. Both
Mr. Lincoln and Lced Palmerston, again, are re-
markable for the strongly secular character of their
political modes of thought, being, indeed—like Louis
Napoleon, Cavour, and almost the greater politi-
cians of recent times (Ricasoli alone excepted)—
singularly careful to disavow undue elevation of
sentiment. Mr. Lincoln is as lucid, and of course
much more homely in explaining that he looks only
to considerations of national self-interest as Lord
Palmerstor. himself. Look at the President's letter
to the mass meeting in Illinois. It is not refined ;
it won't parse; it ends with a kind of intentional
vulgarity, as if Mr. Lincoln wished to speak to the
Yankee farmers in their own dialect. Mr. Lincoln
jokes, in his own vernacular, about " Uncle Sam's
web feet," to please the farmers, with just as much
skill and humour as Lord Palmerston, in his more
polished way, has joked about our "Isthmian
games" to please the racing gentlemen in the House
of Commons. But after allowing for these differ-
' ences of social latitude, the basis of the noble's and
the plebian's sagacity remains much the same—a
great tack in understanding the deep-routed conser-
vatism of the people at the present moment, and a
marvellously real and practical way of laying down
before their eyes the practical alternatives still open
to them for gratifying that conservatism. It may
seem odd to speak of Mr. Lincoln—the temporary
servant of a powerful democracy engriged in appa-
rently aggressive war—as the mouthpiece of the
conservatism of the country. Yet that is his true
power at the present moment even more than Lord
Palmerston's in England. The President represents
exactly that conservative-aggressive attitude of the
public mind in which both English and Northerners
are now best pleased to stand.

LONDON REVIEW.—Hardly a week ago, the Mid-
dlesex Sessions presented the public, through the
medium of the newspapers upon two successive days,
with " sensation" forensic scenes of an extra-
ordinary kind. On the first day a barris•
ter of the name of Metcalfe was the hero of the field.
He was defending a prisoner on trial, and took oc-
casion to present his client to the jury as a man of
high respectability, while at the time it was well
known (to the prosecution, at least) that this highly
respectable prisoner had undergone more than one
previous conviction e,bread. The prosecuting coun-
sel, at the end of the trial, brought the matter under
the notice of the court as an unjustifiable perversion
of truth on the,part of those who were engaged in
the defence. Mr. Metcalfe, however, explained
subsequently that he himself was ignorant of the
convictions recorded against his client, and the
Assistant-Commissioner, Mr. Sergeant Gaselee, ex-
pressed himself satisfied with Mr. Metcalfe's dis-
claimer. We have no reason to question the gen-
tleman's veracity, however we may suspect his
discretion ; but, all personalities apart, the story has
a significant bearing. A counsel may easily have
been ignorant of the prisoner's real character ; bat
the prisoner's attorney must, or at least ought, to
have known it. Assuming that Mr. Metcalfe was
acting strictly within his instructions when he
asserted the prisoner's respectability, it comes to
this • that the attorney put down on the brief and
urged counsel to assert what be either knew to be
Wee, or, at all events, what be did not know to be
true. Attorneys do not play these pranks who
have ordinarily to do with barristers of a high cha-
racter. The trick is not known in a certain class of
business, nor in certain courts. It is confined to
courts where the atmosphere is a peculiar one, and
where practitioners bath above and below the bar

are supposed to be less fastidious. The next day
afforded an opportunity for a display of personal
prowess between two barristers, Mr. Ribton
and Mr. Besley; with Mr. Sergeant Gaselee,
as before, sitting as arbiter of the fight. It
appears that Mr. Ribton, who was for the defence,
was in the middle of a cross-examination, when Mr.
Besley interposed. The following severe affair then
came off, much to the edification of the audience :
Mr. Besley objected to such questions, as they did not
go to impeach the veracity of the witness.
Mr. Ribton said he had never heard such an objection in
the course of his experience in the criminal law, and he was
sure it would not have been taken by any counsel who knew
his business.
Mr. Besley said such observations applied to him were
most impertinent.
Mr. Sergeant Gaselee thought that such observations
ought not to be made.
Mr. Ribton—Then I will retract it. No one doubts that
Mr. Besley knows his business. In fact, he knows
too much. _ _

-----
Every raan has his own modes of expressing him-
self, and we have no wish to misinterpret any of
Mr. Ribton's modes of expression, which may per-
haps be peculiar to himself. But the ordinary in-
terpretation of the back-hander with which that
gentleman finished the controversy is obvious.
Judged by our everyday notions, a barrister of
whom it can be said that he " knows too much" is
no better than " a sharp practitioner." Mr. Ribton,
therefore, implies virtually (though perhaps the in-
sult arises rather from clumsiness than malice) that
Mr. Besley is in the habit of sailing as near the
wind as is consistent with professional etiquette.
Now. such an imputation, supposing it to be false
—and we have no reason to suppose it is true—can
be only disgraceful to the man who recklessly makes
it. Whether true or false, it is a discredit to an
English law court that it should be made at all.
The whole affair i 3 as unseemly as it well could be.
The first impression of any sensible person on read-
ing it may probably have been a regret that the
days of duelling for some purposes are extinct.
There really seems to be no other means of prevent-
ing scandals of this kind. The prospect of a pistol
at twelve paces might perhaps have prevented Mr.
Ribton from gratuitously offering Mr. Besley such
an insult ; and, for fear that bullying should become
licensed, duelling and challengingmight be limited
to the frequenters of the Mildlesex Sessions.
EXAMINER.—OnIy fifty years ago the spectacle
of the execution of a murderer was not thought
sufficient, and was followed by the more lasting'
spectacle of the body dangling in chains from a
gibbet. The banks of the Thames were studded
with these hideous exhibitions, and there was a
whole grove of gibbets at Bugsby's Hole, in the
bend between Blackwell and Woolwich Reach,
under which parties used to be made to drink tea,
the tarred remains swinging over their heads, and
the irons creaking a dismal accompaniment. The
gibbet was meant to be a sort of scarecrow of crime,
but when ample experience proved that it had no
terror for the jail birds, but that familiarity with
the sight made it their laughing stock, while it
struck with disgust or horror the better part of the
community, the hateful thing was abolished. in
another fifty years public executions will probably
have disappeared like the gibbet, which in con-
sistency they should have followed off the stage,
both being of the same nature, and best put out of
sight. But let it not be supposed that the gibbet
was unfriended. It had its advocates who prized
it even more than the execution, to which it was
supplemental. The effect of the spectacle of OXECU•
tioa, they said, is at least transitory, and the num-
bers who witness it keep up each other's spirits,
and find more matter of jest and ribaldry than
grave reflection; but the gibbet is a permanent
warning, and many a criminal shudders as he sees
its hideous burden, or hears its irons at night
croaking, raven-like, of an ignominious death. Such
WAS the theory, but the fact being proved to be quite
the other way, and that familiarity as usual, bred
contempt of these exhibitions, they were abolished
in spite of the most vehement protests. especially
from that learned Recorder of London of whom it
was said, that he was never known to shed a tear
but once, and that one of disappointment at the
reprieve of Macheath in the "Beggar's Opera,"
when he fondly hoped to see the finale of a
hanging. We are sorry to see the Times treat-
ing as kindred proposals the abolition of
capital punishment and the substitution of
private for public execution. We believe the
retention of the punishment of death for murder to
be necessary, and have often stated our reasons for
that belief; but we cannot think any one good
object effected by public executions. We see no-
thing in them but what is objectionable and counter
to the purpose. A public execution answers no
purpose of example. The example is in the fact,
published throughout the realm, that the criminal
has suffered, not in the sight of his dying convul-
sions, witnessed by a few hundreds or thousands,
who, when all is over, go away laughing and jok-
ing, and with the light reflection, " Well, after all,
it is not much to make a fuss about," or "he died
'game and plucky." Tiaere is, indeed, nothing im-
pressive in a public execution. All the circum-
stances are mean and vu!gar, and death is deprived
of all its dignity. Of all the sensation-mongery it
is the lowkct. The sight may make some worse,
tend to harden some hearts, bat none can it make
better. It serves to collect the worst of every dis-
trict, and to mix a good deal of levity and morbid
curiosity with sheer brutality. Upon the last occa-
sion, the execution of four murderers, a large pro-
portion of the mob were women, and many of them
of the appearance called respectable, that is to say,
well dressed. There were excursion trains too, as
for a fair, or races, or a prize fight. It was a gala
day. There were hampers of provisions, and drinks,
and all jolly doings, to see four wretches make their
last struggle. It was well for the public of that
choice neighbourhood that four murders had been
committed, to give them such a treat in the spectacle
of the retribution. A single execution would not
have attracted such a concourse.

LAW TIMES.—The Social Science Congress will
add to its many attractions at Edinburgh, a reunion
of the Bars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, to
be celebrated at a dinner over which Lord Brougham
will preside. It is a happy occasion seized for an
admirable purpose. The Congress will draw to the
metropolis of Scotland dome of the ablest members
of the bar of each of the three countries who design
to take part in the discussions on the various sub-
jects that fall within their studies and experience,
and it may be anticipated that many will be
tempted by this added pleasure to join the assembly
as spectators if not as debaters. 'I he three bars are
not yet sufficiently known to one another. They
have present no point of contact. The embryo
Irish barrister meets the embryo English barrister
at the Temple, when both are students, and there
they form pleasant friendships, which are rarely cul-
tivated after the Channel has severed them. But
of the Scotch bar we of the English know nothing ;
we are never brought together, not even to mess
upon roast shoulders of mutton and sirloins of beef.
Something was wanting to bring about a better
acquaintance. An annual dinner in London was
once talked of, and a meeting alternately at each of
the three capitals has been suggested. But when
the project was put into shape it was felt to be too
great a request to ask 'men to come from Dublin
or Edinburgh merely to dine. Something
more was wanted. This something more the
Social Science Congress will supply. It will de-
pend upon the success of this first endeavour
whether the meeting shall become an institution.
There will be much in Edinburgh to repay the visi-
tor. Great efforts are being made by the authori-
ties to give a hearty welcome to the Congress, and
abundance of amusements will vary its serious
labours; so that the meeting of the three bars will
have a great deal of enjoyment besides the pleasure
itself will yield.

A SHIP RUN DOWN BY THE GREAT EASTERN.
—LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY. The Great Eastern,
which arrived here this morning, while off Cape Clear on
Friday, ran down a ship called the Jane, Captain Duff,
bound from Liverpool to Quebec. Two of the crew of the
latter were killed by the collision. The Jane left this port on
the 10th inst.
[ADVERTISEMENT]. Holloway's Pills. Surpassivg
Excellence,—This medicine is composed of the finest baL-
sams obtainable from the vegetable Kingdom. Unlike
mineral or mercurial preparations, Holloway's Pills are
perfectly innocent and may be safely taken by children and
the most delicate females. The nervous and all who have
lost hope and energy through long-continued affliction,
should have their attention drawn to the many cures of
such cases which have been gradually accomplished by
these Pills, and gratefully acknowledged by most flattering
testimonials. They s6cure a long, healthy, and a happy
life. In all derangements of the digestion arising from the
stomach, liver, or bowels, the curative power of these
purifying Pills is especially observable; they stimulate
sluggish, and regulate disordered, functions.
[ADVERTISEMENT.]—CORSUMptiOR, all nervous, bilious,
liver, and stomach complaints, in every stage, are only ag-
gravated and accelerated by drugs of every description, but
perfectly curable by Du Barry's health restoring Itevalenta
Arabica Food, as proved by thousands of cases which had
been considered hopeless. We quote a few.—Cure No. 62,914.
ins Lange, 18 years of age,
cured after the medical men had
abandoned all hopes of her recovery from the last stage of
Pulmonary consumption, with fearful cough, expectoration,
exhaustion, spitting of blood, perspirations, hollow cheeks,
emaciated to a skeleton. She is now, thank God, a perfectly
healthy, blooming, fleshy girl.—N. Lange, Commissaire de
Police. Cure, No. 46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley
Surrey, of thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver
derangement, and partial deafness.—Cure, No. 47,121. Miss
Elizabeth Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion,
gatherings, low spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure, No.
54,816. Ihe Rev. James T. Campbell, Fakenham, Norfolk,
of indigestion and torpidity of the liver, which had resisted
all medical treatment. In tins, 11b, 2s 9d; 21b, 4s 6d; 51b,
11s; 12ib, 225; 241 b, 405. Barry du Barry and Co., No. 77,
Regent-street, London ; also Fortnum and Mason; and all
grocers and chemists lu every town Qt the United Kingdom.

The Alleged Poisoning Case at Nall.

On Thursday Augustus Wells, assistant to Mr.
Day, surgeon, and George 'I. Wright, landlord of
the Tynemouth Castle public-house, Osborne-street,
charged with attempting to get poison administered
to an illegitimate child, were again brought up at
the Hull Police-court before Mr. Travis, the sti-
pendiary magistrate.
Mr. Gresham appeared for Wells, and Mr. Stead
for Wright.
The witness Woodmancy was recalled, and,
in
answer to Mr. Gresham, said—l know a rullyman
named Robert Norris. I remember meeting -Wells
in Wellington-street some time ago, and asking hint
for the 23s Alice owed me. I never asked him to
give his watch up. I never spoke to Norris about
having seen Wells in Wellington-street on that occa-
sion. I know a person of the name of David Dalton,
a rullyman, and if be says that I told him I bud
asked Wells for £3 he is not speaking the truth-
If Norris says I told him I had asked Wells for his
watch he is not speaking the truth. The box ill
which the two bottles were kept I bought in Lou'
eon, when I was up in London at the Exhibition
year. It cost 9d. or ls., in the Lowther-arcade.
(The box was produced in court and identified by
the witness.)
Mrs. Woolmancy was also recalled, and in answer
to Mr. Gresham, said—l remember the police-oun'
stable coming to my house last Friday to fetch the
box in which the bottles had been. (The box we°
ou
again produced and identified.) I told him I wld
get the key and empty it of its contents if he would
wait. He replied that he was in a hurry, and I was t°
bring it down to the Mansion-house. The box had
some money and papers in it. We have had the
box about seven years. (Sensation in court.) [ri),,e,
stipendiary said if the persons in the gallery d''
not restrain their feelings he would have the court
cleared, as it should not be turned into a bear Pr
den.] Witness continued—My husband bought it
for our little girl, who is dead. It was a mover
box, and when the child was living she used to put
her money into it. After the child died the hot
was put away, and none of the other children wer°
allowed to have it. About three months ago 01
husband wanted a box to put his papers in, se
brought out this one, and it has been in use since'
We have no other box in our house like this orio•
I was not at the Exhibition last year, but my bus.
band was. He brought home a doll a-piece for the
children and a cruet-stand for me. He brought
neither myself nor the children a box like the one
produced. Of this lam quite positive. My bus;
baud never told me that he had purchased a boa
the Lowther-arcade. I never heard him 00 013;
word about having brought anything of the
He could not have brought the box home witbou'
my knowledge.
The Stipendiary—l shall give no further oPini°ll_
about the case, but discharge both prisoners fort
present. (Applause.)
The prisoners were then set at liberty.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

..... ‘

NoRTHAmrToN—sATuRDAy.
ved
Harvest is over in this county, and wheat has pro 0.
more than an average yield. Root crops look verY we
—White wheat, 44s to 468:; red, 42s to 448; fine93os;
to —s per qr. Barley, 348 to 408—grinding, 285.t0
Oats, 28s to 32s per 24 stone. Beans, 38s to 42e. re 9
34s to 408 per qr.

LEICESTER-SATURDAY.

36
New white wheat, 44s to 46P ; , red, 42s to 45s 13e,';„„
stone. Old red, 42s to 45s per 36 stone. Barley, 11, '"":to';
new, 36s to 39s per qr.; grinding, 295, to 325; Old °,,„--0
255.t0 395; new oats, 22s to '2ss per 24 stone. 13°'"
old, 40s to 42s per 38 stone ; flour, 30s to 35s per 20 stone.

YORK— SATURDAY.
The supply of whcat at market to-day
and late prices were about, maintained. 240
Wheat, red 44s to 46s Oats.... ........ 20s to
~
White do .48s to 62s Beans ........... 38, to 4,4
0
Barley .30s to 32s Peas ......... ....---s to ---
Malt, 62s to 64s per qr. • 32s flour, 333
~ rye, per qr.;
to 35s per sack. was moderate,

NOTTINGHAM—SATURDAY.
White wheat, from 438 to 49s ; red wheat, 408 to 40'
Barley—malting, 35s to 41s; grinding, 28s to 31s. Oat'
old, at 24s to 31s Od ; new, 22s to 275. Beans sold at (Sci
to 43s per qr. ; new, 38s to 425.

GRANTHAM—SATURDAY.
Old white wheat, 44s to 4gs ; red, 43s to 45s per 36st,'
new white, 44s to 465; red, 43s to 455. Malting 1951ei;
36s to 38s per qr ; grinding, 30s to 32s ; oats, old, 2:
288; new, 23s to 26: ; beans, 408 to 425; peas, 368 to 4vs'

NORWICH—SATURDAY. but
There was a rather liberal supply of wheat to-ditY, nes
the demand was slow, and late prices declined is to ..2trof
qr for all descriptions. There was an increased 1311"
barley. Oats, beans, and peas dull.
White wheat. 46s to 476 Red wheat
Malting barley ...36s to 38s f Chevalier barley 4J: too lSa
Distilling do 33s to 35s I Oats.. 24, to
Flour, 31s Od to —s Od per sack from the miller'.