The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-04 00:00:00

AN EXTRAORDINARY EDITION OF

Zile Ann.

SUPERBLY PRINTED IN COLOURS,

With Illustrations by the First Artists.

THE SUN OF THAT DAY,

Altogether unprecedented in Newspaper

Printing,
Will contain

MEMOIRS of the PRINCE and PRINCESS,
IN DANISH AS WELL AS IN ENGLISH.

WITH
A Full Account of the Marriage Ceremony.

(Terms for Advertisements, One Shilling per Line.)

Price of the Wedding Sun, 6d.; Stamped, 7d.
Orders received by all Newsagents, and at THE SUN
Office, 112, Strand, W.C.

I antagonists. As. regards Charleston, it is
1 all up in that quarter. The generals
have practically confessed their inability to
take it. The defences are so strong that it would
require a force far superior to that at present avail-
able for Mr. LINCOLN to make the attempt with any
chance of success, so that although the blockading
squadron still remains outside the bar, there is no
(
likelihood of their coming to closer quarters with
the garrison. Meantime, while the Confederates,
confident in the strength of their fortifications, are
concentrating their forces on the various points
threatened with attack, Mr. LINCOLN and his ad-
visers (that is, if he ever listens to advice) are con-
cocting new schemes for imposing on the population,
who are at length awakening to the fact that they
are fighting for an impossibility. His conscription
bill embraces all men, governors of States alone
excepted, between the ages of 20 and 43 years.
This may look very fine on paper, but in what
will it result ? Yon may bring a horse to the
water, but you can't make him drink. You may
force a man into the army, but you cant make
him fight ; or, if he do fight, it may be on the
wrong side. It is a fact patent to all America,
that, in spite of conscription and bounties, the de-
serters outnumber the recruits. The army of the
Potomac is demoralised. The force before Vicks-
burg is unequal to the work assigned to it, while the
proposed attack on Charleston has been abandoned,
and it is rumoured that the expedition is about to
be directed against Savannah. If such be the case
it is obvious that it is only done as an excuse for
doing nothing; but it is very probable that the
Confederate General, being well informed of all
the movements of the enemy, will be
prepared for them, and Savannah may prove
as unattainable a prize as Charleston, bat even if
taken, no material benefit can result from the cap-
ture of a place of no importance. With to-day
ends the Republican majority ; what the Democrats
may effect, remains to be seen. There is yet time
to conclude an honourable peace, while the Federal
Government has at least the semblance of an army
and credit. Will Mr. LINCOLN be guided by the
voice of those who have the interest of America
at heart, and who desire to stay the unnatural waste
of life caused by this fratricidal war, or will he
persevere to the end—an end which is now mani-
fest—a cession of hostilities not caused by the
victory of either side, but by the inability
of the Northern States to find men or
money to prosecute a hopeless contest ? Does the
PRESIDENT, from whom so much was expected,
and who instead of glory has brought disaster and
ruin upon his country, court this last humiliation;
or will the light' of reason dawn upon
the mind of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, as it has
already dawned upon that of all intelligent Ameri-
cana, and induce him to adopt the philosophy of a
homely adage, and make the best of a bad job. See-
ing that he cannot make war, let him show to the
world that he can at least make peace.

We sincerely regret that Lord PALMERSTON did
not find himself again in the minority last night,
according to the prevailing fashion of the present
session. The result of the division on the Munci-
pal Elections Bill reflects as little credit on the
House of Commons as the Premier's speech did on
his character as a Liberal. We have long been
unfortunately aware of Lord PALMERSTON'S aver-
sion to the Ballot, but we were scarcely prepared
for so open and decided a profession of it. We all
know that theory is a great deal easier and
more convenient than practice, and accordingly
the hon. members of the Lower House prefer to
indulge in high sounding platitudes about purity
of election, and pathetic lamentations over the
weakness of voters and the wickedness of agents,

to taking the smallest step in the direction of real
and substantial reform, in the shape of the Ballot.
Professedly the reason for this reluctance is to be
found in the solemn platitudes in which Lord
PALEERSTON indulged last night. We apprehend
that the real motive is rather due to the anticipa-
tion of its inconvenient success than of its failure.
The application of the Ballot, which was proposed
last night, did not refer to Parliamentary elections.

It was to municipal elections that the test was to
be applied, and it was distinctly specified as simply
experimental. Mr. LOCKE declared that in these
elections " a great amount of bribery, drunkenness,
and intimidation, or at least cajolery, took place,"
and the object of the bill in question was to apply
to small boroughs in the country a system
which had worked well in the metropolis, where
voting papers are used in all large parishes.
The members who spoke against the bill were, at
least, honest in their admission that it was solely
for fear of its proving a wedge for the introduction
of the dreaded Ballot that they opposed it—not on
the grounds of inefficiency or superfluity. A speaker
on the Opposition side having observed that, if they
suffered this bill to pass the second reading, the
hon. member for Bristol would infallibly cite it as
an awkward precedent in behalf of the
Ballot, Mr. BERKELEY, the consistent cham-
pion of that much needed reform, boldly
declared the bill to be a step in the right direction
and deserving of support. It was justly observed
by some speakers that this was a good opportunity
for trying how the much talked-of Ballot worked,
but that argument probably influenced the repre-
sentatives of nomination boroughs, the successful
candidates at sharply contested elections, to post-
pone the awkward experiment. Still the ministry,
taught by sad experience, may possibly have anti-
cipated another adverse division, for Lord PAL-
MERSTON came to the rescue, and with lofty tone and
high sounding morality, protested against the
possession of political power without poli-
tical responsibility. " I think, says the gay
and easy Premier in his now character of
Mentor," that a man should take the re-
sponsibility, whether for good or evil, of the
course he has thought it his duty to follow. I
I think that respensibility ought to go hand in hand
with political action." It is to be hoped that Lord
PALMERSTON is willing to abide by this princi-
ple and to accept the responsibility of the evils
resulting from bribery and undue influence.
Does his lordship seriously believe that no consti-
tuent has reason to be ashamed of his open vote ?
that no landlord agent, or man of wealth and in-
fluence need shrink from the revelation of the
secret history of elections ? Does ho indeed credit
that every voter adopts the course which " he
deems it his duty to follow "—that either can-
didate or elector always allows his fellow-
citizens to know haw or under what
influence his vote is given ? If so, his lord-
ship has contrived in a surprising manner to pre-
serve the verdant freshness of youthful credulity.
We fear the explanation is rather to be found in
that obstinate and unreasoning opposition to a
reform likely to shake many seats, which
I too many of our leading statesmen contrive
( 7,
I to veil under 'virtuous and patriotic platitudes.
"Cowardly,
dishonest," " un-English," are adjec-
tives readily
if and
continually applied to secret
1
bribery and intimidation were espe-
cially English virtues !
No b
and conscientously opposeitondotuhot some
egmroe sincerely
uidsa
and
such we would remind that we are not living in
Utopia. It would be desirable no doubt for every

man to give his vote free and unchecked by any I
motive save his own political cc evictions. Men
ought,-not to bribe or be bribed, they ought not
to submit to threats or to intimidation.
On the same grounds we might leave our street
doors open, for men ought not to steal. So long,
however, as human nature:remains what it is, prac-
tical experience and not Quixotic theory must be
our guide, and as surely as the thief and the bur-
glar will make the careless householder repent his
want of prudence, so surely will unscrupulous poli-
ticians extort a vote from needy or timorous elec-
tors so long as the means are left in their
power. It is idle to indulge in fruit-
less lamentations over the evil—idle to
preach electoral purity, and meanwhile put the lever
and the screw into the hands of the candidate. Lord
PALMERSTON has certainly not given stability to
his tottering cabinet by his speech or his vote last
night. They were probably quite in accordance
with the wishes of too many among his supporters as
well as among the occupants of the opposite benches.
The country at large, however, will regard this
new specimen of reform legislation with less satis-
faction, and be inclined to ask' Where is the liber-
ality of our Liberals?"

The month of March has been long memorable in
the annals of time, from the Ides of JULIUS CASAR
in the old world to the 4th of March in the New.
This is the day when ABRAHAM LINCOLN assumed
the purple power of the United States—united in
name, but dissociated, in fact, as much as day and
night, and aptly represented by the all-wise white
Abolitionist as by his swarthy but rejected brother
of African lineage. And much as the supreior race
of ADAM revolts at the inferior organ of mind in
the New World, what has the great arbiter of the
West gained by his incomparable intellect, in the
exercise of uncontrolled despotism against the poor
slave and his indomitable master of kindred flesh
and blood. Ile who was but the other day his
friend in partnership and brother in iniquity, so far
as profit resulted, from equal participation in
slavery. What are the PRESIDENT'S feelings this

day ? Does he remember the Ides of March ? Does
he exult in the present or dread the future ? Poor
ABRAHAM LINCOLN !-out of all the many candi-
dates for his office but two short years ago which of
them would change places with him now ? Not
even that poor slave but lunatic freeman, who shook
hands with him on the sad day of his emancipation
from one thraldom to be:precipitated into another,
with all his imperfections on his head—a freeman
without a brother, yet a bondsman in his own
esteem ! He finds no sympathy, meets no friend—
is pushed aside by his fellow freemen as a plague

to be shunned—and faint and weary, roams in the
world like an outcast in the wilderness. This is
what Mr. LINCOLN calls a military measure to eman-
cipate the slave. What delusion—and for both
alike ! If the PRESIDENT has missed his purpose,
the slave has surely missed his destiny. Was there
ever such fatuity in Government, or such misery in-
flicted under such specious philanthropy ? The
prize is freedom, and the wages death. And this
emanating from the merciful dictator of a Christian
Empire, composed of many vaunted abodes of free-
men and conservators of the human race !

Pride goes before a fall, as the proverb runs, but
we have never seen such a fall as this of the PRE-
SIDENT of the United States—
" Since he miscalled the Morning S tar—
Nor man, nor fiend has fallen so far."

And fallen, too, in the boast of his boundless power,
trampling over the liberties of his own people in
the ruthless endeavour to crush those of his anta-
gonists. We have said some time ago that the
Fourth of March would be fruitful of events—and
now that the day has come, we wonder what has
happened. Had we now the great Atlantic cable
in being—what would not the Old World give for
a little table-talk with the New—not under the
rose, but under the waters of revelation ? And
what an abyss must the Western daughter of free-
dom have fathomed in her two years of frantic
labour, and yet she persists in her forlorn fanaticism !
The blood runs cold in the very contemplation of
the damning horrors now rearing their guilty heads
above the waves of affliction ! Humanity shudders,
and can but weep.
Had Mr. LiNcout, however averse to emancipa-
tion by virtue of his oath to preserve the Union
intact and indivisible, yet leaning to mercy's side,
made a virtue of necessity and boldly set the slave
free once and for over at the beginning, irrespective
of friend or foe, the deed were magnanimous, and
would have been hailed with rapturous acclamation
by the civilised world. And more—such a stroke
of generous statesmanship would have combined his
friends and distracted his enemies. Rebellion would
have been quashed in its turbulent dream of resist-
ance, and all discordant feelings and commercial
misunderstandings mutually arranged to the satis-
, faction of all. But the evil genius of Domination
would brook no advice ; and hence what a world of
havoc and waste of life and property have ensued.
Presumption, on the one hand, goaded by ambition,
provoked resistance on the other. The lust of empire
in the North begot independence in the South,
and the struggle grew the more fierce as the rela-
tionship became the dearer from the recollection of
thei:past and the apprehension of the future, till
frenzy roused their animosities into one common
hate and savage determination to dare the worst.
There is no hate like that of brothers—and sadly
have the heroic hearts of America confirmed its
truth,—for in proportion as the stronger made sure
of crushing the weaker, just in the same spirit of
hope did the weaker rise in the desperate fervour of
its might, and trusting in the goodness of its cause,
not only resist but actually overpower its rival, thus
proving that the race is not always to the swift nor
the battle to the strong. To despise not your
enemy, would have saved the North tens of thou-
sands, and the South many a widowed mourner in
these days of sorrow and mutual tribulation. And
what avails it all!' The dream of conquest is as
fallacious as ever. They triumph but profit not.
Their victories are only prolific of slaughter—and
still they strive for conquest to the grave.
This fourth of March must be a day of anguish to
Mr. LINCOLN in his meditations, even if his expedi-
tions prove successful. He cannot heal the past nor
predicate what the future has in store. Already
his own most intimate friends and advisers begin to
waver in their faith to him while they despair of
their country. None have courage to speak out
what all feel, and the very action of Government is
hurried on with a recklessness of consequences
that seems to echo the consciousness of their fears.
It must be a terrible trial of power shorn of re-
spect from the fatuity of its hopeless career. Never
was promise and performance so much at fault.
And yet they go on—but whither ? If forced to
abandon Charleston, will success at Vicksburg be an
equivalent for consolation ? but if he fail at both
while his evil genius keeps in the ascendant, will
Mr. LINCOLN wish to see another fourth of March
in the fallen fortunes of his Republican empire ?
We guess not. But he will—Remember March,—
the fourth of March, remember !

---
The Freeman's Journal states that the Marchio-
ness of Londonderry (wife of the present Marquis) has been
received into the Roman Catholic Church.
The mail from Guayaquil has brought a remit-
tance of £1,770, on account of the dividends of gquador.