The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-04 00:00:00

then he can enact such laws as he, in his superior
wisdom, may deem proper; bat if he, like our own
self, owes obedience to the constitution a e, and
that instrument is as sacred and dear to masit to
us, then he is more than a tyrant to ex cise such
unwarranted authority. We claim t t we are pub-
lishing a loyal paper. What constita• es loyalty ?
If it be in favour of the constitution, as transmitted
to us, then we are loyal; but if, on the contrary,
loyalty consists in a disregard of that instrument,
we are not loyal. We honour and respect that
noble chart of liberty. It is our guide in everything,
and we know no higher authority- We have nothing
to retract. Our comments were made with an eye
to the public welfare. We await the order of Gene-
ral Hascall with pleasure. The wicked alone flee
from the wrath of an offended Deity."
General Hascall's reply to this dignified assertion
of the right of free discussion was to send a com-
pany of soldiers to close the office of the Columbia
City News, take possession of its presses, and pro-
hibit its publication. Whether he caused the
editor to be arrested and sent 'to the South or to
Fort Warren, to keep company with Mr. Vallan-
digham, is not stated. The other unfortunate
journal which incurred the wrath of this egregious
potentate, who is described as having previous to
the war eked out a miserable livelihood by his
scanty earnings as a village attorney, was the South
Bend lorurn,whose editor was accused of " boasting
of an intention to violate Order No. IX." The
editor denied the boast; and Hascall, not conde-
scending to bandy words with him, suppressed, or,
in Western parlance, " squelched" his paper.
Thus the Forum died, on the funereal pyre of
American liberty, to reappear perhaps, like the
phceaix, after General Milo S. Hascall shall have
passed into the maw of that great revolutionary
Saturn, who, according to all experience, devours
his own children.
But General Hascall does not confine his atten-
tion to newspapers. He has as much dislike to oral
as to written liberty of speech ; and on Wednesday
last, when a grand Democratic mass meeting was
held at Indianapolis to protest against the impri-
sonment and condemnation of Mr. Vallandigham,
he marched 500 soldiers to the spot, and under
pretence of providing against any possible disturb-
ance of the peace, stationed a military guard at
every commanding position in the city. The terror
was such that the resolutions were hurriedly passed,
—no set speeches beyond a few formal words of
introduction were made, and the meeting adjourned
sine die, in great confusion. About 50 persons were
arrested for carrying concealed weapons, although
the Federal Constitution expressly guarantees to
all citizens the right to bear arms. As many more
were taken into custody for cheering at the name
of " Jeff. Davis," which, it is alleged, was first
shouted by a spy sent into the meeting by General
Hascall for the express purpose of creating a
disturbance. Burnside and Hascall are worthy
compeers; but Burnside, being the superior officer,
is a little, though very little, in advance of his
subordinate. Hascall punished the offence com-
mitted ; Burnside carries his paternal rule still fur-
ther, and takes pains to render offence impossible.
Upon the role of the good physician, that preven-
tion is better than cure, he has given notice to the
journals of Ohio that they must send him proofs of
the leading articles and the news which they intend
to publish, in order that his imprimatur may be
attached to them. The Emperor of the French has
been accused of harshness to the press, but he is the
mildest of despots compared with Burnside.
The finestion that forces itself upon the minds of
the observers and students of this revolution—for it
is a revolution, if the fierce Democracy of America
have been drilled and dragooned out of their liber-
ties, or if they have been reduced to such a deplorable
emasculation of spirit as to love the shadow of the
defunct Union better than the realities of law, jus-
tice, and security for person and property—is,
whether the people are docile and patient enough
to endure that tyranny for the remainder of Mr.
Lincoln's term of office, with the hope of being able
torestore the action of the constitution by the agency
of the ballot box,and the election of a democratic and
Conservative President, such as Gen. M'Clollan or
Mr. Vallandigham ? If they are so over patient—if
they are so engrossed with a dull materialism as to
think of nothing but money—if for two years they
will quietly submit to the usurpations of military
power, and the insolent domination of a faction
that is numerically not half as strong as the oppo-
sition—they will be entitled to the credit of being
the most sordid and quiet people who ever spoke
the language of Milton and Hampden, and who re-
verence in name, if not in spirii, the laws that trace
their origin to such venerable roots as Trial by.
Jury, Magna Charts, the Bill of Rights, and the
Writ of Habeas Corpus. If all these great triumphs
of their British ancestors, which are their lawful
inheritance, are to be suspended for two years—do
the Americans think they will ever enjoy them
again unless they fight for them ? And if they are
to be fought for at some future time, would it not
be better to have a small fight of words now, last-
ing, perhaps, for Mr. Seward's famous " ninety
days," instead of having a fight of words hereafter
that might last for 20 years, and that might notl,
perhaps, be concluded within the lifetime of any
man now treading the soil of this continent ?
The increase of Irish immigration to this port
within the last three months has been so large as to
excite universal remark. It is doubtful, however,
whether the influx is in all respects natural. There
is so much poverty in Ireland, and there are so
many prosperous Irishmen in America, who an-
nually send money to the land of their birth, to
pay the passage of their kindred to new homes,
that emigration will not cease, as long as Ireland
continues poor and overpeopled. But since the be-
ginning of the present year the arrivals have ex-
ceeded the average almost threefold. One obvious
explanation of the fact is, that the war has taken
from productive industry an immense number 9f
labourers, and that the inconvenience sufferdd
from this cause in the north and north-west
known in Ireland—and gives an impetus
to emigration. Any man who can dig 'a
field or garden, drive a cart, carry a heavy load, 9r
perform any other piece of unskilled or useful labour, ,
can readily earn a dollar and a quarter, or a dollar
and a half a day. The want is so urgent that a
hundred thousand of such men would be absorbed
in the great cities and rural districts from New York
to Chicago in less than six months. This fact has
not only been made extensively known in Ireland
by private correspondence from America, but has
been systematically promulgated by order of the
Federal Government, and notably by a letter from
Mr. Seward, which has been published and com-
mented upon in most of the Irish newspapers. The
object of that letter was to stimulate emigration;
and it has produced its effect. Whether there wars
not another object, that of procuring recruits for
the Federal armies, may be surmised, but need not,
perhaps, be discussed. Not only have its agents or
friends in Ireland represented in glowing colours
the scarcity of labour in the field and farm, and the
golden rewards it would obtain if it could but be in-
duced to come here, but they have publicly made
Ettoe 111th:tett
.1,1211
exodus
known:in Ireland that no less than.lo,ooo labourers
managers
las gtherast
roefawil
Were wanted on one railway in the West, the
really pays
were willing to pay wages at the
for
a
of a dollar a day besides the passage money
of the labourer from I;eland to New York. Who
another name
the railway Pays the passage money—whether
persons representing InYth—or whether it is but
question, not tiorb:he Federal Government, are
of a railway not named, answered ; but that in
enumzeesy
tohas b
ebeen e paid
officersbv
some instances the
the positive testimony of
earsay
of
e.threetesutis
nem arrivedber
Anotheremigrants, and
ee
tiai is
eah newlyupon
has been the fear, exclusively
eys-
we
apprehension has
and
tematically encouraged in Ireland, that the
British
Government is about to pass l
gration to the United States. aThai
induced many hundreds, or it may be thousands,'
who had friends, kindred, and relatives in theNort
and West, to expedite a departure on which
they
had previously resolved. Possibly it may turn out
that this fear has been instilled into the minds of the
Irish peasantry by agents of the Federal Govern-
ment. Whatever the truth in this particular may be,
the emigrants are beset by the recruiting officer the