The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-08 00:00:00

of the United Kingdom upon a 48 hours' notice have
roused considerable illsfeeling. _The Americans find
it unnatural that John Bull should grudge 'the
growth and prosperity of his Transatlair lc brother;
but they woutd not pick a quarrel with =he fine old
gentleman, nevertheless. I must ray, for truth's
seke, I do not find seriously hostile fee:ings against
England among any of the people I see and hear.
Only this class of well-thinking, respectable Ame-
ricans, strong and influential as they might be by
their position, are so far from having the upper-
hand at this crisis. The " politicians" and the
"shoddy" gentlemen are swaying the community.
America no longer obeys the " sense and worth"
of the country. Had the best men kept their
places they would never have been dragged into
this miserable civil war. Before the outbreak,
where had the Southerners stancher friends, or
more ardent admirers, than among the worthiest
classes of New Englanders? The partiality of the
well-to-do Yankee for those tall Mississippians or
strapping Carolinians amounted almost to idolatry.
Among the students of Havard University, at the
military or naval schools, the youngster from
Charleston or Savannah, as I can testify, was
looked upon as a superior being. Although rather
an unclean animal, addicted to smoking,
and swearing, end given to the worstspitting, dissipation,
he was held up as a pattern of chivalry
cavaliers wasivalry and gen-
tility, and his descent from the
favourably contrasted with the plebeian origin
of the grandsons of the sturdy Puritans. Here
Sathraetoghan,eiienat all the,
sd,r
efne teodf
at Newport, at Nahant, at Saratoga,
resorts of idleness, as
and made much of, the very
Southern families moved in theepboeisltedcierchliel
oas soiibvliel
ww
aa
rr
iAnmcehreicwaonrlsdocoientey . there
h
wouldhearve wes said an
d it was
between the Northern and Southern States. We
had heard the threat of it a hundred times ; and as
many times the fear of it a hundred times ; and as
many times the fear of it had been laid aside as
chimerical. Indeed, it may be safely said no such
war would ever have broken out so long as the sense
and worth of the nation had a chance of being heard
in the council. But sense and worth shrink from
the turmoil of American politics. The best men
fall back, and make room for the worst. Under the
sway of such men the war with the South has be-
come a possibility, and, under favourable circum-
stances, a war with England and France might also
become a probable, however remote, contingency.
JULY 25.
I found Newport in song and dance as I arrived
here the other day. The big hotel, Ocean-house,
was swarming with fair ladies dressed in the pink
of fashion, with all the colours of the wing of a
gaudy butterfly. Wealth and luxury reign su-
preme among those people. Yet the season is a
very dull one, up to this time of the year. The first
year after the outbreak of, the war, in 1861, was
also marked by the same want of social enjoyment.
The Americans were at that time stunned by the
first blow of their calamity, and the affair of Bull
Run had laid the country in sackcloth and ashes.
They rallied in the following year, and Newport
last summer was more crowded and noisier than
usual. The company was none of the best, how-
ever. A set of new men came up, contractors, smug-
glers, and other political blacklegs, men to whom
the ill wind of war has blown all sorts of good, and
who fattened on the common sufferings, like those
Monatti of the Milan pestilence described by Man-
zoni, who had thecare of the dead, and enrichedthem-
selves with the spoils of the dying. This year these
ghouls have not made there appearance, and the best
class ofeitizens, who have found for them the new ap-
pellation of " shoddy" gents, are delighted at their
riddance of such company. Lee's invasion of
Pennsylvania, and the riots at New York, are, na-
turally enough, keeping a great many of the holi-
day folk from their darling haunts. For my own
part I should be glad to hear that the Americans
are in no humour for amusement, but people assure
me that I only ccme too early, and that Newport
will be quite full in August and September. There
is good reason, indeed, why such places should be
sad and desolate. Throughout New England you
scarcely enter a door without being aware that you
are in the house of mourning. Whatever part the
Irish, German, and other hirelings may have borne
in this war, I must bear witness that the best classes
of Americans have bravely come forth for their
country. I know of scarcely a family more than
one member of which has not been or is not in the
ranks of the army. The youths maimed and crip-
pled I meet on the high road certainly do not for
the most part belong to the immigrant rabble of
which the Northern regiments are said to consist;
and even the present conscription is now in many
splendid instances most promptly and cheerfully
complied with by the wealth people, who could
easily purchase exemption, but who prefer to set a
good example by the sacrifice of themselves. This
justice, I think, I owe to the Americans.