The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-05 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 18e3.

We all must sympathise with Mr. LINCOLN. He
might almost as well be boiling on COBBETT'S grid-
iron, as enduring his present penal worrying. With
the staunch Republicans at him on one side, and the
Democratic majority threatening him on the other,
it must require no little nerve to pursue his course
without faltering. His good intentions, it appears,
no party questions; his pertinacity to his convic-
tions is equally undoubted : but his is not the order
of mind to grasp a great subject comprehensively,
and hence he is exposed to the influence of abler
minds than his own. Their counter influences
have thus often caused the appearance of vacilla-
tion, but it was infirmity of intellect, not of
will and purpose.

The news brought by the Arabia compels us
to respect his "pluck," whatever we may think
of his wisdom. Were he in the position of an
English Prime Minister he must have gone out
of office ; had he been in that of an English So-
vereign, he must have changed his servants; but
he does neither. A caucus—an informal meeting
to decide the course of action—is convened of the
Republican members of the Senate, that is, of his
chief supporters, and in many things his masters.
They declare their want of confidence in his Go-
vernment. Mr. SEWARD is pointed at as espe-
cially objectionable to them. Mr. SEWARD ana
Mr. CRASE, his Chancellor of the Exchequer,
both tender their resignations ; but Mr. LINCOLN
refuses to accept them! They have resumed their
portfolios. The resignations of General HALLEcx,
the Commander-in-Chief, and of Mr. STANTON, the
Secretary for War, are no longer talked of ; even
BURNSIDE'S resignation is not accepted, and the
Administration, after a goad shaking by the mili-
tary earthquake at Fredericksburg, remains,
apparently, the same as before. It was built on
the Presidential rack, if that name can be given to
what has but a quadrennial tenure of existence.
"We are accustomed to suppose the popular will in
the States omnipotent, and not only that, but able
to enforce its policy much more quickly than in
England. It is, however, by no means always so.
Like Sir ROBERT PEEL'S first revised. corn law, it
has leaps—four year leaps. A President is half
Sovereign, half Prime Minister for four years
certain. He cares nothing, or little, for a vote of
no confidence in the Cabinet of which he is the
head. He both reigns and governs for his limited
period of office ; and hence, as in Mr. LINCOLN'S
case, though a majority of the electors may de-
nounce his policy, and though his own party may
proscribe the servants who advise it, he does not
change it. Re is sure, as his friends say of him,
that he purposes well; he knows his integrity if
he knows nothing else, and we can imagine him
(on the supposition that 1:101aCE was ever read by
the self-educated rail-splitter) muttering to himself
MOSLCOMplaCently,
Just= et tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor Prava jubenu ;
Mente quatit solids. um
It is wonderful, indeed, to see how honourably all
the high-placed authorities make the frightful dis-
aster and slaughter of Fredericksburg their own
American leaders cannot at any rate be accused of
shirking responsibility. No apparition qf the ten
thousand victims of that murderous day wrings
from any the exclamation, "Thou canat not say I
did it." The Senate institutes an examination, the
Generals are, of course, all catechised, and General
BURNSIDE boldly takes the whole responsibility on
himself. It was supposed that he had changed the
base of operations from Warrenton more towards
the north
and west to Acquia Creek, on the Poto-
mac ; that he had been disappointed by the War-
office of the pontoon bridges requisite for crossing
when he arrived; but no, says the LUCAN or CAR-
DIGAN of this American B%laklave,
LINCOLN, lIALLECK S "I did it all."
, STANTON, all wished me to
attack from the direction of Warrenton, I chose to
go to Falmouth (the village just opposite Fredericks-
burg, north of the Rappahannock), and, d
of being pressed to fight by them, I
attackedinstea
at an earlier moment than they directed. He only
said, incidentally, that he had not been properly sup-
ported by HALLECZ and /UM. While speaking