The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC) JOURNALS.

POST.—The battle of Fredericlisbnrg has already
begun to produce those consequences which we
anticipated. In the Senate murmurs are now for
the first time beginning to be heard, and in the
Cabinet symptoms are shown of a desire on the part
of some of its members to avoid the coming storm.
The American people are at last becoming conscious
of the system of misgovernment to which they have
been so long subjected, and from almost every quar-
ter of the Northern States resounds under various
forms the demand that some radical change should
be effected in the Administration. The President
alone remains unaltered and unchangeable. The
same obstinacy and the same disregard for the
principles of that constitution he was sworn to sup-
port, which led him to suspend the Habeas Corpus
Act, and endeavour by proclamation to create laws,
equally prevent him now from recognising and giv-
ing effect to the declared wishes of the people. Mr.
Seward, the Foreign
Secretary, and Mr. Chase, the
Secretary of the Treasury, have sent in their resig-
nations, but Mr. Lincoln has refused to accept them.
The unlucky general who, in obedience to the dic-
tates of his civil superiors, consigned some thou-
sands of his troops to indiscriminate slaughter, has
asked to be relieved of his command, but the re-
quest has been refused. Indeed, so far as regards
Burnside's resignation, we cannot help thinking
that the President has acted with justice if not
with judgment in declining to give effect to it. But
for the obstinacy with which Mr. Lincoln refuses to
reconstruct his Cabinet it is impossible to discern a
single excuse. The American Government is still
presumed to be, at least in form, constitutional, and
consequently the incongruity of conducting it as if
it were a pure despotism becomes all the more strik-
ing. Accustomed as we are in this country to re-
gard the voice of Parliament as the true and only
test of the stability of an Administration, and know-
ing that in theory the American constitution in this
respect does not differ from our own, we can with
difficulty comprehend how the American President
is enabled for a single month to conduct public
affairs with a Cabinet composed of Ministers who
both individually and collectively have lost the pub-
lic confidence. Nor is it alone the support of that
political section which at the recent elections sent
so many representatives to the 4orthern Congress
that is denied to Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. Those who
have hitherto aided to their utmost that Adminis-
tration, and who, rather than see 'it shattered, have
patiently concurred in measures which their judg-
ments must have condemned, now loudly demand
its disintegration. It is the Republican and not the
Democratic members of the Senate who have de-
clared their want of confidence in the Government.
It is those who have quietly submitted to a rule not
less rigorous than that of an Oriental despotism,
nay, who have eulogised with the most fulsome
adulation the Government, because in the name of
liberty it reduced them to the condition of slaves,
which threatens
demandruin the exclusion
from power of their accomplices in the great work
to who
overwhelm now
an da at thhoe
of destruction in which they have been engaged.
Against General Halleck and Mr. Stantoa the
popular clamour excited by the reverse at Frede-
ricksburg continues unabated. Burnside has
taken on himself the whole retiponsibility of the
advance across the Rappahannakk ; but even if in

truth he had originated that disastrous movement,
the War Secretary and General lialleck would still
deserve censure for having compelled him so long
to remain waiting for pontoons. The delay thus
occasioned enabled the Confederates to construct

those defences which ultimately proved impreg-
nable to the Federal battalions. That neither Hal-
leek nor Stanton have followed the example of their
colleagues, Seward and Chase, in sending in their
resignations, affords another instarne how utterly
regardless of public opinion are the members of the
Federal Government. The committee appointed
by Congress to examine into the circumstances
which led to the defeat of the army of Virginia at
Fredericksburg continues its labours, but will
scarcely succeed in eliciting any other explanation
of the reverse than that with which the public are
already acquainted. Burnside, who was examined
as a witness, admitted that he accepted the supreme
command against his will, and only did so in ac-
cordance with the pressing solicitation of M'Clel-
lan. It is, however, rather with the motives which
induced him to cross the Rappahannock, and at-
tack the Confederate army behind its entrench-
ments, than with those which led him to take the
command of the Federal army, that the American
nation is most deslrons of being made acquainted.

If generals are to be mere automatons in the hands
of unscrupulous Ministers, the public ought to
know it. In the present instance they do not seem
to have been much in error in laying the blame of
the most bloody and profitless battle of a bloody
and profitless campaign at the dcars of General
Halleck and Mr. Stanton.

DAILY NEWS.—The suspension of the cotton fac-
tories in France, and concomitant distress of its
workpeople, have been, like almost everything else
in that country, kept in mysterious silence. The
Paris press, with one striking exception, did not
touch upon the subject; the provincial journals,
generally under the thumb of the Prefect,
said little more. The quantity of cotton-yarn
which had been introduced since the com-
mercial treaty, had allowed the weaving and more
advanced kinds of manufacture to proceed. Now,
however, all have come to a stand-still. The Go-
vernment authorities, unable to meet the amount of
distress, have not prevented the chief manufacturers
—of Normandy, at least—from coming together,
forming a committee, and making an appeal to their
countrymen. It is very remarkable that whilst we
work up about five times more cotton than the French
do (according to Mr. Ellison), the numbers of French
employed in cotton manufactures are more than one
half of those similarly employed in England. The
official returns of 1852 give 245,000 as the number of
the French employed in cotton manufactures; and
they must have considerably increased since. The
department of the Lower Seine, of which Rouen is
the capital, produces cotton manufactures in value
equal to half of those of all France. The Alsacian
district, with iklulhausen for its centre, produces
about a quarter. Half a quarter may be traced to
Lille, and the remainder to different scattered
localities. According to the Rouen Committee, of
which M. Cordier is the chief, there are 130,000
workmen out of employment in the department-
-30,000 discharged from mills, and 100,000 hand-
looms, or 7netiers a bras, whose industry has been
put an end to. The Rouen Committee appealed to
Paris, and there was a meeting in that capital, but
of course composed merely of those Parisians who
were connected or acquainted with Normandy and
its manufactures. The produce of the subscriptions
made at the meeting did not exceed £B,ooo—little
more than the amount of our daily contribution
from English charity to Lancashire distress. In
Normandy itself double that sum has been contri-
buted. But how far will £32,000 go towards
feeding 130,000 indigent for at least three
months ? In dividing £5,000 amongst 115,000
applicants, the Rouen Committee say they have
but poured a drop of water upon the conflagration.
The fault of this inaction, rather than indiffe-
rence, lies no doubt in the political habits of the
French people, and more especially in the spirit of
the existing Government, which prohibits associa-
tion, considering it dangerous, and making it im-
possible for men to meet together to discuss and aim
at accomplishing anything in which the public in-
terest is concerned. There is no stirring without
M. le Prefet, who is afraid either to stir himself or
allow others to do so. He refers to his Minister,
and ere he gets an answer the object is lost. The
press is gagged just as much as the public. To point
out that a large proportion of the population of a 1
actual
department is in danger of starvation, or in act 1