The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-11 00:00:00

very gratifying to notice the efforts made by influ.
ential individuals to supply a want and remedy an
evil that existed: Now that an impetus has been
given to the cause, it is to bo hoped that ita advo-
cates will go on and prosper.

The wandering senators, whose holiday is not of
much longer duration, are still employing their
leisure in enlightening their constituents as to the
state of home affairs and foreign politics. It is some-
times amusing to compare the very contrary pro-
phecies and opinions vihich these gentlemen indulge
in. One will dilate upon the triumph of the Liberal
cause, the popularity of Lord PALMERSTON, and the
approaching subjugation of the Southern States.
Perhaps on the same day, a hundred miles off, an-
other M.P. is descanting upon the natural decay of
the Government, the advance of Conservative prin-
ciples, and the hopelessness of Federal success. At
the Corn Exchange, on Wednesday, Mr. BUXTON,
is addressing his constituents, denounced the short-
sighted folly of the Federals in striving to subdue
the South. A day before Mr. LEATHAM had been
holding forth to the good people of Huddersfield on
the glorious prospects of the North. " The Feder'al
operations," he told them, " had not merely cleft the
Confederation in half, but pierced it to the heart ;"
and in a triumphant catalogue he summed up the
great successes, or what he esteemed the great suc-
cesses, that have recently awaited Federal valour
and skill. As amongst these he reckons the posses-
sion of New Orleans, which is a very old subject for
congratulation ; " Richmond in danger," which re-
mains to be proved ; and the bombardment of
" Charleston, the cradle of the rebellion," an
achievement which at present seems more likely to
furnish wholesome exercise for Federal gunners, at
a somewhat heavy cost of ammunition, than any
other practical benefit, we must be allowed to con-
sider the cause of the South not quite so desperate
as Mr. LEATHAM would have us believe. Accord-
ing to his views, those Southern States which are
still in the hands of the Confederacy are " going,"
if not " gone ;" mutiny and treason are in their
camp; gold and credit nowhere, and starvation
everywhere. This is comprehensive at all events.
It is a pity that to deepen the shadows Mr.
LEATHAM could not say that the war was unpopu-
lar among their people, that their armies were filled
with hired recruits, that desertion was wholesale,
and the conscription a sign for popular outbreaks
and outrages. He finds, of course, a subject of con-
gratulation in " the firmness of the British Govern-
ment, which has safely secured the steam rams that
were to have reised the blockade," but it remains
to be seen whether that security will withstand the
inquiries of the House of Commons, and whether
Earl RUSSELL and Mr. ADAMS will find it as easy
to assume despotic rights over a British subject in
the face of Parliament as at his own place of busi-
ness. The guard of marines who boarded the rams
no doubt looked very formidable in the docks at
Birkenhead, but happily they are not the only guard
to whom the preservation of law and order is en-
trusted, and however admirable may be the inter-
nal arrangements of the United States, we have not
yet come to their mode of disposing of unruly
citizens. The enthusiastic panegyric on the triumph
of all the virtues in consequence of Federal deter-
mination and heroism, his pathetic picture of the
tide of liberty rolling back over the world had the
Northern States failed in their mission, will not
find a very hearty echo in the sympathies of Eng-
lishmen. However warmly they may feel regard-
ing social and political freedom—and the strength
of that feeling has been shown a little more plainly
than the Americans have over shown it—their com-
mon sense will not allow the profession of such
principles to be a sufficient cover to the most tyran-
nical and arbitrary acts. It is of no use for men to
go into rhapsodies about the negro, to " rejoice in
the approaching emancipation of 3,000,000 of
his fellowmen," whom so long as Southern
trade passed through Northern hands troubled
himself very little about them. Englishmen, un-
fortunately, have a habit of looking to see if a man's
acts correspond with his words, and of judging him
by the former rather than the latter, and this prac-
tice has been found very inconvenient by a good
many potentates and peoples before now. They
are not very likely to subscribe to Mr. LEATHAM'S
theories at Huddersfield, any more than they will
agree to Mr. BUXTON'S views at Manchester.
This gentlemanly way of setting the world to
rights would have us lead the van in the cause
of sacrifice and moderation. Englund is to sur-
render Gibraltar out of deference to the feelings
of the Spaniards, and for fear of the alarming
prospect of a war with that ancient people. She
is not, however, to make this surrender too lightly.
She is to make it a condition that Spain shall
retire from St. Domingo, that France should re-
tire from Rome, that Austria should withdraw
from Venice, and that Russia should deal more
gently with Poland. The first of these conditions
might very likely be agreed to, but there is a
remote possibility of Austria, France, and Russia
remarking that it makes very little difference
to them whether England or Spain holds Gibral-
tar, and they do not see what connection the
exchange has with their abandonment of their
claims in other quarters. They would, no doubt,
be doubly glad to see such a step, on the part of
England, as lowering her power, and on the prin-
ciple of the old saying, "Quern Deus vult perders
prius dementat." It is only to be hoped that when
Mr. BUXTON'S scheme is carried out, as, with
Earl RUSSELL is really not impossible, England,
in right of her originating the extraordinary pro
pose!, will request the other Powers to move first,
as wise men like to see the change before they give
a cabman half-a-crown for a sixpence. The prin-
ciple of non-intervention which Mr. BUXTON up-
holds so strongly, and which has certainly been
carried to the extreme in our days, is susceptible of
another interpretation than the one he puts upon
it. It may be read as commending each nation to
mind their own affairs, and keep their own stutu
qua, and, according to this view, the wisest thing
that England can do is to leave the other Powers
to themselves, and retain quiet possession of her
own hardly earned dominions.

THE FRENCH CLERK OF THE WEATHER, similar
to Admiral Fitzroy, is M. Mathieu du Drorne. He, how-
ever, takes in a few days in advance, and is not contented
with predicting the next day's weather. lie is prophetic
of great storms for the early part of December, and foretold
that of last week.

THE SPLENDOUR OF THE ACTOR'S ART.—As
Campbell, the Poet, beautifully sang, how—

" by the mighty actor wrought
Illusions perfect triumphs come,
Verso,ceases to be airy thought,
And sculpture to be dumb"—
Mrs. Fanny Kemble, in the current number of the Corn.
Add, remarks, in a kindred strain, of the HistrionicArtlt requires in its professors the imagination of the poet, the
ear ot the musician, the eye of the painter and sculptor, and,
over and above these, a faculty peculiar to itself, inasmuch
a.l the actor personally fulfils and embodies his conception;
a 3 Own voice is his cunningly modulated instrument; his
ex-
pressions of his passion ;
ffii
taumnr adaotb.vtblieeitdutdiote through a temporary existence f
his own frame the mould in which
own face the canvas whereon he portrays the various
he casts the images of beauty and majesty that fill his brain;
occupations, and expressions, the most
and whereas the painter and sculptor may select, of all pos-
siblethess,o remain axed for ever, the actor must livo
beautiful effect they desire to 'produce, and
passion, and preserve throughout its duration poetrthaty ideal
and
grace and dignity, of which the canvass and the marble
giye
d pr,iipialeAs image,
but, bilent an