The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The solemn pomp of a public funeral,
and the universal demonstrations of sorrow and re-
spect that have accompanied an illustrious soldier
to his grave, stand out in dark relief amid the poli-
tical confusions of the last American Intelligence.
" Since the death of Washington" such a deep and
mournful impression has never been produced by the
loss of one man as by the fall of General Jackson.
From that single event the last of the contests in
which he led will long be specially remembered. It,
will be difficult for the future historian of the Ame-
rican War to give much distinctive character to the
descriptions of the numerous battles which resemble
each other in so many features. All the great en-
gagements have been alike in duration, the large
numbers brought into action, the obstinate fighting,
the'enormous loss of life, and the negative results
of the conflict. An advance attempted, checked,
rolled back, the invading force retreating and again
declared to be " safe," will form the substance of
most of the narratives. But in the record of these
great fights rather than decisive battles the second
" carnage-covered field" of Fredericksburg will be
mournfully distinguished for the Confederacy by the
death of its ablest commander. We may have still
much to learn of the effect of this last defeat on the
army of the North. Present discouragement it must
be, and, according to past experience, future demo-
ralization of the troops is a very probable result.
But, for the moment, heavy as the loss of the
Federals has been, it is not irreparable. Their
slaughtered thousands may he replaced, as the
shattered ranks of their army have been filled up
before. Tempted to enlist by money, or compelled
to serve by force, the numbers may be found. But
by the death of General Jackson the South has lost
a great and controlling mind—one of those born
leaders of men who can infuse their own spirit
into all around them. Such a commander is the
soul and strength of a cause when it asserts
itself in arms. The combination of sincerity and
enthusiasm with the professional skill that
amounted to a genius for war, is rare indeed.
Power cannot evoke, nor can the wealth of em-
pires create it. The adherence of such men to
a cause or principle makes the difference between
success and failure to the side they select. Had
his last victory been more complete it would
not have compensated the South for the loss of
General Jackson, whose fall has thrown such a
dark shadow over the memory of the day. The
national feeling of England recorded the victory of
Trafalgar as dearly purchased by the death of Nel-
son. A similar feeling pervades the South for the
loss of " Stonewall" Jackson, the first great soldier
of this war whom the " choosers of the slain" have
struck down in the shock of battle. The ablest
commander of the Confederacy has fallen while
the contest is still undetermined. " We could have
better spared a division" is the first expression of
the grief of those he led. But the loss of such a
leader cannot be estimated by any scale of num-
bers. There may be no compensation for it. The
South will be exceptionally fortunate if it find
another man with all the qualities and capacity
Gen. Jackson possessed. It is only a just tribute
to his memory to admit that the cause of the South
has received a severe blow by his death. His fall
was untimely, for he was still young, if age is
reckoned by years, and the work to which he had
devoted his life is unfinished. He might have done
his cause more service, but he had achieved a full
measure of fame, Rarely has so brief a period esta-
blished such an unquestioned military reputation.
But his short term of intense activity had been pre-
ceded by a life of professional study and reflection.
He was a pupil of the Military School at West
Point, and up to 1852 an officer of the regular army
of the United States. Among his opponents
throughout this conflict were several of his com-
rades at the academy. M'Clellan was his class
mate ; but the divisions of a civil war placed the
two friends on opposite sides, as they have done
thousands of others. Jackson had served in the
Mexican war with credit, but not with more distinc-
tion than fell to the lot of inferior men. He resigned
his commission in 1852, and when his State se-
ceded from tie Union he was a quiet Professor in
the Military Institute of Virginia, at Lexington.
It was not without a severe mental struggle, and
at last an earnest conviction that he was doing
his duty, that he again drew his sword on the
side of the South. What he has done for the
cause he adopted is known to all the world; but a
great career is suddenly stopped, and others must
be found to carry on his work. The " Cromwell of
the Cavaliers" fought with the same religious en-
thusiasm as the old Puritan leader, but was not
destined to see the conflict ended by a battle to
which the description of a "crowning mercy"
would apply. What conceivable day of carnage
might not be accepted as a "mercy" to mankind, if
it would really terminate a struggle which begins
to be little more than a monotony of slaughter ?
The natural grief of the Southern army for the
loss of its great captain is deepened by the circum-
stances of his death. It is truly said that he felt
by a " cruel chance," for it was a casualty not in-
cluded in the ordinary risks of the field. General
Jackson, it is stated, received his mortal wounds in
the confusion of a melee from the fire of his own
troops, "all of whom would have died for him."
The fatality is very explicable, and not unprece-
dented. Oa similar incidents many military legends
connected with celebrated commanders have been
founded. The bullet which killed Charles XII., it
is said, never crossed the trenches of the "petty
fortress" he was besieging, and the "dubious hand"
was one not far from his side. Tradition, if not
history, ascribes the death of Gustavus Adolphus to
some treachery in those around him on the field of
Lutzen. But these Commanders were also Kings,
and had political and religious enmities at work
against them in addition to the chances they en-
countered as soldiers. The Confederate leader was
a soldier only, and as an officer had won the confi-
dence and affection of all ranks under his command.
We fully believe that to have averted the fatal shot
thousands would have died for their General. The
Commander-in-Chief, before it was known that
Jackson's wounds were mortal, told him, "if he
could have directed events" he would have chosen to
be disabled in his stead. The conflict may be training
Commanders worthy to rank with Jackson, Lee, and
Longstreet, who have held the supremacy of talent
om the outbreak of the war ; but the South may
well fear that in losses among their first group of
able Generals the waste of the conflict will begin
to tell seriously. The North has never yet found
such decided military ability for its high commands
as the South commenced with. The Federale are
trying to arrive at a great general by a tentative
process. All their commanders have been experi-
ments. They have changed often and tested many,
but so far the range of candidates has been through
a descending scale of merit. The North has ex-
pended three armies in trying four generals, and
the last has failed more signally than either of his
predecessors. This process of possible discovery is
fearfully expensive both in money and life ; and
should any of the names not yet drawn from the
political lottery prove the prize required, the long
sought ability may come too late to be of service.
But against these contingent commanders, for the
selection of whom the field is almost without limit,
the South must stake the lives of generals whose
ability cannot be questioned, and whose number
such casualties as that by which Jackson has fallen
may too soon diminish. And it is by this gradual
loss of men, eminent by qualities and skill, that the
South may prove most vulnerable. More Southern
victories over other generals as rash and incompe-
tent as Hooker may be as dearly bought as that in
which Jackson fell; and what nation is rich enough
in military genius to purchase many triumphs at
such a price ?

POST.—The House of Commons last evening, by
250 votes by 191, confirmed its previous resolution
rescinding Mr. Churchward's postal contract. The
story of this contract has now been brought before
the public upon three several occasions. The first
was in 1860, when Mr. Leicester Vernon submitted
to the House of Commons a resolution to the effect
that the agreement entered into with Mr. Church-
ward by Lord Derby's Government for the extension
of his postal Contract from the year 1863 to the year
1870 should be carried into effect. The second oc-
casion was about a fortnight since, when Mr. F.
Peel, on the part of her Majesty's Government,
proposed to the House of Commons it should
make no provision for the payment of Mr. Church-
ward after the 20th of June next, the time at
which his original contract will expire ; and the
third occasion was last night, when Mr. Spencer
Walpole moved the omission of the clause intro-
duced in accordance with the resolution of the com-
mittee on May 18, and which limited
. the payments
to be made to Mr. Churchwardon regard to time

until the period at which his first contract would
expire. The issue raised on all these occasions was,
however, practically the same—namely, whether
the contract entered into by the Conservative Go-

vernment in the year 1859 should be ratified by
Parliament. The questions which were involved in
this issue were extremely curious, and illustrated in
a remarkable degree the operation of Parliamentary
Government, and the relations subsisting between
it and the powers lodged in the Executive. In all
cases of Government contracts it is the heads of par-
ticular departments who in the name of the Crown

bind themselves towards the opposite contracting
parties by the same legal obligations which are en-
tered into between private individuals. As such
contracts are made in the name of the Crown, they
arc of course during the period of their subsistence
binding -open all those who for the time being ad-
minister public afft4irs; nor can a Ministry repu-
diate the contracts entered into by that which pre-
ceded it in office, even though such contracts had
been disapproved of by its members when in oppa-
sition. Ono Government has thus an undoubted
right to bind a Government which succeeds it. But
although it is not open to one Administration to
repudiate the engagements entered into by a previ-
ous one, the House of Commons reserves to itself
the power of setting aside such engagements if it
should think proper. The Government concludes
the contract, but the House of Commons, whW
keeps the strings of the public purse, grants or
withholds at pleasure the sums to be paid in accor-
dance with its conditions. Last evening, in a house
containing 400 members, exclusive of the Speaker,
a motion that the resolution previously carried
should be omitted from the report of the committee
of supply was negatived by the small majority of
14 votes. Whatever difference of opinion may sub-
sist on the question of Mr. Church ward's conduct,
there can be no doubt that in common consistency
no other course was open to the House of Commons
than that which it adopted last night. Four years
ago a special committee had condemned the con-
tract entered into by the Conservative Government
in 1859. A year later the House on a division re-
fused to give it its sanction. A few days since,
when the question was again raised in a substantive
form, the House refused to appropriate the necessary
supplies for the payment of the contractor. Haying,
therefore, on every occasion when the matter was
brought under its consideration refused to ratify
the engagement entered into on the part of the
Executive, it would have been strange indeed if at
the eleventh hour the House of Commons had on
the same facts reversed its previous decisions. It
may be a great hardship upon Mr. Churchward,
but it was impossible under the circumstances for
Parliament to act otherwise.

HERALD.—It is quite within the bounds of pro-
bability that France may be driven, by domestic
necessity, induced by reasons of policy, or provoked
by the affronts she receives from the Government
at Washington, to recognise the Southern Confe-
deracy ; and such recognition would not improbably'
lead, before very long, to the abandonment of the
utrenable and hopeless claims of the North. Again,
despite the pacific tendencies of the Enwish peopio
despite the abject and servile complaisance of Lord
Russell, events are happening every week which
forbid us to feel sure that the North may not at
any moment choose to make war upon England so
openly and avowedly that it will no longer be pos-
sible for England to forbear; and in that case
period of six months would probably witness
the termination of the struggle, by the withdrawal
of all Northern pretensions to authority in any
State south of Mason's and Dixon's line. Nor can
we be certain that some such extraordinary revul-
sion of feeling may not take place in the Northern
States as was seen in April, 1861. Until Fort
Sumter fell there was a general determination in
favour of peace; on the day after its surrender

every one Was clamorous for war. It is possible,
though not likely, that some signal and crushing
disaster might bring about a counter-revolution in
public feeling, and restore the ascendancy of the
Peace party. With these contingencies in vies., we
will not say that the war may not be ended before
Christmas next, even if the Government of this
country should persist in its refusal to recognise the
Confederacy. All that we can say is, that there
seems to be no reason why it may not, and great
reason to fear that it will, last very much longer.
It can be terminated only by the resolution of the
North to desist from its hopeless and wicked enter-
prise; and we confess that at present we see no
signs of such a resolution, and no tendencies likely
to lead in that direction. The finances of the
Union are no doubt in a state of utter confusion ;
and national bankruptcy is impending. But as yet
gold is only worth half as much again as the paper
trash emitted by Mr. Chase; and so long as that
trash retains any value at all, its depreciation is not
likely to have much effect upon the policy of the
Government. War can be waged, and successfully
waged, with a bankrupt exchequer, by a Govern-
ment which is thoroughly indifferent to law, to
equity, and the sufferings of the people. It is true
that, independently of all merely financial conside-
rations, the United States can ill afford the immense
annual destruction of capital which is the sacrifice
really represented by its war expenditure. That
destruction renders the nation, and the vast majority
of the individuals composing it, poorer year after
year. But while millions are growing gradually
and slowly poor, hundreds make rapid and enor-
mous fortunes by the war ; and the strong, concen-
trated, and clearly-perceived interest of the few iii
its protraction, outweigh the evenly-diffused inte-
rest of the many in
evenits inter themin atien, so long
as the
sufferings of the many do not become too intolera-
ble to be forgotten
passion. By our costly, though necessary, war with
heat of patriotic
Napoleon, as by all wars, a few classes were enriched
at the expense of the community; but the murmurs
of those who were impoverished would hardly bane
been loud enough to be heard had not the comnier.,
cial position of the country inflicted on certalui
trades a disproportionate amount of the genersl
burden and made their misery too severe for their
patriotism. In the United States, whose foreigil,
trade is little affecied by the war, the loss inflicted
by the annual withdrawal and unproductive earn'
diture of some hundred and fifty millions sterling
(for the peculations and profits of contractors pre-
vent Government from wasting all that it expends/
falls pretty evenly on all classes, and is not yet felt
as an intolerable grievance by any. We fear, there'
fore, that a long time must elapse before the ex-
haustion of the resources of the North will be 00
painfully felt as to operate powerfully in behalf of
peace.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

.4,-

MANCHESTER-MAY 28.

Our market this morning was quite of a broken charac-
ter. Holders of wheat asked rather higher rates, but
buyers opeiated cautiously. Flour in moderate demand,
but firm. Oats and oatmeal dull. English beans fully as
dear, while Egyptian declined 6d to is per qr. In Indian
corn no material change was observable.