The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—In order to correct any misconception
and to prevent any suspicion of change, it appears
from the letter of our correspondent at Paris that
the. Emperor of the French hes again addressed our
Government on the American War. His proposal
is a joint yecognition of the South, with the double
object of stopping a carnage which, besides its un-
exampled horrors, is manifestly fruitless, and re-
storing to their proper course a cultivation and com-
merce in which Europe is very much interested.
Certainly we should have offered to mediate long
ere this but for the extreme susceptibility of the
American temper, particularly towards this coun-
try. It is better not to mediate where the media-
tion is certain to be declined, and to be construed
into an affront and an injury. It is possible that
the I, ng and utterly useless addition to the
series of American horrors since the question
was last before us may have broken even that stub-
born and implacable race into something like com-
mon sense and humanity. Her Majesty's Ministers
may therefore think now, on the receipt of the com-
munication to be expected from Baron Gros, that the
time has at length arrived for making some attempt.
We are not left to doubt what the communication will
be. It appears that Mr. Roebuck and. Mr. Lindsay
have done a little piece of extra-official diplomacy,
and obtained an interview with the Emperor in
order to ascertain his views and put him in motion.
The British Cabinet will once more have to accept or
refuse an offer of joint recognition, or hit on a third
course, if one can be suggested. We certainly are
called upon to do what we can. It is said somewhere
that if a man see a brother doing wrong he is hound
to point out to him the error of his ways; and there
is no one nation so much the brother of another
as our revolted plantations are still to ourselves.
As for the actual interest, we are vastly and singu-
larly interested in the peace and prosperity of the
United States. The fact is so manifest that some of
the American papers will not believe we have any
other motive for interfering. This must be our reason.
It is, therefore, needless that we should insist upon
the fact. But, after bearing and forbearing now for
two years, and after seeing our mills closed and our
population starving till these insane people have
finished their quarrel, we ought by this time to be
allowed a little credit for not acting purely on in-
terested motives. Just, however, at this moment
there occurs an example and precedent so oppor-
tune and appropriate that it is scarcely possible
to avoid it. The three Great Powers have
remonstrated with Russia on the folly and
cruelty of her attempts to force the Russian
regime upon Poland, and have suggested six
points upon which they are hopeful that concessions
may be made to Polish nationality. We say three
Powers, because Lord Palmerton himself regards
them as co-operating, and giving one another mu-
tual countenance and aid; though it is very true
that Austria, mindful of Hungary and of her own
policy in a similar case, has largely modified the
suggestions sent to her for consideration. But Eng-
land certainly has not hesitated to send Russia six
points of a hard and salient character, most intelli-
gible in their nature, whatever opinion there may
be as to their working. They amount to the greatest
severance compatible with one Crown and one foreign
policy—if, indeed, the policy would be reserved, and
the Crown secure, under such circumstances. Now,
why should not the same course be adopted with
the imperious Cabinet which is now engaged in
the suicidal attempt to reduce to Federal unity
the Confederate States of America ? There is a
singular amount of resemblance between the two
cases. In both the expanding dream of a world-
wide empire finds itself suddenly and rudely balked
by a noble but impracticable race, which has no wish
to conquer the world, bat has some rather strong
opinions on the matter of its domestic policy and in-
stitutions. The Poles wish to be Poles, and are con-
tent with that simple character. The Southern
States wish to remain very much what they were
when they found themselves obliged, some of them
very reluctantly, to cut the connexion with the
mother country. In both cases a very fiee race wishes
to dissolve partnership with an ambitious and specu-
lative brother. It is a very great trial to the
temper of the more ambitious and imperious
brother in both cases. But younger brothers have
always been apt to inflict such trials. We cannot
wonder at Poland having no taste for co-operating in
the conquest of Turkey, the extermination of the
Circassians, the settlement of the Amoor, or the
taming of all the wild tribes that roam about
Siberia. in like manner, every week furnishes ad-
ditional proof of the perfect incompatibility of the
Northern and Southern temperaments. They have
hardly an idea or a sentiment in common. The
only wonder is how they have got on so long toge-
ther. Then why don't they agree to disagree, and
divide a continent between them ? They are simply
fighting now because they are fighting. The pas-
sions roused by war are urging the war onwards.
The dread question, " which is the best man ?"
keeps the combatants in the arena which is swim-
ming in their blood. Then on what terms is peace
to be made ? If war is not easy, peece seems impos.
sale. But the war is internecine, and threatens
absolute depopulation. Ali that history tells of
fair regions laid waste, cities fallen to decay, public
works in ruins, wild beasts and vermin getting
ahead, savage tribes resuming their sway, and out-
rage taking the place of law, is brought within the
compass of probability. No doubt, in such a case
we should be the great sufferers, France the next,
and Spain, as it seems, not the least. Russia, of
course, will be happy to show on a perfectly dis-
interested occasion that she is humane, liberal,
civilised, and self-denying. But all Europe is in-
terested. States which possess no port yet send
their teeming myriads down the great rivers and
through the netevork of railways to people the
desert, end now to fill the armies, of North
America. That ever open house has received the
overfiowings of our trade and our population. We
know not how much the United States are still
part of ourselves. We have, then, even if we put
this or that article of trade out of the question, a
right to be heard in America, and the human race
has a right to plead for her children massacred in
vain hecatombs, and for her kindly instincts so fear-
fully disregarded. What next, we may well ask,
when that vast paradise, those happy villages, that
glorious temple of peace, that hive of industry, that
inviolate shrine of justice and equity, are all conta-
minated and profaned by daily scenes of fratricidal
slaughter on a scale this poor world never saw be-
fore ? So " is there not a cause" for Europe to re-
monstrate ? It is only justice to herself, and should
is difficult
affront to Republican dignity. At all events,
it difficult to see how Europe can escape the ana-
logy of Poland. If Europe may ask a separate
Constitution for the one, surely it may ask indepen-
dence for the other.
HERALD,—The case of the Alexandra has termi-
nated in a much more signal defeat to the prosecu-
tion than could have been anticipated. Without
quitting the box the jury gave a verdict for the de-
fendants—a verdict which releases the ship, and will
saddle the Crown with heavy damages for a deten-
tion which is thus pronounced illegal. We do not
pretend to know in what light the Government will
regard this decision. It condemns their proceedings
in the case; itwill mulct them in costs; it convicts
them of injustice to British subjects and of servility
to' the American embassy ; but, on the other hand, it
may be said to clear them from blame in regard to
the escape of the Alabama. They were blamed for
not seizing that vessel upon the first information ;
and it was argued that the amount of evidence
subsequently collected being clearly sufficient to
condemn her, she ought in the meantime to have
been arrested on suspicion. In the present case,
however, the Government have taken the course
which it is said they then ought to have taken ; and
although the evidence is certainly quite as complete
as it was against the Alabama, the consequence has
been a defeat, which will entail great annoyance
and expense on the Government, and give encour-
argement to all who may be disposed to embark in
similar speculations; for when a jury gives a ver-
dict without quitting the box it is pretty certain
that the verdict is not accidental ; that any other
jury would take a substantially similar view in a
similar case. The verdict of the defendants, then,
may possibly not be altogether disagreeable to the
Foreign Secretary and his colleagues, however mor-
tifying to the professional pride of the Attorney
and Solicitor-General, by whose advice the prose-
cution was
undertaken. To the American Govern-
ment it will, of course, be exceedingly unwelcome.
They cannot quarrel with the Minister who has
done all in his power to oblige them--who is con-
victed by a jury of his countrymen of having out-
stepped the law in order to oblige them ; and a jury
is not amenable to diplomatic reproaches or to

menaces of future retribution. The Northern people
will likely regard the verdict with angry exaspera-
tion, as another proof of the bitter and malignant
hatred with which they are regarded by the British
aristocracy; and it will be in vain to assure them
that our jurors are chosen from the people ; that no
Government whatever can pack a jury—especially
in London; and that the Courts of Great Britain do
not decide at the bidding of a military commander
or in accordance with the directions of a Minister,
but in obedience to written law and established
precedent. But we have nothing to do with the
irritation of Mr. Seward, or the probable clamours
of the New York Tribune and Times, Dr. Cheever
and his brother preachers of arson, murder, and pil-
lage, may say what they please, and we shall not
care to vindicate against their complaints the justice
of England towards the Northern States. We do
not intend to discuss the propriety of fitting out
in England vessels destined to serve under the
Confederate flag without ever having seen a Con-
federate port. It may or may not be that in
this matter we have done the North less than jus-
tice, as in so many other ie spects we have done
grievous wrong to the South in order to keep well
with the North. This matters little; for had we
acted on the letter of the law, not a few Southern
cruisers, but the whole navy of England would now
be engaged in harassing American commerce and
driving from the seas the flag under which Admiral
Wilkes is still allowed to insult our ports and plun-
der our merchantmen. What concerned the jury,
and what now concerns us, is not whether there is
a breach of neutrality to be feared, but whether a
breach of the Foreign Enlistment Act has been com-
mitted. And we agree with the jury that this
latter point is " not proven!' The Alexandra was
not fitted out as a ship of war or transport, and she
was not armed, though it may be—though we be-
lieve it is—the fact that she was intended to have
the guns and fittings of a gunboat. This being so,
we hold with the jury that she was not equipped
according to the act for the service of the Confede-
rate States, and therefore that her condemnation
would have been an abuse of a law which was in-
tended not to interfere with commerce in contra-
band, but to prevent private war.
POST.—The Moniteur yesterday morning an-
nounced some important changes in the French
Ministry. The official journal did not explain them,
and we have yet to learn their precise bearing. All
that the Moniteur condescends to tell us is, that the
Emperor thinks proper to modify the position of the
speaking Ministers whe, without portfolio, repre-
sented and spoke for their colleagues in the Chain-
, hers. Henceforward the Minister of State, " freed
from administrative functions," and the Minister
President of the Council of State, are to be deputed
to defend the policy of the Government in the de-
bates of the Legislative Bodies. This is the sum of
the explanations afforded to us. Why Count Wa-
lewski, M. de Persigny, M. Rouland, and M. De-
Jangle leave office we are not told; still less are we
informed for what reason they are replaced by such
unknown men as MM. Boudet, Duruy, and Behic.
It reads like a Ministry of transition. These gen-
tlemen are not known to public fame, nor is a
single notion of public policy, internal or external,
connected with one of their names. Until some
certain intelligence reaches us we can only lose
ourselves in conjectures as to the possible reasons
of these remarkable changes. In the first place,
then, we may suppose that M. de Persigny
has fallen a sacrifice to the result of the recent elec-
tions, which seems to be accepted by the Emperor
as a sort of vote of want of confidence in the Home
Minister, if not in the whole Government. In this
instance we can hardly be in error in assigning a
desire to conciliate the newly-elected opposition as
the direct motive of this change. In the next place
we may presume that M. Rouland, who entered on
so sharp a controversy with the seven bishops, has
been dismissed in order to propitiate the great body
of the clergy, who may be supposed to have sym-
pathised with the fiercely attacked episcopam. In
this instance also the reason seems sufficiently ob-
vious when deduced from recent events. But when
we come to Count Walewski we are at fault. It is
said that he has advocated the cause of Poland too
fervently. That is, however, a cause which has so
many warm supporters in France that it is difficult
to believe that such a course on the part of the
Minister of State would lead to his overthrow. M.
Delangle, again, was one of the most upright and
able Ministers who ever held the portfolio of Jus-
tice, and the reason of his fall is yet an enigma.
The counsels of an Imperial mind cannot be read
like those of a Parliament in the broadsheets of the
press, so we must content ourselves for the moment
with the obscurity which is only made more obscure
by the light of this sudden announcement. As far
as the alteration of the position of the Ministt es
porter= is concerned, we may at once admit that
the Emperor must have acted rightly, for any change
in their position must be for the better. In future,
instead of mere advocates crammed with a brief,
real Ministers will address the Representatives, and
will defend what they may truly assume to be their
own policy. The position of the Ministres porte-
voile would have become as painful as ridiculous
when assailed by the power of eloquence, logic, and
wit which is now imported into the Chambers. MM.
Billault and Rouher are men of the highest ability,
and, now that they stand in strong responsible posi-
tions, as exponents not only of Governmental ideas,
but of the policy which they may be supposed to have
assisted in forming in the Cabinet, their oratory will
be listened to with interest and respect. Thus
Parliamentary Government is once more winning
its way in France, and the debates of the Chambers
will no doubt be looked forward to with intense
curiosity and anxiety on the part of our neighbours.
It seems evident that the French people wish for
more power, and that the Emperor is by no means
unwilling that the public voice should be associated
with his own will in the decisions of those great
questions of the day which must often cause him
the deepest anxiety. The responsibilities he has
borne during the last ten years must have weighed
heevily on him, and we can well understand his
welcoming a new state of things which shall admit
of their being partly taken off his shoulders. Pro-
gress is the e' ernal law, and the Emperor is not
slow to understand that France could not ever sit
still under the dictation of one man. He may con-
ceive that he has done sufficient to secure his
dynasty ; he has wreathed his brows with laurel ;
lie has , enriched the country and made her great.
Never for many long years, has France occupied
such a place in Europe. No question is raised but
her arms or vote decide it ; no proposition is sug-
gested but her course is watched and attended to.
Frenchmen have attained both to wealth and glory
beneath his sceptre, a combination heretofore un-
heard of. They wish once more to be their own
pilots, and the hand of the man who hitherto firmly
held the helm relaxes his hold in the expectation
that his word will still be all-powerful in guiding
the vessel if he choose to speak it. We can only
offer these general remarks upon this singular crisis,
waiting to see what further evidence may be pro-
duced of the meaning of these changes. It is cer-
tainly very curious that MM. Walewski and De
Persigny should quit office together, and it is very
inexplicable ee by a number of Ministers of repute
should be replaced by men hitherto unheard of. We
must be satisfied for the present with considering
the general bearing of the Emperor's policy as
developed in this step, leaving the details of it, es
well as the precise motives which prompted him to
take it, to be explained as occasion may arise.