The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-30 00:00:00

~1~~~

~Q~~~

N 'LE S PAPER
177.717-7\--\

...'"_7*--,,

zr
~5;,•!!,,,,,,,
;e :1,. tjr4, •,....:, 'k
e # 1 rr--
.
`i • . .

The President governs by re
and it seems to be just as unsf l'itf•;a4
scend into the political arena 4 •
74
as it would be for the Quet
write an autograph letter to the nlck
public meeting which passed resolut.
tory of the policy pursued by her Government. At
the present moment, however, when the Con-,
federates are literally thundering at the gates of
Washington, and when a militia is being rapidly
organised to do the work of armies which have dis-
appeared, there is something positively ludicrous in
the tone in which the Chief Magistrate of the United.
States speaks of the rebellion, and gravely contests
the various. grounds on which secession could be
justified. It is true that when the letter was written
Lee's army still occupied the line of the Rappa-
hannock, and the public received daily assurances
that the baCkbone of the rebellion was within an inch
of being broken, but still the; contingency which has
since occurred was not then completely absent from.
the minds of Mr. Lincoln or his advisers. We will

rot follow the President through his lengthy epistle.
If it satisfied its recipients, and if the population of
the Northern States are content to accept his c•xpo-

,a of constitutional law, and consider diFqni

ions on the legiiiity•of secession i
we have no ohjc!ions to offer.
Lincoln seems to assume, t'

trAive re:-..L:ing-
AsuaLirg, as Mr
it the provisi

of the

U.mstitutiort authorising the suspension of the writ
of habeas corpus in cases of rebellion and invasion
confers the power of suspension en the Executive,
and not on the Legislature, of course he can justify
his recent arrest of Mr.Vallandigham. But as the
majority of persons will be inclined to think that it
wasnever intended that the Pres Pent and his Minis-
ters should be the sole judges of the propriety of
making arbitrary arrests, it is not probable that Mr.
Lincoln's justification of a gross violation of the
rights of citizenship in the person of Mr. Vallan,.
digham, will carry conviction into the minds of

many.
HEI%%.I.D.•—The propositions which the Allied
Powers have addressed to the Russian Government
have this radical vice, that they are unacceptable
alike to the Russians and the Poles. They ask from
Russia much more than she can give, and offer the
Poles far less than they will be satisfied with. If
the Russian Government were reduced to the last
extremities it might submit to the summons to put
down its arms and recognise the Poles as a bellige-
rent power, with whom to treat upon an equal foot-
ing. If the Poles were convinced that Europe will
do no more for them, they would abandon a strug-
gle which they only sustain by enormous sacrifices;
and although they would not accept—if their accept-
ance should be demanded—guarantees of liberty,
for which they do not care, they would take the
concessions given without thanks, as so many steps
upon which, at a future day, to attempt again to
rise into independence. To please neither party in
a quarrel is, by some persons, held conclusive evi-
dence that a judgment is impartial and sound; and
the supporters of the Government may cite the
failure of Earl Russell to conciliate either Prince
Gortschakoff or the National Government of War-
saw as decisive testimony to the fairness of his pro-
posed arrangement. We do not question it. Earl
Russell has, no doubt, been actuated by a very sin-
cere desire to see Poland prosperous and free under
Russian rule. His arrangement would have been
defensible, perhaps admirable, if be had been
called upon as arbitrator to settle the question.
But his interference is perfectly gratuitous. The
Poles, on whose behalf it is made, repudiate alto-
gether the terms which are demanded for them;
the Russian Government has felt itself con-
strained to declare that it will listen to his sug-
gestions, but it has also said plainly enough that
it thinks the tender of them a piece of imperti-
nence with which it could very well have dispensed.
The Minister of a great country who undertakes
to intervene in the quarrels of another Government
with its subjects, and puts himself before the world
as the mediator between them, must look not to the
absolutely just, but the practicable, end suggest an.
accommedation which has a chance of being accepted.
The fact is, that in interfering with the Russian
Government on behalf of Poland, and in framing an
arrangement, the allies undertook a task impossible
of fulfilment—a task which one of them, at least,
knew to be impossible, whilst both the others should
have known it too. The Poles have never con-
cealed their objects. They have declared loudly
enough that they will be content with nothing
short of the expulsion of the Russians from every
inch of territory which at any time formed a por-
tion of the Polish republic. They recorded in a
hundred different ways their contempt for liberal
institutions and administrative reforms, and the
Governments of England and France ought to have
known thoroughly that administrative autonomy
or any other of their six points, would never induce
a Pole to lay down arms so long as he felt the
slightest confidence in his ability to resist Russia.
hey should not have interfered at all beyond the
expression of an opinion aLd a hope ; or they should.
have put to Russia the demand for the relinquish-
ment of Poland, and have backed it up by force of
arms. The course they have taken has inflicted the
mcst serious calamities on Poland, has estranged
Russia, and has placed them in a very unsatisfac-
tory and discrt-ditable position. The struggle in
Poland has been kept up for the last three or
fur months solely iu the hope of the assistance of
England and France. The Poles have been well
aware that unaided they must succumb to the im-
mense armies which Russia could bring against
them. But long after all attempts to enlist the pea-
santry on their side had signally failed, long after
the attempt to raise an insurrection in the Polish

provinces of Russia had proved a complete disap-
pointment, the contest has been kept up at a most
tremendous sacrifice of all that can be dearest to the
Polish heart. The language of the English
Ministers has induced the belief that England
would eventually, on the failure of her own
schemes of mediation, give the Polish cause her
active aid, and for that reason, whilst diplomacy
has been at work the semblance of an insurrec-
tion has been kept up by some devoted men.
Long since the insurrection has burned itself out.
At the very first call the chivalry of Poland proper
threw itself into the struggle. As the ranks of the
insurgents were thinned no recruits were forthcom-
ing. The peasantry refused to follow their masters,
and gloated over their massacre. Posen and Galicia
furnished large contingents. Adventurers of every
nation flocked like vultures to the carnage, but the
number of these professional cut-throats who can
command the means for a long journey is but
limited, and long since the insurrection has ceased
to make any head against the Russian forces. Small
bands have performed wonders, and have had
miracles performed for them by telegraphic agen-
cies, just to keep Western Europe interested in the
Polish question and confident in the Polish power.
Men have devoted themselves readily to death—
have devoted their country to a contest which will
reduce it to little better than a desert, in the con-
viction generated by the language and acts of the
French and English Ministers that France and
England would ultimately go to war for Poland.
The dream is still cherished. The National Go-
vernment of Warsaw has declared, as a contem-
porary who acts at the same time as its organ in
this country and the exponent of the Premier's
policy, assures us, that the Poles will fight to the
last unless Russia accedes to certain conditions
which are equivalent to the abandonment of Po-
land. It is the last Effort. The journals which
have championed the Polish cause still try to make
out that the Polish patriots are victorious. The
truth is, as we have said, the insurrection is almost
at an end, and the announcement by England and
France of their intention to pursue a pacific policy
would be the signal for the dispersal and flight of
the bands still carrying on the contest. It is due
to the Poles and to ourselves that the announce-
ment should be made at once. England has
assuredly no intention of engaging in a great cru-
sade for the re-establishment of an independent
sbee ryde and, if
than-
ted
Poland. She will not undertake to reverse all the
decrees of history, and commit Europe to a contest
fu which
produce must a
cause
result enormous
ratrather
t()
ini
nde success-
desired. It is idle trifling to talk of blockade of
the Russian fleet in the Baltic as e
gros
ignorance or want of principle of th s- st cha-
racter to talk as the 31- • nao war. It is
°ung Post does about the
capacity of the
Poles to win their independence if
hey are only allowed to
The Poles are already crushed by Russia, and if we
want to raise themwe get arms fromGalicia.
must engage in the task
with all our energies. The country has made up its
mind that it will do no such thing; it ought to
make up its mind, too, to withdraw trom an atti-
ude which compromises its dignity, and uefortu-
nately has encouraged delusions in the Poles which
have prompted them to bring unexampled desola-
tion upon their unhappy land.

LONG LEGS AND SHORT LEGS.—Tne standard
height of the sexes has been fixed by the Venus
and
extra
Allo
from whence it may be generally observed
that t
thosepow;ho exceed the height of the statue will have the
x
length in the legs, and those who fall below it will
e
have the deficiency in ,the shortness of them. As a ridicu-
lous instance of this, Mr. Barrymore, the tragedian, was
greatly upwards of six feet high, and his friend Mr. Smith
was very much under five feet; when meeting at the same
convivial board, they were accustomed to sit sine by side,
and appeared while thus sitting like two gentlemen of equal
size and consequence ; when it was necessary to rise in
respect, as in drinking the King's health, which they would
both spontaneously do, little Mr. Smith, contrary to all
order, would appear to keep his seat, while Barrymore
would spring up like a spectre from the trap-door of the
stage ; this circumstance placed the two gentlemen M a
serious predicament, as it was said of each of them that
the one ought never to get up and the other ought never to
sit down I—Article on " Comparative Beauty" tit .lational
Magazine.

1---.ZE.,z_.,e,,,,:,e