The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-22 00:00:00

SON. LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, ooroBER 22, 1863.

not approve patting on the back those who were its
advocates and upholders. This sounds all very fine,
but comes rather under the head of what are termed
" embroidered facts." It is well known that no-
where is there a greater resistance to improving the
condition of the negro than in the Northern States.
The circumstances of the case favour the opinion
put forth by so many that this war is one of
" slavery." Because the Slave States, as they are
termed, are situated in the territory of one section
of the combatants, it is deemed feasible to give out
that the question of dispute regards that subject.
It seems rather begging the question for Mr.
BEECHER to ask the people of this coun-
try to take their standing point, and judge
of the state of affairs, from an American
point of view. It was all very well for him,
as an advocate for his special cause, to deprecate
their taking their opinions from his opponents,
but we must form our judgments and declare our
convictions as independent of both sides, and thus
be better able to judge correctly of either. If the
expression of feeling evidenced in England since
this civil war broke out, has been in favour of the
Southern States, it is because, after attentive obser-
vation and mature deliberation, they have displayed
the most admirable qualities, and are animated by
a love of independence that universally attracts the
sympathy and goodwill of mankind. It is a little
too much for Mr. BEECHER to tell us at this ad-
vanced period of the war that the reason why the
North did not go to war in the first instance for
emancipation was that they respected " local"
rights even before " moral" rights ; this, he thought,
" was one of those things of which they might be
justly proud." This seems rather a strange doctrine
for a clergyman to promulgate, and he will have
some difficulty in making good his theory, since
surely it must be an acknowledged fact that all
laws should be subservient to the claims of morality,
and no State can flourish that makes them subser-
vient to other considerations. It must also be said
that the idea of " forbearance," as connected with
the North, is a very strange one, and if that
feeling
existed in such force at the commencement of the
struggle as Mr. BEECHER asserted, it is a pity
that it so soon became extinguished, and
utterly vanished from the scene. Its influence
did not appear when General BUTLER asto-
nished and scandalised the civilised nations
of the world by his conduct to the ladies of New
Orleans, and its spirit was not very stronglY
manifested when the Federal troops poured Greek
fire among the inhabitants of the besieged
city.
When a man has all the talk to himself, and is
possessed of any considerable powers of oratory,
he can always produce an effect, and make some
converts to his views, however ultra be their ten-
dency or prejudiced their character. It is only
by the touchstone of debate that the truth is
arrived at, and the general aspect of affairs cleared
from the mist of error with which the wisest often
envelope subjects in which they are specially in-
terested. It is a pity that Mr. BEECIIER
should
be so violent in his diatribes against those who
have the misfortune to differ from him. It is
going too far for him to proclaim at a public
meeting that "some of the public organs in this
suppressed
country had deliberately and knowingly
the truth." Abuse is not argument, is a very
veracious aphorism, and it would be well if vehe-
ment denunciators would subscribe to its merits.
Mr. BEECHER went further, however, and said
that "it was a monstrous lie " to declare that
the blacks were not well treated in the North.
Mr. BEECHER may plume himself on his sagacity
of discernment, and his skill in detecting the
feelings of the English people, but he had better
take heed to his words, before he recross the
Atlantic, and tell the friends he has left there
that this country has sanctioned the
"significant
facts," as he calls them, of the detention of the
steam rams, and the speech of Earl RUSSELL at
Blairgowrie. He may make a serious mistake if
he enunciate any such theories, and hereafter be
glad to retract his words. Without being un-
duly conceited or intolerant, it does not appear
that this is the time for an American orator
to leave his country and tell us that it does us
good for him to speak of our faults. Whatever
these may be they ars not intolerance in peace
and unchivalrous bearing in war ; and till these
errors are rectified among the Federals they who
fight under the "flag of the cross of St. George "
will scarcely fulfil Mr. BEECIIER'S prophecy of
acting in uniformity with those who boast of the
flag with the "stars of hope and promise."

The Cornhill Magazine for November contains a
timely article on the Mhow Court-martial, by Jacob
Cranium, the well-known correspondent of the Times news-
paper. The facts of the case are all given in a lucid arid
forcible narrative.

ANCIENT INHERITANCES.—The interesting and
often-quoted statement made soma time since by
Lord Palmerston, respecting the uninterrupted descent for
nearly eight centuries, from father to son, of a small estate
in his own neighbourhood in the New Forest, relates, as is
well known,
to the family of Purkis the lime-burner, who
picked up the body of William Rufus and carried it in his
humble cart to Winchester to receive the last sad rites. But
we can place upon record a case of still longer descent of a
small property among persons in no way allied to rank and
fortune, and who have never risen above the condition of
yeomen ; while, we believe, they have never fallen below it.
At Ambrose's Barn, on the borders of the parish of Thorpe,
reign of Alfred the Great, by
near Chertsey, still resides a farmer of the name of Wap-
shot, whose ancestors have lived, without break, upon the
same spot, ever since the
whom the farm was granted to Reginald Wapshot. There
are several families among our untitled gentry—the county
all!t°cracY—who can trace their names and possessions in
a direct male descent back to the Saxon times; but below
that rank we are not aware of a more striking instance
of permanence among change than the past history of the
WaPBhots•—Otice a Week,
SINGULAR PHENOMENON.—The Tenby Observer
mentions a curious phenomenon which was observed
in Carmarthen Bay onj the 6th inst., the day on which the
earthquake was felt in this country. " From a base extend-
ing some three or four miles in the direction of Atnroth
Castle, an immense piece of water, of a dark drown colour
(as if holding earth in solution), seemed to be pushed for-
ward in the form of a cone—of course surrounded by water
of a natural colour. As they came in contact the water was
thrown up a height of several feet, the agitation extending
round the whole edge of the phenomenon. It steadily ad-
vanced in the same form towards Monkstone, and from
thence some miles to sea, when we ceased to observe it.
Some friends in amusing themselves with fishing, were not
a little startled by the strange sight. When the coloured
water overtook the boat, they found that the point of
division between the colouring was maintained throughout
the depth of the water; the boat was violently pitched about
and the water thrown completely over it. Either side of the
line of contact was perfectly calm, and the water kept up a
lashing noise someth;ng like what would be made by an
immense shoal of mackerel. It was observed first at about
11 a.m."

' •
INJURIES OF ANNUITANTS.—As I have known
legatees deeply injure 3 by a bequest of five hundred
Li' to the extent of
' ted with a pensioner on the pu lc .
pounds because it was not five thousand, and as I was once
acquainted
having
country because he was not in the receipt of tour,
two hundred a year. who perpetually anathematised his
no claim whatever to sixpence : so perhaps it usually
How do they pass
hap-
pens, within certain limits, that to get a little help is to get
1 a notion of being defrauded of more. "
their lives in this beautiful and peaceful place I" was the
subject of my speculation with a visitor who once accom-
panied me to a charming rustic retreat for old men and
w°men: a quaint ancient foundation in a pleasant English
country, behind a picturesque church and among rich old
convent gardens. There were but some dozen or so of houses,
and we agreed that we would talk with the inhabitants, as
fiwroeusladndfintael ought
they sat in
h the it
groined rooms between the light of their
vcte certain
m ounces
in
the o f
quadrangle.
tea
Tby a deaf
There ld
shininghey
passe ai
sus
eadt t
thheei
irr l a t
livest ice di
n windows,consiconsider
rai
nn
gd
st ht
eewrnasrodl
whot nluhl
lived
d o f o
was no reason to suamppose that any such ounces of tea had
o
been in existence, or that the old steward so much as knew
what was the matter; he passed his life in considering him-
self periodically defrauded of a birch-broom by the beadle.—
Carlo .Vickens's last Criecommercia4