The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-23 00:00:00

rilE SUN, LO ADON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DILCEMBEIt 23, 1863,

in service, or which are under contract and approach-
ing completion, are believed to exceed in number
those of any other Power. But while these may be
relied upon for harbour defence and coast service,
othi,rs of greater strength and capacity will be
necessary for cruising purposes, and to maintain our
rightful position on the ocean.
The change that has taken place in naval vessels
and naval warfare since the introduction of steam
as a motive power for ships of war, demands either
a corresponding change in some of our existing navy
yards or the establishment of new ones for the con-
structionncoencessidsaerray repair of modern naval
delay,
yessels. Na and
No
i n
ble embarrassment,
and public injury have been experienced from the
want of snch Govermental establishments.

The necessity of such a navy-yard, so furnished,
atilsome suitable place upon the Atlantic sea-
board, has on repeated occasions been brought
to the attention of Congress by the Navy De.
partment ; and it is again presented in the report of
the secretary, which accompanies this communica-
tioc.

I think it my duty to invite your special attention
to this subject, and also to that of establishing a
yard and depot for naval purposes upon one of the
Western rivers. A naval force has been created on
these interior waters, and under many disadvan-
tages, within a little more than two years, exceed -
ing in number the whole naval force of the country
it the commencement of the present Administra-
tion. Satisfactory and important as have been the
performances of the heroic men of the navy at this
interesting period, they are scarcely more wonder-
ful than the success of oar mechanics and artisans
in the production of war vessels which has created
a new form of naval power.
Our country has advantages superior to any other
nation in resources of iron and timber, with inex-
haustible quantities of fuel in the immediate vicinity
of both, and all available and in close proximity to
navigable waters. Without the advantage of public
works, the resources of the nation have been de-
veloped and its power displayed in the construction
of a navy of such magnitude which has at the very
period of its creation rendered signal service to the
Union.

The increase of the number of seamen in the pub-
lic service from 7,500 men in the spring of IS6I, to
about 34,000 at the present time, has been accom-
plished without special legislation or extraordinary
bounties to promote that increase.
It has been found, however, that the operation of
the draft, with the high bounties paid for army re-
cruits, is beginning to affect injuriously the naval
service, and will, if not corrected, be likely to im-
pair its efficiency by detaching seamen from their
proper vocation, and inducing them to enter the
army.

I, therefore, respectfully suggest that Congress
might aid both the army and naval service by a
definite provision on this subject which would at
the same time be equitable to the communities more
especially interested.
I commend to your consideration the suggesti :us
of the Secretary of the Navy in regard to the policy
of fostering and training seamen, and also the edu-
cation of officers and engineers for the naval service.
The Naval Academy is rendering signal service in
preparing midshipmen for the highly responsible
duties which in after life they will be required to
perform.
In order that the country should not be deprived
of the proper quota of educated officers for which
legal provision has been made at the Naval School,
the vacancies caused by the neglect or omission to
make nominations from the States in insurrection
have been filled by the Secretary of the Navy.
The school is now more full and complete than at
any former period, and in every respect entitled to
the favourable consideration of Congress.

can be done now. Augmented interest is given to this sub-
ject by the actual commencement of work upon the Pacific
Railroad, untie; auspices so favourable to rapid progress and
completion. The enlarged navigation becomes a palpable
need to the great road.
I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioners
of the Department of Agriculture, asking your attention to
the developments in that vital interest of the nation.

reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States,
except in cases of impeachment ; and
Whereas, a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State
Governments of several States have for a long time been
subverted, and many persons have committed and are now
guilty of treason against the United States ; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason,
laws have been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and
confiscation of property and liberation of slaves, all upon
terms and conditions therein stated : and also declaring that
the President was thereby authorised at any time thereafter,
by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have parti-
cipated in the existing rebellion in any State, or part
thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at
such times and on such conditions as he may deem expe-
dient for the public welfare ; and
Whereas, the Congressional declaration for limited and
conditional pardons with the well-established judicial ex-
position of the pardoning power, and
Whereas, with reference to the said rebellion, the Presi-
dent of the United States has issued several proclamations
with provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves, and
Whereas, it is now desired by some persons heretofore
engaged in the said rebellion to resume their allegiance to
the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State Govern-
ments within and for their respective States ;
Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to,all persons
who have directly or by implication participated in the
existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full
pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with
restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and
in property cases where the rights of third parties shall have
intervened, and upon the condition that every such person
shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep
and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be
registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the
tenor and effect, following, to wit :
" I, —, do solemnly swear in presence of Almighty
God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union
of the States thereunder, and that I will, in like manner,
abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed
during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so
long and so far as not :repealed, modified, or held void by
Congress or by decision of the Supreme Court, and that I
will in like manner abide and faithfully support all pro-
clamations of the President made during the existing re-
bellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not
modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court,
So help me God."
The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing
provisions are all who are or shall have been civil or diplo-
matic officers or agents of the so-called Confederate Govern-
ment ; all who have left judicial stations under the United
States to aid the rebellion; all who are or shall have been
military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Go-
vernment above the rank of colonel in the army, of lieute-
nant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States
Congress to aid the rebellion;
All who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the
United States, ani afterwards aided the rebellion, and all
who have engaged in any way in treating coloured persons
or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully
as:prisoners of war, have been found in the United States
service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that
whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisi-
ana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida,
South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons,
not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such
States, at the Presidental election of the year of our Lord,
1360, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having
since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election
law of the State existing immediately before the so-called
act of Secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish
a State Government, which shall be republican, and in no-
wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognised as the
true Government of the State, and the State shall receive
thereunder the benefit of the constitutional provision which
declares that

" The United States shall guarantee to every State in this
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect
each of them against invasion, on application of the Legis-
lature, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be
convened, against domestic violence."
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that
any provision which may be adopted by such State Govern-
ment in relation to the freed people of such State which
shall recognise and declare their permanent freedom, pro-
vide for their education, and which may yet be consistent,
as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as
a labouring, landless, and houseless chit s, will not be ob-
jected to by the National Executive.
And it is engaged, as not improper, that in constructing a
loyal State Government in any State, the name of the State,
the boundary, the subdivisions, the Constitution and the
general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained
subject only to the modifications made necessary by the
conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not
contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed
expedient by those framing the new State Government.
To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that
this proclamation, so far as it relates to State Governments,
has no reference to States wherein loyal State Governments
have all the while been maintained. And for the same rea-
son it may be proper to further say, that whether members
sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats
constitutionally,rests exclusively with the respective houses,
and not to any extent with the Executive.
And still further, that this proclamation is intended to
present the people of the States wherein the national autho-
rity has been suspended, and loyal State Governments have
been sutverted, a mode in and by which the national autho-
rity and loyal State Governments may be re-established
within said States, or in any of them.
And while the mode proposed is the best the Executive
can suggest with his present impressions, it must not be
understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.
Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the
eighth day of December, A.D., one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United
States of America the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President.
WILLIAM H. SnwAnn, Secretary of State. [L.s.)

STATE OF TRADE,

o-.

MANCHESTER, Dec. 22,—The yarn market has
been very quiet to-day, and to effect sales lower
prices would have to be taken, but spinners, as a
rule, being pretty well under contract, show no dis-
position to press sales. There are exceptional in-
stances to the contrary, but they are not numerous.
Most of the spinners appear to think that at the
turn of the year we shall have more activity, as it is
well known that many orders are in the hands of
export houses, which for the present are kept back.
The market for home trade yarns is quite as flat as
last week, and, es manufacturers are disinclined to
operate, prices are against producers. Sellers re-
port that there is a good deal of irregularity on
the part of the spinners, who are anxious to
realise, and buyers who have tested the market
pretty actively say that in some descriptions of
cop yarn there is a great difference between the
rates which spinners are willing to accept rather
than not sell. In the cloth market we have also
had a flat day. There is no disposition on the
part of buyers to operate. Many of them are
understood to hold orders, and some of them pretty
considerable ones, bat at limits which are far below
what manufacturers are disposed to accept at pre-
sent. At the same time, a considerable concession
would be made by manufacturers on last Tuesday's
rates, but they find so few who are really disposed
to buy that it would be difficult to arrive at a cor-
rect quotation of the concession which would lead to
business. There is a rumour of advices of a dis-
couraging character from Bombay having been re-
ceived by the China mail. The market closes with
declining prices both for cloth and yarn, and a great
curtailment of production is expected. Messrs. John
Slagg and Co. report of the cloth market :—"Buyers
still keep oat of the market, or only offer prices too
low to be entertained by manufacturers. We may,
on the whole, quote the market lower than last
Tuesday, but the transactions have been so few, and
at prices so irregular, that our quotations can only
approximate the actual value of goods."
LEEDS, 22d.--Though there was not much woollen
cloth sold in the cloth halls to-day, the market was
cheerful, both manufacturers and merchants being
without complaints either as to the condition or the
prospect of trade. The purchases were of a miscel-
laneous character, including a small quantity of
heavy as well as light goods. The demand for good
black cloths is scarcely so brisk as it lately was, yet
that branch of trade is in a satisfactory state, first-
rate productions not being difficult to sell by the
manufacturer. The wool trade is moderately active
and prices of both wools and cloths are steady. The
flax trade, so far as the demand for yarns and threads
is concerned, is a little quieter than it was, but the
manufacturers are well employed. On account of
next Saturday being partially kept as a holyday
here the cloth markets usually held on a Saturday
will this week take place on Thursday.
ROCHDALE, 21st.—The flannel market to-day
was much the same as last week. The attendance
of buyers was not large, and they purchased rather
carefully, though in the aggregate rather more
.
goods changed hands than on the precedisirnarss
ket day. In Yorkshire goods a moderate sou
was done. Prices of flannels and othergpleidnsen
t let
this market keep steady. There is norscom
T
want of work among the manufactur.e
market is rather quiet, but late prwee are hefirm wooll y
maintained.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The arrival by the same mail of the text
of two President's Messages, both addressed to
Senates and Houses of Representatives, is an illus-
tration of the political condition of the American
Republic more striking than the report of any
battle won or lost. Fighting indicates a power of
resistance or attack, but the appearance of the two
Messages side by side, both equally formal, is the
visible proof that behind the Southern Secession
there is a political organization as complete as that
of the North itself. The opening the Session of a
Legislature is a peaceful ceremony ; but when done
in duplicate, as in the present case, it may bear a
very different meaning, A convulsion of the old
political system has thrown off a second and hostile
body. lestead of the one planet of the West, ob-
servers have now to watch the movements of a
double star and make a twofold series of calcu-
lations. The message of the Northern President is
brief when compared with former specimens of that
annual document. The points it touches are
numerous enough, but they are shortly dealt with.
The time is too busy for diffuseness, and topics are
dismissed in a single paragraph of a few lines which
formerly would have been found capable of indefi-
nite expansion. Little is said of the relations of the
North with the European Powers, and in the tone
employed there is no echo of the bitter feeling to-
wards England that has found expression so often
in journals and in party speeches. Mr. Lincoln
passes very rapidly over the questions connected with
the construction in England of the vessels the South
has employed as cruisers, but his allusion, brief as
it is exaggerates the facts. He says,—" Her
Majesty's Government, as was justly expected,
have exercised their authority to prevent the de-
parture of new hostile expeditions from British
ports." An empty hull, without armament or
crew, is misdescribed as an " expedition." The
difficulty in all the cases complained of has been
that nothing in the fittings of the ships indicated
their destination with legal certainty. The vessels
wore on the open sea liable to capture by the North
when the Southerners converted them into ships of
war and made them capable of doing mischief. We
are still unable to comprehend how the skill and
enterprise of the North has been so paralysed that,
possessing 588 ships of war afloat er in course of
construction, it did not enforce for its own protec-
tion a stricter " police of the ocean." With half
the number of war vessels on the Northern Navy
List the Government could station one ship on every
ten miles of the coast blockade. If the North has
wasted its real strength in building or chartering
whole fleets of vessels unfit to keep the sea, it must
visit the failure on its own Government, A year
ago Mr. Seward was reproaching all Europe because
it could not receive his exceedingly cheerful views
of the war as correct estimates of the position of
the country. Mr. Lincoln goes back to the same
period, and describing the position of affairs at the
time, intimates that the European opinion of his
difficulties was nearer the truth then that of his
Foreign Secretary. When Congress had assembled
last December, he says, the war had lasted nearly
20 months. The result of many conflicts by land
and sea had been " varying." Though the limits
of the revolt had been practically narrowed, yet
" the tone of public feeling and of opinion, at home
and abroad, was not satisfactory." The popular
elections indicated the domestic " uneasiness" caused
by political division. The kindest words coming
from Europe " were uttered in accents of pity that
we" were too blind to surrender a hopeless cause."
The commerce of the North was suffering greatly
from a few armed vessels, which constitute the
whole Southern navy. There was even a prospect
that the Northern blockade should be raised by
foreign intervention, These difficulties Mr. Lincoln
does not now disguise, but a year ago Europe was
frequently rebuked and accused of for per-
ceiving and pointing them out. Substantially, the
President contends that the North has been success-
ful during the past year ; but he abstains from going
into the particular incidents of that success. The
recent operations at Chattanooga are not directly
mentioned. There is no allusion whatever to
the Army of the Potomac. No military commander
is named by the chief of the Northern Republic.
The omission may be according to official precedent,
but bearing in mind the immense sacrifices the
American people has made the Message contains a
very cold and inadequate appreciation of them. Mr.
Lincoln's proclamation of pardon and amnesty to
those citizens of the Southern States who may be
disposed to abandon the revolt we have already
considered. The text of the document adds to the
number of classes who will be excepted from any
terms of reconciliation. The door is shut against all
who have any influence in or over the Confederacy.
The proclamation differs from the usual form in
which an amnesty is proclaimed, in that it gives no
time of grace, and contains no date after which the
offer of pardon will be forfeited. The Southerners
therefore can lose none of its advantages by trying
the chances of war for a few months longer. The
suggestion that one-tenth of the population of a
State may, if assisted by a Federal army, construct
a local Government, and come into the Union with
it, is neutralised by the " condition precedent"—the
Northern army must possess the State before the
tenth fraction of the people can vote. This posses-
sion is the exact point which war, as Mr. Lincoln
intimates, must decide. The proposal that a tenth
of the inhabitants, plus the Northern army, shall
bind the whole of the citizens is a singular illustra-
tion of the principle that the will of the majority
constitutes the only legal governing power. The
Message of the Southern President is in style and
language much superior to that of his Northern rival.
He is also more generous in acknowledging the ser-
vices of his military commanders. Mr. Davis goes
at length into the history of the war during the year,
which Mr. Lincoln appears to avoid. He begins
by noticing the Southern reverses at Vicksburg and
Port Hudson, of which he admits the importance;
but he does full justice to the efforts that have
saved Charleston from capture and continued such
an effective resistance to the Northern arms in Vir-
ginia. He speaks in a tone of disappointment as to
the relations of the Confederacy with Europe. He
expected, probably that the sympathy feit for the
weaker party in a life and death struggle would by
this time have taken the more effective shape of ac-
tion. The South has doubted, we fear, whether
England could be neutral if she wished, and to find
that even the cotton famine is not to us an over-
whelming national calamity has been a disappoint-
ment at Richmond. Of the civil war itself Mr.
Davis speaks without despondency, but yet with a
degree of feeling creditable to his humanity. The
absence of any sentiment of the kind from Mr.
Lincoln's Message renders it one of the most cold •
blooded political documents ever published.
POST.—The responsibility of providing for the
future is inculcated commonly enough as a duty to
individuals in their private capacities ; but it is a
precept taken less frequently to heart than it might
be with advantage as a measure of precaution to
nations. Nevertheless, it would be easy to show
that the precept applies with equal force to the one
case as to the other ; end if the community of a na-
tion manifest in a lesser degree than individuals the
need of considering what may be the resources of a
hereafter, this can only arise from the selfishness
inseparable from humanity. Subsequent to the
last meeting of the British Association, when Sir
Wm. Armstrong first gave utterance to a fact enun-
ciated long before his time, relative to the compa-
rative exhaustion of available coal, the public mind
has been rather more disposed than before to take
cognisance of certain phases of national futurity
that may be or may not be equal in resources
to those commanded at present, according as the
soarces of productive force—for so we may deno-
minate them —may or may not be kept up to their
existing level. Speculations relative to the period
of coal exhaustion seem to have taken less firm
possession of the public mind than speculations re-
lative to the exhaustion of elements of agricultural
fertility. This is so far inconsistent that, whereas
—no efficient substitute for pit coal being known,
and the need for using this material being impera-
tive—the world must go on remorselessly towards
the issue of coal exhaustion whether he will or not
—in respect of the second case, chemists tell us,and
the truth of their assurance has been amply demon-
strated, that agricultural nations have the power at
option of maintaining the needful balance indefi-
nitely ; and that if, at any period, manure should
run short, and comparative barrenness of the soil
ensue, such a result could only happen from a
squandering of the elements and materials of fer-
tility, by unadvised measures, for periods long ante-
cedent. Granting absolutely, as Baron I:ebig
himself could grant, that some time hence—wde
tahr:
not called upon to say when—every
population of which assiduously castsmeiti:nd
infertile,
and other offal into the sea, must. become ejecta
respect of
to what it
but for the importation of an
be to effect
any
utterly futile the attempt
Vl.°lllll habits •
thus casts away,we are convineccieluddivuevertheless how
immediate alteration of
what ourßritish 2Ediles
their sewage economy,.
point is, that if •
posterity
have to say on this Th' must
needs suffer, why lett suffer. IS
Englis
generation is
not unselfishenough to lay o heart very seriously
the interests of any. future generation in this
time
For a long to come,
matter. as for the time
dt Britishsewagecommissioners
present,
tulate themselves on having achieved
success when
they have bodily conveyed by the nearest available
channel the sewage matters
extends into the sea, ___ over which their control
Now, it is concerning these
sewage matters that we are about to make some
remarks in reference t
ability to o the degree of their agriculturalapplic-
ability purposes. We are not dis-
posed to enter upon any violent controversy, the
more especially at this festive season of the year ; and
a violent controversy would assuredly be raised, by ,

any expression of opinion concerning the utility or
the inutility of liquid sewage. The dictum, how-
ever, may be safely laid down, without fear of con-
trdiction from any quarter, that the dejt cta of a town
if flooded with water and passed along through a
sewer to a reservoir some distance away, represents
a very different material, chemically speaking, to
what it was originally, even though the weather be
eold. It is in summer and autumn, however, that
the mutation effected upon it will be most complete.
Fermentation will have set in, and before the
expiration of many hours the original nitrogenous
constituents—unquestionably the most valuable that
a manure can possess—will have absolutely evapo-
rated. This result is one that we say is undeniable
and will not be demurred to by the members of any
party in the debate now pending relative to the
utilisation of sewage liquids ; and being so, certain
grave questions of public interest cannot fail to be
suggested. In the first place, we would demand
whether much of the discrepancy that now exists
relative to the utility or inutility of liquid sewage
matter in an agricultural sense may not be referable
to the variation in length of transit before utilisa-
tion, to which the sewage fluid, the subject of testi-
mony, may have been exposed. To cite a hypotheti-
cal, but at the same time fairly illustrative example,
the liquid sewage of London would present one
chemical composition at Barking-creek and akother
at every intermediate part of its course between the
source and final deliverance. We are disposed to
fancy that much of the discrepancy to which W°
advert would disappear under this way of looking at
the circumstances. Another, and it may be a still
more important, question is the following:—lf,
which we grant to be the case, there is a present
necessity for diluting the natural valuable elements
of manures, can this practice—once forced upon us
by our habits and our education ; one moreover to
which so large a measure of immediate comfort iS
due—can it be reconciled with some treatment that
shall have the effect of obviating those fermentivn
changes to which the evolution of ammonia and
other nitrogenous matter is attributable. Theoreti-
cally, it should be possible to temper the sewers with
some material more appropriate than the line noW
commonly used, which must needs exert the chemi•
cal effect of liberating ammonia under ordinary cir-
cumstances. As for the salts of potash and sods,
they of course must be lost, or at least must present
themselves under all the disadvantages of extreme
dilution.