The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-05 00:00:00

greo the fortunes of the American war. To those
whom he professes to address, Mr. Seward's advice
s simply unmeaning ; but the reflex operation of a
Federal opinion may not he equally innocuous.
There seems to he no doubt that the universal exul-
tation which prevails in the North is combined with
a vague purpose of quarrelling with England,
partly to avenge imaginary offences, and also with
an ulterior hope of annexing Canada. Mr. Seward
perhaps may not wish, like Mr. Sumner, to infu-
riate his countrymen by misrepresentation ; but it
is unworthy of a statesman to sanction, in formal
.State papers, a vulgar and dangerous delusion. If
it is true that European statesmen have officially
predicted the failure of the Northern enterprise, it
is intelligible that the Secretary of State should
recapitulate for their information the progress of
the invading armies; but it is utterly untrue that
the insurgents have been enabled to protract
their resistance by means of the sympathy or
aid which they have received from abroad. In a
certain sense, customers require the sympathy and
aid of dealers. Butchers and bakers render house-
keeping possible, and ladies are forced to procure
their finery from milliners and dressmakers ; but,
in the ordinary sense of words, purchased services
are not called aid, nor is there any connection be-
tween sympathy and selling. The Confederates
have not received a gun or a bayonet without pay-
ing its full value, with an additional percentage to
cover the risk of the blockade ; and precisely the
same sympathy and aid has been afforded, on a
scale tenfold larger, to the Federal Government
itself. Mr. Seward cannot seriously believe that
the insurgents have derived any benefit from the
good-will with which their heroic resistance has
been contemplated by a part of the community
which, according to Lord Russell's conjecture, is
not even a majority. The Government of Rich•
mond has shown its estimation of official sympathy
by withdrawing its diplomatic agent from London
—a measure which seems paradoxical if its hopes of
success depend on the continuance of the present
relations between England and the Confederacy.
It is a backward step in civilisation if peace and
war are henceforth to depend on words. If freedom
of speech is no longer permissible in England, some
check ought in common fairness to be imposed on
American eloquence. Mr. Sumner's speech alone is
nearly as voluminous as all English disquisitions
on Secession put together, and it is more wilfully
hostile and offensive; yet even his studied malignity
suits the popular scheme of dismembering the
British Empire. Not a week passes without a
written or spoken proposal for the annexation of
Canada, and yet the Chairman of the Committee
of Foreign Relations thinks that the most urgent
duty of the present moment is to stimulate the
animosity of his countrymen to England.
EXAAIINER.—By the end of the present month
the term will have expired of the notice given to
Denmark, that she must submit to be partitioned,
or to take the consequences. It is already known
that she accepts the alternative, and prefers inva-
sion, if it should come, to submission. Throughout
the protracted controversy, whose issue thus draws
nigh, Denmark has shown a tenacity of purpose,
and a degree of moral courage, worthy of her old
renown. All Germany has been for fifteen years
abusing and bullying her, and threatening to rend
from her one of her fairest provinces, The pre-
tencc s for such interferences are too well known to
need repetition. That they have been, from first to
last, pretences and no wore, has been made apparent
to all who have impartial eyes to see, or ears to bear
since the concession by the Danish Government of
nearly all the local reforms which the Federal Di▪
et
declared they must occupy Holstein to effect. The
debate on the merits is closed, and nothing remai▪
ns
but the naked question of jurisdiction. About this
conflicting jurists': may and probably will wrangle
on for ever. But the public opinion of Europe is a
court of modern equity, not of feudal law ; and its
decisions are guided by the maxims of common
sense, and of practical justice, for the benefit of the
parties more immediately concerned, and of their
neighbours and dependents, whose well-being is con-
sequently involved in their fate. There can be no
doubt as to the award of this ulti▪
mate tribunal. A
contingent of Saxon and Hanoverian troops have
been ordered to prepare for the occupation of Hol-
stein. Prussia, formerly so eager in the quarrel, is
now in the mood to play marplot, and having lost
the initiative seems disposed to lag behind. Austria,
on the other hand, declares herself fully prepared
with such a reserve as must utterly outnumber and
overpower any force the Danes can bring into the
field. Bat will they be left to stand alone ? The
despatch of Count Manderstrom to the Swedish
Ministers in London and Paris, calling the attention
of the Western Powers to the imminency of the
situation, and proclaiming the unity of the Scan-
dinavian States in resistance to German aggression,
sufficiently answers the question. It is the best s'a.
off to the truckling advice treacherously preenered
by Russia to the Cabinet of Copenhagen, not to re-
gard the occupation of the Duchies as a casus belli.
It is too palpably the interest of Russia that the
Government of Denmark should be humiliated in the
eyes of its people and in the face of Europe ; that
the old spirit of independence should be lowered,
and the nerves of its integrity unstrung. Nothing
could so effectually prepare the way for the future
imposition of her Protectorate ; while nothing could
in other respects serve her purposes better than the
encampment of an Austro-Hanoverian army
beyond the Eider, justifying, as the Court of
St. Petersburg would speedily argue, the
landing of a corresponding force of Musco-
vites in Jutland. Russia has long coveted
this Naboth's vineyard of the North. The
heart of her ambition-is sick, until she possesses an
Atlantic seaboard. The seizure of Finland was the
first strive towards the ocean, the sinister rescue and
defence of Denmark would be the next ; but for tle;.B
Denmark roust first be invaded and put in jeopardy.
It is a transparent policy which Sweden elnrly— sees
through, and is prompt to countervail-. But
uatet doeswi
with
not equally behove other Atlantic S.•
,'4,ates
decision in like manner ? Can Holland, France,
and England afford to see Denmark made the battle'
tone
st the
with oceanev y
ground of Germany and Russia, or to allow either
Everyesvdancbyycaormrabsi
to forceeixtsp
mo-
tive ofconsidera-
tion
of honour to dictate a peremptory inhibition by
them of the threatened Inroad into Holstein. In
defiance of such a mandate Austria and her satellite
confederates dare not stir. The march of the Saxons
and Hanoverians would be arrested; and the dip-
lomatic casuists of Vienna and Frankfort would
betake themselves for fifteen years longer to their
old trade. of protocol-spinning. No more than this
is requisite, but less than this would be inexcusable.
LONDON REVIEW.—It is probable that the President's
Emancipation Proclamation has hitherto disappointed the
hopes of its friends and its enemies. Those who predicted
the horrors of a servile war are equally at fault with those
who looked forward to the immediate re. establishment of the
Federal Power. The apathy of the slave is, perhaps, justi-
fied when we consider the wide-spread belief that the if re-
clamation will never be carried out. There are not T:eanting
reasons by which the Federal Government might defend its
conduct to itself if the subjugation or capitulation of the
Confederate States should be followed by the withdrawal of
the Proclamation. The doubts as to its legality may be held
by the Supreme Court to be well. founded, in which case it
becomes necessarily inoperative. In any case, it may be
forcibly contended that the proclamation was issued not as
a boon to slaves, but as a penalty upon rebellious
slaveholders, and its remission would be simply an
act of grace to the latter, involving no breach of
faith with the bondsmen. 'We do not, however, believe that
these arguments will prevail. The unprincipled rowdies of
New York may be sufficiently shameless to urge their adop.
tion, but the events of the last three months have shown
that the Central Government is strong enough to thwart
the will of the Empire City. The Republicans are too much
committed to the proclamation to be able to withdraw it,
and the Democrats, like the Tories at home, ars powerless,
because they have no distinct policy, No restoration of the
Union is possible unaccompanied by the liberation of the
slaves in the rebellious States. If the result of the contest
should be, as is perhaps more likely, the establishment of an
independent Southern Confederacy, it is now clear that the
limits of such a union will be very circumscribed. Outside
it there would be States whose native slaves would be freed
through the action of the proclamation, and which would. be
States of refuge, unvesed by any Fugitive Slave Law, to
the slaves escaping from the Confederacy. Although what
are euphuistically called the loyal Slave States are not sub-
ject to the President's proclamation, it is impossible to be-
lieve that slavery can permanently exist in them after
having been abolished in their rebellious sisters. Even the
intelligence of a slave will probably detect the hollowness
of anargument which proves that he ought to be in thraldom
in Maryland, whilst his brother is free in Alabama. But
there are more substantial reasons for thinking that slavery
is doomed in the Loyal States, A Slave State having a Free
State on its border is ruined without the protection of a
Fugitive Slave Law, acid no one dreams that such an enact-
ment can ever be revived. Moreover, the Loyal Slave States
are the breeding States, and it is useless to breed slaves
when there are no slaveholding planters to whom they may
be sold. There can be little doubt that peace would be fol-
lowed by measures to secure the emancipation of the slaves
in all the States under the Federal authority. It is difficult
to form any estimate of the number of freed negroes who
will be thrown upon the hands of the Federal Govern.
ment. There is now some talk of raising coloured troops
to the extent of 200,000, and of 100,000 more blacks to
be employed in operations auxiliary to the main work of the
army. If the Federals could silcceetl in feting such a force
it would repref.,:ent a •.ery large proportion of the ab' e-bodie;l
slaves in the South. The total number oF^'
.
may be said to be, in round „eaves in the Union
these it is mole.' numbers, four millions, and of
—ee that three-fourths were resident, at the
outset of the war, within the limits of the rebellious States.
A total population of three millions represents, according
to ordinary data, 900,000 men capable of bearing arms, so
that the requirements of the Northern armies demand one
out of every Olive Ole 'bodied shoree in the South, Te out-