The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-17 00:00:00

14,

I a monarch of England, Prussia, Spain, or France,
would inevitably goad the people into a violent re
volution. But in this city despotism seems to he
taken as a matter of course. Nothing is strange.
nothing is unusual, nothing is unconstitutional,
nothing is wicked to people who are prospering
upon the war, and have set their minds upon fat
contracts. Neither is rnything strange or 111:0011-
stitutional to the zealots and bigots of the Republi-
can party, or to the manufacturers of New England
and Pennsylvania, who thrive upon the new tariff
which is ruining the country. In the eyes of all
these people nothing is objectionable that tends to
perpetuate this rnis2rable strife, and liberty, hap-
piness, and the best hopes of this and succeeding
generations are all sacrificed without exciting their
elarm or disapprobation. When Mr.Vallandighsry,
Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Cox,or other leading Democrats
denounce with fiery eloquence the wrong that has
been done, the galleries make no sign, and when
these gentlemen defend the Constitution and the
law, and urge that under no circumstances ought
they to be abrogated, a hiss spreads among the
geese who have got into the Capitol, which Mr.
Galueha Grow, the Speaker, mildly r
He threatens to clear the galleries, but does not
carry the threat into execution, and the interrup-
tions continue as before. The scene recalls to mind
the sittings of the Jacobins in the French Revolu-
tion: Robespierre is lord of the ascendant. The
people applaud him and his followers only, and rea-
son, justice, and law are not to be tolerated.
The week will be a memorable one in the annals
of America. It has sealed the doom of the liberties
of the North unless there shall occur in due time a
ccunter revolution to restore a Constitutional Go-
vernment. Three extreme measures have been
passed, and were intended to make Mr. Lincoln
Dictator, and have accomplished their purpose. By
the first he is authorised to suspend the operation
of the law of habeas corpus whensoever he shall
deem fit, expedient, or necessary. He or his secre-
taries may cause to be imprisoned and kept in pri-
son, without trial, for an indefinite length of time,
any person, high or low, in any of the States of the
Union. He may order a military force to seize the
Governor of New York or Connecticut, or any other
sovereign commonwealth. He may arrest and
hold in Forts Lafayette, Warren, or M'Henry, the
members of any Legislature whose proceedings he
may adjudge to be treasonable or dangerous. He
may seize a judge upon the judgment-seat, and
carry him off to prison, as his secretaries aid Judge
Carmichael, of Maryland, and hold him there as a
common malefactor, without specifying the offence
committed. He may silence any tongue, or pen,
or r printing press in the country, and no judge or
jury shall question the legality of his act. It is true
that the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War
" are directed to furnish to the judges, as soon as
may be practicable, the names of the persons ar-
rested, that they may be presented to the grand jury
for indictment;" but the President and his secretaries
are alone to decide on the "practicability" of such a
step ; and if they are of opinion that it is unwise or
unsafe to liberate or bring to trial any such prisoners
during the two remaining years of the Presidential
term, there is nothing in the act of Congress to come
pel them to make an earlier decision. This proviso,
therefore, counts for nothing. And in order that the
President may have the power to carry this gigantic
tyranny into effect, and become de facto the
strongest despot in the world, Congress has passed
a Cottarription Act, which calls out, at the discre-
tion of the President as to members the whole able-
bodied male population of the country betweext the
ages of 18 and 45. The first call of 600,000 men is
to be made, with what success will not be known
until after the 10th of July, when the Act comes
into operation. The Democratic party was power-
less to defeat the measure. It was so obviously
necessary that the Government should have the
means of recruiting its fast disappearing armies—
which in two months will be reduced to one-half of
their actual strength by the expiry of the term of
service of the two years and nine months volunteers
—that any real opposition would have been con-
sidered factious. The Democrats, therefore, made
up their minds to accept the measure and propose
two important, though not essential amendments.
The framer of the bill had, in a parenthetical pro-
viso, given power to the Provost-Marshal to arrest
" all persons suspected of treasonable practices." In
order that there might be no mistake, Messrs. Vale
landigham, Vorbees, Cox, and other Democrats,
supported the omission of the words and the restric-
tion of the powers of the Provost Marshal to the
conscripts to be enrolled under the Act. After a
spirited debate, in which the galleries for the first
time during the Session applauded a Democratic
speaker for asserting the liberties of his country
against the encroachments of irresponsible military
power, the amendment was carried. Another amend-
nicht, to insert the word " white" before the words
" male able-bodied citizens" was rejected ; so that
under the new Conscript Law the negroes will be
liable to serve side by side with the white race ia
the future armies of the Republic. Should this lead
to difficulty the President has the remedy in his
own hands, and has simply to order the enrolment
officers not to call upon the negroes for military
duty, to obviate the danger of mutiny among the
whites that might otherwise result. There
needed but one other measure to complete the
charmed circle of Imperialism, and that was
provided by the Currency and Banking Acts of
Mr. Secretary Chase, which, after a series of
amendments and reconsideration in both Houses,
and a Committeee of Conference of the two,
have been finally passed. In one way or the other,
by loan, and by the issue of greenbacks the Govern-
ment is authorised to issue about 1,100,090,000
dols., a sum that, before the rise in gold, would have
represented about £220,000,000 sterling; but that,
with gold at 72 per cent. premium, only represents
about £137,000,000. Mr. Chase has also carried his
favourite projects of taxing the existing banks upon
their circulation, and of introducing a uniform
Federal currency of greenbacks that are not to be
taxed. These are stupendous measures, The three
form a perfect unity, solid, substantial, and artisti-
cally dovetailed one into the other. Were Mr.
Lincoln a man of genius, a groat soldier, an astute
and far-seeing diplomatist, or an ambitious and de-
signing intriguer, having the will to make himself
King, Emperor, Czar, hereditary President, Lord
Protector, or anything else, they would afford him
the means of putting a speedy and ignommous end
to the Republic. But these powers have not been
given to him for such purposes. , The Republican
trustpart him,
y know
Neithertheir
have man,
and
they
think
been
fr
conferred
theyre
d can
upon
him in order that he may more effectually carry on
the war for the subjugation of the South. He is no
more the man for that purpose than he is the man
of whom to make an emperor. In this respect, too,
the Republicans know him and have taken the
measure of his capacity. The restoration of the
Union is felt to be impossible, not only by the Pre-
sident, but by every prominent man in public life.
Both the Union and the Constitution upon which it
was founded are defunct. The Southern Congress
destroyed the Union ; the Northern Congress has
destroyed the Constitution. The revolution has
completed its first cycle. North and South are two
forhei
negv eurumi
tourde ,
uahndde
ra ruen
ea sGiunvcearpnamb
el en
tf oars
Et hnegfluatnudr ea
nodf
France or Ireland and Italy.

NEW YORK, March 3.
The legal term of Congress expires to-morrow at
12, o'clock. It dies a quiet death—a fate that at one
time seemed improbable, having done its best or
its worst to destroy the liberties of the people by
whom it was elected, and to leave to its successor a
legacy of doubt, perplexity, and danger. The Pre-
sident, needing the assistance of the Senate to con-
firm some of the decrees which he may think it
necessary to issue, and some of the appointments of
Brigadier-Generals and Foreign Ministers which he
may deem it expedient to make during the next
few weeks, has called an extra session of that body,
to assemble immediately on the expiry of its. pre-
sent term. In other words, its ordinary session is
at an end at 12 o'clock to-morrow, and its extraor-
dinary session is to commence the moment after-
wards. A flagrant act of tyranny and unconstitu-
tionality has signalised its last moments. On the
bill granting an indemnity to the President and his
Ministers for all the arbitrary acts of the last year
having been brought forward, Mr. Bayard, of-De-
laware, one of the ablest and least passionate mem-
bers of the house, spoke earnestly against it. The
discussion lasted till half-past 4 in the morning,
when a motion was made to adjourn. The motion
was not carried, arid Mr. Bayard attempted to re-
sume his speech. The chairman, Mr. Pomzioy, of
Kansas, called h m to order, declaring that the bill
was no longer before the house, arid had been car
lied. The shameful attempt to extort a party
triumph excites both alarm and disgust, and one of
the Democratic journals of this evening declares
the republic to be virtually at an end in copse
quence.
The House o f Representatives has not been called
together, and in ccinsequence the country will wit-
ness the unusual, though not, it appears, the uncon-
stitutional, spectacle of the sitting of one House of
the Legislature without the other.
The agitation of the Republican senators at Wash-
ington Mr. to eject Seward from office, and toin-