The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY :EVENEN4, JANUARY 3, 1863

But those who still entertain that opinion are loud
in their disparagement of his ability, and even of
his common sense. The Republicans and Exter-
minators themselves are beginning to hint that
he is the most egregious failure that the Ameri-
can system of government has ever yet pro-
duced, and that his resignation of office, ac-
companied by that of Mr. Hamblin, the Vice-Pre-
sident, would be the greatest boon he could confer
upon a country which, under his guidance and
that of the conceited lawyers whom he has called
to his councils, has been brought as near to perdi-
tion as it is possible to be without positive anarchy.
The Constitution, unluckily, is, or was, a fair
weatherboat, not built and framed to endure any
great stress of wind or buffeting of waves, and so
utterly unworkable as to have been virtually aban-
doned. 111 r. Lincoln is at sea upon a raftof despotism
on which he stands or sits without a single quality
of head—whatever his heart may be—to fit him
for navigating the ocean on so perilous a craft. If
the Constitution had provided any means for getting
rid of him, there cannot be a doubt that an effort
would be immediately made to accomplish the ob-
ject. Under the Constitution the only means are
an impeachment, which is not only a slow process,
but one which the fag end of a Congress, now pre-
tending to inquire into the causes of the disaster at
Fredericksburg, but maundering meanwhile about
negroes and contrabands, and declaring them to be
" mentally, physically, and morally superior" to the
Southern whites, is not likely to attempt. The only
other alternative for briningg about a change are the
deposition of Mr. Lincoln by an armed mob, civilian
or military, which no one yet advocates, though
even that solution of the difficulty has pre-
sented itself to many minds which wish that it
were possible ; or such a loud and emphatic ex-
pression of public opinion as shall convince Mr.
Lincoln onto for all that he must surround himself
with statesmen and generals whom the country
can trust, and that he himself must refrain from
further interference with military matters which he
does not understand, and from any further viola-
tions of the letter and spirit of the constitution which
he swore to maintain and hold. The Democratic
party have taken this matter in hand, and New York
was to have led off to-night with a meeting, the
first of a long series in every city and town of the
North. For some reason or other, not openly
stated, the meeting was postponed for a few days,
possibly to give the President a chance of antici-
pating the expression of public opinion, by the dis-
missal or reorganisation of his whole Cabinet. If
such meetings take place, the proceedings are likely
to teach Mr. Lincoln, if he has the capacity for re-
ceiving instruction which his friends assert, that he
and his Ministers have utterly forfeited the confi-
dence, if not the respect, of the country, and that if
he do not by fair means inaugurate a total and im-
mediate change of policy he will incur a very great
risk of provoking a violent revolution either in the
street or in the camp, or by the combined agencies
of both.
It must be confessed that there is little to cheer
the Northern heart in the present prospects of the
country. The Tribune newspaper believes, as Can-
dide might have done, that all is for the best. It
even looked upon the retreat of Gen. Burnside across
the Rappahannock as a circumstance full of cheer-
ing augury for the future prospect of the war, but
the voice of that charmer has ceased to charm, and
there is not perhaps another man in the country
who shares the singularly beatific visions of Mr.
Horace Greeley. Neither under Gen. Burnside nor
any other commander can a second attempt be made
this winter to approach Richmond by way of Fre-
dericksburg or by any other route. The army of
the Potomac must inevitably go into winter quar-
ters or be driven into greater dangers than those
from which it was extricated at Fredericksburg—
an extrication that was not so cheaply effected as
Mr. Stanton's revised telegrams would have the
public believe.
This of itself is sufficiently discouraging, but it is
not the worst part of the public sorrow. Volun-
teering for the army has ceased. The conscription
cannot be put in force. More than 100,000 men
have deserted since June last. The officers, who are
for the most part appointed for political and not
for military reasons, are incompetent, and inspire
the men with no confidence, The time of many of
the regiments has expired. The nine months' vo-
lunteers have served six months and will not renew.
The men are not paid their money, and are greatly
dissatisfied. The inaction of winter quarters will
more than decimate the ranks by the diseases which
are certain to occur in the camp wherever the camp
may be fixed. The soldiery are losing heart as well
as the people, and are fast coming to the conclu-
sion that, managed as they have been managed,
victory can never reward their efforts. Slaugh-
tered in vain at Fredericksburg with as much
method as if they had been swine at Cincinnati, they
ask one another why they should risk another such
contest, without hope of achieving anything by it.
Five of the ships that were chartered by the Go-
vernment to convey the troops of General Banks to
his destination, wherever that may be, are rotten
tubs, utterly unseaworthy, and have put into Phila-
delphia and other ports in stress of weather, where
they have been condemned as unfit for further ser-
vice. General Banks, when he reaches his destina-
tion, will probably have an insufficient number :of
men, in consequence of this scandalous break down,
to carry out his plans, and will, at the best, make a
useless lodgment in the enemy's country, and hold
no more of it than the ground his camp will oc-
cupy, or that the range of his guns can protect.
The Federal expedition up the Neun River, con-
ducted by General Foster, which was, it appears, to
have played the important part of alarming the
Confederates for the safety of Richmond in the rear,
while Burnside was to beleaguer it in front, has
taken the little town of Kingston, but done nothing
to render the capture of Richmond more probable
than if it had never started. The Government is one
day beset by dishonest shipowners, who have in-
fluence enough over Mr. Lincoln or his secretaries
to persuade him to undertake naval expeditions, of
which the only real purpose is the sale or charter- ,
ing of their rotten craft ; and on another by equally I
dishonest and scheming railroad directors and ma-
nagers, who denounce all naval expeditions as un-
called for, and urge the transport of troops by rail
as the only possible salvation of the country. Mr.
Chase cannot get his paper money printed fast
enough to pay the soldiers, and the price of every
article of food and clothing has doubled. With
corruption and imbecility every where and con-
fidence nowhere, and with Washington all but
undefended, and liable at any moment to be
captured by " Stonewall" Jackson or some other
preux chevalier of the South, is it surprising
that the American people should be sad at
heart ? Or will it be surprising to find hereafter
that for such desperate situation they adopt a des-
perate remedy ? In grim jest, which is considerably
BRITISH COLUMBIA.—The newspapers of Nov.
more than three-fourths grim earnest, there are state that many of the miners had arrived in Vic-
people who suggest that the best solution of the toria for the winter, bringing news from "up country." At
difficulty would be the installation of Mr. Jefferson 1 Lightning Creek the Shaft Company had been raising about
Davis as President in lieu of Mr. Lincoln—a new loom a day, and the Campbell Company had taken above
Confederation of North and South, leaving out the 100,000 dols. out of a claim in three months. On Barker
ituo
gCaatinoant ;Elsa
trh, iefythwaotuwldesrueClaim, Williams's Creek, there was taken in one week, with a
New England States altogether, or making them a
single pick, going day and night, 1,7000zb, of golddust. A rich
present to the British Government as an addendum
bjugat inadmissibleth e quartzleadhas been discovered in Cariboo. ato.
topic
The discovery
s, theiruth— sub-atid of gold in the Peace River is a chief pic of these papers.
It is asserted that there is room there for 20,000 miners,
their redaetion
e to the condition of a conquered de- and that the region is more accessible than the Cariboo,
pendency, held by and governed by
if such a question could be put to less elevated country, and more of open prairie. The large
the vote of the
people of New York, of the middle and border party of emigrants from Canada au I Red River settlement
States, and of the Great West, the chances are that who made their way down Fraser River a short time ago
it would be carried by a very magnificent m "ori left part of their number, 36 persons, at Tete Jaune Cache,
so great is the revulsion of feeling
alty near the head of the river, to bringtho animals down to the
that has taken '
Thompson River, where they expected to be able to winter
place on the question of negro slaves and abolition them. This company have arrived in Victoria. One of their
—the incitements to servile war held out by Me. number was a woman, the first white woman who ever
Lincoln—the subversion of the Constitution, and passed through that tract of country, and the journey was
the misitvirrigernent of every department of the marked
way,arke she d
bythe furtheruoveltythatat Fort Kamloops,the2
75
puNic service that has signalised the Republican miles from Tete Ca
gave
Janne birth toche agirl She had walked
carrying her little daughter
Administration since its assumption of office. The of four years old on her back, and accompanied by her
press of New York does not as a rule reflect public two children, six and eight years of age.
Opinion, hut, with some honourable exceptions, The Copenhagen Da/lb/cat of the 30th December
writes for a rowdy public of the lowest moral and says that the King had held a council of state at
intellectual grade. It has blown the war trumpet
hislt ichatcau, at Frodensborg, the day before, at 'which
obstreperously long of the public
lt etMinisterswere present. It was supposed that the
after the edge yamoono. Earl Russell's despatch of November the 20th
appetite fur war had been blunted, but, awakening reply
the matters submitted to the council.
at last to the real condition of the national mind, T • impel ting tea without colour on the leaf prevents
which is one of disgust fast ripening into indigna-
tile Chinese passing off inferior brown leaves as in the usual
tion, it has blown with unparalleled unanimity a kinds. Horniman's tea is uncoloured, therefore always
still louder war-note against the President and the good

fpeople who use or govern him for their own pur-
poses or theories. The disaster at Fredericksburg
has for once put the press and the intelligent public
in unison. Journals of all shades of politics agree
in their estimate of the danger of the crisis and the
remedies to be adopted; and even the most violent
of the anti-slavery ultra-Republican papers call
for a total change of men and measures to save the
country from the ruin into which it is drifting.