The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-19 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1863.

While the Quarterly flings down the gauntlet,
with an air of defiance, in the name, and on behalf
of the Conservative Opposition—the " Reform"
Administration (save the mark!) gives signifi-
cant token to the world that it is prepared (in
the chapter of political accidents) for some just
possible discomfiture.
Several bran new Peers are now announced as
likely to follow hard upon the heels of those half dozen
baronets whose names have already been indicated
as chosen from among the Whig mediocrities.
While the bloody hand is about to be affixed to the
escocheon of Mr. HENRY RICH, of Richmond—a
coronet is preparing to encircle the brow of Sir
CHARLES WOOD, of Halifax. "Sure such a pair"
—et cetera ! The ejaculation is nothing less than
inevitable—Mr. HENRY RICH and Sir CHARLES
WOOD having, together, throughout the last
quarter of a century, enjoyed an unenvi-
able pre-eminence among the recognised bores of
the House of Commons, a pre-eminence namely
among that fearful race—(the dread, it may be re-
membered, far away in Rhineland, of Messrs.
BROWN, JONES, and RoßeetsoN)—as Members whose
prolixity constituted of itself a full and perfect jus-
tification of the well known motion of that virtual
Forerunner of the Early Closing Movement, the
late Mr. BROTHERTON.
It seems at any rate in one particular appro-
priate that while the American PRESIDENT is ren-
dering his partial emancipation of the negroes :n a
manner penal in its character, the English PREMIER
is associating the idea of failure, of distinct and
positive failure, with these his latest promotions
to the peerage and the baronetsge. Who, for ex-
ample, could possibly have the hardihood to pre-
tend for one moment that the career of Mr. RICH,
in Parliament, or out of it, has been in any way a
success ! Again the notion of ennobling Sir
GEORGE GREYat this moment seems almost worthy
in its facetiounsess of being no more than an on dit
excerpted from the "London Charivari." Can
it be—can it possibly be in recognition (this
ermine robe and baronial coronet, for the brow
and shoulders of the Right Hon. the Home
Secretary) in grateful and admiring recognition
of his recent suavity (as Secretary of State)
to those adventurous gentlemen the Garotters ?
Again, the selection of that other right hon. already
mentioned, to se it Sir CHARLES WOOD—minis-
terially speaking already pretty well "My Lord
High Everything," Secretary of State in turns for
this, that, and the other, as well as, time and
again, Chancellor of Her MAJESTY'S Exchequer,
to the muddling of the national accounts during his
tenure of office, and the simultaneous bewilder-
ment of all the permanent officials at the Treasury—
this most ingenious selection of Sir CHARLES WOOD
is, it will be observed, so charmingly malapropos,
so exquisitely inappropriate ! It comes to the right
hon. baronet, we presume, in reward for his recent
and very flagrant display of a want of all sagacity
in regard to the administration of affairs in Hind:
stan—as a recompense, we will suppose, for his
reiterated wounding of the feelings, and
his most perverse interference with the
policy of Mr. LAING, his repudiated India
firunciee. Altogether a master stroke of adroit-
ness, surely, this nomination to the peerage of Sir
CHARLES WOOD and Sir GEORGE GREY! By the
way—about the latter—Zadkia, in one of his last
" Aluaanacks" hut one, eels not so very far wrong
alter all! Namely, when predicting o year or so
back (he was only out" in his twelvemonth) that
about this time Sir GEORGE GREY Will have a
prospect of realising his ambition." People laughed
at the wonderful intimation at the time; but ZADKIEL
TAO TzE, had he only been lucky enough to put the
words down for Jan., 1863, instead of for whatever
date it was the sage selected, would have had rea-
son to hope for another magisterial recognition of
his accuracy as a prophet by that honest, simple-
minded civic go bemouche Mr. Alderman Ilemernaey,

As it is—the other Peers that are to be, we have
all this while left waiting, as it Were, upon the

threshold of that "other place," the name of which
cannot be mentioned openly to ears polite within

the popular branch of the Legislature. Among
them, there is one form at any rate that almost all
who glance at the strange group will recognise with
something really like an unaffected sense of com-
placency. Meaning—need we say it P—the amiable
and accomplished member for the borough of Pon-
tefract. It seems an odd successor, this, to have
chosen, nevertheless, as the new literary peer to
fill the vacancy left by the premature passing away
of Lord MACAULAY. So to speak, it is for all the
world like putting a brilliant little humming bird
into the cage of some dead and gone Eagle of the
Sun. The author of "Palm Leaves "—in lieu of the
Master Essayist and the Historian of England
willngla nd!
Yet—while wincing at the contrast—non
be-
grudge the crowning honour
gaebnotluenittaonbeanbdestotrwnee.
bestowed
upon this liberal-mid
hearted man of letters.
Turning from which not ungratified glance at
Mr. MONCIZTON MILNES, we remark hard by there,
among the select few, one other name of note in
its way (in a very different way, however) : not
another GREY, nor yet a RUSSELL, nor yet an
ELLIOTT, but nest door to each, meaning as a
matter of course an ELLICE. Mr. EDWARD ELLICE,
that is—an Ursa Major who would consequently
seems to have hunted his fellows (by deputy,
of course) to . some purpose, besides the
mere accumulation of wealth, in the forest wilds
of the Hudson's Bay Company's Territory. In
startling contrast to whom, comes, in the
person of Mr. WENTWORTH BEAUMONT, an opulent
leader of ton, who has won a peerage for himself,
not in the sylvan wilds of North America, but in
the very thick of the creme de la creme, curdled
together between Mayfair and Belgravia, in the
very centre-point of our social civilisation.
Such would appear to be the distribution of
the court cards in this last deal by Lord PALMER-
STON prior to—shall we say it ?—the probably
coming Dissolution of Parliament.
Miching Malecho, or "it means mis-
chief," might have been adopted as the motto
of the bold, slashing, political article con-
tributed—(manifestly, we would conjecture, by no
other than Lord ROBERTCECIL)—tO the current num-
ber of the old Tory Quarterly. And while the Op-
position gives thus unmistakeable evidence of a
determination to do battle in downright earnest,
immediately upon the commencement of ,the
now fast approaching session—the Government
that is, affords the world those equally unmistake-
able evidences we here speak of, evidences that
they are at length putting things in train, betimes,
for a clean sweep out, should occasion require. The
favourite Whig notion of a clean sweep out in the
contingency of any Parliamentary contretemps—
being, of course, not Resignation but Dissolution.
And so, the golden bowl of this present Parlia-
ment (already mature of age as Parliaments go !)
rolls steadily on towards its appointed goal. With
what bias, who does not recognise ?

The Proclamation of Mr. LINCOLN for the Eman-
cipation of the Slaves of his enemies must be a
stumbling block to those of his friends. What is
good for the one could not surely be bad for the
others. Well may those doomed to slavery ex-
claim, " Save us from the P/tESIDENT'S friends !"
for all his virtue has gone to the other side, and
we are still left in bondage, because of the good-
ness of our masters. Verily, it is a sad prefer-
ence for us, while our masters exult that virtue
is its own reward." So says Mr. LINCOLN, and
I those who support his rule.

The great problem now is, how will the matter
work ? That, time alone will decide. It were as
idle to reason as it would be presumptuous to prog-
nosticate. The deed is done for the present, and
hope may hope, or fear may forbode, the future.
All is, we doubt not, unmixed with grave anxiety.
Still the question recurs—lf the act was good, why
not have done it before ? If it was inexpedient
sooner—then is it politic now ? Events must prove.
Out of slavery Mr. LINCOLN has redeemed but
three millions, and left the fourth in chains, by
way of hostage for their masters' fidelity. And
this he calls emancipation. But the freedom
which he affects to bestow is not in his
own gift, nor has he the power to persuade or en-
force it. Now if he were really bent on freeing the
slave he had ample opportunity at the beginning,
but made no sign. Compromise might have resulted
from a fair argument of the matter, and the issue
have proved mutually beneficial to master as to
slave, and a world of horrors be prevented. But
no. Mr. LINCOLN would brook no arbiter. He
wculd predominate. Empire was his idol—the day-
dream of his ambition—simple civilian though he
was. In his own lust for empire he would permit
no rival for independence. The glorious Republic
had, in his eyes, more virtue than that of the
" almighty dollar" in the -cupidity of his friends.
The Republic had hitherto been successful beyond
all human experience, and there seemed no
bounds to his hopes. It was idle to reason with
destiny; and the failure of every succeeding attempt
only served to stimulate renewed exertion in the
overweening belief that fortune was only trying
his fortitude the more. Thus faith in the future
bet nerved his strength the more that he would
redeem the melancholy failure of the pest. And
so he went on, reckless of the cost, for that con-
cerned others—not him. Therefore "he put his
foot down," and none might dare to question his
omnipotence.

It was hopeless to point to the finger of time,
for present power will not calculate on future pro-
babilities. The day was his own, and to-morrow
also—for divinity was undefinable—
" So runs the world away."

I
Although Mr. LINCOLN had expended nearly half
his term of power with Each warlike catastrophe
more deplorable than its predecessor, still, like the
spendthrift gambler, he would risk another throw
and stake his—no, not his own—but the fortune of
others on the cast and tempt the fate of the already
cracked Republic on the event. True, he had his
doubts on the peril of the game, and hoped to
Heaven that he was doing all for the best. He
it mightsave
saved
ethewruonngio,nblut
Thheuswhieshaepdpetaolebde
torigllheta—vesno
as if there were no other portion of creation worthy
of its care, save the Republic that was, and the re-
united empire to be.
And so the PRESIDENT has put his foot down with
a vengeance by playing his last trump 03 the game
of emancipation. He held the cards in his hand
before, but would not win, because he felt so strong
that he would palter with destiny. The world
' wondered at his temerity, but took no measure of
the fathomless depth of his power. As for money,
he had command of infinity more than CHASE
could count or STANTON conceive. Tete weird
sisters—not Gen. SCOTT'S—beguiled him on until
his remaining senses were bewildered with the
never-ending, still beginning, toil and trouble of
his charmed infatuation. Poor man I we could
pity him, but for his persistent perversity.
The S3uthern States ? Aye, there's the rub.
What's HECCUBA to him, or he to 1-lEccußA ? Mr.
LINCOLN may call rebels from the sultry South, but
will they come ? Not they indeed, save such un-
welcome visitors as LEE, " STONEWALL" JACKSON,
land STUART have already proved. " The Rebels"