The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-21 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPT. 21, 1863.

Quousque tandem—the old Ciceronian reproach—
might be uttered nowadays quite as aptly, as when
first syllabted in scorn to CATALINE. It might be
uttered now quite as aptly by all around us, as well
as, in one sense, also by ourselves. Here in England,
it would have reference, mainly, to those social and
political reforms that have been so often promised
and that are nevertheless still being so perpetually
postponed. In France it would signify the weari-
ness engendered, there, by the long delays
in the constitutionalizing of her despotic Go-
vernment. In Prussia it woeld be manifestly in
allusion to the outrageous arrogance with which
the reigning Sovereign rides rough-shod over a
representative system which he abhors from his
soul, and yet shrinks from actually attempting to
destroy altogether. In Poland the cry would
have allusion to that cruel circumlocution of the
diplomatists of Europe, lengthening out the corre-
spondence between the four principal Governments,
with so painfully cool a deliberation, though all
the while the population of Russian-Poland itself is
struggling, for the life and for the death, against the
serried ranks of the soldiers of the Autocrat. From
across the Atlantic the same reproachful accents
are no less audible to all those at least who have
ears to hear—accents coming alike from the North
and from the South, to the two chief Powers at least
in Western Europe, Powers who all this while
might at any moment have interposed between the
belligerents, and who have, yet, in spite of that,
hitherto shrunk from the responsibility of so inter-
posing. It is from America thut the same
inarticulate reproach is coming.—mail after
3'41, more and more impressively. Not
fr°l33, Richmond or Washington. Not from the
Federal, or the Confederate Government. Bat from
every terrible battle-field, from the dead or the
dying stricken down, there, by thousands upon
thousands during the progress of this misera-
ble war. The mere continuance of the war,
under ever/ aspect it has assumed hitherto, is
a perpetual, and
a perpetually increasing reproach
to Christendom, Nonintervention, as a theory,
is, of course, very
admirable,
very just, and
very beautiful. La
t, persistently carried into
practise everywhere and
under all imaginable
conjunctions of circumstances, people are beginning
now to conjecture that it is intrinsically the very
reverse. Whenever—wel, take this to be really and
truly undeniable—whenever intervention can put
a stop to useless and, to all appearance,
intermina-
ble bloodshed, an obstinate persistence in
intervention must
ad-
hering to the principle of non intervention
necessity be flagrantly culpable. The horrors of
war in America go on increasing. The prospects
of peace there, if ever there can be said to ha„, t
any since the eontcstbegan,have faded out altogether.
They are, iu no one direction that we can ECC, any.
where recognitable. The picture Feet nteci to view
there is complete throughout, in its gh sstly consis-
tency of its monotony. War in the foreground—
war in the middle distance—war on the remote
horizon. The very vanishing point, so far as flit
eye can follow it through the lurid reek el
slaughter—
war, also, to the very last. Alll,
the passions of the belligerents are rising and in-
tensifying, instead of being in any -way mitigated
or allayed. A fiery rain descends, not from
Heaven, but from the ordnance of the Federal assail-
ants, upon the outworks of Charleston, as though
Charleston were some new Gomorrah. President

LINCOLN, at the rommeLcenieut of this year of grace,
gives the signal for a servile war. As yet that
execrable signal has happily not been answered—
unless the answer to it can be described by the

rule of contraries, as being the recent calling out

of 500,000 black soldiers in the South to fight
against the armies of President LINCOLN, by
order of Mr. DAvis—an order not enforced
by a threat, but, on the contrary by the
promise of land to the negroes enlisted,
and, better than the guarantee of any number of
acres to the black, the offer of his immediate eman-
cipation from slavery. Without intervention in
some form, diplomatic or otherwise, when is there to
come an end to this dreadful war between Federal
and Confederate, a war that, while it is ti curse to
America, is also and ever increasingly a reproach to
the European part of Christendom ?

The Russians reply to England is about as unsa-
isfactory in effect, and as unsuitable in tone, as
could be imagined. Grown bolder by the approach
of winter, and rendered tolerably restless of con-
sequences by the knowledge that there is no im-
mediate prospect of a war, Prince GonTs-
CHAKOFF has cast courtesy to the winds, and
totally ignored the usual practice of affecting a vir-
tue
if you have it not. He throws off the mask, and
as geed as says that Russia has a right to tyrannise
over Poland, that she means to exercise it to the
full, and that she will no longer brook any inter-
ference with her plans, or contradiction of her
wishes, by any foreign power whatsoever. Many
who were at first sanguine as to the result of the
attempted mediation with Russia have since given
up their hopes in despair, but still it was hardly to
be expected that so curt a reply, and so ungracious
a response, should have been made to a country like
our own. Also it is surprising that such truths as
Earl RUSSELL uttered in his despatch should
produce no effect 'whatever, and that
earnest solicitations
and impressive warnings
should be alternately pooh-poohed or sneered at by
the sarcastic and sardonic arbiter of the destinies
of unhappy Poland. He assumes a dictatorial
tone from the outset, and declares:that it would be
quite useless to prolong this discussion from the
moment when it is perceived that it can only tend
to confirm the " divergence of their views." This
is meant, of course, to do away with the awkward
necessity of attaching weight to the hints of the
English Government regarding the consequences
that would ensue from the rupture of treaties, and
the cruelty exercised towards the insurgents when-
ever chance gave the Russians an opportunity of
retaliation. This refusal to give any reason for
their actions is far preferable to the hypocrisy with
which the concluding part of the epistle is
imbued. It can be given no better name,
for those who have at all regarded the
course of events must wonder how much further
assurance can go, when they read that Prince
GORTSCHAKOFF avers that they " entirely share" in
the desire expressed by the English Cabinet to re-
store tranquillity to Poland. When, still further, he
says that his " august master continues to be ani-
mated by the moat benevolent intentions towards
Poland," it is 'Telly too much to endure patiently.
It is insulting to the common sense of those to whom
he addresses it, it is a direct denial of facts that is
degrading for a statesman to utter, and in the sight
of GOD and man it is entirely false. It would be
more consistent to say that such tyranny was ren-
dered imperative, and that stringent measures alone
could be effective in putting down an insurrection
that at any cost must be quelled. Prince GORT-
SCHAKOFF actually says that the EMPEROR has
accepted before GOD, his conscience, and his
people, to provide for the welfare of all
classes of his people. After this it seems absurd to
expect that any representations can do anything,
or any arguments produce an effect. The only way
to convince such characters is at the point of the
bayonet; the only persuasion will be superior
force. The attempt to succour Poland by media-
tion has failed, but not for want of effort on the
part of those who were engaged in the difficult and
delicate task. It has been solely because those ap-
pealed to could not be influenced by any of the
claims of 'humanity, the appeals of foreign States,
or the voice of self-interest even. They were re-
solved to take revenge on those in their power. It
cannot be that this conduct will answer in the long
run, and the day may not be distant when
Russia will regret she took the course she has wil-
fully chosen, and the part she has so wantonly
played. From this temporary triumph of despotism,
it is really refreshing to turn to a country where it
has sustained a defeat, if it is not a very important
one. The King of PRUSSIA is, of course, not to be
ranked with the CZAR for arbitrary measures, but he
is following in the wake of his northern allies with
dangerous imitative powers, and no one can tell in
such a case when the devotee may say to himself—
" Thou shalt go no further." It is, therefore, in
every way satisfactory to learn that the Urovernment
of Berlin, having been defeated in their attacks upon
cthageinpress, the editors who were accused of " ex-
contempt and hatred against the authorities"
were all acquitted on their trial. This must be a
severe blow to M. BISMARK and his colleagues. No
one can pity them their annoyance, or refrain from
rejoicing at the damaging shock they have sus-
tained, who reflects upon the injuries they have
inflicted upon the great country whose interests
were given to their charge. It is to be feared
that even this signal instance of the unpopularity
of their views, and this crowning proof of the
illegality of their assertions, will not be of any
great avail while the KING is still so completely
under the dominion of BISMARK. That sedulous
Minister seems never to quit him ; he haunts him
like his shadow, and thus a better influence has no
chance of getting dominion over him, and no
more enlightened counsel is likely to come to his
ears. It was a dark day for Prussia when that
unwise and infatuated Statesman, to give the
mildest terms to his career, was invested with
authority. True-hearted Prussians must rue the
evil choice that selected him for their ruler and
guide. His evil influence is tenfold more per-
nicious, because he is not content with the mis.
chief that a minister might do in his own legiti-
mate department, but virtually arrogates to him-
self ell the rights of sovereignty, and not only
that, but he changes the kingly power from a con-
stitutional one to a despotism. The philosopher
and the disciple of progress may well be amazed
and appalled at the state of the nations of the
Continent. This has been a sad year as regards
the fortunes of Poland, and a very sorrowful one
for the welfare of Prussia.

The annals of civil war are usually fell of pain-
ful and melancholy incidents. Households are
divided against themselves ; sons find themselves in
arms against their fathers, and brothers stand face
to face in the field of death. The same language
is spoken in the watchwords of both camps, the
towns stormed and assaulted have been often visited
by the besiegers on errands of peace or pleasure.
The roads and rivers, the hills and dales that wit-
ness march and countermarch, attack and repulse,
allthe
aike
tragici panorama are familiar to both com-
batants , Success or defeat, too, is alike inju-
rious to the country. There is no hope of getting
the expenses of the war paid from the wealthy
lenahe
any
case heavy debts
exchequer ; whichever
treasury
will
b of a foreignh
u
rdn
wins or loses, the State will have paid the fine in
burden the
a 1 xe
the blood of her best and bravest. All these con-

siderations, and many others added to them, have
I made reflecting men esteem a lengthened civil war
to be one of the greatest misfortunes that
can befall a nation, and so in the pages
of history experience has ever proved it to
be. In resisting a foreign foe the spirit of unity
and patriotism among the people, the common
struggle for a common end, has at least some ele-
vating and ennobling attributes. But the conflict
with fellow-countrymen, fellow-citizens, the carry-
ing of fire and sword into the hearths where our
own names are perhaps familiar, the bringing of
widowhood and orphanhood to the smiling mothers
end happy children of our own land, the destruc-
tion of those supplies of food and treasure which
might perhaps have relieved the very beggar who
cries to us for help—all this dims the glitter of the
sword and takes the freshness from the laurels.
Civil war, like every other undertaking, may be
sometimes necessary, sometimes advisable. Good,
tender-hearted, and upright men, have taken part
in it, we know, and through such fiery
ordeals do nations, like men, sometimes
have to pass before they reach their greatness. But
when civil war is recklessly begun from insufficient
or unworthy motives ; when questions of profit, of
power, are allowed to kindle the torch of interne
tine strife, when it is persistently maintained in
defiance of right and reason ; when war is made
against old men, women, and children, the sick and
the helpless ; when the food of the poor is pillaged
and the property of the wealthy wantonly de-
stroyed; when free speech, free action, free thought,
are well nigh suspended, and the ingenuity of civi-
lisation is exercised by the spirit of savages, then is
civil war indeed an unmitigated calamity. It is a
calamity which not only impoverishes for the time,
' bat desolates for the future; not only suspends
a nation's progress, but sends her backwards
in the scale of civilisation. Peace may and must
return on some terms or another between the two
great contending parties in the American States.
The Temple of Janus may be closed again, and the
daring energies of the Transatlantic people turn
again to their old courses, but who shall erase from
the memory of Europe or the history of mankind
the dark deeds of cruelty and barbarism which have
stained the annals of the North ? The worst fea-
tures of their conduct we have, we fear, yet to learn.
We have all heard, indeed, of the atrocities o Gen.
BUTLER, and a few kindred spirits ; we have
thriad with indignation as occasional tales are told
of needless oppression, of shells exploding even under
the sacred ye:low flag, of Greek fire poured in on
the midnight slumbers of peaceful citizens. But the
the whole story of wrong and harshness is still to
be told, and will never be fairly told until we gain
our information from Southern sources, instead of
from the North. The letter of Lieutenant MAURY,
an officer whose name is a sufficient voucher for the
accuracy of his statements, addressed to our princi-
pal contemporary on Saturday last, is sufficient to
call forth an indignant reprobation from all humane
and civilised men. The new system of campaigning
followed by the North is, he says, to avoid pitched
battles, but to subdue the South by devastating
defenceless provinces. Not content with destroying
the present resources of the people, they aim at
inflicting lasting injury. " The plan of the
enemy now is evidently to destroy not only the
industry of the South but also its future powers
'of production, by devastating those regions espe-
cially in which those great staples of commerce are
produced, and which were at once the source of our
wealth, power, and influence. He is aiming so to
devastate certain regions as to leave us during the
war without the ability to till our fields, and when
peace is restored without the plant or the labour to
supply the world with cotton, or tobacco, or sugar,
or naval stores, or rice, and the like. They not
only burn the cotton they cannot carry away, but
they burn the gins, and destroy all the plant re-
quired for the future production of the article. This
attempt to leave paralysed the powers of industry
and the capacity of production, even atter peace
shall have been restored, comes, it appears to me, in
the category of filling up wells in the deserts and
erasing from the charts of navigation a haven of the
sea." The course pursued at the little town of
Winchester by the forces of the remorseless Milroy
is described by Lieut. MAURY, in words which will
move the sympathies of all readers. He pictures
the charming village in its fertile valley, with re-
fined and hospitable inhabitants, converted into a
desert; all trade suspended until the oath of alle-
giance to the hated LINCOLN Government had been
taken by every tradesman, the physician forbidden
to prescribe for his patient, the clergyman to bap-
tise or bury, the mother to purchase necessaries for
her sick child until the same form had been gone
through. To make the cruelty the more inexcusa-
ble Winchester had been a loyally disposed town,
and only joined the Secessionists out of conformity
with its parent State, Virginia. Still more monstrous
was the order of the Northern General to destroy every
implement of agriculture, to root up the beds sown
by the inhabitants wtth vegetables for next year's
consumption, and to shoot the horses and cattle.
Such tyranny as this may be called by fine names
by the people of New England—to us it looks as if
the Federals, unwilling to meet the Confederates
in open fight, felt better matched against old men,
women, and children.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM,

TO TELE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—With reference to my note, published by
you on the 16th instant, I beg to state that I have
received an order for admittance to the Reading
Room after sending a second certificate as a recom-
mendation, which the principal librarian, by the
existing rules, has a right to require. In reply to
your question respecting the renewal, I answer that
my original ticket for admission was granted in the
year 1847, for a particular purpose, and it expired
by effluxion of time, without renewal. Hence a
new license, with sponsors, was rendered necessary
upon my recent application.
19th Sept.

Yours obediently,
C.

Beaumarebais's "Eugenie" has been revived at
the Theatre Francais.
THE NEW METAL POISONOUS.—M. Dumas an-
nounces that M. Lamy has recognized very
poisonous properties in the sulphate of thallium. Five
grammes of that salt were dissolved in milk, and the milk
given to 11 various animals, fowls, ducks, and dogs. All
were dead at the end of a few days. In another experiment
a decigramme only was given to a dog, which died in 40
hours. M. Lamy is reported to have experienced involun-
tarily some of the effects of this metal upon himself. At
the late British Association meeting, a mass of the solid
metal, weighing a quarter of a hundredweight, was ex-
hibited by Mr. Crookes. It was extracted by Messrs. Bell,
of Newcastle.

M. RENAN'S WAY OF PUTTING IT !—" That the
Gospels are in part legendary is evident enough, since they
are full of miracles and of the supernatural I (p. xv.) In
part l—he must mean nine parts out of ten, as the after
expression, " lull of the supernatural,'' would more
naturally import. It is much like saying that " oat•cake"
is in part made of " oats,'' when, in fact, it is little else.

MR. HENLEY, of all the Tory party (observes the
Spectator)—we fear he will scarcely appreciate the
compliment—is our especial favourite. It is not merely
that his character is such as to command the respect of all
who are brought into contact with him; nor even that he
is by no mans an obstructive among Tories. It is not that
if you can give him mathematical proofs of the advantages
of change, ho is by no means averse to it; although con-
sidering that he is a county member, very well off in the
world, and naturally not disposed to run risks, tliat shows
very considerable freedom from pr( judice. But what we
especially admire is, the ingenuity with which, when he
does take up a crotchet, he always contrives to defend it in
a winner which is on the face of it logical,