The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-07 00:00:00

go along with them ; and has justified or palliated
many arbitrary acts of Mr. Lincoln and his secre-
taries, which must have jarred upon his teelinzs
and instincts as a sincere and enlightened lover of
freedom—for white men as well as for bleek. Lately
however he has awakened to the consciousness that
this policy is wrong, and that if the States do not
jealously preserve their State rights the freedom of
America has nothing left to stand upon. Mr. Greeley
sees the right course. Il rerient a ses premiers
amours, and acknowledges—not for the first time—
that Northern liberty is worth the keeping--a fact
which too many of his Republican and Abolitionist
coadjutors have persistently ignored. It must not
be imagined that Mr. Greeley has abandoned his
old idta3 on the subject of slavery. On that point
he is true as steel to his early convictions. But the
bitter experience of the czar, and especially the
failure of the President's proclamation to arouse
the anti-slavery enthusiasm of the North, or to in-
spire the Southern slaves themselves with the
faintest hope of freedom, has taught him that other
questions than those of slavery were involved in
the mighty war between North and South. Wash-
ington, the slaveowner, fought the battle of liberty,
and won it; and why should not Jefferson Davis,
the slaveowner, do the same ? Mr. Greeley does
not put the case in that form, but it is evident
he sees far more clearly than his party that he
has ranged himself on the losing side ; that the
South is lost to the North for ever, except as a
foreign ally and a good customer; and that if it
were possible to restore the Union by the means
employed by Mr. Lincoln and his generals the
result would be an imperial, military, and perhaps
brutal despotism. Many persons predicted that
the President's Proclamation would divide the
North and unite the South—a prediction early and
completely verified ; but no one predicted that it
would cause a division in the Republican ranks, and
deprive them of the leadership of the man to whose
teachings and promptings it was mainly due. Yet
this result has happened. The wise philosopher of
Abolitionists is dethroned, and uncharitable priests
and silly women reign in his stead.
There is an old Scottish rhyme which says—
" When gray beards weep and hens crow
The pride of the nation lieth low."
These lines are but too applicable to the present
condition of this country. If " gray beards" do not
yet weep for the miseries and degradation of the
land it is not for want of cause; and if the crowing
of hens be a metaphorical expression for the unseemly
interference of women with the political affairs and
partisan passions of men, the crowing has begun,
and betokens a wide-spread demoralisation of the
people. A woman named Dickinson, a spinster of
25, from the city of Philadelphia, fresh, fair, and
blooming, with an amazing volubility and power of
vituperation, somewhat impaired by the nasal
twang and the Yankee mispronunciation, has been
engaged by the Contractors' League to enlighten
the Northern public on the aspects of the war and
the merits and demerits of every military and civil
servant of the Government who is prominent and
influential enough to attract her notice. This de-
magogue in petticoats held forth on Tuesday night
at the Cooper Institute to an audience of nearly
4,000 persons, at least one-half of whom were wo-
men, who rewarded her most unfeminine utterances
with the greatest amount of their unwomanly and
unmanly applause. She has a voice, according to
the reporters, "so powerful that masculine stump
speakers might envy it," and used it to effective
purpose in denouncing every general of the Demo-
cratic party who had ever been called to command
the armies of the North. Her principal spite was
directed against General M'Clellan, whom she de-
cleared to be no general at all—or, if a general, a
traitor ; a man who knew nothing of the art of war,
or who, if knowing, used his kno tvledge against his
country. " Burnside and Hooker," she said, " could
fight; but this man (M'Clellan) kept out of the
battle, and sat down miles off, with his thirty
thousand reserves, drinking mint juleps and sherry
cobblers in safety. Never," she added, " did he soil
his feet by the tread of a blood-stained battle-field.
He preferred to come northward to tread on piled-
up mounds of bouquets, and to brave every element
of treason, secession, and meanness, going down in
the mad at his feet to do him reverence." Thez.e
was at least one sensible man in the crowd of lis-
teners who took offence et the silly arrogance of a
scold who presumed to criticise the actions of a
soldier, and expressed his displeasure in unmis-
takeable terms. A disturbance immediately arose
which lasted some minutes ; blows were inter

changed ; women shrieked and fainted ; men hissed
and hooted, and the police were called for ; bat the
undaunted Miss Dickinson looked on defiant and
expectant, and as wholly unabashed as if she had
been made of marble. Comparative order having
been restored, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecber
stepped on the platform, and announced, amid loud
applause, " that the gentleman had been squelched,'
and that " the lady WAS triumphant." Miss Dick-
inson thereupon resumed her attacks on General
M'Clelian. She said she had understood that he had
joined a church, and " hoped he would obey holy
orders better than be did military orders." The
audience appreciated hugely this very poor joke,
and the Rev. Mr. Beecher, carried away by enthu-
siasm, acted as fugleraan to the applause. She de-
clared that the only real soldiers of the Union were
the Republicans and Abolitionists, citing the names
of Generals Hunter, Mitchell, Roaecrans, Sigel, and,
above all, Fremont, in proof of the assertion. She
also expressed the highest opinion of the courage,
ability, and patriotism of General Butler, whom
she contrasted favourably with Gen. Banks. The
latter was much too merciful and humane to merit
her commendation—a mere milksop, unfit to grapple
with the Southern " devils," whom she held in

such abhorrence. On the question of inciting the
negroes to tike up arms against their masters and
mistresses she was particularly emphatic. " When
people ask me," she said, "if I would have the
bazbarity to get np a slave insurrection, I
answer, Yes! When we are fighting the devil I an,
glad to hear that an insurrection has broken out in
hell." At this point of the fair virago's speech there
was, according to the newspaper reports, " tremen-
dous applause, renewed so often that it was difficult
to restore silence." Referring to the danger of en-
forcing the Conscription Act she said, "If the Demo-
cratic party attempt to resist the execution of that
measure the streets will be drenched in blood."
Again there was a tempest of applause, the women
being more vehement than the men. Anything
more pitiable and painful than this exhibition it is
difficult to conceive. The speaker herself—the bigots,
theorists, and contractors who paid her to unsex
herself—the men who applauded her, and the
women who cheered her unwomanly words, were
alike detestable. A Joan of Arc who in the day of
her country's peril goes out into the battle field and
does a soldier's duty against a foreign foe is a re-
spectable, though perhaps an unnatural character;
but a strong-voiced scold, however young, bloom_
i tge and
brother
eloquent,in a time of civil strife in-
against
brother, sister against sister,
who
panders to the lowest and most fiendish of passicons,
openly advocates a servile insurrection and a war of
races, and gluts over the unutterable horrors which
such a war presupposes, is a worse nuisance to so-
ciety than a thousand hetairee. Wheu the French
Jacobins dressed out a faded sisterof the demi-monde

in the masquerade of the Goddess of Liberty, and
led her in triumph through the streets of Paris,
hey unintentionally marked the point of the lowest
decadence of public morality in their miserable era.
Miss Dickinson's aearance on the platform marks
pp
%similar era in the declinc of American liberty.

POPULATION OF QUEENSLAND.—In the colony of
Queensland, to which many of our emigrants are
now proceeding, the increase of population in the year 1862
by immigration from Europe amounted to B,oBo—namely,
4,703 males and 3,377 females; and the increase by immi•
gration from other colonies was 1,725—namely, 1,285 males
and 440 females. As might be expected in so young a
colony, the population contains three males for every two
females ; but it is remarkable that in the course of the year
1862, though the male births were 110.5 to every 100 girls
born, the excess of births over deaths gave but 387 males
and as many as 518 females The total increase by immi-
gration in the year was 9,805; and the population on the
31st of December, 1862, was estimated at 45,077, of whom
27,186 were males and 17,891 females. A large proportion
of the intercolonial immigration is of men who come to take
up new country, and do not bring their families in the first
instance, or of single men who come to do pioneers' service
until their improved fortunes or their more settled habits
allow them to think of marriage. But in this small com-
munity there were 570 marriages in the
year, so that one
person in every 40 married in the twelvemonths,

CALIFORNIA,- -

A letter from San Francisco, dated March 23,
says :—On the 16th inst. I wrote to you by overland
mail that a vessel had been seized on the suspicion
that she hsd been fitted out for piratical or other un-
lawful purposes. The investigation is being carried
on by the military authorities in Fort Alcatraz, the
public and the representatives of the press being ex-
cluded. The real character of the vessel and the ob-
jects of her owners have not yet been demonstrated.
The press has come to the conclusion, without wait-
ing for the proof, that she is either a pirate, a pri-
vateer, or a Confederate cruiser. Some of the cir-
cumstances circulated as connected with her are
suspicious, and give colour to the accusations.
Many believe that she herself, her armament, and
munitions were all intended for the Mexican mar-
ket ; but such of the evidence as has been made pub-
lic latters, oaths, and papers—is contradictory. It
appears, however, that for some time back consi-
derable quantities of munitions of war have been
shipped from San Francisco to the coast of Mexico
against the repeated remonstrances of the Consul of
France, as I mentioned lately. Whatever the intended
destination of the J. M. Chapman was, the object
was a bad one ; and it is on all accounts fortunate
that the object has been defeated by her seizure.
Such of her cargo as was legitimate—quicksilver,
&c., shipped for Mexico—has been given up to the
owners, who were innocent of any illegal intention.
This matter of the seizure has created a strong
desire for farther means of defence and offence, and
a call for an increase of the land fortifications and
for improvising ironclads, &c., on the part of a por-
tion of the city municipality, in whose coffers there
is at present a large surplus of money. But another
and more reasonable, and certainly a more honest,
portion of this body, as well as a portion of the pub-
lic and of the press, oppose the " ironclada" scheme,
and assert that the patriotism of its promoters is
sharpened by the prospect of being able to sell yes-
sa s of their own, old and rotten hulks, for conver-
sion into men-of-war. Any way, as there is a man-
of-war in port; as the national gunboat Saginaw,
heavily armed, is now here ready for service; as a
revenue cutter is about to arrive from Washington
Territory, where she is watching the smugglers of
goods from Victoria; and as a merchant steamer is
offered to the Government in the emergency, I don't
think a hosti.e vessel can leave the port; and most
persons are satisfied we run no danger from pirates,
privateers, or Jeff. Davis's cruisers, unless they come
round the Horn and capture the steamers en route
to Panama ; and of any such movement there would
be sufficient notice to warn the men-of-war in the
Pacific to protect the steamers by convoy.
The Pacific Mail Company's steamer Constitution
left this morning for Panama. She carries three
companies of volunteers, numbering 283 men and
nine efficers, who enlisted in California for service
in the Massachusetts Contingent as cavalry. The
whole force required, and which is being recruited in
this country for the State of Massachusetts, is 500.
Another company will soon leave for the East, and it
is expected the lull complement of 500 will be ob-
tained, which, with 200 men formerly sent, will make
700 soldiers contributed by California to Massa-
chusetts. The bounty is double that of the Govern.
ment, and has, of course, had the effect of attract-
ing men ; but the movement is not popular, and has
induced the remark that the "solid men of Boston"
prefer paying to fighting.
The amount of treasure shipped by to-day's steamer
was—to England, 878,524 dols. 24c. ;to New York,
214,852 do's. 97c. ; and to Panama, 18,200 dols.—
together, £1,111,647 dole. 21c., which makes the
total export of treasure from this port since Jan. 1
12,436,339 dols. 48c., being an excess of half a mil-
lion over the shipments of the corresponding period
of 1862. Exchange : London, 60 days' bankers'
bills, 48d. ; private bills, 49d. Paris, 60 days', sf.
Gold bars, 830 fine, at par, are 1 per cent. cheaper
than at date of last mail's departure, in consequence
of the abundance of the supply.
We have news from Victoria to the 17th inst. by
the steamer which arrived on Saturday night. I
shall encroach on your space and patience only to
give a few extracts of interest. A merchant writing
from Victoria to myself remarks thut—"Business

is dull but will improve soon. Real estate still rules
high, notwithstanding money is scarce. The re-
ports brought by miners recently from Cariboo are
most encouraging. They expect that from seven to
ten million dols. will be taken out this year. Had
they a mint, so as to keep a due proportion of this
yield in Victoria, instead of letting it pass through
to San Francisco to swell your exports, it would
help us along wonderfully, and we could better
afford to pay for improving our young city. A gold
escort is about to be established, the merchants here
guaranteeing the Government from loss in working
it to the extent of 20,000 dols." Next to the con-
struction of roads and bridges and the establish-
ment of ferries this gold escort is the most useful
measure ever adopted.

I have been in communication with Governor
Douglas on the subject of the silver discoveries, of
which I wrote fully in a late letter to you, with the
object of obtaining further information. The Go-
vernor informs me that the statement in that letter
"is essentially correct," and adds, " The silver lodes
of Cariboo, from what I have heard, are second in
importance only to its auriferous deposits. Roads
only are wanted for their rapid development, and I
am straining every possible resource of Government
to supply that want." This is encouraging; but I
feel it my duty to warn English capitalists from
hasty action until the lodes are more fully developed,
their extent and quality better ascertained, and the
roads completed. The only prudent action for the
present is exploration by competent persons.
On the subject of roads, to which the Governor
has devoted much of his time and attention, with
what success will appear from the following excerpt
from his letter, he writes :—" The carriage road is
now within 30 miles of Alexandria, some 300 miles
from the coast, and will be finished up to that place
by the middle of June next. Thomas Fraser River
is navigable to the Rocky Mountain, on which por-
tion of the river, I may remark, a steamer will be
plying this suiimer, carrying passengers and goods
on the way to Cariboo, taking both to within s
moderate distance of the mines." The Governor is
sanguine that his roads, which have given him
so much trouble, will, "in a few years, open a
commerce down the eastern slopes of the Rocky
Mountains in•o the valley of the Saskatchewan
and Red River, and finally into the British pro-
vinces on the Atlantic." He corroborates all other
accounts as to the good fortune that has attended
the miners last winter :—" The miners who re-
mained at Cariboo have been at work all winter,
with marked success; Barker and Co. having made
out of their claim the sum of 126,000 dols. since the
the beginning of last October. The gutter' or
gold lead has also been traced several miles further
down William's Creek than it was before known to
exist. All this is encouraging, and inspires the
public with confidence in the country."

The amount of tonnage which entered the port of
Victoria in February was 8,427 tons, of which 2,246
tons were British. Number of vessels, 44; cleared,
11,134 tons, of which 2,932 tons were British.
Number of vessels, 54.
As showing the growth of the town, I cut out the
following paragraph from the Colonist of the 9 h of
March :—" Improvements in Progress.—Every-
where around the city houses are starting up as if
by magic, and generally they are of a substantial
and tasteful appearance. On the upper part of
Fort-street several new houses have been finished,
and others are in progress. At the head of John-

son and Yates etreets several new houses were lately
put up, and lots in that quarter are scarcely to be
had. If the improvements by the corporation
would only keep pace with private enterprise, in a
short time Victoria would be a second San Fran-

eisco. The city authorities should stir up the con-
tractors for the streets now that fine weather has
set in."

The French corvette Cornelie, 24 guns, Comman-
der L'Eveque, has been in San Francisco Harbour
since the 12th, refreshing.

Full benefit of reduced duty obtained by pur-
chasing llorniman's pure Tea ; very choice at 38. 4d. and
4a. " High Standard "at 4s. 4d. (formerly 4s. Bd.), is the
strongest and most delicious imported. Agents in every
town supply it in packets.