The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-09 00:00:00

with the community at large, an increasing reputa-
tion for prudence, and almost, we might go the
length of saying, for magnanimity.

A specimen of American eloquence has just been
afforded us in the address of the Rev. H. WARD
BEECHER, in the Cobden Hotel, Glasgow. This
gentleman is well known on both sides of the
Atlantic for his earnest, uncompromising advocacy
of temperance and abolition, and accordingly some
of the Driqcipal temperance men of the Scottish
city took the occasion of his visit to improvise an
assembly in his honour. It was of course expectedeeting,
that Mr. BEECHER should address the meeting,
and although it was expressly
declared that no
political feeling called them e toeether, the general
dcsir© was gratified, for thevisitor
e d unngedbold
boldly
into the topic, occupying all minds,
acknow-
ledged his views in a bold and outspoken manner
that commanded at least the respect of his audience.
Of the speech itself we cannot think so favourably,
It was illogical, rash, and one-sided. Its argu-
ments were unsound, its assertions preposterous,
and its religious allusions, to say the least of it,
decidedly irreverent, even allowing for the freedom
of American discourse. Mr. BEECHER began, as
was natural, by complimenting the Scotch, and
commenting on the many points of resemblance
between them and the New Englanders. But
when we come to the instances of similarity which
he gives, we are almost inclined to think he is
speaking satirically. " That union of moral senti-
ment, that intellectual progress, together with that
mild and yielding disposition which characterise
both sides, convince me that I am here at home."
It is the first time that we have heard either North
Britons or New Englanders celebrated for their
mild and yielding qualities, and certainly present
events do not show much of them in our transat-
lantic friends, at all events. Where a little further
on Mr. BEECHER declares that the Federals will
rather give " the last child they have and the last
penny they possess" than relinquish a war already
hopeless, he does not give every striking proof either
of their amiability or their readiness to yield to
conviction ! The religious declamation of Mr.
BEECHER, though doubtless earnest and sincere,
seems sadly out of place to English taste when it
precedes such declarations as those we have just
quoted. We are not slow to appreciate the grand
and lofty spirit of patriots dying for their country,
or the heroism which strives to the last to defend
its hearths and homes from the invader, but there
is nothing in the American war to inspire such sen-
timents. It is one of the darkest and most melan-
choly passages in modern history; fought by a
people who have always boasted of their practical
and matter-otfact tendencies, it carries out that
view by being utterly divested of lofty idea or good
and noble purpose. We may sympathise with the
determined resistance of the South, and its unflinch-
ing courage, but the Southerners were not forced
into war by the oppression of a King BOMBA or
the atrocities sanctioned by a GORTSCHAKOFF. On
the part of the North it is a struggle for supremacy,
actuated by mercenary motives; a lavish expendi-
ture of men and money, a reckless sacrifice of the
peace and welfare and progress of the State to sel-
fish ends. The great question of slavery, which
some enthusiasts would have no believe lies at the
root of this strife, has been worked for their own
ends by both combatants. The North talk loudly
of its iniquity—just discovered since the tide of
fortune turned against them—the South uphold it
hardily. The North would gladly retract the
famous Abolition Emancipation on condition of the
re-establishment of the Union, the South are bent
on preserving their " domestic institution." And
in the midst of this struggle constitutional liberty
and civil right go down; free speech brings the
speaker into trouble, opposition to the Govern-
ment enteils imprisonment or exile. A forced
conscription carries a whole train of evils with it.
Conscripts refuse to serve, or find substitutes who
enlist for the sake of the bounty, desert, are re-
captured, and shot. Murmurs, not loud but deep,
are heard, until the popular discontent is silenced
by exaggerated accounts of victory or infinitessimal
pictures of defeats. And in the face of all this,
Mr. BEECHER talks to us of " IiOD bending his
angel of war," of a feeling in the North "as ex-
tensive as the atmosphere, as deep as the ocean,
as immoveable as the mountains," against the divi-
sion of the Union. He says, "We all feel
this is not man's work, but GOD'S ; and we
feel that we shall follow His footsteps to the
end." Truly, if this is his idea of supplying the
needs of want, sorrow, or suffering which he tells
us is his mission ; if this is his mode of displaying
that religion of universal love which he declares
to be burning in his soul, his intentions are better
than his practice. He has upheld the cause of
abolition, he tells us, when to do so was to incur
exclusion from society, and to peril life and limb,
and he merits our applause for so doing, but such
Abolitionists hinder rather than further their cause
at the present crisis. They refuse to acknowledge
facts which are patent to the eyes of all unpreju-
diced men, and persist in talking as if the rights of
the negro, instead of the mercantile interests of the
Northern States, were the true origin of the war.
Let the South offer to rejoin the Union to-morrow,
on condition that the maintenance of slavery is
guaranteed to them, and we shall soon see the value
of the Federal fervour on behalf of humanity, and
the rights of man. Mr. BEECHER himself was fain
to admit that the immortal proc'amation was not
altogether disinterested, and that it was only be-
cause " the rebels became so potent, and their aims
so alarming" that the PRESIDENT had recourse to it.
This he considers especially the work of Providence,
acnana the
didlylaandmguitatgine in
admitting
t ewhich h
origin,
e descs
ribes n
nitt
i, angf,t_e r
" When it became evident that the Great Dragon
must be destroyed, with hands outstretched and
swords of fire in their hands, they rose like one man,
and with a voice which reverberated throughout
the whole world, cried, " Let it, with all its atten-
dant horrors, go to hell." This is a little too strong,
considering the real state of the case, but the man-
ner in which Heevea is dragged in to be responsi-
ble for the iniquities of man is still worse. When
we remember the total absence of humanity and
good faith which has characterised the acts of the
Northern Government, the tyranny of BUTLER, the
submersion of the lands round Vicksburg, the shells
falling under the protecting yellow flag, the Greek
fire poured into Charleston, we can but feel indig-
nant astonishment that the most fervent enthusiasm
should carry Mr. BEECHER so far as to express the
feelings of the Northern people in the most sacred
of ayto compare their present self-in-
flicted trialer'g to and
the
sufferings of Gethsemane. Such
language way suit
the exaggerated taste of Mr.
pr
BEECHER'S co-enthusiasts, but it will not favourably
impress the English

The speeches at the Manchester Southern lade-
Pendent Association are well worthy of perusal, and
will be sore to interest our readers. Lard WHARN-
CLIFFZ took
the chair, and delivered a very sensible
discourse
...
on the important subject before them. He
stated that "ale erroneous reports had been circu-
lated relative to end he must
their proceedings,
take that ODnn They
..--Louity to contradict them.
had neyer attributed interested motives to
thos© opposed to them. All he y,iehed WM to