The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

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TIMES.--The Lancashire people are under the im-
pressioa that the real condition of the maneictur-
ing districts is not understood. Misapprehensions,
they say, prevail in Parliament, in London society,
and in the views taken of the matter by the Press.
They Think it of the utmost importance that the
truth should be made known before the Recess, and
that our legislators should not separate without
getting an insight into the actual position of affairs.
For this estimate of the case there is some founda-
tion. We are not sure that the opinion of Lanca-
shire on the exigencies of the crisis should be
adopted without correction, but we certainly think
that the subject cannot be too fully discussed ;
and we avail ourselves, therefore, of the last report
of the Central Relief Committee to place the ques-
tion in its new light before the public. The first
great fact is that the distress in the cotton districts
has been regularly decreasing during the whole of
the present year. The recipients of relief have de-
clined in number at an average rate of 4,000 a week.
There were upwards of 270,000 persons in that po-
sition on the 6th of last December, whereas there
were but 167,000 on the 6th of this present month.
These figures are given for the 21 Unions from which
returns are published, and they may be taken, we
presume, as fairly indicating the condition of the
manufacturing districts generally. We learn, there-
fore, beyond all question. that through the opera-
tion of various causes, but mainly through the re-
vival of trade, the distress of the cotton workers has
been growing less and less for the last six months,
until it is now not very much more than half as
severe as it was. We have also been told, in the
next place on authority which is not disputed, that
the manufacturers of Lancashire are actually build-
ing new mills and enlarging old ones in all direc-
tions, so as to evince their own belief in the good
times at hand. This persuasion is shared by the
operatives also, who are looking forward to the days
when labour will be at a premium and labourers bet-
ter off than ever. Such being the state of things,
with a material improvement visibly going on, and
an expectation of prosperity evidently prevailing,
the Lancashire people are not unreasonably appre-
hensive of public incredulity when they proclaim
that the prospects of the cotton industry are now
worse than ever. They tell us that our impressions
are mistaken ; that next winter will prove more for-
midable than the winter of last year; that the pro-
posed grant for public works will be totally insuffi-
cient ; that larger borrowing powers must be con-
ferred on the local authorities ; and that, unless we
mean to incur most serious embarrassments, we must
divest ourselves of the idea that the old cotton hands
are regaining a permanent livelihood from the old
trade. We are not so sanguine as to build upon the
immediate and complete revival of the cotton indus-
try even in 1868 ; but, on the other hand, we should
have expected, except for these warnings, that the
material recovery which we really do witness would
have done us some good in the coining winter. We
did think the worst was over, though we could not
hope to see the best again. The Lancashire people
are now making sure of the best five years after
date, but cannot even discount it sufficiently to save
us from the worst at present. That is whet puzzles
us. The Central Committee are quite right in think-
ing that there are doubts on the question, and that
persons who see what is actually going on in Lan
cashire cannot understand the representations which
are made from those parts. They may rely, how-
ever, upon this, that the public wish only to learn
the truth. We shall all be ready to do our duty
when we see our way. There are things at present
which we do not quite comprehend, but we have.no
doubt that the Committee can explain them, and
for that information we wait.

HERALD.—The American struggle seems to be
rapidly approaching a crisis, military and political,
of which it would be extremely rash to predict the
immediate issues. Vicksburg is still untaken. Re-
pulsed with tremendous loss in several desperate
assaults, Gen. Grant has summoned the city to sur-
render, and has met, of coarse, with a peremptory
refusal. Admiral Sir Charles Napier once took a
fortress with a letter, which he certainly had no
means of reducing by force; but though Grant is
an able and skilful officer, he is no more a Napier
than the Confederates are Portuguese, and the Por-
tuguese themselves would hardly have yielded to a
summons after repulsing an assault. The defences
of Vicksburg on the land side are obviously much
stronger than was supposed; and it is possible that
the defending force is not so utterly disproportion-
ate in numbers to that of the besiegers as to give
the latter even a reasonable chance of reducing the
place except by famine. Federal reports say that
the city is provisioned for 30 days. It ought to be,
and probably is, provisioned for a much longer
period ; and if it can hold out even for that period,
it is likely that the approach of Gen. Johnstone will
place the Federals between two fires, and compel
them either to beat a hasty retreat or to give
battle with no choice but between victory against
tremendous odds and a surrender at discretion.
General Grant's position is therefore exceed-
ingly critical, and its perils become greater every
day. It is probable that an officer, who certainly
is one of the best in the Federal service, would
not have put himself in such a situation had
he not, in common with most people both in the
North and in this country, believed that Vicksburg
was indefensible against an attack in the rear, and
might be taken by a coup de main. General Banks
is engaged in the siege of Port Hudson. He, like
Grant, appears to have considered that time was of
paramount importance; and has ventured an assault
which has disabled one of his best cfficers, cost him
a heavy loss, and seriously discouraged his army.
Speaking without an accurate knowledge of the
condition of the defences, we must say that these
assaults on unbreached fortifications reflect no small
credit on the courage of the Federal soldiery—the
best of whom, coming from the great agricultural
states of the North-West, compose the armies now
fighting for the possession of the Mississippi Valley.
Everything depends on the rapidity of Johnstone 's
movements, and the possibility of holding Vicksburg
and Port Hudson until his arrival, which will not
improbably involve the Federal forces in the State
of Mississippi in the greatest disasters that have yet
befallen them. Meantime from the Rappahannock
comes news of a strange nature. A telegram re-
ceived last night by the Hibernian states that
General Lee has abandoned the line of that river,
and that the Federals, from whom the information
conies, do not know where he has gone. In his
absence General Hooker has again plucked up heart,
recrossed the river, and now occupies Fredericks-
burg. We do not wonder that in the face of these
mysterious movements, great apprehensions are en-
tertained in the North for the safety of Washing-
ton itself. We cannot, of course, pretend to know
more of General Lee's intentions than is known to
the enemy in his front ; but for more than one reason
we are inclined to think it not unlikely that an at-
tempt may now be made to carry the war into Nor-
thern territory. Gen. Hooker's army notwithstand-
ing its advance, must be disorganised and demo-
ralised by its late terrible defeat—a defeat in which
it can hardly have lost fewer than 25,000 met', and
which has inevitably shaken its confidence in itself
and its general, and must have a wholesome and,we
should think, a far from ill-founded dread, that
every forward step it takes is a move into some new
Confederate trap. In the meantiette there are signs
of discord in the North,and of wavering in the Fede-
ral Government. The peace movement in New York
proceeds and prospers ; another large meeting has
denounced the war as a violation of the constitution
and as fatal to all hopes of restoring the Union—
and though there is still a division in the ranks of
the Democratic party—it seems plain that the sec-
tion which is in favour of negotiation is predomi-
nant, and is gaining ground, while its adversaries
remain silent or raise but a feeble protest. The
tyranny exercised in the name and probably under
the orders of the President by Gen. Burnside, has
strengthened the Opposition in the West—and a
great meeting at Chicago, as well as the Legislature
of the State of Illinois, have entered an indignant
protest against his proceedings. Awed by the po
pular displeasure he had provoked, Mr. Lincoln
directed General Burnside to execute what, in the
euphemistic military parlance of the North, is
known as a " strategic movement ;" and the 'order
suppressing the Chicago Times and forbidding the
circulation of the New York World in the West has
been accordingly recalled. It seems not impossible
firstssible
that the exiled Vallandigham may, at the
opportunity, be elected Governor of Ohio—a re-
buke which the Federal Government could hardly
endure, but to which it could offer no rejoinder. It
is clear that the Federal power is losing ground,
and that the Democrats are gaining it—the peace
party makes progress, and the Republians are losing
heart. But the fatal weakness of the Opposition
was aptly pointed out by Mr. Lincoln, when he
asked Fernando Wood, the chief of the peace party,
what reason he had to believe that the South would
listen to terms ? Mr. Wood's reply was not rele-
vant. It may be quite true that the people on both
sides are sick of the war—but so long as the North
refuses to listen to the only possible conditions of
peace, the war must inevitably continue. It is
simply absurd to suppose that the Confederate
States will ever entertain the question of reunion.
Ordinary warfare would have sufficed to make the
breach irreparable—the savage and murderous ra
vages by which the Federalists have sought to re-
venge their disgraceful reverses in the field have
implanted in the heart of every man, woman, and
child in the South a passionate hatred of the North
and of the Union, which 20 years of peaoe will not
efface. A crushing disaster in Mississippi, or a
successful invasion of Pennsylvania, may Possibly
teach the North to prefer a possible peace to the
dream of an impossible reunion; but until that

lesson has been learnt, the efforts of the Democratic
party ore ne(misarily futile.
DAILY NEWS.—AIi the world is watching the
present crisis in the livt-s of the Cr-own Prince and
Princess of Prussi9. When England's eldest daugh-
ter lc-It her country for a new home, is was with A
fair prospect of a peaceful throne in A rising king-
dom, which, by a simple fidelity to constitutional
principles and usages, could hard iy fail to become
the head of Germany, and the guide to a new period
of German greatness in Europe. The perils which
had beset the period of consolidation of the hetero-
geneous elements of the Prussian monarchy, especi-
ally during the unsettled state of government in
France, might be outgrown from day to Lay by a
firm adoption of the constitutional principle in
which Prussia seemed then far in advance of Aus-
tria. There could be no doubt of the constitutional
disposit:ons of the Prussian people, with the excep-
tion of the small reactionary party who had spoiled
the late reign, but could easily be prevented from
doing more mischief, and that prevention seemed to
be secured by the pledges of the King first, and
afterwards by the hearty concord between the heir
and the royal family and people of England. This
fair prospect has become drearily overclouded. The
heir to the Prussian throne has already seen his
future staked on a game as wicked and a hazard as
wild as is possible in these days; and at this mo-
ment he finds himself, without any act of his own,
forced to choose his side, end take part either with
his father and King ,gainst the Prussian people, or
with the people against the King. It is a cruel
position, but the choice must be made ; pains and
penalties are attached to either alternative ; no wis-
dom or courage can ward them off entirely; but
one thing is clear—that h. citation, weakness, or
paltering will bring on absolute ruin. At all cost
of personal feeling the Prince must stand by the
rights of the Prussian people, or his humiliation is
as sure as his father's. The only disclosure the
world has yet had of the Prince's state of mind is
:n the few sentences he spoke at Darazic ; and in
them we see the very paltering which is his worst
course. He virtually disclaims all sympathy with
the degree of Juee 1 against the press; but he
adds an intolerably foolish anticipation of " glory"
to Prussia from the action of the King, which all
the world besides regards as insane and wicked.
Happily, the chance is afforded him of retrieving
this first step. He has been so far called to ac-
count by the Government as to afford him oppor-
tunity to separate himself decisivelyfrom his father's
despotic policy ; and the people good-naturedly re-
gard as idle words of conventional propriety the
boast in which they know there can be no sin-
cerity. If the Prince has any true idea of the im-
portance of the juncture to himself, to his country,
and to all Europe, he must see that he has some-
thing else to do than to keep out of sight, and to
evade the obligation of saying what he thinks. In
the present unsettled and menacing condition of
Europe, the hope of civilisation is in the youthful-
ness of eo many candidates for sovereignty; and of
these heirs he is the eldest and the first in the.
world's eyes. It is a singular juncture when one
boy has refused, and another has accepted the
throne of Greece ; when the two sons-in-law of the
Queen of England and her second son are to be
rulers in Germany; and when the sister of the
King of Greece is destined t• beEmpress of Russia.
When we consider the youth of the King of Portu-
gal, and that the Emperor of Austria is showing
himself not too old to learn and improve, we may
feel that the destinies of nations are confided to a
new generation, at a period which posterity will re-
gard as most critical. Whether political progress
shall advance peacefully and prosperously, or
whether the confusions of the last and early pre-
sent century shall be repeated, depends mainly on
whether this company of youths and maidens have
or have not the ability and good sense to study
effectually the lessons of political history. Now
is their time for such study. Some are so young
that they can at present learn only what they hap-
pen to be taught; but with the Prince of Prussia
this is not the case ;
.and if his political training
proves a failure, the sin, as well as the consequences
will be on his own head.