The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

POST.—The negotiations for an amicable settle-
' men' of our differences with the Government of
Japan having, as we anticipated, ended in failure,
steps have been taken to enforce the reparation
which was refused. We learn, from a telegram re-
ceived yesterday at the Foreign-office, and which
we publish elsewhere, that the seaport town of
Kayosima has been bombarded by our fleet, three
of the batteries defending it silenced, and the town
reduced to ruins. Three Japanese steamers are
also reported to have been destroyed. The suc-
cess, however, appears to have been dearly pure
chased on our part, two naval captains having
been returned amongst the killed ; and, as the
batteries aro said to nave been well served, the
damage sustained by the fleet was doubtless not
inconsiderable. With the particulars of the en-
gagement we are not yet made acquainted; but as
on the second day of the attack the fleet is stated to
have "stood out, engaging the whole of the batte-
ries," we may conclude that so far as their destruc-
tion was concerned the victory was not complete.
It is certainly not pleasant to reflect that we are
engaged in another of those petty wars which are
from time to time forced upon us in the most dis-
tant regions a the globe. They are always unsatis-
factory, and nearly always profitless. But they
are not the less inevitable. In the present instance
we are making war less against the Japanese Sove-
reign than against one of his princes, and there is
every reason to believe that the Tycoon would
gladly have obtained for us the redress which we
demanded had it been in his power. It is un-
doubtedly a great hardship that we should be ob-
liged, so to say, to regulate the internal affairs of
an Eastern empire with which we are unconnected,
and, in order to vindicate the rights of those British '
subjects who have settled in Japan, to mete
out to offending Daimios that punishment which the
native Government is too feeble to inflict. It is
really with the Prince Satsuma that we are at war,
and the town which has been destroyed is one in
which he exercised undisputed sway. It was in his
territory, and at his instigation, that the murder of
Mr. Richardson took place some months since, and
it was from him through the Imperial Government
that reparation was demanded. For many weeks
the English Envoy was led to believe that redress
would be given, but the time which was by us lost
in negotiation was turned to account by the Japa-
nese. Prince Satsuma knew that it was on his ter-
ritory that the threatened blow would fall, and
made his preparations accordingly. The batteries,
which are said to have been so well served, and
which were still able to respond to the fire of the
fleet when the latter withdrew, were most probably
constructed, or at least placed in their late effective
state, whilst diplomatic messages were being inter-
changed between our representative and theGovern-
meat of the Tycoon. It would be incorrect, however,
to suppose that the powerful Daimio, whose town
we have destroyed, stood alone. The traditional
policy of excluding strangers from Japan is still
respected by a numerous portion of the native
princes, and Prince Satsuma is merely the represen-
tative of a class which we must either subdue or
appease before we can hope to prosecute peaceably
our commercial relations with Japan. The first
thought which will occur to the minds of our
readers will doubtless be, where will all this end ?
In a naval war with the Japanese, or with such
of the Daimios as thought proper to espouse
the cause of Prince Satsuma, we should be able
to inflict endless damage on shipping and seaport
towns. But there our exploits would end.
No place within reach of an Armstrong el- dis-
charged from the deck of a man-of-war . uuid be
sate, but beyond cannon range of the coast line the
Japanese and their towns would remain secure from
molestation. The general principle that a central
Government is responsible for the acts of every in-
dividual living within its territory, and nominally
submissive to its authority, might possibly be en-
forced, and the town of Yeddo consigned to the fate
of Kayosima if full redress were not given by the
Tycoon. But it is doubtful whether even the threats
of destroying their capital would influence the
Daimios, and certainly even if carried into effect
I would not conduce to the establishment of peaceful
relations at a future time. But except with our fleet
it is not easy to discover how we can inflict punish-
ment on the Japanese. If it should be deemed
expedient to carry war into the interior of
the Japanese islands, an expedition would be re-
quired of whose magnitude it is not easy to form an
adequate notion. From the skill which the retainers
of Prince Satsuma evinced in serving batteries, it is
not improbable that the same skill would be mani-
fested in conducting operations against land forces.
It is incontestable that the Daimios can, by co-ope-
ration, bring into the field most numerous and well
appointed armies, and to subdue those armies it
would be necessary for us to prosecute the war on a
very extensive scale. Cui bono? the public will natu-
rally inquire. Thercply is, the necessity of protecting
British interests in Japan. The Japanese for several
centuries totally excluded foreigners from their em-
pire, and refuted to trade with the rest of the world.
But some years since this rule was broken through in
favour of the Americans, and subsequently in our
own. Then followed the treaty which was concluded
by Lord Elgin, and which, as was supposed at the
time, established our commercial connection with
Japan on a satisfactory basis. But that treaty,
though entered into by the Tycoon, and approved
of by many of the influential Daimios, excited the
bitter resentment of the remainder. Then suc-
ceeded the long series of outrages on English resi-
dents in Japan which cultuinated in the attack on
the British Embassy. No alternative was left to
us but to demand reparation or discontinue pro-
tecting our interests in Japan, and therefore neces-
sitate the withdrawal of every British merchant.
As the latter course obviously could not be adopted,
the alternative was only nominal, and we were
obliged to have recourse to force to secure com-
pliance with our demands. The punishment in-
flicted upon Prince Satsuma has been so signal and
severe that when be and his brother Daimios see
how little is to be gained and how much is to be
lost by provoking our enmity, they will doubtless
acknowledge the expediency of permitting English
merchants to pursue their avocations in the cities
of Japan unmolested by their savage retainers. If
they will not now admit themselves convinced, we
must only continue in our present course until we
have carried conviction to their minds.

HERALD.—The Conservative candidate have been
defeated at Barnstaple by the slender majority of 16.
The ups and downs of electioneering are such that
we must be content to put up with an occasional
disappointment of this sort. The election of Mr.
Lloyd, if indeed that gentleman is to be left un-
molested in the enjoyment of his newly earned
Honours, will be a small gain to the Government,
and, as far as the Conservatives are concerned, is
but a poor set off to the great triumph at Coventry,
and the election at Tamworth and Reading of
independent member; who are more likely to
give trouble to Lord Palmerston's Government than
even its avowed opponents. In three electioneering
speeches of the past week, at Richmond, Plymouth,
and Reading, we are struck by the attempts which
are made by Government candidates to affect an in-
dependent tone. They are all Palmerstonian as
voters, but as talkers they belong to the people.
Even Sir Roundell Palmer, on Saturday, made a
show of criticism with regard to the admitted home
policy of the Whigs. It was necessary. It was even
indispensable after that preposterous Pindaric in
which he had just before extolled his leader and
patron as the Michael Angelo, the Napoleon, the
Seven Champions and the Nine Wonders combined,
of European politics, But is it not pitiful at such
a time as this to hear an English bar-
rister, elevated to the rank of Attorney
General, assuring the country that it needs to be
governed by " honest and experienced men ?7' Who
doubted it ? More than that—who ever doubted
the "experience" of the Whig party ? What, how-
ever, from Sir Roundell Palmer's point of view, is
"honesty ?'' The electors of Richmond, in York-
shire, were told to believe that it meant Whig
patronage. Yet we learn, at any rate, cheering
news. "A body of men of purer integrity and
patriotism was never at the head of affairi‘scr.
Every.
body must rejoice to hear it, although
furd Hope, in one or two recent addressee, has com-
mented with damaging force upon the purity and
Within patriotism by which Great Britain,
the last
few weeks, has been scandalised and disgraced. As
to experience, men may have had too much of that;
so that it was possibly rather mischievous on the
part of the new Attorney-General to remind his
constituents that Lord Palmerston had become a
mature statesman of the old Whig school before
some of his colleagues in the Ad
ministration were
born. Upon the whole, nevertheless, the law officer
of the Crown just restored to Parliament by the
Yorkshire borough of Richmond appeared very
grateful for the favour he had received—and de-
served—and disembosotned himself of much that
might have been difficult for men of a weaker con•
stitution to declare.
lThere never was, he said, a
statesman who loved England as Lord Palmerston
has loved her. We presume that,•in saying this,
he does not hold the Premier irresponsible for the
policy of his Foreign Secretary—so epilendidly, and,
in a Roman
spirit, illustrated by the snking of twojunks, and
the blowing in of a calico battery on
the coast of Japan. Of course he does. He had
his word of flattery for Lord Russell, his paren-
thesis of patronage for Lord Lyons, his culmina.
tions of applause for Mr. Gladstone, and his not
overdone postscript of approval for himself. So far
the Attorney-General, next to the Lord Chancel-
lor the highest law officer of the British Crown.
He has approved of his patrons, his colleagues, ,
and himself, and be had uttered no tangible

opinion. That was at Richmond, in Yorkshire.
At Plymouth, in Devonshire, the new Solicitor-
General " sniffed a tainted breeze" of a different
character. It was necessary, there, to he
a little less reserved, and rather more popular ;
so, as the Attorney-General had been all in favour,
thrmighout the various speeches of the North, the
Solicitor-General, in order to keep up the neutrality
and impartiality of her Majesty's Government, was
bound to be all in favour of the South. In delight-
ful dissonance with his learned colleage he declared
that the North was not fightin for the abolition of
affirms slavery ; he thinks, or at least, that the
South arc fighting for independence and the North
for a centralising Union ; he appeals to six millions
of people in New York habit of styling them rebels;
but then, keeping in view his new appointment, he
veers round, after admitting ae much as the
Southerners could 'desire, and declares that Great
Britain has preserved a perfect and unimpeachable
neutrality. Where is the evidence? Mr. Collier
is ready with it. " Both sides are offended with
us." Now, we arc not to suppose that Mr. Collier
believed what he was saying. Might no; the North
be justly dissatisfied while the South was unrea-
sonably discontented ? " The South," continued
Lord Palmerslon's new Solicitor-General, " is
great nation waging war." Bat he goes on, escap-
ing from the consequences of this admission, to
urge that the Confederates must clear their terri-
tory of the Federal forces altogether before they
can claim to be recognised as independent. We
know not upon what basis the argument rests. Cer-
tainly not upon historical precedent. But, beyond
doubt, Mr. Collier, in the unspotted robes of his
virgin Solicitor-Generalship, thought it incum-
bent upon him, firstly, to echo the national senti-
ment with regard to the Southern States; secondly,
to apologise for Ministerial defalcations in their
diplomacy with America ; and, thirdly, to assume
an independent part, and promise that justice
should be done, though the heavens should fall. So
far the Solictor-General.
TIMES.—From the beginning of the American
war: the Federal Government has shown itself
equally anxious to inspire fear and goodwill among
the English people. Under the impression that there
existed among the politicians of this country a de-
sire to frecognise the seceded States at the first
opportunity, if not to aid the establishment of their
independence by force, the rulers at Washington
have, by themselves or their emissaries, made use
of two kinds of reasoning, and sought to appeal
to two different instincts. One class of orators
and writers will tell of nothing but the power of
the Union, the speedy collapse of the insurreetion,
and the final punishment which is to overtake all
who refuse their sympathies to the North in the
hour of trial. England is to be deterred from any
hostile act by the fear of offending an irresistible
nation, which its representatives declare to be even
now kept with difficulty from resenting the insults
we have offered. Mr. Seward's verbose despatches,
Mr. Sumner's bitter invectives and misrepresenta-
tions, and generally the whole current of public
speaking in America, are addressed to this object.
But, at the same time, there have not been wanting
men to work for the same purpose in a different
manner. While those who take the defiant line
have been exclaiming, " Only wait till our civil war
is over," another class of persons have been intrusted
with the task of friendly and fraternal expostula-
tion, and have endeavoured to bring public opinion
in this country to their side by appeals to political,
or religious, or philanthropic feeling. It need
hardly be said that these attempts have failed. The
Liberal party, identified as it is with the cause of
,popular government and negro emancipation, has
not from its long list of eminent men given a single
supporter to Mr. Lincoln's confiscations and con-
scriptions. But, rejected by the educated opinion
of the country, the Federal emissaries think that
they have still some chance of success with the well
meaning but narrow-minded class which can see
nothing in this war but a question of slavery
against abolition. To enlist the feelings of the
emancipationists on behalf of the Northern invasion
and to exhibit England as approving the war by
pointing to the sentiments that were uttered and
cheered at crowded meetings, would be a triumph
for a Federal orator, and we cannot wonder that we
have had a number of them in succession playing
the chief part at Abolitionist and philanthropic
gatherings throughout the country. The most im-
portant of these gentlemen appears to be Mr.
Henry Ward Beecher, who has been lectering at
various pieces to a more or less discordant audience
on the great question of the day, and who spoke at
Exeter-hall last evening under the patronage of
the Emancipation Society. Mr. Beecher comes
from America with the best of all credentials as an
orator. The sittings at his church are regularly put
up to auction, and produced last year the sum of
18,549 dollars. That he is possessed of gifts
of speech such as are appreciated highly
across the ocean is evident from these figures ;
but whether his oratory is suited to the colder
Briton, accustomed to associate elevated sub-
jects with a chaste and decorous language,
we are Inclined to doubt. Indeed, in his own coun-
try there are malevolent critics who object to his
style and deride the taste of his congregation. From
his late orations we are now able to form an esti-
mate of his talents; and certainly in our judgment
he is not the man to convert the British public to
the Federal cause. Unless his speeches here are
very unworthy samples of his genius, we must con-
clude that the religious politicians of America are
pretty much on a par in conception and language
with the politicians proper, and that the pulpit is
not more intellectually elevated than the stump.
Last evening he made a summary of the arguments
which, he tells us, he has used since he has been in
this country, and added others which were to com-
plete the impression in his favour. Mr. Beecher's
audience heard again the whole story of the politi-
cal conflicts which preceded secession, and were in-
formed that it was impossible for his Government
to draw back from the work it had begun until the,
devastation of the: South was complete. Ward
'ad
was
justified the proclamation of Mor.inLaiinzilin:d,ing
entire
o:d
iithsee lf
territoryjustified
obf yt.ht he e
Union.necessity f
we
811
temple
depllieveorefdA inho thlie.
ould have ex-
pectedtha
and in this
thetinth traditional addressetfirandalio
Aboli-
tionism, metropolisiom,there would have been something more
original and more humane than is produced by the
ordinary Federal politicians. But Mr. Beecher's
address is but a repetition of what may have been
read in the Federal newspapers anytime since the
outbreak of the war. For instance, somebody had
asked Mr. Beecher:why he would not let the South
go peaceably. " Oh, ' he answers, "if the
Southerners would only go, we would furnish them
with a free passage • but then we say, That terri-
tory which yon inhabit is ours, and we do not
choose to have it wrested from us.' " This argu-
ment, which would exactly suit a Russian discours-
ing of Poland, or an Austrian official defending the
tabula rasa in Hungary, is the most convincing that
the speaker can find for a London audience brought
together for alleged sympathy for human freedom.
Again, the war which has already filled a
eduffer coati ;tent
with mourning is to be persisted in that a fie
,gitious
violation of the freedom of vote may not lie s
to pass with impunity. In order to
thisa
make the
matter clearer to the English intelligence,
group of American States, containing
i
millions of white people, and extending SoLorrnseeavrelyn
a million of square of miles, is compared to the
county of Kent; and the Exeter-hall audience are
seriously asked whether they would suffer Kent to
set up for itself as an independent kingdom on the
southern coast. It need hardly be said that when a
speaker who is conversant with his subject has no
better and newer arguments than these to produce
gishlyeveixdaemnci
there
any new elucidation that the question has been
n
thoroughly examined d andwe
es
Ic notin likely
otro a
nr eyc er ievae.
soning from M •
r. B eecher's lips which should induce
us to sympathise with the objects for which his
party are striving, lie makes great efforts to show
that this is ast
ruggle in which we and Europe gene-
rally are interested; but he involuntarily and un-
consciously returns from general interests to those
Which are exclusively American and sectional.
"Feel for us, applaud ns, pray for our success," such
is his request to the English religious would, "for
we desire to keep our large territory, we desire to
increase the strength of the Federal Government,
to put down the theory of States rights an danger-
ous to our nationality." Such is tine sum of his
argument. What else, indeed., can he say ? Can
he, with the events of the lone before his eyes, pre-
tend that the prineinles of self-government, which
make the safety of England, can be advanced by
the subjection of a large population to military rule
for an indefinite term ? Already the evil example
of the Federal States is seen in the boldness with
which the Russian Government in Poland braves
the censure of the world. The recognition of the
principle that we are to applaud the repression exer-
cised by established Governments on unwilling
populations, on the ground that the territory belongs
to the ruling Power, and that the only right the
inhabitants have is to expatriate themselves, would
be equally baneful in its effects on other parts of
Europe. We leave out of account the arguments
which Mr. Beecher both last night and at other times
has addressed to our material interests. He told U 3
last night that division in America would tend to
keep up armies which would be formidable to us.
He told the people of Liverpool a few days since that
when the South is conquered there will be a better
market than ever
.for our cottons. All this is en-
tirely useless for the purpose of obtaining the good
will of the English public. All through this war our
conduct has been regulated by a strict regard to
law, and our sympathies by what we conceived to
be the rights of the contending parties. We have
acted and felt with as little selfishness as is possible
to “ mition. History has proved—the history of

many Quixotic and bootless wars—that there is no
people less influenced by considerations of material
gain and loss than our own. Mr. Beecher, if he
learnt his history from American manuals, may be
excused fo: not knowing this ; but it is true, never-
theless. Let him then avoid telling us what Nve
are to get by applauding the invading armies of
President Lincoln ; let him rather inform us why,
in the name of justice, humanity, and common-
sense, we are to forsake the cause of peace and
give our voices for the continuance of this wasting
and endless contest. Another year is drawing to
a close, another period of inactivity has to be passed
through. During this lime the passions of the com-
batants may possibly grow cooler and give a chance
of a settlement. Are we, just at this moment,
when the war is again happily languishing, to
goad on the Federals to ,another year's slaugh-
ter at the bidding of a clerical politician ? We
think that there will be but one answer from
the intelligent scciety of England. Those cheers
which any fluent speaker on any side of a question
can obtain will represent no opinion worthy of seri-
ous consideration by politicians. The mind of this
country is made np ; in three years it has had time
to fix itself so as to be wholly unchangeable; and
the opinion of the nation is, that Mr. Beecher's
section of the late Union is waging a war of in-
justice under the influence of an ambition with
which the world in general has no reason to
sympathise.