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

THERMOMETER.

This raornfn g
This day at Two o'clock o9

Barometer-29.83 .
Wind—West; very fine.

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LONDON, MONDAY, SEPT. 21, 1863.

Quousque tandem—the old Cicerocian reproach—
might be uttered nowadays quite as aptly, as when
first syllabied 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 Franca it would signify the weari-
ness engendered, there, by the long delays
in the conetitutionalizing of her despotic Go-
vernment. In Prussia it world be manifestly in
allusion to the outrageous arrogance with which
the reigning Sovereign rides rough-shod over a
representative system which sehe 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
!night at any moment have interposed between the
belligerents, and who have, yet, in spite of that,
hitherto of so inter-
posing, from the responsibility
posing- It is from America that the same
inarticulate reproach is cominge-mail after
mail, snore and more impressively- Not
from Richmond
or Washington. Not from the
Federal, or the Confederate Government. But from
every terrible bettle-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 every aspect it has assumed hitherto, is
a perpetually increasing reproach
a perpetual, and
Christendom. toNon-intervention, as a theory,
is, of course, very admirable, very just, and
very beautiful. But, persistently carried into
where and node
practise every r all imaginable
conjunctions of circumstances, e peo_i
e are beginning
now to conjecture that it is intrinsically
the very
reverse. Whenever—
we take this to be really and
truly undeniable—whenever intervention can put
a stop to useless and, to all appearance, inteimina_
Isle bloodshed, au obstinate persistence ita ad-
hering to the principle of non-intervention muss
by necessity be flagrantly culpable. The horrors of
war in America go on increasing. The prospects
of peace there, if ever there can he said to have be( n
P. ny- bince the contest b-gati,bave faded out altogether.
They are, in no one direction that we can Ea, any-
where reecgniseble. The picture presented to vio'
there is complete throughout, in its ghsstly consis-
tency of its monotony. Wee in the foregrcur e—
wer in the middle distance—war on the re.motf-
hor7zon. The very vanishing point, so far as the
eye can follow it through the lurid reek of
slaughter—war, also, to the very last. And
theepassions of the belligerents are rising and in.
teneifying, instead of being in any
way mitigated
orallayed. A fiery rain descends, not from
Heaven, but from the ordnance of the Federal assail-
ante, upon the outworks of Charleston, as though
Charleston were some new Gomorrah. President
LINCOLN, at the commencement of this year of grace,
gives the signal for a servile' war. As yet tine
ekzccrable signal has happily not been answered—
unins 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
agamst 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 i❑
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 a 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-
tisfactory in rffect, 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 GORTS-
CIIAKOFF 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 gocd 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. Aiso 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 really too much to endure patiently

It is insulting to the common Sf nse 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 GoaT-
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 enraged 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 Uovernment
of Berlin, having been defeated in their attacks upon
the press, the editors who were accused of " ex-
citing contempt and hatred against the authorities"
were all acquitted on their trial. This must be a
severe blow to M. BismaßK and bis 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 all 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
'lnd 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 usu illy fall of pain-
ful and melancholy incidents. Households are
divided against themselves; sons find themselves in
arnag againSt their fathers, and brothers stand face
death. The same language
to face in the field of
is spoken in the watchvgGra, of L uOtil camps, the
to Btorriled and assaulted have been often visited
by the litsiegers on errands of peace or pleasure,
The roads and rivers, the hills and dales that wit-
ness march and countermarch, attack and repulse,
all the tragic panorama are familiar to both com-
batants alike. Success or defeat, too, is alike inju-
rious to the country. There is no hcpe of getting
th© expenses of the war paid from the wealthy
treasury of a foreign foe. In any case heavy debts
will burden the national eXelt ; whichever
wine or lcses, thu state will have paid the fine in
the blood of her best and bra rest. All these con-

siderations, and mans others added to them, have

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
and 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 aLd 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 it 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 Status.
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 of Gen.
BUTLER, and a few kindred spirits ; we have
thrilled with indignation as occasional tales are told
of needless oppression, of shells exploding even under
the sacred yellow 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 hot, 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 ,a ithout 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, Vieginia. 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 neat year's
cousumption, and to shoot the horses and cattle.
Suoh 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

a open fight, felt better matched against old men,

women, and children.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,-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 tLe 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 tifluxion of time, without renewal. Hence a
new license, with sponsors, was rendered necessary
upon my recent application.
19th Sept.

Yours obediently,
C.

Beaumarchaie's "Eugenie" has been revived at
the Theatre Francais.

THE NEW METAL POISONOUS.—M. Dumas an-
nounces that NI. 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 decigratrune only was given to a dog, which died in 40
hours. M. Lamy is reported to have experienced involun•
tardy some of the (acts of this metal upon himself. At
the late British Association meeting, a mass of the solid
metal, weighing a quarter of a hundredweight, gas ex-
hibited by Mr. Crookes. It was extracted by Messrs. Bell,
of Newcastle.
M. itENAN'S WAY OF FLITTING IT !--" That the
Gospels are in part legendary is evident enough, since they
are lull of miracles and of the supernatural 1 (p. xv.) In
part I—he must mean nine parts out of ten, as the after
expression, "full of th 3 supernatural,' would more
naturally import. It is much like saying that' oatcake"
is in part made of "oats," when, in fact, it is little else.

NR. 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 commend 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, he 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, that shows
very considerable freedom from prejudice. But what we
especially admire is, the ingenuity with which, when he
does take up a crotchet, ha always contrives to defend it in
a wailer whioh is on the face of it logical.