The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-10 00:00:00

such .a baptism does not obtain new vitality from
martyrdom, and revive under the very persecution
which is intended to suppress it. If the blood of
James 11. or of Charles Edward had flowed on the
scaffold, the spirit of Jacobitism would have survived
the extinction of the race of Stuart. No one can
foresee how such things may work, but history
teaches nothing more surely than that heavy reverses
Almost invariably follow the abuse of success. We
have always regarded the Americans as a generous
and placable people, impatient, indeed, of opposi-
tion, and ready to enter into quarrels on slight
grounds, but ready, also, to forgive those who can
struggle against them no longer. We fear that in
the present proceedings the better qualities of the
nation are sadly misrepresented by the policy of de-
grading and proscribing fallen antagonists, on
which the present Government seems unhappily
to bave entered.

POST.—The long-expected proclamation of am-
nesty has at length been issued by President John-
son ; and although we are not yet in possession of
the complete text of this manifesto, the substance,
which has reached us by telegraph, furnishes all the
information which we require. The course which
would be pursued by the North in the event of its
vindicating its supremacy over the South has during
the whole period of the war been a constant subject
of speculation ; but never has it been more anxiously
canvassed than during the past two months. It is
of course unnecessary to say that, dismissing from
consideration those feelings of animosity which were
not improbably generated in the breasts of the
Northern population by the protracted resistance
of the South, the immense pecuniary losses imposed
upon the Republic by the long continuance of the
war would have a tendency to modify the policy,
which, had they succeeded in establishing their
authority at an earlier period, the Government at
Washington might have intended to pursue. But,
independently of this circumstance, an unforeseen
event happened which was more than anything else
calculated to unsettle any opinion which had been
formed in respect to the attitude which would be
assumed by the victorious North towards the South.
This event was the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, and
the consequent transmission of the supreme execu-
tive power into the hands of Mr. Andrew Johnson.
Though both elected to their respective offices by
the same political party, and both pledged to pursue
the same object, namely, the re-establishment of the
Union, the late President and his successor were no-
toriously actuated by very different feelings towards
those whom they agreed in considering the enemies
of the State. Mr. Lincoln wished to see the great
Republic which he governed in the same position as
when he was first elected its chief magistrate ; and, ,
provided that end were attained, he would not, we
believe, have deprived a single Southern citizen of
his life or liberty, or confiscated a dollar of his pro-
perty. Slavery he would gladly have seen abolished,
but except on paper he never attempted to carry out
the extreme views of the Abolitionist party. Mr.
Johnson is, however, a man of a very different type.
Whether from personal conviction, or from less dis-
interested motives, he is an uncompromising Aboli-
tionist ; and having learned to regard the secession
of the Southern States as the most wicked and
heinous of all possible crimes, he has persuaded him-
self that the offence should not go unvisited by an
adequate punishment. Whatever, therefore, may
have been the speculations in which the world in-
dulged in regard to the future policy of the Ameri-
can Government before Mr. Lincoln's death, they
were completely upset by that event, and the
measures adopted by Mr. Johnson towards the
more prominent of his vanquished foes, and, not-
ably, the proclamation which is now issued, demon-
strate only too clearly how well-founded were the
apprehensions entertained on his accession to office.
The substance of Mr Johnson's proclamation may
be very shortly stated. An amnesty for past offences,
and protection of the rights of property, save as re-
gards slaves, is granted (with the exceptions pre-
sently to be noticed) to all who have been engaged
in the rebellion, conditionally, on their taking an
oath to support the Government and all laws made,
or proclamations issued, by the Federal Government
during the war in connection with emancipation.
Considered without reference to the clause excluding
certain classes from the benefits of this proclama-
tion, we may, however, observe that much harder
conditions than those imposed by Mr. Johnson on
the objects of his clemency it would have been diffi-
cult to devise. The denial of the right of property
in slaves, without any award of compensation,
amounts to confiscation ; and although it may justly
be urged that man should not hold property in man,
still when it is recollected that such property has
been held in the South until very lately with the sanc-
tion and approval of the established Government,
and but for the war would be held unquestioned to-
day, this sweeping act of emancipation can only be
considered as a purely vindictive measure of oppres-
sion, which the North, in the mere wantonness of
victory, chooses to employ. In making the accept-
ance of a test oath a condition precedent to bene-
fiting by the amnesty, Mr. Johnson has gone farther
than he was justly entitled to go, because all that an
established Government can reasonably require from
those who do not seek admission to public office or
employment in its service, is, that they shall peace-
ably conduct themselves and observe the laws. But
of these terms, hard though they are, one almost
entirely loses sight, on the perusal of the comprehen-
sive list of those whom the Government declare to be
undeserving even of the qualified mercy extended to
the mass of the Southern population. From the
amnesty the following classes are excluded :—All
persons holding civil or diplomatic office under thc
Confederate Government, all foreign and domestic
agents, all military officers above the grade of colonel,
and all naval officers above that of lieutenant, and
all, of no matter what grade, who have been edu-
cated either at the Military College of West Point,
or at the Naval Academy. Those who treated pri-
soners otherwise than according to the laws of war,
who acted as border raiders or as pirates, or who
left the Northern States to aid the Southern popula-
tion, are also denied pardon, and finally (most signifi-
cant exception of all) those whose property exceeds
in value $20,000, or £5,000, are excluded from the
amnesty. That the American Government might
have resolved on refusing to a few individuals the
grace which they could not avoid extending to the
bulk of the nation would have been intelligible ;
but we confess ourselves entirely at a loss to un-
derstand with what object, or what design, large
and numerous classes are excluded from all partici-
pation in a general pardon. If none of the civil
officers, no matter what their grade or the nature
of their employment, are to be pardoned, what will
be done with them ? And the same remark applies
to the numerous military officers who are placed in
the same category. Are they to be placed upon
their trial for high treason ? and, if convicted, are

they to be put to death, or sentenced to long terms
of imprisonment ? Again, why are all persons, no
matter what their position, who have participated
in the rebellion, but whose property exceeds £5,000,
regarded as such heinous offenders as to be unde-
serving of pardon ? Can it be that the Govern- .
ment intend confiscating the property of the
wealthier classes in the South, and by this means
paying off the immense debt which the war has occa-
sioned ? There is, it is true, a clause in the procla-
mation which provides that members of the excluded
classes may make special application to the President
for pardon, in which case it will be within his
todiscretion accede to or to refuse their petition.
It is not until we have ascertained the course which

the Government propose to adopt towards those to
whom the amnesty is not extended that we shall be
in a position to estimate at its true value this
singular proclamation. According to the latest
intelligence, Kirby Smith, together with the last
army the Confederates possessed in the field, has
surrendered ; and as the authority of the Govern-
ment is no longer questioned in the trans-Missis-
sippi region, the war is completely at an end, and
harshness towards the vanquished becomes still
more unjustifiable.

DANTE AS A POET.—When he was nine years
old his father took him to a fete at the house of a
rich neighbour, Portinari, who hada young daughter called
Beatrice, between eight and nine years old, and remarkable
for gracefulness and loveliness. Her appearance kindled
in the boy an affection so ardent that it became what we
now call a monomania. Her image never left him,
and he sought every opportunity of beholding her features.
She became from that day for him a type of perfection,
and, while still a youth, he often gazed on the house
where she dwelt, and declares himself that he always re-
turned the better for his visit. When ho was about
nineteen he met her in some public place ; she
was dressed in white, and stood between two ladies
older than herself. For the first time she bowed to him,
and for the first than his ears heard words spoken by her
since she had grown up. He withdrew delighted and wrote
his first poetical effusion, a sonnet relating his emotions,
and which soon became public without his being
known to be the author. He wrote several others, until at
last his name became known, and from that day he was
called " The Poet." In 1287, Beatrice became the wife of
a knight, Simon do Bardi, and died on the 9th of June,
1,290. Dante was overwhelmed with grief ; but she re-
vived in his imagination and prompted his genius and in-
spirations. He makes her his guide through the circles of
heaven, in that part of his great poem which is called the
" Paolo,"