The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. and no doubt the more obvious one rests in the
I notorious bad drainage of Eastern cities. No one

TIMES.—The present Session of the American
Congress will undoubtedly furnish a most important
chapter in the history of the Great Republic. It
was, perhaps, almost easier to finish the Civil War
itself than to determine its results. Until the South
is actually received again into the Union, the object
of the war, which was the reconstruction of the
Union, will not have been attained ; and yet it, is
obvious that the terms of readmission will suggest
much debate, and provoke probably many violent
conflicts of opinion. Already two parties are de-
clared in Congress, and already the dispute is hot
between them. President Johnson has recognised
the reconstruction of the Union as his first and most
important duty, and the conditions of reconciliation
which he, acting for himself, imposed on the States
lately in rebellion were certainly neither hard nor
unreasonable. He demanded that every State be-
fore readmission to its political rights should pass
and adopt three solemn acts—one repealing the Act
of Secession, a second accepting the abolition of
slavery, and a third repudiating the Confederate
debt. To the second of these conditions there were
attached also certain supplementary requisitions in
favour of the enfranchised negro, designed to secure
the reality of his freedom, and to guarantee him
against a revival of bondage under any disguise.
It would certainly seem difficult to object to these
terms. Of the first demand there can be no need
to speak ; the second represented the great fruit
of the whole war, nor did the third express any
unreasonable imposition. "Yet these terms, at the
meeting of Congress, had not been satisfactorily
accepted, and now, if the majority in Congress can
have its way, they will be seriously enhanced. The
Republicans require that the Southern States shall
provide not only for the liberty, but for the poli-
tical equality of the blacks ; they are supposed to
desire the punishment of the rebellious States by
confiscation and outlawry, and they have actually
proposed to exclude the Southern members from
Congress for some time to come. At these proceed-
ings we are not surprised. The policy of the Presi-
dent might not unnaturally have been regarded in
the North as based rather upon the expediency of
conciliation than the dictates of justice, and as in-
trusting too much to exasperated if not implacable
adversaries. Allowing for the exigencies of an epi-
gram, we may accept as a description of the case a
saying of one of the leading Radicals, that the Pre-
sident was making himself three-quarters rebel in
order to make the South one-quarter Union. He
was going more than half-way to meet conquered
enemies. The South, according to his policy, was
to pay nothing in 'purse, nothing in political privi-
lege for its insurrection against the State, and was
to be reinducted into the possession not only of its
old rights, but of its old prerogatives besides. Once
admitted to Congress and combined with its ancient
allies, the Democrats, it might possibly put the Re-
publicans in a minority, so that the party which
had been foremost in the prosecution of the war
would find itself discomfited by its own victory.
We may presume that this domestic view of the
question has been influential in producing the effects
now witnessed, but principles of a broader character
were also involved. The negro is at the bottom of
the difficulty still. The Radicals, or extreme sec-
tion of the Republican party, represent the old
Abolitionists of New England who for many years
past have consistently advocated the emancipation
of the blacks. They now wish to see the complete
and final triumph of their principles. They have
probably some sincere misgivings about the future
lot of the negro if abandoned without protection to
the legislation of his former masters ; but they also
consider that their work would be imperfect if the
blacks were not raised at this crisis of their desti-
nies to an absolute equality with the whites. Negro
suffrage is therefore their cry. The suffrage will
carry with it all other political rights, and with these
rights in possession the emancipated slaves may defy
any attacks upon their liberties. These speculations
have perhaps the chief place in the views of the Ra-
dicals, though it is obvious to surmise that other
considerations may have entered into their policy.
The establishment of negro suffrage would, in all
probability, reverse the traditional votes of the
Southern States. The blacks might be expected to
vote with their patrons, the Republicans, and thus
strengthen that party in a section of the Union
where Democratic principles had formerly prepon-
derated.. Nor was this all, for the very sight of this
spectacle and the sensation of this defeat would be
at once the best and bitterest punishment of the
South for its long rebellion. To those accustomed
to watch the course of political warfare these consi-
derations will explain, if not justify, the present
rigour of the Republicans in Congress, and yet it
will be probably concluded in this country that Pre-
sident Johnson was right and that the Radicals are
wrong. Their complaint of the favour apparently
shown to the South is less reasonable than it seems.
Such iudulgence must always be practised if hostile
parties are to be united and the wounds of war are
to be healed. At the Restoration of the Stuarts one
of our own cavaliers made a remark exactly analo-
gous to that of Mr. Wendell Phillips. He said that
the Act of Oblivion and Amnesty meant amnesty
to the King's enemies and oblivion to his friends.
Throughout England it was observed with great
bitterness that the. Royalists seemed to be worse off
than the Republicans, nor was it easy for the party
at length triumphant to remember that triumphs
must cease altogether if peace is to be substantially
restored. Perhaps the chief justification of the
Americanßadicals is to be found in the fact that the
Southern States had not frankly accepted even the
easy terms offered them by the President, and
there is something in the argument that after the
recent experience of what these States could do
it would be inexcusable to leave them with the
power of repeating their conduct. BUt to this the
President and his supporters out of doors could
give a decisive answer. if the Union is not to be
restored, the great object of the war has been lost ;
if it is to be restored, it must be by conciliation and
compromise. The Radicals are willing to close with
the former alternative, and leave the Union for the
present without reconstruction. They are satisfied,
as we see, with a Congress representing only a por-
tion of the United States. They are content to know
that there is no hostile Confederacy, without requir-
ing the 'restoration of the Union. They would, in-
deed, prefer to see the States recently in rebellion
degraded from their rank and reduced to the posi-
tion of territories till such time as their political re-
generation may be considered complete. But these
views, as we are assured and can readily believe-,
are not the views of the American people. The
people as a body do not share these opinions of the
Republicans in any respect. They have no vindic-
tive feeling towards the South ; they have no active
sympathy with the negro ; and they are so naturally
impatient for the restoration of the Union that they
will tolerate no obstacles in the way. Such is the
present position of American politics. In this coun-
try we can only trust that a difficulty which, after
all, represents no very formidable sequel of four
years' civil war may ultimately disappear before the
prudence and moderation of the contending parties.

POST.—The International Conference, which is to
deliver us from plague and pestilence in future,
whenever at least it arises in the east of Europe, is,
it appears, about to assemble at Constantinople.
N ow that the cholera is over we are all anxious to
provide against its recurrence. Never, perhaps, was
any epidemic so clearly traced before to the mari-
time cities of the Levant. it spread westward from
Alexandria, Beyrout, Smyrna, Constantinople, and
other ports along the angle of file Levant, until it
had at length extended along the whole basin of the
Mediterranean, attacking Toulon, Marseiles, Va-
lencia, Barcelona, Gibraltar, and the African ports
on the southern shore of that sea. From thence it
spread to Madrid and Paris ; but not until ample
time had elapsed to carry it thither respectively
from Barbadoes and Marseilles. Its appearance
in this country, slight as it happily was, was almost
confined to Southampton, which happens to be the
port in chief communication with the cities of the
Levant. The epidemic, therefore, may be said to
have had its origin, in a manner remarkably clear,
in Turkish and Syrian ports ; and indeed Constan-
tinople was for a considerable period the focus of it,
as well as one of the principal ports that transmitted
the infection westwards. Whatever may be the
value of medical theories as to the occasional spon-
taneity of the disease, there can be no doubt of its
having been, in the present instance, a direct Tur-
kish importation ' • and it behoves us accordingly, if
possible, to crush the evil at its source. In order
to do this it has been found necessary to enter on a
minute investigation of the causes of the outbreak
of cholera in the Turkish seaports. An Interna-
tional Conference is probably the most desirable
organ of arriving at the truth. Being composed of
the representatives of the principal Powers concerned
in the trade of the Levant, there will be no over-
ruling self-interest evinced on the part of an single
State ; and those who have to investigate the ques-
tion will all be the representatives of countries which
have a direct and legitimate concern in suppressing
the evil. The Turkish inhabitants in the seaports
are, however, after all, the worst sufferers ; and it
is only fair that they, and the Sublime Porte itself,
should have the benefit of Western knowledge and
Western assistance. It was very much in this spirit
that the proposal of an International Conference
emanated in the first instance from the French
Government ; and it is only fair to acknowledge
the ready acceptance which this proposal met
with at the hands of the Sultan, whose Govern-
ment has professed itself ready to enter on the
discussion, together with France and the other mari-
time Powers, and to give effect as far as possible
to the opinions at which the conference may arrive.
The probability is that two principal causes of
these epidemics will be found to exist. The one,

who has visited Cansiantinople—and there are now
comparatively few persons who have not done so—
can fail to perceive at a glance that a great part of
the city is calculated to breed almost any kind of
pestilence. Narrow streets, often with open ditches
running through the middle of them, and innume-
rable mangy dogs lying so thick that it is often
impossible to avoid treading on them, seem in them-
selves to afford explanation enough. It is true that
the dogs are said to be the scavengers of the city.;
but where are the scavengers of the dogs? It is
hard to say whether they are not a greater nuisance
than any that they abate. Independently of this,
however, the drainage of the houses internally is
often as bad as that of the streets externally. This
difficulty, at the same time, is one with which the
International Conference will probably find it very
difficult to deal. The affair is a purely municipal
one. There are large municipal revenues in Con-
stantinople which might be applied to such a pur-
pose, it is true ; and the division of the capital into
ten or twelve municipal jurisdictions is one which
establishes an organisation to deal with general
measures of material reform, We cannot, how-
ever, but entertain our fears that the drainage
question will be found a very difficult one to deal
with on the part of an International Conference,
except in so far as regards the portions of the city
which the recent fire has afforded an opportunity of
rebuilding. That which we have spoken of as the
second cause of these epidemics.in the Levantine
ports is one more probably within the power of an
International Conference to reach. The first, as
we have seen, originates in these cities themselves.
That, however, to which we now refer springs from
inland sources. We allude to the continual pil-
grimages made into the interior of Egypt, Asia
Minor, and Syria. The pilgrims are ill-fed, ill-
clad, and ill-equipped. They go on their pil-
grimages in swarms; and the privations to which
they are subjected commonly bring on cholera or
some other kind of pestilence. The victims of these
maladies commonly return to the 'nearest port,
whence they embark for their own homes. Thus,
these returning caravans form one of the most cer-
tain means of importing cholera into the maritime
cities of the Levant. The French Government has
already endeavoured to point out some method of
dealing with this part of the evil. Probably it will
be found desirable to establish a rigorous system of
quarantine at a suitable• distance outside the town,
on the landward side, so that the pilgrims, on their
return, should be prevented from entering the cities
they have hitherto contaminated, until they have
undergone a complete system of purification. Some
measures of this kind will be found necessary in
order to give the seaports of the Levant a fair
chance. When this is done, the purification and
drainage of the cities themselves must be thought
of. Then will, no doubt, come the tug of war. In
former days, when a great fire in some of these
ports was an annual visitation, it was fair to hope
that not many years would be enough time to see
one of these cities rebuilt. Those times, however,
are now gone, although the present year indeed has
seen, one of the greatest conflagrations in our times.
Still, we shall not despair, on the whole of the pre-
sent International Conference working a large mea-
sure of good. It appears that the Turkish Govern-
ment are prepared, without any jealousy or ill will,
to carry out whatever the Conference recommend ;
and the Sublime Porte cannot fail to bear in mind
that whatever the interests of the maritime Powers
may be are still more distinctly its own concern.