The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 28 1862.

complished their end by interdicting trade with
them. The answer is they could not do so to nations
which acknowledged the South as a belligerent, as
France and England have done. We should have
required them to take the towns, and to replace them
under their jurisdiction before they applied munici-
pal law to them.

But, Mr. COBDEN'S main appeal none of his
contemners have yet had the courage to meet.
Here we are in the midst of a terrible famine, a
calamity becoming worse and worse every day—
one which Mr. COBDEN'S chief opponent is com-
pelled this very morning to write on in the most
desponding tone—and this famine is wholly due to
the contemptuous rejection of the very proposal
now urged by Mr. COBDEN, when it was made by
America herself in 1859. It is, therefore, for the
advocates of commercial blockades to show that any
prospective advantage in regard to our national
defences is so clear and so valuable as to compen-
sate for the certain suffering and loss now entailed
on us by our assertion of the right of blockade. As
we stand alone on this question, heavy, indeed,
is the responsibility of inflicting so much mis-
chief on ourselves, unless the necessity of so doing
can be shown to be a paramount one. We wait
for the proof of this. We must say we have
not seen it yet.

We are told that the "fundamental fallacy"
which vitiates all Mr. COBDEN'S reasonings is that
nations will not be bound in war by the conventions
they have made in peace. But this is an argument
against all international law, not to mention its
reducing the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris to
folly. The distinguished men who met on that oc-
casion, did not think so badly of their own country
or of other countries, as to imagine that any civilised
nation would agree, as they all did, to pronounce
privateering abolished, and, yet, when war broke
out, would disgrace itself by issuing letters of
marque. If there can be honour among thieves,
surely we may hope for it in belligerent nations.
But more than this ; what is solemnly acknow-
ledged as binding international law, consists of
the rules which experience has taught nations
that it is best for them, even in war, to abide by.
Nations quite understand that they cannot, any
more than individuals, be permanent gainers by
availing themselves of every present advantage.
By all means let not commercial blockades be given
up until full discussion has satisfied the intelligent
men of all countries, that even in war they da not
repay the blockading nation for what it suffers
from them on the whole. Sneers and contempt
only prove the ignorance and conceit of those who
use them. They certainly do not admit of refuta-
tion. Argument, however, under the pressure of
the Cotton Famine will go far towards settling the
question.

What is to be thought of the astounding docu-
ment recently published in the columns of the
Kolokol? An address from the Russian officers in
Poland to his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke
CONSTANTINE. Is it authentic ? Can it in any
conceiveable way be authenticated ? For the honour
and credit of the Russian army we earnestly trust
that this may prove to be in some way practica-
ble. Not a signature is affixed to this address.
It comes forth quite anonymously. But never
was truth more plainly spoken right out,
than in this extraordinary communication. It be-
gins by saying :—" Your Highness,—The Russian
army in Poland is in a strange and insupportable
position ; it has to choose between being the exe-
cutioner of the Polish people, or refusing obedi-
ence to its chiefs." And it adds,—" Soldiers and
officers are tired of being executioners. This office
has become detestable to the army. To charge un-
armed crowds, to persecute people praying in the
churches, to arrest by-passers in the streets, to
keep the Poles in a state of siege because they
love Poland—all this becomes daily, in the eyes of
the army, more and more inhumane, and there-
fore criminal." After continuing some time in
the same candid strain) the Address goes on frankly
to ask.—" What shall the army, with its present
spirit, then do ? It will not only not stop the Poles,
it will unite with them, and perhaps no force will be
able to stop it. The officers have not the pOwer nor
the wish to do so. The army does not want to be
a traitor to the Russian people, but before all it
does not want to be an executioner, because that is
dishonest, and soils the Russian name. Your High-
ness ! your duty is to save the army. There is but
one way of accomplishing this task—to cease the
vexations and persecutions of the Poles; not to force
them into a rising; to suspend the state of siege;
to let Poland organise herself freely, according to
the wishes and views of the Polish people. You
must persuade the EMPEROR into this change if
you will annihilate the otherwise inevitable and im-
minent danger." By no possibility could words be
plainer than these words; more comprehensive, more
comprehensible; more signal, or more significant.
What will be said of this document by the supreme
authorities of Russia, by the Imperial Prince
to whom it is addressed, and by the mighty Auto-
crat with whom he is thus manfully asked to
intercede. The issuing of this bold and
startling' address is hardly less amazing a pheno-
menon in Russian Poland and in Russia Prcper
than the Handwriting upon the wall of the palace at
Babylon in the midst of the orgies of BELSHAZZAR.
Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"—there are distinctly
shining the awful and luminous characters! Among
all the patriot-statesmen that may yet approach
either the presence of the Grand Duke CONSTAN-
TINE or that of the Emperor ALEXANDER 11. him-
self—is there none with heart, and valour, and
conscience enough to explain distinctly to the
PRINCE and the CZAR the import of this
ghastly intimation The ,Count ZAMOTSBI, ;had
he been allowed to remain a brief while longer at
Warsaw, or afterwards at St. Petersburg, might not
inaptly have enacted the part of DANIEL the Pro-
phet. As it is, however, the warning but just now
addressed, through the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE,
to the autocrat ALEXANDER, is so very plain, and so
glaringly
significant that it needs not one syllable
in the way
of explanatory comment.

Some of the
minor incidents----
of great wars are
generally more interesting
exhibit more individual
than the impor-
tant movements. They
skill or courage, and we more easily follow and
comprehend them. The exploits of STUART and
" Stonewall" JACKSON are pre-eminently of this
stamp—the raid at the back, first of AITLELLAN
then of PorE, with the capture of the personal cm-
fort sand conveniences of the latter, will serve for a
story in America many a long day, and so will the
last very clover and bold raid of STUART into
Pennsylvania, and his riding fairly round
the whole rear of the Federal army, crossing the
Potomac higher up 071 the right, and re-crossing it,
laden with spoil, nearer Washington on their right.
For two or three thousand men at most thus to gal-
lop their horses tired—mount fresh Pennsylvanian
steeds, change their ragged coats and worn out
shoes at the expense of Pennsylvanian militia
stores, load a thousand spare horses with like spoil,
and then give the slip to all who were watching
for them, was surely a firet rate achievement.

Another incident of a totally different kind,
araonpt the last arriyula, occured at New Orieung.