The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-27 00:00:00

tions of wisdom abounding in the discourses of the
Manchester school. It is not the way to make any
cause honourable, to hurl abuse and fling ridicule
continually upon all who do not make themselves
equally conspicuous by their vehemence and vio-

lence in its support. It is a question if more may

not be done by cautious and careful working than
by the sudden and startling changes which the poli-

ticians of Mr. LEATHAM'S schools persist in advo-

eating.

Whether they are quite sincere in their

desire to see their plans brought to a consummation
is another question, perhaps more easy to ask than

to answer. Some ungracious individual might go
so far as to say that OTHELLO'S occupation would
be gone, and that these fiery politicians would
really regret the day when they could no longer go
about the country on the stalking-horse of Reform.
It is a capital theme, as it now stands, for
haranguing the many, while-it is easy, during the
Session, to shirk it and throw the blame on the Op-
position. What is to be complained of in all these
speeches referred to is the very un-English spirit

that pervades them. Bad as our present foreign
policy is, it would be ten times worse had they more

nfluenee than they at present unhappily possess in

the councils of the nation. The name of England

would, indeed, be a byword and a reproach among the

communities of the earth, and we should be renowned

through the world for our pusillanimity and base

ness of action. Mr. LEATHAM is about as ridicu-
lous as he can be in his remarks concerning

America ; and really it lowers one's opinion of this
set of politicians, as men of sense and judgment, to
find that they wilfully persist, in the face of
evidence, and in spite of the most irrefragable

proofs, in their assertions about the issue of the

American war. It looks as if, instead of admiring
the constitution of the United States on principle,
because they thought it worked for the welfare of
the people, they had taken up a hobby which,
through good and bad report, amid success or
failure, they would alike swear by and adhere to.
It is insulting the judgment of men of experience,
and injuring the validity of their own opinions most

incalculably, thus to state such deliberate fallacies
as this passage contains :—" I have always main-

tained that there could be but one issue to this war,
if the North were prepared to make the necessary
sacrifice ; and that is the extinction of slavery, and
the subjugation of the South." Can anything be
more absurd than this ? But, further on, the hon.
member becomes nearly profane when he affirms
that the " religious mind of America can believe
that its solemn decision has received its ratification
from on High, and that the LORD of HOSTS himself
is going forth with their arms." If ever there was
a war whose conduct and style was likely to call
down the direct condemnation of Heaven, it has
been that which the Federals so persistently and
ruthlessly wage, in defiance of all the claims of
humanity and the feelings of honour, truth, and jus-
tice. The men who spare neither sex nor age in their
cruel course, who destroy the supplies of human food
with savage recklessness, and torture their prisoners
by neglect—who indulge in every barbarity they
can think of, and respect no rules that guide the
marches of civilised armies—should be the last to
boast of their cause receiving sanction from Above.
It would seem as if, in excitement of his zeal con-
cerning his friends, Mr. LEATHAM was forgetting
the tenets of his creed. How is it that he thus en-
courages war, and makes demigods of such san-
guinary militants as those who swell the ranks of
the Federal armies ? In his enumeration of the
many events which had crowned their troops with
victory and their cause with glory, he ingeniously
forgot one that did neither. We hear of the march
of SHERMAN, the capture of Savannah, and the
defeat of HOOD, but a silence total and supreme
—may we not add ominous and significant—reigns
concerning " Wilmington." In the hurry of his
discourse, his hearers doubtless did not consider
the full import of all his flowery sentences, for, had
they done so, and then cheered his address, they
would have been unworthy to represent the cha-
racter of Englishmen at a public assembly. Such
language is quite preposterous as to argument, and
most unseemly as to taste and style. As Madame
ROLAND exclaimed, " Oh, freedom, what crimes are
committed in thy name !" so it may well be said of
this American war, that it is a mockery and a delu-
sion to call it a crusade against slavery and a
struggle for the righteous cause, while it
is a selfish attempt for gain, and an
unworthy desire for monopoly of power.
It is not the way to win over men of discernment
to their views, for Mr. LEATHAM and his friends to
go about the country proclaiming such a mean and
paltry policy as one that should actuate the feelings
of England. They talk in the same breath of the
necessity for a thorough reform, and then go on to
magnify the virtues of those who are scandalising
all Christendom by their want of decency and de-
corum in the prosecution of the war. The intelli-
gence of the country will be arrayed against such
an inconsistent course, and rise in refutation against
those who advocate doctrines that trample under
foot all that honour and honesty have made sacred
through the world, and respected by those who
have been the noblest and highest of mankind. It
is the best proof of the instability and unsoundness
of a cause when it leads its supporters into such
violent extremes as Mr. LEATHAM has resorted to
in his vindication of Federal rights and English
wrongs. It would be better and safer for the com-
munity to go back to the most bigoted days of the
last generation of statesmen than to be under the
sway of those who would disseminate the prejudices
of such a school through the land. If the passing
of events and the warning of actions are not to be
recognised, but all to follow one predetermined
plan, and act in one preconceived conclusion, it will,
indeed, speak ill for the intellect of the age, and do
little credit to its progress and enlightenment.
Those misguided individuals, who persist in their
mischievous course, had better reconsider their de-
cision, or they will rank among those who cry peace
where there is no peace, and mar, instead of realis-
ing any good effects in the works they undertake.

The periodical examination of our sanitary statis-
tics is a matter of no slight interest and importance.
The condition of the public health concerns every
one of us, and as physiological science makes more
and more progress, the details which are given by
the registrar's report grow more and more valuable.
They furnish the data upon which to found our
sanitary laws ; they teach us the governing prin-
ciples of health and disease, and point out the
dangers to which a City life is more especially liable.
It is true that the prevailing fashion of late years
has drawn men much away from their places of
business, and fixed their residence, if not in the
absolute country, at least out of reach of London
smoke and fog. But even this change is not with-
out its dangers. In the first place, there are other
considerations than those which are immediately
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diminish the beneficial
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a City life is increasing in-
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statistics, the strain on
stead of diminishing. This is most conspicuously
shown between the ages of 55 an 75, and Dr.