The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-17 00:00:00

IVES of EMINENT ST ATESA.IEN,
fUN, every week. One Penny;

Vow Ready, handsomely bound in Magenta
the cloth, gilt, price
4s. CLL ; post tree, ~
SECOND balf-yearly VOLUME of FUN, with
1.7 numerous Engrairinf:•s b3r talented artists, and humor-
ous Articles by the following distinguished writers :
W. Bailey, Esq. W. S. Gilbert, Esq.
W. Barber. Esq. ' T. Hood, Esq.
E. L. Blanchard, Esq. T. S. Jerrold, Esq.
G. W. Bridgeman, Esq. W. J. Prowse, Esq.
F. C. Burnand, Esq. Godfrey Turner, Esq.
H. J. Byron, Esq. &c., ka, &c.
Office, 80, Fleet-street, London.

RALF-A-DOZEN UMBRELLAS in the
Christmas Number of SATURDAY NIGHT. Con-
ducted by THOMAS HOOD,

•„„ For full particulars of amusements gee first page.
ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT-GARDEN.
This Evening, Wallace's new opera, LOVE'S TRIUMPH.
Commence at 8.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
'nig Evening, DUCK HUNTING. After which, OUR
AMERICAN COUSIN. With A DAY AFTER TUE
WEDDING. And MY HUSBAND'S GHOST,
Commence at 7.

NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI,
This Evening*, AGNES DE DEICE. Followed by THE
WOMAN -HATER. CommHE HONEYMOON.
ence at 7.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
This E•ening, IT MUST BE TRUE, 'TWAS IN TIM'.
PAPERS. Followed by PEEP O'DAY. To conclude with
ICILLAttNET.

Commence at 7.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Great Windmill-street, 119 T
tarket. Open every evening for Promenade and Dancing-.

CANTERBURY HALL.—EVERY EVENING.—
Grand Selections from Verdi's " Boccanel-4-ra," Macfarren'S
Cantata "May Day," and Locke's Igiusic of " Macbeth.
The Etoile Family —Unsworth, Eugene, sad Duley, &a
Commence at 7.

THE OXFORD, 6, ORFORD-STREET, EVERY
Caroline
EVENING.—Ite-appearance of Unsworth, the orial of
"Or any other man" -The Colleen Bawn, by Miss
Parkes —Mr. Maclagan's Entertainment Drew Dean, the
great Flautist—the Neapotan 3Elinpels—Selections from
Verdi's " IlCorsaro" and Nabuco, Donizetti's "Don Se-
bast
en„ &a, with full band and chorus.
Commence at 7.

lIIGII WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
This De. Y.—No ming, 911. 46m.—Afternoon, 10h. 25m.
To-laohnow.-Morning, 1113. Om.—Afternoon,illh. 30m.

We have now the PRESIDENT'S Message in its
entirety before us, and having carefully perused the
whole, we see little, if anything, even to qualify in
the remarks which we made yesterday. Five or six
columns of small type is more than most readers will
care to wade through, especially when a great part
of the topics are uninteresting enough, at least in
their full discussion. \Ve give it nevertheless for
the benefit of the more studious, and because it is a
document which may be frequently referred to in
the debates of the Congress, now sitting, for months
to come. We ought to be fair towards a man of Mr.
LINCOLN'S abilities, pretending as he does to nothing
like genius, in a position which would test to the
uttermost the highest powers of statesmanship.
And if his eyes are not fully opened to the great-
ness of the crisis in which he is placed, this is
no more than may be said of half the states-
men of repute whom the old world with
all its experience has produced. He sees all
things, as an American of his party would see
them. And, if he indulges in what seems to him
broad views, their breadth consists in spanning the
whole American Continent, and including all its
territories in one monster Union. Probably no
American statesman has yet got beyond the states-
manship of a Russian, that of confounding vastness
with greatness and power.
In looking at this long document, apart from the
business details, the reader will be struck with
the very long space assigned to an argument
merely. An argument in favour of American
vastness. Mr. LINCOLN labours to show that
disunion would bo no remedy for the differences
between the people of the two sections. He quotes

his old language to show that it could not—that
the fugitive slave law, and engagements between
the North and South, would certainly not be more
easily en forced.through separation and dealing with
each other as foreign nations. But he spends
his strength on a geographical proof that
separation of North America into two parts
—he might have added into three or four—is
impracticable. The river lines possible are but a
small part of what is required. " Surveyors' lines,"
as he terms them, across which a person may walk
without being conscious of it, are not "natural
boundaries," of which we heard so much in Europe,
and which Europe, along a large part of its boun-
daries has been obliged to dispense with. But his
grand argument against separation is, that a mil-
lion of square miles in the centre of North Ame-
rica,—the vast territory which lies between the
Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains on the East
and West, the British Dominion on the North, and
the Cotton region on the South—that this vast ter-
ritory will refuse to be shut out from the sea. It
is rapidly peopling it,elf. It is certain to become
the most powerful part of America. It can now
freely communicate with the world as part of the
same nation to which New York, New Orleans,
and San Francisco belong. But it would never sub-
mit to becoming a landlocked territory. Hence all
North America below the British territory must
form a nation one and indivisible. Q. E. D.
Prudence, we may be sure, not modesty, kept Mr.
LINCOLN from saying what every ardent Unionist
believes, that Canada, Columbia, and all the British
Possessions in America, are one day to become
limbs of the Federal POLYPHEMUS, whose single
eye is Washington.
The articles on emancipation to be proposed to Con-
gress, and by Congress to be proposed to the Federa-
tion and Confederation, are we observe to be offered
as amendments to the constitution in the precise form
provided by its fifth article. That is, two-thirds of
both Houses are first to vote them ; then the assent
is to be obtained by two_thirds of all the legisla-
tures of the States composing the Union, or of
State conventions convened for the purpose. Mr.
LIN coL,
ought
to know his chances of getting this
three-fourth better than we can do. But as it
e
would involve getting
assent to the proposals by
seven of
the States themselves, he says it
seems to the last
degree improbable that he could
get the legal m
to making the articles r of
States essential
valid amendments of the
Constitution.
When they have become law,PPosing this pos-
sible, it would still be open to each
of the States, in
pR the corn-
the exercise of it-1 sovereignty, to
accept
pensation fur their slaves which the
stu ENT
would be authorised to offer. Eaah State
would be able to retain what it now pro-
claims to be its divine institution. The only induce-
ment we observe to prompt action is that the com-
pensation will be proportioned to the
promptitude.
As the slaves to be paid for are those ascertained to
be in existence in 1860, the date of toe census, it
seems a part of the plan that those who doe. ie be-
tween that time and 1900 shall not be paid fOf
this, however, we are not quite sure. It may be
that if not a soul is emancipated till the year 1899,
the payment would still be for all who had been
owned by the State at the date of the eighth census.
Should this last be Mr. LiscoLN's meaning, we
really see no reason why the Slave States, if they
at all desired peace, should not accept the offer at

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THE SUN.
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 17, 1862