The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-08 00:00:00

river.

But we also look farther. We cannot conceive
that a great slave power, liberated from the shackles
of Union with free States, and free to extend it-
self west and south to the Pacific, and all over
Central America, would be a desirable addition to
the family of nations. One thing this war has
taught us—what indeed we have learned from the
republics of antiquity, that a nation of freemen
maintaining itself by the labour of its slaves is free
to be a very aggressive nation towards its neigh-
bours. The greater part of the whites of the
Southern States find in the war a congenial occu-
pation. They are excluded from labour by its de-
gradation; the poorest white is an aristocrat ; and
as he can make no pretensions to the church, to
physic, or to law, what is he good for but for
the army ? Hence a Southern confederacy,
free to make its conquests southward and
westward and among the islands of the West
Indies, would never want an army like that which
it has so unexpectedly supplied to resist the
mightier North. Such a State, able to supply it-
self freely with weapons of war from Europe, and
to support itself by the labour of its slaves, would
become an American conquering nation, which
might soon swallow up all Central America, and
render itself the greatest nuisance to civilisation in
the world. Whatever independence, therefore, the
South achieves we ought to hope it will be one
which will surround its dark domains by the terri-
tories of freemen.

The year of grace 1862 has been set apart alto-
gether as a year of mourning. Politically, socially,
in most of the ordinary and avoidable ways, each of
the 365 days of 1862 has been set aside as a sort of
dies non. As a tribute of respect and affection
proffered to the memory of the late PRINCE CON-
SORT, this " passing over" of the whole year, by the
concurrence of the QUEEN and of her People, with
the ready coincidence in this way of both parties in
both Houses of Parliament, is beyond all the testi-

monials in bronze, in marble, in granite, or, if
could be practicable, in the precious metals, that

could be constructed to perpetuate the love of the
widowed Sovereign for her husband, and the grati-
tude of the English nation to his Royal Highness.

It is related in one of the most picturesque and
touching descriptions contained in Sir ARCHIBALD
ALISON'S " History of Europe" that when, in 1814,
at the close of the battle of Lutzen, a cannon ball
shot down the celebrated Marshal DIIROC, Duke of
Friuli, Grand Marshal of the Palace of the Em-
peror NAPOLEON, one of the most illustrious among
the Paladins, and about the most beloved among all

the intimate Friends of the Great Conqueror, the
latter—inconsolable with grief under the anguish
caused by the death of DUROC-put aside every
reference to himself whether as a soldier or as a
Sovereign, whether as Emperor or as Commander-
in-Chief : contenting himself with saying—" To-
morrow ! everything to-morrow !" It has been
precisely in this spirit that our beloved QUEEN has
acted ever since the unlooked for and lamented de-
mise of her Royal Consort. Next year ! everthing
has been set aside until Next Year !

His Royal Highness the Prince of WALES is to
be married to the Princess ALEXANDRA of DEN-
MARX. But the nuptials are not to take place until
early next spring. Even the distribution of the
prizes awarded to the more successful exhibitors in
the Great World's Show, at South Kensington, the
first public ceremonial which H.R.H. the Prince of
WALES is appointed to preside over, is postponed
from this year of the Great Exhibition until the
year immediately ensuing. The Exhibition itself, as
we took occasion to remark very recently in these co-
lumns, it was absolutely impossible by any contriv-
ance of ingenuity, in any way whatever, to postpone ;
all the arrangements for it having been a great deal
too far advanced for such an afterthought, when
H.R.H. the late PRINCE CoNsORT breathed his last
so unexpectedly in the winter of 1861 at Windsor
Castle. Otherwise, the Exhibition would, beyond
any doubt whatever, have been postponed. The
date alone rendered that impracticable, howbeit.
The treasures of art and industry were already ar-
rived or arriving, crossing seas and continents from
the ends of the earth towards their common desti-
nation. The Exhibition had to be held, and it has
been so held accordingly, even under these untoward
and affiicting circumstances. But the QUEEN her-
self has never once set foot within the building at
South Kensington. Her MAJESTY'S children, it is
true, repeatedly visited the Exhibition during the
later months of its remaining open, but the QUEEN
herself not once has crossed the threshold. i
The display of 1862 would doubtless have
recalled too poignantly to recollection the different
NCE CONSRT
circumstances attendant upon the display of 1851
—when His Royal Highness Phew RI
was in the flower of his ag, d the maturity
of his rare powers. Therefore, with that remem-
brance cherished in her heart, the QUEEN went not
once to the recent Exhibition. And now that the
display is closed, as an exhibition ; now that its
contents are being sold and scattered, the closing
ceremony of the distribution of the prize medals—
like everything else that could be postponed—is
postponed. Early next year these medals will be
distributed among those to whom they have been
awarded, and they will be distributed by H. R. H.
the Prince of WALES. So uewhat about the same
period, or, probably, a brief while afterwards,
His Royal Highness will bo united in marriage
withlier Royal Highness the Princess ALEXANDRA.
To-morrow, moreover, the Prince of WALES
will attain hi
s a
reasonable majority. But, here again,
as in regard
toe everything else to which
postponement could be applied the
commemorativeeirenmata ceremonies
have pos
es that would, under hap-
pier
celebrated the advent of
that auspicious recurrence
of the 9th day of
Novem-
ber will be postponed—win be
put off until Next
Year. Whatever indications of loyal rejoicing on