The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-21 00:00:00

Commence at half-past 7.

ASI'LEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.-
THIS EVENING, 2d appearance of Young GUNE-
RIUS (Ecuyer Norwegien), who created the greatest sensa-
tion at the Cirque, in Paris, in his original performance, Le
Passage du Pont, and Madame HALVESTON, the most
daring Equestrienne in the World, with their highly-trained
Steeds.
To conmence with THE COLLEEN BAWN.

New and daring Scenes in the Circle by the Great Nor-
wegian Wonders.

Concladinz with the Grand Comic Pantomime of
JOHNNY GILPIN'S RIDE TO EDMONTON.

A MORNING PERFORMANCE on Saturday next,
at Two o'clock.

Stage Manager, Mr. W. Searle.

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS,
AND FINE ARTS GALLERY.
Triumphant Success of Mr. Marshall's Grand Christmas
Entertainment, "THE ENCHANTED HASH " (SECOND
EDlTlON)—Wonderful Transformations—Every Evening
at a quarter-past ten—in addition to the following Comic
talent : Mr. Frederick French, the great Shakesperian Bur-
lesque Vocalist, Mr. Wood and Son, Mr. J. G. Forde, Miss
Harriet Coveney, and Miss Greene.
Grand Selections from
LA TitAVIATA and TROVATORE,
at ten o'clock,
By Miss Russell, Mr. Herbert, Signor Tivoli, and full Chorus.
Musical Director, Mr. Jonghmans.
Admission—Hall, Bd. ; Stalls and Balcony, is.

CANTERBURY HALL.-VICTOR JULIEN,
" THE FLYING MAN " ETery Evening at half-past
Nine o'clock.

ItHE OXFORD,
6, OXFORD-STREET,
OPEN EVERY EVENING AT 7 O'CLOCK.
Selections alternately from " Ernani," "Lucrezia Borgia,"
"La Circassienne," "La Traviata," "Simon Boccanegra,"
&c., by the entire Company, Full Band and Chorus.—Conduc-
tor, Mr. F. Jonghmans. Solos by Mr. Viotti Collins (the
great English violinist). And other attractive Entertain-
ments, the Comic portion by Miss Harriet Coveney, Messrs.
Sam Collins, E. Marshall, M. P. Foster, and W. Randall.
Hall, 6d. ; Stalls and Balcony, ls. ; Private Boxes, 10s. 6d.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, sh. 19m. —Afternoon, sh. 38m.
To-moßßow. -Morning, Oh. 54m.—Afternoon, 6h. 16m.

THE WEATHER.-SIIN OFFICE, JANUARY 21, 1802.
IN THE SHADE.

28—highest since noon yesterday.
26—lowest tnis morning and during the night.
30—this day at noon.

..,.. BAROMETER-29.56.
-,..
WlND—Easterly ; light, with dull weather. Snow fell
during the night and this morning. Smart thaw set in.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JAN. 21, 1862.

An amusing conversation on a very serious sub-
ject is reported to us as having occurred in the
House of Representatives. It was as an episode to
the main business of the sitting, which was re-
specting an investigation into the circumstances of
the disastrous battle at Ball's Bluff. While dis-
cussing the competency of Congress to enter into
the investigation at all, the house was informed by
Mr. LOVEJOY, the well known abolitionist, that the
reason why they were not successful was " because
they stood before an incensed GOD"—they were
" not true to the principles of justice and truth, and
those of human equality," and their idea was that
" if they did not hurt anybody the rebels would
return to their allegiance." Now certainly, on the
ground that the Most High hates oppression, and
of course those who befriend oppressors, the
Northern States can enjoy but little
of his favour. Only the Southern States
are at least as bad ; so that assuming the direct in-
tervention of Providence, Mr. LOVEJOY'S inference
should have been that North and South equally in-
censed the Maker of all men, and that he was using
them both to chastise each other for their common
sin. We incline, however, to think that Mr. LOVE-
JOY had some right to speak to the North as the
greater offenders, because they better understand
what liberty and human rights are, and are
therefore more guilty on account of their greater

knowledge. We are, however, pretty sure he is
right in ridiculing the supposition that the rebels
will return to their allegiance if the North does but
let alone the slaves.

A Member from Kentucky then rose and recalled
to Mr. LOVEJOY'S mind that last February he had
voted that the North had neither the right nor pur-
pose to interfere with or legislate on the subject of
slavery in the South. Mr. LOVEJOY, confessed it,
but pleaded that at that time the States
were all loyal. A defence which surely rested on
policy rather than on the high moral principles
on which he had just discoursed. He prudently
therefore came back to the practical view of the
subject—argued that the reople were determined
to carry on the war in the manner which would
most speedily put down the rebellion—and he
had no doubt the Government would speedily
yield to the popular sentiment. Mr. LOVEJOY
then fired his great gun—" Did his opponent pre-
fer the perpetuation of slavery to the Union ?"
The Kentuckian, in reply, was for preserving
both. He would not violate the constitution in
regard to any citizen, when it was not essential
to the principles of the Union. Carrying out the
principles of the PRESIDENT'S inaugural, and then
our February
Slavery
lurti.on, he had no fear for either
the Union or
Mr. LOVEJOY, however, asks, but "if the ship
must be saved by throwing overboard a portion
of the crew, which would the gentleman prefer ?"
Mr. WICKLIFFE, the Kentuckian, could have no
hesitation in answering such a question ; he in-
stantly responded—" I would prefer throwing the
Abolitionists overboard." Now, there is prover-
bially no refuting a joke or a sneer ; still, Mr.
LOVEJOY, nothing daunted, returned to the charge.
That, he said, was tantamount to throwing the
Union overboard, rather than slavery. It being,
of course, quite clear to himself that if the aboli-
tionists went overboard the Union went them;with
but also clear that if slavery was thrown
over,the
Union was more secure than ever. Other argu
ments not having yet produced their proper effect

he appealed to GOD and to justice, and demanded
that slavery should not stand between them and
triumph, and—Sir ROBERT PEEL'S maxim having
no weight at Washington—ho caused to be read
the seventh chapter of Joshua, and showed that
slavery was the " accursed thing" which stood be-
tween them and prosperity.
Hereupon the theological argument waxed warm.
Another Kentuckian came to the rescue of the
first. He reminded Mr. LOVEJOY that if slavery
was the accursed thing, the face of the ALMIGUTY
must be against the South ; however, in Kentucky
they know better than to regard slavery as incom-
patible with the freedom established by their
fathers. He retorted on Mr. LOVEJOY with the
question, would he destroy the Constitution to get
rid of slavery ? Mr. LOVEJOY would not—but
stuck to his first text that slavery must rather give
way than the Constitution awl the Union.

A kind of mediator now arose in the person of
an Indiana member. He went to the Bible too.
He stood on the parable of the tares and the wheat.
We were to wait patiently till the last day, and
not pull up unadvisedly the tares of slavery. If
Mr. LOVEJOY'S views had been proclaimed at the
beginning of the war, they should never have got
the band of 600,000 men to fight for the Union.
If it had been proclaimed that the object of the
war was to overthrow slavery, only a few JOHN
BROWNS would have joined them. He, however,
believed and hoped that by the war slavery had re-
ceived its deathblow. Eventually this debate closed
rather on the right side than on the wrong. The
Indiana member was joined by another from Penn-
sylvania, and between them they seemed to agree
that this Government could not be perpetuated by
declaring for emancipation, but that if slavery
really stood in the way of their success, perish it
must.

If we may judge of popular feeling on the subject
by the language of representatives, who must soon
reappear before their constituents, we should say
that the fact is becoming apparent to them that
either slavery or the war must be given up. They
begin to see that the South, with its slaves, is not to
be conquered even by the 600,000. Financial
pressure, whether in the shape of depreciated
paper or of quadrupled, rather decupled, taxation,
will soon make the Northerns furious against the
cause of it ; and the men who could send a stone
fleet to fill up a much-wanted harbour
will not be the man to stickle at emancipation.
Hitherto it has sadly illustrated the pro-slavery
temper of the North that it could outrage interna-
tional law, outrage natural law by destroying har-
bours the gift of the CREATOR himself, outrage
their own constitution except as against slavery—
but not, if it could be helped, touch a hair of
the head of this unnatural offspring of an ille-
gitimate Union. And this is the Government
which asks the sympathy of slavery-hating English-
men.

It is just as well that the promoters of the views
advocated by the Cotton Supply Association should
have availed themselves of the opportunity of com-
municating with the Earl of ELGIN in regard to
those same views prior to his lordship's departure
for his Indian Government. The interview which
took place at the Palace Hotel near Buckingham-
gate on Saturday, between the Governor-General
(elect) of Hindostan and two important deputations,
representing one of them the association already
mentioned, and the other, the Manehester Chamber
of Commerce, though it led to nothing more than a
very interesting discussion, followed by a very
vague response from the Earl to the various re-
marks which had been addressed to him by the
different speakers taking part in that discussion—
may be yet regarded as having brought about one
good result at least. It placed the Earl of ELGIN
au courant with the opinions entertained upon this
vitally important question of the Cotton supply before
his lordship's entrance upon the responsibilities of
his new position. The successor of Lord CANNING
will not leave these shores now for his remote desti-
nation at Calcutta in ignorance of the hopes, nay,
more than the hopes, of the earnest convictions,
rife in the mercantile world of England, in refer-
ence to the feasibility of developing, to an almost
unlimited extent, the growth of cotton in our East
Indian Possessions. Naturally enough, like a prac-
tised administrator, like a cautious and skilled
diplomatist, the Earl of ELGIN returns none but
very oracular answers to the reasoning of the
deputation, whose members spoke before him on
Saturday, answers that commit him to absolutely
nothing, answers that are, for the most part, essen-
tially inscrutable and enigmatical in themselves.
After thanking the deputation before him for the
very complimentary terms in which they had
spoken of his former services, "he expressed his
regret at not having been able to visit Manchester.
He hoped, however, that that pleasure was reserved
for him at some future day. He was fully impressed
with the fact that of all the public offices he had
ever held the one which he had just accepted was
by far the most important. There were some points
referred to by the deputations on which he could
not pledge himself to take administrative action
till he had had the opportunity of examining
facts connected with them for himself, and
in cases where allusions had been made, to some
extent inculpatory of his predecessors in office, he
must of necessity be silent. Without committing
himself to any specified measures, he would candidly

admit that he fully concurred in the general policy

Iwhich had been advocated by the gentlemen who
had addressed him. Especially was this the case
regarding what had been said about the operation
of import duties and the impediments to internal
communications. He was as firmly convinced as
any gentleman present that the prosperity of India
mainly depended on the combination of European
enterprise and capital with native industry ; but his
experience in China and other countries, where
widely diverse races came in contact, had shown
him the difficulties with which the subject was
invested." Now all this of course may mean just
anything or just nothing. Even the fag end of a
sentence, italicised above, though it may imply
really and truly all that we could possibly wish,
may yet at the same time never lead to any admi-

nistrative action whatever of the kind hoped for by
the deputations, from the beginning to the end of
the Earl of ELGIN'S administration. Still, if acted
upon or not—there is the admission. The Governor
General of India (that is to be) concurs fully
with the general policy advocated both by the spokes-
men of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce

and by those of the Cotton Supply Association.
Lord ELGIN'S answer, we may depend upon it,
will not be forgotten. The utterance of it de-
volves upon him, so far, a distinct responsibility.
And impressed though he avows himself to be
afterwards with the magnitude of the difficulties
surrounding the subject referred to, we have that
sense of his political boldness and moral determi-
nation that we are absolutely certain that no diffi-
culties, however vast or however numerous, will
deter him from undertaking any change for the
better, supposing he himself has once come to
recognise the necessity for it.

For this reason alone we are sanguine that good
may yet come—that good will yet come both for

India and for England from this interchange of

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THE SUN.