The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-04 00:00:00

rnE =SUN'S LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 4, 1862.

difficult to say
PELL went on—" No doubt it was
did not
Ariraghert ,iebaencsauwseetrhe Oyfig
1.2
oknnewwhicfher siwdehawtastthhee
ting
No doubt, if the North had declared for the aboli-
tion
of slavery, a large amount of sympathy would
have been felt in this country. A year ago he was
under the impression that the North would go in
for the abolition of slavery. But now it appeared
' that they had offered to rescind many of the State
Acts which had provided for the safety of escaped
slaves, and probably they would be disposed to sur-
render every one of them. That was a question
in which Englishmen were only interested as spec-
tators, and as members of the great human family,
could but suffer when other members of the same
family suffered. It behoved them to exercise
patience, and to avoid interference, though there
were cries being uttered in different parts of the
country as to how long they were to regard an in-
efficient blockade."

Such struggles of hope that the North would yet
see and do its duty in regard to slavery, with the
facts of administrative hostility to any move against
it, would be found in any assembly of respectable
Englishmen. We wish to believe that events will
compel the North to make the war an anti-slavery
one ; we see that Mr. LINCOLN and Mr. SEWARD
are ready to give the slaveholders any guarantee
for fugitive slave laws, and for the security of
slavery in the Slave States—and we are chilled.
When we think of the whole case, all is natural
enough. Mr. LINCOLN and the Republicans are
hearty Free soilers, but not anti-slavery men.
They are prepared to fight rather than allow
slavery to be extended into the United States terri-
tories, but they are as much prepared to fight in
resistance to what they, as a party, hate—"aboli-
tion." Mr. LINCOLN and the Free States are
resolutely anti-African. They would, like the
people of Kansas, if they could, legislate against
the entrance of persons of African descent into
their States at all. Mr. LINCOLN in his last Mes-
sage had the superlative folly to declare that a
wholesale deportation scheme must accompany any
proposal for emancipation. In truth the Republican
party feel not the slightest pity for negroes, they
have no sense of their rights, any more than slave-
holders themselves—they regard negroes simply
as a nuisance. Hence they have two principal ob-
jects—first they want to keep the negro nuisance
out of their territories—secondly, they want to con-
fine the negro nuisance to the present slave States ;
and should the war free the whole or a large portion
of the slaves, they wish to deport the negro nui-
sance—Florida they mention—and to create a kind
of tropical Siberia to be peopled there, by those
who like the Asiatic Siberians have been unjustly
defrauded of their liberty.
Our speakers both of them adverted to the
blockade, expressing views the opposite to those of
Mr. MASSEY, though Mr. ROUPELL was convinced
of the illegality of a blockade which was so ineffi-
ciently maintained. It is plain, however, that be
the consequences what they may, Englishmen will
not consent to do wrong to relieve Lancashire. Mr.
AN GERSTEIN did but express the general sentiment
of the country, which we doubt not will also pre-
vail in Parliament by a large majority, when he
said, "that he trusted that the manufacturing dis-
tricts would not suffer, as had been antici-
pated, from a abort supply of cotton ; but this
threatened evil had to some extent been pro-
ductive of good, as it had led to serious inquiry
relative to obtaining cotton from other than
American sourzes. The Government had paid
great attention to this subject as 'well as
the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the Cot-
ton Supply Association, and he believed the result
would be that in a very short time we should not
by any means be dependent upon America for cot-
ton, but it would be procured in large quantities
from India, the West Indies, Africa, and other
countries.

The Professor of Modern History in the Univer-
sity of Oxford, Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH, has within
the last few days put forth so extraordinary,
and as it also appears to us so extrava-
gant a proposition, that we cannot but hasten at
once to comment upon it as it deserves. Mr.
SMITH'S proposition, then, to begin with, is simply
this—that England should with all convenient
despatch mismember her Empire. Britannia may
still rule the waves, but she must forthwith give
up her colonies. That is the perverse and eccentric
thesis wilfully selected by the Regius Professor of
History at Oxford, and persistently argued upon
by him from the beginning to the end of the chap-
ter. A chapter it is, in its way, the oddest and, in
some senses, the most irritating that could well be to
every clear-headed, earnest, and patriotic English-
man. It is fairly out-Benthaming BENTHAM. It
is carrying a reasonable proposition to the utter-
most extravagance. A capital specimen after its
kind, the letter is, in truth, of the reductio ad
absurdum. Strange it must seem to everyone, at
the very outset, that a man occupying the eminent
and responsible position which Mr. GOLDWIN
SMITH has won for himself, purely by the force of
his rare and cultivated intelligence, should—in-
structor of the Youth of the Nation though he is—
have arrived, deliberately, at so low an estimate of
the rank attained by England among the nations
of the civilised globe. His conviction, as to the
Decadence d'A ngletcrre, appears to be so much in
accordance with that ungratefully insisted upon,and
disgracefully promulgated by M. LEDRU ROLLIN
in his new and revised version of "Rollin's His-
tory," that we actually find this very cosmopolitan
Regius Professor of History, coolly maintaining
that we had better put the best face upon the
matter at once—(bad certainly must be the best if
this is all, forsooth, that can reasonably be hoped to
come of it !)—and that doing this, England should
quietly yield up, as soon as may be, not merely
little Archimedian resting-places, where she can
move the world whenever she pleases—such as the
Rock of Gibraltar or the little rocky island of
Malta—but immense possessions, like the two
Canadas, like Hindostan, like that grand fifth con-
tinent at :our antipodes—Australasia. A cooler
proposition in its way could hardly have been set
forth had Sir CHARLES COLDSTREAM, for the nonce,
occupied the professorial chair for one night
only, by particular desire. It is the whim-
sicallest, Pococurante crochet that one could
very well have dreamt of, though sleeping the
most bewildering sleep of the veriest victim of hal-
lucinations. Reading VOLNEY in a just and philoso-
phic spirit we mayheretofore have come to theconclu-
sion that the Ruins of Empires ought to to expected
invariably to result in reason only from the destruc-
tive influence either of the lapse of Time or of the
arms of Man. A new light is now thrown, how-
ever, upon our meditations by the Regius Professor
of History at Oxford. The British Empire is to prove
the rule it seems, by becoming the one old prover.
bial exception., Having been laboriously built up
by the energies of successive races, by the blood,
and the heroism, and the genius, and the indomitable
resolution of whole generations, it is at last if we are
to subscribe to the logic of Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH'S
argument, it is at last—by a ridiculous anticlimax
—to be shaken down abruptly like a child's house
of cards ! Never was there a more bizarre, or, for
that matter, we N$ ill venture to assert distinctly,

more ludicrously preposterous mode of reasoning
than this.

" My wound is groat because it is so small,"
quoth one of the characters in a forgotten tragedy
of DRYDEN'S :

" Then 'twould be greater if 'twer9 none at all 1"

cries the witty Earl of ROCHESTER from a side box
on the night of its first representation. And yet
this is, in truth, the kind of paradoxical solecism
put forth now by the Regius Professor of History
at Oxford at the very epoch when England is at
her grandest and best. It is the self-same perverse
and flippant absurdity if only we accept Mr.
SMITH'S declaration as proven, and (having
acted upon it) for " wound" read " Power."
As evidence of the exceeding perversity of the
Regius Professor's judgment in studying, among
all Modern Histories, the History of Histories to us
as free-born Englishmen, the History of our own
country, of this "dear, dear, England," as SHAK-
SPERE three centuries ago apostrophized it, " this
precious stone set in the silver sea"—as evidence,
we say, of the exceeding perversity of Mr. GOLD-
WIN SMITH'S judgment when he comes to examine
into the records of our English annals, it is enough
to mark the very curious circumstance that Canada
of all our colonies, in this year of grace, 1862),
that Canada is the one looked upon by him as
irresistibly suggestive of the reasonableness of an
immediate dismemberment of the British Empire.
Canada! ye Gods ! Canada, forsooth, that by
its recent display of loyalty, of devotion to
the Crown, of a recognition of its identity of
interests, and of sympathies with the old mother
country, only hints, on the contrary, to the rest of
the citizens of this vast Empire that as an
Empire it never was more ONE than it is now in
this latter half of the nineteenth century. Not thus,
however, thinks Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH, who actually
commences his extraordinary, and, as we have
already been constrained to call it extra-
vagant, letter, addressed (on the 27th ultimo)
to our *contemporary the Daily News, in
these singular words : --c, Ought not, " he
asks, " Ought not the narrow escape of a War
in defence of Canada to lead the nation to think
seriously not only of the reduction of colonial ex-
penditure, but of all colonial emancipation ? Eng-
land has long promised herself the honour of be-
coming the mother of free nations. Is it not time
that this promise should be fulfilled ?" Why, in
the name of common sense, is she not so now—
already ? Not (Heaven knows !) that allusion is here
made to that anything but enviable offshoot from
the old parent tree, the British heart-of-oak—the
American sapling now threatening to become split
up like the memorable wooden leg of Mr. GAMP
(when that gentleman was at his last gasp, accord-
ing to his veracious relict), namely, " for matches in
the rough." We have not a thought just now of
Yankeeland when talking of England as already
virtually to all intents and purposes the mother of
free nations. It is of that very colony of the
Canadas we are thinking ! It is to the Australian
colonies, to Tasmania, to New Zealand, we are here
making reference ! It is to our vast Asiatic empire
in Hindustan, as recently reorganised since its
transference from the effete and now vanished power
of old JOHN COMPANY to the firmer yet kinder
and more liberal rule of JOIIN BULL, as symbolised in
the grand and gentle sceptre of VICTORIA, that our
allusions tend. Here in our Colonies as they are
respectively organized, as they are now swayed by
the Majesty of England, and as they are now inter-
nally administered by themselves, we have already
an opportunity of recognizing exultantly the
world encompassing title of THE BRITISH EMPIRE
—Enyland the Mother of Free Nations. Mr.
GOLDWIN SMITH, Regius Professor of Modern
History at Oifoid though he is, can-
not recognize it. Yet for all that it is
so nevertheless. Does there come at length, we
will suppose, however, any hazy glimmering notion
of the kind dimly shining in upon the judgment of
Mr. SMITH (a judgment seemingly overlaid and
obscured by erudition), the Professor may ask per-
haps for the colonies en masse, or it may be for
each of them in detail and in succession, a yet larger
amount of freedom than they already possess. He
may insist upon it that they should be endowed, one
by one or all together, with an actual and nominal
and not simply as at present with a virtual inde-
penZence. Ala bon heure--we will go with him
even that length—we will suppose, for the
sake of • the argument, merely for the
sake of his particularly ridiculous argument,
that what he would thus insist upon is in itself
reasonable. We will grant all that, but while con-
ceding thus much, we will add something like an
echo of that wise and witty reply, addressed by,
King LEOPOLD, in 1848, to the leaders of the
Belgian eineuter—" Very well, messieurs; so be it,
if the nation wishes. Lot Belgium be a Republic,
if she pleases—l can pack up and leave. But let
us have no Revolution !" That precisely might be
the tone, should in reason be the tone, in which the
majesty of England may reply to the fantastic pro-
positions set forth by crotchety daydreamers like
the learned Professor of Modern History at the first
of our great English Universities. Let our colonies
if they care, break, one by one, the last golden links
that bind them to the benignant glory of the British
SOVEREIGN, that knit them together as integral
parts of the empire governed under the shadow of
the British Flag, and under the lEgis of the British
Constitution. Let these sixty colonies of
ours, in all parts of the habitable globe,
snap asunder, we repeat, one by one those last
golden links if they will. But at least England
herself will not do so—at least England herself
willjpersevere to the end of her noble annals in the
discharge of the solemn duties and responsibilities
of Government devolving upon her from the very
vastness of her Empire, waiting the while humbly
and reverently the decrees of Divine Providence.

The Queen will hold a Privy Council to-morrow
(Wednesday) at Osborne.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in Down•
ing-street. The Ministers present were :—Viscount Pal-
merston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, Sir George
Grey, Earl Russell, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir G. Come-
wall Lewis, Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, the Duke of Somerset, the Right Hon. Thomas
Milner Gibson, the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, and the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers.
LORD LYNDiltatsT.--lire are happy to say that
the prevalent unfavourable rumours respecting Lord Lynd -
hurst's health are greatly exaggerated. The noble and
venerable lord is confined by a slight attack of gout, but in
other respects is in excellent bodily health.

The Recordership of Hastings, with Rye and
Seaford, has become vacant by the death of Mr. W. W.
Atreet, barrister•at-law.

TL(2ir Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess
Leiningen have returned to Howchin's Hotel, from Osborne.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Exeter have
been entertaining a select party at Burghley House, Stam-
ford.

The Marquis of Downshire is expected at his
residence in a few days, from his seat in Ireland.
The Earl and Countess Russell and family come
to town on Thursday, from Richmond Park, for the season.
The Earl and Countess Stanhope arrived at
their residence in Grosvenor-place last evening, from
Chevening Park, near Sevenoaks.
Viscount Sydney has arrived at his residence in
Cleveland. square, from Frogman Lodge, Footscray, Kent.
In connection with the rise in the Turkish Loan
of 1858, there is a rumour that the Turkish Government
has confirmed the proposed tobacco tax, which is expected
to be extrcunely productivo.

LATEST NEWS.

PARIS, FEB. 4.

The 111oniteur of this morning says :
" A foreign journal asserts that in the fifth com-
mittee-room of the Senate, the Minister of State,
in the game of the Emperor, made certain declara-
tions in reference to the Roman question:
" This assertion is doubly false.
" In the first place the Ministers with portfolios
only speak in tneir quality of senators. The mis-
sion of speaking in the name of the Emperor's Go-
vernment appertains only to the Minister without
portfolio.
" In the second place, it is completely incorrect
that M. Walewski spoke in the terms reported by
the foreign journal."

FLORENCE, FEB. 3.
A popular demonstration took place to-day in this

city.

The populace traversed the streets with flags and
bands of music, shouting " Rome as the capital of
Italy !" " Down with the Pope King !" " Long
live Victor Emmanuel !"

Before dispersing the crowds proceeded to the
residence of the French Consul.

VIENNA, FEB. 3.

The official Wiener Zeitung of to-day contains an
article stating that the idea of the cession of Venetia
would be disgraceful, infamous, and absurd,
The valley of the Danube near Vienna is inun-
dated, and the communication between the Northern
and Western Railways has been interrupted in

consequence.
Prague is also partly inundated.
The sixth class ur the Gymnasium at Cracow has
been dissolved on account of an attempt against the
life of Professor Huelsebeck.