The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING; AUGUST 16, 186%

any mention of the frightful violation of all justice,
human and divine, on which they base their confe-
deration—calling slavery, indeed, divine between
themselves, but saying nothing about it to us—
they appeal to us as a people patriotically defending
their own soil. With four millions of slaves groaning

under the lash, they come across the water pro-
claiming that their battle is for national indepen-
dence and freedom! Thus have the most outrageous
and violent and swaggering bullies on earth been
converted, so far as European nations are concerned,
into a professedly modest and friendly people.
Such in the South have been the lessons of adver-

sity. We may well doubt, however, whether they
would not soon be forgotten in prosperity ; and the
distich respecting the demeanour of SATAN himself

in sickness be once more verified.
But the other change we have in view is still
more remarkable. The boast, as we thought it, of
JEFFERSON DAVIS has thus been a second time
verified—domestic skill has been so far stimulate
bdyeraetxeclsustiaotnesfrhomaveforseniffigneed formark their ownetsthatt wants.Confed -
Many luxuries of dress, diet, equipage, we may be
sure they must dispense with, but they thhnemyehliaevrelivg,
found
food and clothing sufficient, an
and coarse and mended clothing, would naturally
come to be regarded as badges of patriotism, Their
slaves,
a
cotton, we are told, they work up into coarse fabrics
for tithe soldsoiersninannhd fsonr, theirrt
wp
part tmay
f
dreaded by India, at the close of the
War, come when it may, will be found to have
be
ee
seuupreply
vanished. Breadstuffs and animals for food they
would naturally produce themselves, to the dis-
comfort of the North-Western States, who must
find their markets encumbered with the pork and
wheat which they used to send South. But what
must have surprised all, is their contriving to
almost extemporise the munitions of war. We
confess it has taught us that we need not put our-
selves in any panic about our competency to meet a
foreign war, even if the stores of Woolwich and
Weedon did not almost burst their walls. If the
Secessionists, with their want of mechanical means,
can meet as they do the well-supplied armies of
the North, what could not England do in a few
weeks or months. _ _

True the traitor FLOYD had supplied the South
to the best of his ability ; but it was, for the more
part, with an inferior class of arms. Yet these
people, so wanting in mechanical and manufactur-
ing enterprise, so destitute even of the raw mate-
rial, seem all at once to have found both ma-
terials, ingenuity, and artistic skill. To
read such accounts as Mr. F. L. OLMSTEAD'S, of
of what not only the country but the towns of the
South were, and to find them at a few months' notice
full of resources and enterprise, is one of the most
striking facts we ever met with in the history of a
revolution. Sulphur and saltpetre they get from
somewhere—for powder they make somehow. They
contrive to capture, but certainly also to make new
artillery, and to improve old guns. With hardly a
ship to ;call their own they have performed naval
feats which w ill never be forgotten, and, are to the
great dismay of the Federals, threatening to repeat
them. Under these circumstances all the world has
felt that the Merrimac and the Arkansas were
greater marvels of skill than our Warrior and Black
Prince. The evidence is conclusive, that, up to the
date of the war, the South looked to the North to
manufacture almost every artiele of domestic or
military use. In a single year, it has become its
own manufacturer !
Illegal, therefore, as were the grounds of their
secession, vile and hideous as a constitution must
be which treats as articles of merchandise, as human
cattle, one-third of the population, it is yet clear
that the inspiration of political independence has
converted a nation of bullies into one which, for the
present at least, behaves with international courtesy,
and a shiftless agricultural population into an ener-
getic manufacturing race. We should not wonder
if the war improves the South as much as it deterio-
rates the North. It may find out the comfort and
pleasure of reasonable international behaviour, and
it will certainly not lose all at once the advantage
of the skill and energy which necessity has taught
its artizans. Nor should we be much surprised if
slavery itself were mitigated in an independent
South, as a result of the war. We may well
believe that slaves must be better treated now
in consequence of it. Cotton growing, and its
culture will not be everything. General agriculture
is a far more intelligent and civilised occupation.
Political exasperation with the Free States will
not react against the negroes. Emulation will com-
pel them to train their slaves to more skilful oc-
cupations ; and it is at least certain that they will
treat their negroes as well as they would be
treated in New York itself.

Ten years after the coup d'etat the Emperor
NAPOLEON 111. has reviewed, for the first time dur-
ing his reign, 30,000 of the National Guard of Paris.
This was on Thursday the 14th. On the following
day, [the 15th, NINETY-THREE years had elapsed
since the occurrence of the event which has caused
that date to be celebrated in France, and to be
known throughout the world, as the Fete NAPO-
LEON ! Ninety-three years ago, on that day, was
born the Founder of the NAPOLEON Dynasty. And
yesterday, upon the ninety-third recurrence of that
anniversary, the Third NAPOLEON was far advanced
in the tenth year of his reign—so far advanced in
his reign that he could, upon the eve of the Imperial
Fete, celebrate its approach in the exceptional
manner indicated just now, namely, by review-
ing the National Guard of Paris for the first
time since the coup d'etat of the 2d of Decem-
ber. Reviewing them, as already intimated,
to the number of 30,000 The whole of the arme
force who were out in the streets of the Capital,
and in the Champ de Mars on Thursday, the 14th
of August, numbering, altogether, it is calculated—
that is massing together the soldiers of the National
Guard, and of the Imperial Army, infantry, cavalry,
artillery, and engineers—not: far short of 70,000
men ! It is significant of the strength or the im-
perial regime that the incident here particularised
should have taken place, and, beyond all, that it
should have passed off in every way, as it did, so
satisfactory.

It was judiciously arranged beforehand that upon
the F eteN apoleon itself the" difficulty"of the moment
should be evaded ! The EMPEROR giving no formal
reception to the Corps Diplomatique ; and in this
manner avoiding the perilous necessity that might
otherwise have elicited from him an expression of
opinion upon the aspect of affairs among the Eurc-
pean Sovereigns.
Whether the Marquis PEPOLI, but just passing
through Paris from Turin, has been the bearer to
NAPOLEON from VICTOR EMMANUEL of any refe-
rence, either direct or indirect, to the newly developed
Phase of the Italian Difficulty may of course be
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