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

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the year 1803, under circumstances which prompted
the still living Josiah Quincy to declare that the
purchase was an act of revolution sufficient to justify
the secession of Massachusetts, it was expressly
stipulated by the French Government that the ceded
territory should be incorporated in the Union of the
United States, according to the principles of the
Federal Constitution; and that the inhabitants
should not only enjoy the rights, immunities, and
advantages secured to all citizens by that document,
but that they should, previously to the signing and
completion of the compact, "he protected in the free
enjoyment of their liberty, property, sn,l the reli-
gion they profess." The planters of French origin,
Whose (states are to be confi-sated by Genercl
Butler under this order, make loud complaints
of the illegality of the proceeding, and call upon
the French Government to protect them now
as it protected them before. They ask if those
rights secured to them before their adoption
of the Constitution can be taken from them after-
wards in violation of that instrument. They answer
the question in the negative, and declare that it is
still competent for, and incumbent on, France to
claim the integrity of the treaty of sale in the spirit
as in the letter. Here is a nut for casuists to
crack, and which it is thought will edify if it do
not occupy the mind of his Imperial Majesty the
Emperor of the French.
Yesterday morning the prisoners to Fort War-
ren and Lafayette were agreeably surprised to
find that their prison doors were opened. They
were told to go forth on Thanksgiving-day. No
question was asked of them and no oath was
administered. They were not, informed that they
were on parole. They_were simply told to go out
—and they went out. Fort Warren is without
a captive. Fort Lafayette contains but a few,
who will probably be liberated after consultation
with Washington. Mr. W. H. Winder and M.
Pierre Soule, together with a whole battalion of
less prominent prisoners, are once more free, each
with a grievance against the Government that will
keep fresh till the Democratic party takes posses-
sion of power. After that time there will be wail-
ing and gnashing of teeth among the greater and
lesser instruments of Republican despotism. The
secret reason of this gratifying gaol delivery appears
to be that the Federal Government was alarmed at
the success of the Democrats in all the recent elec-
tions, and at the openly avowed determination of
the Governors elect of New York and other States
to try the legality of their imprisonment immedi-
ately they assumed office. The fundamental ques-
tion of State rights against Federal encroachment
would thus have been brought to the arbitrament
of the local judicature, and, that failing, to the
decision of tha Supreme Court—a decision which
Mr. Lincoln has not deemed it prudent to incur.
The Democratic party are jubilant. These are the
first fruits of their victory, and will certainly not
be the last.