The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-27 00:00:00

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strN, tiONOON, THURSDAY EVENINO, MARCH 27, 1862.

,on the planters' gifts of cotton, to be' And how
will all the families who have hitherto lived in ease
and affluence bear the sacrifices which will beggar
them in perpetuity ? Bitterness against the North
may be a strong feeling, but probably a stronger
one with planters' families will be, reluctance to
sink at once to the condition of the " mess whites,"
whom they despise more than they do their

negroes.
Perhaps, too, the numbers of sensible persons in
the South who must have felt all along the thorough
groundlessness of secession, will begin to kick at
being called on, by mere clever speculating politi-
cians, to sacrifice their all to place a JEFFERSON
DAVIS and his cliqxe in office. Thousands in the
South must have sense to understand that, in con-
stitutional law and in political fairness, a secession
begun to avenge an electoral defeat was a base,
unmanly, and inexcusable thing. Some may even
see how detestable they make themselves to every
Christian nation on earth, by founding a re-
public on the basis of slavery. The conviction
that their cause is legally and morally rotten may
begin to creep over their minds with defeat. The
panic of arms may be followed by a moral panic,
and the unworthy adventurers who led the South
into rebellion may become the objects of aversion
to those whom they have duped. In any case every-
thing now turns on the single question—Will the
SGuth be desperate ? Will they prefer years of
misery to submission ? The Americans, who know
each other best, seem to conclude that when success
is hopeless, it is not in Southern, any more than in
Northern, nature to throw away everything for an
empty name. The South is now sure that on the
question of slavery it can come to no serious harm.
It may emancipate its slaves for their worth, or
keep them as they are ; and what, therefore, will
there be to fight about longer? Why should it
herefore protract an unprofitable struggle ?

It were ungrateful, indeed, not to notice with
approbation the munificent benefaction of Mr.
PEABODY, the great American banker, to the Poor
of London. Not that he looks to public commen-
dation as his reward—his motives are too apparent
in the simple statement of his reasons, not to
show that the good done to the poor and needy is
the only reward he looks for, unless we add to this
his sense of gratitude to the " kind PROVIDENCE"
which he points to as the source of the blessings he
has enjoyed during a twenty-five years' residence
in London. He had already remembered his na-
tive land, having founded an institute and library
at Danvers, the place of his birth, which had been
as successful as he could wish ; he had also founded
a larger institution at Baltimore, in Maryland,
where twenty years of his business life had been
spent : and now he desires to mark in some way
his gratitude to PROVIDENCE, and to the natives
of a land in which he has long received courtesy,
kindness, and confidence, and but too appropriately
chooses,o ope-
rations, e
to London—he resolves to remember its poor.
He sees that there is interest enough in Educa-
tion,
nHs,o
amnedeverything Missionary,
iann Church-buildingdthatline:iie
therefore—and may the " blessing of the poor and

needy" rest on him for it—" such purposes as may

be calculated directly to ameliorate the condition
and augment the comforts" of the poor of London.
Such " direct" charity was probably but little
needed in his own younger and less densely popu-
lated country; but with the eye of a benevolent
resident he sees that it is needed here. We cannot
commend too highly the wisdom, as well as the
generosity of his selection of objects, and the
one he hints at, without at all binding
his proposed trustees by the hint, is every way
worthy of his sagacity. No want is more deeply
felt by thousands who work for low wages, than
homes in which they can live and bring up their
families with decency. The poorest class of families
never know what decent accommodation is within
a reasonable walk of the Exchange. And when the
course of street improvements draws them to the
suburbs, they are often but little better off there.
It were premature to speculate on the way in which
benefits of this kind could be beat conferred on the

poor. Purchasing and thoroughly improving old
property is a scheme which has been worked with
great advantage already ; the improved property,
however, has, in these cases, been let out in a man•
ner to pay five per cent. on the outlay. Mr. PEA-
BODY would probably prefer that all effected through
the noble fund he has created should be on behalf of
those who could afford a merely nominal rent,
enough, perhaps, just to keep the property in good
repair. Then commences that greatest of all diffi-
culties—the preventing idleness and imposture
from reaping the advantages he intends for the
" poor of moral character and good conduct." This,
however, as every one who has endeavoured per-
sonally to relieve the wants of his fellow-creatures
knows, is the universal difficulty in real charity.
" Only let me know the really deserving poor," is
a prayer the benevolent have but too frequently to
utter.

One express condition of the benefaction is a
noble example t 3 the present generation, and a
rebuke of much done by the past. Mr. PEABODY
dislikes fettering the discretion of his present or
future trustees, but he puts them on their honour
I as gentlemen not to fetter themselves. He doubt-
less has his own reiigious creed, and he can hardly
be an American without leaning strongly to the
political liberalism of his own country. But his
beneficiaries are to be without distinction of either
political or religious creed. Character and poverty
are to be the grounds of their claim. And he con-
cludes his few liberal limitations with these remark-
able words :—" It must therefore be held to be a
violation of my intentions if any duly qualified and
deserving claimant were to be excluded either on
the ground of religious belief or of political bias."
Noble words these ! How does the opposite spirit
infest our bequests and foundations of all kinds
Even our courts of law—in this respect not courts
of justice—confine the emoluments and advantages
of innumerable charitable and educational founda-
tions to one sect. They always understand by
religion, statutable religion only. And even if they
allow a non-churchman a loaf of bread or an educa-
tion for his child, they strictly exclude all who do
not worship according to the Act of Uniformity
from share in the trusts and management.
Mr. PEABODY'S munificence is no trifle regarded
only in an international point of view. The bonds
of commerce may be strong between nations, but
the bonds of generosity and gratitude are stronger
still. How can England ever go to war with a
nation whose leading man among us thus sym-
pathises with and blesses her poor. Who of us
will not set the deed of Mr. PEABODY, henceforth,
against that of Captain WILKES, and how shall we
forget that the United States ambassador to our
Court has, from this time officially, the office of a
kindly benefactor to our poor. "Charity covereth
a multitude of sins," is the saying of an Apostle
himself; and strange will it bo if the distinguished
and generous American's unfeigned charity does
not cover a multitude of American sins. Let the
noble act of one American, who knows us by five-
and-twenty years' experience, atone for the foolish
ravings of scores of American journalists who never
set foot on English soil. Long may the generous
American live to witness the good done by his gift