The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-17 00:00:00

LIVES of EMINENT STATESMEN,
In FUN, every week. One Penny,

Vow Ready, handsomely bound in Magenta cloth, gilt, price
4s. 6d. ; post free, 58., the
S,ZECOND half--vearly VOLUME of FUN, with
N-7 numerous Eng-r-avings by talented artists, and humor-
VW Bail
y, the following distinguished writers :
W. Bailey, Esq. W. S. Gilbert, Esq.
W. Barber, Esq. T. Rood, Esq.
E. L. Blanch ird, Esq. T. S. Jerrold, Esq.
G. W. Bridgeman, Esq. W. J. Prowse, 14:sq.
F. C. Burnand, Esq. Godfrey Turner, Esq.
H. J. Byron, Esq. &c., &c., &o.
Office, 80, Fleet-street, London.

HALF-A-DOZEN UMBRELLAS in the
Christmas Number of SATURDAY NIGHT. Con-
ducted by THOMAS HOOD.

** For full particulars of amusements see first page.
ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT.GARDEN.
This Evening, Wallace's new opera, LOVE'S TRIUMPH.
Commence at 8.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
This Evening, DUCK HUNTING. After which, OUR
AMERICAN COUSIN. With A DAY AFTER THE
WEDDING. And MY H
Com USBAN AD'S GHOST,
Commence t 7.

NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.
This Evening. AGNES DE VERE. Followed by THE
INMAN HATER. And THE HON
7.EYMOON.
Commence at

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
This Evening, IT MUST BE T R QE, 'TWAS IN THE
PAPERS. Followed by PEEP O'DAY. To conclude with
JULLAANEY.

Commence at 7.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Great Windmill-street, HO.
market. Open every evening for Promenade and Dancing•

CANTERBURY HALL.—EVERY EVENING.—
Grand Selections from Verdi's "BOCCaIIC,Tras" Macfarren's
Cantata "May Day," and Looke's Musics ot "Macbeth."—
TLe Etoile Family —Unsworth, Eugene, and Duley,
Commence at 7.

THE OXFORD, 6, OXFORD-STREET, EVERY
EVENING.—Re-appearance of Unsworth. the orizinal of
"Or any other man' .The Colleen Bawn, by Miss Caroline
Parkes—Mr. Maclagan's Entertainment - Drew Dean, the
great Flautist—the Neavoittan Minstrels—Selections from
Verdi's " 11 Corsaro" and " N ab_uco," Donizetti's "Don Se-
bastien," &a, With full bind and chorus.
Commence at 7.

/nag WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tnts DAT.—Morning, 9h. 46m.—Afternoon, 10h. 25m,
To-monuow.-Morning, 1111. Om.—Afternoon,l,llh. 30m

gr.
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4-,*- it ~.‘ i_l-J472.7-‘,-;L 1,,: 4--• .A,r. 1 , N, 7 , --c ti; 'V..... 1 :'' '''4‘‹ ' ;
P,-+
-,....'

THE SUN.
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 17, 1862.

We have now the PRESIDENT'S Message in its
entirety before us, and having carefully perused the
whole, we see little, if anything, even to qualify in
the remarks which we made yesterday. Five or six
columns of small type is more than most readers will
care to wade through, especially when a great part
of the topics are uninteresting enough, at least in
their full discussion. We give it nevertheless for
the benefit of the more studious, and because it is a
document which may be frequently referred to in
the debates of the Congress, now sitting, for months
to come. We ought to be fair towards a man of Mr.
LINCOLN'S abilities, pretending as he does to nothing
like genius, in a position which would test to the
uttermost the highest powers of statesmanship.
And if his eyes are not fully opened to the great-
ness of the crisis in which he is placed, this is
no more than may be said of half the states-
men of repute whom the old world with
all its experience has produced. He sees all
things, as an American of his party would see
them. And, if he indulges in what seems to him
broad views, their breadth consists in spanning the
whole American Continent, and including all its
territories in one monster Union. Probably no
American statesman has yet got beyond the states-
manship of a Russian, that of confounding vastness
with greatness and power.

In looking at this long document, apart from the
business details, the reader will be struck with
the very long space assigned to an argument
merely. An argument in favour of American
vastness. Mr. LINCOLN labours to show that
disunion would be no remedy for the differences
between the people of the two sections. He quotes
his old language to show that it could not—that
the fugitive slave law, and engagements between
the North and South, woula certainly not be more
easily enforced through separation and dealing with
each other as foreign nations. But he spends
his strength on a geographical proof that
separation of North America into two parts
—he might have added into three or four—is
impracticable. The river lines possible are but a
small part of what is required. " Surveyors' lines,"
as he terms them, across which a person may walk
without being conscious of it, are not " natural
boundaries," of which we heard so much in Europe,
and which Europe, along a large part of its boun-
daries has been obliged to dispense with. But his
grand argument against separation is, that a mil-
lion of square miles in the centre of North Ame-
xica,—the vast territory which lies between the
Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains on the East
and West, the British Dominion on the North, and
the Cotton region on the South—that this vast ter-
ritory will refuse to be shut out from the sea. It
is rapidly peopling itbelf. It is certain to become
the most powerful part of America. It can now
freely communicate with the world as part of the
same nation to which New York, New Orleans,

and San Francisco belong. But it would never sub

mit to becoming a landlocked territory. Hence all
North America below the British territory must
form a nation one and indivisible. Q. E. D.
Prudence, we may be sure, not modesty, kept Mr.
LINCOLN from saying what every ardent Unionist
believes, that Canada, Columbia, and all the British
Possessions in America, are one day to become
limbs of the Federal POLYPHEMUS, whose single
eye is Washington.

The articles on emancipation to be proposed to Con-
gress, and by Congress to be proposed to the Federa-
tion and Confederation, are we observe to be offered
as amendments to the constitution in the precise form I
provided by its fifth article. That is, two-thirds of
both Houses are first to vote them ; then the assent
is to be obtained by two_thirds of all the legisla-
' res of the States composing the Union, or of
State conventionsLiticotti convened for the purpose. Mr.
Ought to know his chances of getting this
three-fourth,
better than we can do. But as it
would involve
gettin
seven of the g assent to the proposals by
sia „, States themselves, he says it
seems to the last degree
get the legal number
that he could
ofameSntdamteesntsesosefnttihael
to making the articles valid
Constitution.
When they have become law,
aoPPo
of sing this pos-
sible, it would still be open to eachthe States, in
the exercise of its sovereignty, to
accept the
for their slaves which the
PRESIDENT
would
would be authorised to offer. Ertah State
would be able to retain what it nn,,,
- pro-
claims to be its divine institution. The only induce.
ment we observe to prompt action is that the som_
pensation will be proportioned to the promptitude.
As the slaves to be paid for are those ascertained to
be in existence in 1860, the date of toe census, it
seems a part of the plan that those who dioe be-
tween that time and 1900 shall not be paid fr. Of
this, however, we are not quite sure. It may be
that if not a soul is emancipated till the year 1899,
the payment would still be for all who bad been
owned by the State at the date of the eighth census.
Should this last be Mr. LINCOLN'S meaning, we
really see no reason why the Slave States, if they
at all desired Face, should not accept the offer at