The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-20 00:00:00

• .4,
1,
•
s.,
, .„„ ‘l4Oll/M't-IE-1::i. 6 (
. 4?"
Noirikt
er f 63 :`s Nr, c
• -
( . r
.
"tom-
.*+ Olt attow,to-5,011 il, ,Ditorr.,o\
DIE 4? :rut

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 20, 1865.

THE NEW NOVEL.
Now ready, at all the Libraries, in 3 vols.,
SHATTERED IDOLS. A Novel.
Also just published, in 3 vols.,
BEATRICE. By JULIA KAVANAGII.
Hurst and Blackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

GREAT BIRD SHOW.-TO-MORROW.-
CANARIES, PARROTS, PARAKEETS.

tively. The North is so inflated with the pride
of victory as very generally to flatter itself with
the idea that is the true explanation of the
crises. There is, however, a third theory put
forward by men who are, or who claim to be, behind
the scenes, which asserts that it is not the South,
but the North, that is at this moment the weaker
party ; that the South holds the scales of its destiny
in its own hand ; that the recent developments of
French policy in Northern Mexico are sufficient to
prove that the Emperor Napoleon 111. is willing to
recognise the South, and has made up his mind to I
do so; that if he takes the initiative Mexico, Brazil,
Spain, Austria, Italy, the Pope, and last of all Great
Britain will follow; and that in return for a recogni-
tion which will eventually secure their independence
by opening to their ships of war the principal ports
of the world the Confederate Government will esta-
blish free trade with Europe, Mexico, and Brazil, and
enact a hostile--a prohibitory tariff against the North.
It is added—as I surmised in letters written before
the rumours of peace assumed such large proportions
as they exhibit to-day, that Mr. Lincoln and his Go-
vernment are fully aware of this danger, and are
willing, for the sake of commercial, political, and
other advantages to the North, to snatch the Prize of
a Southern affiance from France and England, and
temporarily forego the darling object of re-union, in
the hope that what is now unattainable may become
obtainable hereafter, when the two sections shall
have fought side by side in a foreign war. The
scheme was originally mooted in the South, and was
first divulged in the Times in one of my communi-
cations from Niagara Falls in September last, and
is to the effect that if the North will recognise the
independence of the South there shall be an alli-
ance offensive and defensive ,between the two Re-
publics for the vindication of the Monroe doctrine,
for the expulsion of the Emperor Maximilian and
the French from Mexico, for the annexation of
Cuba and the West India Islands to the South, and
of Canada and British America to the North. Fur-
ther, that the South shall make a commercial treaty
with the North of which the main elements shall be
an export duty upon cotton and other Southern com-
modities to Europe, a Southern tariff as stringent
against British and French manufacturers as that of
the North, and complete, unconditional free trade
between North and South. If out of the new cir-
cumstances of the two republics war were to grow
up either against France or Great Britain, or both,
it is alleged that the South will enter into hostilities
against those Powers quite as readily as the North.
These, it is said, are the terms which, combined with
the total abolition of slavery in the Border States,
would satisfy all parties. But if the speculators who
indulge in this glowing anticipation are asked of
what States, under the new arrangement, the South
would consist, an unexpected difficulty presents
itself. To which side are Maryland and Delaware
to belong ? What becomes of Western Virginia ?
And whither shall Missouri, Tennessee, and Ken-
tucky betake themselves ? No one can tell. The
only solution offered is that those States shall decide
their own destiny by the votes of their whole people.
This is a serious, if it be not an insurmountable dif-
ficulty, but it seems to offer no terrors to the ima-
gination of a large class of the Northern people.
It will be observed in Europe that amid these
explanations of the rear state of affairs—one of
which must be correct, though which of the
three it is at this moment impossible to say—there
is not one which is consistent with the idea of the
peace of the world. The first presupposes the con-
tinuance of the civil war in America until the utter
exhaustion of the South, or the armed intervention
of Europe. The second and third equally resup-
pose a war against the European Powers who have
any footing upon this continent. In the second
case war would gratify the warlike passions of the
American people, both of North and South, and
would tend in popular opinion to strengthen and
anneal the broken links of their ancient partnership;
the third would lead to war in fulfilment of a bargain
which would have immense attactions for manufac-
turing and slave-hating New England and Pennsyl-
vania as well as for Mississippi and the Carolinas.
Whatever be the result of the conference with the
President or athe Vice-President of the Confederacy,
they cannot tut be of the highest importance. Not
only the peace of this continent will depend upon
the decisions of the next few days, but that of
Europe may be involved. Of one thing, however,
the British public may be well assured—Great
Britain has no friends in America, except among a
few men of the higher order of intellect, who are not
represented in Congress, who take no part in politics
or public life, and who hold scrupulously aloof from
a system of ultra-Democratic government in which
they have no faith, and for which they feel no re-
spect. Peace is no sooner believed to be possible
than the annexation of Canada is threatened.
America imagines herself first in the world's coun-
cils, ruling the seas, grasping universal dominion,
dictating the independence of Ireland, and crushing
down Great Britain to the rank of a third-rate
Power, without weight or authority in Christendom.
And it is but sober though melancholy truth to
affirm that at this moment, when peace seems more
probable than at any previous point in the great
civil war, the public exultation receives its sweetest
stimulant in the idea that England shall be called to
account for what is called her " perfidious neu-
trality," as well as for the damage inflicted upon
American commerce by what, with a little abuse of
words, are called the " British pirates," the Alabama,
the Florida, the Tallahassee, and the Shenandoah.
Under other circumstances the constitutional
abolition of slavery by vote of Congress would have
attracted much more attention than it has re-
ceived. Passed by the requisite majority of two-
thirds in the House of Representatives, ratified im-
mediately by the State of Illinois, and to be ratified
within a few days, or perhaps hours, by New York,
Massachusetts, and other Northern States, it has
been hailed with salvos of artillery and ringing of
joy bells in Washington, Boston, and elsewhere, but
it has not excited any great amount of commentary,
except in the columns of the anti-slavery and reli-
gious journals. In so far as that vote declared that
slavery shall no longer exist in any portion of the
United States, it merely proclaimed an existing fact.
In the de facto States of the Union, the only States
in which a vote of the Federal Congress has any
validity, slavery has either disappeared in conse-
quence of the lawful action of the State Legislatures,
or is in process of extirpation by such constitutional
and effectual means as render wholly supererogatory
the interference of Congress. Until the Union be
restored by force or compromise Northern legisla-
tion upon Southern slavery is as futile as if Congress
were by " Yeas" .and " Nays" to abolish slavery in
Brrzil, or to enact universal suffrage and annual
Parliaments in Great Britain. Its right to meddle
with the question in the South is in process of arbi-
trament by the sword; and until the sword decides,
its votes are nugatory and speeches empty words
that signfy nothing but a powerless intention. In
one view of the case, however, the vote of Tuesday
is not without importance. It places a new barrier
between North and South, and renders reunion more
difficult than before. Possibly this was the object
of its promoters. It looks far more like an arrow
aimed at the Confederacy than an act of statesman-
ship, and will in all probability be accepted as such by
the South. That slovery is doomed to extinction on the
North American Continent is all but certain ; but if
the Confederates retain the independence for which
they have so gallantly struggled, the final settlement
with the negro and the conditions and bases of his
freedom will remain with the South, and not with
the North, and are in no way affected by the harm-
less thunders of Boston or Washington. Like Mr.
Lincoln's proclamations in the same vein, the vote
of
of Congress is subject to the fatal limitationwit
want of power, besides being chargeable with the
demerit of being animated far less by the desire of
conferring a benefit upon the slaves than of taking
vengeance upon their masters.

NEW STORY BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX."
Now ready at all the Libraries, in 1 vol.,
CHRISTIAN'S MISTAKE.
By the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman."
F. om the Times, Feb. 4.—" A more charming story to our
taste has rarely Leen written. Even if tried by the standard
of the Archbishop of York, we sh .utd expect that even he
would pronounce ' Christian's Mistaxe ' a novel without a
fault."
Hurst and Blackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

FEB. 7.
It is a moot point in all circles whether the Peace