The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-05 00:00:00

It would have been better, perhaps, if one funeral
ceremony had been made to suffice; and if the good
President had been interred under the dome of the
Capitol of Washington as Wellington was under the
dome of St. Paul's. But it was otherwise decided,
mainly by the representations made to the afflicted
widow by some influential people from Illinois who
happened to be in Washington on the day of the
murder, and who urged that Abraham Lincoln be-
longed to Illinois, and ought to be buried at Spring-
field among his own people, and in the little town
where he practised Jaw and won his way to emi-
nence. These counsels prevailed, and the body, with
a long funeral cortege, is to make a tour of the
country for upwards of 1,500 miles—from Wash-
ington to Springfield—and to lie in state at all the
principal cities on the route, New York included.

Though many arrests have been made, Booth has
so far succeeded in eluding all pursuers, and there
is as yet but scanty and unsatisfactory evidence to
prove that any of the real conspirators are in cus-
tody, or that there were any conspirators at all, ex-
cept Booth and the cowardly ruffian who stabbed
the helpless Secretary of State and crushed the skull
of Mr. Fred. Seward, when endeavouring to protect
his father. Rewards amounting in the aggregate to
upwards of $lOO,OOO, have been offered for the ap-
prehension of both or either of the wretches, and
unless they evade justice by the commission of suicide
America and Europe will be too small to conceal them.
Booth's face and person are well known to thousands
of playgoers in most of the cities of America, and
not the most ingenious of theatrical disguises, in all
of which he is proficient, will be enough to screen
him from the prying eyes which even without the
incentive of a large reward would be sharpened to
detect so heinous a criminal. If in the madness of
his diseased imagination he relied upon the sympathy
or approval of the South, and has made his way into
Virginia, whose motto he has infernalised by adopt-
ing it as his vindication, he will find that the South
as well as the North revolts with horror at his deed,
and that the evil passions which the war has excited
are not so evil as to make him other than what he is
—the vilest assassin known to history, and one to
meet the enormity of whose crime no punishment
that man can inflict is adequate. Death is the
utmost, and death to such a desperado, especially if
it be made sufficiently solemn to afford him an
opportunity of ending with a theatrical flourish and
a display of stage heroism, may be the very fate he
craves to hand him down to that immortality of in-
famy which seems to have had such a frightful charm
to his perverted intellect.
Slowly, but surely, the sensible people of both
political parties are removing from their minds the
suspicion that the assassination was other than the
individual act of Booth, and one or two associates,
whom by the magnetism of a strong will he had won
over to his detestable purpose. In a letter, written
by the assassin in November last, and left sealed
and for safe keeping in the custody of his brother-in-
law—a Mr. John S. Clarke, and not opened by that
gentleman until after the murder—Booth declares
himself the enemy of Mr. Lincoln's policy, and the
friend of the South and of Peace, states that the
Federal flag seems to his eyes the emblem of tyranny
and wrong, and its once bright red stripes " bloody
gashes on the face of heaven." He also hints
vaguely at some great purpose which he has in view,
and signs himself " J. Wilkes Booth, a Confederate
doing duty upon his own responsibility." So far
from the bloody deed being in any way acceptable to
the people of the South, or to those of the North,
who desire the triumph of the Southern cause, it has
been by none denounced with more earnestness of
horror than by the people of Richmond and other
captured cities, and, as far as is known, by the whole
opinion of the South. General Lee was painfully
affected when he heard the news, and Mr. Jefferson
Davis will, there can be no reason to. doubt, when
the sad information reaches him in his flight south-
wards from the pressing armies of Generals Sher-
man, Sheridan, and Stoneman, place upon record
his detestation of the crime.
Air. Johnson's address in reply to the new British
Ambassador, Sir Frederick Bruce, has been received
with great satisfaction, not only by the British resi-
dents in this city, but by the American public in
general. "The interests of civilisation and humanity
require,"
he says, " that the two nations (Great Bri-
tain and the United States) should be friends." Let
but the new President act in this respect as he
speaks, and he will find that Great Britain by her
statesmen, her people, and her Government will cul-
tivate the amity which he and they think so neces-
sary, and the rupture of which would be the greatest
calamity that could befall the world.
The absence of any confirmation of the reported
surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston, so posi-
tively announced a few days ago, begins to excite
uneasiness. It is asserted that his force has been
augmented by many thousands who deserted or
straggled from Lee's army before its surrender,
and now numbers at least 50,000 men. In addi-
tion to this cause of disquiet it is known that Gene-
rals Kirby Smith, Stirling Price, and Magruder
have at least 50,000 men in the great Trans-
Mississippi regions of Louisiana and Texas. As
Texas alone is as large as France and Belgium,
is without navigable rivers or railroads, and by its
configuration and internal resources is capable of
defending itself for years against an invading army,
deprived of the facilities which navigaye. streams
have afforded the Federals in the hostilities of the
last four years, it is possible that Mr. Jefferson
Davis will endeavour to make his way to that coun-
try, as many suppose is his intention. Whether the
Trans-Mississippian army will place
itselfunder his
orders for the continuance of the struggle or in his
default, whether Kirby Smith, Stirling Price, Mag-
ruder, or any other commander possesses daring and
energy enough to stake his life and fortune on so
bold a venture remains to be seen.