The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-03 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN PRESS.

" In the business of depraving the American mind, the
press of that country has done its part but too well. In
none of the crises that have occurred during the long
struggle antecedent to this disruption, have the public
writers of the States been on the side of moderation and
good sense. They have laboured, as with a malevolent
consistency, to widen differences and embitter them with
personalities. A style of language has been used by
them which would not be tolerated in any British journal,
which is, in fact, unknown out of America. A New York
_Herald in London, were it possible for such a literary
enormity to exist there, would simply be a national disgrace.
In the manufacturing districts it would be a political incen-
diary, worse than ten Fergus O'Conn Ts, or a score John
Blights. The English people are thoroughly cured of any
silly notion they may have been inspired with in favour of
Americanising our institutions, and if they would perma-
nently ward off such a calamity, let them take heed that
their journalism do not become debased. The country
whose organs of opinion are excitedly employed in the
effort to provide stimulating food for the inordinate appetite
of a diseased public, is near io anarchy and disaster. When
the American problem has been somehow settled, and the
Northerners get time to consider the lessons their sad ex-
perience will have taught them, they will, no doubt, make
sweeping changes in their political system. It is already
proposed by many, to abolish the licentious principle of
univorsal suffrage ; but even before this is done, it will be
wise to consider what they may do to elevato and purify
their daily press."
" A Chinese case of Breach of Promise of Marriage,"
is a very strange sketch, and as it is represented as
literally translated, it will doubtless interest some,
the conclusion arrived at by the Mandarin was a
' very correct one on the whole, and the Sharps both
by name and nature were caught as they deserved
to be. There is a well-written essay on the respec-
tive merits of Alexander Smith and Gerald Massey.
The palm is awarded to the former " Henceforth
while our estimate of his brother-poet hangs rather
on the past than the present, Mr. Alexander Smith
may point to his last achievement as a triumphant
answer alike to the prayers of impatient
friends, and the taunts of unsparing foes."
" Mildrington the Barrister," commences a new
story, that is written in an animated manner,
and the fix into which the hero is
pinnged will give rise to some stormy and sad
scenes in the next chapters of the tale. In a paper
on " Tamhauser and Plagiarism" this poem is vindi-
cated from the charges brought against it in certain
quarters, of being indebted for some of its thoughts
to other brains than those of its author's.
The defence is very ingenious, and those
readers who have entered at all upon the vexed
question will do well to peruse this criticism
on critics. " William Henry Seward," is the sub-
ject of the last article, and of course attracts
notice at present. It states in very emphatic
language that there is probably no American citizen
more execrated throughout the United Kingdom
than the honourable senator whose name we prefix

to the present article. It is not to be expected that
Mr. Seward can be the hero of the American mob,
and, at the same time, retain the respect of the in-
telligent classes of this country. Further on, it
states that" We are prepared and can bid him do his
worst. It will be the adder biting the file. Young
America wants to be taught the sobering lesson
thatZwe ihave ;learned during a 'schooling !which
began at Hastings and ended. at Waterloo."
In speaking of the future of America, it is observed
that " She has to create for herself a balance of
power and a comity of nations, She will divide and
sub-divide into several Republics, which will settle
down at last into law-fearing, boundary-keeping
States. The god Terminus has as yet no altar in
America. The squatters who hunted off the red
race have entered on their possebsions with loose
notions of treaty boundaries of natural frontiers, and
a respect for rights, above might. We shall
never teach them these things, but they will
be forced on them by their own divisions."
There is another " draw" from " Peter Brown's
Black Box." It is written in a spirited manner,
as most of the contributions of its:author are ; the
tale in itself is not, however, quite so attractive as

usual. There are other subjects of interest, as the
article on " Alexis de Tocquerille," which is one of
those biographical sketches for which this magazine
is so celebrated. At the beginning of the contents
_ _

we meet with a suitable allusion-to the death o
the Prince Consort.

Colburn's United Service.

The " United Service" pays a handsome tribute
to the memory of the late Prince Consort, by
placing a black border round its cover. In a paper
ou the defence of Canada, it is suggested that the
most efficacious way to protect the long boundary
line will be to secure the command of the lakes,
and to this end that we ought to send out a large
number of shipwrights and trained labourers to
build a flotilla, to hold the Americans in check.
Under the bead of "The Naval Warfare of England
and America," the reversal of the position of the
two countries since the war of 1812 is clearly ex-
plained. " The Great Shipbuilding Firm at White-
hall" contains some sharp strictures on Admiralty
management, and ridicules some of its short-com-
ings. But although there is no doubt great room
for improvement, England's navy is in a
far better state of efficiency than it has been for
years past. The American Difficulty is treated:with
great ability, and the writer on this subject treats
our braggadocio Transatlantic friend with the con-
tempt he merits, and recalls to him some unpleasant
facts relating to the last attempt at the invasion of
Canada. In fact, he declares by inference, if not
openly, that the American is a bully and a coward.
They have moreover a desperately incurable habit of
swagger and lying about the commonest achievements,
which incapacitates them acting, since they seem to gain
the same satisfaction and results by the cheaper method of
blustering and swaggering. When not engaged in pursuit
of the almighty dollar, their whole life may be summed up
in the word—whittling.
From the preponderating force with which the Americans
might have been supposed to be capable of attacking Canada
in 1813, a reasonable doubt might have arisen as to the
capability of resistance en the part of Canada. In that at-
tack the Americans chewed want of skill, courage, and
every other requisite of success, and—they failed. The
first expeditions were badly conducted. The sick list of a
force of 2,500 men amounted to 1,800. The form of the
sickness was gangrenous—such as, in the opinion of the
chief medical officer, was occasioned by damaged grain and
bad provisions. The expedition, consequently, came to
nothing; and the sickness was stated to have been
caused by the villainous conduct of the commis-
saries or contractors, who sold the sound provi-
sions to the enemy, and fed their own troops with
damaged grain and putrid beef. The generals were
unfitted for their commands, with one exception ; and un-
der him the Americans fought with unwonted vigour andresolution at Chippewa and Fort Erie, but these were iso-
lated efforts. The defence of Washington, when captured
and burnt by General Ross, with a small British force, was
despicable, and scarce worthy of the name, and shows,
among other things, that the Americans are not a patriotic
and hard-fighting people. A motive of strong force is ne-
cessary to make them do their duty well and like soldiers ;
the presence of this motive, in the shape of General Andrew
Jackson, caused us disaster at New Orleans; the absence
of it brought about the rout at Manassas the other day, when
regiments marched home on the eve of battle, because their
time of service was up, just as they did in the old revolutionary
war,and in more recent times inMexico. The general who com-
manded at New Orleans, and who is now canonised as a na-
tional hero, was a man of promptitude and decision. He was
imperious and peremptory, and gave the citizens--who
were willing to compound with the enemy for the safety of
their cotton—to understand that, though he had not a suffi-
cient force to resist the British without their assistance, he
had still force enough to burn down their city, and that he
meant to do it. They knew him to be a man who did not
threaten vainly, and as they found they could not save their
cotton bags without fighting, they made a virtue of neces-
sity, formed them into breastworks, and from behind this
cover repulsed the British with the greatest slaughter, in
the shortest time that stands on record in modern warfare.
The determination to resist, with a comparatively weak
force, was the act of the general. The troops or militia had
little to do with it ; and no merit in the action except that,
under the cover of their cotton bags, and the eye of their
determined leader, they used their rifles with murderous
precision. As a proof that they do not fight desperately,
when there is a way to retreat, they abandoned an island
in the river without reason, or even an adequate resistance.
A paper on the " Gambia Colony and the late
Baddeboo War" contains matter of interest. A
chapter on " Our Artillery under its New Organi-
sation," reviews the present state of preparation
of our batteries.

Temple Bar.
There is a new story commenced in this number
called " Captain Dangerous," by the author of the
" Seven Sons of Mammon." It is not easy to form an
opinion from a first instalment of a work. It is hardly
so promising a tale as its predecessor, but it bears
traces of that smartness which distinguishes all that
writer's productions. There will be sufficient di-
versity of detail to satisry the most scrupulous, as
we are informed that the story tells strange adven-
tures of Captain Dangerous, who was a soldier, a
pirate, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the Meors,
a bashaw in the service of the Great Turk, and died
at last in his own house at Hanover-square. There
is an article on the Mormons, called "In the 11010