The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-15 00:00:00

The letter was written on the 13th of September,
and of course the General had not then heard of
the proclamation which is not to take effect till the
Ist of January ; but he seems fully assured that
emancipation cannot be long delayed. "This re-
bellion," he says, "commenced by a few leading
and unscrupulous politicians, in the interests of
slavery, to extend and perpetuate it, will most cer-
tainly result in the overthrow of the institution.
The time is now very near when the PRESIDENT
will be constrained to proclaim universal emancipa-
tion." He was not then aware how soon his
prediction would be partially verified. But what
is most interesting of all is the refuta-
tion practically given by his experience to the
Southern falsehoods respecting the negro love of
slavery, on the one hand, and the danger of their
murdering their masters, if free, on the other; his
experience also refutes the wicked and interested
charge of negro indolence. In slave indolence we
believe; slavery and indolence by the very appoint-
ment of our common Maker, go together, but if any
reader could believe the absurdity of freedom
making black men murderers and idlers, let hie
just hear the facts mentioned by the general;
he writes—l have at these two forte about bOU
slaves (that were, but who are now free). The
masters now frequently send off their slaws as no
longer of any value. Nowhere within reach of our
troops will they work for or obey their masters ;
and for 70 miles between here and New Orleans
slavery is practically extinguished. In some cases
the masters hire their servants. Several masters
have come here and ask permission to hire the ser-
vantswho are at the forts to go and help them to get
in their crops. Of course, I consent, and the servants
go very willingly. Some plantations with large
crops on the ground have no hands at all to harvest
them.

Do not these simple facts speak volumes. Here,
in the very focus of slavedom, the slaves like com-
pulsory labour for another's sole benefit so well
that they renounce it as soon as they dare ! Yet
the masters who are willing to hire these very men,
find the men, on their part, willing to take off their
crops. On the other hand, the crops of some mas-
ters, doubtless those who are too proud to submit
to employ hired free negroes—are rotting on the
ground. It was and is just the same in Jamaica.
Scores of planters were too proud to pay free la-
bourers, and their estates went to ruin. Those who
treated and paid well the emancipated negroes have
prospered and do prosper. We cannot have the
least doubt, that but for the universally despotic
feeling of the Southern whites, and their unwilling-
ness to renounce their absolute control over the race
they have subjegated—they might, without a
dollar of compensation, emancipate the whole
of their negroes, and be great gainers.
There may be one exception indeed—that
of the LEGREE class; but no one will deny that
if emancipation reduced them to beggary they would
but have their reward.

England should know that there are men of worth
and judgment in America itself, who share the pre-
valent sentiments of this country, in regard to both
the folly of seeking to conquer the rebels by a pro-
slavery policy, and the guilty complicity of the
North with slavery. It does one's heart good to
read such language as this from a Federal General.
"The great difficulty with us has been, that we
have been trying to carry on the war so as not to
offend the rebels too much, while they have been
desperately in earnest. Our policy will change, has
changed. The politicians and statesmen cannot see
that this war is a dealing with us by Providence,
on account of our great and dreadful national sin of
slavery, and that we cannot have peace until we
repent and abandon it. Northern people have flat-
tered themselves that the South alone was respon-
sible for the sin and shame of slavery, whereas our
complicity in it has been open and constant. Ido
not mean to say that this is true of all Northern
people—far from it. There have always been large
numbers who have deplored the existence of slavery
in the country, and have anxiously desired its over-
throw. This class has rapidly increased in three
or four years, until, at the last Presidential election,
the idea of opposition to it triumphed at the ballot

box. And now God's command is to let his poor
and oppressed children go—and we must and will.
Until then we can have no pence, even if the country
should be severed in its nationality. Slavery
abolished, and we should have a glorious country,
with all its vast interests harmonious, and the people
perfectly contented and happy.
and with a restored Union, w° Slavery preserved,
could not possibly
have peace umm,g
essentially Etuu n ourselves. Slave institutions are
necessarily despotic, and there can

appealed to the country. The country gave as
unanimous a verdict as it could, by electing the
present Parliament to do precisely what it has
done. The KING openly refuses to obey the
people's representatives, after asking the people's
opinion. Why did he appeal to them, on
the difference between himself and the former
Parliament, if he never intended to abide
by his country's decision ? It is not easy to con-
ceive of a grosser insult offered by one man to a
whole nation. It is plainly telling them that lie
regards them as so many sheep to be fleeced at his
royal will and pleasure, for his own dynastic pur-
poses. The King has the sword, the people have
the law. We shall see now whether Germans can
equal Hungarians in their firmness for constitu-
tional rights—for rights which have become
the recognised basis of all free and civilised Go-
vernments.

We had a letter to notice yesterday from a New
Orleans lady, one, of course, well filled with pas-
sionate invective against General BUTLER, but con-
veying strong evidence on cross-examination that
the ungallant General is, after all, regarded by the
negroes as their friend. Had counsel for the South
and slavery had my lady in the witness-box, he
would certainly have prevented much of her evi-
dence from appearing in England. We notice to-
day a second letter from a very different person,
the Honourable W. Dow, Brigadier-General in the
Federal army, and in command at St. Philip of
the forts protecting the mouth of the Mississippi
and the country about seventy miles up to New
Orleans. His letter confirms strongly and directly,
and in the same district what we gather only in-
directly and by cross-questioning from the lady.
Louisiana has, however, never been so rabidly se-
cessionist as a whole as the cotton States. Its
sugar is a protected manufacture, and hence it can-
not be opposed to protective tariffs. Free trade
would break up its plantations. The General
writes :—" The inhabitants up and down the river
for 50 or 60 miles come in great numbers to take
the oath of allegiance, and all declare that they
abhor the rebellion and were always opposed to it,
though they were forced to take an oath of alle-
giance to the rebel Government. I explain to them
that it is a voluntary matter so far as our Govern-
ment is concerned. litany of these persons are free
negroes of property, bright, intelligent, and active
men, who understand perfectly that this dreadful
war is for the benefit of their race; and they assure
me that when the PRESIDENT'S proclamation shall
come, offering freedom to all the slaves, they will
flock to our standard en masse Such a proclama-
tion will come."