The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-31 00:00:00

families who desire to keep servants and live pri-
vately, after the fashion of the houses of Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Paris, and Vienna, the speculation would
only confer a public benefit, but prcve highly
remunc-ative bol.ll now and hereaitt, to the capi-
talists who bL2lild invest their money in it. Specu-
lation, however, does not take this tua2 at present.
The holders of real estate are alarmed at the pro-
spect of being eaten up with taxes, general
local, and have no spirit to entertain . the idea
of new enterprises. The consequence threatens
to be that Manhattan Island, which is only half
covered with buildings, and which, to the north of
the central-park, presents the appearance of a newly
planned city in the wilderness thinly dotted with
buildings, will be left unfinished, and that the ad-
joining towns and villages, separated from it by the
Hudson and the East Rivek, and the beautiful Bay
of New York, will profit by the greediness or neglect
of the property-holders of the metropolis. A much
I,,,t+pr house can be hired in London for £lOO per
annum than can be procure,: 'IT W York for £3OO.
Yet building speculation is dead unless, as
stated, for the conversion of dwelling-houses into ware-
houses and stables. Rich and poor suffer alike from
this state of affairs, but the poor, of course, the most
grievously. The rich suffered only inconvenience, the
poor suffer from malaria and fever, the consequences
of filth and overcrowding, and a new generation
rising up among them is either carried prematurely
to the grave, or grows up to adolescence and ma-

turity amid all the demoralising and degrading in-
fluences so well understood in the Old World by all
who have ever devoted a thought to the subject of
the dwellings of the people.
The authoritative announcement that Lord Lyons
is not to return to America has been received with
much regret in this city, and with more in Washing-
ton. It is amusing, however, to note the mannerin
which the notification that Sir Frederick Bruce has

been appointed to succeed him has been received by
the principal journals. Much respect has been ex-
pressed for the character and, services of Lord Lyons,
not unmingled with a mock regret that he should
have had so hard a time of it as to be compelled to
write more than a folio per week in consequence,
not of his own cacoethes scribendi, but of that of the
versatile and many-sided Secretary of State ; but,
although the matter is somewhat jocularly treated,
there is a real feeling of disappointment that Great
Britain has not thought fit to compliment the
great Republic, in its hour of apparent triumph,
by sending as its representative a man of higher
rank than a mere , knight, or even a baronet.
When after " Mr." Crampton's expulsion, the
Court of St. James's heaped coals of fire upon the
head of the Federal Government, and retaliated an
insult by sending it a " Lord," the pride - of the
Americans was tickled. Lord Napier was a great
success—not because he was a gentleman, a scholar,
and a man of the world, but because he was a
" Lord." His successor was acceptable for the
same reason, and Lord Lyons, though not so for-
tunate as Lord Napier in having a lady to ingra-
tiate herself with the fashionable society of Wash-
ington, and preside over the elegant hospitalities
of the embacsy, was highly esteemed on account of
personal qualities that seemed all the more bril-
liant in Democratic eyes, because they were
allied with a title of nobility. If the British
Government had but sent a Duke—the Duke of
Argyll, for instance—instead of Sir Frederick
Bruce, the choice of an envoy of such high rank
would have been accepted as a proof that England
was at last, and not too early, convinced of the
policy of cultivating the friendship of " our great
country, sir ;" and of establishing an entente cordiale,
of which England would reap all the solid advan-
tages, and America nothing but the placid satisfac-
tion of knowing that her resources were appreciated
and her power feared by the only country in the
world of which Americans entertain any real jealousy.
There is, however, another class of people and poli-
ticians who affect to despise rank and title, and who
object to the appointment of Sir Frederick Bruce,
not because he is neither earl, nor marquis, nor duke,
but because he has never been known to them to ex-
press sentiments in any way favourable to America
or to Republican institutions. " If," say some of these
public instructors, " the British Government had
sent either Mr. Cobden or Mr. Bright to represent
it at Washington, the American people would have
known for a certainty that England desired to be
their friend, that it repented of its neglect, to use
a mild word, in having permitted the Florida and
Alabama to escape from its ports and prey upon the
commerce of America, and that in due time it
would pay the little bill for the same without mak-
ing unpleasant remonstrances, or forcing Mr. Lin-
coln to invade Ireland, bombard Portsmouth, or
blockade the mouth of the Thames to obtain the
money." In this respect all that need be said is
that Mr. Cobden has been in America, knows the
country, and would have little to learn or unlearn
by a residence at Washington ; but that Mr. Bright
has not enjoyed such advantage. Could the peace-
ful and humble member for the town of swords and
guns take to diplomacy; teach his tongue, as a diplo-
matist should, to conceal at least some of his
thoughts ; not persist in always calling a spade a
spade ; become reticent and observant, and accept
the mission to the Federal capital, if Earl Russell
or Lord Palmerston would entrust him nth it, there
is little hazard in predicting that after two or three
years of careful study of the working of American
institutions, he would return to his own country a
good patriot, a true Englishman, and a promising
candidate for a high place in the next Conservative I
Administration.

AlAncn 18.

Two remarkable pronunciamentos are published
this morning—one a message from Mr. President
Davis to the Confederate Congress, the other a speech
by Mr.. Lincoln to a crowd in front of the National
Hotel at Washington. Mr. Davis conceals nothing
from the people. He admits candidly that Richmond
was never in such danger from the armies of the
North as at this moment, and earnestly repeats that
courage, perseverance, self-denial, and abiding faith
in the ultimate triumph of the cause are absolutely
necessary to retrieve the fallen, but not yet broken,
fortunes of the South. He breathes no word of sur-
render, but at the same time gives the people and
their representatives to understand that they must
yet make many sacrifices, not only of wealth and
life, but even of their liberty for awhile, if they would
establish their independence beyond the power of
the North, or of any other enemy to overthrow or
impair it. Mr. Lincoln's speech takes no such lofty
or heroic ground ; nor was it necessary that he
should. He nevertheless speaks sensibly and to the
purpose; declares the end of the rebellion to be close
at hand from the exhaustion of the South in men
and means; and administers a caustic rub on the
dislocated back of slavery, by declaring that if one-
fourth
of the Southern slaves fight and are willing
to fight for the prolonged enslavement of the other
three-fourths, slavery as an institution will find its
r_best justification in so strange and abnormal a fact.
There were rumours last night, and resumed this
morning, that Mr. Jefferson Davis, after delivering
his message to Congress, had resigned the Presi-
dency, and had been succeeded as General Lee, as
Dictator, amid the acclamations of Congress and
people. It has not been possible to trace the report
to any trustworthy source, though from many indi-
cations derived from the South it is not improbable
that they may prove the forerunners or prefigure-
ment of an event that has not yet happened. The
Northern people have got it into their minds that
General Lee would be more likely to agree to terms
of submission than Mr. Davis, and hence the
rumour has had the effect of greatly increasing the
public confidence that the war is near its close, and
of sending down the premium of gold. The friendg
of the South in this city incline to a different
opinion, and insist that the investiture of General
Lee with supreme power would invigorate and en-
courage all classes iu the South, fill up the armies,
and indefinitely prolong the struggle.

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