The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-25 00:00:00

equality. The fundamental dogma of the American
constitution is, that the right to govern consists in
the consent of the governed. How can the Southern
States be received back without allowing them the
same status as the Northern States ? How, even
after their failure in the field, can any government
be imposed upon them without their consent? Either
the North must hold them down in perpetuity by
force of arms, or it must withdraw its garrisons and
leave them their freedom of action. In the first case,
it will be impoverished by the necessity of keeping up
an army of half a million of men, while the peace
which. it seeks for will be a chronic state of civil
war ; in the other case the act of re-union will be
speedily stultified by new resolutions of secession.
The reunion of the several states is still practically
as utter an impossibility as it has been at any time
since the commencement of the war. If the North
should take advantage of the weak condition of the
South to offer terms which should combine the
prospect of an immediate and practical benefit to
the States north of the Potomac, with such an
amount of acceptability as that the South would be
likely to accede to them without arrgre pensee, then
indeed there might be peace, and every soldier on
each side of the boundary might return to his home.
An absolute cession of the great Border States of
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri—an
alliance, offensive and defensive, between the sec-
tions of the Union, which, for most practical pur-
poses, would be again one people—a scheme of com-
mon action in regard to foreign affairs, and the
ambitious policy which incites Americans of both
sections to territorial aggrandisement at the expense
of the great Powers of Europe ; the maintenance ef
a restrictive tariff on European manufactures, and
absolute freedom of trade between North and South;
the abolition of slavery, and the substitution of some
regulated system of negro labour on plantations ;
these are terms which the South might accept,
although with reluctance. The result would be the
actual, if not the literal, restoration of the Union,
and the opening of a grand futiire to the American
Powers. The mistake which the North is too likely
to commit is, that in stretching after the shadow it
will lose the substance ; in seeking to humiliate its
enemy it will mar its own prospects and accomplish
the ruin of both. A peace between the North and
South, an alliance, federation, reunion, or recon-
struction of any sort, however much to be desired on
philanthropic grounds, would certainly be the worst
thing that could happen to England. Our GO"
vernment has done everything that it can to
discourage the Confederates. It cannot blame
them now if they should seek to bury the past in
making common cause with their late enemies
against us. The proclamation of Mr. Lincoln?
closing all the conquered ports of the South against
European trade, is a proof of the unamiable temper
in which he regards us, of the scanty gratitude
which our Ministers may expect for their neutrality.'
The recognition of the South at the time when his
star was in the ascendant would in all probability
have put an end to the war, and have made two
American unions instead of one—two nations which,
by their rivalry, would have held each other in
check, of which one at least would have offered 1114
a lucrative commerce, and which would never have
combined against Canada or Mexico. The blunder,
committed by our rulers may have been though'
excusable when its possible results seemed too remote
to be discussed. These results are now imminent/
and threaten to be of the utmost gravity. It nisc
tax all the 'wisdom of our rulers, all the resources o,
our country ; it may cost us hundreds of millions 01
money and thousands of lives to avert—if we al,
indeed avert it—the danger which the supineness 0'
timidity of Lord Palmerston's Government 10
brought down upon our heads or bequeathed as an
incubus to our posterity. •