The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-08 00:00:00

savours strongly of Puritanism and the conventicle,
but is well understood in New England. For the'
present all the interest that would otherwise be ex-
cited by the forward march of the army of the Po-
tomac is concentrated upon " No. 10." The words
are in everybody's mouth, and the fi t impulse of
every one in reading the telegrams that are posted
in public places, or printed in the newspapers, is to
ascertain whether it has yet fallen. Since Thursday
last its capture has been hourly expected, but it
still holds bravely out, though so strongly belea-
guered as to make its destruction or surrender a
matter of certainty, unless it be relieved by a supe-
rior force, of which there appears to be no pro-
bability.
If the Confederate States be compelled, either
temporarily or permanently, to return to the Union
which they abhor, they will have to blame their un-
wise expectation of assistance from Great Britain
and France even more than the victorious armies
of the North. The ruin of the South has been its
too confident reliance upon the efficacy of
" almighty cotton" to relieve it of all difficulty. It
expected England to be so dependent upon cotton
as to be coerced into a recognition of Southern
independence, rather than forego a supply of the
all-important article ; and so strongly was the
Southern mind impregnated and permeated by this
hallucination that it neglected to take ordinary
measures of precaution and safety, waiting for
extraneous help that did not come. At the com-
mencement of the struggle the South had every-
thing in its favour—the habit of authority, the
choice of time, a foregone conclusion cunningly pre-
pared and planned, the best officers in the United
States army and navy, the sympathy of the great
Democratic party in the North as well as in the
South, the fear and hatred inspired by the ultra-
Abolitionists, the treachery of men in high places,
and the aid, concurrence, and co-operation of what
was called the best society, and especially of the
ladies; while the North was not only unprepared to
resist so formidable a movement, but incredulous
that the South was in earnest in the attempt to dis-
solve the Union—without an army, without a gene-
ral, without a plan, and without money. But, after
it recovered from the first stunning sensation and
surprise of the blows that were struck at Fort
Sumter and Bull Run, it discovered that it had a
strong purpose, large credit, and the passionate en-
thusiasm of the Northern and Western people.
With these levers it has since wrought wonders. It
has relied on no one but itself, has put forth all
its available strength, and is now in a position in
which its retention of the whole of the Border States
may already be considered as a fait accompli, and
its subjugation or conciliation of the cotton States a
question of expediency.
The President, whom the responsibility of power
hes converted into a very cautious Conservative,
seems to feel that the total discomfiture of the
South, by making it de facto a conquered country,
would be as fatal to the unity of the American Re-
public as the success of the Southern Confederacy,
and is said to be only waiting for a grand victory
by M'Clellan to hold out the olive branch to
the South, and entice back to the fold of the
Union the wandering sheep of the cotton regions.
If this be so, what is to become of the Republican
party ? And, more important still, what is to be-
come of Negro Slavery To hang the rebels is not
to be thought of, To attempt to wheedle back the
Seceded States,without offering them some guarantee
for the existence of their " peculiar institution,"
would be utterly hopeless; so that, if the Union be
restored as a consequence of the present position of
military affairs, Negro Slavery must not only be ac-
knowledged as a constitutional right of the cotton
States, but must be fenced round with guarantees
and bulwarks, and solemnly recognised as one of
the bonds of the American Union. Is this what the
North is fighting for ? Perhaps ; and one section
of the North—the Democratic party—is candid
enough to say so. The Democrats, as distinguished
from the Republicans, have no affection for the
Negro or his cause, and detest a Northern Aboli-
tionist far more cordially than they do a Southern
Secessionist, as may be seen by the treatment
experienced by Mr. Wendell Philippe, who has been
pelted with rotten eggs and atones at Cincinnati,
and barely escaped with his life from the indigna-
tion of the free people of that non-slaveholding city.
The truth is that slavery in America is not looked
upon with disfavour except by a small minority of
able and earnest men. It has not anywhere been
abolished from motives of pure philanthropy. In
the cold North the institution does not pay. It has
no chance of life in any district where the white
man can do the work of the field or the farm, and,
when the Northern and Western States abolished
it they did so from motives in which philanthropy
had doubtless some part, but in which social and
commercial considerations were largely intermin-
gled. In the district of Columbia, and in the Border
States,where it does not pay,slavery will be abolished
before many years, or perhaps months, but that
it will be abolished in the cotton countries, where

it pays enormously, is more than any one can believe
who studies the temper of the American people, or
knows anything whatever of the motives by which
' they are actuated. The love of negro slavery is
not confined to the South; and if the six small
States of New England were left out of the reckon-
ing , it is all but certain that a poll of all the
remainder of the Union on the direct question of
the abolition or retention of slavery would be a
majority of three to four, if not of nine to one, in
its favour. The city of New York would certainly
give an overwhelming majority for the Southern
" institution ;" and so, perhaps, would Cincinnati, if
one may j ud ge by its re cent treatment of Mr. Philippa,
and any attempt on the part of the President and
his Cabinet to play into the hands of the ultra•phi
lanthropists, who love a black man better than they
do a white, or to agitate for the abolition of Slavery
in the Far South, with or without compensation to
the slaveowners, would inevitably protract the war,
retard the progress of the whole country, and pre-
pare the way for a new secession more formidable
than the first. Looked at in any light, the ques-
tion of Slavery is the drop of black and bitter gall
in the overflowing cup of this Republic. It will
not be ignored, it cannot be settled. The utmost
that can be hoped as the result of the actual con-
test is, that it may be driven from the Border
States and confined to the cotton-growing regions.
But, as this result might have been attained in the
ordinary course of nature, and from the operation of
strictly commercial causes, there was no necessity
for the Ultra-Abolitionists to exasperate the whole
South into a civil war, which has already cost more
money—to say nothing of the blood, the misery,
and the suffering that have marked its progress—
than it would have cost to purchase and set free the
whole of the slaves in Secessia.

The result of the debate en Mr. Gregory's motion
in the House of Commons and of Lord Campbell's
in the House of Lords on the subject of the block-
ade has been received here with general satisfaction.
1 One journal alone—to be praised by which is to
incur obloquy—takes occasion of the circumstance
to assert that, although England desires to wash
her hands clean of the troubles of America, she will
find out before long that the American Republic has
not done Mith her, and that both North and South
—to whom she has played false in the war--will
seize the opportunity to unite their forces and pay
1 her off for her perfidy. Threatened people live
P long ; and, if the Americans were not wiser than
some of their newspapers—and this one in particular
—the United States would become the very Ishmael
,
lof nations. But worse even than the newspaper in
question, if that be possible, is the conduct of
a_ reverend gentleman—H. W. Beecher—who has
been lecturing and preaching on the conduct of the
British Government in the affair of the Trent.
when our rebellion broke out," said he, "if there
was any nation under H
klympatily
anti
help it was the mother country,—
sympathis-ed vith But how did she treat us ? She
0
all engaged with the enemies, and when we were
we could do on our hanreabels, and had as much as
temptiblo fuss about the'tilarhe
kicked up that con-
citizens from , us. O,'
sale:. and took our rebel
emphasis, , it as nlhe'ttio ,
%%eau!" The
he,
itte,k with sarcastic
audience cheered the sentiment.
'97,l
e what are we g,oing to do about it? '
novwif said
get this war off our hands, and have time nwe
to attend
to these matters (suiting a strong pugilistic action