The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-19 00:00:00

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THE SUN.
'LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 19, 1862.

We shall all be awaiting with almost feverish
interest the arrival of the next few mails from
America. It is indeed hardly possible to conceive
a position of affairs in a foreign country more full
of the gravest probabilities, yet of the gravest un•
eertainties. The probabilities would be generally
of BEAIIREGARD bing
supposed to be
in favour
routed by HALLECK, and JEFFERSON DAVIS being
supposed to be
i, and JEFFERSON DAVIS and
his generals who have just evacuated Yorktown, by
MICLELLAN ; but the possibilities also, are, that
either of the great Confederate armies may inflict
with the courr,e of despair,
a severe defeat upon
the army
opposed to it. The victories of New
Orleans and Yorktown point, in the opinion of
most, to nothing but speedy Federal triumph.
The North itself regards them in this light, even
their money market powerfully feels the effect of
two such successes following each other so quickly.
Still the more thoughtful remember the chances of
war, and recollect that a great military triumph
of the Confederates in the East or in the West
might protract the campaign over the hot weather,
and then, probably, through another winter. While,
therefore, it would be unreasonable not to look for,
one or two
more decisive Northern triumphs P

over confidence is out of the question. The South
is still strong, is fighting on its own soil, and its
fate still depends, for a long time at least, very much

on that temper of which we have heard so much.
The movements of M. MERCIER, the French
ambassador, add considerably to the uncertainties
of the case. Correspondents of the American papers
I from Washington begin at length to argue with an

air of confidence that his mission could not have
been on anything merely commercial or trivial. It
was undertaken with the full acquiesence of the
Federal Government ; he could not in honour go
for any object hestile to that Government ; the
French Government has always been avowedly
willing to offer mediation as soon as the position of
military affairs gave the slightest hope that it could
be of any use, and the reasonings of Washington
politicians and the published gossip from Rich-
mond, concur in the representation that the visit
was unofficial, and carefully kept so, but that the
views of the EMPEROR were fully made known to the
important personages at Richmond. M. MERCIER
returned to Washington in more formal style than
he left it—on board a French war steamer; the
President and Mr. SEWARD received him on the
quay, and were themselves received by the Gassendi
with an imperial salute, while M. MERCIER was
afterwards handsomely entertained by them. All
this certainly does look as if importance were
, attributed to his visit.

It is also very remarkable that hardly had he
left the Southern capital when JEFFERSON DAVIS
calls a council of his generals and Yorktown is
evacuated, and again M. MERCIER immediately
leaves for that place ! If all these movements indi-
cate nothing important, Americans themselves, and
we on this side the water, may certainly be excused
for supposing that thay must have an important
p-orpose. To complotc cho ominous aspect of Mins,
the Southern Congress had adjourned with such

indecent haste before the evacuation of Yorktown

that they left JEFFERSON DAVIS'S despatches un-
opened, and were represented by Richmond papers
as fugitives and cowards who would never return !
The opinion in the North therefore, from the
way in which the President and Mr: SEWARD
have treated M. MERCIER, from the break-up of the
Southern Congress and the surrender of Yorktown,
is, that M. MERCIER told all their leading men his
master's view of their hopeless position. That he
undeceived them as to the likelihood of either
France or England doing more than acknowledge
them as belligerents; that he showed them how they
had done enough for their honour; but, that longer
resistance could be only prolonged injury to them-
selves; that he, at the same time, assured them of
the certainty of his master's good offices to prevent
the enforcement of hard terms by the North.
That LOUIS NAPOLEON and Europe would be satis-
fied on the Slavery question with the present offer
of conditional emancipation by Congress, and that
reunion would be secured them with the full rights
which they had previously enjoyed. Such are the
most probable representations of the drift of M.
MERCIER'S visit to Richmond, so far as we can
gather it from both Northern and Southern ac-
counts; not a word has appeared, officially, yet, we
can, therefore, vouch for nothing, but merely lay
before onr readers what seems best to square
with the facts of the case as interpreted by those
most interested on both sides.

The great disaster at Yorktown appears to be
chiefly due to the cause we at first suspected, the
liberation of the Federal gunboats from their fear
of the Merrimac. They had in fact taken York-
town in its rear, and were, with transports hasten-
ing up to West Point where the large estuary of
the York river comes nearly to a termination, hop-
ing by landing troops there, to embarrass the
retreating Confederates. The arrangements also of
M'CLELLAN for a general bombardment of the
works appears to have been such as to make the
majority of the generals think resistance hopeless.
Indeed MACGRLTDER alone appears to have held out
for fighting. As the Uonfederates have been driven
from their first halting place—Williamsburg, and
must, therefore, be still moving nearer Richmond,
unless the second visit of M. MERCIER should issue
in the submission which some American politicians
look for, it would seem that a great battle before
Richmond will take place before long. As, how'
ever, HALLECK is watching BEAUREGARD on the
Mississippi almost within cannon shot of him,
the decisive battle may be fought there.
For, notwithstanding what the friends of the South
in this country may say, it seems pretty plain to
us, that the Southern cause, since the fall of
New Orleans, could not survive long a substan-
tial defeat by either HALLECK or MTLELLAN.
One by the former would seal the fate of the
planting States ; one by the latter would deprive
the Confederates of their capital and Virginia.
The North reasons now on the subject, as if
assured of final and early success. The opening
of New Orleans is formally announced, and that
of the Atlantic ports promised immediately. The
Northern politicians are also beginning to discuss
that difficulty which has puzzled European poli-
ticians from the beginning—how to reunite hos-
tile sovereign States, in a working Federal Go-
vernment, with each other. Hence some propose
to cut the knot completely, to declare the Southern
States territories, to nominate their governors,
therefore, by the Government, and to deprive them
of a vote in Congress. This, of course, would be
equivalent to a military occupation, with all its
cost and despotism. But though the readmission
of the Seceded States to the Senate and Con-
gress will be the signal for a. long and
bitter political war, we cannot believe any other
programme to be possible. Americans are too
thorough republicans to endure long anything like
an Austrian occupation of one-half their territory
by the other. One alteration will certainly have
to be made in the Constitation, that which gives
votes to the Slave States in proportion not only to
the number of the whites, but of three-fifths of the
slaves also. We are only sorry to believe that even
in the hour of their triumph the North is too averse
to the negro to require the abrogation of that foul
clause in their Constitution, which requires the
delivery of the fugitive slave to his master. Mr.
LINCOLN himself not only endures, but defends this
disgraceful blot on their republican constitution.
If that blot be not removed, the North will deserve
another secession, and another war, in no long
time.

If ever there has been a doubt as to the intrinsic
good or evil of what is popularly known (perhaps
we ought strictly speaking to say unpopularly
known) as the Billeting System—that doubt surely
must at last be dissipated. Unintentionally the
whole injustice of the system so-called has been just
now, for once and for all, displayed to view beyond
the possibility or any
71;t1c:rt; eon:er of h
ion by a
the
Secretary issued from the Home-office
Secretary of State. A document addressed to the
Chairman of Quarter Sessions of the County of
Middlesex, and authenticated by the signature H.
WADDINGTON." It is a communication in every
respect eminently well worth reading throughout.
It has been circulated already among the magistrates
of the county, and comprises within it a notification
very pointedly addressed to the landlord of every
" I am directed," says
public-hoir Igiddleaex'

Mr. WADDINGTON, in the note preceding this re-
markable paper, " I am directed by Sir 0. GREY,
to transmit to you the enclosed form of a billet
paper, which the Secretary of State for War is
desirous should in future be issued by the civil
authorities, in order that innkeepers, and other
persons, on whom soldiers are billeted, may clearly
understand their liabilities ; and I am to suggest
that steps should be taken to ensure the use of the
enclosed form of billet paper, on all occasions when
billet papers are issued in the county of Middle-
sex." Observe the words above italicised, "in
order that innkeepers and other persons on whom
soldiers are billeted may clearly understand their
liabilities." Poor souls !—they may well, in truth,
have vouchsafed to them at any rate this timely
word of forewarning. It is the least that could be
done in their regard—that they should learn be-
times what it is that is expected from them in this
matter of the billeting—and expected from them,
I recollect, nolens volens, under pretty sharp penal-
ties.

There is the curt communication pending the
very agreeable announcement we are here alluding
to—a printed form with blanks to be filled up in
each instance, as the occasion arises, with the dis-
tinctive indication of the victim-host and the cor-
morant-guests quartered upon his establishmetat.
The pleasant little missive, here spoken of, being in
effect simply as follows

" GREAT BRITAIN.

" To the Landlord at the sign of the street, in
the parish of .—You are hereby required to find
quarters for of the regiment of
for night. Dated the day of 18 .

Billet Master."

Then comes a delectable extract from the Mutiny
Act, intimating to the unfortunate landlord, with
a really frightful precision, what it is that
ro. al liy? bo carpectod from
Now, we need do no more here than briefly quote
the first paragraph of this uncompromising quota-
tion. For, in point of fact, it contains the very
essenciof the jest. Though;oettainly, by the way,
if the Billeting System be spoken carelessly thus as
a joke, the unhappy innkeepers, at whose expense
it is cracked, may, with fall reason, object—
" What's fun to you, is death to us." Here, how-
ever, is the first and sufficient morsel of this Ele-
gant Extract, taken, as already observed, from the
Mutiny Act—and suggestive (or we are certainly
much mistaken) to many an innkeeper of
something, on his part, very like mutiny.
Saith the Act—" The innholder or other
person on whom any soldier is billeted on the march
in Great Britain shall, if required, furnish him (but
not exceeding two days when halted on the march)
with one hot meal in each day, to consist of (but
not exceeding) one pound and a quarter of meat,
previous to being dressed, one pound of bread, one
pound of potatoes or other vegetables, and two
pints of small beer, and vinegar, salt, and pepper,
for which the sum of 10d. will be paid, and 2id. for
a bed." Now, for a moment, examine the items,
and—remembering the average market price, even
wholesale, of the various articles of food mentioned,
meat, bread, potatoes, beer, and the etceteras—say
whether or no it be a dead robbery upon the inn-
keeper to talk of remunerating (!) him while the
soldier is wiping his lips after this hot meal, and
preparing perhaps to solace himself with a digester
afterwards in the shape of a comfortable pipe of
tobacco—whether or no it be a dead robbery upon
the innkeeper to remunerate him, forsooth ! by the
payment down of a wretched little dole of tenpenceP
A pound and a quarter of meat—(why, that of
itself would take off about tenpence)—a pound of
bread, a pound of potatoes or other vegetables, two
pints of beer (the price of that alone at the bar
being fourpence)—vinegar (a superfluous item to
the landlord himself, we should suppose, for a little
while after each billeting)—salt (for which at this
rate he would find a difficulty in paying)—and
pepper (a plentiful supply of which, in another
form, is certainly supplied in this very way from
the Home-office)—and all for the small charge, the
particularly small charge, of Tenpence ! Surely
upon all this, not one syllable of serious comment
is, in truth, required. The flagrant meanness of
the sum set apart for the reimbursement of the un-
happy Wight upon whom these soldiers in the
QUEEN'S army are billeted, speaks for itself. If,
according to the old adage, every bullet has its
billet—with a no less unerring aim (thanks to the
sharp practice authorised by the Mutiny Act)
every billet brings down the fated landlord at a
long shot, dead as a door nail. There is no escap-
ing it. And, if we may regard the class victimised
(as in the majority of instances we surely may), as
affording favourable specimens of JOHN BULL—it
is a shot, too, right in the Bull's eye.

The news from India will gladden every thought-
ful Englishman. It is hardly five years since
nothing but regard to the national honour pre-
vented thousands from recommending that India
should be turned adrift, to save us the prospect of
interminable expense. The humanity, only, of Mr.
Barony prevented him, and others of the Man-
chester school, from advocating the renunciation of
our rule there; so that, happily, between a sense
of duty towards peoples whom we had rendered
helpless and of the dishonour involved in confess-
ing ourselves really worsted, the idea was not enter-
tained for a moment as a practical one. Probably,
however, but very few of our statesmen did not
look forward towards a long period of disordered
finance, and of ill-will between the conquering and
the subject races.

That fear is now'passing away like a cloud. The
letters just arrived bring us a more cheerful pic-
ture of our Indian empire than we can send back
of our own. We shall soon have Mr. LAING'S
speech in full, meantime a pretty full account of
it, and of its effects, is eminently satisfactory. The
day following his announcement of the Indian
Budget, the Government Five-and-a-Half per Cent.
Securities rose to ten per cent. premium, with
every prospect of advance. Yet only four years ago
the same Government could not raise a loan at six
per cent ! No money dealers in the world surpass
those of Calcutta in shrewdness and knowledge of
their constituencies ; and this single fact is conclu-
sive of the general character of the Budget. Its gene-
ral features are these. Owing to causes not to be for-
seen the expenditure exceeded Mr LAING'S estimates
by £1,714,370. But he had estimated also his pro-
pable receipts with such entire freedom from exag-
geration, that the year closed with nearly that
amount of surplus ! For 1862-3 this safe financier
proposes a surplus of £1,428,600, and the cash
balances, unlike our own, are increased by half a
million, and are actually five millions above a safe
working minimum ! And here it is to be noted that
railways and banks have already shown themselves
in India to be equivalent to an increase in the
circulating medium. Balances not quite so large
as formerly being found to be quite as effective,
when they uan be made so safely and promptly
available.

able The ob j
surpluses t sa
rteo
pwahr it cl
yh
rNel
mr
iLa As
iIoNn Gs do ef v
toat
xe sa
thi iosn a:aa
and
Partly reproductive imperial outlay. Manchester
is thankful to find her manufactured cotton goods
sharing the benefit by a reduction from ten to five
per cent. duty this duty, as cottons are manufac-
tured in India, being one of the most singular for
such an extreme free trader as Mr. WILSON to have