The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-24 00:00:00

TO, SEPTEMBER 24, 6.
5

sels; had accepted the post of president of the Con-
, gress ; and the honourable gentleman proceeded to
take the seat vacated by the active president of the
Customs Reform Association. M. de Brouckdre
then addressed the Congress, and expressed his plea-
sure in doing so, seeing that while in 1847, when he
last presided at a Reform Congress, they had to deal
with theories, they had now advanced to a point
when it became their business to consider the appli-
cation of principles generally accepted. He now de-
clared the Congress constituted and opened ; and he
thought that their first act should be to return
thanks to the active Association, under the
auspices of which it had been called together. This
proposition wad received with loud cheers. The
president then read the order of the day, and
called upon the Dutch delegates to open the discus-
sion. The first of these gentlemen who addressed
the Congress maintained that Holland might lay
claim to be one of the liberal nations of Europe,
because she had abolished her navigation-laws, had
admitted corn free since 1847, and had abolished
her old duties on the transit of goods. He con-
teuded, therefore, that Holland had little to yield,
and much to demand from her neighbours. And
he might add, that the prosperity of the country
had fully justified the liberality of the Government.
A delegate from Antwerp then rose and proceeded
to show, amid the applause and the amusement of
the Congress, that Holland was apparently a libe•
ral state, but in reality a protectionist—a highly
protectionist—state. Protection and prohibition
were, in truth, the law. She had steadily conti-
nued to refuse concessions of railways between
Holland and Belgium ; and was, in short, only in
appearance a liberal state. In reply to this dele-
gate a second Dutch representative rose, and while
dealing effectively with the colonial policy of Hol-
land, and allowing that it was most faulty, begged
the Congress to believe that Holland was on the
high road to a veritable state of free trade.

The president then introduced Mr. Winkworth,
who appeared for the Society of Arts ; and after
having expressed a regret that Colonel Sykes could
not be present, and that it therefore devolved upon
him to represent the society alone, intimated that as
he could not freely express himself in French, a
friend of his would read a translation of his address

to the Congress. This address, in which Mr.
Winkworth went into a history of the Society of
Arts, and then glanced at its influence in involving
the great exhibitions of 1851 and 1855, included
statistics showing the progress of British manufac-
tures since the establishment of Free Trade.

Mr. Winkworth's address, at the conclusion of
which the Congress gave the honourable gentleman
three rounds of applause, was followed by a call from
the president for Mr. Hertz, a delegate from Ham-
burg.

This gentleman read to the Congress an amusing
paper, in which he explained that Hamburg was
necessarily a free port, since freedom was the only
advantage it could offer to the world. It was a
town that was also a state in itself, that had no in-
terior, no manufactures of its own to protect. But
there were great abuses still in Hamburg. The
little bourgeois had not the privileges which the
great bourgeois enjoyed ; there were still corpora-
tions of working men, with privileges that reminded
us of the middle ages ; there were closed trades, as
the bakers and brewers ; and there was the octroi
which levied enormous duties on the food of the
citizens. The delegate concluded by hoping that
Hamburg would get rid of her errors, and that
the world would soon enjoy the commercial
freedom which was the only attraction to foreign
nations. The amusing manner in which this dele-
gate put his case, and more especially the contrast
he drew between a little bourgeois and a great
bourgeois, elicited frequent bursts of laughter.
M. Cherbuliez, delegate from Switzerland, then
addressed the Congress, in explanation of the Swiss
tariff, upheld, according to the Speaker, simply to
repair the roads—neither the cintons nor the
federal government being able to pay the cost of
maintenance. Before 1848 goods entered the Swiss
territory free, but then they were liable to tolls
that often prevented them from reaching Central
Switzerland. This was the justification of their
tariff. The speaker then entered into details on the
manner in which the tariff was arranged. Its ob-
ject was to lay the high duties on articles of luxury ;
but no native industry was specially protected.
The meeting rose before half-past four o'clock.

THE AMERICAN CRISI►c.

(Front the _Daily News.)

The more serious the news from America becomes the
more necessary it is that English opinion should not be
misled or perplexed by the misrepresentations or mere
ignorance of journalists, who ought to have more ho-
nesty or more knowledge than they have yet shown in
their treatment of the existing America❑ crisis. We bad
occ sion last week to point out some absurdities put
forth by the Times. There have since been more and
worse—in the review of " Dred." and in the leading
article of last Saturday. It seems to be the aim of the
Times to make its readers believe that there has been a
pitched battle on the political ground of Congress ; and
another, of the physical force kind, on the soil of Kansas.
This leading assumption is entirely untrue. The aggres-
sive party has made its onslaught, after half a century
of express preparation ; and the other party reedves the
attack as a summons to collect and organise its fJrces,
and gird itself up for the conflict, which is now to begin
in earnest.

First, as to the political struggle. The Southern elec-

Cons have for many years beciiconducted with the sole
view of sustaining slavery, and overpowering the num-
bers and the energies of the North ; whereas, the North-
ern elections have bad every conceivable aim rather
than that of attacking slavery and humbling the South.
With the exception of a very few constituencies, the
North has carefully chosen men who would not trouble
the South and imperil the Union ; so that Congress has
in fact represented the pro-slavery element of Northern
society almost exclusively. The most thorough aboli-
tionists, indeed, abstain from voting ; and thus, not only
is Congress the representative of a state of opinion of
some years' standing, but it is the exponent of only a
special element of public opinion on this particular sub-
ject. By one of those apparent accidents which open
the sluices unexpectedly of all revolutions, it was dis-
covered last winter that there was anti-slavery force
enough in one House of Congress to resist the insults
and aggressions of the South, and the immediate cense
quence was, the election of Mr. Banks to the Speaker's
Chair. A very fair resistance has been macho for sevee
ral months, considering the inferiority in numbers of the
Republican members ; and that the President has met
with any check at all from the federal legislature is quite
as surprising as that free trade measures should make
progress in an European Parliament returned under a
uteetionist Ministry for Protectionist purposes. No
doubt it is abundantly disgraceful to the Northern con•
stitnencies that they should not have ma le this great
question the first instead of the last in their political
programme ; but, as a matter of fact, it has hitherto
been so, and it can never be so again. The struggle is
now farted upon them; they cannot evade it ; they no
longer thir.k of evading it ; and the world will be shown,
through the whole series of the coming elections, what
their strength really is. Meantime, they have not yet
been beaten ; for they have not yet gone out to the
political war. A few Members of Congress made a
wand in a tentative spirit, and on a special oceasi n.
The scouts have given the alarm ; but the battle is
not yet begun. The marshalling of the forces looks
well thus far. Maine is the first New Englasd State
which can announce the results of its elections, aid
the ether New England States usually follow its lea 1.
The tidings from Maine are unexpectedly good. None
hoped for more than a bare success for the Republican
candiate for the office of Governor, and few expected
that much, but Mr. Hamlin, the Republican candidate,
has been elected by a majority of 11,000. As Maine
leads New England, and the New England States lead
the whole Nortb, it is reasonable to anticipate the irre-
sistible preponderance of the Republican party, and an
anti-slavery strength in Congress proportioned to the
numbers, the education, and the wealth of the North,
and the importance of the vindication of its free labour.
As for the military conflict, in which the Times as-
sumes the North to have been vanquished by the South,
there has been no such measuring of strength. It is not
true that the " vehementspirita" of the pro-slavery and
anti slavery parties went to Kansas to fight out the
quarrel. The pro-slavery force there in part consists of
bands of so-called immigrants, who have gone with—
not ploughs, teams, seed, and cattle—but rifles, revolvers
and bowie-kniver. They are, truly enough, the vehement
spirits of one party, but they are far outnumbered by the
ruffians of the Missourian population, who, living at
hand, have crossed the frontier for marauding purposes.
To these two elements of the pro-slavery population in
Kansas must be added the federal soldiery, sent by the
President to take the side of the slave power, for his
own personal objects. To meet this composite force what
troops has the anti-slavery power sent to Kansas I None
whatever. The free-settlers of Kansas have been bona
lido immigrants, carrying with them wives and children,
farming stock and utensils, or tradesmen's wares. Those
who did not go on their own.reeourries, were despatched
by the Enigraut Aid Society ;s—aspticulative association
organised fur purposes of gain. When the immigrant;
were fund to be exposed, to injury from Southern in s-
rs.u,lers and border rulfiens; certain eitiz sus, individually
or in companies, sent them arms, ammunition, a vi
other resources, and organised more bends to knew
them. These were intercepted--the arms and sup-
p'ies given to the marauders ; the men and w amen
turned back after being stripped ; and the ferries
stepped and rivers guarded t t prevent alt ac-
cess to the territory. A new route has recsntly
bean organised, out of reach of the Missourians ; but it
was not available prior to the late conflicts.
Thus, instead of "vehement spirit," leaders of anti-
slavery enterprise, the free soil party iu Kansas consisted
of disarmed and plundered immigrants, cut off from aid
and reinforcement by the interposition of Missouri be-
tween them and the free States. To speak of this as a
first victory in the sectional warfaie now beginning is
as ab urd as it would be to say that Gieece is conqre --
ing Turkey because a rally of brigands has routed a
company of merchants or drovers. Nobody doubts what
the result would have been if any kind or amount of
pro-slavery force had invaded any one of the free States;
from Illinois to Maine. But the free settlers in Kansas
did not go time as soldiers bat as industrial advpturls.

They risked much, not for any political object, but Lr
making their fortunes ; and, losing their game, the
speculators have been shot as abolitionists. None knew
better than they that abolitionism had nothing to do
with their enterprise, and that it never received any aid
or forthetance from the abolitionists. The North has
yet to show what it can do, in the military as in the
political field. When it is remembered that of the
twtnty-six millions of the United S atse' population less
than half a million are slaveholders, and that those slave
holders will scarcely suffice to restrain their own sl Lves,
in case of commotion, there can be no serious doubt in
any man's mind as to who will conquer when it once
.mes to fair fighting.
The inequality is so prodigious that it can hardly be
seri ,usly supposed that the South will encounter the

enemy it has roused. The most conservative, ease-loving,apathetic, and timid of Northern clizens are fairly stir-
red at last. The coming elections will be the fir,t evidences
of their awakened vigour, and the next nccassity will be,
apparently, for the South to choose between the only two
courses van to her —sec.easion from the Union, or sub-
mission to the primitive conditions of Union, d: velc ped
to meet modern requirement... The first can scarcely
be practicable, for two reasons among others : that tie
North can interdict and prevent the secession, if it so
pleases; and that (as the Smith well knows) it is only her
connexion with the anti-slavery North which preserves
her from a servile war. If she cuts the cable, the n-at
hour the crew will rise, throw their tyrants ovei board,
and sail to rejoin the fleet. No Southern newspaper says
this, nor probably any Northern one ; but every man—
north, south, east, and west—knows it.
The reviewer of " Dred" in the Times exhibits an igno-
rance, geographical and historical, which is perfectly
astonishing when he pleads, on behalf of the South, tie
concentration of the negroes there. He says the Nor-
thern States poured their negroes into the Middle States;
and that these last are emptying themselves into the
Sonthern. So far from this being the case, the North has
sent no negroes southwards. The tendency is all tt e
other way. The coloured population of the North is
abundant and prosperous beyond what European tra-
vellers have any means of witnessing. The census in-
forms us that their numbers do not diminish, even now,
under the atrocious legislation of recent years, and not
with.tanding the large emigration to Canada and foreign
shores. Travellers see only hotel waiters and shoeblacks;
and they es mclude the " niggers" to be fear, and emplo3ed
natty in menial occupations, unaware of the merchant and
shopkeeping class in which the real development of the
social qualities of the race is to be seen. The North has
its " Diggers" living at home at ease, and has not de-
ported them, as the Times reviewer asserts. The Middle
States—by which we must suppose the reviewer to meal
the impoverished States, in which slavery no longer
answers—do certainly send a great number of slaves to
the South ; but it is not their own plantation hands
that they send, but a new progeny, bred for purposes of
sale. A stock farmer does net rid himself of his stock-
in-trade when he sends a drove of cattle to the fair.
Finding tillage unprofitable, he turned grazier ; and the
stock he sends to the fair were bred for the purpose, and
constitute his means of gain. Thus it is with Virginia
and the rest of that group of States. The South has to
deal only with the slaves she chooses to purchase and
rear. Having chosen an unprofitable mode of living,
through which she finds herself falling behind the world
from year to year, her last desperate chance is to stop
the competition of free labour with slave labour by en-
grossing the area of production, and hedging in the
numbers and enterprise of the North. Her programme
to this effect is before us, and we may perhaps present
it to our readers seine day soon. We need not show
why the prject is as hopeless as it is desperate. Oar
present purpose is simply to warn all who take an in-
terest in American affairs against supposing that any
" victory" in " fair fight" has been obtained by the
slave power. The North is stirring, but it has not ye,
taken up a position in either field—of politics or civil
war.

Sportiflg Intelligence.

PONTEFRACT RACES.-TIIESDALY.

The Tradesmens' Plate of 30 Boys, added to a Sweep-
stakes of 5 sous each. .Two-yr-olds, 7st ; three, 9at.
From the Wood end, three quarters of a mile.
Mr. Sidney's Sister. to Nancy, 2 yrs (301.) (Withington) 1
Mr. Osborne's Walhalla, 2 yrs (301.) (Challoner) 2
Polish (late Painter) and Perjury also ran.
Won easy. The winner was sold for 401.
The Stand Plate (Handicap) of 40 soya, for three-year
olds and upwards. One mile and a quarter.
Mr. Sidney's Excitement, 4 yrs, Est (Withington) 1
Mr. E. Gill's Bourgeois, 6 yrs, Bst 71b (Aldcroft) 2
The following also ran :—L'Addio, Alfred, and King
Brian.

Batting—Even on Bourgeois, 3 to I agst Excitement.
Won by a length.,
The Innkeepers' Plate of 25 soya, added to a Sweep
stakes of 5 sovs each ; for all ages, with certain allow-
ances, &c., one mile, was won by Mr. Robert's Yeutick,
beating Victory and Biron.

The Cup Stakes (Handicap) of 5 sovs each, with 100
sovs added by the members for the borough, for all
ages. The second horse to receive 20 sow; out of the
stakes. One mile and a half.

Mr. Sidney's Excitement, 4 yrs, 5A 101 h (Witbington) 1
Mr. Andrew's The Martlett, 3 yrs, sst 41b...(8u110ck) 2
Lord Alfred, Catherine Parr, and The Scotchman
also ran.

Betting-5 co 4on Lord Alfred, sto 2 agst Excitement,
6 to 1 agst The Martlett. Won by a head. An ajection
was lodged by the owner of Lord Alfred against Excite
went and Martlett for cros:ing.
The Scurry Stakes (Handicap) of 3 goys each, with 20
added, for all ages (three quarters of a mile) was won by
Mr. C. Marson's Typhon (ForAter), beating The Med-
way, Lady of the Lodge, Yeutick, Peto, and Game
Pullett.

CESAREWITCH AND CAMBRIDGESHIRE STARES.—
YOUATT WM. GRAY's advice for the above events
law ready. Lance for this Portland Stake., at Doncas-
ter, and eleven other winners is something extraordinary,
but the advice on the above races will astonish all, as
1,000 to 1 can be obtained about the double even,. I
am positive one, if both, does not come of. Recollee:, I
named Mr. Sykes and Crown Pigeon last year (first and
secon 1). Apply early, or the long price will be lust.
Terms —To the Cambridgeshire, 7s. 6d. ; one week,
Si. ; single race, 2.. 61. ; to the end of the season, 10s.
6d.—Address, 15, Charing cross.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

It appears that clnsiderablo interest is felt in Canada
respecting the intended opening on the Ist of Oct-. of the
section of this line from Brockville to Toronto, a diseance
of 210 miles, which, with the exception of the Victoria
Izidge, will complete railway clinninnication by the
Grand Trunk line from Toronto to Portland. It is also in-

tended to open the section from Gnelpb to Stratford (29
miles) at the same time; tuns completing, with the 63
miles from Toronto to Guelph opened on the Ist of July
last, 92 miles to the west of Toronto. The opening of t► e
above sections will complete 850 miles of railway be
longing to the Grand Trunk Company. Owing to the
capabilities of the harbour of Portland for ace)in-
modating very large steamers, the Canadians ex-
pect much benefit from the establishment of a
line of steamers from Liverpool and the west of
Ireland to Portland in connection with the Grand Trunk

Railway. The company have a'so a rail;;yl;onth;
main line at Richmond to Quebec, so that, whether
Quebec or Portland be chosen as a packet station, the
Grand Trunk will convey a large porticn of the traffic
through Canada to the west, and vice versa. The 92
miles of new railway to the west of Toronto, and tl e
210 miles about to be opened to the east of it, will com-
plete railway communication from Stratford to Brock-
ville, a distance of 302 miles. This, with-the section from
Brockville to Montreal, 125 mile?, opened last Novem-
ber, will make a continuous line of railway 427 miles in
length, from Montreal to Toronto and Stratford.