The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-25 00:00:00

RENDON declared that the fortifications thus reck-

lessly demolished ought to be, and doubtless
would be, preserved. The very statement shows
the nature of the wrong, and the propriety of
ob:;aining ample redress. We fear, however, that in
this, as in the American difficulty, we shall swallow
our leek, and patiently submit to the wanton in-
sult and unjustifiable injury. We trust, however,
that the matter may not be suffered to pass alto-
gether sub silentio, but that some independent
member—if such a phenomenon can be found—
may be induced to call attention to the deplorable
fact, and to inquire what steps are to be taken
by the Allied Governments—for it is a point in
which France, and Austria, and Sardinia, aye,
and even Prussia, are as greatly concerned as
England and Turkey in consequence. As we
have repeatedly pointed out, the patient
submission to injuries only encouraged further
and more serious aggressions, and if we wish to
avoid repeated complications it can only be by
causing ourselves to be respected by other na-
tions, and showing that we cannot be insulted
with impunity. Si vis pacem, parts bellwn
is a' time-honoured apophthegm. But it is
equally essential that we should be prepared
to resent insult, whenever and wheresoever offered.
A quick sense of honour is perhaps the best secu-
rity which a nation can possess against being suf-
fered to drift into a formidable war. The golden
rule in such cases is neither unnecessarily to give,
i nor to submit to, any intentional offence.

The policy and proceeding of America are
likely for some time to come to be of great inte-
rest to England. The struggles of her domestic
parties are chiefly conditioned by the position of
the slavery question, which can never cease to
attract attention here, and the Nicaragua diffi-
culty is yet to settle. The last important news
is the nomination of Mr. BUCHANAN by the Cin-
cinnati Democratic Convention, (an assembly of
delegates of that party from all the States of the
Union), as its candidate for the coming presiden-
tial election. The Democratic party has of late
been by far the most powerful in the States, it is
a firm upholder of slavery, avows, as " a sacred
principle to be applied with unbending rigidity,"
the MONROE doctrine,—that is, the extension of
European Governments and influence from the
Continent of America ; and declares that " under
no circumstances can it surrender the preponde-
rance of the United States in the adjustment of
all questions arising out of Central American
matters." This is the party that has nominated
Mr. BUCHANAN ; and excepting its firm assertion
of popular rights, sure to be strongly enough
maintained in America, there does not appear to
be anything in its policy wbich commends itself
much on this side of the Atlantic.
Mr. BUCHANAN is well known here. He is a
cool, adroit man, and was quite if not more than
a match for our Government in all transactions
with it. He, doubtless, really wished for peace,
but in his last speech at the Mansion House his
chief argument was a covert threat of what we
should suffer by the war, and he would not
acknowledge the insignificance of the subjects in
dispute. He it was who received with jocularity
Lord CLARENDON'S proposal of arbitration, re-
marking that we were "at war with the Emperor
of Russia, the only power which America
could consider impartial." He also denied that
there was " anything to arbitrate about," meaning
that their interpretation of the Treaty in dis-
pute was unquestionably the right one ;
though we, feeling somewhat indifferent (ex-
cept as a point of national honour) which is
right, must confess that our own Government
appears to take the only correct view. It
is not of promising augury that Mr. BUCHANAN
should be so obstinately or unworthily blind as to
refuse to see in the reciprocally misunderstood
terms of a treaty a fit subject for arbitration. At
the Ostend Conference of American diplomatists,
also, Mr. BUCHANAN strongly asserted the right
of America to take Cuba whether Spain were wil-
ling to sell it or not, as requisite to the proper
ascendancy of the United States in the Gulf of
Mexico! As to his leanings in regard to slavery,
we observe that Senator WILSON, of Massachusetts,
affirms " that no man in the Union will do the
work of the slaveholder more faithfully, or bow
lower to the slave power than JAMES BUCHANAN."
Mr. BRECKENRIDGE, an ardent supporter of
slavery—a son, we believe, of the Dr. BREMEN -
RIDGE who gained unenviable notoriety at Glas-
gow by his defence of slavery—was coupled with
him as Vice-President, yet more carefully to pro-
pitiate the South. In view of all the facts of the
case, the Times now recommends to settle, if pos-
sible, the Central American difficulty with Mr.
PIERCE, objectionable as his conduct has been,
before his successor enters upon office. We fear
the advice is wise. Plausible obstinacy, combined
with cunning, is harder for honourable men to
deal with than noisy bluster.
It is worthy of special attention that Mr.
BUCHANAN has adopted to the letter the Manifesto
—"platform" the Americans call it—of the De-
mocratic party. His language is so strong that
we are justified in considering it as expressing his
views to the letter. Oar readers will have seen
it in The San of the 10th, and if they passed it
over will do well to turn to it again as the pro-
gramme for the domestic and foreign policy of
JAMES BUCHANAN. He says of it, "I have been
placed upon a platform which I heartily approve,
and which can speak for me. Being the repre-
sentative of the great Democratic party, and not
simply JAMES BUCHANAN, I mast square my con-
duct according to the platform of that party, and
insert no new plank nor take one from it."
This platform, to adopt Mr. BUCHANAN'S phra-
seology, consists of eleven planks, and the first six
intended to support the home policy, the latter
five the foreign policy of the party. These last
were distinctly brought under notice of the Con-
vention by Mr. LOWE, of Missouri ; he was sup-
ported by the delegate from Delaware ; notwith-
standing this opposition, however, the resolutions
were adopted in their entirety, and Mr. BUCHANAN
pledged himself to them in the strong language to
which we have already referred. Now these reso-
lutions assert—first, " free seas and progressive
free trade throughout the world ;" secondly, that
their political and commercial position " requires
them to hold sacred the principles involved in the
Mresnon doctrine"—that is, the right to exclude
European Governments and their influence from
ealliArnerica ; thirdly, with regard to the Central
American question,
that " under no circumstances
an they surrender their preponderance in the
adjustment of all questions arising out of it ;'
fifthly, they express sympathy with the attempts
"to regenerate that portion of the continent which
covers a passage across the Isthmus." The re-
generation thus sympathised with being that now
in process under the Holy buccaneer WALKER and
his saintly filibusters. Lastly, they resolve that
" every effort ought to be made by the incoming
administration to insure an ascendancy in the
Gulf of Mexico," which, being interpreted, means
of course that Mr. BUCHANAN is ready, as he
declared at Ostend the Americans ought, to take
Cuba from Spain by fair means or foul.
It is plain therefore that, both personally and
iby the necessity of party policy, jr. BUCHANAN