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

engages all his resources and enters heart and

soul into the contest—have acquired a lead in all
public affairs. They hold the Executive Govern-
ment in leading strings, and can control, at their
will and pleasure, the movements of PIERCE,
MARCY, DAVIS, and CASHING. They have achieved
their position simply because they had but one
object, at which they steadily arrived. The exten-
sion of " the Domestic Institution " was the
Alpha and Omega of their political creed. Every
candidate for Congress should swallow that
pledge, at all events ; and many of the
Northern States, in which there were pro.
slavery electors, selected representatives who,
on that great point, were opposed to the great
body of their constituents. Hence the Southern
triumphs in the Senate, and the large and im-
posing party which appeared in the House of
Representatives. Indeed, considering the actual
circumstances of the case, it is only surprising
that the Northerns should so far have succeeded
as to elect Mr. BANKS to the Speaker's chair, and
subsequently to tack the Kansas rider to the
Army Appropriation Bill. When, without pre-
vious organisation, they could accomplish so
much, we can easily credit the latent strength,
which only required to be properly put forth to
insure a triumph far more brilliant and decisive
than has hitherto entered into the conception of

either party.
As yet the Southerns have had the best of
the contest. But, as we have repeatedly ex-
plained, that is owing solely to their organisation
and strategy. They have succeeded in Congress,
because they have put forward a stringent test
at the hustings. They have succeeded in Kansas,
because, while one side were bona fide immigrants,
looking solely to achieving a suitable settlement
for themselves and families, their opponents went
solely for the purposes of fighting and plunder,
and carried with them some degree of discipline.
The Northerns fought with true Auglo-Saxon
determination, " pro aris et fosis," but it was
merely isolated efforts, which could not withstand
the combined attacks of brigands, perfectly reck-
less as to the means to which they resorted, and
sustained by the Federal troops whenever their
aid was required.
It would, however, be ridiculous to say that a
paltry skirmish, in which some few hundreds only
were engaged, should be decisive in such a contest.
The Northerns and " the respectable party" have
received, a painful but salutary lesson, sufficient to
excite their energies, but not materially to reduce
their strength. There is no fatal blow--it is
merely a wholesome stimulant, that will arouse
them from the slumbers in which they have
hitherto indulged. The first fruits of the seeds
thus sown will be the success of the Republican
candidates in the several States, and of
Colonel FREMONT for the Presidency. When
that great desideratum has been accomplished,
and when a proper administration is inaugurated,
so that fair play may be relied en, there will no
longer be a Kansas difficulty. The convulsive
efforts of the Planters will fail, because the ma-
jesty of the law will be fully vindicated, and
armed buccaneers, who respect neither life nor
property, will receive the punishment they so
richly merit. All that the Northerns require is
a clear stage and no favour. That they will re-
ceive under the FREMONT Government. If, how-
ever, unfortunately, BIICIANAN should be the
new President, and should he persevere
in the course on which FRANKLIN PIERCE so un-
wisely, and, we may add, so wickedly entered, a
dissolution of the Union will become inevitable,
the crisis will be precipitated, and the Southerns
left to meet the fate which they have provoked
by a long continuance in a path alike repugnant
to the laws of GOD and man, and which must
prevent the slightest sympathy being entertained
for any sufferings they now may have to endure.

Your disappointed statesman, issuing from the
rural retirement of his domains, is always anxious
to impress upon you the superiority of the charms
of agriculture over those of power. To believe
him, statecraft is not a pursuit to be envied ; and
a communion with Nature is sufficient to restore
to child-like innocence and primeval tastes the
least scrupulous politician. Doubtless there is
some sincerity in the expression of such a convic-
tion. That communion with Nature which the
jaded Secretary of State finds in the cultivation
of his estate must be allowed some influence even
over so unpromising a subject ; but, after all,
they will not be far wrong who ascribe the appa-
rent change mainly to the philosophy of the fox.
" The grapes are sour."
It is with some such key we are disposed to
unlock the mystery of Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S re-
cently-expressed preference for the employment
of agriculture, and that the more readily because
his profession of faith and love is somewhat over-
coloured. It—the employment of agriculture—
he tells us, " the most honourable he has been
engaged in"—this, by the way, considering his
career as a politician, we are not disposed to dis-
pute ; it—for five-and-thirty years " has most
occupied his thoughts, and at all times has most
accorded with his affections and feelings." This
is a hale too strong, since he has not been chained
to office, but has always had it in his power to
forsake the field of politics and give indulgence to
his individual preferences. The thought occurs
to us—does he mead hereby to account for the
shortcomings and lapses from political virtue
which have characterised his official career ? If
so, we may confidentially inform him he will be
disappointed if he expects such an apology to
succeed. An individual, it is true, with such
strong- preferences for the profession of an agri-
culturist would make but an indifferent states-
man, as he has been ; but who can credit him
with the possession of them ? For our part we
are unable to do so.

Setting this portion of his remarks aside, there
is much in his speech at the East Cumberland
Agricultural Society's Meeting worthy of favour-
able consideration—excluding, by the way, his
remarkable expression of reluctance, on selfish
grounds, to witness the freedom of the Russian
people. It is quite true freedom conduces
more than anything else to the prosperity of
a nation ; but it may be more than doubted that
the prosperity of a free Russia would in any way
be injurious to us. With freedom comes civilisation
—with civilisation more numerous wants ; and
one country,
it is believed, will always have a
superiority in the production of some staple over
its neighbours, so as to insure an interchange of
commodities to the advantage of both. The re-
marks of the Right Hon. Baronet on leases and
a few other kindred topics are conceived in a
more liberal spirit. The sentiment of MONTES-
QUIEU, " that the produce of land depends less on
the fertility of the soil than on the freedom of the
cultivator," meets with a ready endorsement.
The observation he describes as one "denoting
great and profound wisdom." Accordingly we
find Sir J. GRAHAM urging the propriety of grant-
ing leases, and that, too, for a long period. Un-
fortunately to this recommendation he tacks the
gratuitous and more than questionable assertion,
that it is our boast in this country, "we do enjoy
to the greatest extent a fair division of the land."
His opinion that " we plough too much and graze .