The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-03 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals.

(From the Daily Ne2aB of this day.)
Every week now unfolds new aspects of the
Presidential Election—the most important Presi-
dential election for half a century. All the illus-
trative incidents are fresh, and some of them are
very strange.
The most important move perhaps is the revival
of the Bull of Gregory XVI. against negro slavery,
which we publish textually in another part of our
columns. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Mrs.
Stowe's brother, edits the most flourishing religious
newspaper in the United States—the New York
Independent. In a number of that paper, of 28th
August, the editor relates an anecdote of a wealthy
citizen finding to his surprise that his Irish coach-
man, a Catholic, wai not going to vote on the De-
mocratic aide on the present occasion. It bas been
so completely a matter of course for the Catholics
to vote on the " Democratic " side, and it usually
takes so long to convince a body, like that of the
European immigrants, that a change of principles
is covered by the old term, that all the world con-
cluded that the entire Romanism of the Union
would go for Buchanan. The citizen inquired his
coachman's reasons for intending to vote for Fre-
mont. The man replied that it was contrary to his
religion to vote on the pro-slavery side. The Catho-
lics who did so, he declared, were ignorant of the
Pope's Bull ; as they well might be in America,
since the Bull is omitted from the Prayer-books of
America' Catholics. He brought his Irish Prayer-
book to his employer,who handed it to Mr. Beecher,
for the publication of the Bull. It appeared in the
Independent of August 28, headed by a woodcut
representing the Pope blessing a kneeling negro.
Of course, the Bull was known to American Catho-
lics when first issued ; but Bishop England, of
Charleston, took upon himself to decide that the
slavery denounced was that of Mohammedan coun-
tries, and the trade of the African coast, and the
Bull was suppressed in religious books, and allowed
to drop out of sight and out of mind. Its applica-
tion to American slavery is so clear that it required
the audacity of a political priest to ignore it. Its
publication in the Independent produced so strong
and so immediate a sensation that an edition, in
pamphlet form, of 40,000 copies was issued as soon
as it could be got ready. Of course, the Indepen-
dent is reviled in the religious world of the South
as having become a political newspaper • but there
is no excluding a Papal Bull from the range of
ecclesiastical topics, whatever may be its political
effect. The Catholics have in this case learned
something new within the pale of their own
church ; and the immediate effect is carrying over
the Catholic body in the United States to the side
of Fremont. The last American census gives the
number of Catholic churches as 1,112, and the
accommodation in them as for 620,950 ; explaining
that this return gives no idea of the real numbers,
as worship is held in school-rooms, private houses,
and public halls, where churches do not yet exist.
At the lowest computation, the accession of the
bulk of the Catholic body may probably suffice to
r turn the scale in Fremont's favour.
Another indication is the vehemence excited in
both parties by the result of the Main elections.
An official dependent of the President's had con-
fidently betted on a majority of 6,000 against the
Republicans. The first move, under the impulse of
disappointment, is to organise means for disallow-
ing the elections, if Fremont should be the success-
fal candidate. Absurd and incredible as such a
proposal appears, it is certainly entertained at
Washington. Some of the Southern leaders say
openly that " Fremont will not be allowed to take
his seat." We shall see presently how his exclusion
will probably be attempted. His friends, mean-
time, are regretting the exultation with which the
Maine elections have been received. It is true,
they say, that no single symptom could be so
favourable as this demonstration of the sound re-
publicanism of the State which opens the electoral
movement in New England : but it is too soon for
confidence. Failure in Maine would have caused
despondency ; and success must not induce se3u-
rity. The Maine elections were the topic of the
day when the last mails were made up.
Another fresh and timely disclosure is that Fre-
mont was offered and refused, at this time last year,
an authorised and deliberate offer from the Demo-
cratic party of nomination for the Presidentship.
Governor Floyd, of Virginia, was deputed by the
leading men of the party, North and South, to
offer their services to Col. Fremont, and two inter-
views took place at New York, in September, 1855,
which resulted in Fremont's replying that, regard-
ing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as he
did—as an infamous breach of pledged faith—he
could not accept nomination by the voices of its
suppartoro. The foot io now alioited by circum-
stances from a friend and fellow-traveller (at that
time) of Fremont's—the Hon. George Bates, who
made his statement at a public meeting. The de-
light of the one party and the fury of the other at
this disclosure may be imagined.
Another incident is the wide circulation of a
chronological record of Mr. Buchanan's votes, put
forth by the Richmond Enquirer, under the head-
ing, " A Record without a blemish." It is a sign
of the blindness and imprudence of Southern poli-
ticians that such a panegyrist should not see that
his record must injure his candidate more in the
North than it could benefit him in the South. The
dates given are twelve :

In 1826 Mr. Buchanan supported the Gag Bill—(the
act which prohibited the transmission of anti-slavery
documents through the Post•office).
In 1836 he voted for the admission of Arkansas as a
slave state.

In 1836.7 he voted to reject petitions for the abolition
of slavery in the district of Columbia.
... _ ......

In 1837, he voted for Mr. Calhoun's construction of
state slavery, by which the South engrossed federal
*thority.
In 1838, 1839, and 1840, he voted with Southern
members for the suppression of anti-slavery petitions.
In 1844-5 he voted for the annexation of Texas.
In 1847 he sustained the Clayton compromise.
In 1850 he proposed and urged the extension of the
Missouri compromise to the Pacific Ocean, for the en-
largement of slave territory.
In 1850 he voted for the repeal of the compromise ;
also for the enlargement of slave territory ; and urged
strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law.
In 1854 he opposed the action of the Pennsylvania
Legislature for contravening the Fugitive Slave Law.
In 1854 he negotiated for the acquisition of Cuba.
In 1856 he supports the principle of the Kansas.
Nebraska Act—that is, the extension of slavery over
free soil.

To sum up, " he never gave a vote against the into•
rests of slavery, and never uttered a word which could
pain the most sensitive Southern heart."

Such is Mr. Buchanan, by the testimony of his
supporters—the same men who would, at this time
last year, have been glad of the Southern-born
Fremont for their candidate. What do they pro-
pose in case of the success of the one or the other?
Such proposals as the following are strong signs of
the time.
If Mr. Buchanan succeeds he is pledged to the
carrying out of the Cincinnati programme—that is,
" ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico," the annexa-
tion of Cuba, and the " settlement of the slavery
question" by swamping the free States—a thing
more easily proposed than achieved. If, on the
other hand, Fremont succeeds, he is to be excluded
from the chair by its powers being all withdrawn
before he can grasp them. In the words of Buch-
anan's supporters, " it is arranged to call the legis-
latures of Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia
to concert measures to withdraw from the Union
before Prem ont can get possession of the army and
navy and the prse-strings of Government. Gover-
nor Wise is actively at work already in the matter.
The South can rolv on the President in the emer-
gency contemplated. The question now is, who-
ther the people of the South will sustain their
leaders." This is Washington news sent to New
Orleans. It is of itself enough to dispose of the
assertions made, through the Times, by Americans
in England, that disunion is merely the threat of
a few fanatics. But the Virginia organs of the
Buchanan party exp Ass " their hope that the
pious South, with its law-and-order-loving plan-
ters,
will, through Mr. Buchanan, make such
an impression on the middle States as to induce
them to join for the exclusion of the North
from the Union. An extension of the slave-
holding territory to the neighbourhood of tho great
lakes, so as to include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
Pennsylvania, an alliance with Russia and Brazil,
and the possession of Cuba, will, it is supposed,
serve the purpose of stemming and turning back
the torrent of infidelity, materialism, sensuality,
agrarianism and anarchy that threatens to over-
whelm us from the prolific hive of northern
Europe." On this Virginian manifesto in favour
of disunion follows ono from South Carolina, no
less emphatic. The Charleston Mercury says :
" There is not a single public man iu the limits of
our State, not one of her present representatives or
senators in Congress, who is not pledged to the lips
in favour of disunion. We have had enough of the
' glorious union.' . . . A thoroughly organised
disunion party is the desideratum, and until such
be formed at the South, all time devoted to poli-
tical discussion will be time wasted."

Such is the constitutionalism, the political mo-
rality of the Slave Power. If it can obtain its own
candidate it will enforce its sectional policy on the
free North by the help of the Czar, and a buccaneer-
ing foreign policy. If it loses its candidate it will
commit treason ; and it is now preparing to do so.

(Front the Tinier.)
What a man of leisure Lord Stanley must be,—
in September at any rate I And what a fund of
patience he must possess Where does ho spend
his vacation / We have several aciaaultauces w©