The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-14 00:00:00

LOA DO.S, THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1869,

" Out of sight out of mind" is true, when applied
to most circumstances of life, and it is certainly ap-

propriate with respect to the weather. Because the
season has hitherto been unseasonably mild, some
sat guine individuals have flattered themselves that
we are getting through the winter very nicely,
whereas, to all intents and purposes, the real winter
has not yet begun. A few days of frost will speedily
dispel the illusion that the worst is over because the
year has turned, and the ignorant and sceptical will
wake to all the horrors of inclemency. Cold weather
is associated in the minds of the experienced of all
ranks with one predominant idea, the " poor."
What are the ill-fed and ill-clothed to do when sharp
and bitter weather has fairly set in ? Already distress
is most prevalent in consequence of the scarcity of
employment, though the mild season has warded off
the worst of the evils that result from this all iction.
But it is idle to suppose that this state of things can
continue, and it is surely advisable to be a little pre-
pared for emergencies. We hear a great deal now-
adays of the failure of charity, and a critic on the sub-
ject has advocated the adoption of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
old theory, of taxing charitable institutions, but
the Premier is not likely to forget the lesson which
he learned when Chancellor of the Exchequer. He
had the good sense then to give way at the right
moment, and it is not probable he will now run coun-
ter to the public expression of opinion so unmistake-
ably elicited on the question. Misdirected relief is
certainly most injudicious, and it causes regret for
many reasons. It wastes the money which is so much
required in other directions+, it spends it on wrong
purposes, and it gives rise to other sources of evil in
calling forth censure and criticism on a subject which
should be treated with good-will and magnanimity.
Professional mendicants are a pest to society, and
one does not know whether to be most irritated or
grieved with those who persist in encouraging them ;
but it may be said that it is easier to point out the
errors of others than to set them the example of a
better mode of action. What is most wanted by the
really suffering, the deserving poor, pining in misery,
whose actual details would outweigh the descriptions
of sensational writers, is that people should feel for
them. They have legions of thinkers to analyse
their position, myriads of teachers to tell them their
duties, hosts of censors to denounce their errors, and
relate bow they have trod the down-road of poverty;
but how few really feel for or with them. How few
actually comprehend their state and realise the diffi
culties of their task. It is easy to write the words that
work is slack, but how bard it is for those who know
the truth by experience and need no political econo-
mist to inform them of it. No one could ever sup-
pose that the innumerable company of these name-
less martyrs could be maintained at the expense of
others, or even relieved in the most temporary man-
ner, taken collectively ; but it would be well to think
about .the subject, and not rush precipitately into

action.

Money is not the one thing needful in this
matter that some suppose, and this is proved by the

fact, that those who are most useful among the ranks
of the distressed are not the possessors of long purses,
and never give help indiscriminately. Many people
spend immense sums in the so-called relief of the poor,
but few give what is far more valuable, time and trouble
to ascertain who are really in want. To wait until the
sharp weather has set in, and then to scatter money
ab-out will not do nearly so much good as to consider
now, and it would be a great advantage if personswith
means would intrust the amount they intend to give to
those whose judgment can be depended upon. It is a
desperate resource to think of dealing with widespread
misery after this minimum fashion, but care and fore-
thought can never be thrown away, and surely no
better exercise can be found for their endeavours than
the relief of the really deserving. This is by no
means the easy task that some imagine it to be, and
although we may feel that

" His blessing is sure
Who fights the good fight of the feeble and poor,
we must remember that the victory is not to the weak
or the wavering, but is reserved for the steadfast and
the watchful. Mercy without justice is only produc-
tive of evil ; and though we have been told that
Charity shall never fail, we are not told that those
who take her name in vain shall succeed ; and we may
rest assured that if we would attain to the most faint
perception of the far-off glories of her reign which
shall be consummated when tongues shall cease, and
when knowledge shall vanish away, we must follow
now in the spirit wbich suffereth all things, and is
kind, which vaunteth not herself and seeketh not her
own ; which beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Notwithstanding the changes Time has wrought in
both hemispheres since the close of the great Ameri-
can war, it cannot be said that the interest so warmly
felt in this country respecting it has died out. The
ties between England and America are indeed drawn
closer since the angry feelings produced by it in a
certain section of the Americans towards this coun-
try have passed away, and in spite of disagreement: and
differences which constantly occur in minor matters,
we, for our part, can never be indifferent to the for-
tunes and interests of the great people so nearly allied
to us i❑ sympathies, in language, and in race. If we
had been less keenly interested in American affairs
we should have been less likely to give offence to our
susceptible brethren across the Atlantic. So warm
were the national feelings on the question that
the advocates of North and South among us
formed two parties quite as strongly defined and as
closely separated as any political parties could
be, and each side was ready with arguments,
with illustrations, and with eloquence on behalf
of its own favourite theory. But there is no deny-
ing that the sympathies of England were not for the
most part on the winning side. The national hatred
of slavery indeed never wavered, but when Ameri-
can statesmen themselves declared that emancipation
was not the obj-ct of the war, and when the Southern
leaders did not make slavery but independence their
sine qua non at Fort Monroe, it showed no defection
from the English love of freedom to wish success to
the gallant and struggling Confederacy. The planters
indeed brought their ruin in great part upon them-
selves by refusing to assist the Confederate leaders
in their emergency by allowing the enlistment of
their slaves, but it did not follow that the establish-
ment of Southern independence need have prevented
a gradual but wholesale emancipation. If the North
had really exerted themselves in the matter,
and had made the maoum;ssio❑ of the slaves
the condition of recognising secession, the
slaveholders must have given way. As it
happens good has come out of evil in this as in many
other respects, and the waste of blood and treasure
has not been fruitless of good. Still, looking at the
question politically, and not philanthropically, it
may very well be asked whether the United States
have actually gained or lost in strength by the for-
cible maintenance of the Union ?
The question has been reopened at this moment by
the publication of a correspondence which took place
in the autumn of last year between Mr. GLADSTONE
and Mr. LESTER, an American gentleman, who had
addressed him on the subject of his well-known
Southern sympathies. Mr. GLADSTONE, with a can-
dour which does him honour, admits that he was
mistaken, and confesses that he did not understand
the nature and working of the American Union, and
that he h al imbibed an opinion that twenty or twenty-
four millions of the North would be happier and
stronger without the South than with it. Such an
opinion he owns to be mistaken, and concludes by
expressing his cordial good wishes towards the Re-
public.

But however suitable may be Mr. GLA DSTONE'S
open retraction of opinions he no longer h olds and
which he believes circumstances to have shown to be
mistaken, we may very well ask whether after all
his first impression was not the right one ? The
South, as matters now stand, gives no strength to the
Union. The cost of its military governments form
the greater part of the heavy national burdens ; its
productive powers are well nigh paralysed, its ability
and intelligence, and patriotism are excluded from
the national service. It supplies a constant source
of irritation and dissension, and of arguments about
the constitution ; it has produced a rupture between
the Executive and the Legislature, and there
seems little or no prospect of all this weak-
ness being turned into drength. If the
the leading men on both sides had been able to
" agree to differ," if by the aid of mutual concession
and forbearance the Federals and the Confederates
had succeeded in forming two allied and independent
nations, the progress of both might have been doubly
rapid. The Australian colonies have certainly not
lost in character, in strength, or in fortune by their
subdivision. If New South Wales had persisted in
retaining the supremacy over Victoria and the other
three colonies, we may very well doubt whether any
of the five would have reached their present hopeful
condition. Nations, like trees, want room to grow
and though the United States cannot certainly be said
to suffer for lack of space, they are hampered by the
unwieldy sise of an empire which woul I make a
dozen European kingdoms of fair proportion. Very
few untravelled Englishmen realise the extent
of America. We real of some States being 300
miles long, of railway lines measured by the thou-
sand miles without pausing to think how an aggregate
of these Stares, many of them of equal size, can pos-
sibly be well and independently governed from one
seat of Government. The pendulum must neces-
sarily oscillate between a degree of local anarchy and
the risk of excessive centralisation. If the adminis

tration of the country were grounded upon recog:
❑ised laws, individual liberty would be cared for in
outlying districts, while the tendency of Congre s
to absorb all the functions of the State !would be
effectually guarded against. Mr, GLADSTONE may

be satisfied that many thoughtful Americans share in

his former views. Less anxious for the temporary
triumph of a particular party than for the ultimate
welfare and prosperity of their country, they cannot
fail to recognisethe fact that the uniion is still virtually
incomplete, with some of the largc st States unrepre_
sentcd in the national Legislature and with a large
portion of the ;people estranged front their fellow -
country men.

" COUNCILS of war do not fight," awl the meeting
of High Church clergy on Tuesday is iio exception
to the rule, And yet there was a party, Iv no means