The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-27 00:00:00

door of every operative in a month ; therefore Eng-
land cannot go to war; but, in case war did result,
America has little fear. " Our plan then is, to let
England gnaw the file of this Alabama question to
her heart's content, and allow her journals to rail
at us without reply. Our case is made ; we know
what we intend, and we have nothing to do but to rest
placidly within our lines, until Engl and comes to
our terms, or until our opportunity arrives. Oar
judgment is, however, that she will curse herself
down to the level of surrender, and when that is
done, and she desires to make amends, we may pro-
perly accord her such diminished terms as becomes
a generous and superior power." If England be
allowed to delay atonement it is the duty of the
Washington Government to pay the sufferers. The
Spirit learns from Washington that the President and
Cabinet are discussing the plan it suggested a month
ago—to audit claimsfor the damage done by the An-
glo-rebel cruisers, and pay by orders on the Treasury.
"A bill will accompany this measure for the issue
of Alabama bonds, running, say thirty years, at
five or six per cent., in order that the people may
take them, and thus relieve the Treasury flout the
new burden. The bon Is will doubtless be the most
popular ever put upon the market; and when the
whole amount is audited and the last of the bonds
issued, the Government may probably conclu le that
the hour has arrived to close the question with
Great Britain by a demand for immediate restitu-
tion."
The Public Ledge, of Philadelphia, remarking on.
the effect produced upon the newspaper press of
England by the rejection of the treaty and Senator
Suinuer'sspeech, sees through the various comments,
the uniform assumption that the Senator's expres-
sions embody the demands of the Government an I
people. This is au error; and the Ledger thinks
there is reason for the belief " that neither the Go-
vernment, nor the journals, nor the ruling classes
of the people of Great Britain, have ever correctly
understood or estimated American feeling on this
question. There is no general desire in America
to make exorbitant demands upon Great Britain ;
there is no such desire to press that Government
to the verge of national humiliation ;' nor is there
any wish among those thotightful men who move
and control the great industrial, trading, commer-
cial, and influential interests of the United Stites,
and whose views are always respected by our Go-
vernment in international affairs, to indulge in the
luxury' of a war with England." The feeling in
America is that at the outset of the rebellion the
then existing British Government acted in a most
unfriendly spirit towards the United States, en-
couraging the fitting out of hostile vessels to dt.s:roy
American commerce, which caused in indirect de-
struction millions of dollars and indirectly millions
more. " The two points, iu their estimation, go to-
gether; they should be considered together, and they
should be considered independently and apart from
any other matters of dispute or negotiatisn between
Great Britain and the United States." The weak point
Of the late treaty was that it did not provide a sepa-
Tate, distinct, and specific mode of settlement, and
no-one could see through it the end of the sllataina
controversy, while its obscurity made the people
and Government afraid to trust it. The Ledger
consilers the unfriendly course of Lord Russell's
Government in 1861-62, so clear to Americans that
they believe the common sense of Europe to be
with them, and that the Enelish are convinced of I
the error of their Government, regret its acts, and
believe some clear, frank, manly form of contri-
tion should be expressed, instead of the subtleties
and finesse of diplomatic conventionalities. "When-
ever the British Government approaches the settle--
ment of the Alabama controversy in this spirit,
the end will not be far off. Till then there is
danger in it, though we believe our people prefer
to wait rather than to seek fora settlement by war.'
The Nation asserts that calm consideration
begets much dissent from and dissatisfaction with
Mr. Sumner's speech, as a statement of the Ame-
ricsn cause against England. His plan of making
England apologise for the neutrality proc'amation
is assailed as both unnecessary and certain to fail,
while even its legal position is attacked. The na-
ture of England's offence is not presented in a dis-
tinct theory. In one place she is charged with
giving. Confederate sh ps the rank of lawful belli-
gerents by her proclamation. He then calls these
lawful ships " pirates," showins that the procl t-
=ion gave them no lawful status. Further (n
he alludes to tilt to as Enslish ships ergased in war
against the United States. I 1
They cannot be all :
" If the proclamation gave the Coefederatss a law-
ful status, their cruisers were not ' pirates.' If it
gave them no status, and they were • l ii at. e,' Eng-
land is not responsible for the proclamation ;
if they were English war vessels assailing the com-
merce of a friendly nation, all talk about the pro-
clamation is a mere waste of breath. Any intelli-
gent reader may satisfy himself, by looking care-
fully at the speech, that it is really marked by the
confusion we have here described, and we are
therefore sorry that somebody did not undertake
the work who had firmly grasped some one of these
doctrines, and could present it clearly and vigour-
ously. Mr. Sumner has supported all three vigour-
ously by turns, but none of them long." his sen-
timental charge for the want of sympathy was out
of place in a legal argument, especially where it
took the form of damages. If such a rule is to be
introduced into national law it ought not to be
confined to questions of slavery. It would then be
proper " To bring England to book for the indiffe-
rence or hostility of her aristocracy to the temper-
ance movement, and her neglect of popular educa-
tion, and the low condition of her almshouses.
Grotius and Puffendorf would probably be asto-
nished to hear of Admiral Farragut burning the
shipping at Liverpool, or shelling the fortifications
at Portsmouth, because the House of Commons
was not sound' with regard to the proper treat-
ment of the insane, or was obdurate on the eight-
hour question, or deaf to woman's claim to the
ballot ; but Grotius and Puffendorf, poor old
fellows, wrote according to their light, which was
small, and are now dead, which is well for them."
The Tribune, in announcing Mr. Motley's in-
structions concerning the Alabama claims, considers
them to exhibit " the consciousness of an impreg-
nable position felt alike by the Government and
people of this country, and our entire readiness to
await a more convenient season, or a better temper
on the part of our British cousins, before pas=ing
the settlement of a matter which we can very well
afford to leave open as long as they can." There
is no menace of war, no threat of hostilities ; no
fillibustering raid upon Canada is meditated. "Mr.
Motley has simply to tell the British Secretary for
Foreign Affairs that we are assured in our position,
and can afford to wait. That is all."
The New York Herald, in its usual peremptory
style, brings the question to the alternative of a
prompt settlement or war ; but the New York 2 imes
takes an opposite view, discussing the question with
temper and conciliation.

There is an able article in the New York. lndepen-
dent,. written by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, "Our Rela-
tions wi!h England." lle consilers Nfr. Sumner's
speech to be a model in clearness of statement, force
of reasoning, dignity of tre ttment, and calmness of
temper. At the saute time he notices and dwel's at
length on what he holds to be a flaw—the partw herein
Mr. Sumner invokes the mem JryofWilberforceagainst
England. His argument is precisely that of the
English press, that England could not consider it
a war• against slavery, while Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Sewarl did all in their poxer during its early

stages to deprive it of such a character, the one
being the official head of the nation, and the oth r
its mouthpiece with foreign States. When the
character of the war did change, and the blows were

struck directly against slavery, the writer a3serls a
great change to have been iinaiAliately wrought in
England. Patuphles were scattered broadcast

through; the land, and everywhere the Northern
cause found earnest champions.

The New York Notion has au article on the news-
paper scandal, the Young-Dana affair, which i:
treats as of a serious nature. The New York Sun
asserted that it only affected Mr. Young himself, a
statement which, if correct, would leave that paper
without a shadow of excuse for devoting four of its
columns to the publication of his frivate letters,
and the exposure of his private affairs. " What
makes his doings and those of his frieads in Phila-