The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, 27, 1869

the revived energy at Scotland x aver. ror a ion
time betting "specs," ES they are called, have beet
allowed to defy the law and cheat the public. Al
these are now about to be put down. The Star says
"An order has been privately issued to prosecute al
persons found dealing in specs' or shewing spec
bills. The detectives are hard at work getting 111
information, and when they have the name;
and addresses of persons who have sinneC
against the law, the police intend to institutf
a whole series of prosecutions. None of those con-
cerned in the traffic of spec tickets are to be allowei
to escape, and several hundred persons will be prose-
cuted. The police have resolved to put down the
traffic with a strong hand. In about three weeks
time another series of prosecutions will be com.
menced, and the parties then assailed gill be the
agents on commission and tl;c owners of betting
e' changes. These prosecutions will cause consider•
able commotion amongst thousands of pc-rsons."

Prussia and Austria which raged so furiously a little
while ago. The North German Gazette, the greatest
sinner, it will be remembered, on the last occasion, has
begun the campaign with a ferce attack upon Count
Beust. It holds him answerable for the publication of
this despatch ; which is, indeed, a feasible assumption, for
no doubt the Austrian Minister would be delighted to
publish it. It accuses him of attempting to create dis-
trust of Prussia amongst the smaller States. And it
winds up by charging him with seeking a quarrel, relying
on the aid this time of the Hungarians and Solaces.

body have generally suffered from the late cold
weather. One of Postmaster Cresswell's first acts
was to remove Andrew Johnson (junior) of Green-
ville, Tenneisee, lately of Washington, from the
Special Agency of the Post-office Department. lie
had been collecting Post-office funds in the South
for some months. The President is said to regard
Mr. Butler as leader of the House, and although
Butler changed his opinions on the Reconstruction
Bill, adopting those of the President, still there
is generally believed to be an understanding be-
tween them on the leading measures. On Wednes-
daq a delegation from the Philadelphia Society of
Friends had an interview with Gen. Grant in rela-
tion to the management oflndian affair3,proposiu g the
Superintendent of Indian Affairs and his subordinates
to be placed under their control. Colonel Pai ker,
the Indian officer, lately on General Grant's Staff,
has been appointed Indian Agent, and will work
well with the Quakers. It is generally under-
stood in Washington that Secretary Fish dues not
favour annexation schemes, and is oppose to in-
terference in Cuba and to the annexation of St.
Domingo. Annexation policy is in his opinion a
mistake, but it is known that the question of Cuban
independence was discussed at a Cabinet meeting
before a full attendance. Whether we cheat less
or have less conscience than you Britishers I cannot
tell, but our Secretary of the Treasury acknowledges
less " Conscience Money" than the English Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer. He has just got, how-
ever, a $lOO bill from Providence, New Jersey, the
sender addressing it to Mr. Fish, Secretary of the
Treasury; another letter contained one dollar and
a half in revenue stamps from Pennsylvania. In
the election case from the Twenty-first District of
Pennsylvania, where the Election Committee de-
cided that John Covode had a prinza facie right to
the seat, the House has ordered the whole subject
to be recommitted, with instructions to report on
the merits of the case.

THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

The New York Tribune, which is considered to
indicate the policy of the GOverntnent at 'Washing-
ton, unfolds in a series of articles on Canada, one
reason for the rejection of the Alabama Convention.
The dominant idea of the Republican party is union,
which appears to strengthen as its extreme wing
is neared. It is known that England sets no mate-
rial value on the Canadas, that they are to her a
loss and a danger, provocative of a war which could
only endo r
Nienmotrihgiesriartthci
oeo
nne,qo
butun enset
c,
isupplying,channelono f anyi
tlSfivhethael
what
teDstfOlimio
eyinganin, fno r t
ht
eh e
dignity on
realotth the United
Britishat];un eit etdo
provincesa nd loserespect
ocfo lboeni inegs
compen-
sationeportions
ftouorrf
et thohone
trßhi
srekiitrish
adriesEfi
defence
inginpeifirr e h
ison;
rignowsmauniaffil
(e the
rial
ionevieenrtw
invadersme ipu
ing
rower along their borders, being
i
by
an act they cannot control, of another country.
Whetherage of en tnphtre
nev establishments
bbsonof r
more
htoi
re independ
oenbsitnuneoobtaotjdl Dominionietgoech autesib as
udutnaiboin,
oathuthnne:
i
snat iorogt nu aboutlilegr
eth
that
ntwhichunion oi
nnwt
oe
Tribune,
rai
burdoesu,e haveo u
wouldr
to the mother country and to the colony, concludes
that it would be sound policy for England to sug-
gest the separation, and settle all disputes now pend-
ing with the Republic on that basis. The pre-
cedent of international law established by England
is at last seen by British merchants to be the most
injurious ever set by a nation against its own secu-
rity. If a cruiser can go fully commissioned, armed,
and equipped from the ports of neutral Powers to
seize and destroy the ships of a belligerent, acting
as its own Prize Court, and burning at sea the cap
tured vessel it condemns, a law will be in operation
which cannot fail some day to be fatal to England's
commerce. Now England's commerce is her life ;
with it untouched she is chief among nations ; cut
it off an.l she collapses, her wealth dwindles, her
people starve, and she sinks to a position in accord-
ance with the tertitorial extent of the kingdom. To
obliterate such a precedent, which a moment of
madness allowed her to sanction, has, and wilt more
become, as this is better unders.ood, an object of vital
importance. Those who have watched the progress of
the &spate are aware of the truth of our assertion.
From the days when members cheered Mr. LAIRD'S
proud boast in the house, to those when England
heard with concern the rejection of the CLAREN-
DON-JOHNSON Convention, there has been a mighty
change, and that mainly grounded on the know-
ledge becoming general that never was there such
an instance of a man dwelling in a glass house
bringing stone-throwing into fashion. Columbia,
aware of the strength of her position finds that it suits
her purpose to keep the dispute open, but we ima-
gine the Senate bad an ulterior object with which
they connected that dispute when they rejected
the treaty for its settlement. To Senator SUMNER
has been attributed, as we before observed, some
remarkable articles in the Tribune, and he is the
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, as
well as the Senate's instructor and guide on those
affairs. In these articles he associated the settle-
ment of the claims, the remodelling of the inter-
national code, and a firm and lasting alliance be-
tween the nations, with the voluntary withdrawal of
the sovereignty of England from British America.
Is it :not probable that Mr. SUMNER advised the
Senate when discussing this question not to accede
to any settlement until England was prepared to
concede that which, however valuable to the United
States, was really of no value to her? The tendency
and tone of the .American papers is to exaggerate
the wrong, and the injury done to the Republic
through English sympathy with the rebellion, yet
to reject every means suggested for the compensation
of those injuries, and to such an extent are both car-
ried, that in Europe they are ascribed to sentiment
and pettishness. Here Columbia is represented as
es
hfea nwciileld n
owtroknigss,
da
esnpl oa irlitn co.hsi lhde,
wr oi al
lr i n g
not overe
good she
and be friends, she will not take the cakes and
jam, but that she will pinch and slap to her heart's
content hereafter. Now it is just possible that Miss
a very slygame. Mr. Sum-
COLUMBIAmaybe playing
NEIt is a leader of the extreme Republican party ;
union, as we before said, is the grand idea of that
fought, for
fformiiltiihounsndwreedres
opfarttyho;ufsoarndist, tfhelel,waanrd
washu ndred
expended ; but so strong is the sentiment in the
Northern mind that the party strikes a sympathetic
cord even when boastingly alluding to the sacrifices
made to preserve the Union. Consider then the
triumph to this party if they could make that very
war waged for severance not merely the means of
strengthening the bonds which bind it, but extending
that union over the whole continent. The weapons
were still red in the hands of the Northern soldiers
when the attempt to found a Latin counterpoise on
the Continent was sternly forbidden, and the first
foreign fruits of Northern triumph was the with-
drawal of foreign soldiers from Mexico, leaving it a
mere satrapy of the Union. But another attempt to
establish a nationality has been in progress on the
Continent in the Dominion, threatening a more seri-
ous impediment to the darling American idea of unity.
1V hat if the Republicans can accomplish the absorp-
tion of the Canadas through an incident of that
war, carrying its objects to their legitimate end,
for it was fought on the defeated side for the sove-
reignty of States, and would then result in one con-
tinental dominion. Nothing could more bring home
the scope of what was contended for, the grandeur
of the object, and the fulness of the success. This
is what is necessary to complete the war, making
every citizen feel that, however great his sacrifices
the magnitude of the gain makes them small, and
the party under whose auspices the nation has
achieved so much will be dominant in the Union
du• ing the present generation, and hand a great
name down to posterity. The Tribune considers
that such a course on the part of England would
open a new dawn of real friendship between the
countries, based upon common interest and mutual
honour ; a voluntary and magnanimous reparation
having obliterated the memory of a mighty wren..
and buried the ravages of the ironclads* in the'
grave of slavery and the rebellion. " I have," said
BRIGHT, in contrast to the Confederate success,
"another and a brighter vision before my gaze; it

* We wonder why the Tribune always calls these
wretched.wyeden privateers "ironelads."

may be a vision, but I will cherish it. I tee one vast
Confederation stretching from the frozen North in
unbroken line to the glowing South, and from the
wild billows of the Atlantic westward to the calmer
waters of the Pacific main ; and I see one people
and one language, and one law and one faith, and
over all that wide Continent, the home of freedom
for the oppressed of every race and of every clime."
JOHN BRIGHT is the most representative English-
man alive, and what his mind's-eye saw with enthu-
siasm ought not to alarm his countrymen. No other
principle is better established than that the one
thrives in the success of all. The wealth of pro-
duction developed in America is a source of gain
to Europe, and if Africa, instead of being a dead
continent, poured the riches nature hasstored therein
over the world, the world would benefit in a secon-
dary degree only to Africa. In the retnatkable
article in the Edinburgh Review, of which we have
elsewhere riven an outline, the writer ap; car-A to
conclude that the prosperity- of the Republic, if it
continues to be prosperous, will be attained, not in
consequence of, but in spite of, its institutions. But
a glance at the world ought to have taught
the reviewer that out of Europe the Union
stands alone in its prosperity, in wealth, and civili-
zation, though other nations own territories as exten-
sive, and even more gifted by nature. While
from the Rio Grande south ward to Cape Horn, igno-
rance, poverty, and lawlessness prevail, so as to
throw them out of the pale—northward we have a
comparison. Can the reviewer explain why the line
of the St. Lawrence and the British boundary is
marked on the one side by progress, material pros-
perity, and corn-fields, and on the other by stag-
nation and the primeval forest? Can he explain
the reason of the exodus from Canada into the
United States, which is now creating such astonish-
ment and even dismay ? No; while we grant the cur-
ruption, we contend that there has never been such
an instance of national growth, and we conclude that
to thole who have effected so much may safely be
left the destinies of the Continent. If, then, Eng-
land, even more than other countries, would benefit
by American prosperity, and that prosperity can be
advanced by the absorption into the Union of the
British Provinces, BRIGHT'S picture should be seen
by England as seen by him. While advocating the
end, we object, if our surmise be true, to the Means.
The Alabama question has nothing to do with the
withdrawal of British sovereignty from America.
The subject, if openly approached, has a much
better chance of success than as tacked to a threat
and a bribe. No country aspiring to a leading
place, and which valued the national honour, could
consent to barter away its territory for security
except on compulsion after defeat. Nor is the
treaty—though termed the Alabama Convention—
for the settlement of the claims 'arising from the
ravages of the cruisers only ; for British subjects
also have bills for damages. Yet, it is true, that in
the spirit which actuates the community is to be
found the real difficulties to a settlement, or facility
in arriving at an amicable solution ; and from such
a withdrawal, would ensue in the feelings it would
engender, among numerous other benefits, the obli-
teration of a dangerous precedent, and the remo-
delling of international law.

The article in the Tribune which called forth the
preceding remarks was suggested by what it termed
" a significant article of the Anglo-American Tinos."
While thanking our great American conte.mper Lry
i
for its flattering allusion to us, we note in t a pecu-
liarity of American journalism. The Tribune is not
content with saying that we are an " able London
paper," but begins speculating on who is its editor.
In America, the editor is the spirit ; the journal,
mere paper. In England, the journal is the spirit;
the editor, a myth. If the journal be a power,
the editor in this loses some personal importance,
but the weight in society taken from himself is
thrown with a multiplying effect into the scale with
the journal. When one meets an apparently stupid
man in society, and is informed that he is the edi-
tor of " an able London paper," the respect formerly
entertained for that organ is subjected to a severe
trial. Henceforth it is associated with whatever
peculiarity or defect was observable in the indivi-
dual, even after he is buried. lIonAcE GREELEY,
of the Tribune ; RAYMOND, of the New York Times;
and BENNETT of the herald are like the chiefs of
clans, and they always come up, as in Scotland,
associated with that ilk. Indeed, as there where
nawes are merged in the estate, they are merged in
the papers, or rather the papers in them ; at any
rate the two being so associated as to be almcst
inseparable. Now, if asked who is the edi-
tor of the Pall Mall Gazette? we would reply,
we neither knew nor cared ; not having even the
remotest idea, and being content with our igno-
rance. IVho writes the Echo ? and our answer
would be " Echo;" yet the editor of this rising
young paper, so largely circulated in London, holds
a most responsible position. We know that Mr.
WALTER is the principal owner of the Times, and if
the magnificent house he is building in Berkshire
is to be taken as a test, his share can be no small
thing. Although we lately saw the information in
an American paper, we have no notion who own or
write the Daily News, Standard, Star, or Telegraph,
notwithstanding that the gentlemen who control
these powerful organs of opinion exercise more in-
fluence in the canary than perhaps any other men
in it. Would they exercise more, if each journal
became as intimately associated with its chief edi-
tor as is the case in America ? Certainly not, nor
anything approaching it, for it is the abstraction
that conveys much of the power ; the mystery that
gives weight to the oracle; the very fact of its want
of association with any individual on whom the
imagination can fix it. No men can better tell this
than the leading article writers of the Times. To
them it must be intense amusement to enter society
and hear their own thoughts reproduced, indeed
their very words, as the utterer's own, while perhaps
setting the spoken words of the writer aside with su-
percilious disdain. This must constantly occur, and
ome of these journalists could give most amusing
narratives of their experiences. But if the article
were associated -with the writer, not even the
Times could save it from losing vastly in import-
ance. At the same time that the knowledge
would elevate the writer in the opinion of those
with whom he came in contact, it would be
out of proportion with the heavy cost to the jour-
nal. In England, therefore, editors wisely prefer to
merge their individuality into their papers, existing
so far as a mere abstraction. Another advantage in
this is, that in shielding it from personalities, it
elevates the profession. Angry men, with pens in
their hands and a journal to give publicity to what
they write, will often say what they wish to recall
in their calmer mood. It is not because of opinion
that men get annoyed with each other, but on ac-
count of the personalities imported into the con-
troversy. But these could not be introduced unless
the arguments were connected with individuals.
Hence one good reason for not allowing them to
be so connected. A man can never write with an
untrammelled pen on such questions as occupy
journalism, if the public know who the writer is.
What pleasant scenes we should have in drawing,*
rooms, if, say, the Pall Mall critic was brought
face to face with the lady author ; nor would it
tend to make a dinner-table ageeable, if the writer
of a severe animadversion on the speech or conouct
of another of the guests, was at the table. The
consequence of American editors photographing all
their pages with themselves, is bitter personality,
and often trag:cal quarrels. In France this effect
is only less because the Press is shackled, while in
America it is as free as air. A book more funny
than any " Joe Miller" could be compiled by simply
gathering what the editors say of each other in the
States. We will just cast a glance through a file
of an American paper fur an instenee —here is the

result :

"A Missouri editor speaks thus of one of his l_wethren
of the press:—' 'no poor, old, dilapidated piece of flesh
and bones who hangs himself out every week in the Jack-
son ,S7atzdard, and win,by common consent, was c.tnsi-
dered the jackass of the Editorial Union, has rattled his
old skeleton at us.'"

lla ! ha ! ha ! not bad that, as a sample, and we
arc thankful to the king chance which has so helped
us in our illustration. Although the chiefs of the
great American metropolitan papers have made
their names celebrated by associating them inti-
mately with such widely circulated organs of opinion,
yet they are constantly subjected either to venom-
ous attacks, or to impertinent familiarities. Indeed