The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-19 00:00:00

Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.

STLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.--
Proprietor and Manager. Mr. Wm. BATTY.
Crowded Houses nightly to witness the Lions and the grew
Brute Tamer.
Miss Rebecca Isaacs every Evening,.

Notices.—There will be no half-price during. the engage-
ment of the Lions. except far children under ten years of
age, and then to Pit and Boxes only.
This Eyenine., a new Spectacle, entitled TTTE Mr /N
CONO,TTEROR ; or, The .Death Jungle. expressly Tor the
introduction of the Wonders of the World, " The Groupe
of Performing Lions." The Lion Conqueror, Mr. J. Crockett.
Tp he succeeded by geenes in the Arena, supported by
talented Parisian and Bri ish Artistes.
Concluding with the First Act of THE DAUGNBER
OF THE REGIMENT. Marie, Hiss Rebecca Isaacs.
Doors open at half-past 43, performance commence at 7.
Bog-office oren daily from 11 till 4
stage ,tanager—Mr. W. Wxs'r.
Director of the Arena—Mr. Pearson.

Batty's Prize Pantomime will be produced on a scale o
great magnificence at Christmas.

CANTERBURY HALL.
Open Every Evening, at Seven.
GRAND SELECTION- (First Time) from LA. FTGT,IA
DEL REGIMENTO (Donizetti), NORMA, SONNAMBULA,
and MARTHA.

Principal Artistes Miss RUSSELL, Madame MARIA, Miss
TYRRELL, Miss WILLIAMS, MT. HENRY HERBERT, C.
W. BERNARD, and Signor TIVOLI.
Musical Director...., Mr. F. JONGIIMANS.

The Comic Department compri 4es Messrs. J. BLANCHARD,
A. B. HOLLINGSWORTH, Master BARRY, G. W. "'ELL.
CitAnLty Fox, and E. MAnsiTALL.

The Fine Arts Gallery has been enriched by the addition of
the late John Martin's three Grand Pictures—viz., "THE
GREAT DAY of TITS WRATH." "TAE PLAINS of
MAYEN," and "TAE LAST JUDGMENT," on view
until 12 o'clock at Night.

THE WEATHER,—SUN OFFICE. DEC. 19, Is6o.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADY!.
42—highest since noon yesterday.
27—lowest this morning and during the night.
33—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.46 ; still falling.
WIND—S.-S.-Westerly—light; with fine sharp frost.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tate DAY.—Morning, 6h. 11m.—Afternoon, 6h. 31m
To-mounow.-Morning, 6h. 53m.—Afternoon, 7h. 13m,

44-
I ,

THE SUN.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19, 1860.

Slavery for ever ! Such is the spirit, we may
say the letter also, of the long and elaborate half of
the PRESIDENT'S Message, which we gave our readers
in extenso last night ; The Sun being, we believe,
the first of the English press to do so. The late
Presidential election has been by far the most im-
portant one on record, perhaps since the Constitu-
tion was founded. It has reversed a policy of forty
years' standing ; it has brought the whole Union
face to face with the evil workings of the accursed
system, which perplexed the founders of the Ame-
rican Constitution ; and it has provoked some of the
most guilty members of the Confederation to talk
loudly of separation from a Union whose Presi-
dential vote is, unquestionably, an implied censure
on their cherished crime. The Message of the
PRESIDENT, whose whole policy is equally cen-
sured by this election, and his reasonings with both
the censuring and censured States of the Union,
deserve the attention of all who take an interest
in the extension of civilisation and of human free-
dom. Mr. BUCHANAN, we need not say, is the
defender of withholding the primary essential of
civilisation from 5,000,000 of coloured Americans;
he advocates barbarism, because barbarians only
can be held as property.
It is Mr. BUCUANAN'S misfortune to retire frorr
office a thoroughly vanquished man. From the
day of his entrance on it he has laid himself out to
serve the cause of " property in man." He evidently
really loved the id-a, atrocious as the very concep-
tion seems to Englishmen, and atrocious as it
seemed to the framers of a Republican Consti-
tution; who refused to admit th, word slave into
the document which gave it form.
Re has rejoiced
in the Satanic decisions of the Supreme
Court of
the United States, a court packed with pro-slavery
judges ; and that infamy Fugitive
of legislation,.the
Slave Law, which was spoken of only with horror
throughout Europe, is his delight, his chosen
remedy for the ills which now threaten the Union.
That we are not exaggerating, our readers may see
in a moment by turning to the document we have
given. He not only quotes with gratitude the in-
famous decision—one clearly in violation of the
spirit at least of the Constitution—by which slavery
could not be excluded from the territories, but re-
commends the revising of t:-le Constitution, in order
to make the Fugitive Slave Law a part of it !!! It
is surely enough to make these who framed the
Constitution as it is, rise from their graves. He
goes so far as to say, speaking of this scandal of
Legislation, and of the Personal Liberty Acts by
which some of the free states defeat its most out-
rageou* enormities, that unless those states will

give full scope to the Fugitive Slave Law, and
repeal their own acts, rebellion would be justi-
fied ! These are the exact words of this Pre-
sidential incendiarism :—" The Southern, states,
standing on the basis of the constitution, have 1
a right to demand this act of justice from the
states of the North. Should it be refused, then the
constitution, to which all the states are parties,
will have been wilfully violated by one portion of
them in a provision essential to the domestic secu-
rity and happiness of the remainder. in that event,
the injured states, after havingfirst used all peaceful
and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be
justified in revolutionary resistance to the Govern-
ment of the Union." We have thus the retiring
President of the United States declaring to infuri-
ated dealers in men that the states which repudiate
such accursed traffic may not guard their own free
subjects against the corrupt practices created by a
slaveholder's law ; a law which, by a larger fee,
bribes the judge himself to send a freeman away to
Southern bondage, and that without the intervention
of a jury, or heeding the commonest rules of
evidence.
Such a practical people are we that probably
most of our readers, who have hardly leisure to
study Mr. BUCHANAN'S pleadings on the various
aspects of the Secession question, will ask us
whether we cannot tell them briefly what he would
have the confederated States do. We can gratify
them in a very few words of Mr. BUCHANAN'S him•
self quite to the point. He earnestly recommends
an explanatory amendment of the Constitution,"
and says it might be limited to these three special
points : —l. An express recognition of the
right of property in slaves in the States
where it now exists or may hereafter exist.
2. The duty of protecting this right in all the
common territories throughout their territorial exis-
tence, and until they shall be admitted as States
into the Union, with or without slavery, as their
constitutions may prescribe. 3. A like recognition of
the right of the master to have his slave, who has
escaped from one state to another, restored and' de-
livered up" to him, and the validity of the Fugitive
Slave Law enacted for this purpose, together with a
declaration that all State laws impairing or defeat-
ing this right are violations of the Constitution,
and are consequently null and void."
Can Mr. BUCHANAN then believe that the
election of Mr. LINCOLN really means no more than
that the Confederated States are prepared, by
a majority of three-fourths of them, to accept
such amendments as these, or that two-thirds of
both Houses of Congress would unite to lay such
amendments before a Convention of the States for
their sanction ? We know that the class in Ame-
rica corresponding to Manchester politicians here
would submit to almost any pro-slavery concessions
to make all smooth ; but, till we see it, we will not
believe of the great body of intelligent, honest
men in the Northern States that they could so
stultify their recent victory, much less encourage
the domineering South by showing the white feather,
to resume their ascendancy. Besides, the ruinous
commercial aspect of slavery is no w becoming
thoroughly understood. OLMSTED'S sober and im-
partial volumes, as well as HELPER'S unanswerable
muster of facts, have fixed in the minds of all men
the conviction that slavery has beggared the
South, degraded its white inhabitants, and dis-
graced the whole Union. Yet most innocently, as if
quite a juvenile politician, Mr. BUCHANAN re-
marks, " Such an explanatory amendment would,
it is believed, for ever terminate the existing dis-
sensions and restore peace and harmony among the
States." As if he could really imagine that the
Republican party would at his recommendation
just concede the very points which they have
made most prominent in their programme.
Perhaps the most audacious infatuation of all is
Mr. BUCHANAN'S recommendation, that, at this
time of day, in the face of the whole civilised and
Christian world, in the face of a community
awakening to the detestable character, and ruinous
social, political, and commercial evil of slavery—it
should be proposed, as in the first mentioned
amendment, " expressly to recognise the right of
property in slaves." A sadder exemplification of
the mental debasement consequent on long cherish-
ing a gross social immorality need hardly be
sought, than that of an aged, intelligent gentle-
man, long resident, too, in this land of
freedom, actually proposing, in 1860, to introduce
into the American Constitution that hateful prin-
ciple with which the fathers of the Constitution
would not defile so sacred a document. To recog

nise " expressly" right of property in man, in a
Constitution whose preamble states that all men
are born free and equal—for shame's sake he must
propose to abolish the preamble too. The mere
proposal, standing as it now does in the last page
of American history, will be a stigma on the name
of JAMES BUCHANAN through all generations. He

would sell the honour of the Constitution itself to
serve slaveholders. As to the second point, it is
the one by which the Republican party is chiefly
distinguished. Republicans deny precisely the
right to take slaves into the Federal territory ;
yet they are to be asked in the hour of victory
to make this right a clause of the Constitution !
If the Republican party has but a shadow of self-
respect, not to say conviction of the truth and value

of their principles, this purely party proposal oi

the PRESIDENT will be treated with scorn as an
nsult. We may fear, with reason, the old ten-

dency of the North to compromise, but we surely
need not fear that the victorious party will sell its
distinctive principles. As to the third point, the
embodiment of the Fugitive Slave Law—execrated
as it is throughout Christendom—in the Constitu-
tion, the States can never consent to such a pro-
found disgrace—enough and more than enough,
that such an atrocity could once get a majority in
Congress—to think of two-thirds of Congress get-
ting it adopted by three-fourths of the States as
their basis of Union seems like political delirium.
As to the President's lengthy reasons against
Secession, for the more part, they are sound enough.

The late election he can easily show furnishes no

ground for it whatever. No overt act of hostility
to Southern slavery has been committed, or is
likely to be, since the new President will be
bound by existing laws. No provision is made in

the Constitution for Secession, and though it may

become necessary, as revolution may to an ill-
governed people, yet it is nothing less than revo-

lution. We have seen, however, that this double-

minded and double-tongued message justifies revo-
lution if the party-demands of the South are not
complied with. The remaining topics of this long

document we may advert to on another occasion.
On its grand subject it will hardly raise the general
estimate of Mr. BUCHANAN, unless it be assumed
that it was required by the first magistrate of the
States to " blow hot and cold" on a vital question.
" VICTORIA D

runs.

G: BRITT : "—Why Britt. ?
Surely that is doing it to a T overmuch. Yet even
with Britannia thus wantonly misspelt bhyaifa.
blundering abbreviation upon all
the pence,
pence, and farthings just issued from the Mint—
the new bronze coinage is right welcometo us, and
we hail its appearance accordingly with the utmost
possible satisfaction.
Last evening's Gazette, it will be remarked,

formally itsuecl this new coin into circulation.
Authorikting i'cs acceptance for the purely nominal
value stampet I upon each piece or token—and doing
this moreover with all regard to the customary
forms and ceremonials through the medium of one
of her Most ( 3racious MAJESTY'S own Royal Pro-
clamations,

There is mach more in all this than the majority
of general re Iders might imagine at the first
glance. There' is far more in it, in all
human likelihood, than any of those authorities
imagine who have taken part directly or indirectly
in the issuing first of all of the new coins, and
afterwards of last night's Proclamation. Probably
there is not one amongst the number of those same
officials who had the slightest conception in pre-
paring this bronze coins ;e for circulation, probably
there was not one individual amongst them, we say,
from the Master of the Min'.t downward who had the
smallest notion how effectuttlly they were inserting
the thin end of the wedge at; the very base or pedi-
ment of our huge and cum brows and complicated
monetary system—and how at the pressure of
every one of the new coins nowlainted, as each fell
tinkling from the Mint-machinery, that thin end of
the wedge was driven further and further
"home," with a sledge-hammer beat, preparatory to
the subversion now in the fullness of time of the
huge and ponderous scheme built up by the old
hard-calculating Bullionists.

This immense result of the new bronze coinage is,
in our view of it, so inevitable that we should
almost regard ourselves as ungrateful, if
we looked upon these pretty little tokens
without a sense of absolute complacency.
Yet we are conscious all the while that in them-
selves they are full of blemishes. There is that un-
pleasant " Britt" to begin with ! Then the effigy
of her MAJESTY "laureated" on the obverse, bears
a far greater resemblance to the Empress EUGENIE
than it does to Queen VICTORIA. Besides which it
is out of all proportion to the diameter of the coin—
it is far too large a head for the circumference. And
in addition to all this—whether it be owing to the
ductility or plasticity of the mixed metal, this bronze
composed of zinc, tin, and copper, or whatever else
the cause of the flaw we are about to particularise
may be—there is no doubt at all that upon obverse
and upon reverse, but more particularly
upon the latter,, there is a ghostly stamp-
ing through of the outlines of the effigy or
figure—here of the figure of Britannia, there of the
effigy of the Sovereign ! Catching the sheen of
the light upon one of the new coins, one can see
upon the obverse the dim shadowing forth of the
' figure of the tutelary goddess of " Britt :" while
• turning the same coin to the reverse, and holding
' that reverse at a similar angle,the keen eye of the
observer may detect the shadowy outline also of
the Queen's effigy glimmering high up in the sky
around the figure of Britannia. Altogether,
' nevertheless, the bronze coin, in spite of these vexa-
tious blemishes, is a pretty little coin enough ; one
can handle it, moreover, without any uncomfortable
notion of getting the fingers that toy with it
flavoured with copperas. Above all, it is so espe-
cially welcome to our eyes as—a precedent !
For there is no getting over the fact new
that these new bronze coins are of a wholly
arbitrary value—that they are the merest symbols,
or tokens of a value which they notoriously, nay,
avowedly do not possess intrinsically themselves.
The Proclamation, transferred from the Gazette of
last night into our latest impression yesterday—
the proclamation "given at our Court at Windsor,"
upon the 17th day of this present month of Decem-
ber—acknowledges as much quite plainly,"Whereas,
says her MAJESTY in this document, " we have
thought fit to order that certain pieces of money of
bronze or mixed metal shall be coined, which shall
be called penny pieces,' halfpenny pieces,' and
' farthing pieces,' every such penny having for the
obverse impression our effigy laureated, &c."
Adding "And whereas pieces of money of the
description aforesaid have been coined at our Mint,
and will be coined there, we have therefore, with
the advice of our Privy Council, thought fit to
issue this proclamation." The gist of which pro-
claaiation then appears in the words following—
" And we do hereby ordain, declare, and command
that all such pieces of money, of bronze or mixed
metal, so coined, and to be coined as aforesaid,
shall be current and lawful money of the king-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, and shall pass
and be received as current and lawful money of the
said kingdom, every anch penny piece as of the value
of one penny of present lawful money, every such
ha(fpenny piece as of the value of one halfpenny of
present lauful money, and every such farthing piece
as of the value of one farthing of Present laltful
money." In other words, a royal mandate declares
thus absolutely that coins shall be received as of a
value that they do not actually possess by very
nearly the amount of three quarters of the sum sym-
bolised by them when in circulation ! Recollect
the metal of which these new bronze pieces are
composed is a metal compounded from ninety-five
parts of copper, and four parts of tin and one part
of zinc—and that this mixed metal is then, after
it has been so compounded, measured out in
much smaller quantities than pure copper alone
was wont to be measured out formerly in the
making of the old pennies and halfpennies. The
result of this economical blending of the metals, as
well as of the still further economy incident to

the judicious diminution of the bulk of the
new coins when minted—the result of these
two wise economies, we say, being the fulfilment
to a very considerable extent of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
agreeable prediction of last year, viz., that the new
coin when issued would be " very convenient, very
nice in appearance, and a most agreeable coin to
handle." It has at any rate fulfilled this predic_
tion of Mr. GLADSTONE'S (all will admit this)

in two of these particulars, that is to say
in the matter of the handling and of the con-

venience. But—what is of far more importance—
the intrinsic value of the new coin turns out to be
but very little more than ONE•FOURTII of its
nominal value, as part of the current coin
of the realm now in circulation ! In illustra.

tion of the extraordinary importance of this " fact,"
as one constituting an unintentional precedent, and

as one, moreover, in direct and glaring violation

principle involved in the monetary
of the great
legislation of 1819 and 1844, we may refer to the

argument upon this point that will be advanced in

hese columns to-morrow, more in detail than is at

:he present moment really practicable—chiefly by

reason of the tedious length to which, as usual, the

message of the ever garrulous American Presidtnt

The Duke of Newcastle arrived in town from
Windsor Castle yesterday.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Abercorn and
family have left Chesterfield House for Brocket Hall,
Herts.

The Opinione of Turin announces that the con-
tract for the construction of a railway along the western
coast of Italy is about to be signed with Messrs. Galliera,
Bellinzaghi, and Co., and that the works will immediately
be commenced under the direction of M. Grattoni, en-
gineer.

The Espro of Turin states that the inundations
caused by the late rains have considerably damaged the
fortifications of Peschiera. Two new forts are to be erected
between Peschiera and Verona,