The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-28 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 28, 1867.

Thanks to the Atlantic Cable and the frequent
mails we are kept pretty well au courant with the
course of American politics. 'Time was when the
names of transatlantic statesmen, with very few
exceptions, were absolutely strange to English
readers, and when the very cognomens of the rival
parties were almost unknown to them. Now, how-
ever, all is changed, and the great war which at
one time threatened to produce an open rupture
between the two Anglo-Saxon nations has at least
had one beneficial effect. It has drawn England
and America nearer together, and by familiarising
each people with the daily life of the
other, and increasing their mutual interest and
knowledge, it has helped materially to remove and
lessen those prejudices which had their origin in
misapprehension and misunderstanding. It will
henceforth be less easy for interested agitators to
stir up antagonistic feelings, less easy to misrepre-
sent the words of diplomatists, the acts of states-
men, or the debates of legislators. Already these
results have been in some degree attained. A week
or two since, when Mr. CHANDLER made his ill-
advised and intemperate speech in the Senate, recom-
mending the fitting out of Abyssinian privateers, Mr.
REVERDY JormsoN, one of the foremost men in the
Senate and at the bar, rose in his place and declared
that a war with England would be a great national
misfortune. Lord STANLEY'S words last session in
the English Parliament were not less emphatic,
when he affirmed that those who, by tongue or pen,
fostered misunderstandings between this country
and the United States, wer the worst enemies of
both. It is a great thing to have got rid of some
longstanding prejudices and preconceived notions,
which, for a generation or two, had stood in the way
of a better feeling on both sides. For a much longer
period a bitter hostility was maintained between
England and France, but the rapid advance of
education which familiarised each with the other's
language, and consequently with the journals and
commentaries of the day, and, still more, the faci-
lities for modern travelling, which brought French-
men into England and sent Englishmen into
France, have altered all that. Steam has now well
nigh bridged the Atlantic, and the constant com-
munication between this country and the United
States will do more to promote united good feeling
than a host of lectures and addresses.

It is gratifying to find, from the intelligence
brought by the China from New York on the 17th, I
that the House of Representatives has refused by
83 to 55 to suspend the rules in order to receive a
resolution offered by Mr. BULLER, for payment of
the Public Debt in currency. A similar resolution
is still before the Committee of Ways and Means,
but it will, we hope, meet with a similar fate. The
national credit is surely worth some sacrifice, and
the Americans may depend upon it that any such
scheme of repudiation, either whole or partial,
would in the end prove a very costly experiment.
Another vote of the House of Representatives
was less to their credit ; but as it was a strict
party division it has less significance. By 111
to 32 a resolution was passed declaring thb
adhesion of Congress to the Reconstruction Act,
and censuring the PRESIDENT for recommending
its repeal. As we have said this vote has little
weight, for the sentiments of the majority of the
represtntatives were pretty well known, and it
was not likely they would reverse their former
action. The members
.can hardly delude them-
selves into the belief that their scheme has worked
well either as regards the rehabilitation of social
and commercial order, or as to the relations be-
tween the races. in Mississippi great uneasiness
prevails, and General HUMPHREYS has issued a
proclamation referring to the common ap-
prehension that the negroes in that State
were forming conspiracies to seize forci-
bly upon lands unless they should be
distributed among them by Congress by the Ist
of January. The proclamation warns the negroes o
the impossibility of any such distribution, and also
cautions them that any such attempt on their part
will be discovered and frustrated. lie urges the
negroes to work and obey the laws, and calls upon
the whites to give them their full rights. The
unwillingness of the negroes to work is one of the'
most serious difficulties with which the authorities
civil and military, have to contend. There
seems, however, to be more unanimity than for-
merly between the State Governors and the dis-
trict commanders. This may be partly due
to the influence of
,General GRANT, and partly to
the increased sense of the gravity of the situation.
In the case of Mississippi, for instance, General
OltD has endorsed the proclamation of Govern or
HUMRPREYS; and has instructed General GILLE M,
his subordinate, promptly to arrest any white men
found inciting the negroes to violence, and to assist
the civil authorities in protecting property and in
maintaining order. It is necessary for those in
power to repress such .outbreaks with a vigorous
hand, since absolute collisions are not unfre-
queut, and often attended with loss of life.
In a recent fight between whites and
blacks in:Georgia, the sheriff of the place
was killed, and in every such riot there
has been more than one life lo t. Their frequent
recurrence, too, has a most mischievous effect upon
the internal prosperity of the country. There can
be little chance of restoring confidence, or of in-
ducing capitalists to make investments southwards,
so long as civil order cannot be maintained. In
Louisiana the long continued distress appears to
have reached its climax, and great destitution is
reported. Thousands of persons, it is said, are in
danger of starvation. The notion of famine in any
part of those vast and fertile, yet thinly populated
States seems not a little strange to English ears.
There could SC4lcely be a more forcible illustration
of the wretched system of Government which has
allowed such a fine territory to sink into so melan-
choly a condition. With the broad corn fields of
the West, and the rapid means of transit every-
where available through the States, the wholesale

starvation in any part of America should surely be
impossible. Whether as regards the finances of the