The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING-, JANUARY 21, 1867.

Eighteen Hnndred and Sixty-six,

The year 1865 was so remarkable a year, so full
of wonders and prodigies, that 1866 runs some risk
of having its claims to remembrance overlooked or
underrated. Nothing is likely to happen in our time
haLf so momentous as Lee's surrender was, and
the possession of that event will always make
1865, as we endeavoured to show at its close, one
of the great years of history, putting it in the same
category with:the first year of the Christian era, the
year in which Rome was sacked, in which Europe
was saved from the Saracens, in which Luther
began to preach the Reformation, in which the
Parliament drew the sword against Charles 1., and
in which the first shot was fired in the war of the
Revolution here. It was a year, in short, in which
events marked the commencement of a new and
important stage in human progress.
The year which will end next Monday is remark-
able rather for the working out of results already
made certain than for any important additions to
the stock of human experience or hopes. Every day
of it has also made clearer the completeness of our
triumph at the South ; but it has also revealed
difficulties in the way of reaping the fruits of our
victory which, twelve months ago, we did not at all
anticipate. Mr. Johnson's defection, and the dis-
play he has made of his temper and tone of mind,
have furnished a striking exemplification of the
danger of trusting anything in a constitutional
government to the honesty or wisdom of individual
officers. We owe nearly all the mischief Mr.
Johnson has done, paradoxical as the assertion may
seem, to the confidence begotten by Mr. Lincoln's
goodness. Had we trusted less to Mr. Lincoln's
character and judgment, and more to rules of law,
we should not have trusted so much to Mr. John-
son's character and judgment, and should not now
be reproaching him with having betrayed us. For
example, had Congress borne its just part in the
Government during the war, Mr. Johnson would
never have been allowed to take upon himself, and
would not have thought of taking upon himself, the
work of reconstruction. The moral is, that in peace
or war, in weal or woe, the only government for
a free country is a government of law, and that
nearly all men placed in possession of power tend,
by a sort of moral gravitation, towards either folly
or knavery. This is a very trite saying; but the
first striking illustration of it that has occurred in
American history has occurred this year.

In 1865 also there was a very general disposition
to believe that great social or political changes, pro-
vided they were changes for the better, could be
completed in a few months. In the flush of victory
many were ready to believe that all trouble with
the South was at an end—that, as it had appealed to
the sword; and the sword had decided against it, all
would henceforth go merry as a marriage-bell. We
now know that revolutions are slow processes, that
the fighting which usually attends them is but a very
small portion of the work, and that after the sword
has been sheathed there always remains a great deal
of thinking, and talking, and legislating to be done
before the desired result can be accomplished.
We have been having, in short, during the past year
our first experience in the work of legislating for a
conquered and disaffected people. All American legis-
lation has hitherto been done for a united and loyal
community, with but few differences of opinion,
and those not grave enough to prevent the execu-
tion of the laws being left to those affected by them.
The novelty of this work, and the total want of
experience which nearly all our public men have
brought to it, have, of course, added largely to its
difficulties, and have caused much of the indecision
and hesitation with which Congress has been re-
proached during the past year. What with the
theories of those who cannot and will not believe,
all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, that
there can be such a thing as a disloyal population
in the United States, and the theories of those who
do believe it, but propose to leave the disaffected to
be dealt with by the laws of political economy the
task of forming a plan of reconstruction which shall
secure the Government without making changes in
its structure, has been found to be no easy one.
The abolition of slavery only became au accom-
plished fact in 1865. It was a great event ; the
greatest, perhaps—considering the number of per-
sons, living, and unborn, whose destiny has been af-
fected by it—which has occurred since Christ came.
It was so great an event that the first impulse of most
of those who assisted iu bringing it about was to
believe that emancipation was the one thing needful
for the slave, and that once free he might safely be
left to work out his own salvation, no matter what
dangers, moral or material, beset him. We have
awakened from that delusion. Most people are
now satisfied that freedom alone is a very imperfect
boon, and that he has to be provided with the
means of preserving and profiting by it. One
party is satiified that all he nee3s, not only to ac-
complish this end, but to become a strong tower of
defence for our Government, is the ballot. They
talk of it as if it were a talisman or an elixir of life,
a great enlightener and educator, and the only one
needed. It is safe to say that this theory, too, is
undergoing reconsideration ; that every month adds
to the number of those who feel that the ballot iu
the hands of an ignorant man may prove but a club
in the hands of a blind Samson, which he may use
against friends as well as foes, as General Butler
has happily termed it, and that to make it a real
otpiNo
lisoittrtiltoh3nepronwl
ihrtiiocclahi
lt
ihemiaaspnosshown
et e itself
r ee af te
eeld tt c a
sure,
so widely
i
rtariionhielo nadgsi:
the offspring of passing party excitement, and will
disappear under the influence of
deeper reflection
and wider experience.

In nothing has the year that is closing, however,
been so remarkable as in the multitude of the proofs
which it has revealed of the deep and lasting in-
fluence which the career of this country has exercised,
and is likely to exercise, on the politics and society
of the whole civilised world.. Those who were most
astonished last year by our military successes were
still confident that though Americans might fight
they would not pay, and that heavy taxation would
prove a test under which Democracy would succumb.
Eighteen hundred and sixty-six has dissipated
this delusion. The cheerfulness with which taxation
has been borne, the great surplus which appears
each quarter in the Treasury, and the prospect of
the extinction of our debt by the present generation,
are revelations of power which have produced a
deeper impression on most minds in Europe than all
other phenomena of our history. This is not a
vague boast, but a dry statement of a well-known
fact.

The action of our war on European politics was
not apparent last year. This year it is very ap-
parent, and seems likely to effect very important
and very rapid changes in the condition of the
European world. In the first place, it has un-
doubtedly highly stimulated the passion for unifi-
cation, for the formation of great states out of small
ones, which is one of the most striking characteris-
tics of the age, and has thus had an important
share in precipitating the events which have raised
Prussia and Italy to their present dignity. Noth-
ing has done more to impress the popular imagina-
tion with the importance of being the citizen of a
' great power, and the danger and indignity of being
the member of a petty community, than the
animated discussions provoked by the American
struggle, and the spectacle of the prodigious efforts
made on this side of the water to maintain the
national unity.
Fenianism, too, may be safely said, in its pre-
sent proportions at least, to be the direct result of
our war. The display of strength made by the
United States, the acquisition of military know-
ledge made in the contest by large bodies of Irish-
men, the immense numbers of Irish who have been
attracted to the country, and the hostility to Eng-
land developed during the last four years, have un-
doubtedly combined to produce that remarkable
series of performances which is now coining to a
close in Ireland, and the folly of which has in-
flicted so serious a blow on the political reputation
of the Irish race. What its ultimate effect on the
condition of Ireland will be it is, of course, impos-
sible to say ; but this much is certain, that Fenian-
ism has at least had the effect of impressing the
English Liberals more deeply than ever before with
the necessity of some radical changes in the govern-

went of Ireland, and has opened the eyes of the
English people to the fact that the condition of
Ireland is no longer a purely British question ; that
the enormous body of Irish here who retain their in-
terest in the country of their birth makes Irish
wrongs a matter of interest to Americans
also, and creates a new subject of con-
troversy between the two countries, which
trifling incidents may any day submit to the arbi-
trament of arms. We may say that, as far as
one can judge at this moment, the worst effect of
Fenianism has been the extent to which it has
turned away the thoughts of the Irish from all
rational schemes of reform, and the fanatical devo-
tion it has developed for an utterly impossible
ideal. The remedy on which they have set their
hearts is a separate nationality ; and this, in the
present condition of the world, is as wildly unat-
tainable as the restoration of the Heptarchy—to
use Canning's illustration—or the re-division of
France into feudal principalities. Ireland, as a
nation, is as dead as Naples or Hanover. Six mil-
lions of people—bitterly divided, too—have now no
separate place in the world, and probably never will
again during the existence of our present civilisa-
tion.

In England the Reform movement has been re-
vived during the past year with a vigour it has not had
since 1832, and such as it has never had as far as
the working classes were concerned. The first two
years of the American war seemed to have extin-
guished it ; the events on our soil of the last year
have resuscitated and given it a fierceness and bit-
terness hitherto unknown, and seemed to have in-
flicted on the middle and upper classes of England
a kind of political paralysis, a faint-heartedness,
and a want of confidence in their own ideas which
have reduced England, both in her own estimation
and that of others, to the rank of a second-rate
power, and seem to presage the near approach of a
great political if not social revolution. The ultra
Democratic tendencies which are visible there are
not less manifest all over the Continent. The new
empires are all based on universal suffrage ; the
great armies are being more and more democratised ;
that is, converted, as in Prussia, from distinct call-
ings into armed organisations of the whole people,
capable of striking quick and heavy blows, but in-
capable of long wars. The overthrow of Austria too,
has given the final blow to divine right and to
priestly interference in politics, and has accelerated,
everywhere, the movement which, in Italy, is turn-
ing the revenue of great monastic establishments
into aids to popular and, better still, secular educa-
tion. The temporal power, too, has received its
final blow from the withdrawal of the French from
Rome. It now exist only in name, and we may
any day hear of the conversion of the Pope into a
simple Bishop, without other claims on human
reverence than he can find in the religious faith of
the Catholic world. And though last, not least, the
total failure of the Mexican expedition has perhaps
put an end for ever to all attempts to organise
states by foreign arms and in accordance with
foreign theories, and sealed the triumph of popular
jurisdiction over all questions affecting national
existence.

We ought, perhaps, to mention the laying of the
Atlantic Cable as one of the great events of the year ;
but, if we did more than mention it, it would lead
us into an entirely new field, in which materials for
many pages of comment might be found. We have
tried to touch simply upon the leading incidents in
the political progress of the world, the indications
scattered here and there of the steady rising of the
people into life and light, after how many ages of
darkness and suffering and sorrow. It is, to be sure,
saddening enough to notice how slow that progress
is, how distant the race still is from that ideal state
of which poets and philosophers love, and have for
ages loved, to dream ; how much ignorance and vice
and cruelty and misery is to be found in even the
most highly civilised communities ; how much envy,
hatred, and malice and uncharitableness there is even
amongzt philanthropists and reformers ; how large a
sway prejudice and sophistry still bear over the
minds of men ; how little increase of " peace and
good-will," in spite of all our singing and merry-
making, each returning Christmas brings with it ;
but there is, perhaps, no idler and vainer work tha❑
sorrowing over these things. The existence of
knaves, humbugs, tyrants, cheats, and liars will
never be accounted forsatisfactorily ; but there is not
one of us who does not know that he may, let his
sphere be ever so small, do something either to di-
minish their number or their powers of mischief.—
The Nation.

The Regular Army of the United States.

At the close of the war with Mexico the regular
army of the United States consisted of general and
department officers, a corps of engineers, a corps of
topographical engineers, the ordnance corps, four
regiments of artillery, three of cavalry, and nine of
was u
stillfan
furthert ry . Under the act
01. July, augmented,
and is now organised as fellows : General, staff,
infantry, making the minimum force to be a little
over 12,000 men. After the call of President Lincoln
for 75,000 men in April, 1861, the regular army was
increased by the addition of one regiment of artillery,
three
e a n
armyd ten
ofi
and department officers, the corps of engineers,
ordnance corps, ten regiments of cavalry of 12
companies each, five regiments of artillery of 12
companies each, and forty-five regiments of in-
fantry of 10 companies each. i
The minimum
strength of the army, which s now nearly
organised, may be better illustrated by the follow-
ing table :
General officers ... 18 Pay Department... 27
Adjutant General's Dep. 22 Engineer Corps ... 752
Inspector Gen.'s Dept. 9 Ordnance Corps ... 600
Bureau of Mil. Justice 2 Cavalry (10 reg.) ... 10,280
QuarterMaSter'S Dept. 76 Artillery (5 reg.) ... 5,650
Subsistence Departui't. 30 Infantry, (43 reg.)... 36380
104
Medical Department ...

Total minimum strength of the army. 53,950
The maximum strength of the army, were it re-
quired to be further increased, would require 21,432
more men, which would make 75,382. Two of the
new cavalry regiments and four of the infantry are
composed of coloured men. One of the cavalry
regiments is organising as Indian scouts, and four of
the infantry regiments are veteran reserve corps,
and the duty of these veterans will be to act as
clerks in the departments, watchmen,
of national cemeteries. and guardians

The commanding general of the army is General
U. S. Grant, assisted by Lieut.-Gen. William T.
Sherman. There are also five major-generals
Halleck, Meade, Sheridan, Thomas, and 'Hancock,
and nine brigadiers, APDowell, Pope, Hooker,
Schofield, lloward, Ord, Canby, Cook, and Terry.
The adjutant-genera: of the army is Lorenzo Thomas,
with rank of brigadier-general ; inspector-general,
Bigadier-Gen. Randolph B. Marcy; quartermaster-
general, Brigadier-Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs
• and commissary-general,Brigadier- Gen. Amos B. Eaton ;
surgeon-general, Joseph K. Barnes
paymaster-
general, Benjamin W. Brice. The corps of engi-
neers is under command of Brevet Brigadier- Gen.
Col. Hartman Bache, acting chief engineer, vice Gen.
Delafield, retired. The ordance department is pre-
sided over by Brigadier-Gen. Alexander B. Dyer,
chief of ordnance, and

THE CAVALRY REGIMENTS
Alrs. Col.etcom Georgemand
commanded by
A. H. B
the following officers :
headquarters,
California.
2d. Col. Thomas J. Wood, Fort Riley, Kansas.
3d. Col. Marshall S. Howe, camp near Fort
Smith, Arkansas.
4th. Col. Lawrence P. Graham, San Antonio,
Texas.
6th. Col. William H. Emory, Washington City.
6th. Col. David Hunter, Austin, Texas.
7th. Col. A. J. Smith, Fort Riley, Kansas.
Bth. (coloured) Col. J. Irwin Gregg, California.
9th. (coloured) Col. Edward Ilatch, unknown.
10th. (Indian scouts) Col. B. H. Grierson, Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas.
THE ARTILLERY REGIMENTS.
Ist. Col. Israel Vodges, headquarters Fort Hamil-
ton, New York Harbour.
2d. Col. Williams W. Morris, Fort Point, Cali-
fornia.
3d. Col. Thomas W. Sherman, Fort Warren,
Boston Harbour.
4th. Col. Horace Brooks, Fort APllenry, Balti-
more.
sth. Col. Henry S. Burton, Fortress Monroe,
Virginia.
THE INFANTRY REGIMENTS.
The head-quarters of the infantry regiments are
not given for the reason that so many changes are
taking place that it is impossible to keep up with
them. We will simply give the names of the
commanding officers :
First regiment, Col. Robert C. Buchanan ; second,
Col. Sidney Burbank ; third, Col. William Hoff-
man ; fourth, Col, Silas Casey ; fifth, Daniel But-

terfield ; sixth, James Duvall Greene ; seventh,
John T. Sprange.• eighth, James V. Bomford ;
ninth, John H. iing ; tenth, Edmund B. Alex-
ander ; eleventh, William S. Ketcham ; twelfth,
C. C. Augur •, thirteenth, Isaac V. D. Reeve ;
fourteenth, C. S. Lovell ; fifteenth, Oliver L.
Shepherd ; sixteenth, Caleb C. Sibley ; seven-
teenth, Samuel P. Heintzelman •, eighteenth, Henry
B. Carrington; nineteenth, Delaney Floyd Jones;
twentieth, Gordon Granger ; twenty-first George
Stoneman; twenty-second, David L. Stanley ;
twenty-third, Jeff. C. Davis ; twenty-fourth,
A. C. Gillem ' • twenty-fifth. George Crook ;
twenty-sixth, Joseph S. Reynolds; twenty-
seventh, B. G. Hath ; twenty-eighth, C. H. Smith;
twenty-ninth, Orlando B. Wilcox; thirtieth, John
D. Stevenson ; thirty-first, N. R. Bowerman ;
thirty-second, Thomas L. Crittenden ; tbirty-
third, Thomas H. Ruger ; thirty-fourth, John
Gibson ; thirty-fifth, John F. Hartranft (declined)
thirty-sixth, John Gibbon ; thirty-seventh, G. W.
Getty ; thirty-eighth (coloured), AV. B. Ilazen ;
thirty-ninth (coloured), J. A. Mower; fortieth
(coloured), N. A. Miles; forty-first (coloured), E.
W. Hinks ; forty-second (veteran reserves), Daniel
E. Sickles ; forty-third (veteran reserves), J. C.
Robinson; forty-fourth (veteran reserves), T. G.
Pitcher ; forty-fifth (veteran reserves), Wager
Swayne.
These new regiments are very rapidly recruiting,
and it is expected that they will be full to the mini-
mum standard by the 15th of January next. All
the cavalry, except the India scouts, are ready for
field service, and nearly all the 3d battalions of the
regiments of infantry, numbering from the 10th to
the 19th, are absorbed in the formation of the new.
Eight of the new regiments have completed their
organisation, and at the increased rate of recruiting
at Governor's Island, New York, and Newport
Barracks, Kentucky, the remaining 18 will rapidly be
filled, as the recruits accepted at these places num-
ber about 1,000 per week.