The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-07 00:00:00

receive petitions, those people are to leave their
place of assembling, in parties of tens, under the
directions of a marshal, and to walk from the Strand
to Westminster-hall. On reaching the entrance
they are to form in files according to the number
of members who may be present to receive the
petitions, and then to march through the Hall to
the steps, where these gentlemen are to be in
waiting. They are to present their petitions, and
then to proceed along the west side of the Hall
to the entrance, at which they are to pass out.
We believe such a gathering at the doors of the
Legislature and thronging all the ways to it to be
illegal. There can be no moral doubt that the pur-
pose of such Demonstrations is to intimidate the
House of Commons, and even if this were not the
case, the assembling of a great multitude is inevi-
tably a menace. We trust the Reform League will,
in the month which is yet to elapse before the meet-
ing of Parliament, see reason to abandon its pur-
pose ; if not, it will be for the House of Commons
to take such steps as may be necessary to maintain
its independence and dignity.

The Spectator observes that whether the negroes
in the United States are competent to be free or
not, so long as they are not free, the whites form a
privileged class necessarily powerful from their
wealth, necessarily hostile to American civilisation,
necessarily inconsistent with its natural develop-
ment. It would be essential to make the negro
free, even if freedom were not his right, and the
North, enlightened by the danger arising from:this,
reflex action of oppression, has at last perceived
that it is, that the " Cause" which they admit to
cover all whites covers the coloured man also.
Every objection to his freedom is an objection to
the freedom of every class in every State, except the
wise, and the good, and the strong--to the free-
dom, that is, of the majority in every nation. Mr.
Sumner, the most logical of all the American Radi-
cals, does not ask for any privileges for the negro,
but only for the abolition of privileges which tell
against him. In the district of Columbia white
men have voted simply in right of manhood and
residence ; and consequently in granting-to negroes
the same concession Congress granted universal
suffrage ; but that is accidental. They are perfectly
ready to accept a property qualification, provided
it is imposed alike upon all, and only object to an
educational franchise because they think it would
make it the interest of the white majority
to keep the coloured minority uneducated. It
is not in fact " the negro " for which they are fight-
ing, but liberty ; the right which we English hold
almost sacred, the right of each man to do the very
most it is in him to do without obstacles artificially
raised by a caste-made law. Most abolitionists
would agree that if the grant of the suffrage could
be postponed for 30 years it would be much more
beneficial to the negroes, but it accidentally happens
that the suffrag,e in America is the only guarantee on
which the coloured men can rely. Therefore, and
only therefore, these " fanatics" of freedom, these
American Russells, art fighting for that, are grant-
ing that, will secure that, whatever the Constitu-
tional obstacles in the way.

The Daily News seeks to reassure those who con-
ceive that the American Constitution is in any
danger of being revolutionised. The assumption
made by Mr. Johnson, and repeated by his ad-
mire, s here, that he represents the popular will
more completely than Congress, is most hostile to
the fundamental principles on which the Republic
rests. It was an attempt to introduce modern de-
mocratic Cwsarism into the Federal system. Mr.
Johnson, by virtue of his election by the people,
sought to grasp some portion of legislative power.
Although in his mouth the argument was singularly
out of place, he claimed that he represented the
will of the people as a whole, while Congress only
represented the will of an aggregate of sections of
the people. Fortunately for the welfare of the
Republic the people did not feel that the absurdity
of this claim deprived it of its danger. They saw
that it would introduce a new principle into the in-
terpretation, and a new power into the balance of
the Constitution, and would confuse the functions
of the legislative and the executive departments of
the Government. But in repelling this dangerous
assumption they have not introduced any other
hostile principle. The President is the elected
executive of the nation, and he has been sternly
forbidden to encroach on the functions of the elected

Legislature, while that Legislature, equally with
the President, the representative of the popular
will, has been empowered to take the place and
exercise the prerogatives the Constitution gives it.
The Constitution most distinctly subordinates the
President to the Congress, and Mr. Johnson's at-
tempt to reverse the constitutional order and
subordinate the Congress to the Presidency was but
the culmination of a long series of small aggres-
.sions on the part of the executive, which have
tended, for years past, to a dangerous exaltation of
the Presidential ollice.

THE AMERICAN PRESS.
The bill which Mr. Stevens has introduced into
the House of Representatives in relation to the re-
organisation of the Government of North Caro-
lina is to be taken only as the expression of his own
opinion of the proper means to be adopted in the
restoration of the Southern States. It is thoroughly
Radical, inasmuch as it proposes to cut up the
present Government by the roots, and totally
obliterate its authority. Mr. Stevens is progressive
and earnest, and, although an old man, he has more
energy about him than the majority of the younger
members of the House. When he takes hold of a
subject he rarely gives it up, and his perseverance
is such that he carries measures by the force of his
character. What will be the fate of his bill in
reference to North Carolina may not now be pre-
dicted. That he will press it with all the energy of
his character may be expected. This bill proceeds
upon the theory that the relations with the Govern-
ment, which were severed by North Carolina on
the 20th of May, 1861, have never been restored.
The Government set up by the President was
provisional, and needed the approval of Congress.
That approval has never been given. Consequently
all that followed was immaterial and of no avail.
The present State Government is not a legal one,
having been constituted under recommendation of
the Provisional Government, which had no autho-
rity. It therefore exists upon sufferance, and may
be abolished whenever Congress chooses to exercise
its authority. Upon this theory all that follows is
plain enough. Mr. Stevens would deal with the
subject as he would have done in April, 1865, and
he treats. the present condition of affairs as if it was
not different from what it was at that time. He
therefore proposes that things shall commence de
novo in the old North State ; de novo as to the
means of reconstruction, and very much de novo in
regard to the plan of setting the Government in
motion. Ile proposes to enfranchise all classes
of the male population, without respect to colour.
All can vote for delegates to a sovereign convention.
In this election returned Rebels as well as Union
men can vote. But they can only vote for delegates
who can take oath that, on the 4th of March, 1864,
and at all times thereafter, they were opposed to the
continuance of the Rebellion, and were personally
willing to have complied with President Lincoln's
proclamation of December 8, 1863, which offered
amnesty to citizens of the States in rebellion, with
the exception of certain classes who would take the
oath of allegiance to the United States. Dele-
gates must be able to swear that they were
willing, a year before the collapse of the Re-
bellion, to return to their allegiance, or they are
not eligible. To the Convention thus formed is
to be granted authority to draft a Constitution
for the State of North Carolina. But the instru-
ment cannot become valid until submitted to Con-
gress and ratified by that body. These are the prin-
cipal features of Mr. Stevens's bill, and they are of
the greatest importance as indicative of a policy
Which Congress may adopt, not only with North
Carolina, but other States. All this might have
been avoided by the adoption of the Constitutional
Amendments, but there are some people who,
sooner than get out of a difficulty by the right road,
would prefer a circuitous route, encumbered with
pitfalls, rocks, and tangled bners.----Philadelphia In-
quirer.
In the district of Columbia the first experiment
of the abolition of slavery was made. It was sup-
posed to be an exceptional act when resolved upon,
and it was predicted that such a measure could not
be effected in any other part of the country, yet the
people since that time have beheld the grand expe-
riment of universal emancipation, and no man now
believes that it is not permanent. According to the
action of the United States Senate it is probable
that another great political experiment is to be
made in the same district. The bill granting suf-
frage to male citizens, without distinction of colour,
will go through the House without doubt. It will
be vetoed by the President, and passed over his veto,
and become a law. Will the measure thus resolved
upon be the pioneer of similar changes elsewhere?
It may be assumed to be doubtful now, but
just

as doubtful was the total overthrow of slavery
when it was annulled in the District of Co-

lumbia. Look at this measure as we will, from the
point of expediency, we must admit that it is
thoroughly Democratic in the ancient sense of that
word, and not according to the present party per-
version. It may not be wise, it may prove harmful,
but Ms just, if we admit that all men are created
equal. It is, we think, the forerunner of like
changes elsewhere, not only in the South, but at
the North also. Great reforms seldom stop with
single victories. They have the spirit of progress
with them, and will go on despite every obstacle.
We now think that unrestricted negro suffrage is
strange, but the novelty will soon depart, and then,
without prejudice or passion, we will be able to