The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-05 00:00:00

The American Press.

The American Cotton Planter, a new semi-monthly
magazine, recently established at Montgomery,
Alabama, contains a very sensible article on " The
New Labour System," which promulgates just views
of the duty of the people of the South towards the
freedmen. Acknowledging that the system of slave
labour is abolished, and that there is no hope of
re-establishing it, the Cotton Planter takes up the
subject of labour and accompanies it with a liberal
and just analysis of the negro character. An
honest compliment is paid to the demeanour of the
slaves during the war, and it is urged that during
those trying times they displayed true Christian
gratitude to the people with whom they dwelt. The
Cotton Planter believes that " by a wisely-directed
system of care, with liberal and remunerating con-
tracts," their labour may be made as profitable and
acceptable as was the old system of slave labour.
But " liberal and remunerative contracts are the
main conditions." How this obligation is to be ful-
filled must be by the observance of the maxim, "Do
unto others as you would that others should do
unto you." It is not alone for the interests of the
freedman that he should be paid remunerative
wages, but it is the interest also of the employer to
pay him. The Planter says :—" The negro has to
live, and if his labour does not afford him a living,
it will assuredly come out of our living, either as
pilfered or in the form of poor taxes or prison taxes."
There is philosophy in this, and the object to be
gained by the new system of labour cannot be
secured in any other way than by just dealing
toward the freedmen. Observance of this rule will
benefit the interests of employers and labourers, and
establish relations of confidence between them
which will be for mutual advantage. The views of
the writer are sound and Christian-like, and if they
are followed out universally in the South, a few
months will put an end to the question so often
asked -- What are we to do with the freedmen ?

The New York Times of April 17 says :—The
" grand advance guard" of the O'Mahony Fenians,
under the generalship of the redoubtable Killian,
are making comic history in a style of which Gilbert
A'Beckett never dreamed. A quiet vein of the
grotesque, verging on the ludicrous, and rising now
and then to the laughable, was all of which that
funniest of funny historians was capable. But the
Fenians and their despatches, as manipulated by Kil-
lian, beat A'Beckett's inventions hollow. From the
far-off corner of Maine comes an unceasing peal of up-
roarious fun and folly, the only drawback to which lies
in the fraud that taints the whole affair. In the first
place, there was to be the surprise and easy capture of
some tangible point of British territory, to which
end General Killian advertised in the newspapers
that he was on the road thither. So valiant a hero
scorned the idea of doing anything except in the
most polite and public manner, and, therefore, he
invited the British army and navy to gather in
sight of the spot and calmly witness his con-
quest. In the next place, it was necessary to
convey to a wondering world some distinct evi-
dence of the mighty rush of armed Fenians to
the scene of the predicted triumph. Despatch
number one told us that 13 stalwart Irishmen had
gone by steamer to Eastport, leaving their arms
and ammunition to be conveyed by a schooner ad-
vertised to sail on the next day. Despatch number
two announced the journeyings of 19 more soldiers
of the same stamp, of whose weapons nothing
was said. Despatch number three signalised the
arrival of another equally extensive band, one-
half of whom were said to be general officers,
deeply in love with the skill and prowess
of the illustrious Killian. But we will not
recapitulate too minutely. Each succeeding day
brought tidings of the same sort ; Killian gathering
a mighty host at the rate of a baker's dozen daily,
and contemplating some prodigious deed, of which
the wide-awake provincials were regularly apprised
beforehand, that they might render its accomplish-
ment impossible.
After having thus whetted the public appetite, and
prepared all of us for some decisive blow, Killian
transmitted over the wires on Sunday an intimation
that " five armed Fenians" had captured a British
flag on Indian Island. Here was something to be
proud of. Here must have been fighting with a
vengeance. And then the astounding result—" five
armed Fenians" overpowering a regiment of New
Brunswickers and carrying off the flag, after per-
forming-prodigies of valour ! The information, for
the moment, astounded us. Our appetite for break-
fast vanished as we glanced along the electrifying
lines, and we were ready on the spot to do homage to
the genius of O'Mahony for planning s ch a campaign
and the power of Killian for carrying it to a tri-
umphant issue. Further study, however, converted
our new-born admiration into intense disgust. For
we discovered that there was no fight, no resistance,
no capture ; the whole affair amounting simply to
the carrying away of a revenue flag, which had
been hoisted as a thing of course, and the securing
of which might, therefore, have been performed as
easily by one smart Yankee schoolboy as by the
" five armed Fenians" upon whose prowess Killian
dwells with evident pride. "Go to Indian Island
.
to steal a flag, and then proclaim a victory," We saida
to ourselves ; " why five stevedores might any a. Y
--
or night do the same ten times over withenotsut leaving
New New York." These mighty movements
the
w
O'Mahonyites, however, are evidently
glories aretly unpalatable
to the Sweeney faction,
sustain Roberts in
be done
thus eclipsed by the
thing must as the,
,great Fenian
Alani-
wtoarlike Some-
the Presidency
Generalissimo. Sweheanlely'it be ? he capture of
What s
and
Huron 9 A faint to threaten Goat
toulin in Lake Ifur •
• o-tra 9 Martial reader, be
one of the Thousand Isles . A. descent upon
Island in the Niagara . more
moderate in your exactions. Messrs. Roberts and
Sweeney are going—yes, are positvely going, are
advertised to go, and unquestionably will go_to a
public meeting to be held in this city to-morrow
evening ! That is all. They don't intend to march
to the battle-field until the Fenian bonds
have been
sold, and when none of these are left there will be
no reason for fighting. Just now the odds
are in
favour of O'Mahony and Killian and
their
bonds,
as against Roberts and Sweeney and their bonds.
The people are tired of talk, and demand decisive
action. Having carried off as tt d
upro ec e