The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-16 00:00:00

AMERICA.

The steamship Allemania, belonging to the Ham-
burg and American Company, arrived from New
York off Southampton yesterday. She left New
York on the 3d inst. Having delivered the mails,
she passed on for Hamburg and Havre.
Numerous delegations had visited President Johnson, to
offer him their support. To one of these, coming from
Baltimore, the President spoke as follows :
"Gentlemen, —I cannot make any formal speech in reply,
but, in response to what has been said, 1 will simply re-
mark that my policy, to which you have alluded as before
the country, was not announced as the result of impulse,
nor was it thrown out for any ad captandum purpose. It
was announced as the result of convictions after mature
consideration as a necessary construction of the principles
upon which this Government rests. That policy, which I
honestly regard as being the best for the country, will con-
tinue before the people without the slightest deviation, and
without being swerved from on my part. do not say this
in a spirit of threat or menace to anybody, but simply to
give assurance that there shall be no abandonment of, and
no shrinking from, that policy, because it is believed that
the very existence and perpetuity of the Government de-
pend upon the maintenance of the principles which have
thus been enunciated. I am not insensible to the remarks
which have been made accompanying the presentation of
these resolutions. The mind and soul of a man who would
not feel more or less inspired and impressed by what you
have said must be extremely dull and barren. I feel the
full force of what you have spoken, and I think I know
how to appreciate it ; and thus feeling, I am impressed
with the conviction that my duty must be performed
without regard to consequences. Your encouragement
at this particular time seems particularly appropriate ;
your countenance and proffers of support under the pre-
sent circumstances inspire me with a confidence, and a
strength, and a hope that the country will ultimately
triumph, and those great principles will be sustained. It

is not necessary for me to remark to you that I entered
this contest at its very incipiency, and I have not deviated
a single hair's-breadth from the line of policy I then laid
down. I stand now precisely on the same ground that I
stood on in the Senate on the 18th and 19th days of De-
cember, 1860. I know that it has been said, and no doubt
by many designedly said, that here is a President who was
elected by a party, and who on coming into power aban-
doned that party ; that he has Tylerised ' his Administra-
tion, that he has joined the Copperhead; and things of
that kind. Those things have no influence upon me; they
fail wholly to drive me from the discharge of my duty.
But if you and I, with others, have been employed for four
years in resisting a separation and dissolution of the Union,
and now have reached a point where resistance has ceased,
and if we can be instrumental in conciliating and bringing
back all the people to an earnest, and loyal, and thorough
support of the Government, it seems to me that we aro
doing a great deal towards accomplishing the work we
undertook. It happens sometimes in the history of fami-
lies, if I may be permitted to use the illustration, that there
are differences and feuds, but when those differences are
understood and arranged, and when the feuds subside, the
parties can approach each other, feeling more kindly to-
, wards those from whom they had been estranged than
they did before. Then, Ido think we are doing wrong
if, while maintaining principle, while trying to preserve
the Government, we have succeeded in convincing of
their error and bringing to the fold of their fathers
those who have strayed. I think this is a result of
which we all should be proud, and for which we should
not be taunted. If I know myself, my only object is to
preserve the Government. I want it to continue in loyal
hands, and in none others. I hope that the timo will
soon come when the country will be thoroughly recon-
ciled ; but to secure all that is necessary for this purpose
will require a severe struggle, for I am free to say to you
that it is not worth while to disguise the fact that the very
same spirit which animated the rebellion at one end of
the line now exists at the other to some extent. Before
the recent rebellion there were one set of gentlemen who
were trying to dissolve and break up the Government for
the purpose of preserving the institutions of slavery, and
they so avowed. Though these respective parties disagreed
in the object they wished to accomplish, they agreed in one
thing, and that was the destruction of the Government, and
so far as that point is concerned the one was as culpable as
the other. The blow was first struck at the Southern end
of the line. It being struck there, the other principle that
was making war upon the principles of the Government
must have something to vent itself upon, and it joined with
those who were for the Union against those who were for
the rebellion. But now, when the rebellion is put down,
if we find an attempt to change the character of the Go-
vernment, we must equally resist. The attempt now is to
consolidate, to concentrate power here. It is the destruc-
tion of the Government and it is a manifestation of the
same spirit which attempted to break up the Government.
I stand opposed to both ; I stand with you for the Govern-
ment, for the Constitution, for the supremacy of the law,
and for obedience to the laws of the Constitution. Let it
be understood that, so far as making candidates for the
future is concerned, I have nothing to do with it. If I can
be instrumental in accomplishing the great work we have
undertaken, to bring about peace, and harmony, and recon-
ciliation among all our people, and again place this Go-.
vernment upon its firm basis, I shall feel that I have
reached the summit of my ambition. I have no other ob-
ject in view, if I know my own heart and my own feelings.
Gentlemen, permit me to thank you most sincerely for the
encouragement you have given me, and for the countenance
you have shown by thus timely coming forward in the
great struggle for the first principles of free government."

In the Senate, on the 28th ult., the concurrent resolu-
tion, that no Southern representatives shall be admitted
until Congress shall so decide, was taken up and debated
without result, and on the following day was again taken
up, when Reverdy Johnson delivered a long speech oppos-
ing the resolution, on the grounds that any measure to ex-
,
dude States from representation was a direct violation of
the Constitution, and could only result in anarchy. The
Southern States were now in the Union, and being there
were fully entitled to representation ; and yet the creden-
tials of a number of Southern senators were now lying re-
pudiated upon the table. With regard to the taint of trea-
son, many Northern States were not free from it. Massa-
chusetts, during the war of 1812, refused to allow her troops
to leave the State, which was a clear act of treason. In
1859 Senator Wade presided over a meeting at Cleveland,
Ohio, and the Fugitive Slave Law was denounced and
secession distinctly recommended. Tho Southern States
were now loyal States, and as such were entitled to their
rights. On the 2d inst. the concurrent resolution was again
brought up in the Senate, and was passed by a vote of 29
yeas against 18 nays, after a lengthy and elaborate debate,
during which Mr. Doolittle (Republican), of Wiscon-
sin, entreated the controlling party to abandon extreme
measures and factious legislation and sustain the Presi-
dent's policy; while Mr. Davis (Democrat), of Kentucky,
argued with great warmth that Congress was acting in
violation of tho Constitution, and he declared the Presi-
dent had the right, and he hoped he would exercise it, to
proclaim the disloyalty of the Radicals, and declare the
rightful body of 'Congress to consist of the representatives
from the Southern States, and those Northern members
now in Congress who favoured their admission. These
united formed a majority of both houses.
The resolution as passed declares that no members from
the recently seceded States shall be admitted to either
house until the State in question shall be declared by Con-
gress entitled to representation. This simply amounts to
an emphatic assertion of the exclusive authority of Congress
over the subject.

Eight of those voting " nay" were Republicans.
In the House of Representatives, on the 28th ult., the
bill to amend the Constitution so as to secure citizens of
the country equal rights in all the States, was brought
up and debated at length. Messrs. Bingham and Wood-
bridge (Republicans) advocated the measure on the
grounds that the condition of public sentiment at the
South was such as to require the constant supervision of
the national authorities. Several Democratic and
Republican members opposed the amendment as un-
called for, and as constituting too near an approach to
complete centralisation of power. A motion was finally
made and carried to postpone further consideration of the
subject till the 10th day of April, 1866. The postpone-
ment is regarded as a defeat of the Radicals, and virtually
as the defeat of the proposed amendment.
On the Ist inst., tho bill to protect all citizens in their
civil rights without respect to race or colour was debated
at length. Mr. Rogers (of New Jersey) opposecl,the bill in
a long speech, in which he declared that the Southern
people could bo trusted. The masses of them fought in the
late war under honest convictions, and should now be
permitted to have a voice in Congress before measures so
directly affecting their section were introduced. The pro-
posed bill looked directly to the protection of the four mil-
lions of freedmen, who could be amply protected under

existing laws, and who, as a mass, were in no danger of
ill-usage.

William Lloyd Garrison, on the evening of the 27th
ult., delivered a lecture at the Academy of Music in
Brooklyn. His subject was " The North Victorious,"
in contradistinction from Wendell Phillips's address
" The South Victorious." Mr. Garrison, after briefly
reviewing the effects of the war, and expressing
his delight at having at last witnessed the
fall of slavery, proceeded to attack the policy
and character of President Johnson, who had,
Mr. Garrison said, "defiantly arrayed himself against Con-
gress and the popular will. This had caused general dis-
quietude and alarm among the loyal masses and general
satisfaction among Southern rebels. If the President de-
fiantly persisted in his downward course, he (Garrison)
hoped Congress would stand like an impregnable wall to
prevent his doing so. Como what may, Congress should
wipe out all that the President has done in relation to re-
construction and begin the work anew. Mr. Johnson bad
attempted to bully Congress into servile acquiescence to his
imperious demands, and for whatever of violer ce, tumult,
or confusion may grow out of his high-handed order, the
dread responsibility will rest exclusively upon his own
_ head." Referring back to the speech of the President on
Washington's birthday, Mr. Garrison said---" That speech,
for its indecency, bombast, malignity, and treasonable
leaning, no words can fitly characterise, and for that
and other weighty reasons, he (the President) ought to
be indicted by that grand inquest, the Federal House
of Representatives, tried by the Senate, and, for the
peace and safety of the country, dismissed from office."
Mr. Garrison stigmatised the President's censure of
Sumner and Stevens as an artful attempt to imperil
their lives by assuming to be in danger of his own. Of
the President's censure of Congress, the speaker
said : "He dares to brand Congress as a disloyal body. He
means, if he dared, to perform a coup d'etat, and either to
insist at the point of the bayonet upon having Southern
rebels put into Congress or drive Congress out of the capi-
tal." Mr. Garrison was also severe upon Secretary Seward,
saying he might better have died under the dagger of
Payne, the assassin.

The news of the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus
in Ireland has caused a great commotion among the Fenians
throughout this country. Mass meetings are being called
in all directions, and circulars from all the various centres
are published appealing to the brotherhood to come for--
ward, as the hour for action has arrived. Most of these
circulars conclude with a notice to " Look out for secret
orders." It is understood that all members of the order
have been individually notified to hold themselves in readi-
ness for immediate action.

It is rumoured that on the 17th of March, St. Patrick's
Day, an attack will be made upon some important points in
Canada and New Brunswick, and that for this purpose
Fenians are now collecting quietly in localities from
whence they can readily move for concentration.

Money is said to be abundant and arms also. But an
this is mere rumour, although great excitement is produeed
thereby.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—When a Parliament is dissolved upon a
question, it is usual to say that the question, and
the Parliament with it, are referred to the country,
which has, thereupon, to pass judgment upon them.
But the country has now, for the next month, some-
thing more than a Parliament to examine and de-
cide upon. It has the Constitution which makes
the Parliament, and which constitutes its own form,
and manner, and degree of political action. Every
constituency in England is invited to estimate for
itself the particular effect, in its case, of a great and
uniform change; every county and borough will
have to ask itself how it will be affected by the new
Reform Bill, and of course it will have to cast an
eye on the effect upon its neighbours. It is not
uncommon, even wider elemental vicissitudes, to
take into account the 'qualifying power of local cir-
cumstances and various conditions. The occupier
of a marsh fen must be a patriot, and something
more, if he can pray heartily for rain ' • and the
man whose lot is cast on hill tops, gravel beds, and
hungry sand asks for no abatement of the deluge
which is drowning the neighbouring vale. There have
been people who did not wish for cheap corn, and
others who did not want cheap gold, and even cheap
cotton has very lately reduced millionaires to bank-
ruptcy. In these cases the natural presumption is
in favour of plenty ; but an abundance of labour,
good as it may be in itself, is not regarded by all
people with such unhesitating favour. On the
contrary every class and community of working
men takes the utmost pains, and sometimes resorts
to the most unfair methods, to prevent itself from
being swamped by an overwhelming addition. We
give these illustrations to show that the process of
inquiry is one quite familiar to the English practice
and understanding. The returns just published will
form a good basis or text for local inquiry, and it
appears to be thought that they require a good deal
of correction and explanation. It is quite certain al-
ready, and, indeed, plain upon the face of things, that
a uniform rule of extension applied to bodies of all
sizes and shapes is no longer uniformity, but an ex-
aggeration of variety. If two bodies of the same
species and rank, and charged with the same rights
and duties, be one of them two hundred times as
large as the other, the absurdity is enough as it
stands ; but it is no improvement to make both of
them half as large again, thus rendering the pigmy
a trifle less ridiculous, and the giant immensely
more absurd. But there are even more recondite
changes which a speciously uniform alteration will
make in constituencies, differing as they not only
do in size, but in still more important respects. A
month is allowed for the investigation of these local
peculiarities, and we hope it will be diligently em-
ployed. The absolute necessity of local inquiries
and special considerations arises from the fact that
this is not a question of aggregates. There is an
old saying that error lurks in generalities ; it does
not even lurk in aggregates ; it obtrudes itself, and
laughs at the simple calculator who thinks a large
sum must always tell its own tale. The vast aggre-
gates and all the other ;considerable figures in the
statistics of Reform have their value, for they excite,
and also direct, inquiry. But the inquiry begins, it
does not end with them. What special significance,
for example, can be attached to the fact that the
aggregate of English city and borough electors is
now more by 228,000 than it was in 1832, and that
the town constituency has thus almost doubled
itself by spontaneous causes ? If this increase had
been uniform, and if it had also told equally over
all England, which, in the absence of a word to the
contrary, is implied in the Ministerial argument for
the bill, then it is open to say either that the working
classes have done themselves so much credit that they
deserve a larger margin of qualification, or that the
constituency reforms and enlarges itself spon-
taneously, and does not want a periodic and spas-
modic Reform Bill. But no thinking person can
use these aggregates for either one conclusion or the
other with any satisfaction to himself, for the simple
reason that the aggregates are mainly composed
of a comparatively small number of large sums.
Sixteen boroughs contribute more than two-
thirds of this increase, leaving the remaining third
to be divided between 170 cities and boroughs. The
aggregate increase of electors in Finsbury, Maryle-
bone, the Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Southwark,
Greenwich, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Birken-
head, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford,
Bristol, and Brighton has been 160,000, leaving only
68,000 for the other cities and boroughs. The
average increase in each of the sixteen has been
10,000 in each of the 170 it has been 400. But
upon the very first sifting even these averages are
found of small significance. Five metropolitan
boroughs and Manchester make up 100,000 of the
increase—that is, two-fifths of the English aggre-
gate increase. Two metropolitan boroughs contri-
bute as large an aggregate of increase as Manchester,
Salford, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bradford, Sheffield,
and Leeds put together. When the increase is so
local and so exceptional, the significance also must
be exceptional and local. Every city and borough
must be treated on its own merits, and the question
is not how to deal with a theoretical average, but
with a great variety of individual facts. As far as
quantity goes, the most important fact in these re-
turns is that which we have just stated; that is, an
aggregate increase of electors in 16 boroughs twice
as much as that in all the others in England. Its sig-
nificance is most questionable. To unassisted and
unofficial common sense it points only one way, and
that is redistribution. Does it show that the exist-
ing electors of these 16 cities and boroughs want
reinforcing from a lower stratum and a vein richer
in democracy ? With the exception of Liverpool,
the Conservative freemen of which are masters of
the situation, and perhaps we must add its neighbour
on the opposite shore, all the cities and boroughs
on this list return men of rather styong opinions in
the popular direction. Whether we look to the
actual electors or the actual members, we cannot
conceive what need there is to double the former by
the admission of a much poorer class. If any bill
were in Parliament for cutting all these constitu-
encies in two there would at least be sense in it. It
is not even sense to take 34,000 electors pompously
engaged in electing two members, and insist 'on
swelling them into 60,000, as a reward for the good
behaviour of the first 34,000. But if such a proposal
is simply ridiculous, and the facts upon which it
affects to be founded do not lead to it, neither do
they lead to any conclusion affecting other and dis-
tant places. The fact that the Tower Hamlets have
more than trebled their constituency can be no rea-
son for resuscitating the expiring freemen of Honi-
ton. We have taken 16 boroughs, and shown that,
under existing arrangements in other respects, any
interference whatever with them is perfectly gratui-
tous. The only possible or conceivable result would
be the chance, here and there, of an uneducated
and narrow-minded Democrat instead of an edu-
cated man of very decided Liberal views—that

owe-.
being the existing class of members for these
boroughs. If we go to the other end of the Par-
liamentary catalogue, to the almost evanescent am;
stituencies—fast losing the freemen that buoyed
them up for a time, and now sinking into nothing.
ness—they can gain no good by any general ill'
crease, for their quality, whatever it is, does not
depend on the popular element, or even the Indus'
trial. The relation of any Reform to them is 01111,
accidental, and out of the present question. 1311"
there is a more numerous class of smaller boronguei
of which the electors are the actual masters, ant",
independent in a sense. We could take at least 50
of them, name by name, and fearlessly ask the
Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he had these
in his eye when he discussed the increase and elevai
tion of the working classes, and the wisdom of
further popularising our borough elections. They
d
are places for which it is impossible to be returned
without a large expenditure, the chief recipents of
which are always the poorest, whose first instinct
is to mass, like starved sheep, for self-preservatien;
What is it, then, that is proposed in its present
naked form ? It is to add numbers to numbers+
and poverty to poverty ; to add new divisors to
those who have too little to divide, and new clam''
ants ants to those whose only thought is to "
spoil.
DAILY News.--Mr. Gladstone stated in the
House of Commons last night that it is his intention
to propose in committee the insertion in the Church'
rate Abolition Bill of clauses embodying the suggef:
tions which he lately made for the settlement of the
whole question of church-rates. The interval that
has elapsed since the second reading of Mr. 1131.‘`/
castle's Bill has been sufficient to give all WO
concerned in the law of church-rates an opportuniti
of expressing their opinion as to the proposal °,
Mr. Gladstone. The result is on the whole eery
favourable, and we believe we may safely assume
that the form in which this long-standing dispute
between Churchmen and Dissenters will ultimate,4
be adjusted has been gained. The merit of Nri
Gladstone's plan is that it gives the opponents 0
church-rates substantially all that they have heen
contending for, in a form which the friends of the
Church may equally accept without a sense of huisr
liation. This is what intelligent and reasonable
men on both sides perceive, and the more plain,l
?,
the character of the proposal is apprehended tP
more supporters it will gain. On both sides there
are, indeed, extreme men who shout ‘, No surreu-
der," and who would gladly prolong the war aP.PP
rently for no other reason than love of the fightl
Amongst the Dissenters, one or two shrill, feeb,
voices are heard asking whether this great question
to be settled by a compromise. By all means, we sag'
if that which is acceptable to one party because le
is in form a compromise, pleases the other bolls t
it concedes the substance of their demand. 1"„,8
the Dissenters have asked is the cessation of CO,,Dis
pulsion in the respect of church-rates, and
Mr. Gladstone's proposal would secure. The °II'
tangible objection made on the side of Dissent i.sf
that if the machinery of church-rates is left ln
the hands of Churchmen, every parish will tholee,
forward have its church rates ; and that ,her
er
Dissenters are few and poor they will be compelled
to pay rates by the application of social pressurto
We suspect that they will. But how are you
legislate against the evil? The State cannot keep
up in this country a sort of Freedmen's Bureau ./
shield the newly emancipated in every rural parlst
from the influence of those who have employrueni;
wages, and custom to dispose of. Social influence
a fact which will have its value under any eireuni,
stances, and legislation cannot hinder its possessor
from exercising it. By destroying the present ec'to
pulsory power of the members of one communitis,/,
exact tribute from another by the agency of the. 1,4
the Legislature would do all it can to discredit
.Im,,s
abuse which is apprehended. Mr. Gladstone desire,
to confine the right of determining how subserli
tions or voluntary payments for the ecclesiastt.
purposes of a parish shall be appropriated e%el.
sively to those who have contributed to the furl,,,
This is a right which Dissenters at present on,
and which is very dear to them ; and it is only ecli
table that Churchmen, as soon as they place tbers,
selves in a position similar to that of the Dissent?b,
shall have the same control over their free-will ,
scriptions. We believe that no objection has 'ie
or will be raised against this fair and reasons
claim.