The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-19 00:00:00

GENERAL LEE'S EVIDENCE.

The Times says---A remarkable impression has been
created in America by the evidence of General Lee
before the Reconstruction Committee of Congress.
That committee is now conducting an inquiry into
the state of feeling in the South with direct refe-
rence to the policy of re-union advocated by Presi-
dent Johnson. It seems to have been anticipated
in the committee, which is decidedly opposed to the
views of the President, that General Lee must
necessarily make such admissions with respect to
opinion in Virginia as would justify the policy of
exclusion advocated by the Radical party, and much
satisfaction has been expressed at the manner in
which these attempts were defeated by the Gene-
ral's replies. There are, however, two sides to the
picture thus displayed. We can observe not only
what, according to Gen. Lee's estimate, is the feel-
ing of the South, but also the spirit in which this
opposition to the President's policy is conducted
by the Radical Republicans. All these quarrels, it
should be understood, which aro reported to us
ley successive mails, turn upon the same great
question. There is a complete unity in the drama.
President Johnson wishes to reconstruct the
American Union by re-admitting the Southern
States to political representation on reasonable
terms ; his opponents desire to keep them excluded
by imposing unacceptable conditions of agreement.
These conditions, twice embodied in acts of Con-
gress, Mr. Johnson has twice condemned by his
Presidential Veto, and thus brought the dispute to
open war. What ho himself desires to accomplish
is well known ; what his opponents profess to ex-
pect before they can accept his policy we can gather
from the recent examination of General Lee. The
General promptly testified to the complete defeat
of the South, and the practical submission of the
country ; but this, though it might appear suffi-
cient for all reasonable objects, was not enough
for the members of the committee. They pushed
their inquiries a great deal further. It had been
stated that the people of Virginia " acquiesced in
the Government of the United States," and con-
templated no resistance or opposition to it. But
General Lee was then asked how they felt towards
that portion of the North " which had been forward
and zealous in the prosecution of the war against
the rebellion," and whether they would not ob-
ject, for instance, to New Englanders as acquaint-
ances and companions. After he had asserted
that his countrymen were prepared to pay all
taxes imposed upon them, and had no disposition to
repudiate any just debt, he was asked whether they
would pay their share of the debt contracted in con-
quering them " with as much alacrity as people ordi-
narily pay their taxes to their Government." He had
expressed his belief that the Virginians would per-
'orm all the duties required of them as citizens; but

this was not enough, for he was forthwith pressed
to state whether in his opinion a Virginian jury,
taken at hazard inVirginia,would convict Jeff. Davis
of treason. On the great question of present opinion,
General Lee affirmed, without hesitation, that not
a man in the South, as far as he knew or believed,
entertained the slightest idea of recommencing insur-
rection or renewing strife ; but this did not satisfy
the committee. The General was actually requested
to saynot only whether the South might not at some
future time avail itself of a foreign war to re-assert
its claims, but whether, in the event of a right of
secession being recognised by a future President of
the United States, andallowed by a future Congress,
the States lately in insurrection might not embrace
that opportunity of legal separation from the others.
It would be superfluous to expatiate on the spirit
and temper revealed by such inquiries as these. If
the South is not to be re-admitted into the Union
until questions of this kind can be answered to the
satisfaction of the Radical party, it is manifest that
the Union will never be reconstructed at a The
11.
utmost that can reasonably be exp
ecte
is such a poli-
people situated like the Virginians
tical conformity as General Lee declared to exist. It
d from a
en-
gaged is barely twelve months since
in one of the most
despertahteesewmaresil
end"o were
ern
passion and fury. To expect
o " the bitter
times—a war fought out t with
every circumstance of
that they should now look with positive affection
on their conquerors, condemn their most eminent
countrymen as traitors, and repudiate as abominable
the principles for which they sacrificed their for-
tunes and staked their lives is beyond all reason. It
is enough if they know themselves beaten, if they
accept the results without reserve, if they cherish no
idea of deferred rebellion, and if they are prepared
to return to their former position with a resolution
to perform all their duties as citizens, and with a
readiness to receive the warmer impressions which
time and intercourse may bring. These are actually
the feelings with which General Lee describes them
as now animated. More, it must be evident, could
not be expected, but if more be desired it is manifest
that the result can only be secured by that very
policy which the President has avowed, and which
the Radicals are so fanatically opposing. If some-
thing is still to be done—as nobody need deny—
before a Virginian can look upon the Union as he
looked 10 years ago, it can only be accomplished,
as General Lee affirmed, by liberal and conciliatory
conduct on the part of the Government. If passive
acquiescence is to be converted into cordial sym-
pathy, it must be by kind and generous treatment.
The policy of the Radicals is stultified by their own
professions. They pretend to desire a more sympa-
thising South than they have already got, and then,
in order to improve Southern feeling, they propose
to inflict political disgrace and humiliation on the
Southern people. They pronounce them to be still
disaffected, or not sufficiently well affected, and, by
way of conciliating them, is ould condemn them to
alienation and outlawry. Such a policy stands self-
convicted, for its only result must be to make bad
worse.

ETON COLLEGE.—The Easter vacation termi-
nated yesterday with the return of the lower boys. The
fifth form return to-day and the sixth to-morrow, when
the whole of the scholars will have assembled.
SUPERHEATED STEAM.—The tremendous effects
of a small quantity of water turned suddenly into
superheated steam have long ago been remarked upon. It
was not, however, until recently that an attempt was made
to utilise this extraordinary power. Mr. E. Danford, of
Illinois, United States, has, it is said, succeeded in mak-
ing a powerful machine, of which this is the motive power.
The principle may be illustrated by recalling the circum-
stance of a foundry roof having been blown away some
years ago in the north of England, in consequence of a
hollow ball of metal into which a small quantity of water
had made its way having been thrown into a furnace.
Mr. Danford suspends the ball, which he calls a steam
generator, in a furnace, and procures the steam to work
his engine by intermittent jets of water into the interior
of the ball.— Canadian roper.