The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-09 00:00:00

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rvil ar avowedly begun by this detestedAli:v i i,ia, ral
A4l nner of men do they find them to -Z.Agety
of' them suffice to raise the MI p
Virginia into wild affriht, to call out a -`).•4••
s.to bring, federal troops from the capit etteift.4 4er,
an armoury, and defend it for two days,
was at last stormed by overwhelmin • ts '
teen of these poltroons are found to ha 1"-tEF-
their posts, rifle in hand ; two only came outheivefl S
these desperately wounded and gloryiag in their
crime. it is no wonder if the South fees than an
abyss has ()perk(' at their feet. They first resorted
to physical 4'lw as a means of extending slavery in
Kansas, eonfidirtly on Northern pusilla-
nimity. But Lilt, ngi.itind not gone on very long,
till the crust of peaceful habits wore off the Yankees,
and the old whin in tr, praying, unconquerable puritan
burst out. The South,' as we know, finding they
had raised a legion of devils, quitted the field and
called for peace; but, whch Yankees once begin to
fight, it grows on them, and they were not now dis-
posed to cry quits so easily. So the war has been
carried into the enemy's territory. The damage
done is to be sure very trifling. Only half-a-dozen,
negroes joined Brown's enterprise, but it is acknow-
ledged t hatthis is mainly to be ascribed to his having
chosen a bad scene of action. In that part of Vir-
ginia the negroes are few in number, and a large •
number of them house servants, and the farms com-
paratively small. Had he thrown himself into the
cotton States, amongst the great plantations, where
a thousand blacks often toil for a single owner—
tantalised by hard work, exposure, and the overseer's
lash—and offered them arms and bid them follow
him, no man dare to say lie would have been crushed
without untold horrors. The panic his mad effort
has spread proves in what horrible insecurity men
dwell south of Mason and Dixon's line, what a
flaming sword hangs suspended over the whole
slave region, and how deeply the white population
feels its danger.
I do not defend, and no one can defend, Brown's
conduct. His attempt, had it even half succeeded,
could only have bred massacre and desolation. If
the Southerners had themselves failed to restore
order—and my firm belief is that if a general negro
insurrection ever does take place, they will fail— •
the North would bo compelled, if only for hu-
manity's sake, to step, in and quell the revolt. If
the condition of the- blacks is ever to be really im-
proved, it must be peacefully and gradually. But
in spite of all this, no one can see a greyheaded
.mnn, who has lost five sons in the cause of freedom,
step in, with the last surviror of his family by his
side, between the slave and his master, and with
his thirteen other companions hid defiance to a
whole State in the name of the Lord of Hosts, with-
out more or less admiration. There is something
grand in the old fellow's madness, and those here
at the North who most condemn him, acknowledge
him to be well worthy, if not of a better, of a more
hopeful cause, and of a happier fate than that
which now awaits him.

The Virginians, and their blustering governor, as
well as the whole South, are, of course, anxious to
make as much of the affair as possible, for two rea-
sons—one is to make their panic seem less ridiculous
that it has really been ; and the other to in-
fluence the canvass for the presidential elec-
tion. Every newspaper in the slave states
now devotes one or two columns a day
to showing the complicity of the repub-
licans in Brown's plot, and the natural and logical
connection which exists between the republican doc-
trines and slave insurrections. They represent
Brown as having been sent out to reconnoitre, in
anticipation of the grand coup which will assuredly
be made whenever a republican President finds his
way to the White House. Senator Seward, as I
have already mentioned in a former letter, gave
utterance a year ago, at Rochester, to the senti-
ment that the conflict between free and slave labour
was "an irrepressible conflict," and would never
cease until one or other was master of the whole con-
tinent. Upon this the democrats have never since
ceased to ring changes, but it has never been made
to do so much service as since the Harper's Ferry
outbreak. Although the very same thing has been
said over and over byJefferson,Maddison, and all the
fathers of the republic, and in later times by the
great "expounder and defender of the constitution."
Daniel Webster himself, in Seward's mouth it is
denounced as the rankest treason, and, to make it
worse, it is regularly distorted into "irrepressible
conflict between North and South." Moreover, it
is now declared that Brown's attempt is the legiti-
mate consequence of this doctrine, and that if Se-
ward be elected similar attempts will be made on a
much larger scale, and, as far as the federal execu-
tive is concerned, with perfect iffipunity. I despair
of giving you any adequate idea of the eager-
ness with which this point is made, and the
pertinacity with which it is urged. The whole
pro-slavery press is devoting its attention to it,
almost to the exclusion of everything else. That
it will for the moment do the republicans
some injury I have uo doubt; but luckily most of
the State elections are over, and they have secured
a triumph nearly in them all. The presidential
election will not come on until next year, and by
that time the excitement will be over, and the ridi-
culous side of the matter be uppermost. I feel sa-
tisfied also that the absurd antics which the Vir-
ginians are playing, marked as they are by as
much cruelty as terror, will create a reaction
throughout the country in favour of the aboli-
tionists. They brought the old man into court the
other day badly wounded in three places, scarcely
able to stand, and yet manacled! The whole State
remains under arms during his trial, to prevent a
rescue, and the proceed!ngs are being hurried on to
release the State from keeping watch and ward.
Such is the fear the criminal inspires even in his
present condition ; and this amongst a people who
pride themselves above all upon their military qua-
lities, and still aver, as Governor Wise said the
other day, that " their slaves are held by patriarchal
tenure."
We have nothing important from San Juan. Tho
affair does not attract very much attention just at
present, thanks to " Old Brown." But I confess I
very much doubt if the administration will recede
from the position taken by Harney. As matters
stand at present, the burden of taking the initiative
rests on you, and I think it likely Cass will rely on
your reluctance to begin to get him out of the
scrape. About the rigts of the American side of
the question he has, I believe, made up his mind,
or says he has, and the election is too near and the
position of the democracy too perilous to admit of
anything like " backing 'down. It is vory unfortu-
nate that you should have to fire the first shot.