The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-27 00:00:00

—point out to me, an it so please you to do
what part of my policy may chance to
be distasteful to you, and the result will
be between us as though you had not spoken.
The refrain with him, as with Mr. TOOTS in
Dombey and eon, was literally in this way—" It's
not of the slightest consequence, thank you!" The
problem remaining for solution by the French
Legislature after the Speech from the Throne had
explained the nature of the boon vouchsafed by
the EMPEROR, could have been summed up conse-
quently in two words on the opening day of the
session— Cui bono ? The Senate virtually appear
to have thought with Mr. TOOTS also on their
part—" It's not of the slightest consequence, thank
you "—judging from the whole tone and character
of their Address in answer to the Speech of their
Imperial Benefactor ! They intimate in their re-
ply to the EMPEROR, these obsequious political
lacqueys, that they accept the whole of his Majesty's
policy, that they are ready to sustain that policy in
everything. The truth being that in so doing they
just simply put a good face upon the matter. They
are positively assured that they may object to any-
thing in that policy if they like to do so--but that
in the event of their objecting nothing whatever
will come of it in the way of any change at all,
good, bad, or indifferent. The pill is gilded for
them—that is all : and thereupon they swallow it
with the least wry face in any way possible under
the circumstances. Nay, with a sort of a grimace
of gratitude. In this respect indeed the
Senate of NAPOLEON 111. bears a certain
degree of resemblance in its polite imperturbabi-
lity, bears a certain degree of resemblance to Prince
TALLEYRAND himself, of whom NAPOLEON the
Great once said that, supposing that Minister at
any time to have been undergoing a kicking, you
could never tell what was occurring from the expres-
sion of his countenance. It is really thus with the
Senate, who have but just now felt the touch of the
Imperial jack-boot, and who,while yet fresh from the
agreeable operation come cringing to his MAJESTY'S
footstool—all politeness. Surely each Senator of
France, as reasonably as he echoes the Imperial
policy in this obsequious Address in answer to the
Speech from the Throne, might quite as reasonably
and as justly and appositely echo INlawworm's
: ejaculation in The hypocrite of BICKERSTAFF —" I
likes to be despised."

It has rather surprised us that in the interesting
discussion last night on the Slave trade and Coolie
emigration, advertence was not definitely made to
the course which England ought to take with
America if her circumstances became what they
appear so likely to be. It is well known that the
project of the first seceding States was to revive
the African Slave trade direct. The promise was
held out as a lore to the non-planting white men—
" the Mean Whites," whose great ambition is
to possess " a Nigger"—that the African Slave
Trade should make that article so cheap that every
loafer amongst them might possess one. The
planters too, though it would reduce the value of
their present slaves, yet if they were holding their
stock, and did not want to sell their negro cattle,
would gain more by their increased means
of cultivation, than they would lose by the
fall of value in their human chattels. It
was long, therefore, fully understood, that
a Southern confederacy, when complete, would,
amongst its first acts, resuscitate the slave trade.
Since then they have indeed been obliged to be a
little cautious on the subject. The six seceding
States are amongst the feeblest and poorest of the
South. They need the co-operation of the Border
Slave States, but these are for the most part slave-
breeding States. Slavery is desirable in Kentucky,
Virginia, and Maryland, because slaves are their
most valuable article cf export—to bring
in the raw African, and to cheapen their
slaves till they were no longer worth
breeding, would make it not worth while
for these States to remain Slave States, and
to join the South. The Seceding Six States, there-
fore, in their Congress, cunningly offered the border
States the bribe of prohibiting slaves from being
brought into the New Confederation from any other
quarter than States belonging to it. Thus, the
African slave trade was to be given up in order to
purchase the secession of the Border States.
This, however, can be no reliance for us. It is as
likely as not that the Southern Confederation will
be under the lead of fiery spirits, who,
already having proclaimed slavery a Divine
institution, will not hesitate to add to their
Gospel the divinity of the African slave trade
too. The planters, once emancipated from the
North, will overpower the slave-breeding states by
their cry for cheaper labour, and then will com-
mence a renewal of the trade under the unassailable
flag of the New Confederation, carried on with all
the vigour of the Anglo Saxon race, and on a scale
to which anything remembered by the present
strongly' tempted to put
Nowgeneration
Englandwould
wboeu trivial.'
would
i vbiea l.
up with this. First, she would say—We have
always acknowledged de facto Governments. That
would be the diplomatic argument, the otre put
forward. But behind that would be the real one,
the Manchester argument. Unfortunately, the
Northern States are doing their best to repel us.
They are taking advantage of die secession of
Southern members' absence to vote a much higher
protective tariff for the manufacturers in the free
States ; such a one, it is said, as will almost break
up the present English trade to America. The
South, on the other hand, are proposing to admit
foreign imports duty free, and to lay a halfpenny
a pound on the export of cotton, The working of
this, they calculate, would be to bring them all
the foreign trade, while, as Northern States' manu-
facturers would pay the cotton duty as well as
those of Lancashire
son to complain. the latter would have no rea-
The bait of free imports would
certainly tike with
Manchester, and perhaps with