The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-08 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tam MT.—Morning, 11h. 34m.—Afternoon, Oh. Om,
To-moßitow.-Morning, 12h. Bm.—Afternoon, 12h. 38m

THE WEATHER,_SUN OFFICES, JAN. 8,
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
29—highest since nom yesterday.
19 —lowest this morning and during the night.
31—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.34.
WIND—South-Easterly—rather fresh ; with fine sun•
shiny weather.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JAN. 8, 1861.

The letters and papers just received from what
were, till the 20th of December, the United States
only confirm the views naturally suggested by the
brief summary of their contents forwarded by the
telegraph. So far as the solemn and unanimous
vote of the South Carolina Convention can effect
that object, the United States exist no longer.
The Palmetto State has, by an express resolution,
repealed the " ordinance adopted by them on the
23d of May, 1788, whereby the Constitution of the
United States was ratified," Sic.—and declared
that the Union now subsisting between South
Carolina and other States, under the name of the
United States of America, is now dissolved." The
vote of 1788 was carried by a majority of 76—the
vote of 1860 by the unanimous suffrages of 169
delegates to the State Convention.
This step, however, was easy to take amongst an
excited people. 'What shall be further done by the
State itself ? and what shall be done at Washington ?
and what will be the final result ?—are questions
which puzzle all the politicians in the States, and
all, indeed, who at a distance look with interest on
this novel struggle. It is, in truth, quite a new
case for us all. Those who cannot move without
a volume of precedents are wholly at a loss. No
such Republic, in its chief conditions, as the United
States of America, ever existed before. Thirty-
three Sovereign States, the white population
sprung from the most liberty-loving race in the
et, for the most part, well understanding
world, y
that obedience to law is the grand safeguard
of liberty —one part of these States, however,
cherishing as their greatest social prize the insti-
tution of personal slavery in a form more stringent
than was ever known in the most despotic countries.
A vast increase in population, wealth, and power
in the Free States, and the establishment of a great
manufacturing system there, requiring a protective
tariff against the interest of the Slave States. A
vast development of slavery in the Southern States,
consequent on the demand, in Europe chiefly, for
one of their chief productions, and a consequent
rise in the value of slaves. A growin g determi-
nation of the Slave States to be the political
masters of the Union, partly from old aristocratical
pride, partly from deeming such power requisite
to sustain their cherished institution. A gradually
growing, and at last a triumphant determination
on the part of the North not to bow to the dicta-
tion of the South, and to sacrifice freedom and in-
telligence. to slavery and ignorance—these, and
other circumstances which might be mentioned,
present us with a comparatively new form of the
great struggle between liberty and freedom. Such
is essentally the struggle now going on. For the
South sees all its pride and interest bound up with
maintaining the most extreme of aristocracies,
that which completely subjugates the mass of the
population to its service, and demands to make its
aristocratical principle the law of all North
Ainerica—the Free States stand by their Declara-
tion and Deed of Independence, and insist that such
an aristocracy is abnormal, municipal, oectional

—an evil in itself, and one so great that it ought
if possible to be wholly annihilated.
As might be expeeted, we find the Carolinians
themselves, as soon as they look on the deed they
have done, not a little puzzled. In the debate some
of them told the others facts which showed that
they would not be immediate gainers, at least, by
secession. Such as that the General Government
paid 240,000 dollars for the postal service in
South Carolina, while it collected only 50,000
dollars in the State ; and again, that the
Federal Revenue from South Carolina did not
nearly pay the expense of collecting it. Then,
notice was taken of the fact that the laws of the
United States were no longer in force in the State,
that all the officials ceased to bold office down to
the Postmasters and the Tidewaiters ; others
contended that the, laws were not ab-
rogated by the simple act of secession,
and it was soon seen that simple as seemed the
process of voluntary self-excision from the Union,
yet, as one speaker expressed it, "an immense
chasm would be made in the law," and at
least temporary arrangements must be made
to carry on the Government. In fact, South
Carolina seems very much to want a trust-
worthy dictator just now. The news of
the unanimous vote was, however, received with
great rejoicings in the principal towns, both of
Carolina itself, and of other Southern States ; and

salvoes of artillery and ringing of bells indicated
the joy with which the whole men of the South
received the news of the first disruption of the

Union.
In the North and at Washington councils are
divided, some are for repressing the commencement
of disunion, so soon as it shows itself in overt
acts, by force. A journal said to be in Mr.
LINCOLN'S interest, and in possession of his views,
says—" If South Carolina does not obstruct the col-
lection of revenues at her ports, nor 'violate any other
federal law, there will be no trouble, and she will not
be out of the Union. If she violates the law, then
comes the tug of war. The President of the United
States, in such an emergency, has a plain duty to
perform. Mr. BUCHANAN may shirk it, or the
emergency may not exist during his administration.
If not, then the Union will last through his term
of office. If the overt act on the part of South
Carolina takes place on or after the Ist of
March, 1861, then the duty of executing
the laws will devolve upon Mr. LINCOLN.
The laws of the Uuited States must be executed.
The President has no discretionary power on
the subject. His duty is emphatically pronounced
in the Constitution. Mr. LINCOLN will perform
that duty. Disunion by armed force is treason,
and treason must and will be put down at all
hazards." This is strong language, but from all
the hints that can be collected, it seems Mr,
LINCOLN'S own view is that Secession ought to be
prevented by the Federal Government—we do
not see, however, that he has anywhere asserted
the propriety of using force.
Mr. SEWARD, in a speech delivered at an impor-
tant meeting, takes a very calm and comfortable
view of the whole affair. He disbelieves in break-
ing up the Union. The South is to the North in
the relation, he says, of a wife and family to a
father—very easy to get rid of them by unfaith-
fulness, contention, impatience and thwarting their
tempers—but very easy for any man to keep them
if he will keep his own virtue and his own
temper. Now, in all this business—he added—" I
propose that we shall keep our own ♦irtue, which
in politics is loyalty, and our own temper, which
in politics consists in remembering that men may
differ, that brethren may differ. If we keep en-
tirely cool, and entirely calm, and entirely kind, a
debate will ensue which will be kindly in itself ;
and it will prove very soon either that we are wrong
—and we shall concede to our offended brethren,
or else that we are right, and they will acquiesce
and come back into fraternal relations with us."
There is certainly good sense in this ; so there is in
what follows on the subject of coercion :—" All I
have to say on that subject is, that so long ago as
the time of Sir THOMAS MORE he discovered, and
set down the discovery in his writing, that there
were a great many schoolmasters, and that while there
were a very few who knew how to instruct children,
there were a great many whoknew how to whip them.
I propose to have no question on that subject, but
to hear complaints, to redress them if they ought
to be redressed, and if we have the power to redress
them, and I expect them to be withdrawn if they
are unreasonable, because I know that the necessi-
ties which made this Union exist for these states
are stronger to-day than they were when the
Union was made, and that those necessities are
enduring, while the passions of men are short lived
and ephemeral. I believe that secession was
stronger on the night of the 6th of November last,
when a President and a Vice-President who were
unacceptable to the slave states were elected, than
it is now. That is now some fifty days since,
and I believe that every day's sun which set
since that time has set on mollified passions and
prejudices, and that if you will only give it time,
sixty days more suns will give you a much brighter
and more cheerful atmosphere." The course Mr.
BUCHANAN is taking, in giving up everything, will
carry out Mr. SEWARD'S suggestion perfectly. 'We
shall see the result in March, when Mr. LINCOLN
enters on office.

The sincerity of the " wish" for Peace expressed
by the Emperor of FRANCE on New Year's Day,
in the few words addressed by his Imperial
MAJESTY to the Ambassadors from the Courts of
Europe—the loyalty and sincerity of that avowal
of NAPOLEON 111. will now very speedily be put
to the test. In saying this, we allude neither to
Rome nor yet to oaeta—n.ov net, rerei I. tte
EMPEROR'S policy as it affects the interests of
FRANCIS JOSEPH, or as it affects the quite con-
trary interests of VICTOR EMMANUEL. The men-
tion here made of a distinct test now very speedily
to be applied to the pacific declaration with which
our ally inaugurated the present year of Our
relates in no way to Italy, in no way
Lord, 1861,
Austria,
to Naples, or to Sardinia. It applies
simply to the question of the Syrian occupation.
That military
occupation it will be remembered
—an occupation direfully necessitated by the
frightful massacre of the unfortunate Maro-
nites by the fanatical Druses of the Lebanon
—was limited by the clearly expressed
terms of the Convention entered into with
the Ottoman Porte to a period of six months
and no more ! It being deemed probable, not very
unreasonably, that half a year Would be an in-
terval of time in every way sufficient to carry
out the one single object and design of this
occupation, namely, that of according the
visible and appreciable support of Western Europe
in the very scene of those atrocious butcheries,
the substantial and recognisable support of
England and France to the Turkish Commissioner
FUAD PACHA, sent out thither to punish the
leaders and instigators of those unparalleled
atrocities. That half-year will now very speedily
have expired. And supposing his Majesty of
FRANCE to be for once true to his word, faithful to
his agreement, sincere and loyal in his assurances,
he French, troops now quartered in the country