The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-29 00:00:00

T H E

0 X F O R D,

6, OXFORD-STREET.

Open Every Evening. Selections from "La Trariata,"
" Iln Ballo in Maschera," &c., by Miss Russell, Messrs. C.
Greville, Worley, Tivoli, and H. Herbert, with full band and
chorus. Other vocal and instrumental music of the highest
order, and varied attractive entertainments. The Comic
portion by Messrs. M. P. Foster (in his " Life Sketches"),
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Verdi's new opera, " Simon Boccaneo-ra," produced on the
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mented band and chorus, will be presented (for the first time
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Mr. Jonghmans.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tau; DAY.—Morning, 6h. 59m.—Afternoon, 7h. 26m.
To-nonnow.-Morning, 7h. 58m.—Afternoon, Bh. 44m.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, AUGUST 29, 1861.
THEEMOIIETBI4 IN THE SEADB.
74—highest since noon yesterday.
58---lowest this morning and during the night.
70—this day at neon.

' BARommmt-29.98.
WIND—W.-S.-Westerly—light; with dull weather.

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THE SUN.

/NI/ON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1861.

Another Proclamation from President LINCOLN !
it is called an important one. Let us see how
far this may really be the case. How far this
last proclamation issued by the American Presi-
dent may be regarded as important, or, in other
words, as formidable by those who set his autho-
rity altogether at defiance—that is to say, by the
leaders of the Confederated States of the South.

The proclamation is dated from the city of Wash-
ington, the 16th day of August, in the year of
our Lord, 1861, and, as the document aids with
a flourish, " of the Independence of the United
States the eighty. sixth." It is duly signed as a
matter of course, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, and is
countersigned, WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
It sets forth with the ordinary kind of preamble—
is measured out according to rule in so many
paragraphs—No. 1. beginning " Whereas ;" No. 2.
" And whereas ;" No. 3. " Now, therefore, I, ABRA-
NAM LINCOLN, &C. ;" N 0.4. (and last) "And I hereby
enjoin"—the whole document being drawn to a close
with, " In witness whereof I have hereunto set my
hand and caused the seal of—(What ?)—the United
States to be affixed." And now in a word or two,
what is it all about?

Well, then, in the first instance, as may be de-
duced from what has already been said in
reference to it, the proclamation is addressed
quite as much to the North as to the South—that
is the tone of authority it maintains throughout
it. President LINCOLN talking as authoritatively
in every word to the citizens of Alabama, Louisiana,
Arkansas, and Tennessee, as to those of Missouri
or Ohio, of Connecticut or Massachusetts. Inas-
much as he does that, of course all is just as it
should, just as every rational or dispassionate ob-
server might have expected that it would
be• But while couching his proclamation
thus in the language of authority, and issuing it in
a tone of command intendEd to vibrate as sono-
rously, southwards down to the River Bravo del
Norte and to Cape Punta Fancha, as, northwards,
up to the shores of Lake Superior and to the coast-
line of the Bay of Fundy—President LINCOLN sets
out unnecessarily, and therefore tediously, in his
"Important Proclamation" this wise. He announces,
to begin with, that " Whereas, on the 15th of
April" (he is writing now in the present instance,
recollect, on the 16th of August), he " the Presi-
dent of the United States, in view of as

insurrection against the laws, constitution,
and the Government of the United States,
which had broken out within "—he then goes on
to enumerate the seven States that were first in-
surgent, viz.—" the States of South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana,
and Texas." Hereupon he reiterates his authority
for acting upon the 15th of April aforesaid ; add-
ing, " And in pursuance of the provisions of the
act entitled, [we all know the title so deplorably
well already !) an Act to Provide for Calling Forth
the Militia to Execute the Laws of the Union, Sup-
press Insurrections, and Repel Invasions, and to
Repeal the Act now in force for that purpose, ap-
proved Feb. 28, 1795, did"—[that is he, the Presi-
dent, did,—for we are beginning to lose the gram-
matical construction of even Mr. LINCOLN'S first
paragraph]—" did call forth the militia to suppress
such insurrection and cause the laws of the Union to
be duly executed "—Here might surely come a full
stop.

But Mr. LINCOLN appends in recognition of
z deplorable fact, a slovenly conclusion to the
semen
ce, thus—" and the insurgents have failed to
dln)eree by the time directed by the President."
Then follows the second series of intimations con-
stituting the
second paragraph of this new
(und important)
oar graph it is
proclamation. In which second
that President LINCOLN men-
ins the extenaine,
of
to four more
of the insurrectionary move-
the States in the
South, that is to the States
of
Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and &rkan a6* Having pro-
claimed" which very stale news . "
this particularly
solemnly manner from Washi„
to,thus does the
third and
oov,
document under examination lead off its
moat " important" paragraph :.---,,N
I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President
; the therefore,u
United
States, ited
States, in pursuance of an act of Congress, passed
July 13, 1861, do hereby declare—[mark War]
that the • inhabitants of the said States of

inent

L 46.
•••.,
Ns

' [here thei are, of course, all over again—every one
of the'eleven l] Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana,
Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida. . . .
. . . . are in a state of insurrection (!) against
the United States," and so forth. First of all, how-
ever; where a certain hiatus in the above quotation
is marked by dots, it should be remarked that there
occurs in the original Proclamation a parenthesis
of a very portentous character, which we have taken
the liberty to eliminate. Regard per se, it runs
thus—" (except the inhabitants of that part of the
State of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany
Mountains, and of such other parts of that State,
and the other States hereinbefore named, as may
maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the
constitution, or may be from time to time occu-
pied and controlled by the forces engaged
in the dispersion of said insurgents)."
Otherwise than with those moderate exceptions,
the whole of the eleven Southern States, already
more than once enumerated in this Proclamation by
name, are thus formally proclaimed as we have seen
to be in a state of insurrection ! They are, there-
' upon particularised as States that are to be
treated accordingly. President LINCOLN inti-
mating, for example (though everyone knew
this previously), that " all commercial inter-
course between the same and the inhabitants thereof
with the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of
other States and other parts of the United States,
is unlawful, and will remain unlawful until such
insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed."
He announces, however, that "all goods and
chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from any
of said States, with the exceptions afore-
said, into other parts of the United States,
without the special license and permission
of the PRESIDENT, through the Secretary of the
Treasury, or proceeding to any of said States,
with the exceptions aforesaid, by land or water,
together with the vessel or vehicle conveying the
same, or conveying persons to or from said States,
with said exceptions, will be forfeited to the United
States." Here, however—at last—comes the gist, the
pith, the marrow of the whole of this " important"
document, namely, in these words—" And that
from and after fifteen days from the issuing of
this proclamation all ships and vessels belonging in
part to any citizen or inhabitant of any of said
States, with said exceptions, found at sea or in
any port of the United States, will be forfeited to
the United States." We draw breath, and pause.
That then is the deadly bolt that has
been shot through all this long rolling crash
of thunder ! And now—as to its "importance !"
Well, what possibly can be said but that in one of
our old-fashioned cookery-books, written by BAR-
DANA HILL, the Quack, under the akisumed name
of Mrs. GLASSE, there is that familiar little serio-
comic scrap of advice prefixed to the receipt for
Hare Soup—" First catch your hare !" So absolutely
is it, here—after all, this "sound and fury" of the
President's important Proclamation. " Sound and
fury" really (in the absence of a good cause to fight
for in the North) just " signifying nothing !" If but
the North would see its advantage ! So visible to us
all on this side of the Atlantic ! If but the North
would recognise its opportunity ! Were they at
length to proclaim themselves (that whole race of
the Northerns) FOR FREEDOM, in Truth as well
as in Word, AGAINST Negro Slavery, FOR the
Emancipation of the Blacks—the New World
would soon have a Republic worthy of it. A Re-
public One and Indivisible. A Republic the svm-
bolical standard of which might be a banner
filled with stars, and without a stripe to dis-
figure it. A Republic the national air of which
might be something a trifle better than Yankee
Doodle.

The authoress of " Uncle Tom's Cabin" is entitled,
if anyone be, to a hearing on the subject of the pre-
sent war in America ; the more so if she thinks that
the party to which she belongs is wronged by Eng-
lish opinion, or even if the Northerns generally are
misunderstood by us. Her letter to Lord SHAFTES-
BURY was possibly called forth by the remarks
which he made at a meeting to present a testimo-
nial to Dr. CHEEVER, the great Abolitionist minis-
ter, who has lately been travelling in this country
and in Europe. His lordship then observed
that there had been very little feeling on the
subject in this country, because we did not be-
lieve in the sincerity of either side. The North,
in this struggle, never thought of putting an end to
slavery ; rather, from the North the slavers went
forth who defy our cruisers ; that Northern gen-
tlemen held mortgages on slave estates, and derived
profits from them ; that in the last PRESIDENT'S
Message the subject of slavery was not mentioned,
not even under any of those euphemisms in which
American public men delight to veil their shame—
indeed, his only allusion to the subject was the in-
direct one that, when Union was restored, he in-
tended to govern the States according to the old
(slave) constitution ; that there could be no feeling
in this country in such a state of things. This was
the tenour of his lordship's remarks, and might well
be the cause of Mrs. STOWE'S appeal to the British
public through him. We should have expected,
however, if she had actually seen them, more defi-
nite reference to them.

Mrs. STOWE hints that the impression is likely
to go forth in America that our comparative indif-
ference is due to the " moneyed interests" of this
country being affected by the war, and that hence
"financial interests prevail over moral principle."
Mrs. STOWE may rest well assured that this, so far
as it extends, is a pure American fancy. On the
contrary, with the vast majority of Englishmen,
more, indignation against slavery renders
it difficult for them to tolerate what seems to
them the " moral" indifference of the North
to it. -With insignificant exceptions, we regard
making property of human beings as an act so cri-
minal, and a system so infernal, that we cannot
Ist, That the North
i
comprehend the present attitude of the North.
has
se dniosttinincttlyhissee
wartw tohte abolition of slavery for its
object ; 2dly, and perhaps worse still, that it covets
returning to the old position of a great slavery con-
federation, with all the old slave-hunting laws in
full force Our " moral principle," to which Mrs.
STOWE appeals, revolts at this readiness to combine
with, and to protect, slavery. We forget, in fact,
finance for principle.

Mrs. STOWE puts the best phase she can on the
war, by yepresenting it as the ultimate result of
the movements begun by our CLARKSON and WIL-
BERFORCE, and carried on ever since with more or
less energy by a noble band of philanthropists on
both sides of the Atlantic. She thinks the same
activities which abolished slavery and the slave
trade in England have been bringing about the
present crisis in America. We are not very sure-of
the historical truth of this representation; but, even
admitting it, the character of the struggle is alto-
gether different from what ours was. Philanthro-
pists led in England ; politicians, not very willingly,
obeyed the impulse ; and the people were willing
to pay twenty millions sterling rather than bear
longer the national guilt and disgrace of slavery. In
America politicians take the lead, and from purely
political motives. Philanthropists stand by and
hope the result will be the abolition of slavery; but
they do not even pretend that the politicians are
aiming at that. The North said nothing whatever

about slavery at first. Slavery never stirred its
anger against the South. But the instant Fort
Sumpter was attacked we had the "sublime," the
" magnificent" uprising of all the North. Appa-
rently slavery might have lived on for ever, and
negroes have groaned till we heard them in
Europe, and the North would have taken it
very complacently ; but as soon as the great-
ness of the Union was attacked, that Moloch to
which so many hecatombs of slaves have been
offered—all the North was in a blaze. We fear
the broad facts of the case speak little indeed
for the " moral principle" of the North, deficient
as Mrs. STOWE pronounces England to be in it.
We really yet have seen no principle in the North
more respectable than that which leads Austria to
seek the amalgamation of Hungary, despite of law
and right. So the North "goes in" for a big
Union, one big enough to bully the world, despite
all the just rights of man, and the laws of God and
Christianity.

We are sorry to see Mrs. STOWE imposed upon
by the high-sounding nonsense of the PRESIDENT in
his last speech respecting the world-wide import-
ance of the American struggle, She, too, writes
of it as a contest for the highest political liberties
of men—for civilisation—for an issue far transcend-
ing that of the emancipation of the negro race
specifically. And what is this grand issue ? Why,
in plain English, to show to the world that the
device, in many respects so clumsy, of American
Federalism was capable of an eternal existence !
The Americans are so foolishly proud of their Con-
stitution, that they think the whole world is in-
terested in seeing it proved to be meant for per-
petuity ! But really the world cares little about
it. We are sorry to tell Mrs. STOWE that nothing
has done more injury to the Liberal cause in
England, and to liberty in Europe, than the
example of America. The pro-slavery tendencies
of even the Free States, their mob tyranny, their
habitual exclusion of all the ablest men from high
office, their compelling the better part of society to
stand aloof from politics, their domination of the
least informed at home, and their insufferable arro-
gance and rudeness in their diplomatic intercourse
with other nations—all these things have made
American Republicanism the quiver from which
Toryism and Despotism draw their sharpest
arrows in their resistance to Liberalism in Europe.
We are quite confident that, in England, the ex-
ample of America has done more than anything
else to make the middle classes averse to the exten-
sion of popular liberties.
We are pleased to know that not only Mrs.
STOWE but WENDELL PHILLIPS are satisfied that
the question of slavery is bound up with the pre-
sent contest. They both may be trusted, beyond
most, for desiring to see the end of the abomina-
tion. Their hope gives us hope. But they both
distinctly confess that the North is not aiming,
as we feel that it ought to be, at the extinction
of slavery. It seeks its own political supremacy,
which seems, to many, to necessitate the ultimate
overthrow of slavery. Now we care not a straw
for the political supremacy of one-half or the
other half of the Union ; and hence the indiffer-
ence which annoys Mrs. STOWE. Let the North
make their second object the first, and England
would be hearty enough in the cause.

THE ARREST OF MR. MIHR.—Mr. Robert Muir,
of Charleston, who was arrested on board the steamship
Africa just previous to her departure from New York, is a
naturalized American citizen, and in consequence can make
no claim on the British Government for protection.

PRESENTS FOR HER MAJESTY.—PORTSMOUTH,
Wednesday.—lt will probably be remembered that some
two years since her Majesty sent out a yacht named the
Emperor, as a present to the Emperor of Japan. In return
he has sent home, in her Majesty's ship Furious, most
valuable presents to the Queen, contained in 40 packages of
considerable dimensions. As a matter of course, no person
knows the contents of the packages, but it is surmised they
contain large quantities of very elegant articles of lacquer
work, together with the general products Gf art from Japan.
The packages were taken out on Wednesday with the greatest
care. They left the dockyard in a prOper conveyance, and
were taken to the Portsmouth Railway station for London.
DEATH OF THE MARCHIONESS OF BREADALBANE.
—We regret to announce the death of the Marchioness of
Breadalbane, which mournful event occurred at 10 o'clock
yesterday morning at the marquis's town residence, in Park-
lane. The lamented marchioness had been ill during the
last few weeks, and for the last fortnight no hopes have
been entertained of her recovery. The deceased lady was
the eldest daughter of Mr. George Baillie, of Jerviswood,
N. 8., by Mary, youngest daughter of the late Sir James
Pringle, Bart. She was born 29th of June, 1803, and
married, 23d November, 1821, the Marquis of Breadalbane.
The marchioness was sister of the Earl of Haddington, the
Countess of Aberdeen, Lady Polwarth, and the Countess
of Ashburnham. By the demise of her ladyship several
families of distinction are placed in mourning.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM.—During the autumn re-
cess, which will extend from Saturday, the 31st inst., to
the 7th proximo, inclusive, several important alterations in
the arrangements of the objects in the various departments
of the national collection will be carried into effect. In the
ethnological department an improved arrangement, and to
some extent a new classification, has been undertaken by
Professor Owen and his assistants, in order to include the
additional specimens comprised in M. du Chaillu's African
collection and the contributions of other recent discoverers
in the study of natural history which have found place in
the galleries. The mosaics from Carthage, which have
hitherto been only partially displayed in one of the base-
ment rooms, are to be exhibited to the public ; and further
alterations will be effected in the disposition of the casts
and sculptures in the Athenian galleries, Increased facility
is to be provided in the reading-room for reference to the
volumes of the old catalogue which have not hitherto been
labelled and arranged in divisions, and additional copies of
the printed catalogue are to be supplied for the use of
readers. The proposed changes will be carried out to the
utmost extent the short period allotted for the autumn va-
cation will admit.

EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF AN IRISH
GIRL.—An Irish girl, who gave the name of Bridget
Dokay, was recently examined before one of the New York
justices on a charge of dressing in men's attire. The New
York Herald gives the following as the story of the girl,
who was apprehended while engaged in a row at a drinking
saloon—" At the age of 13 years she became enamoured of
a lad named Kelly, and the pair resolved to get married.
The parents of the children, hearing how matters stood, re-
solved to separate the youthful lovers, and it was arranged
that young Kelly should be sent to sea. Accordingly, he
started for Liverpool, and in a few days afterwards he was on
his way to New York. Bridget, after pining a week or so in
sorrow, determined to follow her sweetheart. At Dublin she
procured a suit of sailor's garments and crossed over to
Liverpool and engaged herself as a cabin boy on board a ship
bound for New York. No one on board suspected her real
character. On her arrival in this city she assumed the name
of Edward Johnson, and in common with the other sailors
put up at a well-known boarding-house in Cherry-street.
After roaming about New York for several weeks in search
of her lover, she determined to go back to Liverpool and see
if she could hear anything about him there. Still she was
and finally
Aunsuccessful in her efforts, and at last she was compelled
to give up the search. Having acquired a taste for the
sea, she made several voyages to France and Holland,
d
this
timefe for
she New
was Yor k
completelyagain in
ces
successful
esshfiup
Resolute,nl
in disguising her sex, and was quite a favourite with the
pet
formed
officers and sailors. Her quiet, modest demeanour won for
her the respect of the captain, at whose request she made no
less than three voyages. On the; last trip from Liverpool she
was promoted to the position of an ordinary seaman, and it
was k
heßrraidrdguetouhsadd uties with
unusual
kept her
secret inviolate for three long years, and without doubt
remarked asrl alacrity
thaty and P
she
promptitude.
would have received a mate's appointment before she had
accomplished many more voyages. In an evil hour, she
made an unfortunate sally into Water-street, where she was
invited to treat the crowd. Sailor like, she complied with the
request, and the bottle passed merrily round. so„ one
of
her companions became boisterous, and insisted that they
should have another round of drinks. But Bridget was
averse to drinking any more, and rose as if to leave the
company, when the drunken sailor caught her around the
waist and swore she should not depart. In the struggle
which followed the girl unveiled her sex. The magistrate
and spectators heard her story with evident sympathy, and it
was resolved to be as lenient with her as possible. Tho pri-
soner was arrayed in a suit of women's clothes, and sent to
prison for safe keeping. She seemed quite pleased at the
change in her position, and says she will be cont-nted to
remain under Miss Foster's care until some suitable em-
ployment can be procured for her."

ROEBUCK'S ORATORY.—We should say that lately
there has been a trifle too much of what the Yankees would
call "the spread eagle" about it.—Punch.