The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-27 00:00:00

THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPAITIES.

The Roumain Moniteur of the 13th inst. contains
the list of a new ministry for Wallachia. The fol-
lowing are the names :
President of the Coun-

Temesees
cii and Miuister of,.
the Interior
Justice
Finances
ppesco.
Worship and Educa-
tion M. Jean Cantacuzene.
Foreign Affairs
War .............. Colonel
Public Works
are eon-
The detailed explanation of these appointmentswill b© looked for with interest b
-y all Who
corned for the peace and prosperity
Christian state of the Lower Danube.
jog ministry, as the names
given The inborn-
Bayard, ultra-conservative, and above
show, is
is supposed that the Portanti-unionist. It
e
fulfil its promise must have refused to
by sending
will not be an Edict of Union. It
urbed in surprising if public tranquillity is consequence.dis-
T- S

HE SLAVE SQUADRON.—An- Admiralty return
shows that in the five years,
1855-59, there died 368 officers,
ram, and boys belonging to her Majesty's ships employed
in the supt ression of the slave trade, and 999 were in-
valided. The complement of the ships employed on this
service in the course of a year averaged 5,443; but it is not
stated for how much of each year each ship was oil the
station. The approximate annual cost of the ships em-
ployedi42 3 .
—Holloway's Pills and Ointment.—
Antidote to Diseases.—A lady writing from India, June 22,
[ADs.aEviteT raisgEllrELN 45T8.
1860, for a further supply, says, " I beg to address you on
the subject of your invaluable Pills and Ointment. I would
not pronounce a hasty opinion on any medicine, unless I
had really proved its efficacy. Members of my family have
given your Pills and Ointment a fair trial in cases of fever,
colds, sore throats, piles, muscular rheumatism of the heart,
and general debility, and in all these cases your remedies
have always proved effectual." Can any testimonial be
more gratifying ? Though in India, the considerate
writer enumerates many of the diseases prevalent in
land, and those which usually require early radical 1"'
domestic treatment.

THE SUN.

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 27, 1881.

It is a very simple question indeed, the one that
Comes this evening under the consideration of the
House of Commons. There is, first of all, the
Budget Bill, which—having been read a first and
second time—will now have to be examined in
detail in Committee. There is—upon that motion
—this promised Amendment of Mr. NEWDEGATE'S.
Beyond all which there is the exceeding proba-
bility of yet another Amendment to be introduced
from the side of the Opposition. It is through that
second, and not, so to speak, supplementary Amend-
ment that we are disposed to anticipate the solution
of a,financial problem, hitherto characterised by its
apparently inextricable confusion, its bewildering
complication and its all but insoluble difficulty.
The Amendment announced by the hon. member for
Warwickshire has reference, it will be seen, to what
may be called the constitutional question, involved
in the fiscal and financial propositions embodied in
the Bill now under consideration in the House of
Commons, the Bill based upon Mr. GLADSTONE'S
Budget Resolutions. It suggests, this point-
blank Amendment, that these propositions,
instead of being tacked together, and so sent en
mane to the House of Lords, shall heretofore, with
the Component parts of all the rest of the Budget
Bills within living recollection, be divided the one
from the other, and so sent up separately. Unfair—
monstrously unfair—though the cry raised upon this
matter-in-dispute by the right hon. baronet the
Member for Carlisle, the cry raised by him in ironi-
cal explanation of the wiahes cherished at heart at
this moment, by her MAJESTY'S Opposition—to wit,
" Up with the Lords and down with the Commons !"
Still it is unquestionably the truth that the position
proposed to be assumed in this matter by
the Opposition would,
,in the event of a tri-
umph en their part, bear that invidious con-
struction. And we might rest perfectly well
assured that supposing, for the sake of
argument that Mr. NEWDEGATE'S proposition (we
don't in the least expect it, but we put the sup-
position just for the sake of argument) were car-
ried, that wicked disto:tion, by SZ:.
AMES GRAHAM,
of the views and sentiments actuating Her
MAJESTY'S Opposition, would inevitably be made
the most of at the various hustings throughout the
United Kingdom to the possible delusion of very
many of the constituencies. That is the inner
weakness of Mr. NEWDEGATE'S Amendment. And
hence—particularly remembering what are the
views upon this constitutional question which
have been expressed by such an authority as
Mr. WALPoLE, speaking through the lips of
his friend Mr. WILLIAM HEATTICOTE—hence, we
cannot for an instant believe that the Opposition
are likely to gain much by adopting the Amend-
ment about to be submitted to the House of Com-
mons by the hon. member for North Warwickshire.
It is in that other Amendment now meditated by
the Opposition that we think really lies anything
like peril to the financial schemes of her MAJESTY'S
Government. The Amendment setting aside, at the
eleventh hour it may be, but still setting aside, the
notion of an immediate abolition during the present
session of the still (sooner or later) doomed Paper
Duties. It may be objected, however,
in regard to
this, that the question
of the Paper Duties abolition
has already been settled, that the query has already
been asked, and that it has already been answered,
and that the answer given was decided to have been
in the affirmative, by a clear majority in an im-
mense house—by a clear majority of Eighteen. It
iA not so, however. The questiOn then put Affectid,

the Paper Duties, not directly, but only indirectly.
The immediate Abolition of those duties was only
in a manner underlined " for the good"—nega-
tively ! It was proposed that the duty upon tea
should be diminished to the extent of fivepence
in the lb. by preference. The house decided then
that the Tea Duty should still embrace that five-
pence. The inference to be drawn from which
certainly might—it is quite true—be, that the
house preferred to settle for once and for all the
agitation about the Paper Duties Remission. But
—there was and is still at the same time another de-
ductiou also to be drawn from that clear majority of
Eighteen. The deduction, that is, that the
Rouse, by insisting as it did then that the
Tea Duty should be still maintained at the
exorbitant rate of ls. sd. in the lb. —re
served to itself yet to this moment re-
serves to itself the right and the power I
(accordingly as it may deem best upon mature con-
sideration) either to abolish altogether the vexatious
duties still levied upon paper, or to remit nothing
more whatever of the current year's revenue—in
consideration, that is, of the probable surplus in no
way justifying any such further remission as the
one now (it may be rashly) proposed by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer.
Certainly, if upon closer examination, the
surplus should be deemed, as many have from
the first deemed it to be, a pleasant delusion, a
mere financial mirage, conjured up in the arid
perspective of the coming twelvemonth by Mr.
GLADSTONE'S lively imagination—much as we
might deplore the still further hampering of
trade and of literature for yet another year
by the continuance of these long odious
paper duties—we should assuredly be the
merest bunglers, we should be but sorry
patriots to insist ceute qui coute upon the imme-
diate abolition of the paper duties surplus or no
surplus. That, in truth, is the simple question
now about to be submitted to the House of Com.
mons. Is there in reality a reasonable and safe
probability of the country at the close of the
next:financial year finding itself in possession of
the agreeable little surplus Mr. GLADSTONE is
counting upon ? if so—away with the paper
duties ! But—if not ! Why then—in that case—
with the imminent possibility of a deficit before
us, rather than the faintest probability of
anything at all like a surplus—we should be
the veriest dolts to dream of urging upon
the nation (when it could least afford it!) the
foregoing at once of some £BOO,OOO, upon
the current financial , twelvemonth, and the
abandonment year after year in perpetuity of
£1,600,000 of permanent revenue ! Let the House
of Commons then—not, this year, the House of
Lords let the House of Commons decide
oalmly for itself, Whether or not the country can
afford to get rid of the paper duties in October. If
so—let them go, as Mr. GLADSTONE'S Budget Bill
proposes. If not—then in the name of common
sense, in the name of justice, in the name
of prudence and of patriotism, let the abolition
of :the paper duties stand over for another
twelvemonth. Party considerations of any kind
ought not, in regard to a question of this character,
to weigh one atom in the balance. The Commons
are the custodians of the national purse. Let
them not rashly or over hastily, out of a feeling of
false pride, or of participation in the personal piques
of one who is their glory less as a financier than as
a rhetorician, strike a million and a half sterling
from the annual revenue of the country to gratify the
arrogance of another who, like the member for Bir-
mingham, can so far outrage Mr. GLADSTONE'S
feelings in regard to his own Budget as to exclaim
haughtily from his place below the Gangway—
' " It is my Budget I"

It goes well in America with the upholders of
what is there still worthy of the name, style, and
title of the United States Government. The enthu-
siasm among them is not alone maintained. It is
spreading and intensifying. The volunteers have
already numbered up there, as we know, 300,000
fighting men-300,000 out of a population of some
19,000,000. President LINCOLN is calmly but firmly
—all the more firmly, however, because so very
calmly—gathering up the reins of authority in his
grasp, and preparing to encounter all the difficulties
-that may lie before Man_ Baltimore lies not only
fallen into the possession of the Federal Troops, as
an earlier account had already apprised us, but
there, at Baltimore, later advices show that those
Federal troops had fully established themselves.
Along all the railroads, from the North through
Maryland, down to Washington, earthworks had
been raised with astounding rapidity. The capital
itself is described as completely girt round by en-
campments. And it is said that all the railways
radiating from it, are under the complete control of
the central power at Washington. As to
the latest doings or designs of that central
authority, we are now furnished, through the
medium of the Adriatic, bringing the Transatlantic
intelligence down to the 14th inst., with several im-
portant, and some of them deeply interesting par-
ticulars. In reference to the probable purchase of
the Great Eastern, then but newly arrived upon the
American coast after a run of nine days across the
Atlantic through the teeth of a hurricane, the New
York limes says—" It is now definitely understood
that the ship will be offered for sale to the Govern-
ment as a transport ship, but should a sale not be
negotiated she will accept a charter for that service!'
The Government will *no doubt immediately
avail itself of the opportunity to obtain so
desirnble an addition to their means of offensive
operations." As to the general situation of affairs
on the 14th the New I'ork Herald gives a compre-
hensive record full of encouragement to the
Northerners. Upon the previous day President
LINCOLN and Secretary SEAWARD had together
gone down the Potomac on a tour of inspection.
The last accounts stated the number of Southern
troops at Richmond at three thousand instead of
at seven thousand, as at one time stated—the rebels
numbering at Harper's Ferry as many as six thou-
sand altogether. These latter, however, were but
very imperfectly armed, and already weread—" Pro-
visions were running short, supplies having been
cut off by the Western Virginia Unionists. There
were not two
weeks' provisions anywhere in the
surrounding country, and that they must either
receive supplies at once, or retreat seemed inevi-
That, in table." truth, is among the most
imminent perils to be encountered by the
Southern gentry—the peril of defeat through
starvation. Hence it is that we read, from
other quarters in the South, of growing cotton
crops being pulled up and grain plantedinstead—
a far off prospect of nourishment for the rebels bat
an immediate threatening of further confusion and
emblrrassment to our own manufactories in Lanca-
shire. As to the designs and doings of President
Davis, we read, " The Conferate Government at
Montgomery has appointed General LEE commander
in chief of the forces in Virginia,
in which
state there aro said to be about 50,000 men.
Positive information, however, has reached General
SCOTT that the whole number of men from Har-
per's Ferry
down to Lynchburg does not exceed
25,000. Strong efforts are being made to induce
him to advance his forces into Virginia; but llej

is resolute in maintaining his present position
until be is quite ready to move. Considerable
bodies of men, said to be pretty well armed with
Minnie rifles and muskets, are moving up from
the South ; among them A regiment of Zouaves,
from New :Orleans, who went from Richmond to
Norfolk on Saturday. It is commonly reported
that the rebel troops are determined to burn
every city and:village which they are compelled to
abandon in ease ofbeing driven back by the Northern
troops." The realisation of which diabolical inten-
tion will involve the necessity for terrible reprisals.
It is satisfactory to know, however, that " The
blockade of the Southern ports on the Atlantic
coast is now probably complete, including Charles-
ton and the Savannah River, and that those of the
Gulf will soon be in the same condition, if they are
not already so." It is on every account to be hoped
that the horrors of this lamentable civil war in
America may be restricted as much as possible
within the territories of the so-called Confederate
States, from the lawless passions of the population
of which same Slave States these deplorable con-
flicts have emanated.

Shall we do violence to all our best feelings as
Englishmen for the sake of Manchester and cotton?
Such a question may, to some, seem like treason to
the commerce and industry of our country; but
that is a very superficial view. As Manchester has
been the nurse of American negro slavery, andthus
the bane of the United States, so nearly exclusive
dependence on America by Manchester has been
the bane of our own tropical colonial empire.
Through encouraging slave labour in America,
Manchester easily supplied herself with stolen
cotton—stolen from the unfortunate negro. Had
the great cotton city been thrown on British re-
sources, long before now Jamaica and India would
have been opened, and would have supplied all our
wants, and probably on the coast of Africa itself
the energy of Manchester cotton agents would have
shown that cotton would have converted many a
Borriobhoola•Gha into a substantially industrious
and really civilised community. We do not believe
at all that a great shortcoming in the American
crop would be more than a very temporary cala-
mity—the very year in which it occurred would
sweep the tropics of cotton as they had never been
swept before—and if the American deficiency were
both considerable, and from a cause, like a commo-
tion among the slaves, likely to be permanent, ano-
ther year would not follow without the creation of
an abundant extra-American supply. Something is
needed to break the neck of the Manchester re-
liance on slavery. Once do this, and Manchester
will be a patron of free labour in the tropics to an
extent now inconceivable, and will herself rejoice,
ultimately, in the change.

Such being our general view of the certain con-
sequences of a break up of negro slavery in the
Slave States, our sympathies are free to go forth as
they naturally s ould do, to the cause of the Free
States. Their original object, as we have before
shown, was to "crib, cabin, and confine" slavery
within the present Slave States. Not a very nar-
row cabin either; seeing that the area of the present
Slave States exceeds somewhat that of the Free
States. But there is yet a large expanse of terri-
tory belonging to the Union untouched by the
industry of the White man—into this, says the
North, the hellish curse of Slavery shall never
come. Is that resolution right ? Is it one to be
met by legal quibbles and corrupt decisions of a
packed bench of Judges in the Supreme Court of
the Union? Every Englishman would at once say
no—he would demand that the interpretation of
the Constitution should lean to liberty, not to
slavery ; and that so grave a question as that of
polluting Free Soil with the Southern abomination
should be a question of State policy, not of legal
subtlety, and this is just the demand of the North.
Freedom might indeed truly enough claim to have
the written Constitution. on its side, since the great
leaders who constructed it were assuredly hostile
enough to Negro Slavery. We are confident, there-
fore, that the North was legally, as it certainly was
politically, right in saying to slavery, " hithertd
thou shalt come, but no further."
But we trust that the infamous conspiracy of the
South, and the mighty energy it has aroused in the
North, will have a much wider rpcmlt than thud,
originally proposed. We could wish that all the
Slave States kept together; that none of them struck
too soon ; and that the North should then bear
down upon them with a might which should
break up the accursed system for ever. If some
Slave States were willing too soon to make peace
with the North, the consequence would be that the
North must again give effect to fugitive slave laws,
and that the old pro-slavery leaven might again
corrupt the North. Now that the quarrel has
reached civil war, better far that there should be a
thorough settlement—a sweeping away for ever of
the " domestic institution," and " involuntary
bondage," and the deliverance of North America
from the most infernal and atrocious crime which
can disgrace our humanity. The only thing which
can at all blind the eyes of our statesmen and mer-
chants to the utterly indefensible rebellion of the
South, and to the odious cause for which it sepa-
rates and fights, is cotton. We trust that they will
think of the negro more than of cotton ; and that
they will not disgrace their nature by showing the
slightest lenity, to a set of dealers in stolen men
who have rebelled causelessly against a noble Go-
vernment to carry out unchecked their nefarious
traffic in babes and children, women and men—in
the blood and sinews of their own fellow country-
men, though fellow countrymen of a different colour
to themselves. The Southern Confederation is a
confederation for felony, if not of felons. They are
intent on fighting for a crime which would in this
country shut them up in gaol, if it did not bring
them to the gallows. Like gaol birds at large in
this country, they are clever fellows enough ; but
it will be a disgrace to'us if, while abstaining from
joining in the fray, we do not let the Northerns
have the encouragement of our sympathy—and if
we do not show to the South, that cotton does not
hinder our perception that they are rebels against
our common humanity as well as against their own
Government.

We write this because we regret to see a portion
of the press of England itself disposed rather to
run down the North, and to insinuate the best it
can for the South. If this be noticed abroad, as it
almost surely will be, it will be held to convict us
of national meanness. It will be justly said—
" Here is England, which has been ready to quar-
rel with half the world respecting the slave-trade
and slavery, converted into an apologist for slavery
as soon as its manufacturers are in the least
threatened by emancipation." " England loves
cotton more than she hates slavery," will be the
judgment of both continents. And not only will
such a judgment be our disgrace, it will embitter
and protract the quarrel, The Rebels in America
rely on our having our price. Free-trade and cot-
ton are the bribe they offer to England and to
France, too. They seem to have no doubt that the
School, which is strong enough to school the House
of COMMORS into
acceptance of a Budget it does
not like, will be strong enough to school the Ad-
ministration into such indirect support of the
South as a neutral can give. We ought to let all