The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-02 00:00:00

day,"—thisis the exultant expression of which we
have already spoken as so very curiously timed in

he mere coincidence of it—" to-day," said Mr.

DISRAELI last evening,

" to-day, I believe, has

witnessed the defeat of the last of this series
of measures !" So that " a clear stage," in a

manner, has been obtained, there, for the contest,
which is fixed for this evening in the House of
Commons—the contest between the powers that be

and the powers that wish to be.
There is something very English in the out
spokenness of the Earl of DERBY throughout the
whole of his remarkable speech upon the occasion
of last night's Conservative Demonstration.
Her MAJESTY'S Government cannot certainly
accuse him at this moment of anything like
reticence. Ae speaks right out—he avows his
views quite plainly—he proclaims his ambition and
the ambition of those in both Houses who repose
implicit :confidence in his leadership. What
will infallibly be the most distasteful of
all to the chiefs of the present Admi-
nistration is the grand and haughty tone in
which Lord DERBY, as Mr. DISRAELI had done
himself on Monday in the House of Commons,
spoke of the existing Ministry as living purely upon
sufferance ! Surviving merely because of the mag-
nanimous support accorded to them by a powerful
Opposition ! Gall and wormwood must assuredly
be in every syllable, like the following, dropped
from the lips of Lord DERBY for the ear of Lord
PALMERSTON. The Conservative leader—referring
to the course recently pursued in the House of
Commons by his followers—observing, " It is well
known that if that party were to cease their vigi-

lance and their attendance in Parliament for the
protection of Her MAJESTY'S Government, the
noble viscount at the head of that Government
would very shortly sustain the fate of ACT/EON,
and be torn to pieces by his own dogs. My lord,
we know the jarring elements of which the Liberal
party—God save the mark—are now composed, are
now kept together solely and entirely by their ap-
prehension of the united power of the great Con-
servative party which opposes them ; and if for one
single -week we were to relax our -vigilance we know
that the discord would break out into open rebel-
lion, and we know that the QUEEN'S Government
would not be sustained during this session." Worse
—a tone like that—far more irritating to really
high-minded and chivalrousrhearted Statesmen
than any reiteration of defeat that could possibly
happen upon any number of Wednesdays, must be
taunts like these, informing Ministers that they
owe their existence as a Government to the
magnanimous support of the confronting Opposi-
tion. Looking back down the vista of the last
three months, we cannot induce ourselves to do
otherwise than believe ,that the Cabinet has
suffered more than they would willingly acknow-
ledge from the retirement of Sir WM. HAYTER
from the responsible position in which he did so
much good service to his party while winning for
himself so high and honourable a reputation. The
Governmeht Whips—late though it be in the ses-
sion for them to attempt it—may yet redeem their
character for energy by wielding the lash adroitly in
the cause of the Administration. Lord DERBY had
hzB opportunity last evening, and admirably well
he availed himself of it opportunity of issuing
4..
a timely Manifesto enunciating the views of the
Opposition. The Government Whips, in return,
will now have their opportunity—and we presume
they will for once evidence something like energy
in availing themselves of it in real earnest—the op-
portunity of achieving a Ministerial triumph in
May sufficient to compensate for all the various
defeats which in February, March, and April, have
(in a great measure thanks to them) fallen time
and again upon the powerful phalanx of the
Coalition Government.

Every arrival from America now brings tidings
more and more painful. They have not waited long
to make up for the want of bloodshed at Fort
Sumpter. Either Harper's Ferry or Baltimore
—for the dates have not yet arrived—has the
honour of having shed the first blood in the second
American Revolution. At the former place, poor
old JOHN BROWN'S exploit for liberty has been
sadly vindicated. One thousand Virginians pressed
the arsenal so hardly that the Federal commis-
sioners destroyed the armoury, arsenal, manufac-
tory, and fifteen thousand stand of arms. They
then returned into Pennsylvania, but with the loss
of three men. So far as we can gathex, on the
same day, or very nearly so, a Massaehusett's
regiment was passing through Maryland to Wash-
ington, but at Baltimore it was attacked by
the mob, and eleven were killed on both sides.
This regiment reached Washington on the 19th.
It is singular at the present crisis that the capital,
and its little district of Columbia, should be seated
in a slave State, though one in which slavery has for
some time been dying out. The close proximity,
too, of the largest of the slave States, Virginia, a
State which subsists by breeding slaves for the South,
makes the position of the capital in this struggle
one not to be envied. It requires indeed a con-
siderable body of troops to place Washington in
safety ; five thousand were said to be under arms
there on the 20th, when the Canadian left.

TheE secession of Virginia which rendered this
necessary, though long expected, is the most im-
portant of the facts of which we have been just
apprised ; Virginia is the most populous and power-
ful by far of the Slave States. It has about half
the population of the State of New York itself, or
one million nine hundred thousand inhabitants,
including about half a million of slaves. North
Carolina, immediately south of it, including three
hundred thousand slaves, has followed the example
of Virginia, and it seems every way probable that
all the border States, who might certainly have
taken. a wiser course, will, as Slave States, consider
their honour pledged to the Southern confederacy.
Open war is, therefore, now commenced. The
Governor of Virginia has issued a proclamation
recognising the Southern Convention, and North
Carolina has seized all the forts within the States.
Virginia has also taken the precaution to close
Norfolk harbour, where one of the Federal Navy
Yards is situated, by sinking vessels at its month in
order to prevent egress from the yard. A Federal
ship of war threatened, however, to level the town
if the obstructions were not removed. What is the
number of ships in the naval yard at this moment
we cannot be sure. At the beginning of the year
there were then in ordinary—the Columbus, 80
guns; the Delaware, 84; the Columbia, 50; the
Rtheaerritan, 50; the Plymouth, 22, and the German
Town, 22. In all 308 guns. On the stocks
was the New York, an 84 gpn ship.
And one ship apparently in commission,
the United
States frigate, 50 guns. As the navy
will be t,ie pIIZSIDENT'S chief reliance, and the
greatest annoyance
to the South, we should not be
surprised to hear of ri desperate struggle at Norfolk
Harbour. Indeed, if the
`Virginians cannot keep
the yard in their hands, they will probably think
it better policy to burn allthevessels there than to
of the"
are to be found
e
let them fall into the hands
not observed that any other eh'
in the navy yards of the South, except
xeept North.an 84 on thed We have,
stocks in the New Orleans Dockyard. n

Accounts must now be awaited with most
painful interest. We can but fear AM