The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-10 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the .Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25.
" It is so clear we are right in seizing Mason and
Slidell that we will go on proving the point daily,
persisting on there being no doubt about it, demon-
strating that the justice and legality of the act re-
quire no demonstration. We will never cease in
maintaining in the face of the world that two and
two make four—or five, if we like." If need were
for any new proof of the influence of passion in
blinding the eye of reason it would be found in the
extraordinary manner in which the American press,
jurists, and speakers have treated the arrest of the
"ambassadors" of the Confederate States on board
the Royal Mail steamer Trent. But there are many
people who in private hold very different language.
The quiet little tongues of the Stock Exchange are
hinting their doubts very unmistakeably, and I ven-
ture to assert that if the opinions of the judges of the
land were sought privately they would pronounce
against " the bold and patriotic act of Commodore
Wilkes." The best legal authorities in this city are
against it. But with the moral cowardice:which is
the result ofsubmission—habitual prostration to the
force of a majority—men will neither publish nor
write, nor speak openly what they are free to con-
fess in the study or the conversation corner. There

Quite right—don't
bi is an
fcrhaoi
dr u,,s,
nail d oavne r
itmh
me leannsde Quite
unt of mutual pat-
ting on the back. People ask," What does England
care about Slidell and Mason ?" and are astonished

to be told in reply that she cares something about
the law of nations and her national honour. If it
were believed really that Great Britain would take
any serious notice of the act there would be an im-
mediate panic in the commercial and monetary
world which would extend its effects to every class
in the Union, from the President who invests his
salary in the national loan down to the daily labourer.
But there is a sustaining hope that the Cabinet will
not do anything, that at the very outside there will
be a remonstrance and a lengthy correspondence,
which will end as many other matters of protocol and
despatch have ended before. As I write there is a
rumour that Messrs. Slidell and Mason are to be
surrendered. If it be true this Government is broken
up. There is so much violence of spirit among the
lower orders of the people, and they are so ignorant
of everything except their own politics and passions,
so saturated with pride and vanity that any honour-
able concession, even in this hour of extremity, would
prove fatal to its authors. It would certainly render
them so unpopular that it would damage them in the
conduct of this Civil War. Admitting the general
diffusion of the arts of reading and writing among
the people, there is a special ignorance of anything
but American notions which is very astonishing.
I may mention in proof of this that I have received
several letters requesting me to appear in public for
the aid of benevolent or literary societies, the writers
of which were good enough either to elevate me to
the peerage, or were labouring under the delusion
that the noble earl at the head of the Foreign-
office was seeking relaxation from the cares of his
department by acting as your special correspondent
in the United States. These letters were written by
secretaries of associations or by people who wore
literary enough to keep collections of autographs.
Adulation, incessant flattery for party or personal
objects, have puffed up the mob with foul vapours
till they are nigh bursting with intolerance, and
have thinned away the skin of their balloon till it
is pouring out gas all over the land. How is any
honest, hard-handed Wisconsin lumberer, then, who
is sitting with his loaded rifle at full cock on the
stump of a tree, and reading his newspaper and
smoking his tobacco in the discharge of the highest
duties of a citizen and a sentinel, to knew the truth
when he is 'assured by his best possible instructor
that the English aristocracy, having sent Mr.
George Thompson over to the States to destroy the
Union by tampering with the slaves, are now de-
spatching enormous armies to Canada to seize upon
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the prospe-
rity of which are an insult to their system and an
eye-sore to the Queen, the Prince Consort, and
the rest of the Royal Family ? How is he to
resist the appeals to his prejudices daily instilled
into him when he is told that he is the finest fel-
low in the world ; that he is the only freeman on
the face of the earth; that the English hate and
fear him ; that " Vattel," and " Wheaton," and
" Ortalan " show Wilkes was wrong because he
did not seize and take the Trent into port for con-
demnation, and that he and a million and a half of
soldiers, the handsomest, tallest, stoutest, straight-
est, heaviest, bravest, best shooting, best march-
ing,a b v beeset-nd, orisc vipelienredw, and best-principled that are,
hill be —the cream of creation
in arms—will be called in shortly to avenge innu-
merable insults, and wipe out the systems which
emperors, kings, tyrants, and aristocrats have in-
vented for the oppression of suffering humanity all
over the rest of the globe ? I would give a good
deal for a view of that man's head. Why, it must
be filled with:heroes, " such faultless monsters as the
and bunkum
world ne'er saw,", choke-full of victories that never
existed—teeming h
'
great
perorations, crowded with visions of demons like
at Union processions, wwith
Jeff. Davis and Lord Lyons, and the Duchess of
Sutherland, all wheeling round and dancing about
to a great crash of music, and the strains of
"Yankee-doodle," while muffled assassins move
through the throng, wrapped in cloaks above
which peep out the prongs of Britannia's
trident, the kepi of him of the Tuileries, or
the fan of the Lady of Spain, stiletto in
hand, seeking for an opening to get a dig at the
Goddess of Liberty, who is at that moment engaged
in conversation with President Lincoln, Mr. Seward,
and the editor of his particular journal. He has no
chance of a cure—all access to medicine is shut out,
and the Wisconsin man will fight to the death in
support of his insanity—he will die before he will
give up Mason and Slidell. It is very probable—
if Mr. Jefferson Davis ever condescends to such a
thing—that he sang and danced with delight when
he heard of the capture of these gentlemen ; it is not
too much to suppose he sent them on their mission
because they were in his way. Mr. Mason is a man
of considerable belief in himself ; he is a proud,
well-bred, not unambitious gentleman, whose posi-
tion gave him a right to expect high office, for
Which iu some respects he was Unfitted t%t home;