The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-25 00:00:00

after the vacillating PRESIDENT was driven
by the North to change his policy—show
that there was at Washington a regular
plot to place the South militarily in a position to
secede. Had Generals CASS, WOOL, and SCOTT,
been allowed to act, or their advice taken, we should
prObably at this moment have heard nothing but
talk of secession. Now the question arises what
can Mr. LINCOLN do ? Is he prepared for blood•
shed ? Will
.it be of any use to put down the
Secession by force ? Could a permanent and
advantageous union spring from coercion ? Part
of the North expects much from Mr. LINCOLN'S
energy and determination, the other part, the city
merchants chiefly, hope most from his moderation.
Mr. LINCOLN, however, keeps his own counsels, and
is content to be " everywhere received with enthu-

siasm."
What, however, will the New Slavery Confede-
ration be ? Expecting, as we now must, that we
shall have a territorially large Union of Slave
States, we can but ask what will become of it.
Will the three million and a half of whites perma-
nently keep down the two million and a half
of blacks ? Especially, seeing that in many of
the States the slaves are a majority, and that
in the plantation districts of all the Slave
States, they are so—can revolts, risings, and mas-
sacres by the slaves be prevented ? Should war
occur between the North and the South, can the
fact be hindered from reaching the ears of the
slaves that the war is really one against slavery ?
Fearful, indeed, must be the consequences then.
Again, what chance could the Slave States have in
a war with the North, if, with perfectly empty
exchequers, they had to maintain a large army to
keep down their slaves, and another to face the
Nortlierns ? The issue would seem to be hardly
doubtful.
Suppose, however, that secession were aecepted
by the North without a bloody struggle, what
would be the future of such a confederation as
would then be witnessed ? It would be, we be-
lieve, one unexampled in the history of the world.
We in Europe can point to confederations and unions
to resist tyranny. The American one itself began
in resistance to the tyranny of our English Govern-
ment of the day, resistance to laws which the
great Earl of CHATHAM declared he himself would
not submit to—but a confederation to establish a
despotism—to be, too, of the most inhuman and re-
volting kind, is, we believe, a thing unheard of,
The New Slave State Confederation will be
the first in all history to found a com-
munity expressly to sustain as a sacred
principle not liberty but bondage ; nor
indeed an ordinary llindage, but a bondage
in which, in the language of one of their judges,
" the coloured man has no rights which the white
man is bound to respect !" Can a nation constitut-
ing itself for such a satanically selfish purpose
live ? Slavery has been a circumstance in
other communities ; they have inherited it,
or conquest has brought slaves to their
hands —it has always, even then, been
a great injury to national vigour—but what can
be the duration, what the prospects of States,
professedly Christian States too, which base their
union on the necessity of nurturing and of extend-
ing at all hazards this infernal crime. Without
being prophets we cannot believe that such an
outrage on the knowledge and morality and
religion of the 19th century, as to found a State on
the basis of kidnapping, of buying and selling
human beings like cattle, of lashing them to their
work like mules, and denying them the rights of
marriage and of,parents, can survive many years.
It will now become a serious question what
relations ought civilised States to hold with such
far worse than barbarians. A Chinese Mandarin
must, in some important respects, be regarded as a
more civilised being than a Southern Slave State
Governor. He does not, at least, disgrace his
descent from a free and civilised country, and con-
travene the maxims of the book assumed to be the
inspired creed of the civilised world. It will
require serious consideration whether we can apply
to this confederation of worse than pirate States,
the maxim of recognising always a de facto
Government. Sir JAMES BROOKE did not recog-
nise the de facto authorities of the Dyaks.
Just at this moment, 93 if to show the villany of
slavery in regard to the unfortunate negroes, we
have some important facts authenticated beyond
dispute in reference to the working of emancipation
in the West India Islands. A gentleman sent over
for the express purpose of making a truthful
inquiry, and who did not like Mr. ANTHONY
TROLLOPE, skim over the Islands, but
spent a twelvemonth in them, in Jamaica
chiefly—told us a few days ago, at Willis's Rooms,
some striking facts. He made his own independ-
ent calculations, but they accorded remarkably
with those made in quite another mode by
authorities in the Island. It turns out that
these lazy niggers, whom nothing could in-
duce to work, who would lounge in the shade
and live on yams without even care for
clothing, have accumulated of tangible
property not less than X 2,500,000 since emancipa-
tion ! The annual produce of their labour was
worth not less than the same sum. Instead
of being squatters on land they had been
purchasers of land, builders of comfortable
cottages, and even purchasers of sugar mills,
for the canes which they are growing in
considerable quantities on their small holdings.
Of course there are idlers there in plenty
as well as elsewhere where the climate
does not stimulate to industry, but the verdict of
this intelligent witness is that, as regards the
coloured population, emancipation has been an
unmixed blessing—that whatever evils there are
amongst them are the remains of slavery, not the
results of emancipation, and that the tendency of the
latter has been only to promote religion, morality,
education, and above all industry. The land is
becoming one of industrious peasant proprietors
earning comfortable livelihoods, and able to bring
up their children to follow their own example. It is
to keep their coloured fellowmen from such a state of
things as this that the Southern States of America
are banding together. May they be ruined in the
wicked attempt !

Upwards of £70,000,000 England is now expend-
ing annually in the cause of Peace. It was seventy
odd million last year, It will be seventy-two or
three this. And seeing this—the question is begin-
ning to be agitated, among the more captious
observers, whether, really and truly, after all, war
might not prove in the end to be positively, in a
merely pecuniary point of view, more economical,

Here is England, year after year, keeping up an
enormous war establishment—spending £30,000,000
within the twelvemonth upon her military find
maritime forces—building steel-cased line-of-battle
ships—casting Wurrwonnt and ARMSTRONG guns
that more than rcalhe poor Captain lirAnNmes
longs-Lug:lied at day-dreams—rapidly perfecting
the discipline of a National Guard, from 150,000 to
200,000 strong, in the goodly shape of corps after
corps of Rifle Volunteers ! Here is England effect-
ing all this perseveringly, and fist transforming
herself from a nation of shopkeepers into a nation
of soldiers—all notoriously in a succession of years