The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-31 00:00:00

American struggle had acquired proportions which
attracted the almost exclusive regard of this
country. Probably hardly an instance has
occurred in our modern history of the mind of the
British public undergoing so marked a change as
that • which has taken place in regard to the
Northern States and their cause within the year—
a change by no means due to the San Jacinto out-
rage. On the election of Mr. LINCOLN there was
general rejoicing here, on account of his supposed
sympathy with the cause of the negro. English-
men knew, indeed, that his party went avowedly
for nothing more than exclusion of slavery from
the territories, technically so called, of the
Union, and the limitation of slavery to its
present: area. But it was supposed that more
was not professed because more was impossible; it
was thought that the Fugitive Slave Law, with all
its unconscionable inquisitions, was soon to be
abolished, and that LINCOLN and the Republicans
would lay themselves out to weaken slavery in

every possible way.
On these points, though we tried to hope against
hope, our eyes were soon opened. Mr. LINCOLN, in
his messages, studiously avoided every word that
could give umbrage to the slaveholders, and empha-
tically avowed his intention to adhere to
the guarantees furnished by the constitution for
slavery, and especially to the Fugitive Slave Law
itself, Slowly, but inevitably, the English mind
accepted the conviction that LINCOLN and the
North were averse to slavery, not on account of
its essential wickedness, but because it threatened
to interfere with the colonizing emigration of the
Free States; and that they loved their ambitious
monster Union far more than justice to the slave.
It was impossible that England could accept the
cause of the South. The south and Slavery were
indissolubly associated—we recoiled from the asso-
ciation—but on the other hand there was nothing
to attract us to the North. The neutrality which
for prudential and legal reasons our Government
proclaimed, soon became under the spare-slavery
policy of Mr. LINCOLN, the real sentiment of
Englishmen. We could not wish the South to
triumph, but we could not rejoice in a Northern
triumph. In fact we can see, as we think, quite as
much hope for negro emancipation through the
independence of the South, as through its recon-
quest by the North.

What is even more singular, we have all been
converted by the actual events of the war to dis-
belief of Northern omnipotence. It will be remem-
bered that we were all busy at first calculating the
the vast superiority of the North in population,
militia, wealth, manufacturing resources, shipping,
and so forth, and showed, as we had a right to
show, what immense advantages lay an the side of
the North if she could but save Washington from
the first threatened attack. Washington was
saved, and on the capture of Fort Sumter the whole
North rose to tread out rebellion and vindicate the
honour of the national flag. An army of 500,000
men, and five hundred millions of dollars for their
support, were promptly voted, and Virginia was to
have been overrun at once. We all know the long
weary sequel. We were looking for a Northern,
a Western, and an Eastern army to march upon
and join each other at devoted Richmond, driving the
Confederate Congress like sheep before it—but we
have seen the Western and Eastern divisions unable
to advance beyond Western Virginia and Fort Mon-
roe, and the great army of the North, after fleeing
in a never-to-be-forgotten panic from Bull's Run,
not venturing to renew the attack, though five
months have passed away.
In the Border States, as might have been ex-
pected, councils have been divided. The parts
adapted to, and cultivated by, free labour have
clung to the Union, the other parts have tended
to secession. We have seen how undecided and
cruel has been the struggle in Missouri and Ken-
tucky, while Maryland remains loyal as a whole,
solely because the whole State is occupied by the
Federal army. This, then, is the result; so different
unquestionably from any anticipated in April or
till midsummer, that the South, as standing on the
defensive, are triumphant at present. They have
not been driven back from their positions, and a
naval raid or two, which do not seem likely to tell
upon the war, are all that the North can boast.
It must, however, be borne in mind that
military superiority was not the only one on which
Englishmen relied in their calculations of Northern
superiority. They recollected the slaves. They
knew the power of the North to beat up Southern
quarters, and give Southern regiments work enough
in keeping down slaves to whom the North pro-
claimed universal emancipation—they did not
suppose the North could be guilty of the con-
summate folly of turning the slaves into the
strength instead of the weakness of the
South; nor did they imagine that " 'cute Yankees"
would be so intolerably stupid as to enable the
Southern white men to muster at Bull's Run as
numerously as themselves, because they had slaves
at home quietly working hard to maintain in the
field the men whom the Yankees could not drive
from it.

That the year as regards them and us should
close with the San Jacinto affair and all its conse-
quences, is certainly an incident that could least of
all have been anticipated. If any crazy Captain
WTLKES could have been imagined likely to com-
mit such an outrage, it would have been supposed
that, with one unmanageable war on his hands, Mr.
LINCOLN would have hastened to disavow the act
of the captain, would have placed the men in Lord
LYONS' hands, and have made the apology without
waiting to be asked for it. This, however, only
discloses more plainly what was becoming
apparent before—the incapacity of Mr.• LINCOLN
for such a crisis, and his subjection to the American
mob. His weakness has caused the year to close with
a demand on him from our Government which
will make him wince, while he will be unable to
refuse compliance with the judgment, not only of
England, but of all civilised Europe. He will feel
humiliated, because he refused at the first to act as
became a man of honour. He sees English ships-
of-)Nar arriving on his coast, English troops pro-
ceeding to Canada, and the certainty before him
that, if he ventured on war, the issue would be not
the annexation of Canada, but the annexation of
Maine to our colonies, of which it properly forms a
part.

The Earl and Countess of Chesterfield and Lord
Stanhope passed through town yesterday; from spending
the Christmas with the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, at
their seat in Wiltshire. The earl and countess have gone
uo Bretby Park, Lord Stanhope has repaired to Melton
Mowbray.
The Earl and Countess Delawarr have left Bourne
Hall, their seat in Cambridgeshire, to spend a few days
with Mr. H. Russell, M.P., and Lady Elizabeth Russell,
at Oakley Park, Bedfordshire.

The Earl Grey left town at the close of the past
week for Nice, to join the countess, who has arrived in that
city from Florence, It is not the intention of the earl and
countess to return before the first week in ➢larch.

The Earl of Hopetoun has arrived at Long's
Hotel.

Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe is sojourning at
the Bristol Hotel, Brighton.
Lcrd Dufferin arrived in town on Saturday from
visiting the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, at Highelere,
Wiltshire. _ _ _

Lord and Lady William Powlett have arrived
in town from vieiting Lord and Lady Harry Vane, at their
;mat ii Sussex,