The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-20 00:00:00

Doors open at halt past 6.—Commence at 7.

CANTERBURY - HALL CONCERTS
AND FINE ARTS GALLERY.
EVERY EVENING,
A Grand Selection from Verdi's new OPera,
UN BALLO IN MASCHEHA,
(First produced in England at this Establishment),
With a Chorus of Forty Voices.
Also, Verdi's IL CORSARO, never performed at any
her Concerts.
Solos on the Cornet
_a_ripigston, b
BryMotrhrs Conrad
Mr. Levy.
The Comic Department comPes the (in
their new and inimitable entertainments), Mr. Wood and his
talented little Son, Mr, Marshall, Mr. Blanchard, Mr. Hol-
lingsworth, and Miss Rose Howard.
Musical Director, Mr. F. JONGFIMANS.

T" E OXFORD,
6, OXFORD-STREET.
. _ _ _

Mr. Lxvv, undoubtedly the best performer of the day on
the Cornet_a-Piston—Grand Selections (on the most complete
scale) from Dinorah, Martha, Stradella, &c., and other vocal
and Instrumental music, by Miss Russell, the Misses Stuart,
and Miss Ernst, Messrs. Charles Greville, Fornari, Kimber-
ley, Bernard, Beaumont, Bervon, Huish, Signor Tivoli, and
Mr. Henry Herbert, with full band and powerful and selected
chorus, conducted ley Mr. F. Jonghmans.—The following
Comic talent, Messrs. W. Randall, J. Blanchard, W. H. Wie-
land, Hollingsworth, E. Marshall, Harvey, and French, and
the Brothers Conrad in their latest and best entertainment,
every evening. Admission, Hall, sixpence; Balcony and
Stalls, one shilling. Private Boxes, 10s. 6d.

HIGH WATER. AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAY.—Morning, Oh. 58m.—Afternoon, 10h. 30m.
To-moßßow.-Morning, llh. sm.—Afternoon, 11h. 34m.

TSB WEATHER....-STIN OFFICE, MAY 19, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
sG—highest since noon yesterday.
40—lowest this morning and during-the night.
52—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-30.40, rising rapidly.
WIND—Easterly, inclining to South—rather fresh; with
cloudy weather, and occasional sunshine.
MAY 20.

THMILMOICETZIL, IN THIS sKADIII.
58—highest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
67—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-3041.
WrND—North-Westerly—light and variable; with fine
sunshiny weather.

THE SUN.
LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 20, 1881.

Another curious American document appears in
our columns to- day—of no less authority than
the opinion of Mr. C. M. CLAY, the United States'
Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. Peters-
burg, on the Anglo-American phase of the Civil
War in his own country. To Englishmen the
letter will appear rather more rhetorical than what
they would look for from a personage of such im-
portance, and charged with such responsible busi-
ness as a Minister Plenipotentiary—rather more,
too, of passion than of accurate statement and
unanswerable argument. Still it is a document of
considerable interest ; not merely because it appeals
to us directly, but because we must suppose Mr.
CLAY to utter the views and feelings of a large
part of the Americans, perhaps of his Government.
He first answers, as the reader will see, three
questions respecting the Free States and their cause,
and then three respecting the honour, the interest
and the safety of England in reference to it. " What
are we fighting for ?" he inquires ; but we can easily
imagine the reply of the Seceded States to all his
remarks. You are not fighting for " nationality"
they would say ; for, we are not holding you as an
oppressed nationality diverse from ourselves,—
which is the accepted meaning of your phrase—
and keeping you down by force. You are fighting
on the contrary with a part of our common nation-
ality because, thinking itself ill-treated, it has as-
serted its right to separate Government. You are
not fighting for liberty, trial by jury, freedom of
speech and of the press, for we have all these, as much
at least of the two last, as yourselves. We never
parted with our Sovereign rights; we have the
power of life and death ; and we have an efficient
militia as the North will soon learn to its
cost. The gravest charge against them is the viola-
tion of the constitution of their own states themselves,
by refusing to submit the question of Secession to
Universal Suffrage and the Ballot. As we showed
at length a few days ago, it is aristocracy and not
democracy which has broken up the Union. The
aristocracy which dares not face the Ballot-box,
and which uses at its will four millions of its fellow
men. Mr. CLAY also rightly enough characterises
the spirit of the American aristocracy, and the
deplorable consequences, could its principles but
triumph over the world.
Next he asks, " Can you subdue the seven re-
volted States ?" He has no do doubt on this head
Of course we con"—when the whole seven re-
volted States contain a population less by a million
and a half than the single State of New York ;
when if all the slave States were to make common
cause ; when if all the Border States joined them,
the North outnumbers them by two to one ; when
the Southern strength is diminished by the large
number necessary to guard the slaves; when the
money, when the navy, are to be found only in
the North, and when the whites in the slave
states are divided among themselves, who can
doubt that we can overpower the rebels?
But can you govern when you have sub-
jugated ? A question frequently put. We do
mean to subjugate, he ~
repties. We go to deliver;
to put down not States Only, but rebellious citi-
zens who now overpower the lovers of the
Union and order. Such language
certainly re-
minds us of the French going to Rome to
deliver the people from a faction, and to deliver
them into the hand of the POPE. There is how-
ever, a real difference. It cannot be denica that
the Unionists are numerous in the Southern States
themselves, and that the political leaders for their
own purposes, and in a very clever way, have con-
trived to precipitate a conflict with the North in
order to prevent the people from calm and unpre-
judiced consideration of the subject.
When Mr. CLAY undertakes, however, to point
out to us what is right and best for England, we
naturally feel even more at home in noticing his
opinions. We think we know our own interest in
the matter, and certainly no strife between nations,
or between sections of nations, has lately occurred

in which honour, duty, and interest alike lead us to
preserve a strict neutrality, and a most rigid im-
partiality. It is not, Mr. CLAY does not say that
is, the object of the North to abolish slavery—in
that object every Englishman would feel the deepest
interest. But even were that the point to be fought
for, we could have no right to throw our
weight into the Northern scale. We do
not believe, however, that the North cares
for emancipation, unless, indeed, by the
force of circumstances it is now under-
going the process of conversion. Mr. CLAY
must forgive us, however, if we smile at his at-
tempts to bring in our commercial interests.
We must think that the Northern States are hostile
to them. Their last tariff is an unmistakeable
attack on British manufactures ; they must abolish
it and agree to a fair revenue, not a protective, tariff,
before we can hail them as commercial friends.
Already America is rapidly becoming to us of but
secondary commercial importance. If indeed,
without regard to slavery we looked to our own
interest, it would probably be to support the South,
to break the blockade and ito sustain the cotton
growers. They are of more-consequence to us than
American consumers who are made to pay an exor-
bitant artificial price for our produce.

Mr. CLAY'S last flourish on the destiny of the
Free States, even should part of the South be
lost, will little move the present generation.
We may well leave it to our successors to deal
with the great Republic, if Republic it continues
to be, as they find it. It may well be that
North America is yet to become several respect-
able nations instead of one ambitious republic,
which shall:almost control the world. To hear of
" offending" an America which, in twenty years,
is to have 40,000,000 of inhabitants, and in half a
century 100,000,000, will certainly in no degree
modify the conduct of England.

We all know tolerably well What is before us
in respect to the course about to be taken in the
House of Commons in furtherance of the Financial
Policy of her MAJESTY'S Government. But it
would be very difficult, indeed, for any one to
foresee accurately what is likely to come of it
The arrangements are at length mapped out
with sufficient distinctness. For example—directly
after the close of this brief recess of Whitsuntide,
that is to say on Thursday evening next, but two
days after to-morrow—Viseount PALMERSTON,
in his double capacity as Leader of the House of
Commons and Head of the Administration, will
move in so many words, " That the House will
immediately resolve itself into a Committee of
Supply." The next stage of the Customs and Inland
Revenue Bill being reserved, according to annoulice-
ment—(for the convenience of members scattered
into distant parts of the country in quest of home-
relaxation during the holidays of Whitsuntide)—
the Budget Bill, we say (already read a first and
second time without division) being reserved for its
next stage—namely, for its consideration clause by
clause in Committee upon this day se'nnight.
Whereupon—that is on Monday, the 27th instant
—on the motion that the House do resolve itself
into Committee on the Customs ana Inland Revenue
Bill, Mr. NEWDEGATE will move, " That, whereas
the embodiment of the principal financial proposals
of the Government in one bill unduly increases the
power of the Government over the taxation of this
country aid the interests thereby affected, limits
inconveniently the action of this house, and would
annul the well-ascertained function and privilege
of the House of Lords, it be an instruction to the
committee to divide the Customs and Inland Reve-
nue Bill, so that each of the taxes to which it results
may be separately treated." Another indication
this that the Paper Duties' Abolition has become
subordinated in importance as a matter of dispute
between the great Opposing Parties, the Liberals
and Conservatives confronting each other to the right
and to the left of Mr. SPEAKER—has become subor-
dinated as a matter of dispute between the Minis-
terialists and the Opposition to the far more for-
midable, to the actually vital and momentous ques-
tion growing out of it, the Constitutional Question
as to the line of demarcation separating the powers
and prerogatives respectively of the Lords and
Commons' House of Parliament. It is the ques-
tion as to that which now remains to be settled
one way or the other way between the Opposition
and the Government. These are to fight no longer
with merely so many " paper pellets"—they are to
exchange the old party broadsides upon a matter
affecting one of the vital principles of
the Constitution. That is the course apparently
now decided upon by the Conservative Opposi•
tion, after a lengthened delay for the purpose of
mature deliberation. It seems a very simple aues-
tion for settlement thus, off hand, under the circum-
stances. But—looking for a moment at the dif-
ferences of opinion perceptible among those on the
Government side of the House, and among their
antagonists upon the expectant side of the Op-
position—the prospect becomes one altogether of
a very dubious character. It is not by any means
that, in the matter of that constitutional difficulty,
all those who are seated upon the right hand of
Mr. Speaker think, and feel, and are determined,
coute qui coute, to vote with her MAJESTY'S
Government. Neither is it by any mean s
clear that Mr. NEWDEGATE'S Amendment
will secure to itself unanimous support from those
who are seated upon the left hand of Mr. SPEAKER,
among the ranks of what happens to be called sim-
ply, as Mr. DISRAELI very recently reminded the
House, simply and solely because they sit opposite the
Treasury Benches, " The Opposition," her MAJESTY'S
Opposition ! It is a matter of notoriety not merely
among the electors of Stroud but elsewhere, far and
wide throughout the United Kingdom, that the
Right Hon. EDWARD HORSMAN in regard to this
constitutional question has spoken, thinks very
strongly, feels very strongly, will in all human
likelihood vote most decidedly With the Opposition
and Against the Government. Turning to the side
of the Conservatives, have we not very recently
had the cat let out of the bag by Sir WILLIAM
HEATRCOTE in reference to the views entertained
in respect to the constitutional problem by no less
an authority, among the leaders of the Opposition,
than the
right hon. and learned gentleman, for-
merly installed in
Lord DERBY'S Cabinet as the Con-
servative Home Secretary ? Mr. WALPOLE inti-
mating to the House of Commons
evenings since, throug thelipsnf hbisutcaomvineryunif
communica-
tive aw-
tive friend and sympathiser, Sir W. riTr
feeEliAnTgiliCnOtThEis,
his (the ex-Home Secretary's) strong
matter, Against the opinions known to be enter-
tained by the majority of the Opposition, and
andinfavour of the diametrically opposite opinion
enter-
tained by the mass of the miscellaneous supporters
of the Government! Others among the Liberes—
an exceedingly select few we should conjecture-
may be found to think and act with the right
hon. member for Stroud. More—we are
disposed to imagine—will be found breaking
away from the side of the Opposition in com-
panionship
itChamt hberi
upannivioenrsshitiyp
drgigeh, tpohsasnib.
lymetmo bsepreafkor,
etehre-
tainly to vote (with him) among the temporary sup-
porters of the Government. That is the position- -
those are the prospects—of Government and of
position--00 far all I
It is certainly a
Opposition,

ME SUN,' L

we can comprehend it at this moment—full of en-
couragement to her MAJESTY'S Government.
And as certainly those are prospects very dis-
heartening to her. MAJESTY'S Opposition. Still
everything will depend upon the tone and tendency
given to the debate aboii to be provoked upon this
day se'nnight in the House of Commons by the
point-blank Amendment then and there to be pro-
posed by the hon. gentleman the member for North
1 Warwickshire.

France is preparing to evacuate Syria--but she
is doing it so very sulkily. It appears probable--
though we do not count upon the event with any-
thing like certainty, in fact we shall not believe it
until it has actually been accomplished—it appears
probable that before the first week of June shall
have passed the French troops will have been
withdrawn from the country of the Lebanon. As
a matter of course, however, our imperial neighbour
is indulging in all sorts of sinister anticipations,
in all kinds of lugubrious predictions as to the
inevitable consequences (so they at least appear
now to the darkened views of Frenchmen), the
certain and wholly unavoidable consequences
of this withdrawal of the soldiers of
France from the Lebanon. There is a conviction
even at Paris that hard upon that withdrawal will
follow—fresh massacres. Supposing which *to be
the case—and it is, of course, frightfully possible— ,
certain are we, in our turn, that the old suspicions
will revive about those massacres being instigated
by the MACHIAVELLIAN diplomacy of a race bent
upon finding an excuse, bent upon making an
opportunity for the realisation once more of the
national air of the French empire, Portant pour la
Syrie ! Whether true or false, those rumours
have been afloat before now, those suspicions have
been undeniably entertained. And so surely as the
anticipated renewal of the massacres—the massacres
by the fanatical Druses of the unfortunate
Maronites —so surely as the anticipated re-
newal of those massacres follow upon the
evacuation of the Lebanon by the soldiers of
NAPOLEON 111., according to the general conviction
now at Paris—so surely as that, will (in thattterrible
contingency) return those rumours, revive those
suspicions! For the fair fame of France, for the
credit of the French Government, it is to be hoped
that the expectations of the Parisians in this
matter' will not be realised, that the Druses will
not agaio carry fire and sword through the country
of the Lelia.non so soon as the French soldiers shall
have recrossecal the Mediterranean.

It is a significa,
-tt circumstance that the extreme
section of the Frenchpress has become clamorous
of late about its being—
-England above all—not the
Turkish ambassador, not. the Ottoman Govern-
ment, not the other powers of Europe combined,
but principally, almost exclusively, the English
Government that 'compels Franca to fulfil her
engagements at the appointed time and to with-
draw her troops (according to promise) from the
Lebanon. It is a monstrously, extravagantly,
a flagrantly false accusation. But let
that pass—it is significant. It is especially
significant, moreover, that the French press should
argue thus bitterly against the English Govern-
ment, as the Government of an Ally constraining
France to act contrary to her own wishes, to do
violence to her own convictions—immediately upon
the very morrow (as it is) of those stormy, not to
say indecorous and intemperate discussions which
have so recently reflected so much discredit upon
the Imperial French Senate. Ah ! how they do
love us on the other side of the British Channel !
So dearly—so tenderly—so devotedly ! We have
evidences of their affection in the state of the French
army, in the state of the French navy, in the state of
the French artillery, of the French arsenals, of the
French fortifications. We have had these evidences
of the cordiality of this alliance increasingly be-
fore us ever since that cordial alliance commenced.
And now, as supplementary tokens of the like affec-
tion, we witness these furious scenes in the French
Senate, scenes expressive there of an almost' malig-
nant antipathy to England and Englishmen. And
now, as yet further and yet plainer supplementary
tokens of a similar kind, we have these caustic refer-
ences of the French press to England as the power
obliging France to be true to her own word and to
withdraw her troops from the Lebanon. N'importe,
however—so long as they are withdrawn when the
date arrives for this Syrian Evacuation.

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