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

goodwill in this respect. Would it not be agreeable
to your MAJESTY to take on your part the necessary
steps for settling this difference pacifically ? And,
besides, your MAJESTY must know better than any
one how much a war undertaken in existing cir-
cumstances would be injurious to European inte-
rests, and principally to those of Germany. For my
part, and I do not doubt such also is the design of
your MAJESTY--I will oppose such a war by all
means in my power. Such is likewise the intention
of England. Let us therefore unite our efforts,
and then nothing, as I haw every reason to 'lope,
will trouble the peace of Europe, especially if, as
you assured me at Baden, your MAJESTY has as
great a desire as I have to maintain it. You will
have, unlike me, the happiness of not having been
obliged to purchase peace by two wars."

All this would be sufficientl .
mless—indeed,
la
it must be well for the Germans ot be aware, as the
German fleet is not yet even on the stocks, that two
great naval powers feel a decided interest in fair
play towards Denmark. Th reamers of " Father-
land" will soon look in som other direction for a
cry, if they find that the int ity and independence
of the little Scandinavian gdom is a serious ob-
ject with both France and England. But really,
to send after the King of PRUSSIA an inti-
mation that all the territory between the two
seas, the - Pyrenees, the Alps, and the
Rhine belongs naturally to France, and that
Prussia's motto must be " Germany free and one
from the Rhine to the Oder" seems somewhat like
helping his MAJESTY back with a kick as he quits
the country. "The Rhine and the Vistula" was
rather a rough gripe on receiving a guest—" The
Emperor NAPOLEON and King WILLIAM" is a rather
rougher dismissal.

The month of promise for the American Federals,
OCTOBER, has arrived. This month they were to
cross their Jordan, the Potomac, and to-day we
receive intelligence from New York, dated the
FIRST OF OCTOBER ; and surely enough it seems as
if the fulfilment of the promise had commenced.
The information is very brief, but it is not unlikely
to be very important. " The Confederates have
evacuated Munson's Hill and other positions be-
fore Washington, which are now occupied by the
Federal troops." On the reasons for the evacuation
our military savans may speculate a good deal, but
to us unprofessional men it would appear as if there
could be but one reason, that they were unable to
hold safely such advanced positions. We know
now pretty well that on neither side of Washing-
ton can the Confederates cross the Potomac in any
great force, and turn back upon the capital. We
believe that from Acquia Creek on the south or
south-western side of the city, to Harper's Ferry
on the north-western side, the attempt, partly from
the breadth of the river and deficiency of boats,
and partly from the nature of its banks, not to
mention the Federal pickets and forces, would be
hopeless. Hence the only supposition left seems to
be that the Confederates, after displaying their
flag so long on a hill which overlooked the city,
and having fortified it very strongly, now see that
if M'CLELLAN's army moves forward they would
find their centre too weak, and be in danger of being
cut in two.

We are not, however, to suppose that their retreat
proves them weaker than before. On the contrary,
they will only be so much better prepared for resist-
ance at the scene of their former triumph. Manassas
and Bull's Run may be again their chosen ground.
There they will be near their supplies, and the
junction of the railways which proved to be of such
service before. At the same time, the retreat of one
side and the advance of the other will, for the mo-
ment, brighten the hopes of the North. It has a
pleasant look, whether there be much in it or not.
Another kind of advance—that of money by the
banks—is doubtless equally pleasant to the Go-
vernment. The New York banks have taken up
the second Federal loan of £10,000,000, and Mr.
LINCOLN will, therefore, be at ease again
a little while on the great point. The
brighter aspect of affairs is, however, confined
to Wall•street and Munson's•hill. In Missouri and
Kentucky things remain as they were. In the
latter State, despite its strong desire to preserve
nenrality, both Federalists and Confederates are
sending reinforcements to the troops they have
there, and Kentucky, sorely against her will, must
become a battle-field of the rival parties.
And now that the conflict seems likely to become
a fiercer one, England may review her course with
entire satisfaction. We mean not only the action,
or rather the decided inaction, of her Government,
but the general sentiments of the English public.
Unhappily, our principal morning contemporary,
by its evident Southern leanings, would greatly
mislead the Americans of either party. The Eng-
lish people, as the press generally and all the pub-
lic speaking show, does not lean to the South. Nor
is there the slightest inclination, covertly, to make
the best of their case. The universal feeling is—
and there has been no change in that feeling—that
the Southern cause is bad from beginning to end.
The tariff of the North has been the only admitted
grievance of the South, and to that tariff the South-
erns were consenting parties, and in face of their re-
sistance it could never have passed, But the South
are, in the view of Englishmen, utterly wrong in
their adoration of the Moloch of Slavery ; wrong in
desiring to extend its curse over soil yet free; wrong
in their shabby rebellion when fairly beaten at the
ballot-box; wrong in having enjoyed "the spoils
of office so long;" and then, when the turn of their
political opponents came, meanly begrudging them
their share; wrong in resorting to arms before they
had tried what could be done peacefully in Con-
gress ; doubly wrong, because if not strong enough
to elect a President, they at least balanced his sup-
porters in the Lower House, and had a clear ma-
jority in the Senate; wrong, because they were
bound to wait and see whether a party with the re-
sponsibility of Government on its shoulders would
not, for the sake of the Union, have conducted them-
selves with moderation. For these, and other reasons,
the South, in the judgment of Englishmen, had not
the shadow of an excuse for their secession. Their
fundamental object is, in the English view, an
infernal one, their steps to attain it, in their
meanness and political turpitude only too worthy
of their object—a thoroughly bad cause, defended
by thoroughly bad means.
But, unfortunately, the wickedness, meanness,
and injustice of the South are not sufficient to
glorify the Northern cause. Englishmen are com-
pelled to judge that if the Southern cause is ignoble
and bad, the Northern one has little claim to be
considered good and noble. En gland wishes it were
otherwise. We should rejoice in the magnitude and
real greatness of the American Union, if only it
were not a greatness based on baseness ; and this is
what the North desires. It has a vile Federal
constitution—a constitution which has impregnated
the whole of the thirty-four States with the lowest,
the worst sentiments in regard to slavery. For
that constitution, slavery and all, the North is
fighting. It is useless to disguise it. We may be
told that slavery is at the bottom of the struggle.
It may be so. Brandy may be at the bottom of a
drunken man's struggles with the water into which
he has fallen, but his struggles are no proof of his
determination to have no more to do with brandy;