The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-03 00:00:00

striking Sergeant Tanner, a non-commissioned
officer of his regiment, while in the execution of his
duty. On the occasion of his trial the prisoner
behaved in the most outrageous manner, assailing
the president and members of the Court with the
foules language and the most horrible oaths. In
consideration of the bad character he bore in the
regiment, the Court sentenced him to be impri-
soned in the Military Prison at Rochester for
two years, leaving his conduct before the Court to
form the subject of another trial. The prisoner,
after his sentence, was heard to make use of the
most fearful threats, and shortly after his admission
into the prison at Fort Clarence he carried his threats
into execution by making a murderous attack
on one of the warders of that establishment,
named Cockaday, whom he struck over the
head with a metal vessel used in the cell, in the
most savage manner. A board of field cfficers was
directed to assemble to investigate the case, and at
the close of the inquiry they sentenced the prisoner
to receive 50 lashes, and to be imprisoned for a
further period of six months. The prisoners hav-
ing accordingly been drawn up in the prison yard,
Brady, who behaved with the greatest bravado, was
fastened to the triangle, and the corporal punish-
ment administered. After 25 lashes had been
inflicted he was observed to faint away, when the
surgeon, who is always present on these occasions,
immediately ordered the punishment to be stopped,
and the prisoner was at once released an conveyed
to the prison infirmary, where he shortly afterwards
recovered. The remainder of the corporal punish-
ment will, under the circumstances, be remitted,
but he will undergo his full term of two years and
six months' imprisonment, and be again tried for
his conduct before the court martial.

TIE UNITED STATES.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, DEC. 19, 1860.
I do not see how secession is now to be avoided.
In making this statement, however, it is important
to define what secession is. It is easier to say what
it is not than what it is. It is not order and good
government. It is not submission to the law, and
accepting a President elected in the manner pro-
vided by the Constitution and the laws. It is not a
regard for the right of others. It is nothing, in
fact, which law-abiding Englishmen are taught to
respect and observe. On the other hand, t‘lse first
step of secession, the paper separation, which is all
that is yet meant by the word, it is not
necessarily
a dissolution of the Federal Government. The
National Constitution and the traditions and forms
of the National Government may yet remain for
the States which are willing to submit to law and
observe its forms. For these Mr. Lincoln will still
remain the President, chosen in the regular con-
stitutional way. Nor does it even imply neces-
sarily a dissolution of the Federal Union, as, after
the seceding States have voted themselves out, of
the Union, they may be brought back in two ways
—either by negotiation or by force, provided in the
first case, the negotiators are willing to concede all
the rebellious States demand; or, in the other
alternative, that the remaining States are strong
enough and sufficiently united to authorise a resort
to force. With the exception of four, or, at most six
of the cotton States, there is, in my opinion, no
preference in the South for disunion ; and if the
other Southern States temporarily secede—which
from my information I am inclined to think will be
the case—it will be because they are forced into
it, and because they hope to induce negotiations
which, prolonged, may result in re-establishing the
Union. That several of the cotton States will secede
in the course of the next month I have little doubt.
They believe that they can force the border States
to follow them; and it is the general opinion at
Washington, among those best able to judge,
that unless immediate concessions are made by
the North, the border States will be forced to
follow, and that the reconstruction of the
Federation on a modified basis will be thus assured.
Thus, in the eyes of such politicians, the union of
the entire Slave States in the movement, so far from
implying an ultimate dissolution of the Union, will
ensure its speedy reunion, with such guarantees as
will ensure its continuance. Some politicians aim at
the absolute expulsion, in any event, of contuma-
cious anti-slavery New England; but those who
are now countenancing a united co-operative
Southern action look to an early reconstruction of
the Union in some form. They forget that it is
easier to destroy than to create, and they are will-
ing to hazard the destruction of a noble Confedera-
tion, under which the nation has prospered beyond
example in history, the rule of which has been a
gentle one, almost unfelt at home, and the flag, of
which is respected abroad to the most remote corner
of the globe—they are willing to hazard this, and
plunge the country possibly in a civil war, for the
chance of uniting the Slave States, and gaining a
further political advantage for property in slaves.
In the present excited state of the public mind it is
absolutely impossible to predict even the immediate
future. It is subject at any moment to be directed
into the course of violence by the will of passionate
men, orby the chances of an accident. And although
I have decided views as to the probabilities of the
success of disunion, I feel that, instead of occupying
your columns with speculations that any unforeseen
accident may falsify, I shall do better by giving
you, as before, a scissors and paste letter, made up
of extracts from private letters and other matters,
thus enabling you to form your own judgment from
the materials we have to form ours. And first, as
the State of South Carolina leads in this matter,
and has already her Convention in session, and may
perhaps, before the Asia sails, have seceded, I will
give you au extract from a letter from a gentleman
who is a member of the Convention :
" I think you • make a great mistake in attribut-
ing the present state of things to the politicians,
instead of to the people. It is a great sponta-
neous uprising of the people, irrespective of and
regardless of the politicians. It is the universal
sentiment of the whole Southern people that they
can no longer remain in the present Union in peace,
honour, and safety ; and they have, after long re-
flection, resolved to separate and form a separate
Union of their own ; and nothing can prevent it.
Ido not want to thrust my opinions on you. Ido
not waut you to attach any undue importance to
whit I now say, but leave it to time and the course
of events to speak their own results ; but I would,
with due deference, suggest to you to predicate no
business calculations or business arrangements upon
any adjustment of the difficulty between the North
and South. The people so far, in my humble
opinion, show no disposition for compromise, but
desire to withdraw peaceably and quietly from the
present Union, and it seems to me that it will be
worse than useless for the genefal Government, or
the Black _Republican party, to attempt to prevent
it by force. On the contrary, it were better for
both parties to come to an amicable . sepa-
ration, and go on and trade together quietly and
peaceably. If coercion is attempted, however, war
will come, and in the deadliest form. I leave to-
night for Columbus. I go to preserve peace and
induce the Convention to act with deliberation and
wisdom and with due regard to the interests, rights,
and feelings of all parties concerned, so far as my
judgment and efforts are available. I shall übut ppo?_
all violence, or rashness, or precipitancy, .w 11,!
advocate South Carolina seceding from the Unioota
My next extract shall be from the letter t
on,
washing
Southern Union gentleman, now at _e
sits
who can see little hope in the future. 11
the He
States
" The President thinks that
I don't know what
hings look badly
will go out of the Union,. buto
akctg.aayl, and it is said he
he expects from such
here. Wade is to P
s-tehae States. He is a firm, bold
will go for coercing
E his anti-slavery sentiments too
man, and nlaY; P
far. The Presidentregrets the madness of the South,
gloomythe
as is represented. I:do not
but it is of European press will have
not so
think the views
any ehffect in South Carolina. Georgia is the State
in which the Union party have the best chance.
Tombs is said to have A ritten a letter which speaks
of giving time to the North to acts f disposed
d no
to do so. The time is passing away,
signs of movements at the North that can strengthen
the Union men at the South. The great effort must
be now to have the separation without bloodshed
that the parties may have time to cool off, and,
setting aside the politicians, the people may re-
unite. Will England send back our stocks, or will
what we seem disposed
she send money to buy up
to throw away I'
I leave the answer to the last pertinent and sug-
gestive question in my friend's letter to be made
from the other aide of the Atlantic.