The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-13 00:00:00

2HE HARVEST AND PEACE.

What does the peace of the world depend upon
at this moment ? A score of politicians of the first
class will undertake to answer the question off-
hand. Mr. Lincoln will perhaps say that England
and France might best preserve the peace of the
world by helping him to blockade the Southern
coast of his own territory, and thus stamp out the
war before it has created a second great military
Power in America, Mr. Jefferson Davis will, on
the other hand, think that peace may best he pre-
served by using the English and French navies to
keep open the Southern trade, and thus prevent the
subjugation of the Southern States and the union
in idleness of two great bodies of soldiery. France
may hold that peace and Sardinia are somehow
mysteriously allied. Austria will hardly hope for
peace until some argument has been found powerful
enough to persuade Hungary to bow the head in
patient subjection to the imperial ascendancy of a
people inferior in number and territory. From Italy
we shall have the response that peace is impossible
while Ronk is dissevered from her children, and
while Venetia is in bondage to the barbarian.
From every part of the world there will be a ready
and a different answer to our simple question. Tur-
key, Russia, the Islands of the Levant, even China
and Japan, will have a voice. In our land Mr.
Bright will press forward to declare that peace will
never be secure till our volunteers are disbanded,
our fortifications thrown down, our standing army
broken up, and a friendly confidence placed in the
good intentions of Napoleon 111. Throughout all
Earope there will arise a scattered cry, led by
learned pedants and echoed from every rock and
stronghold of ignorance, that. there can be no peace
so long as the Pope is assailed in his temporal pos-
sessions, and so long as he is not guarded by the
swords of the faithful while he works his holy will
upon his refractory subjects. Every one will have
his own notion as to what the circumstance is upon
which the peace of the world depends ; and, as all
will certainly differ, we may claim a right humbly
to put forward our simple thoughts upon the sub-
ject. We venture to suggest, then, that the peace
of the world depends neither upon the will of this
man nor of that, neither upon the flow nor the ebb
of the war now stagnant on the banks of the
Potomac, neither upon the moderation nor the per-
tinacity of the Emperor of the French, nor the ital.
patience or the sobriety of Italy. It depends whclily
and solely, according to human calculation, upon a
few days more sunshine.

Yesterday was worth at least two millions to Eng-
land alone. The day before yesterday was worth
quite as much. Every ray that embrowns our rust-
ling fields, every zephyr that ventilates the mass of
tall stalks, has its money value. It is a question to
us of at least thirty millions. That is, however, the
smallest matter involved in it. A bad harvest, such
as is still quite possible, although we are all hoping
that we have passed the danger, coming upon the
heels of the failure of last year, would mean famine
prices, restricted employment, suffering among the
masses, discontent, disaffection, agitation. It is
not only that we should have thirty millions more
to pay, but that we should also have at least thirty
millions less wherewith to pay them. Not vainly
did the old apophthegm link peace and plenty
together, although it fallaciously transposed the two
words, and accepted as the effect what is more cer-
tainly the cause.. In this country at least plenty has
never failed to produce contentment, and content-
ment has never failed to produce peace. The trade
of the agitator has never yet thriven in England
while wages were good and food cheap. Thanks to
our open ports and our extraordinary commercial
prosperity, we have tided over one bad harvest, and
have scarcely felt it. India and China have kept
our looms working, and America and Russia have
kept out famine. Let us pray that we may not be
put to the experiment of a second year of trial. But
we are not alone. We might have disagreements
among ourselves, but should hardly hope to find
relief by rushing unprovoked into foreign war.
Such, however, is not the habit of all nations.
France depends upon her harvest quite as much—
perhaps even more, than we do. That the harvest
of 1861 in France will be rather deficient seems to
be already ascertained; but to gather in even that
deficient harvest, and to avoid a catastrophe our
accounts require ten days of fine weather. Talk of
the Sun of Austerlitz; the fortunes of France hang
much more immediately upon the sunshine of the
next few days of August. Floods in France just
now might mean war in Europe and revolutionary,
devastation everywhere. Let others examine mico-
scopically the warp and woof of the policy of princes,
and balance the resources of nations ; just at this
moment we would trust more in a weathercock and
a barometer than in all the promises of man. Man
is a creature of circumstances. Therenever yet was
a great war for some definite object but the war
turned out to be a folly, and the object was attained
by some natural change of circumstances, or faded
away while the combatants were still contending
for it, or was found to be useless when achieved.
Wars of policy may be ended by policy. But the
lack of food is apt to produce wars and revolutions
which are the natural work of hungry, and there-
fore angry, men.
A good harvest in Europe will be not only a
pledge of peace here, but will give a hope of peace
to America. There are evident signs that the
State resources at this moment are not abun-
dant on either side. That the people of the
North will ever pay the taxes now proposed to be
levied no one will believe who knows what the ob-
jections of the multitude must certainly be to
taxes which will be in the nature of a poll-tax, and
will be represented as taking equal sums from the
poor as from the rich. That any one Englishman 1

in.st., BIRTHS.at23,
CROSBY.—On the 11th
the wife of Thomas B. Crosby, F.R.C.S., of a °„,— 0
DASHWOOD.—On the 10th ' t d Mrs. .1. horns
Ills ~ at Ry. o,
Dashwood, of a son. 01
HOPE.—On the Bth inst., at Bed ebu g ry.park, Kent, L
Mildred Beresford Hope, prematurely, of a son.
Finsbury-plaseen, E.CI

MARRIAGES•
CONANT—WNAIR.—On the 12th inst., at Marylebons
Church, Major J. Pellingtt
sioners, late 32d Regt., fifth son of Paynton Pig?
~
Stainsby Conant, Esq., of Archer Lodge, Hants, to Allac,',
Mary, eldest daughter of Captain Robert M'Nair, St '
Officer of Pensioners, Abbey-road, St. john's_wood. _
Pigott, Steil' Officer of P
FANS—REEVE.—On the 7th inst, at at Leadenham, Willis: 1,
Dashwood Fane, Esq., to Susan. Millicent, elder &tug
ter of General and Lady Susan Reeve.
LUCAS—CAZALY.—On the 10th inst., at St. Marl eett
Kensington, Stanley Lucas, Esq., of 54, Borne f
to Susan, second daughter of William Cazaly, FAST' °
3, Shafield-gardens, Kensington. Abbott'St

AzohoaDm.---,aognedth4e2.lD:inAstT, atH Torquay, Algernon tile
youngest son of the late .Thomas Attwood, Esq., of 'Di'
atstmmon.—On the 7th inst., A. A. T. Casamajor, aged
CHRISTIE.—On the Bth inst., at Deal, the Rev. Charles C.
Christie, incumbent of Sidcup, Kent, aged 52.
JEssosuxtlT.—On 10th
w.
thinst., at Clifton-terrace, Brigb.ton,
Sussex, Mr. Thomas Jessett, late of Illowarra, NeW
John Mellor,
MELLOR.—on the 10th inst., at Leicester,
Esq., aged 81.
NELSON.—On the 9th inst., at Parson's-green, Fulham
Nelson, Esq., of New-inn, aged 61.
PRATT.—On the 6th inst., at Sedlescomb Rectory, Susse%,
the Rev. John Pratt, aged 89.

Lowpow : Printed and Published by MURDO YOUNG. at
No. 112, Strand, Printer, at THE SUN Office, No. 112,Strand,
in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the County of 111101001
TUelglaY, August 13, IEO3I.