The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-19 00:00:00

to be mead as rapidly as our faculty of vision
permits. Otherwise we beg, in the language of
our readers in daily life, to speak of agriculture
as the very contrast of manufacture. Till to-
wards the beginning of this century, indeed, it
was the assumption of the farmer that " slow
and easy" was the rule of vegetative nature, to
which those who dealt with her so much were
of necessity to conform. Profits were sought by
saving labour rather than employing it; by using
the rudest implements rather than the most
effective. Many of the present generation can
well remember the time when a clumsy, four-
horse thrashing machine was deemed a marvel of
mechanics ; when winnowing machines had to fight
the battle with the old fan and the natural breeze ;
and when a drill was sneered at by the dibblers of
wheat and the ploughers in of barley: As.to a
steam-engine, fixed or moveable, not one farmer in
five hundred had ever seen one, and perhaps hardly
one in a hundred heard of one. If such a thing
happened to be mentioned in the County Gazette,
the word would be passed over, as meaning some-
thing belonging to quite another world ; and if
the farmer were pressed to say what he thought it
meant, his answer might have been like one we
knew, who, on being asked what he thought the
, word " inference" meant, was " sure he could not
say, but supposed it was something like a crab
harrow."

But we are indeed rapidly changing all that.
Elaborate implements of all kinds are invading
even the most rural districts; the show of them at
London depots and in agricultural exhibitions is
something almost bewildering. And as to steam,
in the better cultivated districts, the tall chimneys
remind one of Manchester or Bradford ; and the
moveable engine is heard, with its drum-like throb-
bings, on the very borders of woods and heaths.
Work, too, which, till very recently, was pronounced
impracticable for steam, even by those who
believed in steam threshing, is turned off rapidly
and cheaply by its apparently half•intelligent
power. Not only the flail, the winnowing fan, the
hand-chaffcutter, and turnip crasher, the churn,
and everything to be done by revolving motion, has
been entrusted to the great manufacturing agent,
bit the plough and the draincutter have been
yoked to the engine, and made to do their work at
a rate unthought of before. Chemistry, too, has
united her contributions with those of mechanical
science ; and in the hands of a LIEBIG, and his
disciples, has shown to agriculturists the true theory
of their most successful operations, furnishing
thereby a key to a still wider range of..success ; till
Sir HUMPHREY DAVY, could he now behold the
triumphs of agricultural chemistry, would confess
that even he hardly knew the alphabet of
the science. Vast districts, indeed, still
lie more or less lingering on in the
old style, landlordism, political considerations, game
preserving, tenants' poverty, proprietors' poverty,
still uphold the miserable tenant-at-will system;
but example is nevertheless doing its work, and
very shame will, in no long time, compel the feu-
dalist to turn Agricultural Reformer.
We have been reminded of farmers just now by
opening a little " Handbook," one of a series pub-
lished by Messrs. LONGMAN—on the " Farm
Labour," and a most elaborate and complete
" Handbook" on this subject it is indeed. Our
farming friends may rest assured that they will not
anywhere get so much for eighteenpence, or for any
sum, so far as we know, on the subject of which it
treats: And one of the prominent features of
the book is the careful and minute comparison
of the cost and value of steam, and horse-power,
and hand-labour, in those things in which they
can at all come inte competition. One broad
fact is quite certain, that steam power is now
gaining on horse-power, just as till within
the last few years horse power gained
on hand-labour. And the process is going on.
Steam-engines for agricultural purposes are being
manufactured at the rate of 40,000 horse power
within the last four years ; but as the increase now
is more rapid than ever, considerably more than
10,000 horse power is added yearly to the means of
agriculture ; probably nearer double that quantity.
One of the most gratifying facts connected with
this is, that the price of agricultural labour is
everywhere rising. The old rick-burners them-
selves must be beginning to perceive that the
demand for labour, especially intelligent labour,
increases with the extension of labour-saving
engines. This, it is true, is no new result. The
painful period of change of work past, and the
makers of every article to which machinery has
Been applied, have been a better paid class. True,
agricultural wages in all parts are low, compared
with those of mechanics, and of workmen in towns,
and in some parts they are disgrace-
fully low. Very full tables of wages in
different districts, and for all kinds of work,
are given, and while it is clear that wages are
rising, yet we meet with such precious illustrations
of it as these : "Wiltshire wages were some ten years
ago 6s. to 7s. per week for ordinary labourers ;"
they are now increased almost seventeen per cent.,
a large advance surely !—yes, an advance to eight
shillings a week! Why, even at the present rate, had
the noble lord the late member for Wilts needed
under universal suffrage to purchase his election
by a week's wages to labouring voters, according
to current report, one year's income, if he could
have spared it, would have purchased him some
200,000 voters. Even a week's income would
have procured him 4,000 votes. A rise is,
however, the uniform rule, but lls. or 12s.
seems to be even now a high maximum.
It is satisfactory to know that the proof
furnished of the greater efficiency of steam
power which this little volumes gives, leaves the
fact quite clear that the labourer's work becomes
also lighter and better paid.
We noticed one fact at the beginning of the
book (page lo) which illustrates the political power
in the hands of landlords. Even a tolerably large
farmer is rarely independent of his landlord. A
long lease even would generally leave him, if an
improving tenant, a loser by being refused a
renewal; out no one doubts that the small farmer
is as much a slave, politically, as a negro in
Louisiana is, personally. - Well, we are told that
two-thirds of the farms in Great Britain are of a
size under one hundred acres ! There are in Eng-
land 142,358 farms, and in Scotland 44,469 farms,
under one hundred acres each ! We surely have
not far to seek for the quiescent condition of most
counties under the excitement of a general election.
Out of every thousand farms 672 are under a
hundred acres. No wonder the landlords all hate
the Ballot. They could nu longer do as they
would with their own. More than 186,000 persons
would dare then to call their souls their own, and
to do their own voting. It is due to Mr.
MORTON, the writer of this valuable little book, to
say that game and politics are not even remotely
alluded to in his hook. 117 e, however, could not but
be struck with the melancholy political and social
lessons taught by some of his facts.

While we all hope to see the horrors of civil
war averted between our descendants on the other
side of the Atlantic, we yet can but look at the two
great sections of the States, till so lately United;

and ask ourselves what in case of fratricidal war
will be the probable result.
In such contests physical strength is of course the
first thing generally looked at; and taking all con-
siderations into account, it would at first sight seem
to be the umpire of any warlike struggle, but a
moment's reflection recalls•to our minds that intel-
ligence and courage have from the beginning of
the world's history proved their infinite superiority
to all degrees of more physical strength. Nor need
we go back to MARATHON and ;SALAMIS, the
achievements of a COCHRANE and a GARIBALDI in
our own days, and scores of like cases of genius
triumphing over tremendous odds crowd upon our
thoughts. On this point, however, we could know
little till the progress of the contest revealed its man.
We may therefore set it aside from the calculation,
though it is hard to believe that the educated
and intelligent North, replete as it is with every
stimulus to mental energy, should not be far more
prolific of generalship as it is of every other intel-
lectual quality. While we omit military genius,
therefore, from the account, we can scarcely doubt
where most of it would be found.
The next consideration is in reality quite as im-
portant, and here the advantage is all with the
Free States. We mean the cause to be fought for.

GARIBALDI'S cause was as important for his success
as his genius. The inspiration of battling for the
liberty of their country against the hated oppressor
made his army of raw youths more than a match
for hosts of fierce mercenaries. We may well sup-
pose that the Southern men make themselves believe
their cause a good one—but the men of the North
know theirs to be so. It requires no tampering
with conscience to enjoy the faith that extension
of slavery ought to be repressed ; and that is the
present creed of the North. It demands the subver-
sion of all Christian instincts to believe in the right
of property in man, and to think slavery an insti-

tution of Heaven ; and that is the creed of the South.
No artifice can make this professed creed a faith.
Think of dying for slavery ! A man must be an
atheist not to shudder at the thought of entering
eternity in the cause of the slave market, the slave
gang, the cartwhip, the cat-o'-nine-tails—in the
cause of slavery. Poor vacillating Mr. BUCHANAN
was obliged in his message to hunt up some excuse
for the belligerent spirit of slaveholders ; and it was
that, in every home, families trembled for the safety
of the domestic altar. But why did they tremble ?
Was it, notwithstanding their having given to their
black servants that which was just and equal, or,
was it because they knew that they were habitually
perpetrating against them a crime not less hateful
to GOD and man than murder itself ? It is the
ghost of murdered liberty which is the i3ANQuo of
the slaveholder. And, amidst all the madness of
the conflict, the heart of the bravest will quail
when he thinks of his cause. We know the vile
pulpit of the South has done its best to sanctify
slavery in repayment:for planters' dollars; but the
♦oice of even the Southern pulpit would falter in
raising the battle cry, " The sword of the LORD
and of slavery."
The Southerners would fight fiercely, no doubt.
CATALINE and his crew did that; Bosco and his
crew did at Melazzo. A consciously bad cause
ofttimes makes devils of men. But fury is only a
blind courage. It dare not meet the eyes of the
self-possessed hero of a noble cause. And the mad,
murdering wrath of slaveholders will be no match
for the cool bravery of men who were inspired
with the sure belief that all Heaven and all the
good on earth were on their side, and if they fell
would honour their memory.
But to come to the more tangible—for it will,
at least, be conceded that the South can have no
superiority either in its cause or in the mental
capacity to do battle for it—the North has unques-
tionably the advantage in men and in means. As
to the area of each, before the admission of Minne-
sota and Oregon the Slave States had the advan-
tage, if advantage it be, of extent of territory.
Since then, in round numbers, the Free States
comprise 634,000,000 acres, and the Slave States
540,200,000. The example of our own country,
however, compared with others—with Russia, for
instance—tells us that extent of territory, and
even number of population, are imperfect
tests of capability for a military struggle.
Density of population, and wealth, and mechanical
resources must be taken into account. How do
we find all this in comparing the North and the
South. First, the absolute amount of the popula-
tion of the former is much larger. In 1850, it was
6,200,000 iuthe Slave States, and more than double,
13,450,000, in the Free. While, for the last year,
the estimate is 7,680,000 in the Slave States and
21,230,000 in the Free, almost treble. Thu slaves
and free coloured men, about 4,000,000, we have not
included, for the obvious reason that the strength of
the South is inversely in proportion to their num-
bers. As to density of population, and correspond-
ing capacity for combined and rapid action—in
1850, in the Free States, the inhabitants were, as
nearly as possible, 22 to the square mile; in the
Slave States the white inhabitants were but a
fraction more than half that number !
We are all aware that the North is the great seat
of mechanical manufactures, indeed we suppose
all the munitions of war used by the Fec:eral
Government and the States' Governments, too,
are the work of the North. The South must

buy them there or elsewhere. The North
is self sufficient. But the South perhaps can buy
elsewhere ? Let us see. We noticed the other day
that the Government of Alabama proposed at once

tAtop cash payments, and take for state purposes

the silver and gold in the banks, and that South
Carolina could not easily raise a loan of £BO,OOO.
We may add that the wealth of the two sections is
in about the proportion which such a state of things
suggests. Setting aside the value of negroes—since
their labour is dearer than that of freemen, and if
admitted into the calculation of property, the value
of the free labour in the North should also be
credited on that side—omitting the negroes then,
the value of real and personal property is in the
Free States..... £820,434,421
Slave States .... £267,218,127

Excess in Free States .... £553,216,294 !!

This gives us some idea of the comparative
ability of the two sections to carry on war, or to
purchase the means of doißg it. The same propor-
tion holds throughout—in revenue, expenditure,
produce, in everything, indeed. The oft quoted fact
is literal truth, that the value of the hay crop alone
in the Northern States was greater than that of the
entire produce of the Southern States.

But we need not prolong these comparisons.
Our readers have but to procure Mr. FREDERIC
LAW OLMSTED'S travels in the different Slave
States, and they will see what the Southern States
of America are as compared with those of the North.
They will be astonished to find such a succession of
exhausted and deserted land, of forest, of swamp;
of bog, of roadless country, as assimilates the
whole rather to Rust than to the more civilised
States. of Europe. indeed the impression wobld
be that the wildernes s and swamp were the chief
,things to be dreaded 3)3r the North in a war with
the South.

A letter from Naples in the Debats says:—

" Garibaldi has written to some of his friends hereto say
lat he shall proJably go $o Constantinople before long."