The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-21 00:00:00

THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDA Y, DEC. 21, 1861.

The expiring year of graco 1861 will close with
Mourning. The approaching year, 1862, will in all
human probability open with War. Of this there
have been sufficient indications. The silence of the
PRESIDENT in his more than usually dull and long-
winded Message to Congress—LlNCOLN'S total and
absolute silence in regard to the affair of the Trent
and the San Jacinto, was in itself significant. Then
the exultant vote of thanks immediately afterwards
passed by the Federal legislators at Washington—
their deliberate and Emphatic Vote of Thanks to
Capt. WILKES for his lawless seizure of the Southern
Commissioners, told pretty plainly the feelings with
which the Federal administrators regard that out-
rage to the flag of England. Meanwhile from this
side of the Atlantic—simply as a precautionary
measure (in case!)—there is the plain and simple
fact that the Household Troops have ac-
tually taken their departure from our
shores, and are now hastening across seas to
a possible seat of war upon the borders of Canada.
All this tells a tale. We don't see, for one thing,
how—having gone so far—the Government at
Washington can retreat. We don't see how they
can now tender anything like an apology for
what has been done by the officers of the San
Jacinto. Above all, we don't see in any way how
they can now, under any circumstances, dream of
acceding to our demand for the release of Messrs.
SLIDELL and MASON and their respective secretaries.
The North has gone too far now to draw back
from their defiant, not to say insolent, attitude.
Passions have been aroused there among a
nation who are already in arms, and who are
already, as it were, heated by fighting. Who
among President LINCOLN'S Ministers would ven-
ture now to assume the responsibility of recom-
mending concession—of recommending apology—
of recommending the release of the Commissioners?
Mr. SEWARD, for example ? It is barely within
the limits of possibility that the most meek-minded
among the administrators constituting the Federal
Government, could entertain for a single instant
of time the mere notion of temporising. There is
an " institution," by the way, um the other
side of the Atlantic popularly known among that
excitable multitude as
.Lynch Law. There are
such means for inflicting punishment as Tar
Barrels and Goose Feathers. We cannot imagine
to ourselves any ono among the go-ahead Yankee
statesmen who would or could have the slightest
possible inclination to go FO directly counter to the
inclinations of Brother JONATHAN as to throw out
a hint even that Lord LYONS' demands should
(though it were but partially) he complied with.
What are the " sentiments"--to employ a delicate
word about what in itself might be defined as of
so peculiarly coarse-grained and rhinoceros•like an
epidermis—what are the kind of "sentiments" with
which the citizens of the Northern States, the
loyal adherents of the Federal Government at Wash-
ington have long since come to regard the position
of things, we have learnt by this time beyond
the chance of any misapprehension. We have seen
those sentiments expressed in black and white, in
language that admits of no doubt whatever as to
its real meaning. We _
have heard those " senti-
ments" articulated,even
here, in our own land,