The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-02 00:00:00

day,"—this is the exultant expression of which we
have already spoken as so very curiously timed in
the mere coincidence of it—" to-day," said Mr.
DISRAELI last evening, " to-day, I believe, has
witnessed the defeat of the last of this series
of measures !" So that " a clear stage," in a
manner, has been obtained, there, for the contest,
which is fixed for this evening in the House of
Commons—the contest between the powers that be
and the powers that wish to be.

There is something very English in the out-
spokenness of the Earl of DEBBY throughout the
whole of his remarkable speech upon the occasion
of last night's Conservative Demonstration.
Her MAJESTY'S Government cannot certainly
accuse him at this moment of anything like
.reticence. He speaks right out—he avows his
views quite plainly—he proclaims his ambition and
the ambition of those in both Houses who repose
implicit :confidence in his leadership. What
will infallibly be the most distasteful of
all 'to the chiefs of the present Admi-
nistration is the grand and haughty tone in
which Lord DERBY, as Mr. DISRAELI
.had done
himself on Monday in the House of Commons,
spoke of the existing Ministry as living purely upon
sufferance ! Surviving merely because of the mag-
nanimous support accorded to them by a powerful
Opposition ! Gall and wormwood must assuredly
be in every syllable, like the following, dropped
from the lips of Lord DERBY for the ear of Lord
PALMERSTON. The Conservative leader—referring
to the course recently pursued in the House of
Commons by his followers—observing, " It is well
known that if that party were to cease their vigi-
lance and their attendance in Parliament for the
protection of Her MAJESTY'S Government, the
noble viscount at the head of that Government
would very shortly sustain the fate of ACTZON,
and be torn to pieces by his own dogs. My lord,
we know the jarring elements of which the Liberal
party—God save the mark—are now composed, are
now kept together solely and entirely by their ap-
prehension of the united power of the great Con-
servative party which opposes them ; and if for one
single week we were to relax our vigilance we know
that the discord would break out into open rebel-
lion, and we know that the QUEEN'S Government
would not be sustained during this session." Worse
—a tone like that—far more irritating to really
high-minded and chivalrous-hearted Statesmen
than any reiteration of defeat that could possibly
happen upon any number of Wednesdays, must be
taunts like these, informing Ministers that they
owe their existence as a Government to the
magnanimous support of the confronting Opposi-
tion. Looking back down the vista of the last
three months we cannot induce oursejves to do
otherwise than believe that the Cabinet has
suffered more than they would willingly acknow-
ledge from the retirement of Sir WM. HAYTER
from the responsible position in which he did so
much good service to his party while winning for
himself so high and honourable a reputation. The
Government Whips—late though it be in the ses-
sion for them to attempt it—may yet redeem their
character for energy by wielding the lash adroitly in
the cause of the Administration. Lord DERBY had
has opportunity last evening, and admirably well
he availed himself of it—the opportunity of issuing
a timely Manifesto enunciating the views of the
Opposition. The Government Whips, in retnrn,
will now have their opportunity—and we presume
they will for once evidence something like energy
in availing themselves of it in real earnest—the op-
portunity of achieving a Ministerial triumph in
May sufficient to compensate for all the various
defeats which in February, March, and April, have
(in a great measure thanks to them) fallen time
and again upon the powerful phalanx of the
Coalition Government.

Every arrival from America now brings tidings
more and more painful. They have not waited long
to make up for the want of bloodshed at Fort

Sumpter. Either Harper's Ferry or Baltimore
—for the dates have not yet arrived—has the
honour of having shed the first blood in the second
American Revolution. At the former place, poor
old JOHN BROWN'S exploit for liberty has been
sadly vindicated. One thousand Virginians pressed
the arsenal so hardly that the Federal commis-
sioners destroyed the armoury, arsenal, manufac-
tory, and Memo thousand stand of arms. They
then returned into Pennsylvania, but with the loss
of three men. So fax as we can gather, on the
same day, or very nearly so, a Massaehusett's
regiment was passing through Maryland to Wash-
ington, but at Baltimore it was attacked by
the mob, and eleven were killed on both sides.
This regiment reached Washington on the 19th.
It is singular at the present crisis that the capital,
and its little district of Columbia, should be seated
in a slave State, though one is which slavery has for
some time been dying out. The close proximity,
too, of the largest of the slave States, Virginia, a
State which subsists by breeding slaves for the South,
makes the position of the capital in this struggle
one not to be envied. It requires indeed a con-
siderable body of troops to place Washington in
safety; five. thousand were said to be under arms
there on the 20th, when the Canadian left.

The secession of Virginia which rendered this
necessary, though long expected, is the most im-
portant of the facts of which we have been just
apprised ; Virginia is the most populous and power-
ful by far of the Slave States. It has about half
the population of the State of New York itself, or
one million nine hundred thousand inhabitants,
including about half a million of slaves. North
Carolina, immediately south of it, including three
hundred thousand slaves, has followed the example
of Virginia, and it seems every way probable that
all the border Stater, who might certainly have
taken a wiser course, will, as Slave States, consider
their honour pledged to the Southern confederacy.
Open war is, therefore, now commenced. The
Governor of Virginia has issued a proclamation
recognising the Southern Convention, and North
Carolina has seized all the forts within the States.
Virginia has also taken the precaution to close
Norfolk harbour, where one of the Federal Navy
Yards is situated, by sinking vessels at its mouth in
order to prevent egress from the yard. A Federal
ship of war threatened, however, to level the town
if the obstructions were not removed. What is the
number of ships in the naval yard at this moment
we cannot be sure. Aortditnhaery_begtinhneinegoloufmtbhuesr
Baor
in
there were then
guns; the Delaware, 84; the Corludmtbhiae,
Germanso;the
Raritan, 50 ; the Plymouth, 22, ai
Town, 22. In all 308 guns. On the stocks
there was the New York, an 84 gun ship.
And one
ship apparently in commission,
the United States frigate, 50 guns. As the navy
surprised annoyance
to hert
of t
ao
desperate
be the PRESIDENT'S chief reliance, and the
greatest
Harbour. I..deed,
.. thorginians cannot keep
the we should not be
i
elir..a.te struggle at Norfolk
it
the yard in their hands, they
it better policy to burn allthovveilslseplsrothbearbelythtalniintko
let them fall into the hands of the North
not observed that any other ships aret,z,i7eefehuanvde
in the navy yards of the South, except an 84 en the
stocks in the New Orleans Dockyard. I

Accounts must now be awaited with most
painful interest. We can but fear that

every ship will bring tidings of some fatal col-
lision. Each party will be endeavouring to out-
strip the other in both attack and defence. The
PRESIDENT is daily receiving reinforcements at
Washington. He has issued a proclamation de-
claring a blockade of all the Southern ports ; and,
it is a remarkable fact, indeed, that the Govern-
ment of WashingtoH, which refused to abolish
privateering when Europe asked it, has now pro-
claimed that it will seize and condemn, as pirates,
all privateer vessels which may be seized by
the Federal ships. In future, any power at war
with America has but resolutely to insist on fol-
lowing the lead of the Washington Government,
and the barbarous practice of privateering will be
banished from civilised warfare.

It must be confessed that the clerical party, under
the lead of the Right Hon. BENJAMIN DISRAELI,
are consistent If they signalise Wednesdays this
year by rejecting measures of religions liberty for
Dissenters, they are prepared also to refuse liberty
for themselves. Last night Mr. LOCKE KING
brought in a bill to give a little more liberty to
clergymen, but it fared much the same as Sir
MORTON PETO's bill to bestow a trifle more of that
favourite English privilege on Dissenting Teachers.
Clergymen are now, in one respect, it seems, very
much like paupers. They must keep to their parish.
If they attempted to preach and pray elsewhere,
the ecclesiastical courts, or powers of some sort,
would soon pass them home to their parish. The
Regulars of the Church of Rome can preach where
they like. Dissenting ministers of all sects, even
to lay preachers, like the honourable member for
Cambridgeshire, can preach where they please.
Only the clergyman of the Established Church is
nailed to his parish.
Mr. KING tried to get a little freedom for them
last year, but failed. He has tried again this year
to obtain a less measure of liberty, but failed again ;
he modestly proposes that if an archbishop or a
bishop license a minister to preach or pray only—
not to venture on the administration of sacraments,
but only to speak as he best could in public to either
GOD or man—he might be permitted to do so.
Strike out the archbishop, said Sir G. C. LEWIS,
and I will assent. The par nobile fratrum, Mr.
NEWDEGATE and Mr. SPOONER, for once differed,
the former being opposed to clerical liberty, the
latter in favour of it; so were other Liberal and
Tory members; but Mr. ESTCOURT, Lord J. MAN-
NERS, and Mr. G. HARDY took up the cause of
keeping every clergyman to his own parish, and
" so the bill was lost."

Well, so let it be. Bishops, even, it seems, are
not fit to be trusted with the Government of the
Church and the liberties of the clergy. One would
have supposed that they were little likely enough
to license any clergyman to preach to the annoy-
ance of another clergyman in their dioceses. Most
of them love quiet too well for that. A smaller
amount of freedom than that claimed by some of
the speakers for laymen—the power to get the
services of some acceptable clergyman when their
own was offensive to them—we can hardly con-
ceive. We like all proposals for freedom of every
kind ; but if the clergy and the majority of the
laity are content with these restraints, they are
hardly worth the trouble of removing.

The Great Council of the Austrian Empire was
opened yesterday. As things stand we can but
scrutinise closely and suspiciously all relating to
it ; and yet, after all, who can reflect for a moment
on what Austria was before 1848, and what she
has been in the twelve years of reaction, and not
look with wonder on a Council meeting in Austria ;
and to hear one of the most absolute of Monarchs
telling that Council that "he has sanctioned the
introduction of tried constitutional forms." A con-
stitution he has thus given his empire, according
to Mr. ROEBUCK, even more liberal than our own.
On one point it is so, certainly. It allows of female
voting at elections.

When we look at the EMPEROR'S avowed reasons,
they are also far better than most would have anti-
cipated. He is "convinced that free institutions,"
"protection of the rights of nationalities," and the
" equality of citizens," will lead to a safe reorgani-
sation of the whole monarchy." He is so humble
and teachable that he " desires to learn positively,
through the mouths of the representatives of the
people, what they consider best for the welfare of
the people." And he thinks it " necessary to show
the world that political, national, and religious dif-
ferences do not form an insurmountable obstacle to
a national understanding." What ought we not to
expect from a council called for such reasons, and
in which free and public discussion is to be inau-
gurated in Austria ?

The testing question—the separate and indepen-
dent administration for Hungary—is, of course, not
directly adverted to. Indeed, we believe not a single
Hungarian representative is present in the Council;
and we are not sure that the annexed parts have
sent any. The EMPEROR could therefore, with
common prudence, speak only in the most vague
language. He trusts to the justice of his policy
and to the intelligence of the people, for " a satis-
factory solution of the question of the representa-
tion of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and
Slavonia." When they understand the real state
of things, he thinks they will approve of the insti-
tutions he has desired to confer on them. At least
he promises—what words from an Emperor of
Austria !—that " a Liberal policy shall be equally
developed in all parts of the Empire, with special
regard for the historical traditions of the provinces."
But Hungary will not own herself to be a province ;
she is an independent Kingdom ; respect for
historical traditions may be said to comprehend the
whole of her demands—a King, a Palatine, an
independent Ministry, a separate finance, and the
control of it, and the withdrawal of all
non-Hungarian troops are an undoubted part of
what she can historically, and even by recent laws
and treaties, justly demand. How will these
demands be met ? The EMPEROR, though at com-
parative ease in Italy, yet will hardly dare to coerce
Hungary. Well for him if no evil counsellors
drive him to the attempt.
The Budget is to be submitted to this council.
Will the EMPEROR venture to include Hungarian
expenditure and taxation in it ? Not one moment
too soon does he endeavour to give to his Exche-
quer the credst it would gain from a budget
voted by the entire provinces of the empire. Yet
it is remarkable enough to see such a thing
done in Austria. Two points in the Speech
seem to have especially called forth the
cheers of the Deputies—the allusion to liberal
institutions, and the assertion of the determination
to preserve the "inviolable foundation of the unity
and indivisibility of the whole monarchy," and to
repel any violation of the same as an attack
not only on the monarchy, but "on the
rights of all the, provinces and nationalities,"
Hungary will ask, what right has any province
or nationality in the Austrian Empire, to require
of Hungary any other union than that shaped by
the Pragmatic Sanction, and interpreted by the
laws of 1848.

Mr. COBDEN'S VISIT TO ROCHDALE.—In accord.
anco with Mr. Cobden's wish, the proposed banquet at
Rochdalo will not take place. The hon. gentleman will be
received at a public meeting of the inhabitants.