The true Democrat., 1854-05-16

A ,. "loohi-ih CHanCery. Affirmed Tn Obe- dience to mandate S. c. United States Opi- nlon per Scott, J.
 Probable Continuance of the War.
 The following editorial from the London Times, of the 4th inst, on the probable con- tlnuance of the present war, will be read with interest by all; and it may be with profit by some who have hitherto entertained an idea that this would be but light contest and one ot brief continuance. Present appearances would certainly seem to indicate that it will be protracted in its duration and direful and deso- latlng in its consequences
 Let our younger readers especially those of the metropolis, carefully note the visible signs and preparations of war; Let them enter in thelr diaries the regiments they saw en route tor the East, the day they bade goodbye to the uncle or brother they were never to see again, when they first heard of the Czars bluff an- swer to our summons, the Queens message to Parliament, the addressesin reply, and, if they chanced to witness it, the procession yesterday to the Palace to present those addresses; nor can we omit the first Sunday when they heard the prayer for time of war used in our churches
 Let them store these things in their memo rles, and ponder over them, for, though it may be only few years in all human probability it will be many, before they see the end of which this is the beginning. Sixty years ago, with great ardor and temerity, We rushed into war with people whom we had learned to hate and despise, standing at that time alone among nations, beaten by us out of their colonies and dependencies, pent up within mountains and seas and under the perpetual surveillance of our fleets. Nevertheless, that war, so begun with so much enthusiasm, and with such confidence of right on our part, that hardly pulpit but what sounded the alarm, lasted near quarter of century, filling Europe with disaster, and convulsing the whole habitable world.
 We have now to deal with a continent rather than State, and with large section of the human race rather than a people. With our own numbers more than ever finite, and with materials, labor, and man himself yearly more appreciated, we contend with cheap and in- exhaustible multitude. We wage war with government whose domestic system is despo- tlsm and whose foreign policy is conquest In the former 1t has refused to improve; in the latter, It has scarcely known check. Sixty years ago 1t was imagined that the indignation and seltishness of all Europe would concentrate all her armies against devoted France, the one common foe Now there are thousands of miles ot frontier and unapproachable and un- known interior to be attacked Our force con- talns within her bosom the seedplot of nations. and still harbors the originals of the very tribes that used to menace and conquer the civilized world. When some one observed the other day, that 1t had been long foreseen that it must come to this, and that we were only accepting task that otherwise would have fallen on our successors and proved above their strength. that implies not merely the greatness of the efforts required of us, but the length of time during which they will probably have to be sustained. A few great blows, aided by fortune, and by some return to sanity in the councils of Rus sla, may perhaps bring the war to an early ter mlnatlon. That is no uncommon resolution of the difficulties which despotic violence is apt to bring on the world. But it cannot be dis gulsed that the vastness of the powers involv- ed Tn the present war; the depth of the causes which have provoked it, and the importance of the principles at issue, all portend a contest as long and as changeful as any that have darken- ed the annals of the world
 As usual, and as seems to be the fate of this country, ours will be not so much the painful endurance, as the costly maintenance of active hostlllties. We take apublic and active part in the affairs of the world at large and we hold it our vocation to do so. Relying on our power and our comparative immunity, we befriend the injured and chastise the oppressor. Once engaged Tn these generous, though sometimes gratultous lnterferences, our honor forbids us to recede, and we find ourselves pledged to cru- sades III support of common liberty and us tlce, and our own national honor. That is our case now. There is little likelihood of our own shores being invaded, or our commerce se- rlously damaged. We shall ever wage the distant war with caution, skill, and with every appliance that modern art and an inexhaustible treasury can supply. The courage and disci- pline of our soldiers, and the steady iudgment of our commanding officers may probably save us from painful reverses. We have little fear that mothers and sisters, and those still dearer who have just suffered the bangs of separation will hear of such unqualified and unredeemed disaster as that of Cabul and some incidents in the continental war. Of final victory we will allow no doubt. But what we have to exnect is protracted difficult costly war. costing q large mortality rather than much blood and entailing on the nation large increase of ex- penditure, as we'll as sad check to that lono couse of social improvement in which we so confidently believed ourselves to be embarked.
 Much, then, as there was in Lord Derbv's speech on Friday unsuitable to an occasion when all should be united in common cause he certainly did public service in dwelling on the serious character of the war and invitino Parliament to look failures and national disas7 ters in the face. We cannot quite go along with him in deeming our finances unprepared for 1t, seeing that nothing will be so easy as to relmpose, when necessary, the taxes which we have repealed. However, we agree with him that we are not to expect mere six months excursion to the Levant, followed by the return of the Guards, a little more sunburnt than when they left St. James's Park or Trafalgar- square. Unquestionably this is not war of that sort, for it is real war and great war, and it will have its tribute For that it is quite as we'll we should all be prepared.
 0AF The ladies of the town of Pontiac I'll strong g-minded and strong handed women. last week resolved in public meeting to put stop to the sale of alcoholic drinks in that town Some twenty of them assembled together and