The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-07-13
EUROPE,

IOntUN SItnrIIU
| civil WAR AND STRONG GOVERNMENT
AT last we have got Government" was the
deighted exclamation of a Northern journalist
when the Washington Cabinet, having ascertained
tHe VIII OIL It's many-headed master, began to ex-
change Its attitude OF imbecie waverinr for one of
warnKe preparation. The remark aptly expresses
tne instructive sympathy of ultra-democracy with
hlSh handed displays of power, aud it is not per-
uSps, without sinister significance as rega ds the
Interior results the into which the modal
Republic has plunged. According to present an
Psarances, there is every probability that, it the
war lasts any length of time, the American naonia
may ind, before it is over, that they really haze
| got Government in sense little dreamed of bv
| the founders of their constitutional liberties !
| vigorous Executive, unembarrassed by over-nice
notions OF legality, to be the present idea; of
Transatlantic aspirations; and it is AN ideal which
uhuer faVoraoie circumstances, is wonderfully apt
to realize itself Laws are proverbially sileit in
the midst OF arms; and n civil war, in which the
Central Executive constitutes itself the organ of the
herccst passions of democracy, is admirably cal
culated to generate what European nnIitcians oa
"StTong government"
Some progress has already been made towards
TINS contamination. Considering that it Is barely
two months since President Lncons Cabinet re.
ceived its instructions from popular opinion it
must be admitted that it has not been idle Mr.
| Bright "never saw the British Constitution and
he would perhaps be equally at loss to detect the
! traces OF an American Constitute in the recent
history OF Transatlantic politics. In what respeet
| the existing w ashngton Government differs from
miiltary dictatorship it might take some time to
| explain We see the President assuming and ac.
! uVeiy exercising powers which might almost con-
tent the executive OF the most absolute Euronean
monarchy. lie invites and accepts unlimited cffsrs
OF men and money from all quarters, and apparently Y
uisposss OF both at bis own uniettered discretion
rms generals take military possession of towns and
uis,rlctS where the jurisdiction of the regular civil
authorities has been formally sunsrsa6ad
and arrest suspected traitors entirely at their
| pleasure.
AS for Congress, nobody appears to remamber
| existence 10 INST tint still
temptation OF law, but it seems, practically sneak
/ ing, quite supernuity. Tie President, and his
Ca6iuet, and his Generals, and the Governors OF
| States, and the volunteers, evidently consider
themselves fully equal to all the demands of the
! crisis; and when Congress does assembe-which
Will oeJust ten weeks after the first pruclama ton
OF warlt Is not very clear what it will be wanted
To DO, beyond the routine business of providin no
supplies for n struggle on which 1t has never been
consulted. Louis Napoleun's Senate and Legisa.
tive body are respectable and influential constitu-
| uonal authorities compared with the democra tic
| assemblies which the head of the American Gov.
ernment has not yet thought it necessary to take
into his confidence. As it is certain that in the
present temper of the Norjhern mind Mr. Lincoln
would have found no difficulty in obtaining from
| the Federal Legislature any extra-egaI powers
that be might be inclined to demand, this osten-
tatlous contempt for constitutional prophecies is
the more marked because it is altogether gratuitous
More than one recent occurrence has given start
ing proof OF the superiority of the ashngt ton Ex
ecutlve to legal restraints. Two or three weeks
ago, the President ordered razzia to be made At
given day aud hour on the telegraph Offices in al
the principal towns OF the Northern States, on the
chance o hndlDg evidence against "traitors"-
his officers took iorclbe possession of the manu-
script originals of all eleg grams sent to the South
during the preceding twelve months, and carried
them of for inspection BY the Government Thi
arbitrary and violent but unduestionablv smart
proceedlng-which NAV perhaps afford a usefu
hint to European despOtisms-appears to have beer
decidedly popular. American editors recorded i
with undisgused conplacency, and evidently ad
mired the sagacity with which the little coup detu
was planned, and the deXterity with which it wa
executed. The Times New York correspondent
speaks OF 1t with much satisfaction as "a boil
stroke and is pleased to think that the possession
o'such mass ot material gives the Government
guarantee for the quiet behavior of suspected ant
| disatfec,ed persons" 1t is unnecessary to remar
that the possession of the bodies OF suspected ant
disafected persons would furnish still better guar
antee for their quiet behavior; and, in fact, as W
shall presently see, this obvious reflection has al
ready suggested itself to some of President Lin
coins Generals. Judging from the general apprn
baton which has attended the raid on the telegra %
: Offices, there be little doubt that Norther1
opinion would be equally ready to sanction tn
''adminis'rative seizure of the types and presse
OF an obnoxious secessionst newspsperif, at leas
it were possible that such journal could exis
: within reach of a New York mob
f. The last mail brings word of a still b0lde
: stroke OF military usurpation. The collision bt
tween General Cadw allader and Chief Justice Tame
r Is somewhat absurdy called in the newspapers 90
conflict OF laws" but it was, in TRUTH simply
conflict between law and illegal violence, in whic
s law suffered total defeat 1t Just amounts to ih
D., that the commander of the Northern troops no,
= In occupation of Baltimore has taken it upon him
b without so much as the preliminary formaitv of
Y proclamation of martial law, to arrest and in
: prison at his discretion civilians accused or SUI
pscted OF political offences, and that the authorit
n of the Supreme Court of the United State
e is summarily set aside by order of Pres
e Congress, and by the simple fiat of th
President aud bis generals, the writ of h,
r beds corpus is treated so much waste paper-
and this, too, in State which still adheres to f
d Union and in which the civil authorities bav
It never been superseded. 1t is omnous fact ths
e TINS daring assumption of military despotsm do,
not appear to excite the smallest objection in an
quarter. The Northern newspapers, we are tolt
il are mostly silent on the subject while some of thel
e urge General Cadwallader to arrest Judge sci
IS convicted of reasonable sympathies. The Ne
n York correspondent of the Times severely blame
4 ChiefJustice Taney for having put the case in
d way to excite the already embttered feelings
g. the people of Baltimore" and remarks that ii
b Generals lawless violence "in country which h,
l. just been subdued, and which sympathizes active
1t with the rebels, ought not to be measured by II
e same criticism that would be applied to such q
e act IN time of peace" If we are justified in a
ls suming this writer to be not unfav0rable spec
,. men OF average Northern opinion it is clear th
1, ane american democracy is fast learning to max
Z present of its liberties to any government th
will find the means of gratifying its political pa
e sions.
t COLONIAL COTTON SUPPLY IN ENGLAN
It ITO the Editor Of the London Post.l
l. 1t has been stated in several newspapers tn
% 10000 "baes' of cotton have been received fro
T. tifty-eght new or revived sources. These stat
l. ments are erroneous.
E bale OF cation is about four hundred poup
weight, but large proportion of the social,
IT bales are only small sample bags, containing fs
y pounds OF cotton OF the remainder, Is, ,924 bal
a are from Iuacorin, the shipping port for the I'll
e neVeiiy dstrict; and, inasmuch as TinneveIIy CO
N ton has been well known to the London and Live
!. pool cotton merchants during many years. it
II false to describe that district as new source
l. supply. Down to the present time, notwithstan