New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-01-24

currence. The lying orscles Of treason cannon
now revive the practice Of the Mosaic age,
though seeking to do so against the very people
among whom they live and move. Their treas
enable utterances may poison some minds, ana
brighten timld ones from their propriety. Bl''
the nations Of modern times cannot be exter.
minated. Glasses may be-the French ariStoc-
racy persisted in the first Revolution, and, like
all other pershing aristocracies it died hard.
Our own SlavehOlding aristOcracy dies with the
same bloody obstnacy. The class may perish,
but the people will survive. As France came
forth from her sanguinary struggle and devel-
oped an energy that astonished the world, so it
must be the case with us.
But the havoc of war is undeniable. Yet,
great as has been the waste of life in this it
dwindles into small proportions when compared
with the slaughter of former contests. Napo.
leon and the Revolution sacrificed 10000, 600
Of men. The scourge of Asia. Jenghis Khan,
massacred 300, coo in the capture Of province,
and during reign of twenty-seven years de-
stroyed 100000 per annum. or the famous
host of Xerxes, numbering 5000 600, only
8. 900 ESCAPED destruction. At Austerlitz, so, 600
fell; at Borodno 10000, aud as many ut
Waterloo. Our war has given occasion for no
long siegcs. yet in that Of Paris 10000 people
persisted from hunger alone. European history
is full of shocking pictures Of the horrors sui
fered in belesguered cities, from all which the
war for the Union has been free. Famine de-
stroyed more lives when Titus was besieging
Jerusalem than this contest can possibly re-
auire. There is less sacrifice of life in modern
than in ancient warfare.
Ii 10 true that there have been resemblance:
to determination, even in modern experience.
The heart of Europe was so devastated by the
war of 1856, that twenty contiguous villages
were left without q single man or beast.
Large tracts were converted into sOlitudes, SO
that u traveller would find no living creature
in o days ride. Such of the population as had
not persisted had been driven by starvation
from their homes. The Thirty Years War of
the seventeenth century came nearer to war
of determination than any contest of modern
times. The population of Germany was re-
duced from II, 600, 900 TO 5000, 900, while that
Of Wirtemburg sunk from 500,0 600 to $4,000.
In some districts, the population actually died
out, so that over vast tracts Of fertile country,
Astounding in hishly-culliyated farms, there
grew up immense forests. But to accomplish
this desolation, it required thirty years of I'M
interrupted carnage The North exhibits no
indication Of such a catastrophe as this. But
can a. much be said for the South Agricul-
ture and manufactures are already banished
from many portions Of Virginia. In Msss-
sippi and Louisiana, tho desolatiOn is even more
frightful. There is weeping in every home
stead over slaughtered fathers and sons. or
property, almost every description, except the
soil, has taken wings aud flown away. Desti-
tuition exists everywhere, aud increases in
intensity as the war continues. rhe pretenso
OF Northern determination ia q tratOrous one.
In a struggle 10 avoid that calamity, it is the
South that must first 60 to tho wall.