, 1865-06-16

pnaL EXTRAORDINARY measure, C10 eueCG Oh
which will one day be felt on the price
of labour throughout the world, the
Homestead Law. AS for slavery, the
President will make no terms with it
whatever, will evidently root it out abso-
lutely and finally, making it a condition
of peace that the States shall abandon
the right to re-establish the system, and
granting, so far as we gather, no manner
of compensation. Indeed it is not hard
to trace in these speeches q distinct plan
for the completion Of the work still re-
naming to be done, to which the Presi-
dent, who is palpably infexibIe except
on details, will in the main adhere. This
plan is to secure two changes in the ma
tional constitution, the first making slave
ry for ever illegal and a~bolishing d%istinc-
tons of colour, the second declaring the
Union a Republic one and indiyislble. In
every State as it is subdued by the troops
a convention will be called 10 insert nm
conditional freedom to all men among
the clauses of the State constitution, and
then the Confscation Act will be worked
SO as TO allow of the subdivision of the
larger plantations among the poor whites
and coloured men. Society will thus,
he believes, be revolutionized from the
foundation, and, as he himself says in one
place to which we have lost our reference,
q middle class will be created which can
have no interest save In freedom of la
bour. Slavery in fact instead of dying
easily, as it, might under Mr.. Lincoln,
will be stamped into powder by a strong
man who hold that the popular will IS
the ultimate Constitution, and who, with
his Red tendencies and over frank per-
sonal ways, is sure to have at his back
the irres stible physical power of the
mass. The terrible crime Of Wilkes Booth
will work "a terrible retribution upon that
system of society for which, as appears
from his reccntly-publiShed letter, 1t was
perpetrated. For the rest, it seems clear
that Mr.. Johnson, while likely to be
haughtily American in his foreign policy,
has, like Mr.. Lincoln, at heart a liking for
England, his strong speech to Sir +.
Bruce, in which he declared the amlty OF
the two countries essential TO civilian
ton, being little more than q repetition
of his speech of January, when still only
Governor Of Tennessee. He then made
an admission not frequent with American
politicians, that the British Government
was in its essence popular, 'that the
fresh infusion of popular ideas kept 1t
continually vigorous and hourishing. So
long as the popular voice was heard, and
the popular influence felt in her councils,
SO long would England continue to be
potent and respected among the nations"
His tone was full of friendliness, as full
as the really remarkable saying in which,
addressing Sir Frederick Bruce, he recog-
nized the Statesmen and the Canadians
as branches of the same ''American peo-
ple," though swayed by two Govern
ments, who in their joint responsibility
ought to find o reason for an enduring
peace.
We have carefully avoided in drawing
mp this sketch the expression of any con-
v~ictions as to the merits Of the policy
now most probable. Our object has been
simply to show that the Union, with that
bewildering good fortune which seems to
triumph over obstacles deliberately placed
In the path of a sound choice, has gained
in this "accident of an accident" a Pre-
sident who is competent not only to rule,
but TO rule in revolutionary times. We