The Sun. — 1865-05-27 (London, England)

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1865.  The news of the capture of President DAVIS will probably be heard with deep regret by all parties in this country. Those who have watched the Southern fortunes with interest, who have sympathised in their struggle for independence, and have admired the courage and patriotism of their leaders, will naturally be deeply grieved that the highminded and statesmanlike President, who, in spite of all risks and aggravations, governed his people in strict accordance with constitutional law, should have fallen into the hands of his implacable enemies. The friends of the North, on the other hand, who are rejoicing in the triumph of the Federals, and anticipating the speedy reconstruction of the Union, can hardly fail to regret that so awkward an opportwaity should have been given to JOHNSON and his advisers for the fulfilment of their threats. No Englishman, whatever his political opinions are, seecanishto b they the Government of the United States stained the judicial murder of its most distinguished adversary. Americans, carried away by the vehement passions of the hour, and by that political excitement to which they are always too prone, may, indeed, become reckless enough to talk of the gallows and the scaffold as the fit termination for the career of a man who has reigned over a wider territory and a larger population than many European Kings . and that, too, at a time of unprecedented danger and trial. If it be an arduous task to govern a great nation in time of war, whenthewrhionlge machinery of Government is in good wok order, the undertaking is certainly more formidable in its nature when the political system has to be established, and the. difficulties and dangers attending the internal administration of a new kingdom are joined to the outward changes and perils of an old one. All these embarrassments were met and conquered by the resolute PRESIDENT of the Confederacy. As one of the most eminent of our own statesmen has said, " JEFFERSON Davis made the South a nation." It was no petty rebellion of a disaffected party ; it was no  mere local jealous or angry political feelings that formed the subject of dispute. Under his guidance it became the resistance of a whole people to a Government that was obnoxious to them—a war founded on the same principle, if attended with a different result, that dictated the Declaration of Independence. A man who, during four years of a mighty war, could govern a nation numbered by millions by the aid of civil authority, and according to constitutional law, cannot be stigmatised as a mere mischievous demagogue and rebel. Whatever charge may be brought against him by the active imaginations of Messrs. JOHNSON and SEWARD, or by whatever opprobrious epithets they may choose to designate his conduct, to Europeans at least he will never be otherwise than the great leader of a great people, and no allegations of conspiracy or denunciations of treason can convert him from a President into an assassin and a rebel. If Northern animosity is allowed so far to disgrace itself as to take the life of JEFFERSON DAVIS, it will in this country at least be regarded, not as the punishment of a traitor, but as cruel and cowardly vengeance on an unarmed foe ; vengeance for a fair and open fight, in which the Southern President never suffered himself to be betrayed into acts unworthy of his position. Moderate and prudent men in the North, who have the real interests of their country at heart, are doubtless very sorry for the capture of