The Sun. — 1862-10-24 (London, England)

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 24, 1862.  support cut from under him. Precisely this fact, however, in the case of those who think so, is one of the strongest reasons why Europe should hesitate. It is hardly fair for the Old World thus to take sides, practically, with one party in the New. Sir G. C. LEWIS must be right, internationally, when he says, Let one side give in, or become manifestly unequal to the continuance of the contest, before we, as third parties, practically award to either the theto Sdoe tl ahr ew thatould tbhee palm of success.Twoereecoongndoiseit: however, so far as South has won.  Supposing, then, which we think likely, that European recognition would speedily put an end to the present bloodshed, we incline to the opinion of the Secretary for War, that it would do so at the expense of international justice. And if so, not being Jesuits, we must not admit that the end would justify the means. But we must confess that we have a yet weightier reason now for objecting to recognition. We were more favourably inclined towards it before the PRESIDENT'S late proclamation than we now are. Defective as that proclamation is in point of principle, wanting as it does all the nobler inspiration, content as it is to rest its justification on its military expediency, it nevertheless inaugurates a new era in the war. We must be fair to Mr. LINCOLN and his party. We may think them wrong; CHARLES SUMNER, with many other distinguished Americans, think them wrong; still they adhere strongly to their opinion, that they ought not to diverge from the constitution in regard to slavery, further than they are driven by the imperative necessities of War. With Mr. SUMNER we think this " peculiar tenderness, whenever slavery is in question," a great folly, and something worse. With him we, too, should exclaim, "I am tired and disgusted at hearing the constitution perpetually invoked for slavery." Property, life, personal liberty, are all dealt with unconstitutionally, because the supreme law of national safety overrides in the emergency the terms of the constitution ; why spare from like dealing, the most unjustifiable property of all ? However, at last the PRESIDENT and his friends see that with their policy of the Union as their Alpha and Omega, slavery must be touched. Slavery began secession—it has nursed secession—it has maintained Southern families at home, while the liberated whites were making forays into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Slavery has proved itself, in fact, the sinews of Southern war; and the proclamation is become a necessity to hamstring those sinews.  the dead, and often mutilated bodies of infants just newly born. The metropolis is perpetually literred with these miserable evidences, first of all, of profligacy, and afterwards of deliberate homicide. In the majority of instances, no doubt, of seduction, and in every instance of cold-blooded murder. Mr. DUNCOMBE'S paper having been moved for long ago, duly ordered, and eventually published—is nothing, more to be done ? Since then, as we have said, as we am perpetually observing, as the authoritative assurance of the principal coroner of the county most conclusively informs us, there is a regular and alarming increase of this woeful, and pitiless, and devilish crime of infanticide. Child murder being one of the most inhuman of all kinds of murder, at once from the innocence of the victim and its utter helplessness ! Can nothing further be done, if only in the way of an attempt to ensure a diminution of the number of infanticides. There are several things obviously that might be attempted to this end. Are none of them worth even a temporary trial ? Our boasted system of detective police might be challenged to give the public fresh evidence of its utility, by the devotion of a large proportion of the energy, of the skill, sagacity, and experience supposed to belong to it, to the investigation of the evil sources of this plague-spot in the capital, to the tracing out of this particular kind of guilt, and the consequent diminution of the number of instances which but for some such alarm would be perpetrated. The detectives should be put in this matter upon their mettle. They should" be called upon, if only in vindication of their high repute (a repute jeopardised in a great measure by the constant recurrence of a crime so dreadful and so flagrant in its character) they should be called upon, in vindication of their once high but diminishing reputation, to co-operate with the regular body of police, in endeavouring to trace out some of the perpetra, tors of this constantly recurring crime of infanticide.