The London Times On The Amercan Difficulties

The Presiden t's inaugural speech has aken up grounds strictiy constitutionIn it tho President confines and ntrenches himself buhind the express jowers which the constitution has givm him, and refuses to recognize any ther. lie is capable of considerable ights of fancy, bui cannot emancípate ïimself from tbe shackles of a merely egal mind. Helooks intohia bond, and ie finds that he is bound to execute the aw in all parts of the Union and to jreserve the Federal properly, and he ntends to execute the law and preserve ie Federal proporty accordingly. - What the eonsequence of perforining ïese aota may be it is not for him to onsider ; lus business is to execute the aw; let those who make the law an wer for the rest. Mr. Buchanan took much the same iew oí his functions, but ho extracted 'rom that view the inferenee that he was bound to do notbing ; while Mr. jincoln considera that he is bound to o exactly the thing which is sure to roduce the war which he conceivcs it ;o be beyond his power to declare, íor is it bis discretion alone which the President believes to be circumscribed )y the constitution. Not only does he onceive himself preven'-ed from doing nything beyond its otrict preeepts, but ie does not feel that he is allowed to cnow of anything unconstitutional. He inowa that his fellovv-countrymen are isaatisfied, but he is forbidden to knovv [iat seven States are in flagrant rebelion There is a Presidential as well as a judicial knowledge, and as courts of law are not allowed to know many things which are perfectly notorious to the rest of the world, so it is with Presidents, part of whose duty it is to have purer eyes than to behold anything that savors of rebellion. We see that this way of looking at the question finds favor in the eyes oí the purely repubhcan journals, while the South appears to consider it, as far as we can judge from their organs in New York, as the flinging down the glove, which it will not hesitate a momont to take up. Had Mr. Lincoln been President at the time secession was nrst threat ened, an essay on tha constitution and a few words of fñendly persuasión might have been aa appropriate way of dealing with the bubject. But it is childish, as well as dangerous, thus studioualy to ignore the real state of ;he case, and to seek by constitutional reasouings to influonce men who have placed themselves out oí the pale of the constitution altogether. There is no safer raaxim in human affairs than care;ully to examine one's own position and Lhat of one's antagonists before announcing any resolution, and to base that resolution on actual and real, not on imaginary or cooventional, considertions. With the real stato of America the Federal conatitution has most unfortunately very little to do. The President might almost us well go back to the social contracta of Rousseau. The question is not judicial, but politica!,- not Jone oí the laws and powera, but fof reason and expediency. We believe that, instead of ignoring tho sooession oí tbe South and dctormining to treat it as non avenu, the Presideut ought to recognize it as reality. We do not say that he ought to recognize the right to socede, whioh clearly does not exist, any more than the right to rebel against ttie English Crown cluimed by tho Amurican colonies existed as a part of the English constitution. We do not say thut the Pre&ideat is bound to treat as legal the Confederacy whioh has risen up ia opposition to his own ; but what we maintaia is, that, as a wise man, a patriotic mugistrato and a good eitizen, he is rendarías an evil service to his country if he does not deal with things as they are, instead of as they ought to be. YVhen civil war is imminent as it appears to be at this moment in America it is well lo ad'uit the only possible alternativo, that ol hearing wliat tenns the South is prepared to propose in order to avert so dreadful a calamity. The last alternativo always remains, and tho fratricida] sword will not have lost its edge by remaining in the sheath a fow weeks longer. But the course adoptod, fair asit may sound, leaves no hope or possibility of reconciliation. The South cannot ' be heard, because it cannot be rccognized ; and acts which must lead to civil war are to be done ralbar than admit thattkings which render civil war possible have aetually occurred. Such a coure of proceeding must be recoived by the South as a direct challongo to give effect in action to its menaces and boastings,and glad indeed shall we be to finú the challenge has not been eagerly accepted. It is understood to be the wish ol' the leaders of Suth Carolina, and probably of several other seceding States, to bring matters aa speótlily as possibly to a warlike issue. The leaders havo gone toe far to retreat, and naturally wish to commit others as deeply as themgelves. Tho border States are understood to be wavering, and it is thought, and proba bly with much justíce, that a bold anc emisivo iiiiicy wiil decide them. Ttio Tect may indeed, bo precisoly tho on,rary oí" whut is oxpocted, and the vioencu of tho South may disgust the order States, but írom the moment iat blood has begua to flow there will )e but little room for temporizing or íesitation. Everything will be set on single cast, and the dice are loaded gaiust the Federal government by onsiderations grovvingout of the un'illingness of tho border States to icriñ'üe the i o ter nal slave trade. Uher sueh circumstances it would seem ,o be tbs wisest pohcy to delay by any egitimate meana the imminent calainity í civil war, and the only moans that iresent tbemeelvei are negotia'.ion. - low l'utile all attempta at recunciliaon have been is now apparent. The 'eaoe Conference institutor! by Virinia has ended, in a ridiculoua fuüure, epudiated by all partius. The cotníitteeot thirty-throo bas endud in the doption by Oongress of an amundinent f tho coDStitutioD in favor of abstainng frorn all interferonee with slavery, 'hich, evidontly, has not tho slightest effect ou any one. The great question íq disputo relating to the Tcrritories are left without any attenapt at settlement. The tarifí has been docided in a manner to render the return oí the seoeding States almost imposible, and the retection of the border States exceedingly difficult. The South seceded from an Union where native manufaoturoa aro by an advantage taken of the absence oí the southera Kepresentatives, defended by somothing like a jrohibition, the wholo woight of which nust í'allupon the planting and agriculural States? It id diíficult to believe iat such a ra unión can take placa; it s difficult to bu.ievu that it is even esired. The South hus sbovríi no 8gn f any wish to return on any tenns íto the Confederacy it has left; and the ííorth has employed the short interval of secebsion to raise up a new barrier against reunión in the shape of an ilhberal tariti, all the benefits of which will be on one siJe, and all the bardana on the other. The Bouth otters to the border States a market for their slaves and a law against the re establishment OÍ the slave trade, which may be considered as a protection of the human commodity in which they deal. The North reguiras them to contribüte to its manufactures and tax themselves for the benefit of New England and Penn8ylvania. The struggle may bo a painiul oñe, but we fear that it will be decided rather by interest than by sympathy, and that Mr. Lincoln's constitutional ltctures will avail little against the consideratiana suggested to the border States by the high price of manufactures and a good market for slaves. 1 1 1 1 1