26 JANUARY 1861, Page 1

The quiet which has fled from Europe has not taken

refuge in Ame,ica. The intelligence from the United States, with one or two cheering items, on the whole increases the probability of im- mediate civil war. Five States have now formally seceded, 'bald two more are in open conflict with the Federal Government. Seutli Carolina, indeed, may be said to be already at war, or in rebellion, the phrase varying with the sympathies of the obser- ver. She has driven a federal vessel, carrying federal troops to a federal fortress, out of the harbour by a cannonade. If this be not war, the rules of international law must be gieatly modi- fied. The President, though determined to reinforce Fort Stuaip- tir, if he should " destroy Charleston," still speaks of peace, but the North is slowly rousing itself to war. Pennsylvania and New York have voted troops and money to " enforce the laws," and the North almost unanimously denies the right of any State to secede. The masses also are beginning to move ; and, if the matter is once taken out of the hands of the State Legislatures, the advocates of moderation will be powerless. It is vain to predict ; but the events reported this week have all a clear ten- dency to civil war. Every compromise yet suggested has been rejected ; and the Republicans express more and more distinctly their determination not to remodel the Constitution—that is, to accept no compromise whatsoever. The actual point of conflict, if it is to come, will probably be Washington, which both par- ties claim as their own—the South as situate in a Slave State, the North as the federal capital. As yet, there are only ru- mours of slave insurrections ; but, in two States at least, extra precautions have been adopted to guard against that contingency.