26 OCTOBER 1861, Page 2

The American news of the week presents but two features

of in- terest. The West is evidently determined not to abandon Fremont, and the Government has given up the idea of removing him until defeat has destroyed his popularity, or victory placed him beyond their power. This decided defeat is not favourable to our idea of American discipline, but it proves that the Free-soil sentiment is earnest and strong in the West. The second point was the speech delivered by Senator Sumner to the people of Massachusetts on the 1st of October. Mr. Sumner is objectionably violent, but he is seldom more than a step or two in advance of Massachusetts opinion, and he advocated dearly and boldly emancipation by force. The most striking sentences were warmly applauded, though the resolu- tions were in a very different key. American feeling on slavery seems now to have reached this point : restriction before abolition, abolition before defeat.