The Sun. — London, England, 1863-09-03 00:00:00

A Messltge from America to Europe. The follo•iving " circular" has been addressed by the Government at Washington to the United States Cons ale in Europe : " Departraent of State, Washington, Aug. 12. " Sir,—Whenever the United States have complained of the premature decrees of Great Britain and France, which accorded the character of a belligerent to the insurgents, the statesmen of those countries have amwored. that from the first they agreed in opinion that the efforts of the Go vernment to maintain the Union, and preserve the integrity of the republic, could not be successful. With a view to correct this prejudgment of so vital a question I addressed a circular letter to the representatives of the United States in foreign countries on the 14th of April, 1862, in which I reviewed the operations of the war on sea and land, ana presented the results which had attend ed it down to that period. The prejudice, which I then ati empted to remove, still remains, and it constitutes the bai is of all that is de signedly or undesignedly injurious to this country in the policy of foreign nations. The insurger is have been enabled to protract their resistance by means .of sympathy and aid they Lave received from abroad, and t] le expectation of fur ther and more effective foreign assist ice is now their chief resource. A new effort, therefore, to , correct th it prejudice is demanded, equally by a prudent co ncern for our foreign relations, and by the paramount interests of peace and hu manity at home. •‘ In the battles of August, 1 62, Vie Union forces suf fered some severe and appalling revers 3s. But they resulted in the reunion of the army which hai 1 been called in from the peninsula below Richmond with. the army which had its position between that strongly for+a Lied seat of the insur rection and this capital. The wisdom i of this reunion was soon to be vindicated. The insurgent :army, flushed with its recant successes, and expecting that a sympathetic interest of slavery would produce an uprising of the people of Mary land in its favour, for the first Limo crossed the Potomac river. Harper's Ferry, with many prisoners, fell into its hands, rather through accidents in .preparing its defence than because it was indefensible. Nevt gthcless, the expecta tion of recruits signally failed. General sl'Clellan, com manding the now consolidated forces of the Army of the Potomac, was reinforced by fresh levies from Pennsylvania and by detachments called in from neighbouring forts. He drove the insurgents from their positions at South Mountain and Crampton's Gap, About the middle of September the two opposing armies confronted each. other at Sharpsburg, and a pitched battle was fought on the banks of the Antie tam and Potomac. It was well sustained on both sides. Men of one race and training directed the armies, whose rank and file were substantially of one blood, and even nearly equal in numbers. The arrogant assumption of superior valour and heroism which the insurgents had brought into the contest, and had cherished throughout i it tis s earl n y t stages, perished on that sanguinary field. The vi u o rge f m ar a my, shattered in the conflict, abandoned the in n o . ry land, and sought refuge and opportunity to recover its wasted strength in Virginia behind its accustomed barrier, the Potomac. " While Lee was thus attempting Maryland, the equally bold and alarming enterprise of carrying the war through Kentucky into Ohio was assigned to Bragg, who was in command of the insurgent army on the southern border of Tennessee. He, with great rapidity, moved from Chatta nooga, turned the left flank of General Buell, and appeal ing for reinforcements to the slavery-inspired sentiments which existed in Kentucky and Tennessee, directed his forces against Louisville and Cincinnati. An uprising of the farmers of Ohio confronted and turned away the devasta tion from the latter city. General Buell followed the main column of invasion, outmarched it on the way to Louisville, and obliged it to take a direction eastward. The two in surgent columns, being united at Perryville, were attacked by General Buell. The battle, like all our contests, was obstinate and bloody. Bragg, after severe losses, retreated through a comparatively barren, region and Buell was obliged to abandon the pursuit by the complete exhaustion of all the sources of supply. The insurgent commander crossed the Cumberland Mountains, and then, marching westward, took up a position at Murfreesborough, fortified there, and proceeded to recruit his wasted forces. " Van Dorn and Price were at the same period in com mand of very considerable forces in Mississippi and Alabama, and to them was assigned the third part in the grand invasion of the loyal States which the cabal at Richmond had decreed, This was an attempt, as they called it, to deliver, but, in fact, to subjugate Western Tennessee and Kentucky. General Rosecrans received the assault of those portions of the in aurgent forces at Corinth, defeated them with great slaughter and drove them backward, so that they neither reached nor approached the region which they were appointed to invade. General Rosecrans, called to succeed General Buell in command of the army of the Cumberland, then en tered Nashville, which the insurgents had before invested ire carrying out their general scheme of invasion. He raised the siege and prepared for offensive action. In the last days of the year he issued from Nashville, and delivered a sari guinary battle at Stone River, which gave him possession of Murfreesborough; Bragg retreated to Shelbyville and Tullahoma, and there again rested and intrenched. Along period of needed rest was now employed by the respective parties in increasing the strength and efficiency of their armies, but this repose was broken by frequent skirmishes and by cavalry expeditions, which penetrated hostile regions sometimes hundreds of miles, and effected breaches of mili tary connections and a destruction of military stores upon an extensive scale, while they kept up the spirit of the troops and hardened them for more general and severe conflicts. " Vicksburg then remained in the hands of the insur gents, the principal key to the navigation of the Mississippi river—a navigation which was confessed on all sides to be absolutely essential to the United States, and when re opened by them, fatal to the insurrection. The duty of wresting that key from the insurgents had been devolved on the navy, with the aid of a considerable land force, then encamped on the west bank of the Mississippi river. But new and unforeseen difficulties continually befitted the enterprise, and seemed to render it impossible. General Grant, who was at the head of the department and of the army of the Tennessee, at length assumed the active com mand of the troops investing the stronghold, and these were adequately reinforced. The naval squadron on the Missis sippi, under command of Rear-Admiral Porter, was also steadily increased until more than 100 armed vessels were employed upon the river, including many iron-clad gunboats of great power, Part of the Gulf squadron, under Admiral Ferragut, gallantly running the batteries of Port Hudson under a fierce fire, co-operated with the river fleets. Labo rious and persevering attempts were made to open an arti ficial channel for the river opposite Vicksburg, as had been done with such signal success at Island No. 10. But the various canals, projected and executed, failed, and only a few small steamers of no considerable power were, thus en abled to pass the city. Combined land and naval expedi tions were also sent forth, which, with infinite pains and endurance, attempted to turn the enemy's works by navi gating the various bayous and sluggish rivers, whose intri cate network forms so singular a feature of the military topography of the hanks of the Mississippi. All these attempta having failed from physical obstacles found to be insur mountable, Gen. Grant and Admiral Porter at last put afloat armed steamers and steam transports, which ran through the fires of the long line of shore batteries which the insur gents had erected at Vicksburg and its (grief supports,War renton and Grand Gulf. At the same time the land forces moved down the right bank of the riv er to a point below Grand Gulf, where they crossed in the steamers which had effected so dangerous a passage. The batteries of Grand Gulf for several hours resisted a bombardment by the gunboats at short range, but they fell into the hands of the admiral as soon as Gen. Grant's forces appeared behind them. Gen. Grant, through a series of brilliant manoeuvres, with marches interrupted by desperate battles day atter day, suc ceeded in dividing and separating the insurgent forces. Ho then attacked the chief auxiliary column under Johnston , and Havin g it out of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. destroyed the railroad bridges and military stores there, Gen, Grant turned at once to the west, Numerous comba's ensued,in all of which the loyal arm were success ful. Loring, witha considerable insurgent force was driven off towards the south-east, while Pemberton, after a loss of ti 60 pieces of artillery within the fortified dmany prisoners, regained his shel ternow reduced to between lines of Vicksburg, with an army 30, 000 and 4'1,000 men. During these movements the heavy batteries of the insurgents which were established nena important mouth of the Y a zoo River, and which constituted a mportant part of the defensive system of Vicksbur g , were taken and razed by Rear- A d m i r al Porter, who thereupon sent a detachment of his fleet up that i mportant tributary o f th e Mi ss i ss i pp i , a nd effectually destroyed thei ninumanerdous vessels and s t ore s which were found w General Grant , durin g these brilliant its banks. b a d necessarily operated by a niovabient operations, column. He now re-established his communications with the river fleets above as well as below Vicksburg, invested the town, and i g norant of the numb ers enclosed withi n its defence s , n' at tempted an assault. Though bravely and vigorously made it was nevertheless unsuccessful. Re thereupon sat down before the fortifications, to reduce them by the less bloody but sure methods of siege. Pemberton made a gallant de. fence, hoping for relief from Johnston. Strenuous efforts were made by the chicle at ilichrnond to enable Johnston to render that ft-:,ist:znce. They dotaclie'i and sent him troops from Bragg's army on the frontier of Met:ma, and from Beaurecard's command from South Caroliml, Kid in doing this they endangered both of those mulles. All the capable free men ot Itlissii•sippi were called to the rescue of the ca pital of their State, and to save the stronghold ot the trea sonable Confederacy which was besieged within their Hittite. Moreover, the besieged post was in the very centre of the slave population ot that Confederacy, and the President's proclamation of freedom would be sounded in their hearing if the stronghold should fall—but the effort required was too great for the demoralised and exhausted condition of the insurgents. Johnston did not arrive to raise the siege, nor did success attend any o f t h e attempts f rom w i t hi n t o break theskilfully drawn lines of General Grant. On the 6th of July General Pemberton laid down his arms and surrenders'l the post, with 3 0000 men, 200 pieces of artil lery, 70,000 small arms, and ammunition sufficient for a six years' deience. This capture was as remarkable as the fatuous one made by N2peloon at Ulm, " Oa the rattle day au insurgent attack upon General Prentice, at Helena, situated on the right tank of the Mis sissippi, in the State of Arkansas, was repulsed with the loss of many prisoners on the part of the assailants, A's if the anniversary so identified with the nation's hopes was appointed to be peculiarly eventful, Lee, who had, again entered Maryland, and passing through the S cate had approached the Susquehannah, threatening F.arrisburg, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, fell. back, after Pitched battles continued for three days at Gettysburg, and resumed his retreat, with an army even 'worm shattered than before, to his accustomed position on the Rappahan nock. " On the Bth of July the insurgent gareison at Port Hud son, 6,000 strong, after enduring a long siege with the ut most courage, surrendered uncenrditi onally to Gen. Banks; and thus the United States recovered from the insurgents the last of the numerous posts by which for more than two years they had effectually destroyed the navigation of the Mississippi. This great river, which in time of peace con tributes relatively as much aawarcis,a supply of the increased wants of mankind as the Nile did to those weirs in the time of the Roman Empire, is now again opened to the inland commerce of the country. Steamers descend the river and its tributaries from the navigable floods to the Gulf of Mexico. It is not to be doubted that the insurgent losses in, these operations cn the Mississippi amount to 50,000 men and 300 pieces of artillery, a large portion of which were of heavy calibre. Johnstane's army, which at the time of the surrender was advancing to threaten the besiegers, at once fell back to Jackson, and it was again driven from that capital by a detachment which Gen. Grant had committed to the command of Gen. Sh-rman. In retiring, Johnstone fired many buildings filled with munitions of war, and abandoned a large quantity of railroad locomotives and cars, which had been detained at that place by reason of the railroads north, south, east, and west of Jackson having been previously cut by the Government forces. " General Sherman now desisted fr om the pursuit of Johnstone and returned to Vicksburg , where a portion of , the army is enjoying repose, not mo re necessary than ev!l earned, while others are engaged in expelling from the reported banks Mis sissippiandrerforvoinmgthbeannede p bands u of o t n h e insurge steamers. who rs. infest l tis passing that Johnstone with the tro o p s at his disposal, now said s u e its to number 25,000, has fallen back to Meridian, on the eastern border of Mississippi, 120 miles east of Vicksburg, so that the State whose misguided people were among the earliest and most intemperate abettors of the insurrection is virtually abandoned by its military agents. " Iu Louisiana Gen. Banks succeeded Gen. Butler. After spending some months in organising the department and disciplining the new levies which constituted its force, Gen. Banks made a rapid and successful series of marches and contests, in which he drove the insurgents out of the Atta kapas and Teehe regions, well known as the richest por tions of that very productive State, captured Alexandria and Donaldsonville, the seats of its fugitive seditious execu tive and legislative authorities, crossed the Mississippi at Bayou Sara, and there receiving an additional column which was ascending from Baton Rouge, invested Port Hudson, which, excluding Vicksburg, was th e on l y rema i n i ng strong hold of the insurrection on the great river, " It will be remembered that on the 22d day of Sep tember, 1862, the President issued a proclamation requiring the in surgents to lay down their arms and return to their allegi ance, under the penalty that, in all the districts where the insurrection should be still maintained with the support of the people, he would on the let January then next proclaim as a military measure the freedom of the slaves. The warn ing was generally rejected and defied, but the proclamation which it heralded was:duly issued. As the national armies advanced into the insurrectionary territories, slaves in con siderable numbers accepted their freedom, and came under the protection of the national flag. Amid the great prejudice and many embarrassments which attended a measure so new and so divergent from the political habits of the country, freedmen with commendable alacrity enlisted in the Federal army. There was in some quarters a painful inquiry about their moral capacity for service. That uncer tainty was brought to a sudden end in the siege of P o rt Hudson. The newly-raised negro regiments exhibited all necessary valour and devotion in the military assaults which were made, with desperate courage, and not without fearful loss, by Gen. Banks, This protracted operation engaged nearly all Gen. Bank's available forces, While it was going on insurgent troops which were called up from Texas re occupied much of the south-western portion of Louisiana which he had before reclaimed. The surrender of Port Hudson, however, set his army at liberty, and he has already made considerable progress in restoring the national au thority thus temporarily displaced. "The complete occupation of the Mississippi by the na tional forces has effectually divided the insurrecticnary region into two parts, and among the important features of this division, one which is of the highest practical signi ficance is that the field of military operations of the insur rection is chiefly on the eastern side of the river, while its supplies have been mainly drawn from the prairies of Ar kansas and Texas, which stretch away from the western shore. These prairies can no longer supply the insurgents with cattle for sustenance and use in the field ; and, on the other hand, arms, ordnance, and ammunition can no longer be sent from the eastern manufactories and deposits to forces employed or in garrison in the west. The value of the acquisition of the Mississippi in this respect was illus trated only a few days since in the capture by General Grant, near Natchez, of 5,000 beeves and 2,000 mules which had crossed to the eastern bank, and at the same time many hundred thousands of cartridges and other stores which had just been landed at the wesiern end of the same ferry, "A vigorous blockade has been maintained at Charleston ; and although fast steamers, of light draught and painted with obscure colours, occasionally succeed in slipping through the blockading squadron in the morning and even ing twilight, many are destroyed and more are captured. An attack by the fleet made on the 7th day of April last upon the forts and batteries which defend the harbour failed because the rope obstructions in the channel fouled the screws of the iron-clads, and compelled them to retire after passing through the fire of the batteries. Those vessels bore the fire of the forts, although some defects of construction were revealed by the injuries they received. The crews passed through an unexampled cannonade with singular impunity. Not one life was lost on board of a Monitor. The defects disclosed have been remedied, and an attack is now in progress, with good prospect of ultimate success, having for its object the reduction of the forts in the harbour by combined sea and land forces. Wo occupy more than half of Morris's Island with land forces, which, aided by batteries afloat and batteries ashore, are pushing siege works up to Fort Wagner, a strong earthwork which has been twice assaulted with great gallantry, but without suc cess. On the 17th of June the Atalanta, which was regarded by the insurgents as their most formidable iron-clad ves sel, left Savannah, and came down the Wilmington river. The national iron-clads Weehawken, Capt. John Rogers,and Nahant, Commander J. Downs, were in readiness to meet her. At 451 the Atalanta fired a rifle shot across the stern of the Weehawken, which struck near the Nahant. At 5 15 the Weehawken, at a range of 300 yards, opened upon the Atalanta, which had then grounded. The Weehawken fired five shots, four of which took effect on the Atalanta. She surrendered at 5 50. " Our lines have not changed in North Carolina. All attempts of th e i nsurgen t s t o recapture the towns from w hi c h storesi inflicted e havebeen destroyed te s y had be en expe ll e d have been repulsed. Much damage h h a mili tbeenary ntd their ommun b i y ca e t x io p n ed s, it a io n n d s v i a n i t u n a t b h l e e interior. North Carolina shows some symptoms of disaffec tion towards the • insurgent league. Similar indications are exhibited in Missis • sippi• , Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. " The situation on the York and James • rivers has re mained unchanged since the withdrawal of tha army of Gen. M'Clellati from the P e t' V i by the insurgent s t o retake I nsula a year ago. Attempts been defeated, but th e garrisanilhameburg and S u ff o lk h a ve at the latter place has been withdrawn for purely military reasons to a more defensible line. ( 6 I now return to the Army of the Potomac left resting and refitting after p u tti ng an end , which was in surgent invasion of Maryland. Gen. m,eie tioi all the first recrossed the Potomac and entered Virginia in N ovemberad the invading forces under Leo to fall backward tonobliged Gordons ville, south cf the Rappahannock. When th e Army f P o t oma c reached 'Warrenton it was placed und er co o the command h m of General Burnsi de. Ile marched to Fa lmouth, hoping to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, an d to move et once upon Richmond. Delays.resulting from various causes, without fault of the General, permitted the insurgent s to occupy the heights of Fredericksburg; and when at length, in December, General Burnside crossed the Rappahannock, his assault upon Lee's well-fortified position failed. R e skilfully recrossed the river without loss. Gen. Hooker suc ceeded to the command. and it was not until the beginning of May that the condition of the river and roads permitted a renewal of offensive operations. The General crossed the Rappahannock and accepted a battle, which proved equally sanguinary to both parties, and successful to the army of the Potomac. The heighto of Fredericksburg were captured by Gen. Sedgwick's corps, but the whole army was com pelled to return to the north bank of the river. After this battle Lee, in the latter part of May and in June, withdrew his army from Gen. Hooker's front, and ascending the south bank of the Rapidan, towards the sources of the Rappahan nock, entered the Shenandoah Valley, and once more tempted the fortune of war by invading the loyal States. A severe cavalry engagement at Beverly Ford unmasked this movement. Th e arm y o f th e P o t omac b ro k e u p it s ca mps apetinnd reat-ched to the (tut:minter. • The militia of Maryland, slivania, and. New York flew to arms, and occupied Baltimore, Ilarrisburo- and the line of the • ousquehannah. The two armi, s _et at Getty s b urg , i n P enns yl van i a , an d erce m after a fierce contest of three days' duration, d an terrible slaughter on both sidee, the insurgents recoiled from the position held by Gm Meade, who had then been only f our days in comma n d o f the array the Potomac. On July 4, the day of the surrender of1•3:ioele jog through Charnber sburg andliaurg, Les retreated, pees gerto wn to where the proper dieposition to attackthestate him wr.s made by Gen. Meade. Deceived concernin, Meade, of the river, su ppo s ed to be unfordable, Gen. me re inforcements, del , yed the att ac k a day too hourly lon expecting in-urgents pertly by fording and p ar tl y by bridgesfloatieg t ''and the su cceeded iu withdraw in g a cross the river bynight, with their artillery and a great part of their baggage. Mucb, of this bag well as of the plunder which Lee h a d gage, as collected, was destroyed by cavalry, or throws out of the waggons to make room for the wounded whom Lee carried cif 'tern the battle• field. He had buried m tof his dead of the first day's conflict at Gettysburg. The remainder, together with these who fell on the second and tbied deys of the bea fie, he all, 4,500, were buried by the victorious army. Many thousand in surgents, wounded and captives, fell into the haads of General Meade. It is not doubted that the second unsuc cessful invasion cost the insurgents 40,000 men. Our own loss was severe, for the strife was obstinate and deadly. General Meade crossed the Pctomac. Lee retired again to Gordonsville, where he is now understood to be in front of our forces. " While the stirring events which have been related were occurring in the East and in the West, General Rosecrans advanced upon Bragg, who, with little fighting, hastily abandoned his fortified positions of Shelbyv ille and Julia homa, in Southern Tennessee. General Rosecrans took, and he yet holds them, while Bragg, with severe loss in a hurried retreat, has fallen back to Ch attanoo g a. It is un derstood that his army had been already much weakened by detachments sent from it to reinforce Johnstone, with a view to a raising g ent upon Chan " I must not overlook the operations of cavalry. General passage through the in conr ith ti e nn si: , g it e h o t f h \ e - ie n k i e o b v u em r Stoneman, insurgent country, from the Rappahannock to the York Cf llorsville, made a rapid and effective river, which will be remembered among the striking achieve ments of the war. While our forces were operating against Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Colonel Grierson, with a force of 1,500 men, left Corinth, on the northern border of the State of Mississippi, and made an expedition, in which he broke military communications, destroyed stores, and effected captures through the length and breadth of the State, and finally, without serious loss, joined the army of General banks, then engaged in the siege of Port Hudson. tt John Morgan, hitherto the most successful of the in surgent partisans, recently passsed through the lines of Gen. Burnside, accross the States of Tennessee and Kentucky - moving northward, and avoiding all large bodies of our troops, he reached th e Ohi o r i ver at B randenburg, b elow Louisville, and seiz e d t wo s t eam b oats, with which he crossed into Indiana. Thence proceeding rapidly eastward, subsist ing on the country and impressing horses as his own gave I out, he tr averse d a port i on of Indiana and nearly the whole breadth of Ohio, destroying railroad stations and bridges, and plundering the defenceless villages. The people rallied to arms under the call of their governors. Some of them occupied the most important points, while others barricaded the road or hung upon the rear of the intruders. Morgan found no disaffected citizens to recruit his wasted ranks, and when he reached the Ohio his force was prevented from crossing by the gunboats and driven backward with great slaughter. His force was between 2,600 and 4,000 horse, with several pieces of artillery. Only some 300 succeeded in recrossing the Ohio and escaping into the wilds of Western Virginia. Many perished in battles and skirmishes, and the remainder, including Morgan himself, his principal officers, and all his artillery, were finally captured by the national forces. An attempt has just been made by the in surgents to invade Eastern Kentucky, which probably was begun with a view to make a diversion in favour of Morgan's escape, but the forces, after penetrating as far as Lexington, have been routed by detachments from General Burnside's army and pursued, with the capture of many prisoners and all their artillery. " This review of the campaign shows that no great pro gress has been made by our arms in the East. The opposing forces there have been too equally matched to allow great advantages to accrue to either party ; while the necessity of covering the national capital in all contingencies has con stantly restrained our generals, and forbidden much bold and dangerous movements as usually conduct to brilliant mili tary success. In the West, however, the results have been more gratifying. 50,000 square miles have been reclaimed from the possession of the insurgents. On referring to the annexed map it will be seen that since the breaking out of the insurrection the Government has extended its former sway over and through a region of 200,000 square miles, an area as large as Austria or France, or the peninsula of Spain and Portugal. The insurgents lost in the various field and siege operations of the month of July which I have described one-third of their whole forces. " Jefferson Davis, the leader of the sedition, has since proclaimed a levy of all the able-bodied men within his mill- I tary lines. This, if carried into effect, will exhaust the whole I material of which soldiers can bo made. The insurgents estimate the total number of conscripts thus to be gained at from 70,000 to 95,000. Our armies now confront the insur gents at all points with superior numbers. A draught for 300,000 more is in progress to replace those whose terms of service have expired, and to fill up the wasted ranks of our veteran regiments; and the people, just so fast as the evi• dence of the necessity for that measure is received and di gested, submit with cheerfulness to the ascertained demands. Our armies everywhere are well equipped, abundantly fed, and supplied with all the means of transportation. The sol diers of two years' service bear themselves as veterans, and show great steadiness in every conflict. The men, accus tomed to the camp, and hardened by exercise and experi ence, make marches which would have been impossible in the beginning of the contest. The nation is becoming fami liar with aims, and easily tr.kes on the habits of war. Large voluntary enlistments continually augment our military force. All supplies are abundantly and cheaply purchased within our lines. The country shows no signs of exhaustion of money, material, or men. A requisition for 6,200 re mount horses was filled and the animals despatched from Washington all in four days. Our loan is purchased at par by our own citizens at the average rate of 1,200,000 Gold sells in cur market at 120 to 128, while in the insur rectionary region it commands 1,200 per cent. prem. " Every insurgent port is either blockaded, besieged, or occupied by the national forces. The field of the projected confederacy is divided by the Mississippi. All the fortifica tions on its banks are in our hands, and its flood is patrolled by the Federal fleet. " Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland—all slave States —support the Federal Government, Missouri has already in convention ordained the gradual abolition of slavery, to take effect at the expiration of seven years. Four -fifths of Tennessee, two-thirds of Virginia, the coasts and Sounds of North Carolina, half of Mississippi, and half of Louisiana, with all their large cities, part of Alabama, and the whole sea coast of Georgia and South Carolina, and no inconsiderable part of the coast of Florida, are held by the United States. The insurgents, with the slaves whom they yet hold in defiance of the President's proclamation, are now crowded into the central and southern portions of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, while the pioneer slaveholding insurgents beyond the Mississippi are cut off from the main force. On the other hand, although it is less than six months since the laws or customs of the United States would allow a man of African descent to bear arms in defence of his country, there are now in the field 22,000 regularly enlisted, armed and equipped soldiers of that class, while 50 regiments of 1,000 each are in process of organisation, and 62,800 persons of the same class are employed as teamsters, labourers, and camp followers. These facts, show that, as the insurrection continues, the unfortunate servile population, which was at the beginning an element of its strength, is being transferred to the sup port of the Union. " You will use the facts presented in this paper in such a way as may be most effective to convince those who seek a renewal of commercial prosperity through the restoration of peace in America, that the quickest and shortest way to gain the desired end is to withdraw support and favour from the insurgents, and to leave the adjustment of our domestic controversies, exc:usively with the people of the United States.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant, " WILLIAM H. SEWARD." COLT'S REVOLVERS are to be extensively intro duced into the Prussian army, and the cavalry and artillery officers are to be supplied with them immediately. A violent hailstorm broke over the town and neighbourhood of Cahors (Lot) two days ago. At Bellevue, a man named Tilsac had just entered his house when the building was struck by lightning and set on fire. The owner escaped uninjured, but an umbrella which he cart ied in his hand was literally consumed by the electric fluid. The flames of the house spread so rapidly that nothing could be saved. A NAPLES letter in the Opinione of Turin gives an account of the trial now going on of the mur derers of a watchmaker, named Ruffo, who was waylaid about a fortnight back in the immediate neighbourhood of that city. The trial excites great interest, and on the 25th August the Court was crowded, especially with cammor rists, who want, if possible, to intimidate the judges. While one of the counsel was engaged in the defense of a workman named Cherubini, who had been in the service of deceased, and was supposed to be the chief author of the murder, the report of a musket was suddenly heard, and immediately afterwards the roll of the drum s calling out the guard. Great confusion was occasioned in Court by thisand after theuthp eoupon eoccurrence,strictestaguusasr o d the watchhu tenhdPeerre disturbancetst ho i d eb e e n w t orderedwindows dp ot w overbs eocfa t he thetr became eehpakrl prisons soo t w o n sn be h; hard prisoners. a r d s b e Soon , n y had fired upon one of the prisoners, who had been address ing him in the grossest and moat insulting language for upwards of a quarter of an hour. The sentinel in so doing had only obeyed orders; but most probably the prisoner was acting according to instructions received from the Ca -1 raorra, in order to create a disturbance. The trial was at once resumed, and the belief is that the persons accuses will be condemned. ADvE TisEmENT.]—Avoid medicines: they always agara rate chronic complaints, but Du Barry's Delicious Health Restoring- lievalenta Arabiea Food, which saves flit) T times its cost in other remedies, invariably cures the m , restor;r , perfect digestion. strong nerves, sound lungs, healthy pure blood, rei resliing sleep, functional regularity, and energy to the most disordered or enfeebled. We extract a few out of 60,000 Cures :—Cure No. 58,216 or the Marchioness de Braan, Paris, et a liver complaint, wasting away for seven years, debility, with a nervous palpitation all Over, had digestion, constant sieeplessn ess, the most intolerable nervous at - , , Ration, and dreadfully low spirited.—Cure No. 1,771. Lord Stuart de Decies, Lord Lant. of Witte: ford, of many years' dyspepsia.—No. "Fifty years' indescribable agony from dyspepsia, nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation, flatulency, spasms, sickness, and vomiting.—Maria Jolly." —Cure No. 46,270. Mr..lames Roberts, of Frimley, Surrey, of thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver derange ment, and partial deafness.—Cure No. 47,121. Miss Elizabeth Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion, gatherings, low spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure No. 54,t16. The Rev. Jas. T. Campbell, Fakenhain, Noifolk, "of indigestion and torpi dity or the liver, which had resiste i all medical treatmen t.' In B tins, 1 lb., 2s. 9d. ; 21b., 4 s . 6d ; 51b., lls. ; 21b., 225. ; ?Alb 40 Barry Pu Barry and Co., No. 77, Regent-street, London ; also Fortnum and Mason ; and all Grocers and Chemists in every town of the United Kingdom. TilE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 3 1863. SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. TimEs.—The American war has presented the most remarmable contrasts to all the features of for- mer warfare, but not the least extraordinary of its characteristics has been the voluminous correspon dence with which the Foreign Secretary has de luged the Governments of Europe. The long letter from Mr. Seward which we publish this morning is only one of a mass of similar productions which we have had to read since the opening of the war. Week after week, and month after month, Mr. Seward has despatched to his representatives in this country the same incessant commentary on every event of the war, the same monotonous strain of assertion that the rebellion is on the eve of failure, the same plaintive appeal for sympathy and moral support, and the same ever-recurring bur den of complaint against our fancied aid and recog nition of the insurgent States. The remetn bran& which we have of Mr. Seward's former let ters induces us to read his present letter with a less anxious feeling than the source, the purpose, and the character of such a letter would otherwise evoke. We fancy we have heard it all before, and know that it is worth little for either good or harm. We have, in the first place, the same extraordinary misrepresentation of recent events in the war. The earlier events, we are glad to see, are at length properly appreciated. This letter contains the tardy admission that "in the battles of August, 1852, the " Union forces suffered some severe and appalling reverses." When we remember the tone of easy unconcern in which these "appalling` reverses" were treated in Mr. Seward's despatches at the end of last year, we cannot help receiving all his explanations and songe of victory in this circular with a very considerable discount. His perpetual assertion weakens the force even of the facts which are undeniable. When he has the audacity to give it as a full account of General Burnside's disastrous repulse at Fredericksburg, that " his assault upon Lee's well-fortified position failed, and ho skilfully recrossed the river without loss," we are unable to know where to trust him, or how to understand a writer who can indulge in such an evasion. These errors of honesty or judgment are the more discreditable because they are wholly unnecessary. Mr. Seward hes had an ample supply of undoubted facts to support his song of triutnph. It could not be disputed for a moment that the Federal arms have had signal successes in the course of the last, few weeks. The fall of Vicks burg and Port Hudson, the failure of General Lee's attempt at invasion, and the gradual pene tration of the Confederate country by the Union forces offered sufficient opportunity for self-assertion, and even for prophecy, without a resort to the old methods of extenuation which the reverses of last year excused. Great as the Fede ral successes undoubtedly are, their effect is weak ened, and not strengthened, by Mr. Seward's recapitulation of them. He protests too much. He used just as strong language last October, when the Federal forces had recoiled from the strongholds of the Mississippi, and the Army of the Potomac had been driven home in ignominious de feat. Besides, after all, to what purpose does Mr. Seward reiterate these successes ? Why does he snatch at the first favourable opportunity to entreat our forbearance and to implore our patience? If he has been so successful as he says, there ought to he no need of his vaticinations and explanations. When the ports of the Southern States are open to ordinary trade, when the population are re suming their old industry, and we are re ceiving again the productions upon which so much of cur p o p u l at i on h as d epen d e d, those facts will compel our recognition far better than volumes of diplomatic assertion. There will be no doubt about hem, and no need to assure us of their reality. There is, however, one point on which we do want some assurance, and on that Mr. Seward gives us none. We want to know what chance there really is not merely that the President will be able to raise a suf ficient number of conscripts and negro troops to in flict further disasters upon the South, to spread a wider devastation, and to destroy another third part of the Confederate forces, but what prospect there is that this process of slaughter and extirpation will bring about our old trade with the South, and relieve our distressed manufacturing population. Mr.Se ward directs the representatives to whom his circular is addressed to "use the facts presented in this paper "in such a way as may be most effective to con vince those who seek a renewal of commercial pro. sperity through the restoration of peace in America that the quickest and shortest way to gain that de sired end is to withdraw support and favour from the insurgents." We do not know what facts there are in this paper which could be used for such a pur pose. Mr. Seward represents that the Federal Go vernment has regained possession of a region of 200,000 square miles—an area as large as Austria or France, or the peninsula of Spain and Portugal. Can he show us one single advantage which has been gained to commerce by this sitbj ugation ? 'We were assured that us soon as Ne w Orleans, or even so pal try a place as Port Royal, was opened to trade vast supplies of cotton would flow to us. We have scarcely received a single bale. So far as we have any means of judging, the area which has been conquered by the Federals has been rendered useless for all pur poses of . trade or cultivation. We_ were assured that in all the States which Mr. Seward enumerates as for the most part recovered to the Federal Govern ment there was a large Union party, held down by a violent minority, end that the victory of the Union arms would be followed by an immediate return to peaceful commercial pursuits. Where has this Union party been discovered ? We confess we are unable to see the very smallest instalment of the advantages which Mr. Seward is perpetually assuring us would result from the complete success of the Federals in their course of conquest. If Mr. Seward really wishes to explain to Europe the prospects of the United States in the event of the success of his Government, this is the point which he ought to have dwelt upon. We should like to have been told, . for example, in a calm and statesmanlike paper, what aro the intentions and the expectations of the Federal Government as to the administration of the revolted provinces. We see them conquered by extraordinary exertions of force, and held in sub jection by enormous armies. We know thatin some of these subjugated districts the country has been tne so ruined that the population are obliged to dexirast upon rations furnished to them by Fe e armies. If this is to be the result of the Federal vietoriesevery where, we see no chance o f any renewal of commercial prosperity through the continued Pro secution of the war. On all this M r. Sewerd s letter . gives us co information whatsoe ver, and therefore, even if his arguments could persuade us of the ulti mate success of the Federal arms, they wo uld not lead us to hope for any of the advantage result. If, too, this letter is in its i main characteristics and if it fails a mere repetition of former flourih o f peacefrom the to relieve the anxiety of EuiroPt as to the probable e , "t e is entirely needless co nsequences of this strugg The perso ns to whom it is in its main purpose. addressed are directed t o use the facts contained in it for the purpose of convincing the Governments of Great Britain and France that the quickest and shortest way to the restoration ofthe t i h r e rg t i r n a s d u eis oo " t t s o , withdraw support a nd favour from and to leave the adjustment of our domestic_ contro versies entirely with the people o i f the Ur tted State s ." So far, at least , as this country s concerned such an appeal is entirely w i t h o ut meaning. 'The neitherinsur support norfavour from gents have received our Government. 'rney have got absolutely nothi ng fcom tbis country but such supplies of arms and necessaries of life as they could smuggle in through a blockade which we have scrupulously respected. The Americans, of all people in the world, ought to know that trade is entirely impartial. There are plenty of merchants in New York who are p er f ect l y ready to sell anything to anybody any where if they ea r l get the money for it, and they will always send it where they can get the most money. It is just be cause we have left " the adjustment of the domestic controversies" of the United States exclusively with the leeople themselves that the South has been able to attract from this, country the eupplies which have so exa sperated the Federals. If we had done as Mr. Seward would have desired, and, at the demand of the Northern States, prohibited by special legis lation any export to the Southern States, we should have interfered in the most direct manner pos sible with the domestic controversie of the United States. We have left them to fight out their own struggle iu their own way, and we have not the slightest intention of doing anything else. If we have " accorded the character of a belligerent to the insurgents," we have only yielded to a plain fact, and are supported by the authority of the Fe derals themselves. We have, to the best of our ability, preserved a constant and complete neutra lity, and we shall certainly continue to do so. If th' i naurgente " have been enabled to protract their resistance by means of sympathy and aid received from abroad," we can only say they require very little foreign help ; and, if" the expectation of fur ther and more effective foreign assistance is now their chief resource," Mr. Seward will find little di fli'-"ItY With there. As addressed, at least, to this country, any ;such exhortations ate perfectly unne cessary. It might determine our sympathy if Mr. Seward could show us that there was any hope of the success of the Federal armies being followed by a renewal of the peace, prosperity, and trade of the South. But we are unable to see any hope of this sort, and Mr. Seward's long exercitation fails to throw one ray of light on the dark prospect. HERALD.—Political events that used to be con sidered wonderful may now occur once a week, or every day, without exciting any particular atten tion. if they are of such a nature as to affect us personally, that, of course, makes a difference. When our own interests are not involved w e can listen with is becoming amount of philosophical Cotton Supply Association, At the usual weekly meeting of the Executive Committee held on Tuesday a letter was read from Havannab, stating that the writer, after travelling in the United States and America for the purpose of making himself acquainted with the progress of agriculture, determined on his return to enter on the cultivation of cotton, and to prove that free labour might be introduced with great advantage to the country. He has planted about 100 acres, ocm prising the different varieties of soil in order to de termine which is mast suitable, the plants are bear ing luxuriantly, having an average of 60 pods on each stalk, and promising to produce on an average 150 pos each. Previous planters affirm that the first year does not pay, but the plant being peren nial the second year yields good interest for the money expended. A letter was rEceived respecting cotton cultivation in Grenada, West Indies, and reporting that formerly cotton was largely grown in the island, as is still the case in some of the small islands of the Grenadian group. Several estates are available for the cultivation. A. letter was received requesting Sea Island seed for Trinidad, and reporting that cotton grown from seed supplied by the Association has been valued in Liverpool at 43. per lb. A letter from Tortola enclosing a small sample of cotton stated that the cultivation has extended greatly in that and adjacent islands, but as hitherto there has been no direct opportunity of shipping to England the crop has been sold in St. Thomas's for the American states. Facilities are, however, now afforded for shipping to Liverpool direct, by the establishment of steamers between that port and St. Thomas's, and this, it is expected, will still further stimulate the production of cotton. A letter was read from the Haytian Minister in London, stating that his Government is doing every thing possible, by the offer of prizes and otherwise, to extend the cultivation of cotton in Hayti. A letter was read from the honorary agents of the Association at Calcutta, stating that the new crop is reported to be considerably in excess of previous seasons, and that though the quality of cotton as yet come forward is not above the average a large quantity of superior quality is said to be on the way to market. The use of New Orleans seed is extending; Dr. Bonavia of Lucknow, who is tending to the committee some beautiful specimens of cotton, is desirous of sowing 200 acres in the Oude district. Letters were read from Buenos Ayres advising the shipment of eight bags of cotton of Entre Rios, and stating that a quantity of Sea Island and Georgian Seed has been presented to the Argentine Government with a view to extend the cultivation in the Republic. An honorary member of the asso ciation, who is indefatigable in his efforts, adds— " The advantages of cotton planting are so manifest that I am convinced the natives only require a little good example and encouragement, which I am re solved to lend them to the best of my power." A letter was read from Corrientes, River Plate, stating that the cotton question has excited there the warmest interest, and that it was proposed to form a Cotton Plantation Company, the Government of the State being at the head of the project. The climate and soil are most favourable and the native quality is expect e d to r i va l the New Orleans and Mobile varieties. Th e p l an ting is between August and October and th e crop is gathered after January. From the number of persons establishing plantations the next crop may be estimated at 2,500 " paks." A letter was r ea d f rom the CommendatoreDevin cenzi, Turin, announcing that th e Ro yal Italian Commission, of which he is Presi dent, has decided to hold an Exhibiti on o f It a lian grown cotton, and also of gins, presses, pl o ughs, and other cotton ag ricultural implements of which En g lish and other foreign manufactu rers are invited to become exhi bitors. The Exhibition will beheld during the month of January next, and will, it is exp ected, g reatl y stimulate the grow t h o f cot ton in Italy. With respect to th e C a l cu tta Agricultural Exhi bition, to be held in January next, the honorary agents of the Association at Calcutta, Messrs. Mosley and Hurst have generously offered to receive and superintend the exhibition of gins, presses, ploughs, and other implements, free of all charges beyond actual disbursements. Makers who intend to exhibit may see a list of prizes at the rooms of the Associa tion, and obtain any information they require. THE OVERWORK OF MILLINERS. The committee of the Ladies' Sanatory Association on Dressmaking have issued an address on the system of the overworking in ill-ventilated rooms to which many of this class annually fall victims, whilst the constitutions of others who survive are permanently injured. They describe the system as follows : " The girls in the large London houses are, with a few exceptions, thoroughly respectable. Character is required by the managers, and is' maintained in their establishments. This is a great point, for many of them are orphans, often well educated and well connected, to whom character is dearer than life. In a good house of business they are able to secure protection. A girl is usually sent to the business at the age of 13 or 14, and bound for about three years. A premium of from £2O to £5O is paid on entrance, and she receives board and lodging during the time of her apprenticeship. At the end of that time she becomes an improver' for one year or more, receives her board and lodging., but is still depen dent on her own resources for her other wants. By this time her little ca p ital is generally exhausted, and she begins to e arn a salar y varying according to her abilities from £l2 to £5O a year." Not one in a hundred, they add, passes through the ordeal with unimpaired health ; and, after touching more minutely on the ev il effe cts , they say :—« All this occurs in a trade which is in itself perfectly healthy. And whose fault is it ? We cannot help it,' says the employers, ' for ladies will have their dresses to the day ; they. give short notice and take long credit, and it is hard to pay our way and please them." We cannot help if,' say the ladies ; ' we are willing to give a good price for good work, but we cannot take charge of work and work-rooms.' We cannot help it least of all,' say the poor girls, for we must keep our situations or starve—or worse." The committee, after consideration of the subject, offer various suggestions to mitigate, and, in the end, they hope to remove the evil. To ladies they recommend the duty of ascertaining whether the employees of the house they give their custom to are treated with consideration, of refraining from unreasonable demands, and. of paying their bills. To employers they urge that no overwork is really profitable. "By securing sufficient out-door assistance in the early part of the season, so as to avoid beginning the late-hour system, the skilled inmates would bo kept up to their highest energy and effieiency, and the result would, we believe, be found equally if not more profitable in the long rue. A wholesome atmosphere would also powerfully conduce to the same end." To the workwomen, they say there can be no thorough change till the work women combine among themselves to demand what is right, and they urge parents and guardians to protect their young girls from overwork and over crowding, suggesting that if such protection is im practicable in this trade they should seek other trades. "There are many trades, especially those which minister to the wants end tastes of their own sex, for which women are more suitable and as com petent as men, into which young girls might enter, if able to secure the necessary education and train ing. The power to write well, and to keep accounts, would open to them many of the lighter and better paid situations in shops ; and such easy feminine .trades as ladies' hairdressing would naturally fall into their hands if they could gain the requisite skill. Indeed, even among needlewomen skill is much wanted, and will always secure better remu neration and position. There are plenty of workers —too many ; but good workers are rare, and till the competition for situations in which health is sacrificed is lessened, fewer will be able to rise into the rank of skilled workers, and demand a fair day's wages for a fair day's work." The c ommittee; conclude by saying that pubiic sympathy, and it may be Legislative enactment, would aid them, hut they indicate one way in which they think public support might aid largely and in the most legitimate s way, viz., "by encouraging and petronising the establishment of houses of busioess on the principle of partnership or co - operation." By combinicg the capital of their skill and industry, there is nothing to hinder dress makers from becoming, to a great extent, their own employers, it ladies would be induced to pay ready money, or not take more than three months' credit. They might also aid in the task of opening fresh employments to women by asking for their services in preference to those of men in such things as at tendance in shops, hairdressing, &c. It is only by efforts thus combined, and by attention to the laws which regulate work and wages, that the condition of dressmakers can be permanently unproved. We hope that suchen effort will be made before another season has added its victims to a system of cruel and unnecessary over ffcrk. sang froid to the story of doings which make for the I first acts—those initiating a series—usually are. weal or woe of millions of human beings. A great With all their shortcomings the acts in question did wit who is dead once observed that it would not good service. They dealt a heavy blow at a certain spoil a man's appetite for breakfast if he were to stolid fatalism to which we English were practically read is his morning paper that the whole empire of addicted, however strenuously we might have denied China had been swallowed up by an earthquake. it in theory, Henceforth the laws of causation—of Probably many persons will hear, without any sort antecedents and their coneequents—were destined of emotion, that seventy millions of men are on the to be applied to the conditions of public health. By eve of political enfranchisement, and see before them a consolidation and emendatory act, passed in 1855, the commencement of a new era of prosperity and Parliament made a still farther advance in the path greatness. It may not seem to concern them much of hygienic legislation, section the 26th being parti that the Emperor of Russia is abo u t to grant a cularly conspicuous for the powers with which it ?myna citarta to his subjects. But in reality it does invested sanitary inspectors in their mode of dealing concern them; and that very nearly. A war means with diseased food. These officers are empowered to en Englishman so many pence in the pound "at all reasonable times to inspect and examine any added to the income tax; such and such an increase carcase, meat, poultry, game, &eh, fish, fruit, in the price of the necessities of life ;so much taken vegetables, corn bread or flour exposed for sale, or from the provision for wife and children. H )wever in the course of, or in the way to slaughtering, small the interest he feels in foreign politics, he dressing, or preparation for sale or use, or landed knows that they may take a turn which must involve from any ship or vessel in any port in England." the country in war. He would not avoid that war, We will come to the penalty by and by, pausing in if it should seem necessary to the maintenance of the career of recital to intimate by way of necessary the honour and influence of his country, but he parenthesis that a connection by no means occult knows that he must pay his share of it, and that might once have been traced and established be may press upon him heavily. The prospect of a t ween fall of barometric mercury and fall in the constitutional reform in Russia should thus be a prime cost of certain English-made sausages. A matter of congratulation to all of us. We escape, period of stormy sea travelling is not conducive to in the first place, the possible war which we might the longevity of such pigs and calves as may be have been called upon to wage in behalf of Poland. subjected to that ordeal. Travellers by steamer Had Russia continued to behave herself in the may be confidently appealed to for their experience high-handed manner of those who will consent to in this matter; and further they may, in the in no compromise and make no concessions, had she tenets of truth, be questioned as to whether they suffered us to believe that she was fighting, not severally ever witnessed the ceremonial of commit simply for supremacy, bat with a view to the utter ting to the deep one solitary porcine or bovine subjugation of an unfortunate people, it would victim. As for the rest, imagination can fill the gap ; have soon been more than the feeling of Western suffice it to say, that the Consolidation Act of 1555 Europe could have borne. But, if we are rightly enacted, "That the person to whom such carcase, informed, the Russian Government is prepared to meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables, grant more than the - Western Powers have asked corn bread, or flour belonged, or in whose custody of her. On the one hand, she is about to concede the same might be found, should be liable to a to Poland an autonomy more complete than was penalty not exceeding £lO for every carcase, promised to her in 1815 under the collective gua- fish, or piece of meat, flesh, or fish, or any poultry rantee of Europe. Poland is to have her National or game, &e., so found." Apparently, the section Diet, her national army, her separate courts of law, just quoted is adequate both in stringency and. her separate Polish administration, and an 'cape- perspicuity to secure all necessary practical ends. rial Viceroy. We do not know what more even Experience, however, having demonstrated the Polish patriots can desire, and we are sure that reverse, the Amendment of Removal of Nuisances fuller concessions than these have never been Act was brought in and passed last session. The dreamed of by any of the friends of Poland. But preamble to this act states that the provisions of you cannot mend an old garment with new cloth the Consolidation Act of 1855 are defective " with with any expectation of its wearing well. A con- regard to the inspection and seizure of diseased and stitutional Poland in the midst of an absolutist unwholesome moat." The gist of amendment fur- Russia would be an anomaly, an impossibility. It nished by the new act consists in making the proof was for this reason that the magnanimous pro- that inculpated articles were not exposed or de gramme of Alexander I. broke down. It was on this posited for sale, or intended for the food of man, rest account that the constitution granted, three years with the party charged, and in a considerable in since, to Poland, could not possibly be carried out crease of penalty. At present the person in whose by Russian statesmen. A free Poland would be a pessession, or on Whose premises, the objectionable reproach to the rest of Russia, a continual cause of articles are found is rendered liable to a penalty disquietude, a centre of -revolt, unless the rest of not exceeding £2O for every animal carcase, &c., Russia is to be free also. Since the accession of the so found ; or, at the discretion of the justice, with wicked and ambitious Catherine 11. the world has out infliction of a fine, to imprisonment in the corn looked on with much discomfort at the spectacle mon gaol, or house of correction, for a term of not of the gradual growth of the great military despo- more than three calendar months. tism of the North. We are now to be relieved from its incubus. Russia is to be conetitutionalised, de centralised, governed by local parliaments, and a central representative chamber, in imitation of the system which is working so well in Austria. As a self-governed country is invariably found to be less aggressive, less mischievous, and more amen able to reason than a despotic monarchy, we may hope that the charter granted to Russia may save Europe from many future wars, and the world from much unnecessary misery. The emancipation of the serf's was the baptism of the regenerated Russia. The proclamation of a representative system for this vast empire is as the right of confirmation which admits it into the family of civilised nations. Up to this time Russia, though ranking in military strength as a power of the first order, has been . at the best a barbarous and heathenish country. Th e revelations of the private life of her nobles and pea sants have made the ears of mankind tingle; the tales that have been told by her court have horrified the world. She has turned over a new leaf. There is no more slavery in Russia; there will be no more tyranny. The pure life and the virtuous example of Alexander 11. and his Empress have cleared the precincts of her palaces from the harpies and vul tures that once frequented them. We shall hence forth find no more parallels among Russian princes to the Neros and Agrippinas of old. The empire has yet much to do to recover from the fatal memory that her greatness dates chiefly from the infamous thirty-four years of Chathcrine 11. The future of this empire, based on such a happy open ing, may be expected to outdo its past. The num ber of its population and the vastness of its terri tory have been the sources of the peculiar strength and the peculiar weakness of Russia. Other nations of Europe had hardly a fair chance with the poten tate who could bring, by a single ukase, two millidns of men into the field. Nor was it possible to over run by any army that could be launched against it a territory of such vast extent that it comprises one quarter of the globe, and that the most inclement and the most inhospitable. On the other hand, a country so spread out is wanting in power of con centration, and is in some respects hardly a match for a people of one quarter its number if confined within narrow limits. So long as she will keep quiet Russia is in little danger from other powers. Her territory, vast as it is, does not tempt them. They are quite content that the trackless plains of Northern Europe and Asia, where no one else will live, should be peopled by this Sclavonic hive. All the wars in which Russia has been engaged have been provoked by her own desire to lodge herself in more comfortable quarters. To some extent she has succeeded, but not to her wishes. She has obtained a footing on the Baltic, and on the Black Sea. She has laid her hand on a thriving people of Central Europe, and even now is con testing with them their meadows and corn-fields. She has failed in her great ambition of trans ferring the seat of her empire to Constantinople. It is worthy of note that the triumphs of Russia have been obtained over second-rate powers, and that she has generally been worsted by powers of the first rank. Peter the Great, the founder of modern Russia, prevailed against the Swedes after many disasters to his arms. Daring the seven years' war the Empress Elizabeth gained vic tories against the Prussians, whose power was then in its infancy. Catherine subdued Poland, and wrested much territory from Turkey in the bloody campaigns of her lieutenants, Potemkin and Suwarreff. It was not Alexander, but the elements, that drove back a French army in 1812. The Russians were defeated tit Borodino—as be fore at Austerlitz—when side by side with Aus• tria. The Polish revolt, and the Hungarian re volt, were successively put down by Nicholas; but he succumbed to the Western alliance in the memorable campaign of the Crimea. It is foolish to make a bugbear of the Russian power, as some people seem inclined to do. That power is no menace either to us or to France. There is no reason at all why we should not be on the best of terms with it, not for state reasons merely, or as a question of the balance of alliances, but in the interest of the 70 millions that are under its rule, who have yet in great part to be edu cated and civilised, who have a work before them which will last for centuries, in the conquest and cultivation of the soil which they people but thinly. This vast dominion cannot solely be ruled from St. Petersburg. Its inhabitants are to be called upon to take their share in its govern ment. We wish all success to the plan—all pros perity, present and future, to the Emperor, his simple-minded people, and their " Holy Russia." POST.—According to a certain proverb, no British Act of Parliament was ever yet drawn up and passed, through which a coach-and-four might not be driven by a law-breaker of sufficient courage and ingenuity. The presumption is somewhat bold, but, like many other towering figures of speech, it rests upon a solid foundation. Our friends across the Channel, with their fondness for abstract prin ciples and tendency to analytical neatness, may vaunt codification, smiling at an Englishman's need of acts of consolidation, of explanation, and amend ment falling thickly upon each other session after session. Nevertheless, by that means, clumsy though it may seem to our neighbours, we gene rally manage to carry our point in the end. n Th e Nuisances Removal Act for England (Amendment)," which passed on the 28th July, is a case in point. If scanned with moderate attention, in sequence with other acts to which it refers, the metaphorical carriage-drive which its provisions are intended to bar will at once be obvious. Inasmuch as there are more agreeable occupations than the perusal and study of Acts of Parliament at any time, and consi dering that September is the month least congenial of all the twelve to that purpose, we may not do a miss in summarising in few words the purport of certain antecedent Acts of Parliament to which the provisions of the supplementary Act passed in the session just concluded refer. It would not be far wrong were the assertion made that, prior to 1848 and 1849, the science which is inadequately trans lated into English by " public health," had no legis lative and public recognition a mongst us. Beyond the provisions of quarantine (in respect of which there are good reasons for behaving they have don e more ham than good) and of vaccination, the es. ternal circumetances effecting public health wer e taken less cognisance of by the State here than on the Continent. At the same time 1 , 0 injustice should bo done to the provisions of municipal enactments; the fact, indeed, being that the post ponement of imperial legislation is doubtless in some measure attributable to the circumstance t hat municipal a nd therefore local fore need of Parliam t eight has lessened th e ary inter vention. The Nuisances Removal and Disease Pre vention A c t s were passed under the immediate pres sure of that terrible epidemic, the ceolera. No great marvel, therefore, if they were not more perfect than COUNTRY MARKETS. ~. NEWARK-WEDNESDAY. A moderate supply of wheat at our market, and prices 6d to is per qr higher. Malting barley a fair show, at former rates. Oats 6d lower. Beans a ready sale. White wheat new, 43s to 48s I Barley, grinding.. 29s to 32s Red do. 43s to 45s i Oats, old, .. 2ss to 30s Old white 44s to 49s 1 New do 22s to 27s Red do. 41s to 41s I Beans.. 40s to 44s Barley, malting.... 35s to 40s I Beans, new.. —s to —5 HULL-TUESDAY. The wheat trade during the past few days has been de cidedly firmer. At to-day's corn market there was a small supply of new English wheat, which was taken off by local millers at fully the prices of last week. Foreign was firm at late rates. A good inquiry for grinding barley at rather less money than last Tuesday. Beans oats, and peas were each at last week's prices. Sales in linseed limited, and at rates in favour of buyers. Wheat.... Old white per qr. 47s Od to 50s Od Old red New white .. „ New red .... „ Barley.... English malting 368 Od to 37s Od Grinding 26s Gd to 28s Od Saal and Oderbruck Holstein and Danish 3os Od to 31s Od Grinding Oats English, old 26s Od to 28s Od Archangel and Riga, per st oBl2ld to 13d Friesland and Dutch osl3d to 0-13 1 d 0 Swedish and Danish 051241 to osl3d Beans ....English, old, per qr 43s Od to 45s Od New pigeon 42s Od to 41s Od New tick. 4os Od to 42s Od Egyptian 33s Od to 34s Gd Peas Foreign boilers .. . Grinding Tares ....Spring. —s Od to —s 0 d Indian Corn Linseed, feeding s2s Od to 5Gs 01 crushing Linseed cakes (Hull) £lo 0 0 to £0 0 g Foreign Bl5 oto 9 0 " A Rape cakes 6 0 oto 0 0 " Bones 6 5 Oth 510 0 LYNN-TUESDAY. At this day's market there was only a moderate show of new wheat, which met a ready sale at the full rates of last Tuesday . Fine old more active, and rather dearer. New malting barley in limited supply; grinding sorts were in favour of buyers. Beans and oats unaltered. White ..47s to 48s I Barley . 3Bs to 408 Red.. ..44s to 46s I Grinding ..30s to 32s Beans .38a to 40s I Oats.. New —s to —s I Peas —s to —s COAL h Prices of Coal per Ton a s. d. North Pelton Gas 13 6 Carway and Duffryn Malting 2O 0 Grey's West Hartley 15 9 ‘valker Primrose 12 9 Eden Main l6 6 Byass's Bebsido West Hartley l6 3 .ARK ET. the close of the market. 8. a. Walls End. Russel's Hutton 16 9 Ships at mark, Walls End. Hartlepool.. l7 6 Soath Hartlepool 16 6 East Hartlepool 17 9 Trimdon Hartlepool 17 6 K elloe Hetton lB 0 Stewart's 17 9 South Hetton ...18 0 Cassop 6 9 Heugh Hall 16 9 >t, 36 ; sold, 33. Foreign Mail Packet List. ➢TAILS DUE. Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton .. Sept. 18. via Marseilles ... Sept. 12. Brazil and Cape Verds, by British packet. Oct. 5. Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena.. Sept, 28. China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton. Sept. IS. . via Marseilles ...Sept. 12. _ Falkland Islands .. Gibraltar, via Southampton .. India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Sept. 18. via Marseilles Sept. 12. India (Bombay), via Southampton Sept. 10. via Marseilles Sept. 4. P0rtuga1.......... Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton Sept. 10. via Marseilles Sept. 4. Newfoundland Oporto and Vigo .. U. S. and British N. America, ty Brit. packet Sept. 11. by U.S. packet by Canadian packet Sept. 4. W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Tenerife.. Bahamas, via New York Sept. 24. Mexico.. All California of and Indies, including Chili, Peru ) British Columbia. ' i Sept. 14. [ADVERTISEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Pills, for the Cure Of Biliousness, Liver and Stomach Complaints, and General Debility.—This medicine is so well known in every part of the world, and the cures effected by it are so wonderful that it now stands in no need of public eulogy. Its pre-eminence as a remedy for bilious and liver complaints, and disorders of the stomach and chest, is no longer a matter of dispute or doubt. In these diseases the beneficial effects of these invaluable pills are so permanent and extensive thatt h whole system is renovated, the organs of digestion strength , ened, a free and easy respiration promoted, and both physi cal and moral energy are increased. Plain directions for the use of this admirable medicine, at once so mild and effi cacious, are affixed to each box. Holloway's pills are always safe, and act as gentle aperients. Births. DAVIS.—On the 2d in of aat Highgate 'rise, the wife of Be Es., son. LuGAonoDd.w—inOinathvies, q 3lst ult., at Witham, Essex, the wife of Captain Luard, R.N., of a son. MILDMA.Y.—On the Ist inst., at 68, Park-street, Grove' nor-square, the Hon. Mrs. Hervey St. John MildmaP prematurely, of a daughter—stillborn. s oANE s.— On the 2d i ns t , at U pminster, Essen, the wife ot Temple Soanes, Esq., of a d aug ht er . Marriages. DICK—MACKINTOSH.—On the Ist inst., at St. Mark's, Kennington, Robert Sheriff Dick, Esq. to Mary Aloe , only daughter of th e l ate C o l one l Join:Mackintosh. LA:UGIITON—HILL,—O n the 2d inst., at Holy TrinitP Camden-town, George James Laughton, Esq., to Mario, eldest daughter of the late Edward Hill, of Ashbouru e l Derbyshire. Deaths. BARNEY.—Ou the 31st ult,, at Southampton, Miss AO Barney, aged 85. CHATFIELD.-0a the Ist innt., at. 9, Brixton-rise, INli ° Frances Chatfield, formerly of Chichester, aged BG. GOUNDRY.-otl the 28th ult., at Herne-bay, Elizabeth Goundry, widow, aged 92. Hoputxs —On the Ist inst., at Tor4uay, Lieutenant E• 13' It.N., aged 37. MANSFORD,—On the 31st ult., at Bath, John Grifatil Manstord, Esq., aged 77. MAINWARING.—On the 28th ult., at St. Helier's, JersoY, John Popham, oldest sou of the late Lieut.-Col. Fredl"' llainwaring, 59th Regt. PAYNE.—Ou the 31st ult., a t Wimbledon, Charles K emp Payne, Esq., of the Middle Temple, barrister -at -la " aged 72. _ - London : Printecl and Pul.hslied by IVILLTAM ANDlix• t 1" of No. 712, Strand , Printer, itt Txia SUN Office Strand, in the Precinct of (In ! , 'savoy, i n the Cotw il 'Thus ,Serternber 3, 10;j. r YH lii da , 116