The Express.
London, England, 1861-04-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 27.

Tns admirers of New Dahomey have now
another opportunity of applauding the prompt
initiative of that Confederation. From the meet-
ing of the Convention of South Carolina to the
firing on Fort Sumpter, the Southern leaders have
clistinguishedthemselvesin only one way. Unable to
do anything to inspire confidence at home or abroad,
and maintaining their position by the grossest
tyraney, they have rapidly become eminent in
the arts of ruin. Having destroyed the greatness,
the unity, and the prosperity of their country, it
only remained for them to destroy its peace, and
this was an easy matter. The capture of Fort
Sumpter will never be mentioned among the
great military exploits of history. It is solely as
probably the prelude of a long series of fratricidal
conflicts that it so powerfully excites the sympathy
of two worlds, and in that view it is one of the
most important events of our time.
President LINCOLN appears to have convinced
himself that the proper course for his government
to follow was to maintain the status quo, both, in
the first place, because it offered the best hope of a
natural solution of the difficulties in which North
and South were alike involved, and next, because
the responsibility of contingent hostilites would thus
be thrown upon the South. The victualling and
reinforcement of Fort Sumpter was a part of this
policy, for the withdrawal of its garrison by orders
from Washington, even for reasons strictly mili-
tary would have had all the effect of an
acknowledgment of the Montgomery govern•
ment. But notwithstanding the despatch of
war-ships from New York, professedly to support
the relief of Fort Sumpter, this expedition has the
aspect rather of a political experiment than of a
military enterprise. We shall not know until the
arrival of the next mail what Major Awessecie and
the officer in command of the relieving squadron
have to say as to the curse which hindered the
reinforcement of the garrison, and in the mean-
time we most not be deceived by the abundance of
details, of Southern origin, which the New
York papers print, into believing that we have a
full statement of the facts. But according
to the only intelligence which has come
to hand, the activity of the naval department
did not correspond with the importance of the
occasion. Perhaps it was impossible for the
steamers of the United SMUG navy to render
effectual &existence ; but at any rate a whole fleet
was sent from New York, whereas the only vessels
present while the contest was at its hottest
ware three small steamers which remained inactive
off the harbour. The gallantry of Major ANDRA.
SON has been such as to command the admiration
of his euemies. Everybody foresaw that unas-
sisted he could not make a protracted defence. He
had under his command only from seventy to
eighty men, not more than enough to work ten or
twelve guns, and he had against him five heavy
batteries of from ten to thirty guns each, sup-
ported by six or eight thousand men. It was be-
lieved at New York that the Government
would make a strenuous effort to throw
into the fort men enough to prolong
the defence, and then, if war became ine-
vitable, land soldiers with flying artillery to take
Fort Moultrie and Sullivan's Island, by which
Fort Sumpter was menaced, in the rear. The
rigour of the Southern Government anticipated
theater any other plans that may have been formed.
It was on the Bth that General BSA UREGAAD, the
Southern commander at Charleston, informed the
Secretary of War at Montgomery, that he and
Governor PICKENS had received an official notifi-
cation that Fort Sumpter would be reinforced
peaceably, or otherwise by force. On the
10th, the Southern Secretary of War instructed
him to require its evacuation, end on refusal to
reduce it. For military reasons the General de-
layed the demand until noon of the following day,
when he sent a summons to Major ANDIRSON, giving
him until six o'clock that evening to reply. His
answer was a temperate refusal, accompanied by
the intimation that his position was a defensive one.
A second message was sent, engaging that no shot
should be fired against the fort if its commandant
would indicate • time by which he would evacuate
it. This also was declined, and at half-past four
on the morning of the 12th, yesterday fortnight,
the war between the Northern and Southern
people of America broke out. For two whole
days Major A:cep-see fought most nobly. Sur-
rounded by powerfully armed forts and batteries,
and with a force which was numerically to his as
100 to 1, he held out until his magazines wore
blown up, his works crumbled, and his barracks
in flames, when, having set a splendid example of
public spirit and devotedness to his countrymen
and confederates, he desisted from a resistance
which could no longer serve any useful purpose.
There are three parties upon whom these
occurrences will have effects of the greatest im-
Pastime. The Border States must now finally
declare themselves. The Convention of Virginia,
IA a resolution adopted before the outbreak of
war, laid delve as a first condition of remaining in
the 1, mon that no attempt to reinforce the forts
in the harbouis of the United States should be