The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-21 00:00:00

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THE DARK IIIWAE or HILLINHAUATE.—CoIiiifteRINI

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TO DAY —Karat... Alimesent. 5.11 m.
To Doilauir —Moraine. .14. 9at ADameria. MA.

LONDON, srt;DNEspar, AUGUST 21.

TO OUR =ADIS&

SPORT! NG INTELLIG ENO,-

A !site edition of the Express is published every
tivvoisg during the raving season, contaiuiug the
results of the dsv's rneov

Ir is certainly to the credit of the Americans of
the North that they have 10 I itiiekly realised the
didieultic....f their position. The insane cry for
an immediate advance, and the influence of igno-
rant civilimui, were evidently too strong for General
S.-•m and the scielititic soldiers. It seems to be
now generally admitted that the attack made at
Bull's Rim was made contrary to the judgment if
not in the teeth of the remonstrances of the Com-
mander-in-Chief. ft may be that another officer
under suili circumstances would have resigned
rather than incur the responsibility of losing many
valuable lives and mach prestige by a miscarriage,
which was all but inevitable. Still there is another
view of the case. General S.virr may have thought
that—whatever ho might choose to do—the ad-
vance would be made at all hazards. The over-
weening pride and ignorance of the great mass of
the Northerners must by some means be rebuked
into common sense, and a sharp defeat was the only
mode of accomplishing that object. Nor can it be
said that the Commander-in-Chief was altogether
wrong.

From the various accounts of the condition of
riPllowstt's army, it is apparent that not only
the officers and men were quite uninstructed, but
that no kind of discipline was maintained. The
army was not an army in the proper sense, it was
an armed mob. In any other country it might
have been possible for • vigorous officer to reduce
this mass to order, by inaugurating at once a
of severe discipline. But in America this
was not so easy a matter. The habits of the people
and the genius of their institutions rendered it impoa-
sible suddenly to impose upon the volunteers of the
North the military yoke. The virtue of obedience
and subordination to superiors is too little appre-
ciated in America. Even in private life parents
and elderly persons lament the growing defect, but
the facilities for acquiring independence are so
great that they find resistance useless. Such
difficulties in private life may give some
idea of the difficulties which would stand in the
way of a Government. Moreover, hitherto the
purely military element in American public affairs
has been of the smallest account. The American
officers as a class have been looked at in the nar-
rowest spirit of jealousy. The military men have
been nothing, the politicians everything. This system
will very well so long as the whole business of '
the country was simply political. But the crisis
of secession produced • substantial revolution.
What used to be first must now be last ; what
used to be last must now be first. The one grand
object of the Government at Washington now is to
put down by force of arms a gigantic rebellion most
carefully organized, and conducted by military
officers of great knowledge and experience. This
object can only be accomplished in one way—by
changing the whole system which has hitherto
prevailed, and by placing the chief power in the
hands of the ablest military officer who
can be found. So long as no disaster
overtook the arms of the Federalists they could
not be convinced that so complete a change of
policy was required. But after the affair at Bull's
Run the conviction forced itself upon the minds of
the most obstinate that for a time at least the
military element must be &Rowed to predominate.
And this result is the true vindisation of those
under whose auspices that defeat was suffered.
The officer who seems destined to wield the chief
power in the present crisis is General Wetn.i.sit.
He is described as a young man of striking capa-
city. After having acquired distinction at West
Point, he served in the Mexican War ; he then
had the honour of being selected by the Federal
Government to witness the siege of Sebastopol, and
finally, like many other American officers, retired
from the army, and became the chief manager of
a railway. Young as WC:Laurie is, he seems to
have the power of acquiring the confidence and
respect of those who are under his command, whilst
at the same time he has the character of a strict
disciplinarian. These are the very qualifications
rei 'aired.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the disor-
ganization of the army after their retreat. The
men in drunken crowds about the streets of Wash-
ington ; the officers spending their days in the
hotels of the city, carousing and talking ; the
camps in a state of filth, and everything in chaos
and confuaion. But according to the latest accounts,
these defects had been in great measure remedied
by the energy of the newly-appointed General.
Indeed, it seems to be agreed that no sooner did
General liPetzu.stii appear at Washington than
his preemie was at once felt in every department.
Colonel Pointe, an energetic officer, was appointed
as Provost-Marshal, and be was directed to arrest
every officer and every man who was found ab-
sent from camp without a permit signed by the
commanding officer, and specifying the cause of
absence. These orders have been vigorously exe-
cuted, and the result is that the hotel bars are no
longer crowded with idle officers, and the streets
are cleared of idle and drunken soldien. General
M'Clill./1,1 at once perceived that his first duty
was to organise an army, and to teach both the
officers and the men the paramount duties
of obedience. There is no manner of
doubt that the Northern [hates contain
not only wealth enough but men enough to over-
run the Southern States, even if they were thrice
as populous u they are. But the real difficulty is
so to organise this raw material that it may be
efficiently used for military purposes. The extra-
vagant spint of iudividual independence which
prevails to the North, and the impatience of the
public, are serious obstacles in the way of over-