The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-23 00:00:00

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N°. 22,621.

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T IFE : It NATURE, VARIETIES, and
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Richmond and Petersburg in a State of Siege,

The army correspondent of the Columbia Caro•
Tinian, writing from the intrenchments around
Richmond, under date of Nov. 16, furnishes an in-
teresting letter, from which we make the following
extract

hest is but rude, and every thought is subordinate
to the duties of the time and place.
" Here everything speaks of war. The place in
which I write is the headquarters of one of our
,ienerals, and yet headquarters are but a deserted
iegro hue, where a single apartment-, divided by a
strip of canvas, serves! the purposes of offices, cham-
ler, and dining-room.

" Just in our front is the continuation of the outer
ine of intrenchments which encompass Richmond,
►nd now hold the enemy at bay. A few hundred
yards distant gleam the fires along our picket line,
and a corresponding row of lights beyond mark the
presence of a Yinkee division. The woods have been
,evelled for miles, ani the ground covered with an
abittis that has been already unsuccessfully explored
by the Federals. Across this space occasional
glimpses are afforded of the intrenchments of the
enemy, but for several days no demonstration has
been made by them which indicates vigorous life.
Still, we know they are there.

Our men are rapidly getting into winter quar-
ters, building walls, putting up log huts with
thatched roofs, end preparing for the inclemency of
the season.

" The most interesting portion of the entire line
is around Petersburg, where the two armies have
lug and dug until the entire face of the country
oetween them resembles-A labyrnth, which to the
uninitiated has neither beginning nor end, Neces-
sity, the mother of invention, has taught our meta
now to protect themselves. They live in caves, holes,
chambers, ingeniously constructed, with bunks and
fireplaces, and in a word, except in time of action, are
completely sheltered, Sharpshooting, the pest of a
soldier's life in the trenches, continues incessantly;
but beyond 30 or 40 men daily killed or wounded
along the lines—men only missed by the loved ones
of the home circle—all is quiet.
" That this comparative rest will not continue
long is a general impression. In spite of our shell
and shot the Dutch Gap Canal is supposed to be
nearly completed, and the gathering of the mammoth
armada and arrival of General Sheridan at City
Point with a portion of his forces, are indications
which certainly point to a grand combined land and
naval attack within a few days. If Grant is unsuc-
cessful—and no one familiar with our preparations
doubts the fact—it is surmised (hat with his usual
promptness he will move southward and commence
a winter campaign somewhere else.
"Among all the antagonists that have confronted
General Lee during the war none have given that
great chief more trouble or occasioned more anxiety
than General Grant. Although he has been re
peatedly brought to the ground, beaten and discom-
fited, like a reekless prizefighter covered by his own
blood, and blinded by the blows that were rained
upon him, he has dashed again into the fray, and
again and again suffered the mortification of defeat
without once acknowledging that has been whipped.
And he still clings with deathlike tenacity. The
resources of an immense power are at his back. He
calls for reinforcements to take the place of the tens
of thousands over whose graves he stalks like the
demon of death, and they are furniebed. Nothing
is wanted to make his success complete but sheer
human inability to stand before the superior
prowess of Southern men. With his peculiar
obstinate, bulldog nature, General Grant is a firm
believer in the attrition' process, which wears
out by repeated blows what is not accomplished by
one. Hence the necess;ty of keeping our own army
:ully up to a proper level of strength. Hence
the revocation of details ; the recommendation of the
President concerning negro labour, and the mea•
sures about to be devised by Congress for a general
reorganisation of the army."

The Spanish Ministerial Crisis.

MADRID, Dec. 18.

The Contemporaneo gives the following account
of • the failure of Senor Isturitz to form a new
Ministry and the recall of Marshal Narvaez and his
colleagues to power :

" Yesterday morning it was doubted in political
circles that Senor Isturitz, notwithstanding all his
efforts, would be able to satisfactorily fulfil the
mission with which her Majesty bad intrusted him
the previous evening. Some hours passed away,
when at about five o'clock in the afternoon it was
positively stated that Senor Isturitz had succeeded
in forming the following Ministry, of which it may
be said that it was undoubtedly incompatible with
the recently elected Cortes :—President, Senor
Isturitz; Foreign Affairs, Bormudez de Castro;
War, Ros de Oano; Grace and Justice, Naudin ;
Interior, Calderon Collantes; Finance, Salaver-
ria ; Colonies, Di z Arguelles ; Marine, Ibarra.
It was added that Senor Alonzo Marti•
nez positively declined to accept the Ministry
of Grace and JUstice, which was urgently pressed
upon him, and that Gineral Calonge also refused
the Ministry of War. nevertheless, it was expected
before the Queen at 6 o'clock to.take the oaths.
But that
the
while new
these Ministry
rumourswerewouldpresent themselves
circulating as per-
per-
fectly authentic, matters were settled quite in
he lre manner.
Queen was doubtless fully
bo f thel
gravityte
of the circumstances, and,
rising above them with that admirable and ener-
getic judgment and Perfectly constitutional spirit
saennosti
which characterises her, her Majesty sent to the
Duke of Valencia to present himself with his col•
leagues at the Palace, In obedience to the Royal
command these gentlemen presented themselves at
the Palace at 6 o'clock. After a brief conference,
in which her Majesty expressed her opinions, and
stated in the most
emphatic terms that she had re-
solved not to accept the resignations remitted to
her under the impulse of patriotic duty, the Mini-
sters felt they could not refuse the high proof of
confidence afforded them by the Crown, and retired
from the Royal presence to immediately assemble
in council. During the short period in which this
took place the Queen returned to the Duke of Va-
lencia the resignations which the latter had de-
livered in writing to her Majesty at the commence-
ment of the crisis. The Ministry, therefore, continues
the same as formed last Monday. We believe it
unnecessary to add a single wordimore on this event."
The .Espana considers the crisis to have termi-
nated in the most satisfactory manner for the
country, and says :
"Any other Ministry, particularly if it had not an
unionist tendency, would not only have had to deal
with the great questions now prnding,but with those
of public order and the Cortes. With regard to the
first of the two latter it is most fortunate that the
crisis has resulted in the winner in which it was
srlved last night, since it is difficult to calculate to
what point the effervescence would have arisen on
the mere announcement of a certain Ministry. As
regard the Cortes, it is well known that the Isturitz

"Among all the cities of the Confederacy none
can more justly lay claim to the title of metropolis
than its beautiful capital. Although invested by
100,000 enemies, whose besieging guns morning.
noon, and night roar out their hate—although
girded around by a line of battle that may at any
moment burst into flame, such is the faith reposed
in those brave defenders, who have so often On
Death's scythe dashed with force that turned its
edge,' that one may look in vain for sign of
doubt or trepidation. Day breaks, and hungry
thousands are making their way to the well-filled
markets. Later the stores open their sleepy lids, and
every window displays tempting goods that tell a
story of busy enterprise and broken blockades. The
restaurants, of which there are scores kept in a
style of magnificent abundance, hang out their
venison, birds, and turtle, and expose long shelves
freighted with the choicest liquors that tempt the
bon vivant to certain financial ruin. The hotels and
boarding-houses pour forth their living contents,
and by 9 o'clock Miin•street and its tributaries be-
gin to witness the grand processional movement
which continues through the day. Ladies and
clerks are wending their way to their several posts
of duty; men with official business plainly written
on their faces are harrying in the direction of the
departments; mothers, wives, and sisters applying
for the details of furlough of some loved one, or
perhaps-eager to learn the fate of a missing hus-
band, son, or brother, are also there ; officers gals
loping from the front to bring reports to the heads
quarters in town; quartermasters, with their accus-
tomed energy, are looking up the day's supplies ;
soldiers from camp on a few hours' leave of absence
begin to arrive; men on crutches hobbling forth
from hospitable roofs to breathe the fresh air; the
fair sex, attired with a richness and elegance, and
in raiment that you will see nowhere else in the
Confederacy, add to the attractions of the street
and thus, gathering its contributions from a thou-
sand channels, the population out of doors grows
and diversifies until you find yourself plunged into
one of those cosmopolitan ground swells that exist
only in the great cities of the world. By noon
the tide is at its flood, and you may elbow the best
and the worst, the highest and the lowest, the
greatest and the meanest people in the land.
Night comes, and the lights flash merrily
from a thousand parlours, where reign peace,
pleasure, and content. Hospitality abounds, and
with graceful hand the good citizens dispenses its
rites, not more among themselves than upon the
passing stranger, whose only claim may be that
he is a soldier. The transient visitor hee
offered t 6 him the temptations of the theatre and
concert-room, while a score of hells are ready to en-
galph those whose baser tastes best fit them for
tbeir enjoyments. Such is Richmond.
"And it is a strange contrast that one experience-s
in passing from these metropolitan scenes, where
dress and fashion are the presiding deities, to the
tieTere associations of the camp, where comfort at

Cabinet would have encountered an adverse ma-
jority, that it would have failed in the question of
the Presidency, and would have had recuurse, per-
haps on the 231 inst., to a suspension of the bit•
tinge, and shortly afterwards to a dissolution of the
Congress—a necessary measure for its existence,
bat the gravity of which in the present state of the
country could not be disguised."
The DiairoEspanol characterises the result of the
crisis as one of the greatest humiliations, and as the
most unworthy political solution ever adopted by
the Moderate party, It says :
"The Isturiiz Ministry, complete and ready to
take the oaths before her Majesty, had to dissolve
itself last night, because the Duke of Valencia and
his eight colleagues suddenly changed their opinion,
reformed their judgment, and agreed to think the
contrary of what they thought on the 14th inst.
What has happened P What causes have ieflue
enced the strange transformation undergone by the
late Cabinet ? Time will clear up certain mysteries
which may be divined in all this, and meanwhile

we shall sec in what situation the Throne, the
country, and its institutions will be placed after
the feigned withdrawal of the Narvaez Cabinet."
After a violent attack upon the Narvaez Ministry

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THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 23, 1864.

both on the grounds of its policy in the San Do-
mingo question and its action,towards political par-
ties and the press, the Diario says, in conclusio❑ :

"If what ha 4 now occurred erects itself into a
system, we may be assured that the constEutional
reginze is extinct, that representative theores are a
and that the pubic power defined by the fun -
damental Cede are nothing more than shadows of
inisti!utions."

Toe Iberia has d ffi3ulty in considering the pre-
sent solution a seriJus ore, and says :

'•The Ministry that appears to day in the Gazette
will be transitory. It will be a substitute that will
last a longer or shorter time, but which will only
live through its own insignificance and the disdain
of the public and of parties."
The Epoca of to-day makes the following an•
nouncement relative to the asserted recognition of
the San Domingo insurgents as belligerents by
England :-
1 "In consequence of the effect produced upon the
public mind by this announcement, Sir John Cramp-
ton, the English Ambassador at this Court, felt
bound to request explanations from his Government
upotia matter in which he was without official in-
structions. Earlaltussell lost no time in replying,
and his despatch robed the English representative
yesterday evening at the same time that the First
Secretary of State received the despatches from our
Minister Plenipotentiary in London, previously an,
nounced by telegraph to the Spanish Cabinet. These
despatches contained ample details of all that had
occurred. Oa account of certain questions arising
from events that have taken place in consequence of
the blockade of the Dominican coasts by the Spanish
squadron, the English Government considered it
necessary to take the opinion of the legal advisers
of the Crown, following its practice in all matters
of this kind. Their opinion was favourable in a
certain manner to the recognition of the Domini-
cans as belligerents, Spain being bound, according
to their view, by the maritime laws laid down in
the Treaty of Paris, to maintain a real and effective
blockade of all the points of the island where she
undertook to prevent the entry of supplies des-
tined for the rebels. Earl Russell communicated
this opinion to our representative in London, who,
in his turn, considered it urgently necessary to
acquaint the Spanish Government with the same.
Hence the origin of news which, having come to
the knowledge of the telegraphic agents of various
periodicalsin this city, was transmitted by them with
the urgency which its importance dictated, although
the want of the details above mentioned caused some
exaggeration in their communications. The reply of
Earl Russell to the English Ambassador could not
be expressed in more satisfactory terms. The En.
lish Minister confirmed the explanations given by
Senor Comyn, and wishing to afford a proof of the
friendly attitude of England in questions so greatly
affecting the prestige of our country, he authorised
the English Ambassador to acquaint the Spanish
Cabinet with his determination to indefinitely post-
pone any act which might be considered hostile or
as tending to exercise any sort of influence in the
settlement of our interior affairs. We, who cannot
be accused of bring ardent admirers of the English
policy, have satisfaction in declaring that its con-
duct in the present circumstances has beer worthy
of a great Power, and therefore merits our most
sincere eulogies."