The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-15 00:00:00

found, I think, that Early will be strong enough to
hold his ground at Strasburg until winter makes
further operations in the Valley impossible.
Meantime, in spite of the pains in the Northern
journals as to the vast reinforcements which are
going forward to Grant, it is the universal
opinion here that tens of thousands, not only of
men, but of efficient soldiers, will be required to
prevail against a system of defence upon which Lee
has lavished all the resources of his science. It is
hard to say what will be the result if during the
whole of next year the Federal Government can
command men by the hundred thousand who are
willing to surrender life in order that the Union
may be resuscitated; lott I see no reason to think
that there will be any change in the position of
affairs before Petersburg during the coming winter
unless it be possible that Lee may fall back to the
west bank of the Appomattox, and hold the fine
defensive position afforded by the hills which line
the left bank of that stream. There is abundant
cause for thinking that Wilmington is the great
thorn in the flesh of the Federals at this moment,
and that we shall witness a desperate attack upon
this place within the next seven weeks. It is hardly
possible that operations against it could be con-
ducted in the winter, as the coast of North Carolina
is notoriously dangerous of approach at that season.

[-*** This letter has been delayed in tranemiasion. We
have already published letters from the same correspondent
to the 12th ult.]

A Scoto-American on the War and War
Prices,

(Front the Scotenzan.)
The following is an extract from a letter from an
ex-Edinburgh man to his brother here, dated New
York, Oct. 25, 1864. The writer, who with his
family has been settled for 13 years in America, is

in business in New York. In this country his poli-
tical views were of a Radical cast, but he appears
to have been converted by practical experience of

Democracy. Referring to the war, he says :
"It is a fearful waste of human life, and to-day,
to all appearance, as far from a settlement as it was
three years ago. lamat a loss how to account for
the coldness with which the people of this country

receive from day to day the accounts of thousands
of their friends and relations cut down in the prime
of life—and for what ? Just that one party may
rule over another, aid dictate to others how they
should manage their concerns instead of attending
to their own. 'flat has been the cause of all the
fearful waste of blood and money; and now 1 am
confident it has come to a point that there can be
no settlement unless iu separation. This great coun-

try used to be the boast of all lovers of man, as an
example of man's being able to rule himself. This
is at an end, and I am also convinced that the South
will not be the only part that will separate—other
sections will break off to save themselves from the
pit the war has dug. You at home cannot imagine
how the people are grumbling at the heavy taxa-
tion that is put upon them. It was their beast that

in this free country there were no taxation and no
tax.gatherers, as in the old country. However, I
very soon found out the difference. If the taxman
did not come to your door once a-year, as at home,
I found the landlord or his agent on the first of
every month. At home the tenant pays the local
taxes according to rent; hero the landlord pays
them all and puts it on the rent; and
the great democracy thought they paid no texas,
and were quite well pleased, and voted in the
scum of society as their rulers; they, of course,
rose from street•swcepera to rule over a
great and a free people. I have often looked with
surprise to eec men put up for dike when, if they
had had their deserts, they would have been serving
the State in a very different way. But, as I have
said to you before, this all arises from universal suf-
frage; the thing don't work. If there had been a I
clause in the constitution compelling men either to
hold property or pay a certain amount of rent, there
would have been a very different class of men sent
to represent the country ; and if I mistake not, this
war would have been avoided, and the country
would have gone on prospering. Bad and corrupt
rulers will destroy the beet country ever the sun
shone upon ; and such is the fate of this. lam
sorry for it, because it was a good home for the poor
man, and ono where, by industry, he could make
a comfortable living. lam afraid that is at an ecd.
. . . Since this most unnatural war commenced,

only one class of men has made money, and the,'
class must have influence to get army or navj work
An honest man has no chance whatever—cud never
was there a people co shamefully robbed with their
eyes open to it ; but the thing is so universal that
they think nothing of it, You would listen with
surprise to hear them sometimes in my store talking
over their acts of villany ; and those that listen
smile and put them down as devilish smart fellows.
Everything in the way of house-keeping is three
or four prices, and clothing is out of the questio❑
fora poor man. I paid for James last week for
a pair of black pants 13 dols., or £3 of your money ;
last night he had a pair of boots footed, 71 dols., or
£1 10s.-510 yon see money don't ge far. You can't
get a good overcoat this winter short of 80 dols.,
or £l6; so you can judge how the man with a small
income can get along; and provisions are in keeping
with the above. Coal, that need to be about 6 dols.
in the fall of the year, sold at 141 dols. this. Flour
has more than doubled. Tea, sugar, coffee, &c.
the same. Even vegetables, a small cab-
bage-stock, which used to cost 3c., is now
15c. But how can it be otherwise ? Everything
is taxed, it don't matter what it is ; even lucifer
matches. I have bought them for Bc. a pack-36
small bundles in a pack. Now, each bundle has to
have on it a one-cent. Government stamp—so be
tween 36 stamps, the rise otherwise, the Bc. pack.
age that used to be is now charged 50c. Everything
is tax, tax; all to assist one section of a Republic to
force the other to their views, just or unjust. L
would make your heart sick it you were obliged, as
I am sometimes, to listen to soldiers who have re-
turned from the seat of war describing what they
saw—of wilful destruction to thousands of once
happy and comfortable families—whole sections of
fine country laid desolate with fire and sword. To-
day, I heard a captain who came home last night
from the Shenandoah Valley. The account he gave
me was heartrending, although, apparently, he did
not think so. The Valley is the garden of the State
of Virginia, rich in farming lands—in fact, the best
in the South. Grant gave the order some weeks
ago that, wherever the Federal army went, they
should destroy everything ; and they have faith-
fully fulfilled his commands. The captain told me
to-day that for miles the eye could sea nothing but
smoke from the burning farm-houses, barns, hay
stacks, flour mills, &c. Nothing left that was likely
to support man or beast. Those possessed of cattle
of any description had it taken from them and sent
to the Federal lines. How long will this continue ?
And this is the way one party of men thinks to get
the other into the Union. No, those men have lost
their all—their homes destroyed ; fathers and
brothers killed fighting to defend them—mothers
and sisters gone to their last account, broken-
hearted I What have they to live for, let me ask
you—you, a father of a family ? The answer is, I
know, Revenge. So long as God gives me strength
[ to wield a sword or carry a musket.' This is, in my
opinion, the sentiment of the Southern people."

THE BRIG o' TTRK HOTEL.—We regret to learn
that at a late hour on Thursday a most destrao-
tive fire broke out in the Brig o' Turk Hotel, situated some
two or three miles from Loch Katrine, and known to all
tourists in Scotland. It commenced about the upper parts
of the building, and was not subdued till nearly the entire
building was burnt down. Owing to the exertions of those
in the neighbourhood a good deal of the furniture was
saved. We are glad to hear that the furnishings, valued,
it is said, at about £2,000, aro covered partly by insurance.
The house was the property of the Earl of Moray, but we
have not yet heard whether any insurance was effected on
it. It will be recollected that the Prince and Princess of
Wales not long ago took up their residence at the hotel-
-22 apartments having been engaged for the Royal party and
suite.—Caledonian Mercury.
[ADVERTISEMENT.]---Holloway's Pills.---Enfeebled
Existence.—This medicine embraces every attribute re-
quired in a general and domestic remedy ; it overturns the
foundations of disease laid by indigestible food and impure
air. In obstructions or congestions of the liver, lungs,
bowels, or any other organ, these pills are especially ser-
viceable and eminently successful, They should be kept in
every family, as they are a medicine without a fault for
young persons, and those of feeble constitutions. They
never cause pain or irritat'e the most sensitive nerves or
most tender bowels. Holloway's pills aro the best known
purifiers of the blood, and the best promoters of absorption
and secretion, which remove all poisonous and obnoxious
particles from both solids and fluids.

THE SVN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVE.NING, INOVEMBER 15, 1864.

periodicals open to such contributions, where the contend-
ing parties may find full space to advocate their respective
views. Exciting as these topics are, and valuable as they
often prove in leading to great discoveries, their real im-
portance must be determined by the testimony of such
patient observers as Livingstone and others now happily
present in this room, whose well-defined observations are
recorded in the volumes of our society. Lastly, let me con-
gratulate you on our increasing prosperity, as testified by
the cheering fact that at this the first meeting of the session
no less than 37 candidates are desirous of being enrolled as
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society."
Before resuming his seat Sir R. MURCHISON announced
that the Emperor of Brazil had been elected that morning
one of the five honorary members of the society, and that a
telegram had been received, stating that the African steamer
Calabar brought word of the safe arrival of Dr Baikie from
exploring the Niger and adjacent territory.
Capt. BURTON then read a paper entitled " Lake Tan-
yika, Ptolemy's Western Lake Reservoir of the Nile." This
treatise, which was a considerable length, and which was
illustrated by frequent references to a huge map of Africa,
suspended on the wall, professed to be a purely geographical
notice of a paper by Captain Spoke, "The upper basin of
the Nile from inspection and informations." It entered
into a great variety of geographical details, combating the
late Capt. Speke's theory in reference to the source of the
Nile. The view taken by Capt. Burton may be generally
conveyed by quoting the few last sentences of his paper :
"I believe Ptolemy's Niger to be not less exactly laid down
than his Nile, and that he knew mote about it than Europe
did before the days of Richard Lander. And in confidence
of his sagacity I cannot but believe the Tanganyika to be
the western lake reservoir of Father Nile. The word
source' is expressly avoided, in the belief, with Mr
M'Queen, that a lake unless it be a mere 'eye' of water,
cannot be taken as the head of a river, though the river may
issue from it. Lake Baikal is not the head of the Yenessei
River, Lake Tsana is not the head of the Blue Nile, Lake
Geneva is not the head of the Rhone, Lake Lausanne is not
the head of the Rhine, Lake Superior is not the head of
the St. Lawrence, nor Lake Winnipeg the head of the Sas-
katchewan, and so of other rivers on this globe. I will
conclude with a statement, which to some may appear para-
doxical—namely, that the real sources of the Nile, the 'great
Nile problem,' so far from being 'settled for ever' by the
late exploration, are thrown further from discussion than
before. They are not, we have been told, in eeubibus, but
they elude our vision. The exploratory labours of years,
perhaps of a whole generation, must be lavished before
even a rough:survey of the southernNileotic basin can treat
the subject with approximate correctness of detail. Mais
les sources du Nil, song elles decouvertes I inquires our fellow
labourer in the field of geographical science, M. V. A,
Malte-Brun, 'Vous ne le croyonspas.. No geographer does,
no geographer can, believe in the actual settlement of the
Nile sources. That the Tanganyika is the western top
head of the great Nile, and that the Bahiri-Ngo, which
supplies the Tubiri, is the eastern, I have little doubt. But
the Arcanum Magnum of Old-World Geography has not
yet been solved. It still remains to this generation, as to
its forefathers, ' Caput quaerere Nili'— to close the Canon
of geographical discovery."
After a brief discussion, in which Dr Livingstone, who was
warmly applauded on rising to speak, took part,
Sir R. MURCHISON read a letter from Captain Grant,
testifying to Capt. Speke's accuracy of observation during
his journey, and explaining that the " Mountains of the
Moon,"_as they were drawn in the original maps, were
merely an exaggeration of the engravers, originating not
with him, but in some foreign map made by a German for
his rough sketches. The President of the society then con-
gratulated the company on the tone in which the discussion
had been conducted, and said nothing had fallen from the
eminent author of the paper which they had just heard read
which could for a moment divert them from the intention of
subscribing for a moment to that distinguished traveller,
Captain Speko; for whether Captain Burton were entirely
right and Captain Speke wrong, at any rate Captain Speko
was the first to traverse Equatorial Africa from the south to
the north. As to the great question under discussion, no-
thing but the investigation of travellers could decide that,
and he had received a letter from M. Du Chaillu mention-
ing his intention to follow the line of the equator as far as
possible, until ho met some river flytving into the Nile. M.
Du Chaillu added that he had sent to the British Museum
seven gorilla skeletons and six gorilla skins preserved in
salt, and among the live stock, he added, would be found a
live gorilla (Hear, and laughter.)
Captain BURTON observed, with respect to the statement
relative to the Mountains of the Moon, that they were dis-
tinctly marked in the map which Captain Speke first sent
over.
The meeting then broke up about 11 o'clock.

The accounts from the manufacturing diAriets for the
past week have in some instances been satisfactory. At

Manchester there has been a fait' inquiry for cloths and
yarns for the Indian markets, and prices have shown an
upward tendency. The woollen trade of Leeds, Bradford,
_ _ _ _ .

and Huddersfield, however, has been dull, while at Leices-
ter and Nottingham only moderate transactions have taken
place in both hosiery and lace goods. In the hardware
districts of Birmingham, Sheffield, and Wolverhampton
there has been little change of importance.
A MONSTER GUN.—A 20in. Rodman gun was re.
cently tried with success at New York. The llertdd
says :—" Though this gun has already been described in
the herald it will not be out of place here to say that it

weighs nearly 117,0001 b. Its diameter or thickness is nearly
Eft at the breech, and its bore is 20in. The solid shot it
throws is I,oBolb in weight, and the regular charge of pow-
der is 100 lb, which may be inercasel to 1251 b. It is calcu •
lated that there are few armoured ships afloat whose sides
this monster would not crush. The gun was first loaded
with the regular charge of powder-100lb —a blank car•
tridge, and fired amid the applause of the spectators.
The report was not louder than that of a 10-pounder
Parrott loaded will solid shot, nor was it near so shrill.

Probably it did not create so great a concussion of the
atmosphere, and could not be heard so far. On examining

the monster to see the effect, it was noticed that it had only
deigned to roll itself back disdainfully about two feet. The
air was sulphurous for a considerable distance around it.
This time the " big fellow" was loaded with 501 b of powder
and a solid shot weighing I,oBolb. The shot was driven 600
or 800 yards, when it dropped in the bay, ricocheted two
or three times, knocking up splashes of spray as largo as a
ship in full sail and twice as high, and finally disappeared in
the water. On examining the gun after this discharge it was
found to have moved on its carriage just enough to show that
it knew how to work and to work easy. The final trial was by
far the most interesting and important of all that preceded
it. Great impatience for the result was manifested by the
spectators. A heavy concussion or the ground as well as
the atmosphere was new looked for, and there was just
enough of anxiety for the safety of the giant, who was now
become a pet among those who were not familiar with its
powers, as to lend the additional charm of excitement to the
interest hitherto felt. The gun had now in a full charge of
1001 b, of powder, and I,oBolb. ball. At length it was loaded,
and it 'was announced that the fuse was about to be fired.
Every one rushed out of the way, and many took shelter
behind the redoubts of the fort. The fuse hissed and flamed,
but while all waited breathlessly for the flash, it only turned
out to be flash in the pan.' The fuse failed. An officer
then went up, who must have had groat confidence in the
gun, and snapped the cap, and off went the big gun. The
report was very little louder than that which immediately
preceded it. There was no perceptible concussion of the
ground, and indeed very little of anything to lead you to
think that the greatest gun known to exist had then been
fired. The shot whirled through the air from the angle of
25 degrees, at which the gun was elevated, and, after de-
scribing a beautiful arc, which was visible to the naked eye,
dropped into the water about four miles off. The noise made
by the collision of the ball and the air, in the flight of the
former, was like the wail of a giant. It was something like
the peculiar noise made by a hurricane passing through a
ship's rigging. It was the scream of the eagle, The volume
of spray thrown up by the ball after its contact with the
water was so great that we could not see whether it rico-
cheted or not, though many said it did. On examining
the effect on the gun, it was discovered that this time the

giant was foaming a little at the mouth, the smoke of the
burnt powder still oozing from the muzzle. Ho had consented
to roll himself back five feet, but in other respects was just
as before."

CLAIMS AGAINST THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY.
—At the Sheriffs' Court, Red Lion-Equ%re, yester-
day, three claims were made against the Metropolitan Rail-
way for injuries to tradesmen in the Euston-load during the
progress of the works of the railway. The first claim was
by a Mr Colo, a house decorator and paperhanger in the
Easton-road, who claimed £6OO for the injury done to his
business in the Easton-road, where he had been successful
in trade until he was interfered with by the obstructions
caused by the railway. It had so affected him that he got
rid of the place and was now ant of business. Ile said he
was not aware that he had a claim for compensation. The
injury was done in 1861 and 1862. The jury awarded £5OO.
In the second case, " Dietman v. the Metropolitan Rail-

way" the claim was for £6OO. Dietman was a baker and
confectioner at the corner of the fiampstead-road, in the
Euston-road, where the omnibuses stopped, and money was
mado out of the business. When the railway came the
business fell off, and his daughter said she had remained up
all night fearing that the house would fall down. Customers
would not enter the shop, and her father's mind became
affected. They were obliged to get rid of the lease and to
pay the creditors. Her father's mind had given way, and
when he got out he always went to the corner shop, and was
continually asking when he was to be ‘, taken home." His
daughter said that he could neither dress nor feed himself,
and she attributed it all to the railway. After the case had
proceeded some way the matter was settled. It was admitted
to be a hard case, and £lOO was given by the company to
settle the matter. The jury gave a verdict for that amount
by consent. The third case was "Ell v. the Metropolitan
Railway Company," and the claim was for £650. The
claimant was a ladder-maker and wheelwright in the Eus-
ton•road. The business had been injured in 1861 by the
works of the railway, and the claim was delayed by Mr Ell
not knowing how to proceed or whether he had a right to
compensation. The case was adjourned to the 2d December.
In the three cases Mr Waddy appeared for the claimants,
and Mr Harrison fox the company. Mr Humphreys, the
coroner, heard ,the cases as assessor, in consequence of Mr
Sheriff Dakin being one of the directors of the Metropolitan
Railway Company.