The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LO DON; SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 6, 1861.

regard to another affair, and commissioned Mr.
GLADSTONE to explain his speech, or rather to give
quite a contrary interpretation to it, that astute and
sagacious unraveller of mysteries would have been
puzzled to make out wherein consisted the special
cause for satisfaction in the perusal of the despatch,
which, read in its entirety, offers no ground for re-
joicing. Fallacious as were the arguments of the
Premier upon this topic, it is certain that a source
of interest is to be found in the fact that this com-
munication was made on the day of the assemblage
of Parliament. The intention was to propitiate,
but the Ministers and Statesmen of all foreign States
have much to learn if they think that they can act
with impunity, and then make believe to pu t
away the obnoxious part of their attempt.
Such subterfuges do not, and will not
suit the people of this country, and the
sooner these convenient communications are sifted
the better. It is one thing for the name of a dis-
patch to cut a grand figure when dexterously intro-
duced into a spiteful speech by a practised hand
and another for its contents to satisfy those who
pull it' to pieces and examine its contents in sober
earnestness. The vague and misty enunciation o
policy foreshadowed in thia last achievement Off
BISMARK'S inspiration bears more affinity to what
Mr. DISRAELI characterised as an " adroit
man ceuvre," than what the declaration of one
minister to another should be in the period of a
momentous epoch, a statement that should not only
be fair seeming in its pretensions, but that should
possess the requisite amount of candour and
straightforwardness.

In the Standard of Thursday there is a letter on
he subject of Transportation to Western Australia,

which well deserves attention, and sets forth some

arguments that are of great weight and cogency.
In the first place reference is made to the notion of
some that life sentences are not numerous enough
to render them available for Western Australia.

In reply to this, it is truly remarked that
there is great need of attention in the matter o

hese same sentences. and it is in every respet

most desirable that Western Australia should
come in as an auxiliary for the greater frequency
of long sentences, not that the terms should be
made to suit the requirements of abroad. Two

hings are very essential to study in determining
he success of any plan of penal servitude, and

they are to note effect on the criminals, and the

effect on others that is produced by the iacarce,

It is well known that at present very
is done in the way of deterring, either as
regards the prisoners or the class from whom they
spring, and to whom they must return when
the period of their detention has ex
pired.

ration.

To remedy this glaring defect in
our penal system should be the especial care as it

is the bounden duty of all concerned. Unfortu•

nately the authorities treat the whole affair in too
negligent a style, and exhibit an amount of pre-
_

ndice, and act with a pertinacity that proves rata

to the cause of improvement, and puts an effeetua

stoppage on the progress of those who make ener-
getic efforts for the amelioration of the present eye-
tern. Great changes introduced in a hurried man-
ner are always very objectionable, but there can
be no reason wby care and attention should not be
devoted to the due consideration of the case. Mr.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LREUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

RUMOURED EVACUATION OF SLESWIG.
HAMBURG, FLE. 6, 11.30. A.M.
No news from the theatre of war has been re.
ceived here for the last three days.
It is stated that the Prussians have formed a cor-
don in Sleswig, and allow no war intelligence to
pass.

Severe fighting is supposed to be going on, as
numbers of wounded are constantly brought into
Rendsburg.

HAMBURG, Feb. 6, 12.20 P.M.

It is stated here that the town of Sleswig
has been evacuated by the Danes, and that Mis-
sunde has been taken.

AMERICA.

-

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
ARRIVAL OF THE SCOTIA.
CAPE CLEAR, Friday.

The royal mail steamer Scotia, from New York,
passed Cape Clear, at about half-past two p.m. She
was intercepted by the Magnetic Telegraph Com-
pany's boat, and having thrown telegraphic de-
spatches overboard, she proceeded immediately for
Queenstown and Liverpool, all well.
QUEENSTOWN, Friday Night.
The royal mail steamer Scotia, which sailed from
New York on the 27th ult. arrived off the harbour.
She brings 114 passengers, and 547,662 dols. in
specie. Having landed mails and 11 passengers, she
proceeded for Liverpool; all well. She experienced
easterly minds throughout the voyage.
NEW YORK, Jan. 26 (Evening).
The Federal officersewho arrived at Cincinnati on
the 24th from Knoxville, reported that General
Longstreet had been reinforced by 20,000 men, and
that he was advancing on Knoxville, pushing the
Federals before him. Advices from Nashville, how-
ever, assert that General Longstreet's movement
was only to recover the forage ground occupied by
the Federals, and that is he is now returning.
The Chattanooga correspondent of the World
asserts that General Longstreet's plan of campaign
is to endeavour to capture Knoxville and move im-
mediately into Central Kentucky to obtain supplies,
and by this means to force General Grant to
evacuate Chattanooga.
A correspondence has taken place betwee❑ Gen.
Longstreet and Gen. Foster, at Knoxville, concern-
ing the circulation of President Lincoln's procla-
mation of amnesty among Gen. Longstreet's troops.
Gen. Longstreet says—" If the object in view is to
hasten the day of peace, 1: suggest the propriety of
the Federal Government communicating their views
on this subject through me rather than through
handbills circulated among the soldiers." General
Foster replied, accepting the suggestion, and said
it would have been more courteous to send docu-
ments for circulation through Gen. Longstreet, and
enclosed 20 copies of the proclamation, relying on
Gen. Longstreet's desire for peace to give them
publicity.
The guerilla Gen. Morgan was at Atlanta, in
order to organise cavalry to cut off the communica-
tion between Chattanooga and Knoxville, or make
a raid into Kentucky. He made a speech declaring
that the Federals must evacuate Chattanooga.
There was considerable excitement at Louisville
concerning the anticipated Confederate raid, it
being asserted that the Confederates would enter
Kentucky at three different points.
Union refugees, who have returned to East Ten-
nessee, are reported to be committing atrocities, and
murdering Southern residents.

NEW YORK, Jan. 27.
The news is generally unimportant.
The shelling of Charleston still continues.
Dejection in the Southern army appears to be
becoming universal.
The Federals have made a successful raid upon
the James River, and captured large quantities of
stores,
The Confederate Vice• President Stephens is dan-
gerously ill at Augusta, in Georgia.
The house of President Davis, at Richmond, has
been set fire to and robbed. _ .

Vv
The Federal General Grant arrived in St. Louis
on the 26th. General Rosencranz was expected
there on the 27th.
Mr. Fernando Wood has spoken strongly, in the
House of Representatives, in favour of peace, de.
daring that the aaministration opposed the restora-
tion of the Union, and favoured the maintenance of
war for partisan advantage. He said the most
damnable deeds were perpetrated under the plea
of patriotism;
The Republican members of the New Jersey
Legislature have nominated Mr. Lincoln for the
P residency.
Advices from Charleston to 23d state that the
Federals were throwing one shell into the city every
five minutes, night and diy.
The Damascus has arrived out.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

NEW YORK, JAN. 27

Money tight. Gold, 571 ptn. Exchange on
London, 172 ; on Paris, 3.221. Stocks lower ;
New York Central, 1351; Illinois, 126 ; Erie, 1071 ;
6 per Cent. U. S. Bonds, 1051. •

Thackeray's Likeness,

--.3,-

The last, and in some respects the best, be-
yond all doubt the most interesting Likeness of
Thackeray, is the little carte de visite half-profile
photographed very beautifully by S. Ayling,
of 495, New Oxford-street, from a drawin g
(now the property of Chief Baron Pollock)
taken very recently (from the life) by the skilled
crayon of Samuel Laurence. The famous portrait
of Thackeray taken by S. Laurence years ago—the
portrait so admirably engraved by Holl and so
eloquently eulogised by Charlotte Bronte—is
known, of course, long since, to almost every one.
But the same artist's second limning of our
great humourist, the one now so very charmingly
and opportunely photographed by Mr. Ayling,
possesses in some particulars a superior attraction
even to that more highly elaborated work of art.
It shows us—this thrice-welcome carte de visite—
Thackeray as he was shortly before his lamented
death, Lightly sketched though the portraiture
is, it is pronounced by the most intimate friends
of the deceased to be—among all the pictures taken
of him—the most lifelike.

Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and
Baronetage for 1864.

Always admirably good, Debrett's Peerage-7
"The British Bib e," as poor Thackeray calls it
in his witty Book of Snobs—is better than ever in
this its latest issue. It is more complete, this edi•
tion of it for 1864, than any one of its predecessors.
It appears to have been more carefully revised. It
is as compact as any such publication can possibly
contrive to be, with a due regard to comprehensive-
ness. It is illustrated profusely with heraldic designs.
It is arranged.alphabetically. Its abbreviations are
perfectly clear and comprehensible throughout. And
altogether, for three half-crowns, the purchaser, in it,
obtains the most reliable repertory of information
any where procurable in regard to every one directly
related to, or forming an integral portion of, that
Aristocracy of ours, known, in common parlance, as
the Upper Ten Thousand. Yet so wonderfully diffi-
cult must be the task of securing strict accuracy in
a compilation, made up of materials so perpetually
fluctuating—a task as difficult in its way as that of
taking a faithful sketch of a pattern in a kaleidoscope,
when the kaleidoscope is being perpetually shaken—
that even here, in this most recently and most care•

fully revised edition of Debrett, we note sparsely
sprinkled among the contents, infinitesimal errors of
facts,s)ips of the pen, slips of the press. For example,
the venerable Bishop of Exeter is spoken of, at page
225, as the " son of Mr. John Phillpotts, Esq., of
Bridgewater." Again, at page 149, Earl Nelson's
coat-of arms (supporters and all) is found to be be-
wilderingly, introduced in its proper place, topsy-
turvy. While, immediately above it, as if that
particular page of the work had somehow been un-
luckily overlooked in the correcting of the proof.
sheets, the motto of the Napier's, " Ready, aye
Ready," is oddly enough translated into "Without
Stain !" Another while, if we turn the literacy
microscope of hypercritism upon the volume, solely
with an eye to test the correctness of the typography
we may instance, at page 16, an announcement (that
would rather tend to puzzle a Foreigner) in re_
spect to the marriage of the Duchess of Inver-
ness, to the effect that the legality of her grace's
marriage with H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex
" was not sanctioned by the English aw"—the

I having slipped up inadvertently a couple cf lines
higher and thence never having been brought
down again ! As a whole, however, the
work is really a marvel of accuracy. Ap-
pended to the original contents, moreover, it
is only fair to add, before closing our notice
of this new Edition of Debrett for the current
year, that besides the full and copious Peerage and
Baronetage, et cetera, the volume now at our elbow
comprises within it all the various orders of knight-
hood, together with many most acceptable explana-
tions (for the unlearned) of Heraldic figtires and

terms, such as--•points of the escutcheon, tinctures,
furs, charges, and roundles ; dexter, sinister, fess,
and nombril ; gules, purpure, or, and argent ;
ermine, ermines, and erminois ; passant, rampant,
couchant, and retardant ; bruised, couped, roussant,
and adorsed ; bezant, pomey, galpe, and torteaux.