The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-22 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times' Correspondent.)

NEW YORK, May 5.
M. Chase, before whose mind's eye the Presi-
dency in 1864 looms large and beautiful—a vision
of beatitude the realization of which will consign
Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward, General Halleek, Mr.
Stanton, General M'Clellen, and various others to
private life for evermcre_has been making a tri-
umphal tourney in New England, sowing, as it
were, the seeds of the future laurels that are to be
gathered in d ue course to twine round his Presideatli al
brow. On Saturday last, while the first great-battle
of Chancellorsville was yet raging in all its fury, he
made a speech to the "solid men of Boston," at the
Merchants' Exchange News-room, and expressed to
them his firm belief that the war was fast approach-
ing its termination. Can Mr. Chase believe this?
be the men of Boston believe it ? Does anybody
believe it ? Or was he really of opinion that General
Hooker would annihilate the army of General
ice and march triumphantly and unimpeded into
Richmond ? If so, the events of that awful Satur-
day on which he deliver ed his cheerful little speech,
followed by those of the equally awful Sunday
which left the tremendous struggle undecided, must
before this have clused him to set limits to the
exuberance of his imagination, if they had not
forced him to speculate on the results that might
ensue if Generel Hooker were signally defeated,
and Washington left open to the advance of the
Confederates—contingencies which are present to
many minds, and which in this city this afternoon
were actually reported to have occurred, and found
thousands of believers.

Bat, notwithstanding the absorbing interest of
this great struggle—which few are sanguine enough
to believe will end in the infliction of such a defeat
on the Confederates as will bring the war a whit
nearer to its conclusion—the extracts from the
London journals, which make known for the first
time the increasing irritation in England on the
subject of Federal interference with legitimate
British trade, are earnestly studied and commented
upon. The prevalent feeling is one of suprise that
se much spirit should be exhibited by the Old Coun-
try. P: ople here have so long been in the habit of
thinking that Great Britain would endure almost
any amount of contumely and wrong at the hands
of the United States, rather than have recourse to
the perilous alternative of war, that the Americans,
both official and non-official, have come to look upon
England as the recognised butt of American ill-
nature, and as the only strong Power in Europe
which could be bullied and injured with impunity.
They would rejoice to go on provoking England for
ever, provided England would only express annoy-
ance or resentment in words, but now that there
seems to be a prospect that England will vindicate
the honour of her fl3g, and protect her legitimate
trade at any cost, even at the cost of a war with the
United States in the crisis of their national peril,
wonder at the unexpected pluck of the British has
given place to alarm--ill-concealed under a plethora
of big words and unmeaning menaces. The indis-
cretion of Mr. Adams in granting what was equiva-
lent to a free pass, a certificate of safety to a British
vessel, with an American cargo, bound from neutral
England to neutral Mexico,is universally condemned,
and if the recall of that Minister would administer
a salve to the wounded pride of John Bull, he would
not only be recalled, but snubbed, in a long-winded
epistle from Mr. Seward. The symptoms are that
the Government and the commercial classes of the
United States do not desire a war with England,
that they will yield almost anything rather than
incur it, and that nothing is so well calculated to
keep the sentimental hostility of both within safe
bounes as a steady determination on the part of
the British Government to " stand no nonsense."
Were it possible to re-unite the North and South,
and induce them to live amicably together for the
future, a war with Great Britain to cement their
new affection by the bonds of a common enterprise
and a common danger would be exceedingly popu-
lar in this country. Democrats and republicans,
slave-owners and Abolitionists, the platform and
the pulpit would alike accept it as a natural and a
pleasant necessity; but, under existing circum-
stances, the luxury, as an Abolitionist paper admits,
would be too expensive, as well as too inconvenient
to indulge in.

The Hawkins Zouaves, one of the veteran regi-
ments
of the war, returned to New York thismorn-
ing frcm the camp at Suffolk, and matched up
Broadway, its colours flying, its drums beating, fully
armed and equipped, amid the deafening cheers of
a multitude that crowded the side walks, and filled
(wry window and balcony commanding a view of
the procession. This is the regiment the lieutenant-
colonel of which (Kimball) was ruthlessly slain by
General Corcoran, under circumstances that had
never been investigated—for the cowardly reason
that the Irish stratum of American society might
have made an unpleasant upheaval if so favourite
an Irishman had been brought to trial. Had the re-
giment being going to battle, instead of returning
from it disgusted—its time up, and filled with the
inflexible determination to fight no more, either for
patriotism, for glory, or for greenbacks—the warm
applause of the spectators might have been more en-
couraging to those who still believe in the vigorous
prosecution of the war. In this case gratitude was '
not a keen appreciation of favours to come, but a
simple acknowledgment of favours past. Doubtless
there were many in the crowd who, amid the occa-
sional pauses in the storm of cheers, found leisure
to reflect that these fine hardy fellows, trained to
the hardships of battle, would have been far better
employed in this day of danger, in swelling the
ranks of General Hooker than in making a holiday
procession up Broadway. However, the men are
not to be blamed. They had made a bargain with
the Government and had honourably fulfilled their
portion of it, perilling life and health in the public
service for the time agreed, but not wishing to peril
either any longer under such a General as Corcoran,
or perhaps under any other. The fact remains, how-
ever, that the Government can ill spare such men
as these, and that it takes no present measures to
supply their places.
Gen. Burnside, a weak man, who has periodical
attacks of spasmodic vigour, having failed to acquire
the distinction he coveted in the legitimate field of
military operations, appears to snatch notoriety by
servile imitation of the high-handed imperialism of
Gen. Butler and Gen. Schenck. In general order
N 0.38, dated at Cincinnati, where he now com-
mands, he declared it to be his intention to banish
to the South all persons who would express or show
sympathy with the rebellion, and in pursuance of
his declared
has forcibly removed from Cin-
Ywhere she had for some time resided, Mrs.
Semmes, the wipe
efCapt. Semmes, of the Confede-
rate warship Alabamaport together with a considerable
number of citizens,
Whose: business will be entirely
ruined by their de
still more" vigorous" )
act on his part is reported A
by telegraph this after-
noon—no less than theforcilleseizure, in his own
house, by a company of soldiers
sent 60 miles by
railway for the purpose, of the Ho
digham, late member of Congress, la;
C. L. Vallan-
digham,
the Governorship of Ohio. This
isnaCandidate
flying at high
game, and in the present temper of the 'Western
people is exceedingly dangerous. The charge against
Mr. Vallandigham is his public disapproval
of
General Egreside's order N 0.38 before an audience
of 20,000 persons, and his sympathy with the
South. Mr. Vallandigham has been transferred
to prison in Cincinnati, preparatory, the reports
allege, to being sent under military escort to the
South. It remains to be seen whether the Govern-
ment will support General Burnside in this daring
outrage. General Hascall, a subordinate of General
Burnside, who rules in Indiana, is following in the
same course, doubtless in obedience to instructions.
A Mr. C. W. Morrison, of Terre Haute, who pub-
licly expressed his admiration for Mr. Jefferson
Davis, was arrested the next day, and ordered to
be transported to the South within 24 hours. Dr.
Dorsey, represented as a " prominent Democrat,"
of Indianopolis, was not only arrested, but led
through the streets handcuffed, for exhibiting in a
manner displeasing to the general his sympathy for
the South ; and a certain Capt. Hicks, whose only
known offence was that letters from Dr. Dorsey
were found in his possession, pas subjected to the
same
Penalty. So many arrests of Knights of the
Golden Circle" and others have been made in Illi-
r which forms a portion of General BurnaideB