The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-19 00:00:00

CRYSTAL PALACE. —TO - MORROW about either currency or credit ; but Mr LINCOLN
IL) UNUSUAL SPECIAL HOLIDAY ATTRACTIONS.
General TOM THUMB and his WIFE, Mrs. STRATTON, is sanguine, thinking perhaps the national patience
MINNIE WARREN (sister to Mrs. General TOM is as inexhaustible as the national resources.
THUMB) and Commodore NUTT, will hold their SECOND
GRAND RECEPTION on the Great Orchestraat the Crystal According to the report of the Secretary of the
alace, TO-MORROW (Tuesday), Dec. 20, at Three o'clock.
The Reception will commence at Three o'clock in front of Treasury, the expenses to be provided during the
the Great Orchestra. The full band of the Company will
perform selections of popular music during ;he Reception. current year, including the interest of the public
Visitors will be allowed to pass to reserved seats on to the
orchestra, being also tersonally introduced to the party. debt, amount to 1,400,000,000 dols., of which the
Tickets, One Shilling each.
The infant daughter of the General and Mrs Stratton will customs and miscellaneous sources are estimated to
be in alteLdance in the large room adjoinng the Egyptian
,Court from Two o'clock Tickets, Hall-a-Crown each, will produce 788,000,000 dols., or little more than half,
give admission to the latter as well as entitle to seats on the
leaving 620,000,C00 dole. Further measures re-
vat Orchestra during the Reception.
No extra charge for admission. One Shilling only. Addi-
tional railway trains. The Palace welt warmed, and every-
thi duce this amount to 482,000,000 dole., which are to
ng under cover. Open at Ten. Visitors shoull come early. „
ue supplied by loans. Mr FESSENDEN objects to
the negotiation of a foreign loan, which might
perhaps be difficult to obtain, and therefore the
loyal people of the States are to be called upon
to invest their capital still further in " the national
private property." Mr LINCOLN recommends the
Congress to pass a constitutional amendment abo-
lishing slavery throughout the United States. He
also informs them that in consequence of depreda-
tions on the Canadian frontier, the stipulated six
months' notiee has been given to Great Britain that
he United Stares will increase their naval force on
he lakes, so that our North American kinsfolk era

CRYSTAL PALACE. —TO - NIORROW
Tbe only place to spen d a pleasant day. FREE FROM
COLD, FOG, RAIN, or SNOW. Palace open from Ten.
Wa, med and brilliantly lighted up at dusk.
THE WINTER GARDEN OF THE IN ORLD.

CSTAL PALACE. - 'lO -
Warmed and brilliantly lignted up at dusk. One
Snillin g.
_ _

- -
NOTE. To-day the palace was bathed in the most brilliant
sunshine. The i• terior, warmed up to 55 degrees of Fahren-
heit (the temperate point), was a most a4reeable promenade,

LIFEBOAT SERVICPS.—Durinz the storms
of the past year the boats of the National Lifeb9at
Institution have saved 426 persons from different wrecks on
our coasts, The Institution also expended £14,770 in the
same period on lifeboat et tablishments, in addition to grant-
lug .£1,49- as rewards for saving 692 shipwrecked peraons by
its lifeboats, and other means
The Committee of the Institution earnest'y A PPEAL to
the public for ASSISTANCE to enable them to meet the
continued heavy ctemands on the Institution's 138 lifeboat
establishments.

not premature in their movements for concentrating
their forces. It would certainly be advisable that
Great Britain should take the hint and place a strong
naval force on the lakes by way of preventing de-
predations on a larger scale. The President had
better act upon the remark of his Secretary to the
Treasury, who expresses his opinion that if the ex-
pense and duration of the war had been foreseen it
would not have been undertaken. Mr LINCOLN is,

Contributions are received by Messrs Willis and Co.,
Herries and Co., Coutta and Co., and by all the London and
country bankers ; and by the Secretary Richard Lewis, Esq.,
at the Institution, 14, John-street, Adelphi.

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT
GARDEN.
(Opera Company, Limited.)
Last Night but Two before Christmas.
First Appearance of Mdlle. AdelaLfe Cornelis.
Madame Lemmens-Sherrington.
THIS EVENING (Monday), Dec. 19, will be performed
Flotow's opera, MARTHA. Lady Henrietta, Madame
Lemmens-Sherrington ; Nancy, 3ldlle. Ade'aide Cornet's,
from the Royat Conservatoire, BrussAs,•her first appearance
in England ; Plunkett. Mr. Henry Corti; Lord Tristan, Mr.
A. Cook; Sheriff of Richmond, Mr. E. Drussek ; and Lionel,
Mr. Henry Haigh.
To conclude with the Third Act of MASANIELLO.
Conductor, Mr Alfred Mellon.
The Incidental Divertissement will be supported by Mdlles.
Duchateau and Bonianti.
Commence at half-past 7 o'clock. Private boxes, from
10s. 6d, upwards ; stalls, 7s. ; dress circle, is. ' • upper
boxes, 45.; amphitheatre stalls, 3s. and 2s ; pit 2s. 6d. ;
gallery, ls. No charge for booking places. The box-office is
open from 10 till 5.

however, ail yet a long way from confessing this.
He talks very largely of the amnesty offered to the
Southerners, and continues to make its terms appear
very elastic, but the Southerners are not inclined
to accept them. He says that though DAVIS cannot
re-enter the Union his followers are not pledged,
but if they decline his offers he threatens the adop.
tion of more rigorous measures. Seeing that the
new tactics of the Northern generals are to
burn every house and devastate every corn
field, it is not easy to see what more
rigorous measures can bo in the background.
Meanwhile, in military matters, SHERMAN has not
yet achieved hie grand success. The accounts are
most conflicting, the most noticeable discrepancy
being between the Federal account, which places
him six miles from Savannah, and the Confederate
version, which reports him eighty miles distant.
As the Confederate are on the spot and have a much
batter knowledge of the locality, they are certainly
likely to be better informed, supposing both accounts
to be equally genuine. On the 20th, SHERMAN is
said to have unsuccessfully attacked Macon, but
again he is reported to have crossed the Aconee on
the 23d, having been driven back next day. He
is said to have captured *Millen, and Federal trans-
sports of the 30th ult. state that he had occupied
that city, and was then six miles from Savannah ;
but Richmond papers, four days later, deny the
capture of Millen, and report that the Federals had,
in American phraseology, been " whipped," and
their relief column completely defeated. If SHER-
MAN gets through, which is doubtful enough, the
Southern journals pronounce that he will do so with
the loss of half his army. They declare that he is
hemmed in by peril, and not the least of his dangers
is the lack of supplies, for the destruction along
his line of march is almost universal. His cavalry
has been repulsed at Sandersville, and the Confe-
rates do not anticipate an attack upon Savannah,
although they are fortifying the place as a matter
of precaution, and HARDEE has gone there report-
ing Macon to be perfectly secure. It has been
made the temporary seat of the Legislature. It is
now said that SHERMAN'S object is Darien, but the
continual shifting of this theoretical destination is
very suspicious. A Federal column under FOSTER
eft Port Royal on the 29th to jJin him.
Federal accounts state that they captured
Parcelaligo Bridge between Charleston and Sava.n-
cab, but Southern versions report that they were
severely c'efeated at Gralaamsville, South Caroliiia,
and driven back five miles, leaving their dead and
wounded, but they still threatened another point on
the Charleston and Savannah Railroad. SHER.
MAN'S army is continuing he same barbarous
course of destruction, and the better feeling of the
Federale themselves appears to be outraged by it.
The NewYork'fimes admits that his raid will only
exasperate and harden the Southerners, and this
can hardly be doubted, for, besides continuing his
course of destruction in Georgia, he has ordered
East Tennessee to be laid waste as far as Knox.
ville. Loyal residents had held a meeting to pro-
test against this act of wanton barbarity, but pro-
bably with little effect. HOOD is said to have been
repulsed with the loss of six guns near Murfrees-
bony, but it is admitted that the real position
on the Chattanooga Railway, four miles from
Nashville, is in Confederate hands, so that the
loss is counterbalanced by the gain. Every
road south of Nashville is destroyed, and the
communication with Chattanooga cut off, while
Nashville itself has been turned into a huge
fortress. The Confederates have made an in].
portant capture at Decatur, which the Federals
have evacuated. They have taken fifteen pontoon
boats, which will prove a valuable prize. Another
piece of good fortune has occurred to the Confede.
rates at New Creek, Piedmont, where, according to
their own accounts, ROSSER has captured 800 pri.
sonars, 8 cannon, 200 waggons, and 3,000 horses
and cattle. The latter more especially will prove
very acceptable acquisitions. Altogether the news
does not look very favourable for Northern arms;
and considering that Federal success only means
the desolation of a flourishing country, and the
annihilation of a brave people, it is certainly not to I
be regretted.

THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY - LANE,-
Managers, Messrs. E. Falconer and F. B. Chatterton.

THIS EVENING, to commence with A YOUNG LAD
FROM THE COUN FRY. Messrs. G. Belmore, Fitzjames,
and G. F. Neville; Misses Helen Howard, R. Leclercq, &c.
► After which, Shaksnere's Play of CYMBELINE.nMr.
Phelps ; Messrs. Creswick, H. Marston, Walter Lacy, i. F.
Neville, Edmund Phelps, A. Rayner, &c.; Miss Atkinson and
311ss Helen Paucit.

It must by this time have become apparent what
the real intentions of Prussia are with regard to the
long-talked-of and vexed question of Schleswig-
Holstein. First on one side and then on another
there are rumours and reports which tend to show
the meaning of much that is done and said. The
last mentioned circumstance of a suspicions nature
is the astounding intelligence that Prussia possesses
hereditary claims to the Duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein. It would have been more consistent to
have begun with this intelligence instead of bring-
ing it in at the close of a protracted war. Perhaps
it was thought that if a straightforward course had
been adopted the feelings of many would have been
set against the affair, whereas, by putting the un-
dertaking in the light of a national transaction, it
was possible to make out a better case in the eyes
of those who might be disposed to criticise and
censure. It must, notwithstanding, appear strange
to discerning persons that they were allowed to
take a wrong view of the matter while the contest
was in progress, and now, at the eleventh hour, are
hurriedly informed that the real and rightful
owners of the Duchies are those who waged war
ea the pretence that they wished to see justice
,done between the parties. Such a subterfuge can-
not possibly answer its purpose, so far as the inde-
pendent and enlightened States of Europe are
concerned, and it is indeed difficult to under-
stand Why it should have been resorted
to at all, except that some persons are
never SO satisfied as when they can
intineuvre and make up a case from which they ,