The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-13 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Jaly 29.
The War Secretary has not only ceased to com-
munic ate war news to the public, but has prohi.
bited the transmission of telegrams from Washing-
ton co n taining any information of the state of affairs
either .in the Shenandoah Valley or before the be.
leagnrt .d cities of Petersburg and Atlanta. The
consequence is that the public has to wait for the
tardy agencies of the Post-office to learn what is
passing, and that Washington, Baltimore,Philadel-
phia, and New York are flooded with rumours,
—some alarming, some consolatory, and most of
them false. The journals at 'Washington and in
this city which pretend to speak on the authority
of the Government wish to have it believed that the
return of Generals Early and Breckinridge to the
Shenandoah Valley is not a matter of much conse-
quence; that if they attempt to cross the Potomac
they will be severely dealt with, and that Washing.
ton and Baltimore and the whole of Maryland and
Pennsylvania are perfectly safe. 'With reference to
Petersburg, they affirm that Grant has commenced
a new movement, the details of which it would be
unpatriotic if not treasonable to publish, but the
result of which must inevitably be the capture of
that city within a fortnight
.and of Richmond
within six weeks. As for Atlanta, it is doomed,
they say, and cannot hold out for another week
before the brilliant strategy and indomitable energy
of Sherman.
It is as yet impossible to ascertain what are the
intentions of the Confederates in again occupying
the Shenandoah Valley, or in what numbers they
have appeared. That they were able to defeat
Generals Crook and Averill with great loss, and
force General Hunter back upon Harper's Ferry
and the Maryland heights is a proof that they mean
mischief, and are able to accomplish it. The
lowest estimates place their force at 35,000 and the
highest at 75,000 men. Whatever their real num-
bers may be, they will not be left alone to the work
ofinvasion, if that be their object, inasmuch as
Longstreet's corps of 25,000 men is on the march
to reinforce them ; but without the leadership of
that General, who was too severely wounded at the
b attic:, of the Wilderness to be yet in a condition to
take the field.
Mr. Fessenden's popular loan of two hundred
millions has had a fair start. Yesterday about eight
millions were taken by one German banking-house
on behalf of its clients in Europe, and about t wo-
and-a-half millions by the leading banks of New
York. It does not yet appear that En2lishnaen—
who judge in these matters with fuller light than
the Germans—will be tempted to risk their money
in a loan which, if war should unfortunately arise
between the two countries, would most likely be
repudiated, quoad the English creditor ; and which,
supposing peace to be maintained with Great
Britain, is just as likely to be wholly repudiated, in
the not improbable case of a further disintegration
of the Northern Union, consequent upon the failure
of the war.

It is announced from Washington that Mr.
Seward has instructed, or will immediately instruct,
Mr. Adams to demand of the British Government
the surrender of Capt. Semmes, an the lawful pri-
soner of Capt. Winslow, of the Kcarsage. It is to
be hoped for the sake of the little character yet left
to the Federal Administration that Mr. Seward
will be better advised. If Cspt. Winslow wanted
possession of Capt. Semmes, he should have taken
him oat of the Deerhound, as he had a perfect right
to do if he had had the power. If a prisoner of
Tear has no right to make his escape, and if no
o ee has the right to help him in doing so, the Con-
federate Government ought to demand of the Fe•
clarets the immediate surrender of Gen. Franklin
captured by Major Harry Gilmore in the railway
carriage near Baltimore, and who took advantage
of the somnolence of the guard set to watch over
him—to skedaddle. Before Mr Seward makes
such a demand he should ask himself whether the
United States would have surrendered Louis Napo.
Leon Bonaparte to King Louis Philippe if the latter
had choeen to insult the Federal Government by
assuming its acquiesence to be posible; or Louis
Kossuth who took refuge on board of an American
ship of war to the Government of Austria, if the
Kaiser had been silly enough to court a rebuff, by
insisting upon his delivery. Thet Mr Seward
would gain considerable popularity by preferring
such a claim to the British Government there is no
reaeon to doubt, but as the emphatic, and perhaps
indignant, refusal which he would encounter,
backed as it would be by the judgment of the world,
would react unfavourably both on his own reputa-
tion and that of his country, it is probable that he
will remember the proverb and let well alone.
There is considerable talk of a great conspiracy
in the North-west, which the Government has re-
cently discovered, the objects of which are the re.
cognition of the South, and a new secession of the
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and others on
the southern shares of the Great Lakes. The
chronic discontent of the West, the anarchy that
prevails in many portions of those sparsely settled
regions, the ill•will existing between the soldiery
and the citizens, the establishment of martial law,
and the known sympathy of the farmers for come
mercial rather than social reasons, with the South,
are all indications that the West yields but a flimsy
allegiance to the Federal Government, and that
it would on occasion of any crowning disaster to
the Federal arms rather shift for itself than
give Mr. Lincoln much assistance to retrieve
the fortunes of the Union. The letter of Calonel
Anderson was of itself a proof that popular discon-
tent in the West is neither new nor weak, and that
it will behove the Federal Government to walk
warily, lest it goad the spoken discontent into
armed resistance. Bat the details of the alleged
conspiracy, as communicated to the public, are too
conflicting to merit credence. A conspiracy, which
includes among its members General Sterling Price,
of the Confederate army, and two hundred thousand

" minute men" of New York, calling themselves the

M'Clellan Guard, which enrols thousands of Demo-
crats rabid for the prosecution of the war, and
other thousands of Democrats zealous for the pro.
secution of peace ; which has for its leading spirits
such oppositely-minded men as Mr. Vallandigham,
of Ohio, and the Hon. W. B. Reed, of Philadelphia;
which pretends to trace its origin to Richmond
when Mr. Vallaadigham passed through that city
in exile, and the objects of which are mainly to be
effectod by nominating at Chicago a candidate bold
enough to declare himself in favour of peace, is a
little too heterogeneous in its principles, as well as
its composition, to be implicitly believed in. 'rho
story, as published, reads very much like the dis.
turbed dream of a hypochondriac, or the weak in-
vention of some adventurous penny-a-liner, analois
tious of the renown, but not of the fate, of
Joseph Howard, the forger of Mr. Lincoln's procla-
mation. If there be any object in the publication,
as it appears in the Missourz Democrat, beyond
that of creating a temporary sensation, it is pro-
bably to be sought in the desire of the military
authorities in the West to find a pretext for the
arrest of Mr. Vallandigham. At all events, the
" conspiracy " has not frightened anybody in this
'Patter, but afforded considerable amusement to
many who believe that there is nothing too silly to
be credited at Washington.
A leading Republican journal and firm supporter
of the Administration asserts that the President's
call for 500,000 men " has sent a cold shudder
through the nation." It has certainly excited no
response, and the voluntary enlistment,
sympathetic
in anticipation and prevention of so fearful a
draught, makes but little progress in New York.
The average number of volunteers, inclusive of
newly -arrived Irish and Germane, scarcely exceeds
30 per day, at which rats this city will only provide
1,110 men before the sth of September,
when a
draught of 23,000 will have to be enforced if the
Presidential call is not to remain a dead letter.. The

nrwenlistnaects are mostly for three yew s, for Ni;
period the volunteers are entitled to recoive not,,only
ilia bounty offered by the Federal Gcve.:ument, but
the supplementary bounties offered by the State and
city of New York, Under Mr Lincoln's call for half
a million of men to serve for one year, the volun-
teers are to receive the FederPl bounty only, uone

having been offered by the State or the municipality,
and it is alleged as one reason for the coyness of
martial young men, American and foreign, in listen-
ing to the blandishments of the bounty brokers,
that they are holding themselves in reserve in ex-
pectation that as the day of draught approaches the
same bounties that are offered for three years will
be offered for one. Another difficulty has arisen with
regard to the hundred-day militiamen who were de-
spatched to Washington to aid in defending that city
from Gene. Early and Brecklnridge, and who claim
that, having responded to the call of the Governor
of New York in that instance, they ought to be
exempt from the draught that will be made before
their term of service shall have expired. The
Federal Government refused to listen to the pros
posal and insisted that these men should take
their chance like other citizens, but that, if drawn,
the hundred days for which they had agreed to
serve should be counted as part of their
year. Yesterday, however, the Government, being
once again in alarm for the safety of Washington,
and having no means of defending it, except by
withdrawing a portion of Grant's army from Peters.
burg, or by relying upon, and making terms with,
the militia, concluded the point in dispute, so that,
as far as New York is concerned, the numbers
available for the draught have diminished to the
full extent of the assistance temporarily rendered
to Washington. Governor Seymour, though he
makes no objection to the enlistment of negroes on
behalf of New York State or city, whenever the said
negroes can be procured, declines to set any official
agency into operation to that effect ; but leaves to
private citizens, or to such public associations as may
be formed for the purpose, the duty of buying, kid-
napping, or persuading the blacks of the Southern
and Border States to take service in default of such
white men as may be too busy, too indifferent, or
too hostile to the cause to shoulder the musket. In
the neighbouring State of New Jersey and in Jersey
city, on the opposite side of the Hudson River, the
people are a little.more zealous than in New York.
Perhaps they have reason to fear that, as they are
not strong enough to resist a draught, it will be
ruthlessly enforced in their case; whereas New York
takes the matter quietly, convinced that the well-
known disposition of the Irish, and generally of the
labouring population, will make the Government
pause before it attempts to enforce a draught among
so dangerous and hot-blooded a class. New Jersey,
however, less favourably situated for dictating
terms to Washington, puts her shoulder to the
wheel, offers heavier bounties than New York,
and makes such rapid progress in filling up the
comparatively small number that will be required
of her as to make it almost certain that no
compulsion will be necessary. Last week a bounty
broker—or other person in the employ of the
authorities of Jersey city—returned from Kentucky
with 150 negroes, whom he had procured as recruits
at 400 dole. each. He exhibited the receipts for the
men, but did not choose to answer any of the follow-
ing rather important questions :—First, were these
free negroes ? Second, if not, were they the slaves of
loyal owners? Third, were they the slaves of" rebel"
owners ? Fourth, if free negroes, was the bounty
money paid to them ? Fifth, if slaves of loy a men,
did their owners get the money ? Sixth, if slaves of
" rebel" owners, was any part or the whole of the
bounty money paid to him, as an additional solatium
and sweetener of their liberty ? Perhaps some re-
ply to these questions may yet be elicited, especially
as there is a suspicion that, whoever may have re-
ceived the dollars, poor Sambo did not, in which
case the change from predial to military slavery is
not one which the humanitarian, whether an Aboli-
tionist or not, would be likely to approve or con-
sider in accordance with justice, freedom, or right
principle.

Governor Parker, of New Jersey, has nothing to
do with these negro enlistments, and declines, like
Governor Seymour, of Now York, to lend his autho-
rity to any scheme for procuring men out of the
limits of his own state. In a Message, dated the
22(1 inst., addressed to a committee of gentlemen of
the township of Alexandria, in the county of Hunt-
ingdon, who asked his cu•operation in procuring
negroes in the South, he peremptorily refuses, but
informs theta that they may doso if they have money
for the purpose. He declares his opinion that the
people are not satisfied with the manner in which
the war has hitherto been conducted, and describes
" the almost unanimous desire of tt e Northern
people to keep oat of the army, and states that nearly
the whole population run to and fro to seize upon
any expedient to avoid personal military service."
The fact is as the Governor states it to bc ; bat the
Federal Government: and its friends have a ready
reply, which is that the Governor is not to be be-
lieved, inasmuch as he is a " Copper head." As the
Copperheads, however, form about three-fourths,
if not nincetenths, of the people, Governor Parker
can afford to accept the epithet and consider it both
honourable and popular.

JULY 30.

The long inactivity of Grant before Petersburg
has bee❑ suddenly disturbed by his own act. The
great new movement which was mysteriously an•
nounced to be in progress yesterday, but of which
no details were permitted to be published, is this
morning disclosed. The pertinacious General has
once again changed his base, and Petersburg, being
as little available as a door for entering Richmond
as the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court-house, the
North Anna, or Cold Harbour severally proved to
be, has been ab.mdoned for the north side of the
James, at a place called Deep Bottom. The move-
ment of two of his army corps under General Foster,
was made successfully on the 27th, and it is supposed
that Grant with the remainder of his ermy has by
this time followed. General Lee was aware of his
intention prior to the 25th, as appears from an
article in the .Richn2ond Enquirer of that date,
which distinctly states that Grant "was evidently
commencing a strategic policy, but would be over-
' matched by the able. Generals in his front." With
the usual credulity, hopefulness, folly, or nnthinka
ing and cheerfal trust of the Americans, which ex-
ceeds that of the excellent Mr. Micawber, it is
proclaimed that at last General Grant is about to be
brilliantly successful, and that Richmond " is as
good as taken.' The new base brings him within
12 miles of the object of his desire, or about ten
miles nearer than he was at Petersburg. Time
will show whether the Confederates have left this
or any other weak spot in the defences of their
capital, or whether the Federal army is not
to expend 10,000 or 12,000 precious lives as the
price of the new experiment which Grant, the stub-
bornest if not the most successful of Generals, has
thought it his duty to make—wholly irrespective,
of course, of the blood that may be shed in its pro-
gress.

MEASURE OF VIBRATIONS.—We often read of
delicate measurements, the minuteness of which
strikes us with surprise; and the question at once presents
itself, by what means such extraordinary precision can be
attained, as will, for instance, give us the hundredth part
of a second ? On this subject we find some curious methods
and apparatuses described as an important professional
work entitled, Iraite des Xecanismes, by M. Haton de la
Goupilliere. Suppose it were required to measure the exact
time of the descent of the hammer of a gun-lock on the
nipple? the motion is so rapid, that the most delicate stop-
watch is at fault. A needle might be fixed to the hammer,
so as in descending to mark a curve on a blackened metal
plate; but still the time would be an unknown quantity.
It may, however, be measured by means of a tuning-fork.
also provided with a marking-needle ; then with the former
one marks ibe curve described by descent of the hammer,
the second needle will mark the vibrations of the fork;
and as we know that they are isochronous, each of tho
small sinuosities thus obtained on the blackened plate will
represent a fraction of time, and show how many such
minute fractions elapsed during the fall of the hammer, To
give an idea of the degi cc of precision which may bo at-
tained by this process, let us suppose the normal French
tuning-fork, which performs 896 vibrations a second ; then
the duration of each vibration will be one-S9Gth of a se-
cond; and as the greatest error that can be committed can
not exceed half a vibration, the measurement will be exact
to one-1792d of a second. A similar apparatus has been
empb,yed in counting the vibrations of a piece of ordnance.
In this case the needle is made to mark a curve on a eylin •
der, and in order to avoid the confusion resulting from the
needle's pas Bing twice over the same ground, the cylinder
is made to advance while it turns, so as to move like a
screw, When such an apparatus is applied to the pulsa-
tions of the heart, it is called a sphygmograph. The strokes
are communicated by means of air-tubes to a very elastic
membrane, and thenco to a system of levers bearing needles
which trace the corresponding curve on a turnine. cylinder.
This contrivance was invented by Viererdt.

Lord Woclehouse on Education,

NOR*ICII, Aug. 12.
Lord Wodehouse presided this afternoon at the
distribution of prizes to the successful candidates
at the University examination held in December
last at the Norwich Centre. The noble lord was
supported by Professor Sedgwick, the Rev. Canon
Heaviside, the Rev. Canon Neville, the Rev. Canon
Howell, &c., while apologies were offered for the
absence of the Bishop of Norwich, Mr E. Howes,
M.P., Sir J. Boileau, Sir W. Jones, &c.
The Rev. Canon HOWELL, local hon. secretary,
read some statistics, from which it appeared that,
in 1858, 31 candidates presented themselves at the
Norwich Centre, of whom ten passed ; in 1859, 16,
of whom six passed ; in 1860, 18, of whom nine
passed ; in 1861, 16, of whom ten passed ; in 1862,
19, of whom 15 passed , and in 1863, 22, of whom
18 passed. The percentage on the number passed
had thus risen from 30 per cent. in 1858 to 90 in
1863 ; while of the 122 candidates who had pre-
sented themselves ea'. Norwich since the establish-
ment of the Examinations, 68 had passed. The
prizes were then distributed, and
Lord WODEHOUSE, who had performed this part
of his duties in a very genial manner, said
he feared it must be admitted from the sta-
tistics which had been read, that the movement
was still in its infancy. If the great middle
class of this country was to take advantage of the
movement for the improvement of the education of
their children we must look for larger numbers at
these examinations ; but although the movement
might be yet in its infancy, it certainly had already
borne fruit, not only in the considerable number of
candidates which, taking the whole country, had
appeared at the examinations, but tOso in the at-
tention which it had drawn to a very important
subject. We had now had for many years a very
considerable movement with regard to education in
this country, and one thing at least we might re-
gard as entirely established, indeed, as so completely
established, that it seems unnecessary to allude to
it,—he meant the advantage of education. Many
persons might remember the time when a great
many people thought there was such a thing as over
education, and that the best way to avoid such a
dangerous result was to do without any education
at all. These people, in order to avoid the
Scylla of over education, drifted towards the Cha-
rybdis of no education at all. (Laughter.) Well,
we had got over this stage, and we were now all
agreed that education was a good thing. Thanks
to the exertions of many very distinguished men,
we had seen a very extensive system of education
established for the lower classes—an education which
we now saw embracing almost the whole people.
By this remark be did not mean to say that more
was not to be done, and that there might not be
spots which the system had not reached, or that we
ought to be content with the number of children
who attended school ; but the system was firmly
established, and we might look for its continued pro-
gress until it embraced all the children who ought
to attend school. While we had been introducing
a good system of education for the children of the
lower classes we had not neglected the education of
the upper classes, and we had seen at our Univer-
sities very great changes indeed. We had also seen
recently an inquiry conducted by some eminent men
into the highest endowed schools in this country,
such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and others, and the
commissioners who were entrusted with the inquiry
had produced a report which all persons who had
read it must acknowledge to be one of the most in-
teresting papers which had ever appeared on educa-
tion. But hitherto we had done very little for one of
the most extensive classes, and perhaps the most im-
portant class in the country—the middle class. He
used the term " middle class" for want of a better ; in
point of fact the phrase embraced the great working
population of this country, through whom the great
wealth of the country had been accumulated who con-
stituted the backbone of English society, and upon
whom the industry and prosperity of the country
very greatly depended. There was hardly a political
meeting at which the speakers did not dilate upon
the great strength and importance of the middle
class and upon the political power which it pos.
sessed. Well, if this class was the mainstay of our
commerce, and at the same time a great power in
the political system of this country, every one must
feel that it was his duty to secure, a 3 far as possible,
the highest education to it. If we looked not only
to the interests of the whole country, but to the
interests of the middle class itself, he supposed no
one would dispute that it was of the utmost import-
ance that it shoald not fall behind in the educa-
tional race. When the middle class saw, as it did
now, the class below it continually rising in know-
ledge and education—and some remarkable evi-
dences of intelligence and education had been shown
in what he might term the upper part of the lower
classes—it must be of the highest importance to
members of the middle class itself that by their own
exertions they should do everything to promote the
education of their children. He thought we were
much indebted to the Universities for having taken
this matter in hand. They had done very good sera
vice, and it might possibly happen that through
the Universities the object we had in view might
be achieved; but he confessed, for his own part,
that he should not be speaking candidly if he did
not express some doubt as to whether the desired
result could be realised through the Universities.
We wanted some system which would embrace all
the middle-class schools throughout the country,
and he had some doubts whether the Universities
would be found capable of executing this great
task. It was quite clear that the first step to be
taken was to deal with the endowed schools. We
had in this country probably not less than 400 to
500 endowed schools—what we knew as grammar
schools, just the sort of schools which met
the object we had in view in connection
with middle-class education. The liberality of
our forefathers had founded these schools, and
what we had now to do was to find the best
way of utilising this educational instrument,
and turning it to the best advantage. When
we turned to our Universities and looked to them
to effect the great object of the education of the
middle class, we met this great difficulty—our uni-
aersities were to a certain extent, and especially the
great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, secta-
rian in their character. He used the term without
wishing to attach the slightest offensive meaning to
it, but the universities wane to a great extent limited
to the education of persons connected with the
Church of England. He was perfectly well aware
that to a considerable extent those who did not be-
long to the Church of England were now admitted
to the benefits of a university education, but still
we also knew that, he would not call them preju-
dices, but the opinions of many eminent men whose
views were entitled to respect were adverse to throw•
ing the university system completely open to all
classes throughout the country, whatever might be
their religious opinions. This was an important
point, because the main body of those who did not
belong to the Church of England were to be found
among the middle class, and under the circumstances
he rather doubted whether the Universities would
find it possible to reach the whole of the middle class
of the country. He was perfectly well aware that a
very considerable portion of the middle class belonged
to the Church to which he himself belonged—the
Church of England ; but a very large portion held
different views, and as whenever the educational,
question was touched upon in this country the sub-
ject of religion also arose—and properly so, because
education without religion would not be sound—the
fears and suspicions ofd large body of the middle class
might be aroused if the Universities took the matter
in hand. The conclusion at which he was rather
driven to arrive—although ho spoke hesitatingly, as
upon a matter with regard to which scarcely any
one had made up his mind—was that the middle
class must be in some way indebted to the Govern-
ment in respect to their education. He should be the
last person to wish to see the middle classes indebted
to the Government for pecuniary assistance ; and he
thought it would be a most unfortunate thing if
we were to put into the hands of the Government
the whole education of the country, not only of the
lower class but of the middle class also. Such a
policy might operate in such a manner as to produce
considerable political changes, and might not come
;mend itaelf to the instinct of Englishmen, who had