The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—If General Grant has been really in-
fluenced in his movements by the desire to advance
the political interests of Mr Lincoln, be has been
sorely disappointed. The battle of the 27th of
October appears to have been a severe defeat, and if
the Presidential election of the Bth inst. took place
with the shadow of this disaster upon it, the re.
elected President will have little cause to thank his

sanguine and devoted subordinate, The scene of
this last encounter was the course of the Southaide

Railway, which runs in a generally westerly dizec-
tion from Petersburg. The Confederate works
covered this line, and General Grant is described as
throwing forward three corps—the 9th, sth, and 2d
—with the intention of flanking them. The Con-
federate commander, taking advantage of this false
movement, made a sortie from the works and inter-
posed between the 2d and sth Corps, driving the
former back in confusion,and taking many prisoners.
A Republican account is that the Confederate move-
ment compelled General Grant to withdraw his
troops to a safer position. This is, of course, a more
gentle way of saying that he was repulsed. The re-
sult of the day's fighting evidently was the defeat
of the Federal army with considerable loss, and the
discovery, on the part of General Grant, that the
position of the Confederates in the neighbourhood
of the railway was not to be lightly assailed. The
long delays of the campaign have given General
Lee the opportunity of strengthening this part of
his line of defence with the same ability that he has
shown at other places, and the Federals must now
come to the conclusion, however unwillingly, that
the year is likely to end, not only without the cap-
ture of Richmond, but even with Petersburg and the
arteries that supply it still in the hands of the enemy.
On the same day that General Grant assailed
the Confederate position above mentioned General
Butler made a still more disastrous failure. The
importance attached to these operations by the
Federal commander is shown by the great mass
of men that was brought into action, the battle
having extended along or rather round the whole
Confederate position. We have not the details of
enough to know that he was still more completely
defeated than Grant. Two corps were repulsed
with heavy loss; two brigades were cut off from
retreat by the fire of the Confederate batteries, and
were ultimately captured. At night the Federal
army retreated to its former position. Such is the
news that we have under date of the Ist of Novem-
ber. It would now appear that not only will no
great victory shed a ray on the Presidential elec-
tion, but that the year will end with the Virginian
campaign still lagging slowly on. A barren vic-
tory in the Shenandoah Valley is all that the Fede-

rale have to boast of in the autumn of 1864. The

defeat of Longstreet by Sheridan last month was
certainly a feat of arms creditable to the latter Ge-
neral, but nothing has been decided by the contest,
which leaves the two armies face to face as before:
On the general course of the campaign it seems
to have had not the smallest influence. We must

conclude that the four or five months of enforced

inactivity which begin with the setting in of the
Virginian winter will be passed by the several
armies as in former years, and that the subjugation
of the Confederacy must be deferred by the most
sanguine Republican to the spring of 1865. In the
South-west it is impossible to follow accurately the
movements of the various commanders, described,
as they are, vaguely or erroneously in multitudi-
nous despatches. But there is every reason to sup-
pose that the Confederates are making great efforts
to render the position of General Sherman's deputy
at Atlanta untenable; and, from the tone in which
the matter is now discussed at the Nortb, we may
gather that the capture of that city, from which so
much was expected, now hardly gives any hope of
a speedier ending of the war. The comment on
these untoward events is the rise in the price of
gold. Asi hen Atlanta fell gold sank to 190--it has
now risen again to 241, and before the end of the
present mouth may probably be as high as at
any time during the past summer. With the vast
expenditure that goes on daily, the recovery of the
American paper currency could only be due to
the belief that a few months would bring a
cessation of hostilities and of public waste. As
if forgetful of the unbending obstinacy of the
Southern character, the Federal public anticipated
great moral effects from the capture of Atlanta—
❑othing less than a conviction on the part of the
Southern people that the contest was hopeless, and
perhaps an effort of individual States, Georgia or
Alabama, to shako off the yoke of the Richmond
Government. But no such effects have been wit-
❑essed. The reverses of the autumn have steeled
instead of softening the hearts of the Confederates.
The Governors whose secession was speculated upon
have met and determined on a step which, if adopted
by the Southern Congress, will make the struggle of
the next year more fierce and bitter than any thing
that has gone before. If " every able-bodied man,
irrespective of colour," be placed in the Confederate
army, there is nothing to prevent the war lingering
on until African and Anglo-Saxon are destroyed
together. It is impossible even for us, who are
divided by the ocean from the scenes of slaughter,
to hear of these things without a feeling akin to
despair; what, then, must be the impression on
those who know that they must gird themselves up
to still greater exertion, and sear their consciences
for the toleration of still greater savagery in the
year that is to come ? There is but one hope—that
another interval of inactivity may induce reflection.
Mr Lincoln will, at any rate, have nothing more
to gain from a popular vote, and may do his duty
to his country without fear of losing any political
advantage. The eve of the Presidential election is,
as the late despatches testify, disgraced by more
than the usual acrimony and fraudulent dealing.
The ferocity with which the two factions denounce
each other surpasses anything of which we have a
conception in this country. The practice of mili-
tary intimidation, the imposition of test oaths, the
direct falsification of the returns throughout entire
States, are weapons of electoral warfare peculiar to
the American continent. A still more extraordinary
measure is the taking of votes for States which are
only nominally under the authority of the Northern
Government. Seldom has the world seen such an
overthrow of all that has been hitherto held essen-
tial to a free Constitution. But there is no reason
to apprehend open resistance to the victorious party,
or even any great lamentation of the vanquished
after defeat. To obey the majority is the instinct
of the American, and the majority is clearly in
favour of any violation of received rules which will
insure the election of a candidate pledged to restore
the Union. Any means are deemed legitimate
which will load to the attainment of this end.
HERALD.—Viewed in relation to the purpose for
which they are professedly devised the 70 pounder
experiments at Portsmouth are ridiculous enough.
To suppose that any gun of such calibre can be of
general service in the British fleet is entirely to mis-
take the character of modern warfare. We are
coating the Bellerophon with armour plates of five
tons each, five inches thick, while the Lord Warden
is to be protected with plates nearly six inches
thick, and each weighing nearly ten tons. This
latter frigate has an inner akin of an inch and a
half, so that she will have a total of about seven
inches of armour on her sides, in addition to the
massive backing of teak. Her total weight of
armour will be about 1,300 tons, and the plates will
extend about five feet below the water-line. In
this style she is to encased from steam to stern.
The Warrior is about to have her defensive power
improved by having her plating carried round the
bow and stern ; and in order to bear the increased
weight her frame is to be opened ;and lengthened
fore and aft. Such are our defences. As for the
efficiency of such protection, the experiments at
Shoeburyness three months ago showed that it re-
quired a 150 pounder gun, armed with steel shot,
to penetrate six inches of the best British iron
armour at a distance of 1,500 yards. Under the
conditions which represented this range (a smaller
distance with a lower charge) the shot was decidedly
effective, smashing through the plate and the tim-
ber backing behind. For the purposes of a more
aggravated destruction a 220 pounder gun was em-
ployed, both guns being of Sir William Armstrong's
pattern, rifled on the shunt system. These experi-
ments proved that the armour was penetrable, but
at the same time it was demonstrated that nothing
less than a 150 pounder gun, rifled, and firing steel
shot, was competent to be considered an effective
gun for the navy. The targets fired at were
models of La Gloire and the Flandres, and of
course we have no right to presume that other
nations will make use of armour which shall
be any less formidable than our own. If
we choose to launch vessels carrying five, six,
and seven inches of iron plating we may expect that
France, Russia, and America will do the same.
Viewing our recent progress in the practice of
armour plating we may fall back on the statement
somewhat unwittingly made in Parliament last
session by a high official personage, who remarked
that the 12 ton 300 pounder was the only effective
gun when pitted against first class ironclads. Such
a gun, it is evident, would put our navy in a posi-
tion of superiority, in power of offence against the
finest ironclads in the world. But the introduction
of this great gun into actual service seems to be
unaccountably postponed. When we think we have
got what we want, as in the case of the armament
of the Royal Sovereign, we are destined to find
that the gun will not be a 300 pounder until it is
rifled ; and in the meantime it continues to serve
es a 150 pounder smooth bore, In the case of the
Bellerophon we are promised ten guns of the right
sort, and we hope we shall see them ; but past
experience gives us little confidence. But although
the Armstrong and Whitworth 70 pounders are
neither of them calculated to increese the efficiency
of.sour navy, yet the oxpriments performed with