The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-01 00:00:00

RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans lOO5 .. 1005

Northern

.. 950 -

New ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 927 50 .. 926 25
New ditto
Southern 657 50 .. 660

Western

Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard .. 5!5 .. 517 50
North of Spain
Saragossa. .
Ditto to Barcelona 275 ~ 280

AMERICA.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)
(Per the Arabia.)
NEW YORK, Feb.l6

The news from the army of the Potomac indicates
no immediate active operations. On the 14th a
portion of General Crawford's staff fell into a rebel
ambush near Brentsville, and Major Lorimer, chief
of the staff, was killed. General Meade is still in
Washington.

A portion of Gilmore's band of rebel guerillas at-
tacked a passenger-train on the Baltimore end Ohio
Railroad, near Cumberland, on the 13:h iust., and
robbed the passengers. Federal cavalry started in
pursuit,

General Eirly is still at Harrisonburg, Western
Virginia; a portion of his command is reported to
be at Woodstock. Occasional skirmishing takes
place between the Federal and rebel scouting
parties in that region. Jackson's rebel command,
having been recently supplied with fresh horses, is
expected soon to make a demonstration in the direc-
tion of Harper's Ferry.
It is reported that large additions have lately
been made to the cavalry force in General Lee's
army. Deserters report that some of Lee's troops
have been sent recently to Longstreet, but their
statements are generally disbelieved.
There is no news of importance from Chattanooga
or Knoxville.
General Logan, with the 15th Army Corps,
started recently from Huntsville, Alabama. It is
understood that his force is intended, in conjunction
with the command of General Smith, which recently
moved from Memphis, to cut off the retreat of the
rebel forces, under Generals Polk and Forrest, from
Northern Mississippi.
A Nashville despatch states that General Sher•
man's army, after an unimportant skirmish with
the rebels, occupied Jackson, Mississippi, on the 7th
inst. It was believed that the rebels, who had
fallen back over the Pearl River, were receiving
reinforcements from Dalton. The entire line of the
Memphis and Charleston Railroad has been aban-
doned by the Federals.
Various objects are assigned to General Sherman'a
expedition. A correspondent of the New York
gimes believes that its purpose is to flank the rebel
position at Dalton. The Memphis correspondent
of the World thinks that its operations will be
directed against Selina and Montgomery, Alabama,
and, finally, against Mobile, in conjunction with a
powerful naval force said to be concentrating at
Pensacola and Pascagoula, in the Gulf of Mexico.
The rebels at Mobile are reported to be receiving
heavy reinforcements, and making vigorous pre-
parations to stand a siege.
A fleet of Federal transports and gunboats in the
Yazoo river were attacked recently by a force of
3,000 Texans. The rebels were dislodged from their
position and driven off.
Colonel Phillips, commanding in the Indian ter-
ritory, reports that he has driven the rebels en-
tirely out of that region.
A despatch from General Batler announces that
Colonel Straight, with about one hundred Union
prisoners, escaped from prison in Richmond by
digging a tunnel under the walls of the jail. Seve-
ral of them had arrived at Williamsburg, including
Colonel Straight, and Federal cavalry was scouting
the country as far as the Caickahominy to aid the
escape of the remainder.
The Richmond Examiner publishes a list of the
officers who escaped. It includes the names of
eleven colonels and six majors. One colonel, three
captains, and seventeen lieutenants had been recap-
tured by the rebels on the 12th.
The guards of the prison were placed under arrest
charged With aiding the prisoners in their escape.
Advices from North Carolina represent the rebel
force under General Pickett to be still at Kingston.
The recent demonstration against Newbern is be-
lieved to have been only a reconaissance in force.
The Commander at Newbern was preparing to re-
sist a more formidable attack, which, it was thought,
the rebels would soon make.
A Charleston correspondent of the Boston IleraN
states that the rebels have'made several ineffectual
attempts to reinforce the garrison of Fort Sumter.
Calcium lights upon Wagner and Gregg play upon
the fort and harbour all night.
The same correspondent states that a rebel ram,
accompanied by an infernal machine, proceeded
down the bay recently with the intention of attack-
ing the Federal fleet; but the infernal machine
suddenly sank, carrying dawn eight of her crew,
and the ram returned to her position above Fort
Johnson.
Four blockade runners are reported to have been
destroyed off Wilmington between the 3d and 10th
inst. They were the Nutfield, the Dee, the Emily,
and the Fanny and Jenny.
Southern papers announce that eighteen gun-
boats and transports arrived at Jacksonville, Florida,
on the 7tli lug, and the troops were reported to be

marching inland. This must have been the exile-

dition which left Morris Island on the 3d, under the

command of General Seymour, and accompanied by

General Gillmore. The force is reported to number
at least ten thousand men, and it is currently be-
lieved that the operations of the expedition are pre-
liminary to a land attack upon Savannah and
Charleston.

Richmond papers contain the following address
,o the Confederate troops by Jefferson Davis :

" Soldiers of the Armies of the Confederate
States—ln the long and bloody war in which your
country is engaged you have achieved mazy noble
triumphs. You have won glorious victories over

vastly more numerous hosts. You have cheerfully
borne privations and toil to which you were ut: used.
Youhave readily submitted to restraints upon your
individual will, that the citizen might better per-

'orm his duties to the State as a soldier. To all

hese you have lately added another triumph—the

noblest of human conquests—a victory over your-
selves, As the time draws near when you who
first entered the service might well have been ex-
pected to claim relief from your arduous labours ard
restoration to the: endearments of home, you have
heeded only the call of your suffering country.
Again you come to tender your service for the
public defence—a free offering which only such
patriotism as yours could make; a triumph worthy
of you and the cause to which you are devoted.

" I would in vain attempt adequately to express

the emotions with which I received the testimonials
of confidence and regard whicla you have recently
addressed to me. To some of those first received
separate acknowledgments were returned ; but it
is now apparent that a like generous enthusiasm
pervades the whole army, and that the only excep-
tion to such magnanimous tender will be of those
who, having originally entered for the war, cannot
display anew their zeal in the public service. It is
therefore deemed appropriate, and it is hoped will
be equally acceptable, to make a general acknow-
ledgment instead of successive separate responses.
Would that it were possible to render my thanks
to you in person, and in the name of our common
country, as well as in my own, while pressing
the hand of each war-worn veteran, to recognise
his title to our love, gratitude, and admiration.

Soldiers,—By your will—for you and the people
are but one—l have been placed in a position which
debars me from sharing your dangers, your suffer-
ings, and your privations in the field. With pride
and affection my heart has accompanied you in
every march ; with solicitude it has sought to
minister to your every want ; with exultation it
has marked your every heroic achievement; yet
never in the toilsome march, nor in the weary
watch, nor in the desperate assault have you ren-
dered a service so decisive in results as in the last
display of the highest qualities of devotion and self-
sacrifice which can adorn the character of the warrior
patriot. Already the pulse of the whole people
beats in unison with yours ; already they com-
pare your spontaneous and unanimous offering of
your lives for the defence of your country with the
halting and reluctant service of the mercenaries
who are purchased by the enemy at the price of
higher bounties than have hitherto been known i❑
war. Animated by this contrast, they exhibit cheer-
ful confidence and more resolute bearing. Even the
murmurs of the weak and timid, who shrink from
the trials which make firmer your noble natures,
are shamed into silence by the spectacle which you
present. Your brave battle-cry will ring loud and
clear through the land of the enemy as well as our
own, will silence the vainglorious boastings of their
corrupt partisans and their pensioned presa, and
will do justice to the calumny by which they seek
to persuade a deluded people that you are ready to
purchase a dishonourable safety by degrading
submission.
Soldiers—the coming Spring campaign will open
under auspices well calculated to sustain your
hopes. Your resolution needed nothing to fortify
it. With ranks replenished under the influence of
your example, and by the aid of representatives,
who eve earnest of their purpose to add by legis-
lation largely to your strength, you may welcome
the invader with a confidence justified by the
memory of past victories.
" On the other hand, debt, taxation, repetition of
heavy drafts, dissensions occasioned by the strife
for power, by the pursuit of spoils of effice, by the
thirst for the plunder of the public treasury, and,
above all, by the consciousness of a bad cause, must
tell with fearful force upon tho overstrained ener-
gies of the enemy. His campaign of 1861 must,
from the exhaustion of his resources of lawn and
money, be far less formidable than those of the two
last years, when unimpaired means were used with
boundless prodigality, and with results which are
suggested by the mention of the names of Shiloh,
Perryville, Murfreesboro, and the Chickahominy
Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville,
" Soldiers,—Assured success awaits us in our holy
struggle for liberty and independence, and for the
preservation of all that renders life desirable to
honourable men. When that success shall be
reached, to you, your country's hope and pride,
under Divine Providence, will it be due. The
fruits of that success will not be reaped by you
alone; but your children, and your children in every
generation to come will enjoy the blessings derived
from you that will preserve your memories ever
living in their hearts.
" Citizen defenders of the homes, the liberties, and
altars of the Confederacy—that the God whom we
all humbly worship may shield you with His
fatherly care and preserve you for safe return to the
peaceful enjoyment of your friends and the associa-
tions of those you most love, is the earnest prayer
of your Commander-in-Chief.
" JEFFERSON DANIS."
President Davis has signed a bill which was
passed by secret session of th Confederate Congress,
prohibiting the importation of luxuries into the
Confederacy.

MARKETS--This Day.

HAY MARKETS.

SMITHFIELD.—Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4 8s Od ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 lOs Od ; and straw, £1 2s to £1 lOs per load.
Trade slow.

CUMBERLAND.•—Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4 1030 d ; clover
£4 Os to £5 lOs Od ; and straw, £1 2s to £1 10s per load
A slow demand,

WnrrEcitlPEL —Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4 103 ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 1030 d; and straw, £1 4s to £1 10s per load,
Trade dull.

COLONIAL.

TEA.,—Business has been inactive, and there is no change
of importance to record in prices.
Suwat.--The market has exhibited rather more anima-
tion, and holders still demand full rates for good and fine
qualities of West India, In the refined market an average
amount of business has been recorded, at fully previous
prices.

COFFEE.—The demand for colonial descriptions has been
steady, and owing to the smallness of the stock on hand
full rates are readily obtained.
Ittcn.—A fair amount of business has been done, with-
out any material alteration to report in quotations.
TALLOW.—Tho market has exhibited symptoms of im-
provement. P,Y.C. on the spot is quoted 40s 9d, and last
three months' delivery 43s 6d to 44s per owt.

THE FAILURE IN THE METAL TRADE AT BM.
MlNGHAM.—Birmingham, Feb. 29.—1 n reference to
this failure:mentioned in this morning's papers,•it may
now be stated that the liabilities will, it is believed, amount
to more than £lOO,OOO. The assets are spoken of as likely
to be very large, but in transactions of such magnitude and
of a character so purely speculative as tliese must have been
there is no saying what the actual realization may be in a
falling metal-market. The "fall in the price of Scotch pig-
iron" is the assigned cause of this failure, but the transactions
must have been on a more enormous scale than can be con-
ceived to have brought about such a result, looking at what
the decline in the price of Scotch pig-iron has been since the
let of January. Mr. Alfred Barker, whose failure has taken
place under these circumstances, succeeded his father in
business a few years since, with an amount of capital cer-
tainly not inadequate to the engagements into which he
appears to have entered.
REFRESHMENTS AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE.—
The contract for the supply of refreshments at the
Crystal Palace, which during the last three years has been
held by Mr. Frederick Strange, yesterday passed into the
hands of Messrs. Bertram and Roberts. Mr. Bertram was
formerly on the staff of Mr. Sawyer, of "The London," in
Fleet-street, during his joint occupancy of the refreshment
department of the Crystal Palace some years since with
Mr. Strange, and he subsequently filled the post of mana-
ger for Mr, F. E. Morrieb, at the International Exhibition
of 1862.