The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-28 00:00:00

srnaT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Tnn the tremendous struggle still peed.
ing in Virginia the Northern armies have achieved
a certain amount of success. General Grant has

succeeded in gaining, on the terms imposed by his
adversary, a very few miles of the road to Rich-
mond. The Southern General, after allowing the
enemy to expend his forces in fruitless assaults, has
taken up a position as thoroughly known to himself
as unknown to his opponents, and there, if we may
estimate his tactics from what has already tran-
spired of them, ho will continue to make a stand
until it is convenient for him to retire, when he

will occupy a fresh
position, end repulse his pur-
suers as before. The line of retreat which lies open
to him comprises defences stronger than thus® which
he has hitherto held until he thought fit to aban-

don them, nor is there the least evidence in the in-
formation before us of either exhaustion or discom-

fiture on the part of his trocps. But if the Southern
Commander is thus adhering to his tactics the
Northern Commander is doing the same, and with
as much succese, perhaps, as such strategy could in-
sults. All his losses—and they appear to have been
even more dreadful than the first reports described
them—failed to stop him ; no sooner was he re-
pulsed than he attacked again, prepared apparently
for fresh battles and fresti slaughter, until an end

of some kind is attained. This is an entirely new
phase of the war, due probably, in the main, to
Grant's own stubborn vigour and peremptory
will, but still preconcerted, and, as we are able
this morning to show, anticipated by the South
even more completely than by the North. Re-
ticence and secrecy were among Grant's service-
able qualities, but though he concealed his
views from the people of New York he
did ❑ot succeed in concealing them from the autho-
rities at Richmond. The letter of our correspondent

in the South shows that the Confederate Govern.
ment had obtained the most exact information of

the Federal plans for the campaign. Ina despatch
written a fortnight before Grant commenced his
march the operations which we have since recorded
are delineated with extraordinary precision. Three
armies wets to move upon Richmond from three
different bases—the chief force, under Grant, march-

ing directly south from the old Federal position on
the Rappahannock, and two others from east to
west by way of the Peninsula and James River. Or,
it is said, and as really haprened, the armies would
be two only, instead of three, one moving on the
direct road to Richmond from the north, and one by

the James River from the east. We could not, even
after the event, describe more clearly the operations
and the positions of Grant and Butler respectively,
but it may well be conceived that if all this was so
fully known the tactics of the Confederates would
be adapted beforehand to every possible contingency.
Of some of these designs, indeed, we are actually
informed, and the event has verified the information.
Lee did fall upon Grant precisely as it is said he
would do, and if Grant had made war like Meade or
M'Clellan it is probable that the defeat he received
on the sth would have stopped the invasion of Vir-
ginia. But Grant was made of other metal. He
advanced undismayed, though at a cost so terrible
that it is hard to think how it can continue to be
supported. This, however, is not all that may be
learnt from our correspondent's letter. As long ago
as the middle of last month a partial transfer of Go-
vernment business from Richmond to certain other
cities had actually been ordered, and although it is
stated that the proceeding was based on purely
economical considerations, and was unconnected with
any fear for the safety of the Confederate capital,
our readers will have no difficulty in detecting some
little preparation for the abandonment of Richmond
in case of need. This brings us to the weak point
in the present tactics of the Federals, and to the
insurmountable barrier always before them. Grant
is employing the strategy of Napoleon, and working
out his plans by the " military arithmetic" which
promised a certain balance of results as the product
of so many thousand lives. But there happens to
be all the difference in the world between the cir-
cumstances in which he is placed and those in which
Napoleon applied this system. The point or position
at which Napoleon aimed in such cases was really a
vital point—the key of the whole business in hand ;
whereas the Southern Confederacy, like the Confe-
derate cause, has no one vital point. The actual
capture of Richmond, even if that triumph should
crown Grant'a desperate enterprise, will not bring
the North a step nearer to the restoration of the
Union or the conquest of the South. The saying of
President Davis that the war could be prolonged
for 20 years, even in the State of Virginia, after
Richmond had fallen, will be in everybody's recol-
lection, and it' Grant ever reaches that city he may
find that his cool and resolute adversary, after
exacting the utmost obtainable price for it in blood
and slaughter, will leave the position in his hands,
with no greater value in it than attached to Wilder-
ness after it had served its turn and the fighting
was done. After what has now been divulged of the
plans and recorded of the operations of the contend-
ing armies we can estimate with little difficulty the
prospects of the campaign. It is literally a ques-
tion of military arithmetic. Putting aside for the
moment the value of the prize and the importance
or unimportance of the result, we have only to
calculate whether Lee, with the resources at his
command, can, by the process which he is so
effectually employing, exhaust the resources of
Grant before he reaches Richmond, or whether,
on the contrary, in the common consumption of
life Grant can outlast Lee. If Grant possess
strength enough to continue to attack as he has
attacked, it is clear that in the end he will arrive,
in some plight or other, before the defences of Rich-
mow], and, if he can still maintain the same rate of
expenditure, will some day enter the city. He him-
self writes to Secretary Stanton—" 1 propose to
fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer;"
and he has shown by his conduct that we may take
him at his word. If, however, his cool, resolute,
and skilful adversary should be strong enough to
continue up to the walls of the capital the tactics
which he has hitherto employed, and if he can
make Grant pay at the current rate for every mile
of ground, it may be a question whether the re-
sources or endurance of the Federals themselves
will prove as inexhaustible as the obstinacy of
their General. At present we can only see that
this dreadful game has been played by both par-
ties through 12 days of battle and carnage without
surrender on either side. We have heard what
Grant has been doing, and he himself does full
justice in his curt but truthful despatches to the
unconquerable heroism of his adversary. It is the
rudest and most savage issue of war—who can
stand most killing ? It is more than ever difficult
to predict the result of a contest of endurance, but
the advantages of ground, position, and intelli-
gence are with the Confederates, and Washington
has more than once been in greater danger of
capture than we believe Richmond to be now.
HERALD.—There can be no doubt that the con-
duct of Prussia throughout the whole of the Danish
quarrel has been from first to last consistently false
and treacherous, From the King and M. von Bis-
marck down to the lowest officers of the army which
has amused itself with plunder and massacre in
Denmark, the Prussians have displayed qualities
which have equally surprised their friends and
gratified their enemi,es. The quarrel was taken
up with shameless impudence, only because it
seemed to Prussia that she had a favourable
opportunity of self-aggrandisement at the expense
of a helpless neighbour; it was forced on with
brutal violence, lest Denmark should disarm her
enemies by conceding, at the instance of England,
everything which they had demanded ; and the
Prussian Government actually dared to avow, in
conversation with the representative of constitu-
tional England, that its main object in the war was
to put down the constitutional liberty which ob-
tained in Denmark, and which Prussia felt as a
reproach to herself. The war has been waged in
the same spirit in which it was begun. While their
allies of Austria have kept in the background when-
ever treachery and falsehood were to be practised
in negotiation, or brutal violence inflicted on the
conquered, the Prussians have been ostentatiously
forward in the display of perfidy and brutality.
We need not remind our readers of the cowardly
outrage upon the Danish dead, committed by the
orders of the Prussian commander, when the Lion
of Idsted, the monument of brave men who had
fallen in a glorious victory, was torn from its place
on consecrated ground, and broken up by the
" Schleswig-Holsteiners "---thosa true brethren of
the Prussian who lust for vengeance without daring
to fight for it, and indulge in the luxury of
attention
te
tb(eml
tl rebellion
only when a foreign army is interposed between
But
Zwetneinams:kg,ndseds
despoiled
them,h
them and punishment.
to the savage cruelties perpetrated in Jutland and
the impudence of the pornetile
htered her subjects, and the
Crormany bad made War
gtheyco ldfi d
of her teiritopesyw,ehnedresvlaeur
retaliated by seizing
Danes had very righteously
German shi
this retribution Prussia frantically protests—asuthe Agiafisnhset
wished to go to war withont being attacked in her
turn-r--and her general proceeds to levy on Jutland
the value of the ships seized by the Danish cruisers.
His exactions were to cease with the suspension of
arms ; his Government solemnly and repeatedly
promised that they should cease ; yet Lord Ellen-
boroueh declares, and Lord Russell admits, that
they have been continued; that in spite of the
express engagements of the Prussian Government
the inhabitants of Jutland are still being plundered ;
that they are still forced to maintain the invaders
in luxury, giving even to private ealdiers such in-
dulgences 45 they never enjoy at home; that they
are forced to furnish provisions which are not paid
for, or paid for only in worthless paper ; that, in
fact, the war is continued against them, in spite of
the suspension of arms and of the distinct terms of