The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-20 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

(From the limes' Special Correspondent.)
RICHMOND, Aug. 16.

It is well remarked by Professor Creasy that" no
nation is ever so formidable to its neighbours for a
time as one which, after being trained up ;to free
institutions, passes suddenly under a despotic ruler.
The energy of Democracy survives for a few gene.
rations, and to it are superadded the decision
,and
certainty which are the attributes of Government
concentrated in a single hand and directed by a
single mind. Something of this kind has happened
in the Southern States. Whenever and wherever in
this war success has been largely gained by the
South, it has been attributable to the despotic gui-
dance of Southern policy and strategy by the two
most eminent minds of Secessia—President Davis
and Gen. Lee, Wherever and whenever in the
Southern campaigns " the individual has withered,"
Southern success has been feeble and indecisive. In
the Confederate army of Virginia the eminent
moral and intellectual qualities of General Lee
have stifled jealousy and silenced criticism. He
hasbeen largely successful because he has deservedly
been largely a despot. But over the Confederate
army of the West no General has ever gained suffi-
cient sway to disarm intrigue and hush hostile ani-
madversion. Consequently, the kistoire inedite of
the ;Confederate army of Tennessee, or Northern
Georgia, reveals to the eye which has strength to
pierce behind the curtain a tissue of intrigue, jea-
lousy, self-seeking, and recrimination, such as has
been amply sufficient to account for its want of suc-
cess in the field. Upon Gen. Lee and his homogo-
neous followers the wave of Northern aggression in
Virginia has dashed as impotently as the German
Ocean upon Flamborough Head. Neither the vast
numbers of Federal mercenaries who have consecu-
tively followed M'Clellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker,
or Grant, nor the possession by the Federal gun-
boats of the many navigable rivers which intersect
the eastern coast of Virginia, have availed to make
any impression upon the steady defenders of Rich-
mond, who derive their morale largely from the
personal character of their commander. It is
doubtful whether since the world began so many
lives have been lost in an endeavour to capture any
town as have been sacrificed in the repeated but
hitherto futile " On's to Richmond" of the Federals.
But, on the other hand, much smaller numbers of
Federals have sufficed in the West, under circum-
stances far less favourable to the invading army
than those which prevail in Virginia, to win for the
Washington Government the State of Tennessee and
to overrun one-third of the State of Georgia. Be
the termination of Gen. Sherman's irruption into
Georgia what it may, it cannot be denied that this
war has exhibited no brighter military achievement
than the advance of Sherman and nearly 100,000
men over 138 miles, which divide him from his base,
and which abound in natural Thermopylmi at every
interval of ten miles. It must be remembered how
much easier comparatively has been the task of
Grant than the task of Sherman. Grant, with an
army of about 125,000 men, crossed the Rapidan at
the beginning of May. Simultaneously he was as-
sisted by an army of about 50,000 men under Bute
ler, which advanced against Richmond along the
James River. During the first two great collisions
between Grant and Lee, at the battles of the Wil-
derness and Spottsylvania Courthouse, the former
was reinforced to the extent of about 50,000 men,
As he approached Richmond he had the command
of all the tide water rivers in Eastern Virginia. He
established a fresh base without difficulty on the
York River, and a second (from which he now draws
his supplies) on the James River. He has never had
the last uneasiness as to his communications being
cut; he has been able to convey to the front by
water siege guns of any weight. Some estimate of
the ability with which Lee has conducted the cam-
paign may be formed from the fact that Grant, with
favour,issforthe la s
thtaws
ohitherto
s
all
llet ans ind
hha
grown less formidable from week to week and from
day to day, until we have got
as in no more jeopardy. than London or Edinburgh.
Contrast with the facilities
possessed by Grant the
difficulties and disadvantages surmounted by Sher-
man. From the time of his
leaving
Chattanooga,
nearly four months ago, he has received, if I am not
mistaken, no reinforcements. Every inch of his
advance is by land, over a rugged, desolate, and
very defensible country, unwatered by navigable
rivers, and, therefore, affording no facilities for
water carriage. His communications are
kept up
along the most extended and vulnerable line which
has been essayed by any General in this war.
Chattanooga (Sherman's base) is further from At-
lanta than Richmond is from Washington, and
yet
no army of Federals advancing from Washington
against Richmond has ever succeeded in keeping
open land communications over half the distance
which at this moment separates Sherman from
Chattanooga. When I add that Sherman has re-
ceived no other collateral assistance than what he
has derived from an army of Federals in Northern
Mississippi (about 18,000 strong, at first under the
command of General Sturgis, and now under the
command of General Washburne), which army has
always been easily held in cheek by about 10,000
Confederates ender General Forrest, your readers
will perceive-that Sherman is deserving of high
credit far having got so far into Georgia and for
having maintained himself there for four months.

But there is one material difference between the
campaigns of Sherman and Grant which has served
to secure success hitherto to the former and to deny
it to the latter. There is in the Confederacy but one
Robert E. Lee, and but one army thoroughly im-
pregnated with his spirit. Against General Lee and
his army (which has never exceeded 90,000 men all
told) the combined forces of Grant and Butler and
Hunter, numbering altogether not teas than 250,000

men at the commencement of the campaign, have
egregiously failed to prevail. The Confederate army
of Tennessee under General Johnston was, at the
commencement of the campaign of 1164, not much
inferior in numbers to the army under Gene-
ral Leo. Lee was opposed, as I have said, by
250,000 Federals. Johnston was opposed by not
more than half that number. Water facilities
abound in Virginia, and were entirely wanting in
Georgia. Yet at this moment Washington is in as
much peril as Richmond, while Atlanta is being
shelled by Sherman. Your readers will gauge by the
light of this statement the difference of Lee's and
Johnston's capacities,
and the difference of material
in the two armies with which they are identified.
The indications still are that in Virginia there
will be more fighting
hereafter between the Confee
derate army under Early in the Valley and its op-
ponents than between Grant and Lee before Peters-
burg. No doubt Grant's tenacity will be abundantly
displayed by Lacs clinging
to his position at the mouth
of the Appomattox in spite of the unhealthiness of
autumn and the possible peril of Washington. But
it seems probable that Gen. Early, or possibly some
other Confederate General of higher rank (such, for
instance, as Gen. Anderson, the successor of Gen.
Longstreet) will undertake operations which will
unfit Grant's clutch upon thnikoat of Petersburg.
It is known that Gen. Anderson and many thousands
of his men are at this moment on their way to join
Gen. Early, or to threaten Washington from another
quarter. It is easy to understand that President
Lincoln's re-election and Grant's maintenance of his
present position are convertible terms. But it is
more probable that the Cjefederates in the Valley
will triumph over the opponents and strike fresh
terror into all hearts in Washington and Pennsyl-
vania than that Grant and Lee will lie inactively
facing each other before Petersburg. Much will
depend, as regards the locale of the autumn cam-
paign in Virginia, upon the battle which now seems
imminent between Early and his opponents in the
Valley. It is understood that Gen. Sheridan, the
cavalry leader vho is most after Gen. Grant's heart,
has gone into the Valley to take part in the opera-
tions of the Federals in that quarter.

There is little of interest for any of your renders
(except those concerned in blozkade running opera-
tions) in the recent capture, by Admiral Farragut,
of Mobile Bay, There is little likelihood that the
town of Mobile will share the fate of Forts Powell
and Gaines and fall into the enemy's hands. It has
often before been stated that the system of deten.
sive redoubts which girdles Mobile is'believed to be
so strong as to defy attack. But the harbour of
Mobile has been of so little use as a port of entry
that its loss to the Confederates in this respect will
be hardly felt. _ _

To report that an American July and August are
stiflingly, oppressively, exhaustively hot is to utter
nothing but a truism. Bat it is worthy of notice
that the last 20 days are said to have been un-
parblteled in heat within the memory of the oldest
inhabitant. Night and day the mercury of Fahren-
heit has touched 90, and has sometimes gone con.
siderably above that figure. The effect of the in-
tense heat is visible in the universal lassitude and
pallor which are perceptible in every countenance.
Officers and travellers who have lived in Bengal and
Madras agree in reporting that they find the Ame-
rican heat much more oppressive than that of the
East Indies. The American houses are ill adapted
for excluding heat or cold, and there are no punkahs,
The only mitigating circumstance which makes the
summer of 1864 more endurable than its predeces-
sors in Richmond since the commencement of the
war is that we have this year an abundance of ice.
But the pale shadows which flit along the Lhady
sides of Richmond's streets this day, utterly devoid
of English rosiness and fleshiness, seem better fitted
to reside in the domus exilis Piutonia than to be
denizens of the working, toiling, much enduring
world in which at this moment their lot is cast.

British Association for the Advancement

of Science.

DR LIVINGSTONE'S LAST SIX. YEARS'
TRAVELS IN INDIA.
Perhaps no man amongst the many great ones attending
the present scientific congress is more eminently popular
than the great African traveller and missionary Dr Living-
stone. The announcement that he would give an account
of his travels has accordingly been one of the greatest at-
tractions of the present meeting. The theatre was conse-
quently last night crammed, as might be expected, every
part of I he house being thronged with that mingled assem-
blage of people of science and fashion which has distin-
guished the present meeting. In fact, to ease the anticipated
pressure here, announcements were made that the lecture
would also be read at the Mineral Water Hospital, the seat
of the geographical section, and that Dr Livingstone would
be present at the conclusion of the reading. Both places of
assemblage were densely crowded.
In both assemblies Dr Livingstone was received with
most enthusiastic applause, and the thanks moved to him
at the close of the lectures was carried with acclamation.
The following is the address :
‘t In order that the remarks I have to offer may be clearly
understood, it is necessary to call to mind some things
which took place previous to the Zambesi expedition being
sent out ; and most of you are no doubt aware that pre-
vious to the discovery of Lake Segami and the well-
watered country in which the Makololo dwell, the idea
prevailed that a large part of the interior of Africa was
composed of vast sandy deserts into which rivers ran and
were lost. In a journey from sea to sea, across the con-
tinent, somewhat north of the lake first discovered, it was
found that there, too, the country was well watered.
Large tracts of fertile soil were covered with forest, and
occupied with a considerable population. We had, then,
the form of the continent revealed to be an elevated pla-
teau, somewhat depressed in the centre, with fissures at the
sides, by which the rivers escaped to the sea; and this great
fact in physical geography can never be referred to without
mentioning the remarkable hypothesis by which the distin-
guished President of the Royal Geographical Society (Sir
R. Murchison) clearly delineated it before it was verified
nhi
don
emt
ro e
Da. and
eboyuarcsetueaolf otbhseerrivvaetriso.n oflt thewee aplutibtluiedheesdoifn
onethe ocfohuni
etfraymous
anniversary addresses ; and he was equally happy in his last
address in pointing out the ancient geological condition of
the interior of this continent, as probably the oldest in the
Then world—a fact we, who were on the spot could but dimly
guess. But he seems to have the faculty of collecting facts
att.:tear
way no one else can accomplish. We understand it only
einekenens iannad
The most interesting discoveries of Lake
fol-
lowed the famous travels of Dr Barth and Francis Gallon.
ehveehryassmouardcee,aallnpdlaciolnicinenhtirsatsitnugdftyhiraeamt
Zanganyika and
Victoria Nyanza, of Capt. Burton and Capt. SW,. _ _
.ee whose
sad loss we all now so deeply deplore---and again, of Lakes I
Shirwa and Nyassa ; the discoveries o
several others; but last of all, the grand discovery of the
main source of the Nile, which every Englishman must feel
proud to know, was accomplished by our countrymen Speke
and Grant. In all this exploration, the main object in view
has not been merely to discover objects of nine days' wonder
—to gaze and be gazed at by barbarians—l would not give
a fig to discover even a tribe with tails I—but, in proceeding
to the west coast to find a path to the. sea, whereby lawful
commerce might be introduced to aid missionary efforts, I
was vary much struck by observing the decided influence of
that which is known as Lord Palmerston's policy, existing
several hundreds of miles from the ocean. I found piracy
had been abolished, and that the slave trade had been so
far suppressed as to be spoken of as a thing of the past; that
lawful commerce had increased from £20,000 in ivory and
gold dust to between two and three millions—one million of
which was in palm oil—to our own country ; that over
twenty missions had been established, with schools in which
12,000 pupils were taught; that life and property were
secure on the coast, and comparative peace established in
large portions of the interior; and all this was at a time
when, from reading the speeches of well-informed gentle-
men at home, I had come to the conclusion that our cruisers
had dune nothing but aggravate the evils of the slave trade.
Well, not finding what I wished by geing to the west coast,
I came down the Zambesi to the east coast, and there I
found the country sealed up. The same efforts had been
made by our cruisers hore as on the west coast, but in con-
sequence of foreigners Ming debarred from entering the
country, neither traders nor missionaries had established
themselves. The trade was only in a little ivory and gold
dust and slaves, just ao it was on the west coast before Lord
Palmerston's policy came into operation. It seemed to me,
therefore, that as the Portuguese Government professed it-
self willing to aid in opening the country, and we had a
large river, the Zambesi, which being full when I first de-
scended, it seemed a famous inlet to the higher lands and
interior generally. I knew the natives to be almost all fond
of trading, and, when away from the influence.of the slave
.., trade, friendly mad mild ; the oil fertile, and cotton and ether