The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-26 00:00:00

, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 26, 1864

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

PROROGATION OF THE PRUSSIAN
CHAMBERS.

BERLIN, Jan. 25.

The Chamber of Deputies to-day ordered the
Committee on tha Budget to immediately report
upon the vote on the Budget given on Saturday last
by the Upper House. The Committee accm dingly
made their report, which proposed that the vote of
the Upper House should be declared null and void.
This proposition was adopted by the house. Count
Eulenburg then read a Royal message, stating that
the Diet would be closed to day at three p.m. by
the President of the Council.

The Diet was closed to-day by the President of
the Council, who read the Speech from the Throne.
The following are the most important passages :
" The Chamber of Deputies has maintained the
ground which led to the dissolution of the previous
Chamber. The House has rejected the Bill refer-
ring to Article 99 of the Constitution, and has not
discussed the Budget of 1863. In the Budget of the
current y ear it has struck out items which are indis-
pensable for the public service. The House has also
renewed the resolution of the previous Chamber
upon the Military Budget without having discussed
the preliminary Bill establishing the obligation to
military service. For that reason the Upper House,
in the exercise of its Constitutional rights, has
rejected the Budget of 1864 as amended by the
Chamber of Deputies.
" The Government has carried out, the vote of the
Chamber with regard to the Polish members ar-
rested for high treason, but does not consider it
conformable to the respect due to public justice and
to the dignity of the House.
_ _

" The House has also refused the required loan
proposed by the Government to afford the means
of carrying out Federal Execution in Holstein, as
well as for the maintenance of Prussia's position as a
great Power and her honour in the further develop-
ment of the conflict, and likewise for covering the
portion of the expenses of the Execution falling
to Prussia as member of the German Confederation.
The House rejected this vote, although the King
had pledged his word, in his reply of the 27th of
December, that the money should only be em-
ployed for the protection of the right and honour
of the country.

" The House has passed resolutions by which the
majority, in the event of warlike complications,
takes part beforehand against the Prussian
Fatherland.

" Renouncing, therefore, for the present the hope
of bringing about an understanding with the Cham-
ber, the Government considers it its duty to act
for the maintenance of the State, and relies herein
upon the growing support of the country."

SPAIN.

MADRID, JAN. 26.

The Correspondencia states that the Finance
Minister has drawn up a project to improve the
revenue of the State and limit the expenses of the

public service.

THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON.

The country has ceased to look for the capture
of Charleston, either by General Gilmore's army
or by the ironclad navy. The many months that
have passed since the last serious attempt by the
Monitors have brought with them many promises,
and left behind them an equal number of disap-
pointments; and those who anticipated that Gene-
ral Gilmore's reduction of Fort Wagner would in-
stantly be followed by the seizure of Sumter's site,
of Fort Moultrie, James Island, and all the works
in the harbour, have waited in vain for the realisa-

tion of their hopes. The navy has maintained a
blockade of Charleston harbour that even the rebels
must admit is effective, if not perfect ; and our news
has all along kept us informed that General Gil-
more was from time to time training his guns upon
the city, as well as " feeling" the state of matters
along the important railroad linestretching between
Charleston and Savannah. The recalling of these
latter facts will remind those who fancy that oul
army and navy down there have been absolutely
useless that they, at least, are mistaken ; for we do
not doubt that the simple fact that General
Gilmore has ceaselessly threatened the railroad
line just mentioned has held in the vicinity
and kept out of service elsewhere a very large
rebel force. When another attack upon the
defences of Charleston was in contemplation,
prior to the assignment of Admiral Dahlgren, and
Gen. Gilmore to their present commands, the ques-
tion, we presume, was not, What is the best way to
operate ? but, Can we operate at all, so as to make
the handful of troops in that department available
for offensive operations? Can the meagre land force
there be advantageously used, or must it remain

idle P Circumstances rendered it impossible to in-
crease it. Not a regiment could be spared from any
of our armies, and any work in the Department, of
the South must be done by the force already there.
Two attempts against the defences of Charleston had
been made without gaining a foot of ground. One
was a land attack under Benham, and the other a
naval attack under Dupont. Ironclads were deemed
a most formidable means of offence, and it was evi-
dent that any plan which promised success must
involve a close co-operation of land and naval forces
in some project that would allow the iron-clad ele-
ment to enter largely. The few thousand troops in
the department were not expected to capture
Charleston, but only to execute their part of a plan
of joint operations. To have thrust them upon the
main land unsupported against an enemy that had
had two years to erect his defences and having
at his back unlimited means of concentrating

troops by railroad, would have been crimi-
nal folly. A plan of joint operations was
agreed upon, each branch of service to do cer-
tain specified work. The plunging fire of Sumter
was what the Monitors most feared on account of
weak decks. That eliminated, naval men declared
that the Monitors could pass up to the city. An
article in the Army and Navy Journal, evident:3r
written by some one who knows what he is talking
about, tells us that the plan of attack proposed by
General Gilmore was,-1. To effect a lodgment on
the south side of Morris Island, which it was known
the enemy were then strongly fortifying; 2. To be-
siege and reduce Fort Wagner, by which' all the
works on Cumming's Point would necessarily fall ;
3, From the position thus gained to demolish Fort
Sumter; 4. The vessels of war to remove the ob-

structions at the entrance of the harbour, and reach
the city by running by the works on Sullivan's
Island. The first three items of the above pro-

gramme were fully accomplished long ago, and the
fame of the performance resounded throughout the
world. The echoes of General Gilmore's big guns
and the arguments of the " Swamp Angel" were
not our least persuasive diplomatists. For the
ensuing weary months of delay there may be good
reaaan, bat, whether there is or not, General Gilt
more is by no one held responsible for this delay.

His work was done, and well done. When it was

suspected that the enemy was putting guns on
the channel faces of Samter, fire was re-opened
upon it. A slow fire "from mortars, to pre-
vent working inside, was long kept up. What ad •
vantage the delay has given the enemy cannot be
well estimated. It has probably entirely changed
the condition of the problem. The shores of the
inner harbour and the wharves of the city bristle
with guns that did not exist at the time Gilmore
took Wagner, and military men assert that what
was feasible for the monitors to do then is very diffi-

cult if not impossible now ; that if they once reached
the inner harbour they could not hope to remain
there. The permanent occupatiOn of Sumter by our
troops, while the enemy hold James and Sullivan's
Islands, seem to be impracticable, neither is it at all
necessary. Sumter is harmless, and cannot injure
the monitors. But the enemy, from his batteries,
sees all the five faces of Sumter; we, from our bat-
teries, see but two of its faces, The enemy has a
concentric fire on Sumter—his batteries encircle it ;
ours fire upon it from one direction. It would ap-
pear, therefore, that if it were possible to get pos-
session of it, it would not only be possible but easy
for the enemy to get it back again. The prospect
of crpturing Charleston by the monitors, or by an
attack after any fashion, or by any agency, from
the front, does not certainly seem to be very bril-
liant, but still we do not believe that the rebels will
hold the city all of this year by any means.—New
York, Times,

MRS. LIRRIPER READ AND BEETHOVEN ILLUS-
TRATED.-Mr. Howard Glover announces another of his
morning concerts—at which the entertainment will be
varied by Mrs. Stirling's reading of a part of " Mrs. Lirri-
per." There will also be given Beethoven's Pastoral Sym-
phony, with scenic illustrations.

NINE YEARS OF RUSSIAN FINANCE.—In 1853
the funded debt stood at Attie above 160,000,000,
and the floating debt at perhaps 10 or 12 millions more.
The paper circulation was about £50,000,003, supported by
a metallic reserve of more than a third of that amount.
Since that time the funded debt has risen to £11,000.000,
the floating debt is doubled, the circulation of bank notes
has been raised to more thanLloo,ooo,ooof, and specie pay-
ments have been suspended.

THE ALABAMA,—By the arrival of the Cape mail
we learn that two vessels had arrived in Table
Bay at the end of December with news of the Alabama.
Captain Cato, of the Beautiful Star, reported that in pass-
ing the Straits of Sunda, on the 25th October last, he was
informed that the Alabama had passed Angier a day or two
before. She had 25 men sick, and did not report any cap-
tures. Captain Sedgwick, of the Latona, from Singapore,
reported that he had heard of the Alabama being in the
China Seas, and on the night of the 6th November, off the
Java Heads, saw a fine vessel of about 500 tons, with all
sails set, on fire, and a bark-rigged steamer near her, which
he supposed to be the Alabama. A private letter which
has been shown us describes the later occurrence as follows:
" On the night of the 6th Nov., about 150 miles W.S.
of Java Heads, I was called about 11 o'clock by the third
officer to look at a ship on fire. I jumped out and hurried on
deck. It was rather a dirty, rainy sort of a night, and we
were under easy sail—royals, mizentopgallant sail, and
mainsail stowed; and right ahead was seen a bright glare.
The Latona was close-hauled, so as to make a little to wind-
ward of it, and under the impression that she was one of
the cotton ships from China, which had accidentally caught
fire, we burnt blue lights to let her know assistance was at
hand. As we got near her we could see her plainer--a fine
double topsail yard bark, royals hauled up, but not stowed,
and the mainyard backed; infect, properly hove to, as any
other ship would be for a boat to board her. She was on
fire fore and aft, masts all standing, and seemingly not a
soul aboard her, and no boats in sight. It was one of the
finest sights I have seen at sea. It was, as I have said, rather
a dirty night, and though, we were close to the unfortunate
bark, it was as light as day, all outside the halo of her light
was doubly dim and black. Out of this darkness came a
long low craft, which we soon found out to be a steamer,
bite we could not distinguish her colours. She passed close
between us and the bark. We guessed what she was at
once, more especially as we heard in Singapore that she had
been at the Cape, and was probably going towards the China
Seas. The comments of our crew were rather curious,
greatly in favour of the Southerners; but it was a source of
lamentation the burning of the bark's fine white cotton can-
vas, enough to make jumpers and trousers for all hands for
some years I We expected a visit from the Alabama, but
she did not come near us, as we kept, away on our course.
On our arrival here the lieutenant of the United States
steamer Mohican came on board and got an extract from
the log, and two days after that left, bound eastward, on a
cruise. It will take a much smarter craft than she is to
catch the Alabama."
THE HISTORY OF THE COTTON FAMINE.—Mr. R.
A. Arnold has undertaken to write the history of the cotton
famine. Mr. Arnold is known as the author of " Ralph ;
or, St. Sepulchre's and St. Stephen's," and is a contributor
to our periodical literature; besides which, he was officially
connected with "The Public Works Act,"