The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-13 00:00:00

this, or prove an alibi, as be stated he could on being
arrested, be will be entitled to an acquittal. The
German Society, which has humanely espoused his
cause and provided him with legal assistance at
New York, will dcubtless leave no stone unturned
to protect his interests. Something still remains
to be cleared up, and the coroner's jury have pro-
perly abstained from finding a verdict until they
have all available information before them. Let the
chain of circumstantial evidence be ever so strong,
it is not conclusive so long as some key which
purports to unlock it has not been applied. When
that his been tried and failed, then, and not till
then, presumption becomes moral and legal cer-

•
tainty.
HERALD.—The Asia brings important news from
America, news less favourable to the Confederacy
than we have of late been wont to receive, but far

less unfavourable than some persons in this country

have been led to suppose. Unless the War Office
at Washington has been more than usually impu•
dent in its falsehoods Atlanta has fallen into the
hands of General Sherman. This is a misfortune
no doubt—a misfortune, chiefly because it will
strengthen the hands of the Federal Government
and encourage a war party at the North. Two years
ago it would have been a terrible blow ; six weeks
ago it would have been a much more serious matter
than it is now. At present so little is thought of it
in New York that the premium on gold, which was
155, ranges between 149 and 1511. The truth is
I this, Atlanta was the great railroad centre of the

South ; the nucleus of a se; of lines which branched
into every part of the Confederate States, which
connected Tennessee and Northern Mississippi with
Georgia, and through Georgia with the Gulf States
on the one hand, and with, Richmond and the
Carolinas on the other. While the whole region
through which this system passed was in the mili-
tary possession of the Confederates, the loss of At.
lanta, if such a loss could under those conditions
have occurred, would have been terrible. Even
while Vicksburg remained to the South the fall of
Atlanta would have been a deplorable misfortune,
as it would have cut the communication between
the eastern and western halves of the Confederacy
via Vicksburg. In a word, Atlanta is the nucleus,
the meeting point, the central knot, of a great rail-
way network. But at this moment one-fourth of
that network is in the hands of the North; and
this fact has destroyed the value of the centre.
What remains is independent of Atlanta. The great
line of communication between the Gulf States and
Richmond passes from Montgomery to Augusta—
from the heart of Alabama to a point on the fron-
tiers of Georgia and South Carolina. One line
passes through Atlanta, and this Sherman has now
cut. One line, therefore, is lost; and in so far the
South has sustained an injury. But the communi-
cation is not cut. Another line passes from Mont-
gomery through Macon to Augusta. Macon, the
nearest point of this line, is 100 miles or so south of
Atlanta. Unless, therefore, Sherman can follow
Hood along this road, drive him into Macon, and,
finally, take that city, he cannot cut the Confede-
racy in twain. And if he could, the northern and
southern halves might still maintain a separate and
independent yet healthy life, as east and west have
done since the fall of Vicksburg. In another point
of view the less of Atlanta is a misfortune, but a far
less serious one than it would have been six weeks
ago. Hood's defence has gained time, and time was
of vital importance. Atlanta was a great arsenal and
machine shop. It has furnished the Confederacy with
arms turned out of its workshops ; it had factories,
it had stores, it had machinery. Well, while defend•
ing it against Sherman, Hood has been removing,
in heavily laden trains, the stores of arms and am-
munition, the tools, the workmen, the machinery.
We doubt if he will be found to have left behind
anything more than the defences of the place and
the houses which formerly sheltered a population
somewhat like that of Crewe. When Sherman
placed himself at East Point, interrupting the lines
leading to Macon and Montgomery, Hocd's work
was Ended, and he has left the empty shell of
Atlanta to its fate. Such seems to be the history of
Sherman's success, so far as we can interpret by
our present knowledge the very meagre informa-
tion which has reached us. There is no reason to
doubt but that the mischance may be repaired be-
fore the evil goes further and the conquerors of
Atlanta approach the defences of Macon. Fort
Morgan, Mobile, after a twenty-four hours' bom-
bardment, has followed the fate of Fort Gaines.
These two disasters are both, as yet, incomprehen-
sible : we can neither understand how it should
happen that Mobile should be entres'ed to the pro-
tection of forts which could not be held for a week,
or how, if they could be held, they came to be sur-
rendered. As yet, treachery and cowardice have
been unknown among the Confederates; nor has
stay previous event, on the other hand, suggested
the probability of such lack of engineering science
on their part as would be indicated in the con.
struction of forts that could not be held for a con•
siderable period against any means at Farragut's
disposal. In other quarters the Confederates have
Dot been altogether unsuccessful. In Virginia,
more than half the ground held by Hancock upon
the IV eldon Railroad has been wrenched from him,
after hard fighting; and we may expect to hear that
he has abanconed or been driven from the rest. The
possession of this line is of no inconsiderable im-
portance to the defenders of Richmond, and they
certainly will not relax their &arts to recover it.
Report says that in tho Shenandoah Valley Early
has disappeared from Sheridan'a front ; a part of
his force, perhaps, having been recalled to operate
against Grant, as, in 1862, Stonewall Jackson
was called away from his successes over Banks
and Fremont to assist in the movement which drove
M'Clellan through the swamps and woods back to
the shelter of his ganbJats on the James River.
And in Arkansas the capture of a whole Federal
regiment appears to have re warded some unexpected
movements on the part of a Confederate force of
which, lately, we had heard little or nothing. Such
are the advantages which are to be set off against
the fall of Atlanta and Fort Morgan. The balance
is perhaps against the South. Yet if the worst
should come, if Macon should follow Atlanta, and
Savannah Macon, and if Montgomery and Mobile
should share their fate, the fortunes of `the South
would not be at a lower ebb than were those of the
colonists at more than one period of that war of
independence which ended so disastrously for the
mother country. Federal successes can only prolong
the war, with its fearful crimes and its grinding
misery; they cannot avert its predetermined and
long foreseen inevitable issue. To this conclusion
the Democratic party at the North appears to have
come. The convention held at Chicago has adopted
a programme which, though in form a compromise
between the two sections of the party, derives its
spirit and substance from that which makes peace
its first and paramount object. Union, but union
through armistice, negociation, and a general con-
vention ; union to be obtained by the cessation, not
by the protraction and exacerbation of hostilities—
such is the proposal on behalf of which the assem-
bled leaders of the Democratic party appeal to their
country end their adherents. " War, if it can con-
quer the South, cannot restore the Union ; let us try
if we cannot restore the Union by peaceful means ;
failing in that, it will be time enough to draw the
sword again!' Such is their policy ; and they have
agreed on a candidate for the Presidency whose name
will give weight to that policy and credit to his sup.
porters. With a good sense which the Republicans
have failed to learn even from the terrible lessons of
the last four years, they have agreed by acclamation
to propose the strongest man of their part; perhaps
the beet and wisest man among the known men of
the North. M'Clellan is not a great man, hardly a
great general ; but he rises into positive grandeur
by comparison with such intellectual pigmies as
Lincoln, Seward, Sumner, and the rest of those
whom a Republican victory would confirm in power;
and if he achieved no more than Grant has done he
was at least chary of his soldiers' lives. The quiet
dignity with which he has endured enforced retire-
ment, the unselfish patriotism which inspired his
career while in command, ensure for him such a
respect and esteem as Europeans, at least, have not
been able to entertain for
any one who during the
last forty years has occupied the Presidential chair.
No name could better serve as a rallying point for
the respectable, sober minded men whom the ex-
cesses ecd follies of the present possessors of power
have utterly terrified and disgusted,
and who desire
nothing—not even the Union—so much as a decent,
capable, and law-abiding Government. No man
could be more likely to unite all the elements of
good that may exist in the Northern population, and
form a party strong enough and bravo enough to
create and carry out a consistent and practicable
settlement of the present embarrassments of his
country. Taking up the programme of the Chicago
Convection, such a party may be able at once to in-
duce the South to negotiate on such terms as the
Noxell can accept, and the North, after negociation,
to acquiesce in the inevitable independence of the
South. With the Republican in power negociation
can hardly be expected, nor, if accepted, could it
lead to any result; but with a President like
M'Clellan the South could treat in confidence. His
election would prove the North at least half re-
covered from its fever of ferocity and fanaticism ;
and a convention held under its auspices, if it failed
—as we think it must fail—to restore the Union,
would probably succeed in establishing an amicable
stpnration. The nomination of M'Ciellan as the
Presidential candidate of the Democracy, with a
programme so decidedly pacific, is the one hopeful
augury that appears amid the confusion of the pre-
sent of America and the darkness of her future. For
the fulfilment of that augury we can rather pray
than hope.

What is the differeuee between the English and
the American aoldier ?-ooe fights for the crown ai the
fo: a.° cloUar,-2ho ,drrov.