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

have yet enconntrcd, has been committed the task

ecking and hindering Gen. Sherman's advance,
and delayirg to the utmost his junction with Gen.
Thomas at Chattanooga. It is impossible that a

of eh

Client:: and hazArdons duty—that of arresting the
march of 20,000 infantry by opposing to them a

cp.v,lry force of less than half their number—can
hr.ve been more gallantly and indicions:ty executed.
6,n. Lee, sometimes by taking up a strong position
and resisting Sherman in front, sometimes by hang-
ing on. his flank or rear, sometimes by falling on and
cutting cif detac:-..ed bodies of men, has so delayed
and harassed his opponents that it is variously re-
ported that the Federals have fallen back to Corinth,
cr that they have, at any rate, retreated to th e northern
si-le of the Tennessee River. It is not at all impossible
that ien. S. D. Lae has returned to Canton, in Mis-
aiseippi, which would imply that his task of arrest.
ing Sherman has been successfUlly accomplished.
Ent it is already very manifest that the Federals are
realising the difficulties of repairing railroads for
hundreds of miles through a country bitterly
hustle to them, and in which every bridge and yard
tlework have to be vigilantly guarded by
night and day. To repair and keep in working
order the railroad from the Mississippi to Corinth,
and from Corinth to Chattanooga, would require
'O,OOO infantry and 30,000 cavalry. The Confede-

oF tr

rates are too well aware of their enemy's deficiency
in numbers, of the waning spirit of the new Federal
recruits, and of the diminishing reservoir from
which those recruits are drawn, to be daunted by
such sentiments as are attributed to Mr. Seward,
to the effect that he " would continue to drive new
Federal bullocks into the field" (I quote his own
reported words) until the 200,000 remaining Con-
federate troops are killed off or exhausted. It is
possible that Mr. Seward's supply of bullocks will
fail before the task which he assigns to them is half
way towards its execution. It may be that a free
press, wisely and conscientiously conducted, may
prove to a Government and nation struggling in the
throes of threatened dissolution an auxiliary more
valuable than iron-clad Behemoths, and more po-
tential than the mightiest cannon ; but, neverthe-
less, long observation has led me irresistibly to the
conclusion that in the entire body politic of the
North no limb has, in this supreme hour of a na-
's agony, so wofully manque and fellen short of
gh office as the daily press. Statesmen and
Generals, it is true, have been called for in vain ; in
all the auxiliary departments of the army no great
lIRT.'IB has struck upon the public car. Quartermas-
ters have vied with each other only in dexterity of
fraud; in the medical department no such conspi-
cuous light as• Larry or Guthrie has distilled from
he great sum ,of human misery brought under a cur-
'OTl'd ken the only balm which war offera in compen-
'on to humanity—increased familiarity with the
as of preserving life and mitigating suffering.
, universal as has been the dearth of genius and
iarnentabla as has been the levelling equality
of republicanism in its effects upon mind and cha-
rs.c-,er, nowhere, and in no ctaer department, have
men been more gravely tried, or more utterly round
a; Mating, than the conductors cf the metropolitan
presa of New York, and the lesser lights in the pro-
vinces who thence draw their inspiration. There
is, I believe, in the Confederacy at this moment no
man of thoughtfulness and reflection who would not
soli; it the Risnge throughout the insurgent States
of any 'honourable Commissioners in whom the
North would confide, and who would not abide by
the re Dort et these Commissioners as to the ability
of the Southerners to maintain this struggle for ten
year ; and yet
.in the face of facts which are patent
to all, with an entire absence of mendicancy and
seeming Want from cur streets, the North is for the
a went' eh #:

to:,'

Tilc,thc

th time stimulating its courage and reviving
_..roping faith by the assertion of its journals
that Richmond is starving, that no family has more
than one meal per diem, that gaunt famine is glar-
ing on Southern highways and threatening
Scut tern households, and that resistance, main- •
taieed to th.weitracst stretch of endurance, is about
toegive vues- finally and for ever.
I have now been quite long enough in the South
to estimate and understand the amount of pressure
which it is necessary for Confederate armies and
Confederate eltiz.:ins to endure, end I can safely say
that, although they have been severely tried, their
eteariegs are light and triNial compared with what
har, been endured by many other nations. There have
been moments in the recent history of England, such
es 15011 and in the history of France, such as 1813,
when national distress eveighod far more heavily
and national perplexity and gloom shrouded more
°le:curtly the future. Want of food in such a
degree as England experienced it in the year in
question hos never been dreamed of in the Confe-
der ,cy. It is difficulty to meet general assertions to
the effect that five or six millions of people scat-
tered over an enormous area are starving, otherwise
than by asseverations that such is not the case. I will
endeavour to mention two or three facts, which will
strengthen and sustain my denial. In the &et place
Le Eight of man or woman begging in the street is

as unknoWn as in old days it was in the most pros-
perous *cities of the North, Secondly, there is not
a religious denomination in this city of which the
ministers do not assert that never in their recollec- .
Lions were there eo few applications to them for
relief. It was mentioned to me last night by Dr.
Foge (wno has recently returned from England),
that the principal Presbyterian minister of Rich-
mond, Dr. Moore, announced last Sunday to his
congregation that there was no poor in his parish
suing for relief, and that he would therefore de-
vote the collection of that day's alms to the wives of
a cavalry aegiment. Thirdly, the daily supply of
food offered in the market knows neither stint nor
stay. Prices, it is true, are enormous if the dollar
is supposed to be worth 4s. ; they are very small if
lar represents its t711(3 value, which is between
Ja. and 41. English. That dollars are plentiful
enough., when there are upwards of 600 millions of
them in circulation, will easily be believed. Oncu
for ail, then, the assertion is undeniable that the
press:tee fur food is neither at present nor likely to
be here after a serious or disturbing element; that
increased confidence in the currency, which Congress
is believed likely to inspire, will draw ample sup
lies to Richmond ; that the privations of the Confe-
derate armies in the field, about which so much
has been said and written, are grossly exaggerated.
If any of venr readers would be at the pains of
reading a book which has recently appeared in
Paris, entitled "Souvenirs Militaires de M. le
Thee de Faatescc," they would find facts and de-
tails about the sufferings of Napoleon's armies,
sustained by them for 10 years, se hich utterly throw
anything known on this continent into the shade.
The fact is that, measured by the standard of the
is ral aeuties, Confederate rations are scanty
ateteed by the standard of European armies, and
c'atily by the Rueeien, Austrian, or French sten-
the comparison in the eatireation of en ac-
'elned Austrian officer would not bs disadvan-
to the Confederates.

the d

COED'

s will have learnt long before tha ar-
his that the operations of General
'l3 directed against General Burnside at
Tkiere are the best reasons for thinking
eat scarcity of supplies has recently
led in the Federal armies at Chattanooga and
ville; in fact, but for the seizure of R.icoon
stain by General Haan, and Van consequent
gained tKereby for the starving troops of
there is now no doubt that the Federals
ye fallen back or attacked. Theloss of Ra-
tain is a very heavy blow to the Confe-
gnorant of the circumstances which
is evacuation, altiost. without a blow; but

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