The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The gleam of success which brightened
the prospects of the Federals in Virginia has been
already obscured. Fresh intelligence contradicts
the most important of the late reports, and leaves
the Northern army in a position ots as little promise
as before. General Grant, after trying his strength
against General Lee on the Chickatiominy, aban-
doned that attempt as he had abandoned others,
Etna, by a sudden movement to his left, which was
eo far successful as to be unmolested, transported
his whole force to the southern aids of Richmond,
where his colleague, General Butler, was already
encamped. After the junction of the two armies the
Federal commander marched upon Petersburg, a
town of considerable importance, lying about 20
miles due south of Richmond on the right beak of
the James River. The capture of this place would
have given him command of the railway running
into Richmond from the south, while the capture of
Lynchburg, which was threatened by another
Fe-
deral General at the same time, would have cut off
the communication of the Confederate capital with
the west. Thus, even if no success had been ob-
tained against General Lee, Richmond might have
been menaced with a species of blockade, and these
operations appeared the more promising to the
people of the North, inasmuch as they recalled the
successful manoeuvres of the same commander
against Vicksburg. Grant, after assailing that
town in vain from the west, suddenly skirted its
defences by a flank march, invested it on the
eastern side, and starved the garrison into surrender.
What, then, if he should be repeating this strategy
before Richmond ? True it was, that in any case
the resort to this plan at the eleventh hour con-
victed all his previous strategy of error; but if it
gave him possession of Richmond, his mistakes
would be condoned, his losses forgotten, and his
victory bailed as en unqualified triumph. Now,
the late despatches not only stated truly that an
important work in the defences of Petersburg had
been stormed by the combined armies of the North,
but reported that the town itself had been taken.
They announced also that Hunter, the Federal
General charged with the operations against
Lynchburg, had re-ceieed considerable reinforce-
ments, and had advanced within some 30 miles of
his destination. These rumours obtained credence
as well as currency in New Yolk, and they certainly
represented the prospects of the Federals as more
promising than usual. The intelligence, however,
which has sicce reached us dispels all these views.
Petersburg is not taken; on the contrary, Grant's
assault upon that place has miscarried as fearfully
and as characteristically as if Lee himself had been
still before him. It is quite true that on the 17th
of June the Federals succeeded in carrying by
storm a portion of the outer fortifications, and
capturing some prisoners and guns. On the next
day, too, Grant, with his usual promptitude, attacked
the inner line of defences, but in this attempt be
was repulsed with tremendous slaughter. Twice
during the same day was this desperate assault re•
newed, but all the aetacks failed in succession, and
et length even this obstinate commander desisted
from the attempt. His losses in that one day's
battles are admitted to have been 8,000, but are
believed to have been far heavier. Hancock's corps
alone, we are told, left 4 200 men on the field.
From that time up to the 23d the Federal General
had made no movement. He reports himself as
" intrenched" about a mile and a half from the
town, and the latest despatch represents him as
medit sting an exact repetition of his previous ma-
neeavres in this sanguinary campaign. He first
fights with the utmost determination to force his
way, and then, after sacrificing thonsands of lives
to no purpose, he executes a flank movement,
and plays precisely the same game at an-
other point to as little purpose as before. Once
more, accordingly, General 'Jrant is believdd to be
engaged in another fl inking operation ; and once
more " Mr Stanton announces that important move-
ments are in progress, which cannot yet be made
public." The operations of Gen. Hunter against
Lynchburg are not quite so clearly reported, but it
is certain that Gen. Sheridan, who was depatched
to reinforce him, has bL-.en compelled to return with
considerable loss, and it is rumoured that Hunter
himself has been repulsed in an attack upon the
town. Feats are even entertained for his ultimate
safety and his line of retreat, so that the prospects
of the campaign in this quarter are not much
brighter than they are elsewhere. In every dir e
tion, in short, the Federals have been. hitherto
foiled. We do not attribute to these circumstances
exclusively the prodigious rise in the pm.: of g01u,.,
which had actually at one moment, on the z6:19
jumped to 245. No doubt the intelligence from the
army is discouraging enough to affect the markets,
but the confusion and panic are probably due in the
main to the interference of the Legislature in com-
mercial transactions, and to the measures by which
it has been vainly Bought to bring the course of
such affiirs into greater conformity with the wishes
of Government. It remains, however, to be seen
what events may yet occur before Richmond. The
campaign is not over, nor is Grant, after all his
losses, reduced to the necessity of inac:ion or retreat.
An incredible immigration from Europe enables the
Government to feed his army, and his own uncon-
querable tenacity of purpose carries him through
his reverses. It may be anticipated with confidence
that he will try his strength again and again upon
the Confederate defences before he throws up the
game. If there be a weak point in the ramparts of
hichmond, he will find it,out. He feels one place
after another in the Confederate lines exactly like
the beeaguring captain depicted by Virgil—

" Nunc hos, nunc illos aditus, ocanemque pererrat
Arte locum, et variis assultibus irritus urget."

It is hard to withhold a certain admiration from
such stubborn and invincible resolution, but though
it is all wonderful, it is not war. War is not made in
this fashion by ekilfuf generals, nor is victory likely
to be won by accident or luck if it cannot be won
by purpose and plan. Every successive manoeuvre
of Grant's in this eventful campaign has been made
because a former manoeuvre failed. It is quite im-
possible to give him credit for any strategy except
such as consists in escaping from the consequences
of miscalculation, and securing a fresh chance. If
his position to the south of Richmond is really more
favourable than his former position to the north,
that is only so much evidence convicting him of mis-
judgment in advancing by the northern line at all.
still, for all this, there he stands, close to Richmond,
with an army not inferior in numbers or bravery
to that of his antagonist, and with so obstinate and
unyielding a will that it may serve him instead
of more perfect generalship. All this while, how..
ever, there stands Lee, too, and there „is something
ominous about the recent inactivity of this fors
midable soldier. He did not deign to interrupt the
last "flank march" of the Federals, though such a
movement gave him obvious opportunities, He
had parried every blow of the enemy, but at the
moment he struck none in return. There was un-
easiness in New York about the matter. Nobody
could tell where Lee was, or what he might be
meditating. If he was not within the lines of
Petersburg himself it is clear that he has colleagues
who can deal with Grant as successfully as their
chief ; and if he and his army should be thus set
tree, what might be the fate of Washington ? These
are the speculations and the questions which cir-
culate in the great cities of the North in the fourth
year of the war and the second month of the grand
Virginian campaign. Events alone can furnish the
solution, but even the Federals thetneelves are now
beginning to fear that no turn of fortune, however
unexpected, will bring this terrible contest to the
desired end.

POST.—The arrival of the Emperor Maximilian
in his new country has occurred, by a happy coin-
cidence, at the moment of the apparently final dis-
persion of the disorderly bands that had mocked
the name of republican government. When, there-
fore, the Emperor reached his capital, now just a
month ago, it is fair to presume that he found his
Mexican empire generally acknowledging his
authority. To watch his progress and career in the
arts of peaceful administration will be from this
time an object of cariousatten t ion among politicians
of every country. The adventure is, after all, more
a safe than a splendid one; for, between the
general policy on which Maximilian is said to have
resolved, and the means which he has secured
for carrying it into effect, it would seem contrary
to probability to entertain any serious doubt of his
success. We believe he more than once, when in
London, expressed his intention to govern Mexico

as nearly as possible on the principle which his
father-In-law, King Leopold, has applied to Belgium
—to rule an a constitutional Sovezeigo; to develop
the best elements of society in the government of the
country ; to restrain within the lithits ttf spiritual
uflairs the undue influence of the clergy ; and at the
same time to retain in his own hands the military
and administrative supremacy which ought to be-
long to the Sovereign of a newly-constituted State.
If he shculd be found to fulfil this programme there
can be no doubt of his enlisting the moral support
of all those classes which really constitute public
opinion in Mexico; and he has at the same time
provided, by means of the Austrian and Belgian
levies which are following him to Mexico, for the
maintenance, iti any event, of his sovereign autho-
rity. As soon as the political organisation of ti;'
empire shall have been completed, and the relations
of the Church to the State shell have been defined
and brought into harmony, we apprehend it will
become the duty of the new Emperor to direct his
attention to the productive capabilities .of the
coun try. It is well known that Mexico is the richest
country either in the New World or in the tild—in
respect both of veetable and of mineral produce.
In the best days of the :tt,‘,:tublic its mineral wealth
was so far developed that twosthirile of the silver
current iii the torld were declared by oid Hum-
boldt to be Mexican. But it does not appear i.t'at
a similar attention has been at any time bestowed
on the cereal and other crops of the couotry. It is
calculated by the highly-respectable staticians
who have accompanied, or followed, the French
expedition that Mexico is eepable of growing suffi-
cient sugar, coffee, and cotton far the supply of
the greater part of the world—and that, too,
of an equal quality and at as low a price as
any competing country. They tell us that one hec-
tare of land yields on an average 5,600ib. of sugar,
which, they remark, is double the average yield
in Cuba. At present there has been no exportation
of sugar from Mexico, though the French and the
Belgians have been largely engaged in the manufac-
ture of sugar from beetroot; and it ie thought that
the profits of cultivation on the State lands, or the
yield of a small export duty, would in itself go a
good way towards defraying the expenses of go-
vernment. It appears also that the table-lands are
scarcely less adapted for cotton than the plantations
or South Carolina ; and these table-lands, being
beyond the reach of malaria, are capable of being
cultivated by whites. We are promised also a con-
siderable export of Mexican tobacco, which is pro-
nounced by connoisseurs not inferior to that of
Havana, while there is a strong disposition to pro-
mote the cultivation of coffee, flax, and hemp. In
the meantime, we have to enquire what are the
materials with which the Emperor Maximilian and
the immediate supporters of his Government will
have to work. There is no doubt the better classes
throughout Mexico hail the restoration of social
order which they now see around them, and possess,
too, great moral authority over the Indians. They
are anxious to improve the great opportunity which
presents itself to tllem. But the whole population
of Mexico, under the last census,was only 8,236,000,
and this for a country more than equal in area to
France and the Netherlands. There is therefore a
door very widely opened to emigration from Eu
rope. The Germans, who are flocking to New York
only to be absorbed in American armies, would find
in Mexico a country restored to peace, with tar
greater resources before them than the United
States, if only because Mexico is more fertile and
less populous. The acres contingently promised
by Mr. Lincoln to the survivors of his beaten
armies from the territory of the South might be at
once given to emigrants to Mexico out of " No-
men's land." It would be strange if the French
Emperor's project of establishing " a Latin
monarchy" between the Republics of North and
South America should ever be defeated by the
preponderating Garmanisation of Mexica ; yet
with the present German Sovereign, the resources
of the country, and the emigrating tendencies of
the Germans, such a result is not impossible, nor
perhaps, in course of time, very unlikely. There
is no doubt that Mexico would thrive under a popu-
lation of fifty millions. It is computed that the
unexplored mines of Sonora and Mexican California'
might in themselves give occupation to several mil-
lion inhabitants; and the soil, though so fertile as
to require less proportionate cultivation than most
countries of Europe, actually demands at least
double its present inhabitants. We look therefore
to incentives to European colonisation as among the
most important incidents of the new Emperor's
policy when his government is fully settled. The
statistics just published by the French authorities
already evince, however, a remarkable increase of
commerce on the Gulf of Mexico since the re-
estabisliment of order and security. This growth
dates from the commencement of the present year;
and it may fairly fill all those who have joined in
the great enterprise which France has now accom-
plished with good and well-grounded hopes for the
results of peace and wise administration in a re•
claimed and inexhaustible country.

LAW TlMES.—lmpeachment of Ministers has gone
out of fashion. The modern procedure is a vote of
censure, in the shape ?idler of a resolution express-
ing the condemnatory opirion of the House, or of
an address to the Crown, embodying a censure on
its advisers. Apart, therefore, from the general
interest which the profession has in the coming
Parliamentary trial on Monday, on account of the
legal reforms, the law courts scheme, and other mea-
sures mixed up in fact, though not of necessity, with
the continuance Lord Palmerston's Government,
lawyers may look with a critical eye at the indict-
ment itself. Is it good or bad ? Her Majesty's
Ministers are to be accused, if not in Westminster-
hall, yet in the great court at one side of it, of
having pursued a course which, "while it has
failed to maintain their avowed policy of upholding
the integrity and independence of Denmark, has
,oh ered the Just influence of this country in the
councils f Europe, and thereby diminished the
We are not going to follow
securities for pa...'"'"
the example of a great dionrual, in raising a petty
cavil about the impossibit:7 of lowering the just
influence of a country, for that a cou..7trY will always
have the influence, be it more or less, to which it
j
is justly entitled ; particularly as the same iournal
admits that the just influence of a country ma) be
io,t, which, logically, is the same thing as lowered. ,
There is a far more important question that n, ay
be raised. What is the evidence in support of the
indictment ? Is the indictment really speculative
and incapable of proof, its language being merely
equivalent to "calculated to lower and to diminish ;'
or is the indictment intended, according to its pur-
port, to express facts ? But if the lowering and
diminishing are facts, what other evidence of them
can be adduced but the proceedings themselves
which have taken place in relation to the Danish
question, namely, the acts of the Conference, and
the continued aggression of the allies ? Tnen ought
not the censure to be pointed directly at the part
which the Ministry bas played in respect of these
proceedings, rather than at the effects of the prow
c'edings open the character of this country? What
has the Ministry done? is the first question. This
it is which Parliament should first declare to
the Queen. The effect on the country and on
Europe, whether or not to lower the one
and diminish the securities for the pease of the
other, is matter of conclusion. As the terms of the
address now stand, the house would pass by the
premises, and present only a consequence. Might
not the Queen fairly answer, " You do not tell me
what my Ministers have done to lower the influ-
ence of the country, and diminish the securities for
peace." The indictment, in our thinking, would
be more ad rem, if it ran in this shape: " That
while her Majesty's Ministers avowed their policy
to uphold the integrity and independence of Den-
mark, their course in relation to the aggression on
Denmark has, by pliancy and vacillation, operated
to disappoint and falsity the expectations raised by
them in favour of that kingdom." The conse-
quences might be expressed in an additional pare-
graph.

THE TAMBURINI Row.—The famous omnibus
boxes were filled towards the conolusion of the
opera with the fashionable allies of the coalition, and it was
from this quarter that, on the fall of the curtain, the uproar
first commenced. Shouts of "Tamburini I" "Laporte 1"
" Tanebarinil" were taken up and echoed by partisans
and easily led public clamourers, in various parts of the
house; whilst many of the genuine public raised the counter
cries of " Shame I" "No intimidation 1 " " ,on't be bul-
lied 1" and even evidenced their sense of the real cause of
the disturbance by shouting " Turn out the omnibus I "
responded to by the occupants with cries of "You had
better try." Several times M. Laporte appeared, and en-
deavoured to address the audience, but the deafening
clamour rendered him inaudible. Yells, hisses, shouts,
overpowered every other sound. A sort of stormy confer-
ence took place, during this scene of confusion between
the manager and the tenants of the omnibus boxes,
whose rage seemed to increase as the row warmed their
blood. The curtain at last rose upon the ballet. Cerito
was that evening to have made her first appear-
ance. For more than an hour the seared coryph'es
stood ready to begin. In vain! For the fourth time M.
Laporte appeared, He seemed to have succumbed, for, in
answer to direct appeals on the point, he promised to make
propositions to Tamburini. but even this did not appear
sufficient to the originators of the row. They still hooted,
and at last the whole of the noble and fashionable occu-
pants of the omnibus boxes leaped on the stage, among
them a young Prince of the Blood. The curtain now fell
definitively, and amidst the sympathetic cheers of one por-
tion of the house and the hootings of another, the gallant
chevaliers of the omnibus waved their hats triumphantly,
and shouted " Victory I"—Lumley's Reminiscences of the
Opera.