The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-03 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1864.

Midway between the Federal Capital of Wash-
ington and the Confederate Capital of Richmond,
the greatest Soldier produced by the American
Civil War, the one Great Captain born of that War,
General ROBERT LER, Commander.in-Chief of the
Confederate Army, has assumed, according to our
last advices from Virginia, the position not of the
assailed, but of the Assailant!

It is a terrible drop down, this acknowledgment
of the fact by the Northern press, the press of
New York and of Washington, that LEE, after
all, was assuming the offensive against GRANT,
north of the Confederate lines at Spottsylvania—
a terrible and deplorable drop drown, after all their
vauntings about GRANT'S triumphant success, and
LEE'S almost (not quite but almost) ignominous
defeat, if not flight, before the conquering army of
the Federals—then (not so very many days before
these last accounts came to hand, so recently cor-
recting all this same wonderful intelligence)—then
fall upon their march, we were assured, to the occu-
pation of Richmond.

Since this miserable civil war in North America

commenced, some four sanguinary years ego, we
suppose that General LEE has been defeated (in
print), about as often, let us say, as his Holiness,
Pope PIES IX.) has expired (also in print)—
thanks, in regard to LEE'S (reported) defeats, to
the lively imaginations of the:Federal journalists,—
thanks, in regard to the POPE'S (reported) mortal
illnesses, to the no less lively imaginations of the
correspondents of some among our contemporaries.
To say nothing whatever of course, either in regard
to the Federal Journalists, or in regard to par-
ticular Correspondents just now alluded to—to say
nothing whatever in regard to either, or in regard
r. father to the
to both, about " the wish bein,
thought,' as SHAKSPERE happily phrases it.
As it has chanced to happen, however,
American
throughout the whole of this
war, General LEE has, somehow a
or
teats,
an-
other, in spite of all his reported
—0
contrived, strange to tell, to hold his own—of
cows', purely by a coincidence ! While he himself
has, from first to last, been the one solitary, en-
superseded Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate
ATray—ho has witnessed a whole series of Federal
Commanders•in-Chief (confronting him turn and
turn about) " come like shadows"—and_" so
depart Here is the, last of the series of these

wonderful Federal Commanders-in-Chief, meaning
Gen. GRANT—almost even now, so far as his aggres.
sive capabilities are concerned as " catawampously
chewed up," to write for a moment in the expres-
sive Yankee vernacular, almost as " catawampously
thawed up" as ever before him was Fighting SOE, or
the Young NAPOLEON, or any other of those suck-
ing Tamerlanes who were to have subdued the whole
of the insurgent States, as it were, offhand, and were
to have brought the Southerners into a wholesome
state of subjugation in the first preliminary taste,
as one may say, of a single campaign Campaign,
however, has (since the first virginal boast
of Federalism was uttered) succeeded cam-
paign, in dreary and most destructive succession—
the Conquering North being even now still at it as
desperately and, to all appearance, quite as hope-
lessly as ever. It was only the other day that the
Confederates under LEE were stated to have been
compelled to beat a hasty retreat before their formid-
able assailants, their then all but conquerors, the
Federals. Instead of which being really and truly
the case—the fact turns out to be exactly reverse !
LEE, so far from beating a retreat, is, on the con-
trary, beating—the Federals. His signal manner
of repelling their last attack upon him is thus
recounted by the Federals themselves—" After a
desperate conflict, lasting throughout the Forenoon,
the Federals were forced to retreat, with the
loss of 1,200 in killed and wounded." Subse-
quently he even turns the tables—becomes him-
self the assailant! And finally, we learn from
the seat of war, according to one of the very last of
these telegrams —" On Thursday (the 19th)
EWELL gained GRANT'S rear, and attempted the
capture of the Federal supply trains. The result is
unknown ; but after an hour's hard fighting, in
which the Federals lost upwards of 1,000 men, the
Confederates returned to their entrenchments."
Altogether, a wonderful anti-climax !

There is no surer way of meeting with imperti-
nence than to let overbearing nations know that you
are afraid of them, and to yield to the demands of
encroaching avarice. Our Ministers have given
rise to the most hurtful suggestions, and caused the
most impertinent remarks to be made concerning
us by the German writers. The language which it
pleases these good people to adopt is quite extraor-
dinary, and must surprise even those who are well
versed in their tactics and manoeuvres, and are
aware of their irritation when opposed in their
plane. It is perhaps as well that this sort of
poetical justice should exist, for other wise an
encouragement might be given to succeeding states-
men to follow in the footsteps of our present
advisers. After all that
.they have cone
ceded and yielded to Germany, it certainly
is too bad that insults should be heaped upon them,
and indignity be attached to their politics. No
scruples of consistency nor motives of propriety and
decorum seem to influence or restrain them in their
headlong course, and we find the Gotha Gazttte has
been amusing its readers and the public generally
with the summary of all the disagreeable things
that have been said and written against England.
The title to this combined jumble of precious relics
is of a character with all the rest of this transac-
tion. L. was styled " a straw in her neighbour's
eye, and a beam in her own, or the irritation of vir-
tuous Britain against wicked Germany." The con-
ductors of this journal cannot really entertain a
solid idea of respect, or they would never so grossly
insult a nation from whence comes their future
King. The Sovereign of their State will be a son
of that people they are holding up to scorn and de-
rision, and it would be as well for many reasons if
they feigned a virtue, though they had it not. It
must be evident, however, by this time to the
dullest capacity that it is quite idie to expect any
consideration from German States, grec or small,
and that we have entered upon a course which will
lead us blindfold to the sacrifice, the immolation of
our proudest hopes and most cherished memories, the
feeling of being free to hold oat the right hand
of fellowship to any people we are inclined to serve,
and the consciousness that our influence is immense
whether we speak in the words of thunder, by lard
and sea, or essay the persuasive but potent agency
of conciliatory councils and redeeming mediations.
One sowa that another may reap, has been verified
in this instance to a striking extents, for our Govern-
ment have brought upon us the most deplorable of
all injuries that can befall a State touching its
dignity, the annoyance of being ridiculed, with
the conviction that the sarcasm cannot be repudi-
ated. The insolence of uncultivated persons, the
withering contempt of jealous rivals, and the preju-
Idiced notions of more important personages, may be
withstood, but it defies patience and outwits mode-
ration to think that but for the grossest mismanage-
ment not a syllable of all this tirade of flummery
would have found its way into the publications of
the several States; or, if by chance, any attempt
was made so to do, it would speedily be arrested,
and die a natural death. It is impossible at all
times to fathom people's motives, and ,it really
seems almost beyond our discernment to account
for the object that these detractors could have, in
thus decrying the character of the very country
that has so firmly, and fatally for herself,
stood up for them through thick and thin.
It is to be presumed that there lurks somewhere a
reason, but what it can be may puzzle the most
astute politician and the shrewdest casuist. Per-
halls even the hardened feelings and selfish machi-
nations of the Germans have not quite deadened
them, or made them indifferent to the growing sena,
timent of reason and the indignant expressions that
ever and anon are manifested in this country touchs
They think that they will
ing their proceedings,
,
take time by the forelock, and disarm criticism by
beginning a vindieattee of
their conduct before it
the most proficient per-
sonais
askedto defend them tdh engaginge
mbefor e they are put on their
trial. When that day comes, it will be vain for
them to resort to that abuse which is not argument,
and unlike many counterfeits, cannot take its place
for a moment. Stich subterfuges will no more avail
than more potent weapons of contention. The good
opinion of an honest and independent nation can-
not be forfeited easily; but, onue lost, it is a ques-
tion if it can ever be restored, and certainly it never
will be in its pristine integrity and endurance. It
is worthy of remark that the errors of our Ministers
are constantly bringing insults upon us. The Ame-
rican press teems with slanders, and its writers
have vied with each other as to which shall succeed
in heaping the grossest abuse, and casting the
fiercest reproaches upon us. It results from these
impertinent& knowing that the chief men in autho-
rity will not resent the insults that are so gra-
tuitously put upon an uncffending nation, Had
we been consistent throughout, and treated
unwarrantable demands with the stern denial that
they deserved, such an occurrence could not have
taken place. It is by shilly-shallying that so much
harm is done, and a timorous vacillating policy
always results in the most ignominious manner.
When a Government yields one thing after another
to arrogant requests and insolent expectations, the
men who have resorted to these unjustifiable courses
begin to wish for something more ; and whether it
is practicable to accede to their new desires or not,
of course it is expected that they should do so with-
out fail. We heard no more of the French colonel's
ardent entreaties to be led on to ex' erminate the

assassins in their den, when the reins of power were
firmly grasped, and foreigners found that our first
consideration was the protection of our own rights
and the vindication of our national honour. Our
present GoNernment has made itself despicab'o by
its abandonment of the weak; contemptible by its
subserviency to the strong; and utterly unstatesman-
like, through the exhibition of prejudices and the
strong partiality that marks their conduct. Every-
where alike do we trace the evil influences, and
deplore the fatal consequences of such an unwise
and dangerous course; and it will be so lamented,
in after days, when the busy generation around us
have passed away and given place to another, who
will turn with shame from this unworthy episode
that darkens and disgraces the glcrious annals of
English history.

One of the least disputed branches of modern
science is that sanitary knowledge in which our
generation has made such surprising advances.
Happily since the questions to whose solution it
addresses itself are of such incalculable importance
to the well-being of the human race, there is very
little doubt or uncertainty about what we know.
The laws of health are by no means entirely within
our ken. We wonder if physiology have not as yet
fully unfolded themselves to the most searching or
the most intelligent student, but enough has been
acquired to enable us, in many cases, to substitute
health for disease, ease for pain, EtEd prosperity for
wretchedness, by a careful and faithful observance
of nature's immutable laws. Fortunately, too, the
main principles which now regulate our sanitary
legislation do not come within the range of those
vexed questions whereon "doctors disagree." We
do not find one man of science telling us that fresh
air is absolutely indispensable to the possession of
health, and another asserting it to be injurious;
we are not told by one chemist that pure water is a
necessary of life, while his rival informs us that it
is more wholesome when deteriorated; neither is
there in any dispute as to the beneficial affect of
exercise and temperance ; of rest for the feeble and
labour for the strong. The importance of drainage,
too, occupies a prominent place in all saditory dis-
cussions and regulations, and certainly no theorist
or philosopher could be found bold enough or eccen-
tric enough to contradict the commonly received
notion on this point. But while all sides are thus
agreed upon the laws which should as far as possible
regulate all matters connected with the public health,
Englishmen areruling over a country where they are
not only totally disregarded, but where ever y ag
gravation of such neglect which can be occasioned
by dirty habits, pestilential customs, and a tropical
climate help to increase the evil. The result is a
melancholy but convincing proof of the wisdom
of the men of science, and a startling evi-
dence of the consequence of such an outrage on
nature's laws in a pestilence that decimates the
population. A great part of Lower Bengal has
been, we were told, for years afflicted with a myste-
rious pestilence. Mysterious it may be in its
character and its symptoms, in the choice of its
victims or the course of its progress, but mysterious
in its origin it cannot certainly be called. When
we read of a mud hut surrounded with jungle
through which the fresh air never circulates, with
a hole scraped near to contain all refuse matter;
with a tank in the vicinity in whose slimy and
stagnant waters people bathe, wash their clothes,
and drink, we need not call any pestilence myste-
rious except as to the form it may assume. When
we add that the ryot who spends his life in the
manner described, is buried, when his time comes,
in a surface hole near one of these tanks, to be most
probably disinterred by wild beasts, we need not
wonder, though we may shudder, at the statistics
of the mortality caused by the plague. According
to the official report, the graves which are made by
the 112ahomedans, " are seldom made sufficiently
deep to insure the people against poisonous exhala-
tions from the interred bodies. The bodies lie so
near the surface that sometimes, as is well known,
they are disinterred by jackals and dogs." The
Hindoos, as is well known, court pestilence in an-
other manner by throwing their dead into the
sacred river, to be washed up and down with the
tide, an appalling spectacle. After all these authen-
ticated details, need we marvel that a disease has
broken out of so deadly a character that medical
skill is perplexed, and the resources of science
baffled; that it has gone on increasing in intensity
and in extent, until it is calculated that 36 per
cent. of the dwellers in the infected part have fele
len from it. Within six years, in one locality, 12,000
inhabitants perished out of a population of 18,000.
Large villages, which previously reckoned their
thousands, can now scarcely number hundreds; whole
streets are deserted, and places where 30 or 40 persons
resided are left perhaps with one solitary dweller.
The disease is sudden in its attack, and clings to its
victim with fatal pertinacity. But the form or
manner of its attack is of comparatively little con-
sequence. What concerns us to know is how far
it lies in our power to stop its ravages by altering
the state of things which gave rise to it. It may be
true that India presents terrible obstacles to sani-
tary reform, from the prejudice and indolence of
the people ; but how comes it that we have ruled
with unquestioned sway for so many years without
more progress having been made in these important
respects. Indians have learned our language, our
sciences; have studied our abstruse speculations,
and entered with interest into intricate controver-
sies. How is it, then, that they have not acquired a
further insight into the laws of health ? We fear
the culpable indifference of Englishmen to all
matters concerning the interest of Indians alone
has much to do with this unhappy ignorance, and
yet the condition of public health can never be really
a matter of no concern to any part of the popula-
tion. The fever or the pestilence bred in a Bengal
village may darken the City of Palaces ; the malaria
produced by neglected drainage and accumulations
of decaying matter may suit the wealthy Anglo.
Indian, as well as the humble Hindoo. It will, no
doubt, be a work of time and cant ion to uproot
those customs connected with native religious pre-
judice; but something can surely be done at once.
The religion of neither Hiudoo nor Mahomedan
forbids cleanliness ; let us see, then, whether
something cannot be done by the erection of public
baths and waehhousrs adapted to the cowry. If
it be objected that there would not be a sufficient
I water supply for such an undertaking, then there
is at once a work for the Government to undertake
with which national prejudice and native reli-
gious have nothing to do. It will be time
enough to say the Hindoo is incorrigible
when we havrswedti
htohgewi rvdeheegnaaatrrehedrai mntl
bgtehht htedeoodnfiniseapeotacosnahmalroiisftotitfgi ha:etcedl
ceeaitavhadiel,
iinsnaewtsi
aso.int
:Tnlhge et nf
uo,
l
evil. We are not reduced to a choice between
pestilence and revolution unless we choose to make
it so. Those whose religion allows them to bury
their dead should be assisted or instructed to dig
the graves of a proper depth, and to defend them
against the attack of wild beasts. Public officers
might be appointed to supervise this department.
The Hindoos, who must choose between burning
the bodies or throwing them in the Ganges present
a greater difficulty, but it has been already sug-
gested that by the erection of places for increma-
tion at a safe distance from human habitation the

worst evils would be avoided. Let our Indian
Government push boldly forward all public works,
especially those relating to a supply of pure water,
and to an efficient system of drainage, and with the
help of proper precautions as regards the disposal
of the dead we shall Lear less of decimating pea-
tilences.

FINE ARTS,

John Gilbert and J, E. Millais, R,A. Elect,

Visitors this season to tho3e apartments in the
National Gallery In which the Royal Academy,
according to custom, hold their annual exhibitions
_should make a point of looking in—either on
going to, or returning from, that greatest of all
the art displays of the year—at the Messrs.
Agnews' Gallery in Waterloo-place, at the Gallery,
that is, of the Messrs. 'Thomas Agnew and Sons, of
London and Manchester, They may be always
certain of finding, there, something pre-eminently
well worth looking at. But, just now, we can pro-
mise them—if they will but look in and judge for
themselves—two especial attractions, an examines
tion of either one of which will far more than merely
eompeneate them for the trouble of attendance. In
the first place, there is that darling little glory of
another season of the Royal Academy, that
sweet little lassie of Mr. Millais, (then himself
foremost among the Associates, now youngest
among the Academicians)—the little bright-eyed
girl in the scarlet cloak, seated in the old green-
baize pew, listening with her whole face (the
prettiest little chubby child-face imaginable) to her
"First Sermon!" Now that, to the amusement even
of his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, the little
lady has dropped asleep at her " Second Sermon,'
according to the companion-picture of her, numbered
13 in this year's catalogue of the Royal Academy,
it is delightful to have the opportunity of looking
back at her, as she was when first revealed to us
at Church, before the soporific influence of
the droning preacher's voice had obtained a
mastery over her senses by the mere force
of repetition. Among the most charming pro-
ductions of Mr. Millais. wonderful brush, this
"First Sermon" is worth studying egain and again
—is worth studying in all its details, even to the
very texture of the rusty old green-baiz3 lining of
the pew ! And there—in this very same apart-
ment, at the Messrs. Agnews' Gallery, there is
hung, in sequence, along the walls an exquisite
Series of water•coloar drawings—filled to repletion
with beauties that defy any accurate enumeration
of them, writing about them now, as we do, of
course, merely from the remembrance. A truly ex-
quisite series of water-colour drawings, this is, from
the wizard pencil and inexhaustible fancy of John
Gilbert 1 The series, here (one admirably well
thought of, by the way), being illustrative,
stanza after stanza, of that glorious na-
tional ballad, ditty, chorus (what shall we call
it the most aptly ?), that fine old song about
the Fine cid English Gentleman ! The original of
this grand old homely chaunt of ours, dates back to
the days of Jamie the Sixth of Scotland, of James
the First of England, and has reference in the
very refrain of it to the gallant gentlemen
attendant in the later years of her reign at
the Court of Queen Elizabeth. The original chorus
running in fact thus—" Like an o.d Courtier
of the Queen, Like the Queen's Old Courtier."
Happily changed loag ego to the words as they
are trolled out, now, first by the Singer, afterwards
in fuller volume by the echoing Chorus—" Like a
Fine Old English Gentleman, one of the olden
time." And here he is, in all his various and well-
known aspects, in the midst of all his familiar sur-
roundings and associations—as brought out to view,
incident by incident, thanks to the radiant colour-
ing of Gilbert. From the " old buttery hatch,"
where he is, himself, seeing after the relief of the
poor at his gate, down to the mournful funeral pro-
cession bearing his honoured remains to their last
resting-place,through the old churchyard—the His•
tory of the Fine OA English Gentleman is rendered
visible to us at last through the agency of John
Gilbert's genius. The banquetting scene, where
his worship is warming his copper nose with a good I)
tankard of canary, in which liquor he pledges the
company assembled at his hospitable board, is full
of picturesque effects of all kinds, among others of
expression, of costume, of architecture. The Christ-
mas revelries in the old hall bring out—to the sound
of the footsteps of the dancers, and to the rapid tones
of the rebeck, and the droning blasts of the sackbut,
and to the mingled harmonies of other ancient im-
plements of ministrelsie—a long processional per-
spective of country dancers as that perspective
has hardly ever been brought out before by
pencil of artist. For the hilarious influence of
the scene here depicted there is only one other
scene we can compare it to—written this one, how-
ever, not painted—to wit Mr. Dickens's inimitable
description of that wonderful Christmas-eve dance
at old Ft zziwig's ! Passing over the other pictures in
this brilliant series of John albert's, we are almost
tempted to single out as our favourite amongst
them all, the Death Bed Scene, where there are
heads hardly unworthy in their way of having
been touched into the semblance of life by
the:hand of Vandyck or of Velasquez. While it is
agreeable to note that Mr. Millais' famous picture
about the " First Sermon" is in process of being
engraved, it is matter of regret to us that nothing
seems likely to be dens with a view to the popu-
larising of John Gilbert's series of Drawings about
the Fine Old English Gentleman through the mar-
vellous agency of chromoelithograhy.