The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-12 00:00:00

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12, 1864.

IN AMERICA.

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were that the police and fire departments were
wholly adequate to the extraordinary work so
unexpectedly thrown upon them, nothing will
satisfy the "loyal" men for whom the granule
undertakas to speak but Butler and martial
law to punish people for the crime of sym-
palhy, and to exercise " unrestrained power"
with an acidity commensurate alike with
its unrestraint and its enormity.
New York has been so wholly engrossed with this
new sensation as almost to have forgotten that Gen.
Sherman, whom it is the present fashion to place
above Grant and all the other Generals whom merit or
favour has brought to the surface, is engaged in one
of the most daring as well as most perilous move'
meats that a General can make. The mystery that
has attended his progress is removed. Foiled
by General Hood, and unable to retain his hold
upon Atlanta, he has made a virtue of necessity,
and commenced a rapid march through the enemy's
country, burning and destroying all before him,
in hopes to reach the sea, either at Savannah or
Charleston. or some such other point on the Geor-
gian or South Carolinian coast as circumstances
may recommend, and whither a large Federal fleet
may easily proceed to receive him with supplies
and reinforcements. The march will be of 350
miles, if successfully accomplished ; and if he make
a new base for himself on the sea-board, in exchange
for his abandoned inland base at Chattanooga, he
will have achieved a work that will entitle him to
rank as the boldest, the ablest, and most fortunate
commander whom the, war has produced. It
would appear that the abandonment of the grand
attack which was to have been made upon Wil-
mington, prior to the day of election, was oaused by
the necessities of General Sherman—that, having
made up his mind to retreat through Georgia, as
his only chance of escape from annihilation or forced
surrender, he communicated his plans to Wash-
ington, and requested the co-operation of Admiral
Porter's fleet, to be within easy distance of such
place or city on the coast as he might succeed
in reaching. Sherman is now completely eat off
from the North and from communication with his
own Government, consequently the only news of
his movements is derived from Southern sources.
But, as the Southern journals have been requested or
forbidden to give information through their columns
that may be of advantage to the Northern Generals
and Government, it is prebable that little or nothing
will be heard of Sherman—until the North has to
announce his triumph or the South his defeat. A
levee en masse or landsturm of the Georgians has
been ordered to impede his progress, to harass him
in front,rear, and either flank,while General Beauree
gard is preparing to contest his advance by more
scientific and perhaps more successful means.
General Thomas, whom he left behind either to
guard Chattanooga, or to assume such other position
as would most assuredly hold General Hood in
check, has, it would appear, found himself out-
numbered—if not out-generalled—and will either
have to give or accept battle for the possession of
the city of Nashville and of Western Tennessee.
Thus the whole interest of the war settles for the
time in the armies of Sherman and Thomas; while
Grant and Sheridan remain inactive—too much
dependent upon the results else where to risk any
independent movement of their own.
I think I ventured a fortnight ago to predict that,
come what might, the Confederate war ship Florida,
piratically sized in the harbour of Bahia, would
never be surrendered to the demands of Brazil, or
any other Power ; and that if the Federal Governs
ment were compelled to apologise to Brazil, and
otherwise to make reparation and the amends hon.
orable, means would be invented to render it im-
possible to give up the ship. Toe prediction has
been verified. The agency I supposed was that of
accidental fire. la this respect I was wrong. The
Florida has been accidentally run into by a Federal
transport, under heavy pressure of steam, and
sunk in nine fathoms of water. The accident will
impose upon no one. Whether it will tend to
exalt the character of the American people or that
of their Government in the estimation of the world
is a matter in which the majority of the Americans
will give themselves no concern. It is a " smart
Yankee trick," and in a country where smartness
ranks among the virtues the captain of the clumsy
but effective transport which did the grateful miss
chief will doubtless expect to share the applause
which has already been bestowed upon Capt. Collins
of the Wachusetts, and to be entertained at a public
dinner by the solid men of Boston and the solider
men of New York. There is but small likelihood
,hat he %id be disappointed.

An elementary course of experiments was com-
menced last week in the factory department of Wool-
wich dockyard, with a view of testing the capacity of
petroleum to supersede coal and other fuel on ship
board, also in propelling steam machinery in the fac-
tories. The method adopted is totally distinct from
that attempted some time ago in the United States of
America, and is the patented invention of Mr C.
J. Richardson, an engineer residing at Kensington.
He has submitted his plans to the Lords of the
Admiralty, and has obtained permission to carry
out his suggestion for the benefit of her Majesty's
service. The method is e ceedingly simple, and, as
stated by Mr Richardson during the trials it origi-
nated mainly from some comments on the subject
contained in an article which appeared in the limes
on the 7th of April last. If the experiments
should prove successful there is no doubt a recon-
struction of the navy will be the result, as an enor-
mous economy will be obtained both in the cost of
fuel and in the saving of the immense space now
occupied by the coal bunkers to be applied to other
purposes. The plan under trial is simply to burn
the petroleum through a porous material, which is
placed in an iron chamber, dipped into a water
vessel also of iron. The oil admitted into the
chamber soddens the porous material, and rises by
a sort of capillary attraction. The surface then
catches fire and burns rapidly as long as the oil is
supplied. The effect of the flame is so great that
with the small apparatus, which is only two feet
superficial, and affixed to a boiler, the oil on Satur-
day was utilised so as to be equal for steam pur-
poses to five tons of coals. A third advantage is ob-
tained by the employment of the petroleum,viz., that
no stokers are needed, and the boilers can be supplied
with several fires one above another. The small
grate used in the experiments was placed under a
boiler on 17-horse power, and in two hours it raised
the steam to 101 b pressure. The only objection
seems to be the fear of explosive qualities, but
these Mr Richardson states he is prepared to guard
against effectually.
ABSURD PORTRAITS.—There are as much indivi-
duality and character in the human figure, as in the
human face. Every one has some slight peculiarity of gee.
ture and carriage of body, as he has idiosynoracy of mind.
Assuming this to be so, with how much more character is
a portrait in some accustomed position endowed than if re-
presented in one to which he was unaccustomed. A right
rev. prelate, engaged in the manipulation of three little
thimbles and a small pea, or a blind man looking through a
stereoscope, would scarcely be in harmony; yet photographs
are frequently perpetrated in which ladies and gentlemen
aro represented in positions, and engaged in employments,
equally as foreign to those in which their friends usually
see them. The conventional pillar and curtain are becoming
intolerable. The conventional Smith or representative
Jones, attired in his habit as he lives (say the guinea
paletot and the 16s. trousers), seldom has the opportunity
of resting his elbow on the base of a fluted column ; neither
is he often interrupted in the study of his favourite author
(one finger between the leaves of the book) seated in a lady's
boudoir, radiant with bouquets and toilet bottles, nor with
a mass of unmeaning drapery mixed up with his hair, like
the hood of an excited cobra. When two or more persons
aro taken in one picture, it is no uncommon thing to see
them standing without any connection whatever with each
other, as isolated and independent as the statuettes on
tho board of an Italian image-man; cr else, as if desir-
ous of emulating the silver bells and cockle-shells of per-
verse Mary, celebrated in the nursery ballad—all in a row.
-r-piGhttes ".AU the I.(ar Amid."