The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The news from America this morning
informs us of a fresh and extraordinary change in
the aspect of the Virginian campaign. General
Grant, having found the Confederate position on the
Chickahominy as impregnable as all the others he
has attacked, has made another strategical move-
ment. When wo last received any important infor-
mation from him he was facing Lee's army on the
north-east of Richmond, and bad been completely
defeated in an attempt to force his way through the
Confederate defences. He remained in the same
position for no less than ten days, making no further
attempt to force an advance. The repose must have
been as welcome to his own army as to his adver-
sary's; but it could not be long continued without
an acknowledgment of defeat. On the 13th of June,
accordingly, he and his army commenced a fresh
flank movement to an entirely new field of opera-
tions, and to a scene hitherto undreamt of by the
army of the Potomac. He marched again to his
left, down the Chickahominy, and crossed it appa-
rently near the ground made memorable by M'Clel.
lan's disastrous battles in 1862. He must have
traversed those fields themselves, and, like his prea
decessor, he reached the James River. His movement,
however, did not stop there; he crossed the James
River, and joined Butter at Bermuda Hundred. He
seems to have effected this march unmolested, and
the successful accomplishment of such a hazardous
movement is a remarkable proof either of General
Grant's skill or General Lee's caution, or both.
The extraordinary result is that Grant is now
exactly on the opposite side of Richmond to that
from which he began his campaign. He started
from near Fredericksburg on the north; he is now
close to Petersburg on the south. Being unable to
enter Richmond in front, he has marched past it,
and is now trying to get into the city at the back.
In fact, he has made a half-circle round the city,
and if ho continues, as ho has promised, to move
" on this line" all the summer ho may, in processof
time, complete the circle, and get round again to
where ho started from. It would be difficult to con-
ceive a more practical admission of failure up to the
present point than is contained in this remarkable
movement. As has been already observed, both in
America and here, the position which Grant held
on the Chickahominy might have been reached, as
it was reached by M'Clellan, without any loss at
all; but the same reflection is still more obvious
and decisive in this case, for a Federal force had
already been established at the point to which Grant
has now betaken himself. The Federal gunboats
and transports planted General Butler at Bermuda
Hundred, at the very outset of the campaign, with
the express purpose of effecting a diversion on the'
south of Richmond while Grant made the main
attack from the north. It is obvious, therefore, that
General Grant has only resorted to this maneeuvre '
because his original plan has been entirely defeated.
He has expended 100,000 men with absolutely no'
result at all, and he begins to all intents and pur-
poses a fresh campaign with all the disadvantages
of an army diminished by this enormous loss and
dispirited by obvious failure. It must be allowed
that General Grant and his soldiers maintain the
character they had already acquired for indomitable
perseverance. Few Generals and few troops would
persist in this dogged and determined struggle.
Beaten off on one side, he attacks on another, and
promises to be true at all events to part of his
determination—" to fight it out all summer."
When we turn from the mere external aspect
of the movement to attempt an estimate of its
nature and prospects, we are met by the dis-
advantage of not having the experience to guide
us on the south which makes a campaign on the
north and east of Richmond a matter almost of
scientific calculation. This movement of General
Grant opens up, as we have said, au entirely new
scene of warfare. The struggle hitherto has been
either on the line from the Rappahannock or on
that from the Peninsula. General Grant has tried
both these and failed, and now, for the first time in
the history of the war, h enters on a third. The
first tff„ct of toe transfer of the whole Federal army
to the south bank of the James River has been, of
course, the withdrawal of the Confederate force
which had confined Butler to his intrenchments.
Before Grant can follow them it is obviously neces-
sary for him to secure his rear by making sure of
Petersburg, and accordingly we hear that two divi-
sions of the Federal army have attacked that city.
On the 15th this attack had been so far successful
that an out work two miles from the city had been
captured, and a rumour seems to have prevailed at
the date of the last ad vices that the city had been
taken. It had, however, no confirmation, and it is
difficult to believe that a city of so much importance
as Petersburg, the centre of so many lines of rail-
way, can have been open to so easy a capture.
Unless this attack is auecessful, the campaign may
resolve itself into a siege of Petersburg instead of a
siege of Iticheaond. supposing, however, General
Grant to be successful in this first act of his new
programme, he will then be free to march on Rich-
mond from the eouth, having his headquarters on
the James River. What grounds he can have for
presuming that he will find less resistance on this
side than on the other it is difficult to imagine. In
the first place, he is now on the south side of the
James, and a river, therefore, is added to the other
defences which the south side of ltichtnond may pos.
seas in common with the north, for only a small por•
tion of the city lies on the south side. As matters are
at present the Federal gunboats could offer no as-
sistance. About eight miles from the city the naviga-
tion of the James is closed by artificial obstructions,
and Fort Darling stands on the south bank to bar
any further advance. If Grant could take Fort
Darling and remove these obstructions, he could
proceed to attack the Confederate capital; and if
after the capture of Petersburg the next point of
attack is not Fort Darling, it is difficult to see what
general Grant's prospects 'are. There are some
reasons for believing that the Confederates have
gunboats above Fort Darling, and therefore, if
Grant cannot force a passage up the river, he may
have the favourite resource of the Federals turned
against himself. It is to be remembered also that
as General Grant's army is now united, so also Tay
General Lee's be. It would seem that no sufficient
Federal fore 3 has been left :to the north of the
James to occupy General Lee's attention, and to all
appearances he may either transfer his force to the
assistance of Beauregard, who has hitherto defended
the south, or, if a smaller force can make that side
of the city secure, he is free to march unopposed
towards Washington. All these considerations
make it very unlikely that the Federal task will be
easier in the new battle-field than it was in those
upon which they have so often been foiled. It must
be added, however, to these considerations, :hat
if a large Federal force could establish itself to the
south of Richmond the consequences might be
serious, for if the city were besieged on that side its
connection with the rest of the Confederacy would
be endangered. The advance of General Hunter
upon Staunton is, therefore, assuming considerable
importance. Ho has been joined by two other
Generals, Crook and Averill, and Pope with
4,000 men was said at be marching to his reinforce-
ment up the Shenandoah Valley. his forces are
directed towards Lynchburg, an important manufac-
turing town higher up the same river as Richmond
—the James—and on the Virginia and East Ten-
nessee Railroad, which is an important line of Lee's
supplies. If he succeeded in seizing the town and
railroad, the Confederates would not only lose an
important depot, but the communication of Rich-
mond with the south would depend upon one line
of railway to Danville, running midway between
the Petersburg and Lynchburg lines, and even this
would be a very precarious resource, when Federal
armies were on both sides of it. The movement is
considered sufficiently serious for two divisions of
the Confederate army to have been sent to defend
Lynchburg, while General Early's corps, which
held the left of Lie's line in his recent position on
the Chickahominy, has been despatched to attack
Hunter directly. The fact of General Sheridan's
cavalry Corps having been detached to join this ex-
pedition teems to show that it enters materially
into Grant's plans. This cavalry force indeed has
been met and defeated by the Confederate cavalry
under Fitzhugh Lee and Hampton. That a similar
fate should overtake the other divisions of Ge+
neral Hunter's expedition is of very great im-
portance to the Confederate defence. The
other news is of minor importance compared
with the struggle in Virginia. General Sherman
is said to be forbidden to go any further, or to risk
any general engagement outside his intrenchments.
This is not a hopeful position for a General in the
heart of an enemy's country. Moreover, an attack
upon his communications was anticipated. A Fe-
deral expedition, 8,000 strong, which left Mem-
phis on the Ist of June, was met in Western Ten-
nessee by a strong force under General Forrest,
and was so completely defeated as to lose all its
ammunition and artillery, and be driven back
with great loss to Memphis. This force of
Forrest's is beneved to be moving on Sher•
man's rear. While the Federals are thus powerless
in Tenneszeo, General Morgan has reappeared in
Kentucky, and has retired after a successful raid,
His force, however, is much needed in Virginia,
and it is bad po'icy to waste energy upon such
transitory efforts. Everything fur the present
centres round Grant, and we await with more .
terest and anxiety than ever the development of his
new and daring plan.
POST.—The allied armies in Schleswig have sig-
nalised the recommencement of hostilities by a huc
cess which, though not brilliant, will at least y
them be regarded as substantial. Island by
Allen hiss fallen, and the Germans are now the uti
disputed possessors of every acre of Schleswig soil.
From its contiguity to this Duchy the island was
regarded by both belligerents as forming a portico

The Corporation of the Scottish Hospital.

A quarterly court of the guardians of this charity was held
yesterday in the hall of the Scottieh Corpo:ation, Crane-
court, Fleet-street. The meeting was presided Over by the
Duke of Montrose, the president of the institution.

The minutes of the previous court having been read and
confirmed,
The noble CHAIRMAN announced that as it had been the
usual practice at the midsummer court to make arrange-
ments for the chairman who should preside at the dinner in
behalf of the charity on St, Andrew's Day, the secretary had
communicated with General Knollys as to whether they
could be honoured with the presence of his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales on that occasion, To that communica-
tion an answer had been received to the effect that, there
being ample time, a positive answer would be sent as to
whether his Royal Highness could comply with the request
or not, a month or two before the event came off, so that,
should he not be able to be present, there would be ample
time to get some one else to preside.

Mr WEDSTER reported, on behalf of the committee ap-
pointed at the preceding court to inquire into the present
state of the property in Crane-court belonging to the hos-
pital, and as to the propriety of disposing of it and procuring
another site ; as also for the purpose of conferring with a
committee of the Highland Society of Scotland as to the
different Scotch public bodies in London combining for the
erection of a Central Scottish Hall,—that as regarded the
first subject, contained in the minute to them, the com-
mittee had met several times, and had made considerable
progress in their inquiries into the subject. These inquiries,
however, were not yet completed, and they were not therefore
in a position on that occasion to make any report upon the
subject of the removal of the hospital. In regard to the
other point, the co-operating with the other Scottish so-
cieties in London in the erection of a Scottish Central Hall,
they had not as yet received any communication on the
subject. They were quite prepared to meet any or all of
these bodies for the consideration of the matter, but no such
meeting had as yet taken place) and they did not, there-
fore, know the exact proposition which was to be submitted
by the Highland Society.
Dr. LIDDELL eaid he presumed as a matter of course
that the committee could come to no arrangement with
these bodies until they received the sanction and authority
of the Court, and he would suggest that they should sub-
mit to them a proposition to the effect that they would bind
themselves to raise by public subscription a sum not less
than £6,000 for the erection of new premises, and should
they succeed in doing that, he apprehended all the opposi-
tion to the removal of the old premises would cease.
Mr 'WEBSTER said, as he had already stated, the commit-
tees had not met, nor had any communication been received
on the subject, and till they knew the proposition which the
Highland Society and other societies had to submit, they
could of course say nothing about it. They would, how-
ever, do nothing without the authority of the Court. He
had no doubt that the committee would be in a position to
report on both subjects at the next quarterly court.
The other business, which was of a formal and routine
character, was then proceeded with, and the proceedings
terminated with a vote of thanks to the Duke of Montrose
for presiding.