The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-23 00:00:00

hardly be stated to any sensible man or woman. If

,he Federal officers confined in the Libby could be

admitted to a sight of the heartrending letters
which I have read from Confederate officers con-

fined on Johnson's Island, they would face their lot
with a little more manliness, and not aggravate

:rials already sufficiently irksome by permitting
,hemselves to imagine that their sufferings are ex-

ceptional and peculiar, and such as were never borne
by any other prisoners of war upon earth. For the
present it will be sufficient to state that I hope
shortly to give such facts and statistics as will esta-
blish, at least to the satisfaction of Europe, the true
condition of the unhappy starvelings whose ima-

Binary agonies have been such a rich mine to the
press, and especially to the illustrated journals, of

New York.

The presence for the last ten days of General Lee
Ln Richmond has led to many rumours of his being

about to go to the West, but, as I mentioned in my
letter of the 14th inst., the appointment of General

Joseph G. Johnston to fill the post vacated by
General Bragg has been for some time past decided.
It is understood that throughout the deliberations
which have preceded this appointment Gen. John-

ston's claims have been warmly urged by General
Lee. And here let me do justice to the patriotism
and unselfishness of General Bragg's bearing since

his " decapitation," which have been such as all
those who were best acquainted with his character
expected at his hands. Without raxeune, with
generous cordiality and warmth, he has offered to
fill the post of Chief of the Staff to General John-

ston or General Lee—the same post which at the
commencement of the war he so successfully filled
under General A. Sidney Johnson. I believe that
nothing is as yet settled with regard to the post to
which General Bragg will be appointed. The cor-
respondence with the War department in which
General Bragg has recently played so creditable a
part will hereafter, when made known to his coun-
trymen, recommend him to their favour in a degree
of which they are at present unable to form any
conception.
The military movements of the past week have
been of little moment, unless (as is at this moment
hoped rather than expected) they should end in the
capture of the Federal Cavalry General Averill,
who has struck boldly into the heart of Virginia,
and inflicted some damage, though not much, upon
the Virginia and Tennessee railroad at Salem sta-
tion, It is along this railroad which connects
Lynchburg with Bristol in Tennessee, that the
supplies for General Longstreet's army—or rather
such supplies as he cannot gather on the spot
where his army is stationed—are forwarded to him.
It is hoped that General Fitz Lee, ono of the most
active of the cavaliers of Virginia, will be in
time to cut off General Averill's retreat ; but
such is the length of the frontier line over which it
is possible for the Federals to retire that I have
little expectation of the attainment of this result.
Gen. Longstreet has during the past week given a
hug to a small portion of a Federal force, which was
making believe to pursue him, and would apparently
have inflicted material damage upon them had not
a great rise in the Holston River forbidden the
Confederate cavalry to cross and intercept the
Federal retreat. Nothing is, I suspect, further from
Gen. Longstrect's intention than to leave to Gen.

Burnside the unmolested possession of Knoxville
during the present winter. The withdrawal from
around Chattanooga and Northern Georgia of
Federal troops still continues, and is by some ex-
pected to lead to the evacuation of Knoxville and
East Tennessee. It is evident that some important
development of Federal strategy is in progress, and
the large number of transports and their activity on
the Potomac are suggestive either of some attempt
upon Richmond by water, or of a descent upon
Charleston. Be the programme of the Aulic Council
at Washington what it may, it will, I apprehend,
be impossible for them to permit the winter months
to wear inactively away. There are signs which in-
dicate unmistakably that the unanimity of the
Washington Ccngress about the prosecution of the
wat is a thing of the past. It is idle to talk about a
large portion of the Federal army, which is about to
disband in May,being willing to enlist again. There
are too many Federal prisoners in the South, and
too great uniformity of opinion among them about
their own future conduct when their time of service
will be up, to admit of any doubt as to what the
conduct of their comrades under similar circum-
stances will be. Unless that mighty Battle of
Armageddon, which has incessantly danced before
the dazz'ed vision of the North, is fought between
the present moment and the Ides of May, let all
hope of aggressive warfare be abandoned by the
Federals. It is true that they may be strong enough
to repel invasion, and to maintain the blockade of
their enemy's ports for years to come, but it is doubt-
ful whether such an amount of unanimity as will be
requisite to enable them even to preserve this atti-
tude can be secured for 12 months more. In the
meantime, if ever England, under the guidance of
Mr. Cobden and Mr. Beecher, has been led to be-
lieve that this is honestly a war for the abolition of
slavery, what will be said when it is known that the
motion of Mr. Rollins, of Missouri, to the effect that
" This war is not waged in any spirit of oppression,
nor for any purpose of conquest or subjection, nor
for the purpose of overthrowing and interfering with
the rights of established institutions in those States,"
was recently carried in the House of Representatives
at Washington by a majority of 115 votes against 52 ?
The winter has already worn half away, and none
of the terrible trials which were bespoken for the
Confederate States by Southern croakers and
Northern threateners have as yet made themselves
felt. With true English heartiness, Virginia is put-
ting on her Christmas garb, and if the social condi-
tion of Richmond were canvassed at this moment, I
should say that exception might reasonably be
taken on the ground rather of an excess than of a
shortcoming of merriment. The markets of the
present winter are unquestionably more abundunt
hitherto than were those of last winter; oysters,
game, venison, poultry are offered in the greatest
profusion. Irish potatoes are almost a drug, and,
as I predicted, are served out with the rations of
the Virginian army in the field. Prices have ceased
to be weighed and considered ; the Confederate
dollar is worth about twopence English, and is so
regarded by everybody, for everybody has dollars in
abundance. The temper of Congress on the ques-
tion of the war is stern and unyielding as was that
of the Roinau Senate after Canne ; but I fear that
I must be permitted to express a doubt whether
they are fitter to deal with the difficult question of
their currency than was the French National Con-
vention to cope with the analogous embarrassment
of their assignats. He, however, who should fancy
that this war will be stopped by the breaking down
of a financial system upon either side cannot be
other than a sorry judge of human nature, and
poorly versed in the teachings of history. If there
be any misnomer on earth, it is that which makes
money synonymous with the sinews of war. Never
yet was war stopped by the impecuniosity of belli-
gerents ; least of all in a country blessed with such
abundane3 as this continent, where all that is requ-
site for the wants of man is lavished upon him with
matchless bounty, where the clouds drop fatness and
the valleys laugh and sing, and where all that was
wanted to secure prospectively to a third of the
human race such contentment and happiness as
have been denied to Europe was the presence of
two qualities of which, more than any other nation,
Americans are bereft—humility and moderation.
ire
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