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 of as little promise
as betore. General Grant, after trying his strength
against General Lee on the Chickahommy, aban-
doned that attempt as he had abandoned others,
and, by a sudden movement to his left, which was
so far successful as to be unmolested, transported
his whole force to the southern side 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 bank of
the James River. The capture of this place would
have given him command of the railway running
into Richmond from the south, whsle 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, Rictimond 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 repealing this strategy
before Richmond ? True it was, that in any case
the resort to this plan at the eleventh hour con-
vieted all his previous strategy of error; bat if it
gave him possession of Richmond, his mistakes
would be condoned, his losses forgotten, and his
victory hailed as an 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 received considerable reinforce-
ments, and had advancsd within some 30 miles of
his destination. These rumours obtained credence
as well as currency in New York, and they certainly
represented the prospects of the Federals as more
promising than usual. The intelligence, however,
whicu has since reached us dispels all these views.
Petersburg is nut 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 he
was repulsed with tremendous slaughter. Twice
during the same day was this desperate assault re•
newed, but all the attacks failed in succession, and
at 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 oa the field.
From that time up to the 23d the Federal General
had made no movement. He reports himself as
" intrenehed" about a mile and a half from the
town, and the latest despatch represents him as
medit Aing an exact repetition of his previous ma-
eseavres in this sanguinary campaign. He first
fights with the utmost determination to force his
way, and then, after sacrificing thousands 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 grant is believed to be
engaged in another fl. eking 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 despatched
to reinforce him, has been compelled to return with
considerable loss, and it is rumoured that Hunter
himself has been repulsed in an attack upon the
town. Fears are even entertained foe 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 direc-
tion, in short, the Federals have been hitherto
foiled. We do not attribute to these circumstances
exclusively the prodigious rise in the price of gold,
which had actually at one moment, on the 22d,
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 sought to bring the course of
such affairs into greater conformity with the wishes
of Governmetit:
It remains, however, to be
_hseen
what events may y.!. occur before Richmond. The
campaign is not over, LIZ is G r.ant,after all
losses, reduced to the necess;:.,v of inaction or retreat.
An incredible immigration from a,...ltrope enables the
own uncon-
Government to feed his army, and his 'rough
querabis tenacity of purpose carries him
his reverses. It may be anticipated with coofldenee
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
liichmond, he will find it out. He feels ono place
after another in the Confederate lines exactly like
the baleaguriog captain depicted by Virgil—
" Nunc hos, nun° illos aditus, omnemque pererrat
Arte locum, et variis assultibus irritus ureet."

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 skilful 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. It'
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 for.
midabie 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 be was not within the lines of
Petersburg hitiaself it is clear that he has colleagues
who can deal with Grant es successfully as their
chief; and if he and his army should be thus set
free, 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 oi the war and the second month of the grand
Virginian campaign. Events alone can furnish the
solution, but even the Federals themselves 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 fioal 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 curious attention 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 as a constitutional Sovezeign; to develop
the best elemente of society in the government of the
country; to restrain within the limits of spiritual
affairs 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 should 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 whicit are following him to Mexico, for the
maintenance, in any event, of his sovereign autho-
rity. As soon as the political organisation of the
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
country. It is well known that Mexico is the richest
country either in the New World or in the Old—in
respect both of vegetaiale and of mineral produce.
In the best days of the Repuie!ic its mineral wealth
was so far developed that twoethire-1.! of the silver
current in the world were declared by Hum-
boldt to be Mexican. But it does not appear hat
a similar attention has been at any time bestowen
on the cereal and other crops of the country. It is
calculated by the highly-respectable staticians
who have accompanied, or followed, the French
expedition that Mexico is capable of growing suffi-
cient sugar, coffee, and cotton for 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 bee.
tare of isnd yields on an average 5,6001 b. 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 is 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
of 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 hie 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, end possess,
too, great moral authority over the Indians. They
are anxious to improve the great opportunity which
presents itself to elem. 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 far
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 Germanisetion of Mexico ; 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-
establishment of order and security. This growth
dates from the commencement of the present year;
and it may fairly flit 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 end wise administration in a re-
claimed and inexhaustible country.

Law TimEs.—lm peach ment of Ministers has gone
out of fashion. The modern procedure is a vote of
censure, in the shape either of a resolution express-
ing the condemnatory opinion 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 meas.
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 indicts
merit 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 oue 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
lowered the just influence of this country in the
councils of Europe, and thereby diminished the
securities for peace." We are not going to follow
the example of a great journal, in raising a petty
cavil about the impossibity of lowering the just
influence of a country, for that a country will always
have the influence, be it more or less, to which it
is justly entitled ; particularly as the same journal
adsnits that the just influence of a country may be
lost, which, logically, is the same thing as lowered.
There is a far more important question that rr 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 ;"
the indictment intended, according to its pur-
Or a.
-.sprees facts ? But if the lowering and
port, to . -re facts, what other evidence of them
diminishing a- "-it the proceedings themselves
can be adduced L.
relation to the Danish
?Conference, and
the continued aggression of the ais.l
which have taken plata:
question, namely, the acts tliere
Then ought
not the censure to be pointed directs: at the part
which the Ministry bas played in respee... of these
proceedings, rather than C 2 t the effects of tbs.' pro..
csedinga upen the character of this country? ,'at
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 peace of the
other, is matter of conclusion, As the terms of the
address now stand, tite 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 para-
graph.

THE TAMBURINI Row.—The famous omnibus
boxes were filled towards the conclusion 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 1" " Laporte 1"
"Tamburini 1" 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 1 "
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-
mai 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 scared coryphees
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 ohouted " Victory I"—.Lumley' s Reminiscences of the
Opera,