The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-10 00:00:00

of the affair will be the application of the Adm

rally's favourite principle of conversion and al.
teration to their own Board, which needs a
thorough remodelling before it fu!fils the require.
ments of the public service.

News received from New York up to the Ist o

0 ;tober, still leaves the actual condition of affairs
uncertain. But all that we gather from the vague
and hesitating details of the grand encounter
between SHERIDAN and EARLY, seems to confirm
our original impression that the Federal success
had been greatly exaggerated in the first instance.
The Americans claim to make war on a new scale,
and certainly not only in the gigantic extent of
their undertakings, but in the eccentricity of their
results they have reversed the whole system of old
world military tactics. We, of the old echool,
should not thiok very much of a triumph where

the victor cannot keep his communications

with his own Government open and from
which the vanquished retreats in safety with the
whole of his trains and stores. Yet such appears to
have bee❑ the case at Winchester, and it is very
certain that the discrepancy between the losses on
the two sides cannot have been fairly stated, since
SHERIDAN has not thought fit to push on his ad
vantage. When the Confederates state their losses
at 2,500 killed, wounded, and missing, and the
North will not calculate theirs, the case looks bad
for the Federals, and the capture of SHERIDAN'S
couriers by Confederate cavalry in his rear makes
the matter worse. It is true that the Federal
Government may find it just now very convenient
to receive no despatches direct from the seat of war,
but the people cannot be deceived for long. Mean-
while in Missouri and Alabama the Confederate star
is again the ascendant. General PRICE has entered
Missouri with his whole army; he is within 60 miles
of the capital of St. Louis, where business is sus-
pended, and the citizens are arming themselves,
in answer to an appeal from the Federal come
mender, General ROSENCRANS. The real sympa-
thies of the West are mainly with the South, and
if the Confederates hold Sr. Louii it will be an
important step gained. In Alabama, again, General
FORREST has advanced successfully ; and it was
anticipated he would cut off SHERMAN'S communi-
cations with Nashville. These two simultaneous
movements in the West are full of importance, bu!
the PRESIDENT and his associatea will take care
that as little as possible is known until the great
political contest is concluded. It is a stormy pic-
ture, at best, and the real lovers of their country,
whether North or South, may well look with a
heavy heart on the wide-spread and continuous
devastation.

It is always to be regretted when those who at-
tempt to administer justice fail in some of its chief
requisites, for the harm that such mistakes occasions
is always incalculable. One of the most glaring
cases of undue severity that has been made public
for some time is recorded as taking place in Kent.
A poor boy of fourteen years of age was brought be-
fore General HITCHENS, charged with the trifling
offence of having knocked down six walnuts from a
tree in a field. Surely, it was hardly
worth while
to have brought up the youth on such a charge at
all, but the most that was awarded to him should
have been a reprimand or a fine, We are not told
that the boy had been seen before to commit such
an offence, and his own version of the affair might
well have condoned his error in the sight of any one
less austere than his judge. He said that he had
been disappointed at his ill success when out nutting.
and that he was tempted by the appearance of these
walnuts in question. He therefore threw a stone
and took up six that fell. It seems almost incredible
th It, upon hearing such an account, General
HITCHENS should have passed such a sontenca as
that which followed. The poor boy was condemned
to Maidstone prison, with hard labour, for sax
months, The option of a fine was not allowed. Can
anything be more monstrous than such a sentence P
It is virtually ruining the boy for life, and taking
away his chance of earning an honest livelihood,
because he has done as hundreds do every day, and
helped himself to a trifle. It is not as if he
had entered a house and taken a small portion of
property ; that would have been a very different
effiir, and ought to have been dealt with rigorously
by way of prevention. The punishment of Bil
months' imprisonment with hard labour is dealt out
to maay who have committed assaults on othere,

and half killed them perhaps, and such an award
is deemed sufficient, yet this poor boy is to una
dergo a like penalty because he has been charged
with a most trivial fault. Such things ought not
to occur in the administration of justice, and it is
to be hoped that some inquiry will be instituted
into the circumstances of the affair. The Home
Secretary should certainly turn his attention to
this affair, and ascertain the grounds upon which
such an extraordinary sentence could have been
passed. It is a scandal to the community that such
harshness should be tolerated, and it will prevent
the recurrence of the like inconsistency for the
future if notice is taken of this departure from just,
tico which has taken place under the mask of the
lzw. There can be no greater mistake committed
than to send those convicted of trivial canoes at
an early age to mix with felons, and it is a wrong
thing to strain the law so that a youth should bear
the stigma of imprisonment upon him at his cu.
trance into life. Beyond these considerations it
seems that in this case a direct error has been com-
mitted by the Magistrate himself, and for the sake
of justice, which can never be too perfectly ad,
ministered, some decided steps should be taken to
prevent the chance of similar inconsistencies again
arising to shock our sense of propriety.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

THE FRANCO-ITALIAN CONVENTION.

PARIS, OCT. 10,

The Constitutionnel of this morning, in an article
signed by M. Limayrac, opposes the views of ex-
parties who see in this Convention the fall of the
temporal power and the abandonmeat of Rome.
" This Convention," says M. Limayrac, " will be
executed in letter and spirit. Thinking otherwise,
the ultra-Italian press grievously inEult the King
of Italy, as do the clerical press the Pope."

THE DUCHIES.

BERLIN, OCT. 10,

Letters received hare from Kiel say that Messrs.
Samwer and Francke, the present advisers of the
Duke of Augustenburg, have heard the rumour of
their approaching dismissal solely from the news-
papers by whom this report has been spread. M.
Samwer is on leave for several days, after which
ho will resume his functions at Kiel. M. Francke
is still in that town performing the official duties of
his position, which he has not the slightest cause
to resign.