The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-28 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock
Barometer-29.68.
Wind—South-Westerly ; moderate breeze, end cloudy,
with zain.

ttijgj:;oo,7 „tut

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 28, 1863.

_-4,.--

Although this latest news from America—the
news but just now brought to us almost simulta-
neously by the City of London and the North
American—adds but little to our previous know-
ledge (that is, in regard to the position occupied
relatively by the Federal main army under MEADE,
the Army of the Potomac as it is called, and the
Confederate forces under LEE) it is so far remark-
able that it has precisely the same drift or tendency
that that earlier information had. The storm-
current sets still strongly and steadily ageing
Washington. The belligerents are drawing nearer
and nearer to the capital the Federals,
of course, retreating, the Confederates ad-
vancing. The headquarters of LEE are still,
it is true, upon the field—the twice " foughten
field"—of Bull Run. But, a portion at least
of the Federal army in their avoidance of a more
serious disaster by a timely withdrawal before the
late formidable movements of the Confederates, have
retreated, it seems, to within a distance of a very
few miles indeed from Washington. The mere in-
timation now put forth, first of all as a vague
rumour, afterwards very confidently and even ex-
plicitly, of another call by the PRESIDENT for fresh
volunteers, would almost seem to be ominous of
new panic. Mr. LINCOLN'S call is variously stated
at 300,000 and upward, actually, according to one
account, at double that number, at fully 600,000
volunteers. OWEN GLENDOWER again rising
to our remembrance, when we bear of it !
The system upon which Mr. LINCOLN has been
carrying on the war all along would really appear
to be about the most reckless well imaginable. As
for the financial part of it—we all know what that
has been. The expanding and expanding Federal
Debt, illustrates it frightfully even now. Paper ad
libitum—credit unstinted these being the two axioms
heartening on the slapdash dare-devilry of the
:Federal Government, According to the old Arabic
proverb, a straw, at last, may break the back of a
camel. But it is not a. mere straw that
that but too
has been heaped up on
well named symbol—the greenback,
One of
our English caricaturists hit the mark months
ago, when he represented, by a touch or two of his
comic pencil, the Federal President and the Federal
Financier, hauling away at an apparent :y intermin-
able coil of
paper. Certain, however, is it that, if
continued thus recklessly, upon the principle of
these wonderful administrators letting themselves
it must either snap altogether or
have rope enough,
strangle them in its involutions. It is the maddest
"piling up mountainously" that even the Yankees
have even yet adventured upon. And—with
what result ? With the disastrous result, after
two or three years of the most sanguinary con-
flict, of bringing the main bodies of the belligerents
back to their old battle ground, within easy dis-
tance, not from the Southern capital, but from the
Northern capital—not from Richmond, but from
Washington. And all this while, too, the supplies
that have necessitated this enormous expenditure
have been quite as much supplies to the Confede-
rate t
-r°°Ps, as supplies to the Federal troops.
That
it is so, is matter long since of absolute noto-
riety. when the South has been harder put to
it than usual for supplies they have gone north and
taken them,
r nis has beou done not once or twice
in a moderate
way, but again and again upon a
gigantic scale. provisions,k end
artillery, amunition, bag
and baggage, livestock
dead-stock, all have
been as one in that way between the belligerents.
And most of the booty seized .
this way vi et
armis by the Confederates, has beenin
fresh from the depots of
ern contractors.
the North
often but just
ego as Dr. RUSSELL'S time,
As long
the English
public knew allt in this
pu about i
way, namely,
that, for miles and miles along the roads lead-
ing'
from the fields vacated by the Federal eke..
dadlers" lay scattered over the ground, flung down
by hundreds upon hundreds in the agony of Precipi-
tate flight, military:goods and chattels, hardly Worn
or tarnished in the least, beyond their mere exposure

thus to the weather. Furious fighting the belli-
gerents have had since then, no doubt, stern heroic
combat has vindicated alike the fair fame of the
North and of the South, their warrior fame
that is for daring and endurance—and this, too,
upon many dreadful fields of slaughter—but still the
supplies have passed abundantly from the Federals to
the Confederates. The patience of the population of
the North, through all this stormy period of strife
and ruin, almost passes our wamp•tehension, now
that we come to look back upon it. What they are
hoping for—what they are looking forward to—it
would be difficult to conjecture. For the seizure of
Richmond ? Their urgent necessity, it is rather, to
look anxiously, again and egaic, to the safety of
Washington. The conquest of the South ? The
victories in the vast majority of instances
have been conspicuously and undeniably on the
side of the Confederates. The rising up at
last of a military chief whose genius and
valour may at length turn the tide of battle and
render the Northern cause, through success upon
success, triumphant ? Why, it is notorious that
one after another the Federal Commanders-in-Chief
have been egregious failures, almost as egregious
failures as the Federal President himself—Mr.
LINCOLN being well matched by disappointing
Generals like M'CLELLAN and ITooxER and
M BADE, Generals b 3aten,outw itted, out-man ceuvred,
trapped, and one after another, in consequence
of all this,—shelved by their own Government !
Whereas, upon the
President DAVIS other hand—there is
not the least bit in the
world of a failure—but just exactly the diametrical
opposite of a failure. And, co-operating with DAVIS
as the political Ruler of the Southern Confedera-
tion, there is all the while, there, at the head of the
Confederate army, the greatest soldier the whole
war has produced—that General ROBERT LEE, of
whom STONEWALL JACKSON used to say that he
would obey his orders at all times, and under any
circumstances, no matter what they were, instantly
and unhesitatingly. And, grouped around that cen-
tral figure of the Great Captain, we know how many
gifted and heroic Generals there are (the noblest of
them all, alas ! gone, it is true !) as LEE'S lieutenants
in the conduct of the army of the Confederates—

that valiant and adventurous army, now again
threatening so very closely the Federal capital of
Washington.

There are some questions that seem fated to be
the standing perplexities of European statesmen.
Diplomacy fails to unravel their intricacies, while
Time, instead of smoothing the way, only adds force
to the obstacles in the road to a settlement. The
state of Poland has long been one of those vexed
questions, while Turkey bids fair to become ano-
ther. Schleswig Holstein occupies a prominent
position in this catalogue of official difficulties, and
for years it has been the plague and perplexity of
successive statesmen. It consists of elements as ir-
reconcileable as Russian tyranny and Polish na
tionality ; it is influenced by agencies as antago-
nistic as Moslem effeteness and the spirit of
progress which animates Christendom. If its course
has not been marked by the disaster, bloodshed,
and suffering of the prolonged and mournful story
of the Poles, it has nevertheless served to cripple
the energies and retard the development of a high-
spirited and enterprising people. It has embroiled
the inhabitants of what might otherwise have been
a contented and united people, in constant conten-
tions and disputes with their neighbours, while the
independence of the North has been threatened,
and the whole peace of Europe imperilled by the
unjust and unreasonable ambition of one encroach-
ing Power. Matters are now, it would seem, ap-
proaching a crisis ; and in spite of German delibe-
ration, and the various hindrances in the way, we
are likely to see the long-pending dispute brought
to an immediate iseue. It is often said that slow
people are the most difficult to move when they
have once made up their minds, and the rule would
seem to hold good with nations as well es indivi-
duals, for the German Diet having once determined
on proceeding to extremities in Holstein, are not to
Moved from their purpose by the resolute attitude
of Denmark, the alliance concluded bet ween that
Power and Sweden, or the threats, entreaties, and
persuasions of Earl RUSSELL. Our English
Foreign Secretary indeed occupies at this mo-
ment no very enviable position, thanks to
his own inconsistency and extraordinary conduct.
Conscious, perhaps, of the responsibility attaching
to his present actions, and sensible how completely
the feelings as well as the interests of the country
are identified with the Danish side of the question,
he is anxious to prevent, if possible, the fulfilment
of the German threats, and to avoid the possibility
cf a collision with Prussia. But, remembering his
former vacillation, and the ingenuity with which
he endeavoured to make the worse appear the better
cause only last year, we ought not perhaps to feel
surprised that his intervention appears neither to
have materially modified the intentions of Germany
nor to have substantially encouraged the hopes of
Denmark. The text of Earl RUSSELL'S second note
to Sir ALEXANDER MALET is now before us, and
the Diet has certainly no reason to complain of its
tone. It begins by requesting Sir ALEXANDER to
represent to the President of the Diet the readiness
of Denmark to modify the obnoxious patent of
March 30, so far as to make it provisional until such
time as the position of Holstein be finally settled,
With such dispositions Denmark hopes to obtain an
adjournment of the threatened Federal execution.
The next paragraph proceeds to a little stronger
language. Having tried persuasion, Earl RUSSELL
thinks it bat prudent to show that the disadvan-
tages of hostilities are not all on one side, as the
probable blockade of the German ports would be
very damaging to the commerce of the Fatherland.
The Diet is further reminded that, in the event of
the war extending to Schleswig and Jutland, Aus-
tria
and Prussia, as well as France and Great
Britain, are bound to respect the integrity of Den-
mark by the treaty of 1852—treaties having proved
to be such serious obstacles in the way of ambitious
and
chide unscrupulous s
Sovereigns ! The dispatch con-
witha declaration that, although the British
Government
fully acknowledges the claims of the
Diet in Holstein
and Lauenbnrg, it is of opinion
that, if the German demands were restricted to
than the
t
those Duchies, they might be satisfied,
without proceeding to
extremities. This is
telling the Diet very much
what it knew before,
ad •
mitted by Danmark
and what was pretty plainly
in the famous proclamation of March.
If the in-
terference of the Diet extended no furtherl
German duchies, we should have heard less about
the sobjc„vig. Holstein question, and i-
enmark
would not now be mustering her forces. We should
have been glad :o see a decided intimation that Ellg.
land would feel it her duty to support the resistance
of Denmark take the place of this closing platitude,
a declaration which would probably have been a
good deal more efficacious. Unfortunately, the
antecedents of our Foreign Secretary are by no
means alarming to the Prussians or cheering to the
Danes, and accordingly we find King CHRISTIAN is
reported to have said in a recent speech that if
compelled to succumb, if France and Sweden per-
mitted Denmark to share the fate of other trampled
nations, he would never consent to
dismember his
kingdom, but would descend from his throne and
proolmra a republic. If this singular declaration

be accurately reported, it is somewhat strange that
the KING omits entirely all mention of England—
a power with which he is now so nearly allied.
Time will serve to exemplify the real intentions of
the disputants. At present it would be a consider-
able satisfaction to the public to know that Earl
RUSSELL shared the sound and independent opi-
nions so clearly stated by Lord PALMERSTON at the
close of the Parliamentary session.

It is a fearful thing to reflect upon that many are
dying in this rich capital from starvation ; but it is
incalculably worse to consider that a large propor-
tion of this number owe their deaths to neglect.
As painful
a case as has come before the public for
some time is that of CAROLINE JAMES. The poor
woman died of want. Her agonised exclamation
to her neighbours, "Did yon ever know what it
was to feel starvation," is a lasting reproach to all
who had to do with the case, and a stigma on the
parish authorities. The conduct of Mr. CHRISTIE,
the parish officer, was greatly in fault, and it is to be
trusted that few other such authorities could have
behaved in so unfeeling a manner, and acted with
such harshness throughout. It was in vain that
repeated application was made on behalf of the
unfortunate woman. No notice whatever was
vouchsafed to the argent demand. The first appli-
cant was met with abuse, the second with kicks.
Surely after this conduct has been made public,
such a man will not be permitted to exercise
authority, nor to maintain responsibility. While
this worthy, who was called " relieving officer," oh
the principle of locus non lucendo, was refusing this
demand, and sending away that applicant, declaring
he could nothing, and proving by his manner that
he wished to do nothing, life that will not wait for
the freaks and fancies of parish authorities was
ebbing away, and the poor woman died. It is
surely a scandalous thing that when two doctors
had sent in certificates, and several other attempts
had been made by pitying neighbours to pro-
cure some assistance from the workhouse, that such
gross neglect and such wanton cruelty should have
been exercised. It is to be regretted that the jury did
not bring in a direct verdict against the man who so
unworthily and so unfeelingly carried on his voca-
tion. It is time that some decisive change be made
in the manner in which the relief is doled out to the
poor. Next session some bill ought to be brought
in to amend and regulate the general plan and
practice adopted. It is certain that the object is or
ought to be to offer succour to those perishing from
want, that there should be " no complaining in our
streets," from those done to death from actual want
of the common necessaries of life. No one can dare
to say that the system which has just sacrificed a
human life can be satisfactory, and no time should
be lost, and no efforts spared, which can in any way
mitigate the cruel wrong which now presses heavily
upon so many of our poverty-stricken brethren, and
remove in some measure the reproach that now
attaches itself so strongly to those who are in any
way connected with the transaction of the Work-
house mechanism and management.

The abuses of our naval administration aro of
such old standing, and such extended character,
that it has become almost hopeless to attack them.
Our electoral representation, our civil and criminal
codes of law, our official departments generally,
have successively yielded to the influence of mo-

dery energy and improvement, but there is one
sacred spot, it seems, where Reform may never
enter. England may call herself the mistress of
the seas, and as thriftless men sometimes outrun

their income in keeping up an imaginary position,
she may be called upon to pay annually increased
sums for the privilege of that title. For the title
rather than the fact. To ask for an account of the
enormous outlay, is as hopeless as to discuss the
secret of perpetual motion, unless, indeed, that
secret be hidden in the continual outpouring of
public money from the Admiralty. To attempt to
unravel the dockyard accounts might alarm
HERCULES himself, and would hopelessly con-
fuse the prodigy who could multiply
nine figures
by mental arithmetic. The rapid and unac-
countable increase of items and expenses would
certainly baffle even his powers of multiplication,
and the result of it all is that our fleet is declared
unfit for a maritime war, while blunders are made
in the construction of vessels which would disgrace
the merest novice. The last news is that, when the
armour plated ship Royal Oak was placed in the
dock last week, great consternation was excited
amongst the authorities of the dockyards by the
appearance of the plates. A series of corroded
holes, from half an inch to five eighths of an
inch, were visible, some of the plates containing
188 such holes, while none had less than 40. In
many places they had ran one into another to
the extent of five or six feet, and the whole ap-
pearance is described as most extraordinary. And
what was the cause of such an appearance

in a ship commissioned last April, and
only eight months afloat ? The iron armour
plates were in contact with copper sheathing of the
vessel, and wherever the under coating had washed
off, galvantic action had corroded the plates. It is
a pity that the gentlemen in authority did not learn
a few of the commonly known laws of science before
they attempted remodelling the Royal Navy. The
contact of iron and copper in water invariably pro-
duces this result—a fact so well known that this is
a common mode of exciting electricity, and has been
lately suggested by an eminent electrician as the
surest means of superseding the difficulties attend-
ing the Atlantic telegraph. It shows a remarkable
degree of ignorance of very necessary knowledge
that the dockyard authorities should express such
consternation at a result they might have expected
when they sent the ship to sea. Suspicious folks
might hint that the experiment was intended to be
a failure by those who object to adapting our noble
old wooden vessels to modern improvements, and
prefer to lavish public money in costly experiments
to employing stores ready to hand. This recent
disaster will give a convenient opportunity for more
Admiralty bungling, possibly with a repetition of
the same egregious mistake. Another characteristic
blunder has recently come to light respecting the
construction of Mr. REED'S new iron ship Pallas at
Woolwich. It has been found that the slip on
which preparations were being made for her being
laid down was much less than her proposed length
—225 feet. Considerable delay will, therefore, be
experienced, as both slip and shed will have to be
lengthened. Such mistakes as these are perfectly in-
excusable, and in any other department would not
be tolerated. How long is the most expensive and
important of our administrative departments to be
likewise the most unprofitable and ill governed ?

THE EX-CHANCELLORS.--By the death of Lord
Lyndhurst a pension of £5,000 per annum reverts to the
public, that being the stipend which the noble and learned
lord enjoyed as one of the five ex-Lord Chancellors, who
divided between them the round sum of £25,000 per annum.
The surviving ex-Chancellors now in receipt of retiring
pensions are four in number, namely, Lord Brougham,
aged 85 ; Lord St. Leonards 82 ; Lord Cranworth, 73 ;
and Lord Chelmsford, 69.
A N-ICE REMEDY FOR SEA-SICKNESS.--A Tra-
veller sates that he has tried it (ice) himself with success,
and that if the stewards of steamers would keep a supply
of lemon-water ices on board, they would profit themselves
and render a great service to their
passengers.
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW IN TIIE TEMFLE
GARDENS promises to be this season the finest display ever
witnessed in London.