The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-29 00:00:00

and an efficient fleet. In the south-east, Federal
armies:have been unable, for upwards of two years,
to do more than effect lodgments on the coast which
have been unproductive of any practical advantages.
In Virginia, and on the Northern frontier, the
operations of the Southern armies have been most
brilliant and successful. The capitals of the two
Federations are only 130 miles apart, and on the
intervening ground have been fought the most ter-
rible battles of the present war. Over chat narrow
strip of territory the armies of the North have never
yet been able to force their way. Four different
times, under as many different generals, has the
attempt been made, but always with the same ili-
success. Nor has the South been content with sim-
ply repelling invasion. Twice have its forces crossed
the Northern frontier and furnished themselves with
supplies from the Northern States. Within the last
month has a Southern army penetrated many miles
to the rear of Washington, and, after having fought
during three consecutive days a bloody thongh un-
decisive battle with the picked army of the North,
retired lnden with spoil, and almost entirely unmo-
lested by those who in irony alone could be termed
its pursuers. That Gen. Lee will once more place
himself on the defensive, and content himself with
covering the approaches to Richmond, there can be
little doubt. It is, however, oy no means clear that
the Federal Government will be in a condition to re-
new with any prospects of success the invasion of
Virginia. The Northern population has now been
pretty well drained of all those whom love of excite-
ment or desire for plunder could induce to join the
Federal ranks. Although the respective numbers
of the populations of the North and South are vastly
disproportionate, still the refusal of the former to
submit to a con scription, which has been long since
assented to by the latter, places them on nearly
equal terms. The Northern President has by this
time enrolled as many soldiers as he is likely to
obtain, whereas the Chief Magistrate of the South
can with ease fill up the vacancies which recent
losses have occasioned in his ranks. General Meade
will not without reinforcements be able to do more
than snake a feint of invading Virginia. The sur-
render of Vicksburg will enable General Grant to
employ his army elsewhere, but then it must be
recollected that a large number of the regiments
composing it have almost completed their period of
service, and will, at the expiration of that time,
demand their discharge. The same remark applies
to a considerable portion of the troops composing
the Army of the Potomac. It is not probable, there-
fore, that the Federal Government will be able to
turn their successes in the West to practical account,
so the prospect of annihilating the Southern armies,
or of subjugating the Southern population, must be
considered as remote as before. We are now in
the third year of the war, and, except where great
rivers have afforded access to fleets of gunboats, the
North has made but few territorial acquisitions
within the limits of the Southern Confederation.
The border State of Virginia still remains in pos-
session of the South, and the Potomac now, as two
years since, marks the boundary line on the north-
east between the Federal and Confederate territory.
Those who still fondly cling to the belief that the
North is warring for the abolition of slavery would
do well to mark the incidents which attended the
recent popular demonstrations in New York. The
negroes, wherever met, were indiscriminately'
sacrificed to the fury of the mob. On the 15th of
the present month not a coloured man was to be
seen in the commercial capital of those States which
we are told are exhausting their treasure and the
life-blood of their citizens in order to effect the
emancipation of the negro race. But why were
they not visible ? They had fled and concealed
themselves through a not unfounded apprehension
of being massacred by their friends. The institu-
tion of slavery may in one sense be considered the
cause- of the present war ; and as the citizens of the
North curse the war, they equally curse those who
have been the involuntary cause of it. The Free
States have emancipated their slaves but they have
never stripped them of their servile character. In
theory, a negro in New York is as free as an Anglo-
American, but in practice he still remains no better
than a slave. The negroes who were slaughtered
in the streets of New York were identified with and
accepted as the representatives of the slaves of the
Southern States, and treated as the latter would be
treated if the North was in the ascendent—that is
to say, got rid of. We do not suggest that the
Federal Government would slaughter the coloured
population of the South—but they would deport
them to Liberia or elsewhere. " The question," par
excellence, in America is how to dispose of the negro
population. This question in the South admits of
easy solution. There, a negro is a slave, but he pos-
sesses a recognised status, and has the strongest pos-
sible claims to care and attention at his master's
hands. In the North, on the other hand, a negro is
free; but in the best of times he is the pariah of so'
ciety, and at a period of commotion is hunted to
death like a beast of prey. Should the accounts of
the recent riots in New York reach the plantations
of the South, we doubt extremely if a slave in the
latter would willingly exchange his condition for
that of a free citizen in the commercial capital of the
Union.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

J.-

LEEDS—TUESDAY.
To-day the demand for wheat was not so good as on
Friday. Sales, however, made progress at that day's quo-
tations. Other articles were about the same.

MARKET HARBOROUGH—TUESDAY.
White wheat, 47 s to 538 ; red, 44s to 48s per 36 stone,.
Malting barley at —s to —s per qr. ; grinding, 28s to 318
per 30
,st. Oats, old, 24s to 275; new, 19s to 22s per 24
at. ; beans, 38s to 42s per qr.