The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-15 00:00:00

Letter from the Southern States.

We have received a letter, dated Wilmington,
September 11, from which we make the following
extracts :--
„ Railway transportation is exceedingly difficult
to procure, the roads and rolling stock are in a
most miserable condition, the greatest speed attain-
able is 14 or 15 miles an hour, and the filthy state
of those cars set aside for passengers is perfectly
distressing to our sense of order. How I sigh for
the luxury of even a second-class carriage in one of
railroads, and to travel at the rate of
our English
miles per hour, free from any apprehension
30 or 40
of approaching danger. Here the case is very
different; an ordinary individual like myself is
kept in one continued fever of excitement, caused
breaking
axles, running off tracks, and inse-
cure trestle work. And then as to the oasis for
travellers, the fond-houses (I can't designate
themby the name of refreshment-rooms). I
believe the name they generally go by here
My only injunction to the
are "snack-houses."
unsuspicious is never to be tempted to taste a viand
but that which is in some recognisable form.
hay, now been iu the Confederacy some
months,
and have had ample opportunity of form-
ing an estimate of these devoted people ; and the
them the more fully persuaded am I
more I see of
that the object for which they are heroically strug-
gling will eventually decide itself in their favour.
The difficulties and disadvantages under which they
labour no
one, except those who have witnessed it,
can form the faintest idea of. You read and hear a
great deal about the subject, but in order to arrive
at anything like an opinion
you must be amongst
and converse with them. On one thing are they
united—a unison which no private or political vari-
ance can ever mar ; and that is, a thorough and
implacable hatred to the Yankee, which will take
ages, if ever, to bury all trace or.
I heard an instance of the humanity of these
"
same Christianising Abolitionists the other day,
in Charleston, from the lips of one of the niggers
captured during the assault on battery Wagner, on
the ISth July. When the regiment to which he
belonged was ordered to advance and storm the
works, the men faltered, which the commanding
general observed. At the conclusion of an exhor-
tation that they would conduct themselves as became
men with the free African blood coursing in their
veins, as a parting piece of information he said,
Remember there are 5,000 bayonets behind you.'
The judicious motive of that arrangement elicited
the encomiums of the people of Charleston at the
time; for, as they a observed,;
nigger serves to atop
a bullet as well as any white man. The recent re-
verses which the Confederates have sustained has
brought some of the noblest traits in their character
into view. Simultaneous with the fall of Vicksburg
came the D6WS of the defeat of Lee's plans in Penn•
sylvania, and a threatened attack on the port of
Charleston ; but instead of deponding, the people
are as buoyant as ever, and as fully determined to
seal with their blood, if necessary, their devotion to
the cause."-3lanchester Guardian.

EXETER HALL.—The National Choral Society
announce the commencement of their new season,
on Wednesday, Nov. 25, when Handel's Oratorio, " Judas
Maccabseus," will be performed with a band and chorus of
700. Mr. Sims Reeves has been engaged for the ten sub-
scription concerts to be given by this society, during the
forthcoming season. Mr. Santley will also sing in " Judas
Maccabious." Conductor Mr. G. W. Martin.
STEALING MONEY. CURIOUS CHARGE OF
FELONY.—Yesterday, at Manchester, a respect-
ably dressed woman, named Mary Knowles, residing at
Bolton, was charged with stealing a purse contaising £2,
from Mary Henson. The prosecutrix stated that about
three weeks ago the prisoner came to her shop, at Gerald..
street, Pendleton, and produoed a grocer's pass-book, and
asked if it was hers. She replied that it was not, but that
she would be more likely to find an owner for it than the
prisoner, and she then left it with her. The prisoner
asked if she would make a cup of tea for her and a friend,
who, it was subsequently found, was her son. The prosecu-
trix said that she did not generally make tea for strangers.
but would do so to oblige her. They had tea, and after
her
maining some time they left. After the prisoner hah
she
son were gone, the prosecutrix missed her purse, wic
believed she had in her pocket, and immediately instituted
inquiries respecting the prisoner. Her residence
,whaosiamscmore„
-
tained, and a police constable apprehended her.
diately produced a purse,which she gave to the police con-
stable, and which contained a sum of money of the satne
amount as that which the proaecutrix had missed. She
said that atter leaving the prOsectitril'S house she found,
on arriving at the railway station, she had another purse
besides her own in her pocket, and she did not know
to whom it belonged.—The prisoner stated that she
respectable situation.lvsa
was a rag dealer at Bolton, and her husba who
mechanic, had been in his present situation 14 years, ller
son was also a mechanic, filling a
she came to Manchester to make some purchases, and in
the course of the day she visited 20 or 30 shops. When
she got to the railway station she found)etoeka,
and n
secondot
know-
ingpurs
which was very like her own, in her
takenitnti
inmistake,unlm
eo eshi
oeciukei
rpyt
the tproomrsewelinaat sihtsopeoshnteenhd
unbroken
should be made about it. When she came to Manchester
she was provided with £lO, and therefore she did not want
money. Mr. Trafford said he did not believe that a purse
could have walked from one person's pocket to another
h r
without fingers, and he should therefore commit the pri-
soner for trial.