The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-11 00:00:00

Telgrams to the Bzchmond Whig.

MOBILE, May 25.
A special despatch, dated Jackson, May 24 (Sun-
day), says firing was heard till nine o'clock this
morning. No report of artillery has been heard
since that hour. This morning the 20th Mississippi
Regiment (mounted) dashed into Raymond, cap
turing 400 prisoners. Fourteen have been brought.
to this city ; the rest, being sick or wounded, were
paroled.

JACKSON, May 25.

An officer, who left Vicksburg on Tuesday morn-
ing at ten o'clock, says the enemy attacked our left
and centre four times. The first attack lasted 30,
the second 20, the third 15, and the fourth nine
minutes, and they were repulsed each time. Our
loss was 80 men. When the column of assault was
brought up on Wednesday the officers leading the
troops broke, and the column disappeared. On
Thursday the enemy were engaged in shelling our
entrenchments. Our works towards Warrenton
have not been menaced. The Federal line of in-
vestments is imperfect. Some of the prisoners
taken report that Gen. Steele was killed.

WASHINGTON, May 29.

Despatches from General Grant, dated near
Vicksburg, May 25, have been received at the War
Department to-day.

They represent the siege of Vicksburg as progress-
ing satisfactorily, and that General Grant is abun-
dantly able to maintain his investment of the town
and repel any attack upon his rear.

Forty-five hundred rebel prisoners, captured by
General Grant, arrived at Memphis to-day.
IN THE FIELD, NEAR VICKSBURG,
May 23. 9 p.m.
There has been no fighting to-day.
The troops are resting from yesterday's assault.
Our repulse was complete in all parts of the line.
No discouragement need be entertained of our
final success.

We are intrenching ourselves and building rifle
pits.
Cavalry have been sent out towards Canton to
ascertain the whereabouts of General Johnston's

forces.
Oar loss yesterday was not far from one thou-
sand.

MEMPHIS, May 27.
On Friday the Federal forces were rep•ilsed at
Vicksburg.
The steamer City of Memphis, which left the
vicinity of Vicksburg on Monday last, arrived here
to-day, and reports General Grant as having cap-
tured every rebei redoubt.
At one place it was necessary, owing to the
steepness of the hill, to scale it with ladders.
General Hovey led the assault.

The rebels rolled their shells down the hill at the
Unionists which exploded among them, making
fearful havoc.

The fighting was going on furiously 'when the
City of Memphis left.
The Union losses are said to be very heavy.
The steamer Sultana, from Young's Point, is re-
ported lost.

CAIRO, May 29.
Advices from Vicksburg are to the afternoon of
he 26th.

No fighting had taken place since Monday.
The position of the army is said to be changed,
M'Pherson's corps holding the extreme left and
M'Clernand the centre, while Sherman still holds
the right.

Five or six thousand prisoners are expected to
arrive at Memphis to-day.
General Johnston is reported to be at Jackson
with 16,000 men. The rebels also hold Big Black
river bridge,

Adjutant-General Thomas passed through Cairo
to-day, en route to Louisville. He is very sick—so
much co, that it is thought that be will have to
abandon his labours in the West for tl.e present.

ST. Louis, May 29.
A special despatch from Memphis, dated the 28th
inst., says that the first lot of wounded from Gen.
Grant's army had arrived there. Among them are
Colonel iklasvendy, Lieutenant Colonel M'Auley,
and Captain Seeher, of the 11th Indiana, and Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Barton, of the 24th Indiana Regi-
ment.
The 11th and 12th Indiana Regiments lost about
250 men each.
General Joe Jackson is rapidly receiving rein-
forcements iri the vicinity of Jackson, with the in-
tention of attacking General Grant in the rear.
General Johnston is reported to have said that
Vicksburg should hold out for 15 days he wcuid
throw 100,000 troops into it, if it required the re-

linqnishment of every foot of territory in his de-
partment to effect it,

CINCINNATI, May 29, 1863.
General Banks is reported as coming up the
Mississippi river.
The rebels report that General Cheatham and
Featherstone were wounded in the Mississippi
fight, and that Gen. Johnston is massing a large
force at the Black river bridge.
MURFREESBORO, TENN,, May 28.

Reports from highly respectable sources repre-
sent that General Grant, since Sunday, had mad°
something like a general attack upon the rebel
works at Vicksburg, and failed to carry them ; that
he had thereupon concluded that the place Was
too strong to be taken by assault, and had opened
a terrible and sustained fire upon it with his

artillery.
General Johnston bad not yet attacked General
Grant, but was still collecting forces in his rear.
He had managed to send word to the garrison that
if they should hold out for 15 days he would raise
the siege with an army of 10,000 men. He also
said he would do this if he abandoned every other
point in his department.
It was not supposed the city could possibly hold
out longer than to-day.
Parties who entered our lines to-day from the
South report that Breckinridge and Crother's divl-
sions.of Bragg's army were on their way south.
Al, is quiet at this point, The rumours of a for-
midable rebel demonstration on our right are hardly
confirmed. Some portion of the enemy's vidette
tine has been retired.

. Brigadier Getieral Harding has tendered his re-
signation on account of disability.

SOUTHAMPTON, JUNE 11.

The North German Lloyds' steamship Bremen,
Captain Meyer sailed hence last evening, with 358
passengers, the German, French, and English
mails, jewellry from France, value 69,420 francs,
and 956 tons of general merchandize on freight.
The Hansa, belonging to the same company,
arrived at New York at 3 p,m. on the 25th ult. all
well, and is expected off Cowes on the 17th inst.,
with the mails from New York of the 6th,

MEXICO.
REPORTED CAPTURE OF PUEBLA.
NEW YORK, June 1.
The Mario, of Havannah, announces the arrival
of the French steamer Daria, with despatches from
Gen. Forey to the Emperor Napoleon, announcing
the capture of Puebla on May 17, and the uncondi-
tional surrender of Gen. Ortega and the garrison.
Gen. Forey is said to have captured the Mexican
Commander-in-Chief, 23 generals, 900 officers, and
7,000 privates.

One division of the French army had started for
Mexico.

ANTHROPOLOGICAT. SOCIETY.

At the ordinary meeting of this society on Tuesday
evening—Dr. Hunt, the president, in the chair—it was an-
nounced that Mr. Reid had presented to the society a num-
ber of objects from the Gamboon, in equatorial Africa, and
that among them was the most perfect skin of a gorilla
that ha. yet been received in this country. Mr. Pendyche
also presented to the society some human bones and ft
diminutive skull, found near Cambridge, in digging for
coprolites. A large collection of human skeletons has been
discovered in that neighbourhood, the jawbones of which
present the same peculiarity of construction as that of the
celebrated jawbone found at Abbeville, and it is conjectured
that the bodies were interred after some battle between the
Romans and ancient Britons.

A paper was then read by Mr. Charnock " On the Science
of Language." Mr. Charnock, in a very elab rate and able
paper, disputed the opinions of Professor Max Muller re-
specting the origin of languages, and he contended that the
Aryan theory, which supposes that all languages were de-
rived from a single one, is inconsistent with the period
usually assigned to the existence of man, as there could not
have been time, between the date of the assumed origin of
man and known historical records, to have produced the
changes of language then existing. Mr. Charnock noticed
the absurd notions that have been entertained by various
nations respecting the origin of language, and the various
sources to which languages are attributed. He inclined to
the opinion that the languages now spoken must have
originated from many sources, and the statistics of lan
guage tend to confirm that view, for they show that the
number of words in each widely differ, some of them—and
those of the less civilised nations—being five and six times
more numerous than others

Dr. HUNT, though generally agreeing with the author of
the paper, thought there was ample time to have effected
any change of language. Geologists, he said, had recently
proved that man had been living on the earth at a far more
distant period than had been previously assumed. There
was, indeed, an unlimited supply f time, and philologists
might help themselves to as mu. h of it as they required.
He differed from Professor Max Miiller's opinion that
language is the distinctive mark of separation between mall
and brutes, for he contended that the lower animal possess
the power of communicating their ideas to each other by
articulate sounds.

The Duc de RouslLLox considered that languflge serves
to indicate similarity of races, and that by the names of places
the course of the migration of different tribes may be traced.
In this manner, he said, he could trace that the Catalans of

the Pyrenees, who speak what is called the Romanesque
language, migrated from the Himalayan mountains, in
Upper India. The roots of 500 words are the same in both
languages, and 1,000 other wards bear a close resemblance ;
and he asserted that the names given to many places indi-
cated the route by which the migration was effected. The
Luc de Rousillon, who is engaged in brining out a volu-
minous philological work, entered into a consideration of
the composition of languages from various dialects, and
contended that all known languages have been constructed
by a combination of different dialects spoken, in the same
countries.

The discussion was continued by Mr. Bouverie Pusey,
Mr. Prideaux, Mr. Carter Blake, and other gentlemen,
several of whom agreed with the president's opinion, that
all animals have the power of speech.
The meeting then adjourned till the 7th of July.

A race of 100 yards for £25 came off on Friday
last at the Ash encampment between Capt. Herbert,
Coldstream Guards, and a private named Kent, of the
Fus Hers, the officers of the latter regiment having made
the challenge. At first the captain's backers were rather
doubtful of their favourite, it being well known amongst
them that his opponent had appeared frequently in public
on similar occasions. As the time for the race approached,
and when the two rivals came on the ground, the con-
fidence of the captain's supporters was greatly strength-
ened by his muscular and well-knit fie we, in praise of
which too much could scarcely be said, considering that he
had not been in training. Hoe ever, when the preliminary
canters were taking place, hopes again decidedly felt by the
undoubted professional appearance, both in figure and style
oc running, of his opponent, who certainly justified the good
opinion of his backers. The result of this was that Kent
became a greater favourite than before, and was backed at 3
to 2, the betting having previously been even. Atter six or
seven false starts they got away well together, and remained
so for about 50 yards, when the captain came to the front,
and won easily by three yards, amidst the cheers of the offi-
cers and men of his regiment. _ _

GOOD FORTUNE.—A poor woman presented her-
self at the savings bank in Thomas-street, on Satur-
day evening last, for the purpose of depositing therein the
sum of £3. Twenty shillings she paid down in silver,
together with two notes—one a local 20s. note, and the other
as she supposed, of equal value. The managers of the
bank, on seeing the latter, rightly imagined there was some
mistake on the woman's part, and asked her how much she
thought she was about to deposit. She replied £3. The
reader may judge of her astonishment on being told that
one of the notes was an Australian bank bill for £5OO, and.
not a 20s. Manx note. The woman, it is needless to say,
left the bank overjoyed with the intelligence.—Manx Sun.
NATIONAL METROPOLITAN MONUMENT TO
SHAKESPEARE.—On Tuesday evening, June 30, we
see by our advertising columns that a grand 111dlange Dra-
matique will be given at the Theatre Royal, Drur) -lane,
for tree purpose of aiding a fund, now being raised, to erect
a metropolitan monument to Shakespeare. This perform-
ance is under the immediate patronage of their Royal
Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, and will be
assisted at by some 60 of the most eminent and popular
London artists ; altogether forming a galaxy of talent,
rarely if ever before congregated in one night's entertain-
ment. All honour to the worthy president of this band of
brothers, William Charles Macready, Esq., and to the poor
players who thus come for% ard to evince their gratitude to
the great master of the passions, who was not only the
founder of their art, but whose works are the fountation
or the English tongue. We feel certain the public gene-
rally need but have their attention drawn to this event to
flock by thousands to the standard which is graced by the
name of the noblest subject of the Crown—the Prince of
Wales. Mr. Adolphus Francis, of 43, Cumberland-street,
Hyde Park, is the persevering honorary secretary to the
movement, and will be glad of any co-operation that the
enthusiastic lovers of the Bard of Avon may feel it incum-
bent on them to show. We may just add, the box-office at
the theatre will be open on the 20th inst., but in the mean-
time tickets 'lay be obtained on applying by letter to the
hon. secretary. Private boxes from two to fourteen guineas;
stalls, 10s. 6d. ; dress circle, 6s. ; first circle, 4s. ; second
circle, 3s. ; pit, 3s, ; being most judiciously kept at a mode-
rate figure.