The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-31 00:00:00

TEt E ;,411) N, LONDON, FRIDAY EV KIN MG, JULY 31, 1863

elinetion which Meade has shown to tread on
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probably not without excuse, although his forces
save position on their own soil against the repeated
assaults of the Southern army. Not being either a
Pope or a. Hooker, he does not, jump at the con-
clusion
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sible country, he would recessarily prove invincible.
Unless
for the Federal general to do more than
threaten the Confederate capita). So long as he
occupies a position either on the left bank of the
Rappahannock or elsewhere in the vicinity of
Richmond, so long the Confederate Government
will be obliged to maintain their finest army in a
state of comparative idleness. But of reinforcements
there is no prospect. It has been stated to be the
intention of the Government at Washington to en-
force the conscription notwithstanding the recent
riots. Whatever may be the projects of the Admi-
nistration, there can be no doubt that the draught
will never be assented to by the Northern popula-
tion. The Federal Cabinet may threaten to enforce
it, but they do not possess the means. Mr. Lire
coin might possibly wish to convert New York into
a Warsaw, but in order to do so he would be obliged
to occupy it with a numerous army. New York
is, however, only one of a number of cities in every
one of which the inhabitants have, with more or less
vehemence, announced their refusal to be dragged
from their homes to fill the ranks of the Federal
army. If Mr. Lincoln would enforce the eonscrip
tion he must employ his armies; in carrying into
effect the orders of his provost marshals. New York
was pronounced by its Governorete be in a state of
insurrection, but we may next expect to hear that
it has been dech red by the President to be in a
state of siege. We do not think, however, that a
feeble attempt at establishing a military dictator-
ship will either strengthen the Federal Government
or recruit the Federal armies. But if in Virginia
military operations will in nit probability flag, there
seems but little likelihood of the Northern armies
being able in other parts of the Confederacy to do
more than retain the positions they at present oc-
cupy. The necessity of providing Vicksburg and
Port Hudson with strong garrisons will have the
effect of withdrawing from active service no incon-
siderable portion of the armies which have succeeded
in reducing them. It is one of the necessary inci
dents of the war in which they are engaged that the.
Federal Government must employ one set of armies
in retaining possession of territories which another
set of armies have conquered. It is true that at the
present moment the navigation of the Mississippi
is, comparatively speaking; uninterrupted; but still
it is far from being in that condition whica the
necessities of commerce imperatively demand. The
Federals cannot occupy the banks of a river which
flews for many hundreds of miles through an
enemy's country, and their inability to secure pro-
tection for vessels navigating the Mississippi should
teach them how hopeless it is to expect to exercise
undisputed dominion throughout the length and
breadth of the Southern States. If the Federal
Government are really sanguine concerning the
result of the war, and if they think their recent
successes are of such a kind as to be fitly celebrated
by a day of general thanksgiving, they would do
well to cast a glance on the map of the Confederate
States. Out of the many hundreds of thousands
of square miles over which the Southern territories
extend they might count by hundreds those in which
they have re established their dominion. The
Unionists of the North should never forget that, in
order to succeed in re-establishing in its original
integrity the Great Republic of the West, they must
not only conquer the Southern population, but re-
duce it to perpetual submission. The siege of
Charleston has been renewed, though in a different
form. Even iron-clad Monitors have been obliged
to succumb to fortifications which were built years
before iron plated gunbcats were thought of, and
all hopes of reducing the town by a naval attack
seem to have been abandoned. The same tactics
which the allies pursued at. Sebastopol are now
about to be employed by the Federals at Charleston
The harbour of Sebastopol was naturally inacces-
sible, and the French and English armies were
obliged to depend almost exclusively on siege opera-
tions to effect the reductiou of the town. The
recent attempt by the Federal iron-clads to force
their why past the forts commanding the entrance
to Charleston proved so disastrous in its results that
it was not renewed, and now the North appears to
place reliance solely on its armies to recover posses
sion of that Southern port. It would be premature
as yet to express an opinion of the probable issue;
but although the operations of the attacking force
have been up to ttie present tolerably successful, it
is not likely that Charleston will prove to be the
asy prize which the Northern generals anticipate.
But supposing, like New Orleans, it should suc-
eumb. What then ? From the capture of the
Crescent City the North, independently of the
plunder of the inhabitants, derived no material
advantage. The seizure of Charleston, beyond re-
lieving a portion of the Federal fleet from the
necessity of blockading that port, would not place
the Government at Washington in a superior posi-
tion. In fact, however we regard the successes of
the North, whether past or future, it is k pally
impossible to connect them with the realisation of
the object for which the war is prosecuted. Assum-
ing that the Southern population continue averse
from an amalgamation with the inhabitants of the
Free States, neither the command of the Mississippi
nor the capture of the principal cities in the Confe-
deracy will place the latter in such a position as to
enable them to dictate to the former the conditions
of their political existence. If the Ft deral Govern-
ment have now, at the close of more than two years'
hard fighting, begun to conquer, they will find
themselves equally obliged to retain forcible posses-
sion of their conquests. The latter task, bow.nrer,
in the present temper of the Northern population,
will be found no less difficult than the former.

ceasful in the House of Commons— His position vie
made before he was a member of P,lrliarnerit, and his
seat for Liverpool neither advanced nor retarded him
in his career. When Mr. Littledale was asked by
the Pltronage Secretary of the Treasury what his
poitics were he replied that he was a special pleader.
Cresswell could not have given this answer,but when
he was made one of the Justices of the Queen's Bench
in 1842 it was because he was a sound lawyer, and
certainly not because ',ewes a member for Li verpool.
He fully answered all expectations formed of him as
a lawyer. He was what is called a "strong" judge.
That is to say, he was not only a learned judge, but
a man who v. ould have his own way. He had suf-
ficient confidence in himself, a sufficient contempt
for his audience, and a sufficient power of saying
very disagreeable truths at proper times to keep
every one in awe of bim. It is a great temptation
to have this power in that position, and perhaps Sir
Cresswell Cresswell abused it as little as it is in
human nature to do,

The work by which, however, Sir Cresswell
Ccesswell will be remembered—and the only work
by which he will be remembered—is the creation
of the Divorce Court. Sir Cresswell Cresswell was
appointed to preside here in January, 1858. It was
an experiment distrusted at the time by the public.
and most dangerous to the reputation of the man
wno should first undertake it. Sir Cresswell Cress-
well's confidence in himself allowed him to accept
it, and, as that self-confidence was fortunately in
his ease well founded, it enabled him to carry it
through. To him chiefly it is owing that the Divorce
Court has been a great success. He has made a code
of divorce law by his decisions, and he has based it
upon sound, broad principles. As a social lawgiver,
Sir C. Cresswell is as great as Lord Mansfield is as
a mercantile lawgiver. He has built a bridge in
chaos ; and if his successor has the prudence to keep
to it he may travel without any very violent falls.
This building up of a new system of law must
have grown to be a labour of love with Sir C. Cress-
well. He had long since earned his pension. He
was rich in private means; he was childless, and,
indeed, unmarried. It could only have been an
absorbing in'erest in his work and a desire to con-
solidate the practice of his court which could have
induced him to toil on in a drudgery which must
caused him frequent disgust and continual labour.
It is true that he was generally appreciated by his
countrymen and countrywomen, and was doubtless
conscious that he was doing his work well; but in
the work itself he could have taken no pleasure. He
was a hard-working, conscientious, and successful
public servant, and his life has been useful. How
few there are who die and of whom so much as this
can be truly said ; and who is there among us of
whom we could truly say much more ?

(From the Lancet)
At seven minutes to 7 on the evening of Wednesday the
distinguished Judge of the Court of Probate and Divorce,
Sir Cresswell Cresswell, suddenly expired. It is well known
that he had recently met with a severe accident; but the
injury which he then received, although it may have accle-
rated his decease by the severe shock which it undoubtedly
inflected on the system, does not appear to have had any
direct share in the fatal result which has unexpectedly oc-
ean red. When violently thrown over by the runaway horses
which broke from Lord Aveland's carriage, Sir Cresswell
was found, on being raised from the ground, to be suffering
from fracture of the knee-pan. This was not, however, a
fracture from direct violence; but when examined by the
surgeon summoned—Mr. James Lane, of St. Mary's Hos-
pital—he found that from the nature of the fracture it was
evidently one of those rare instances in which the knee-pan
is rent by the sudden and violent action of the extensor
muscles of the thigh, commonly in the effort to recover the
balance of the body, and avoid falling. There was but little
bruising—much less than might have been anticipated, and
no other apparent injury. Ihe fractured part was healing
favourably, and Sir Cresswell bore the confinement with
great equanimity, and was in good spirits throughout. Mr.
James Lane and Mr. Charles Hawkins were in continuous
attendance, and everything promised a speedy recovery.
Properly devised splints having been adjusted,Sir Cresswell
was able, with assistance, to shift himself from the bed to
a couch, and had done so in the course of Wednesday. As
he was being lifted in the evening from the couch again to
the bed, with the assistance of his brother, the Rev. Oswald
Cresswell, he complained of feeling faint, asked for wine,
and almost immdiately died. He had always considered
himself a specially healthy man,and was mentioning shortly
after his accident that he had never had a day's illness,and
had never consulted a physician since he left the school. He
had lately become somewhat suddenly corpulent, but it was
never suspected, by himself or any other person, that the
hand of disease had seized him so firmly though silently.
The post mortem inspection was performed at 7 p.m. on
Thursday by Mr. Charles Hawkins, Mr. James Lane, and
Dr. Baber. The examination of the chest showed that the
heart was the sole seat of disease. It was loaded with fat,
the walls of the ventricular cavities were thin and weak,
and the muscular fibres pale; the valves were competent.
Throughout the rest of the body the organs were found in a
healthy condition, although in parts much loaded with fat.
On examining the knee joint some blood was found effused
between the fractured surfaces of the bone , there was no
inflammation, irritation, or effusion in the interior of the
joint, but repair was going on satisfactorily. The cause of
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Cresswell was overthrown within sight of St. George's
t
an accident had occurred to the distinguished Judge, and
requesting that the house surgeon might accompany him
to his home. The house surgeon, however, was then en-
gaged in urgent duties of attendance upon poorer sufferers,
and felt unable to leave his post. Other skilled attendance
was immediately at hand. Such incidents are not rare, and
we cannot but think that they reflect honour on our profes-
sion and deserve to be widely known.