The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-02 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
(Per the Bohemian.)

NEW YORK, August 21 (Evening).
The Tribune asserts that, according to informa-
tion received from Richmond, General Lee will
oar General Meade battle before September, and
that if Meade refuse, Lee will invade Maryland,
select a battle ground, and await the Union army,
his aim not being to carry operations northward but
to take Washington. General Lee is organising a
reserve force of 40,000 men to be stationed at Win-
chester, or another point in the Shenandoah Valley.
This force ;s intended for some particular purpose,
and will be commanded by General Longstreet.
It is semi officially announced that the Govern-
ment is confident of the reduction of Fort Sumter,
after a few hours' bombardment. But this would
not terminate the siege, as there is desperate work
and fighting to be done afterwards which may re-
quire a considerable time.

Official circles put but little faith in the antici-
pation of immediate triumph, but entertain no
doubt of ultimate success.
Mr. Davidson, a member of the North Carolina
Legislature, has written a letter to the _Raleigh
Standard saying he believes four-fifths of the people
of North Carolina demand peace upon any terms
which will not enslave and degrade them. They
may prefer Southern independence, but that they
now believe cannot be obtained, nor do they see
much future hope of it. They would compromise,
upon GA amendment to the continuation and per-
petuation of slavery in the States.
He urges the people to elect members to the next
Southern Congress who favour a six months' armis-
tice, and submission of disputed matters to a con-
vention of delegates from the Northern and Southern
States, elected by the people themselves.

_ .
The District Court has ordered an appraisement
of the Peterhoff, in order that if the Government
decides upon purchasing her at prize value she shall
be delivered to the Government.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Money easy ; gold, 251 premium ; exchange,
!XVI New York Central, 130&; Illinois, 1241
Erie, 119.

NEW YORK, Aug. 22 (Evening).
The lachmond Whig contains Charleston, news
to the 20th inst., stating that during the last 24
hours the Federal operations were confined to a
steady and continuous bombardment of Fort Sum-
ter from guns on Morris Island. The Federal
200-pounder Parrot-guns are too much for the walls
of Fort Suinter, and their firing begins to tell
upon the fort, which only replies at long inter-
vals. The defence of the harbour, however, does not
depend mainly upon Sumter. If that fort be
battered down, says the Richmond Whig, the har-
bour may still ho held. It is determined to defend
the city street by street, house by house, as long as
as a foot of earth is left. The Governor has urged
all non-combatants to leave Charleston as soon as
possible.

General Lee is still upon the Rapidan and Rap-
pahannock, where it is expected engagements will
take place. General Meade is preparing to receive
Lee's anticipated attacks.
Rumours are current that Lee's movement to-
wards Fredericksburg was a feint, and that he is
going towards Richmond via Gordonsville.

Eight hundred guerillas, under Quantrell, have
crossed the Missouri River, captured Lawrence,
Kansas, burning and destroying property to the
estimated value of 2,000,000 dole. Senator Lane is
supposed to have been captured. The Federal troops
have started in pursuit of the guerillas.
Military affairs are active in Mississippi. General
Burnside is moving towards Knoxville, and General
Rosecranz towards Chattanooga.
President Lincoln has promised to attend a Union
mass meeting at Springfield, Illinois, on the 3d
September. If unable to be present, he will address
the people by letter.

The New York Herald urges President Lincoln
to send strong columns frum General Grant's and
Banks' armies through Texas to Rio Grende, oppo-
site MatamoraF, in order to counteract any coalition
between the Emperor Napoleon and the South,
or any attempt of Napoleon to annex Texas to
Mexico.

General Maury has issued an order at Mobile

that persons domiciled there are subject to the con-
scription, even though they have taken the oath as
aliens.

The New York Times contains an article attack-
ing England and lauding Russia. It says :—" We
are bewildered at England's treachery, which has
subsided into a fired, unchangeable policy. There
can Zee no oblivion of the past. Henceforth America
will recognise no tie to England." The New
York Times accepts these new relations, and says
—" It will go hard with America but England
shall have enough of these relations before America
has finished."

The draft continues in New York without any
disturbance. Mayor Opdyke has called a meeting
of the common council to act upon the amendments
ho has to propose to the municipal appropriation
for drafted men.

(Later by Telegraph to Father Point.)
NEW YORK, August 22 (Evening).
A report has been received from Philadelphia that
Fort Sumter is captured and that the Federal gun-
boats have passed that fort. The Federal Govern-
ment has received no such intelligence, and little
credence is given to it.
Troops continue to arrive at New York to pre-
serve order during the draft.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Gold, 24 per cent. premium. Stocks dull. Net.
York Central, 131. Erie, 1191. Cotton quiet.
Middling Upland, 671 c. Wheat and flour dull.
Corn very firm. Provisions and coffee in good
in Sugar, molasses, and petroleum firm.

iquiry,

A treaty of amity, andcommerce,United Kingdom nanavigation,.was yesterday concluded betwentlie o
fLiberia, by theirngdom
Sweden and Norway and the Republic
respective plenipotentiaries, the Count Wachtmeister and
Mr. Gerard Ralston.
THE FOETIICOMING VISIT OF THE BRITISH
' ARCILSOLOGICAL SOCIETY TO LEEDS.—The annual
meeting of this society is to be held in Leeds during October.
It will be under very influential patronage, the president
being
the newly. created Lord Houghton. Among the
papers to be read will be one on the Early History of
Leeds,by Mr. Wright ; an Account of Anglo-Saxon
Jewellery and other Antiquities discovered by Lord
Londesborough in Seamer Lime Quarry, near Scar.
borough, Mr. Wright; on the Badges of the House of
York, Mr. J. R. Planche ; on Ripon Cathedral, Mr. C. E.
Davis ; on Fountains Abbey, and on Spofforth Castle and
Church, Mr. Gordon M. Hills; on Kirkstall Abbey and
on Adel Church, Mr. Edward Roberts ; on the Wakefield
Chapel on the Bridge, Mr. F. R. Wilson ; on unpublished
MSS. relating to Meaux Abbey, Mr. E. Levien ; on the
Weapons of Ancient Yorkshire, Mr. H. I'. earning; on
Historical Autographs, Mr. P. O'Callaghan ; on Crom-
lechs, Rev. W. C. Lukis ; on Harewood Castle and Church,
Mr. J. Jones; and on various other interesting antiquarian
topics. The excursions include the following visits;—To
Ripon and Fountains ; to Adel Church, Farnley
Ilkley, and the Runic Crosses ; to Harewood Church and
Castle ; to Wakefield Church and the Chapel on the
Bridge;
.Pontefract Castle and Church; to Borough-
bridge and Aldborough ; to Kirkstall Abbey and Halifax;
and to York Cathedral and the Museum of that city.
A DELICATE QUESTION.--A curious case of
breach of contract—which, however, included a
libel—has
just been decided in Paris. Mademoiselle S
proc:eded against the director of one of the Paris theatres
for certain moneys due to her for an engagement a. se-
cond danscuse. The defendant pleaded "never indebted ;"
and, as a rider to the plea, stated that " the calves of Made-
moiselle's legs were too big for a danseuse." The following
letter was put in by the counsel for the prosecution and
formed the ground of the action :—" My dear Mademoi-
selle,—You surely are not Serioll3 in proposing to appear as
second chnsease ? Your physical fortnation,otherwise charm-
ing, is totally opposed to such a career. You may consider
your engagement cancelled and yourself free. We have
now but to regret a rehearsal which Las produced such
negative results,—Agree, Mademoiselle, to believe the
respect with which, See' Oa the part of the plaintiff it
was argued that she had made no secret of her legs, which
were such as a liberal nature had given to her; that they
were, in fact, the stock-in-trade of 9. dancer ; that objection
had been taken by other directors to denseuses •` sans
make," and finally, that the :state of the case was known
to the defendant when he made the contract. The defen-
dant offered to refer the matter eo an " expert," and
named the ballet-moister of the Imp erial Academy as his
referee, bat the Court held that stro,ag legs were no breach I
of contract, and gave a verdict withccste for the plaintiff,

LITERATURE.

Veronia. Three vols. Hurst and Bischoff.

If " Veronia" be the first work of its author, we
are inclined to augur well for his future career. It
evinces great powers of thought, and a very con-
siderable ability in their development. The cha-
racters are not crowded on the c tnvass, but they are
drawn with very great discrimination. Veronia
de Medul, the heroine, is the fair and haughty
daughter of a ruined patrician. We first discover
her in a poor and lonely habitation, working to
support a dying mother—dying for want of that
succour for which Veronia is too proud to ask. The
painful death of the mother produces a sad and
thrilling effect; it is portrayed with tragic power.
The severe lessons of affliction produce their effect
upon Veronia. At first her pride of birth is
almost amusing iu its arrogance, so Van Helder
finds it. Van Helder is the kind, cordial friend
who tries, but for long in vain, to bring comfort
to the isolated and unhappy ladies, while, as a
doctor, he is attending the sick bed of Madame
do Medul. At one time, while a friendly but most
animated discussion about patricians and plebians,
the rights of birth, and the pride of rank is going on,
Veronia naively exclaims, with a half complimentary
insolence, "I always forget you are not a gentle-
man !" Few gentlemen are more deserving of the
name than is the worthy Dr. Van Helder, decidedly
the character of the book, a most original and most
graphic portraiture. Van Helder, notwithstanding
his inquiring and incredulous temperament, is the
bosom friend and constant companion of the vener-
able Cure of St. Andrews, of which parish he is
himself the doctor. He is also the constant subject
of the indignant animadversions of Godensca, the
Cure's housekeeper. The mutual war of words
which almost continuously prevails between this
well-matched pair of originals is very entertaining.
Godensca's bitter tongue is, however, as is often the
case, no criterion of the disposition of her heart
towards the doctor. Jacqces Henricart, the Man
of the People, and Adrian de Boisvant 6, the treacher-
ous lover, are a well•contrasted pair. M. Bouchard
is also happily sketched, but his daughter's picture
is somewhat overdrawn. Even the assistance
which she gives to her father's law business (acting,
in fact, as chief clerk) cannot quite account for all
her disagreeable qualities Miss Sally Brass
becomes an attractive companion when compared
with Mademoiselle Justine Bouchard ! The Vicar's
two sisters, Beth and Ana (the scene is laid in
North Flanders) are simple, homely maidens, kept
very much in the background, while the fascinating
and dangerous Herminie de Mont Brison, and the
devout and treacherous Madame de St. Barthelemy
take, as becomes them, a very prominent position.
The last volume is the most interesting of the three,
and until the very end the reader is quite ignorant
as to what may be Veronia's fate. The episode of
Carl Dopter and his little wife Gretchen,
perishing of fatigue and want in the Canon-
gate of Edinburgh, is quite unnecessary
to the story, and might have been omitted.
Again the author commits a serious error when, in
the middle of the third volume, he enters into an
explanatory discourse with his readers on the
peculiarities of novel-writing and novels, his own
among the number. Such a proceeding is destruc-
tive of all illusion. The reader is to believe the story
true, or it is worthless. Such aside conversations
with the audience have become a fashion with our
novel writers nowadays, introduced, we sus-
pect, by the roundabout confessions which Mr.
Thackeray delights to bestow upon his readers.
The example, however agreeable in his instance,
is dangerous, and would be well avoided. We the
more readily mention these exceptioaable parti-
culars because we consider " Veronia" to be the
production of one who is fitted to take high rank
among the novelists of the day.

Left to Themselves, By Mrs. Gordon Smythies,
author of " Cousin Geoffrey," &c. Three vole.

Hurst and Biackett.

Mrs. Gordon Smythies has taken for the heroes
of her new novel two little friendless, helpless,
neglected boys, "left to themselves" in the wide
wilderness of London. The moral of her story is
to enforce the truth that ail that is essential to
success in life comes not from without but from
within. Honesty and truthfulness, energy and per-
severance, faith and patience, are better than
any gifts of friends or fortune which take to them-
selves wings and flee away when most required.
With the history of these little "city Arabs" as her
theme, Mrs. Smythies presents to us many of the
varying phases of London life, its trials and temp-
tations, its privations and its penalties. A bed at
night in the Adelphi Arches and a halfpenny cup
of coffee for breakfast are at fist the only sorry
comforts within the reach of poor Harry and Sim
Hszeldean. Very graphically and very forcibly
does Mrs. Smythies " point the moral," while hhe
pleasantly and skilfully "adorns the tale"—the les-
sons conveyed in the apposite histories of the two
brides, Mercy Mayflower and Blanche Melville, are
full of warning to fair maidens of high and low
degree who " love not wisely, but too well." The
admonitions about temperance which are inciden-
tally, and not obtrusively introduced, would endear
the volumes to the heart of George Crnikshank, and
will, we doubt not, wia for the fair authoress golden
opinions from many readers, We congratulate
Mrs. Smythies on this new work, which is a fresh
evidence of her kindness of heart, and her anxiety
to devote her abilities to the true cause of the
people, namely, their social regeneration and im-
provement. We are somewhat disappointed to find
at the end of the tale that the two devoted com-
panions in many trials, Harry and Sim, are not
brothers, but cousins. We sympathise with the
dismay of poor Harry, who has watched with an
elder brother's affection over Sim, when he finds
him removed to a morn distant relationship, and the
change is not really necessary to the development
of the story. The romantic affection of Lena
Linley, and the life-long devotion of Little Prim-
rose, are mysteries that we shall not touch upon,
but leave for the personal discovery of the reader.