The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-22 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN BLOCKADE.

NEW YORK, April B.—The Alabama is reported
to have been seen on the 23d March, in lat. 32 N.,
long. 73 W. The Cornubia and the St. George, from
Washington, North Carolina, arrived at Bermuda
with cotton. The schooner Sue has arrived here.
She was captured on the 30th of March by the
United States' steamer Monticello, off Little River
Inlet, while attempting to run the blockade. She
has a cargo of salt tend dry goods. On the 28th of
March the fine English iron screw steamer Aries
(arrived here) was captured near the entrance to
Bull's Bay, which she was making by mistake, t er
intention being to run into Charleston harbour. She
was observed by the Stetting, steering towards the
land, steaming at a rapid rate. Chase was imme-
diately given, and fire opened upon her by the Stet-
tin, but without result. The strange steamer made
good time, and the Stettin was being sorely left be-
hind. After an hour's chase a dense fog set in, which
enabled the pursued steamer to elude the Stettin,
and for the time being to effect her escape. The
Stettin continued the chase a while longer, and
then lay-to till daylight. At early dawn the fog
cleared up, and the Stettin soon discovered the
Aries hard ashore, with her cargo going overboard,
to lighten her. The Stettin immediately bore down
upon her, and fired a gun, when the English flag
was lowered and sbe became a prize to the navy.
She is one of the finest prizes yet taken by the
blockaders. She is not quite a year old, and upon
her first transatlantic voyage. Her capacity is
about 600 tons. She came from the West Indies
with a cargo of coffee, salt, lead, liquor, &c. The
Captain of the Aries, while at Port Royal, feigned
illness and deceived the surgeons, bnt being ins-
pected of treachery, and search having beenma e,
it was found that he had secreted no less than 16
revolvers, loaded and capped, ready to make an at-
tempt to retake the vessel. Previous to this ex-
posure he denied the presence of firearms on board.
Toe Aries is a beautiful Clyde-built vessel, with
hinged masts, which can be lowered at pleasure.
The engineers of the vessel. brought her to this
themselves in a very
Thomas
port, deporting becoming
in company
manner. The Aries, when she left St,
was conveyed by H M S. Phaeton,
with
the Pet. Port Royal, April 14.—A little I
schooner,
laden with 300 bags of salt, on
her way front Nas-
sau for Savanna, was caught by the transport
Mattano. The prize had a white
ciptain and mate
aboard, but the rest of the c •
levy were negrocs, who
were evidently satisfied by the result of their
enterprise,

LITERATURE:

Disraeli ; the Au'hor, Orator, and Statesman. By
John Mill. pp. 368. Darton and Hodge.

A political biography of Mr. Disraeli cannot tail
to be regarded with interest, whether by friend or
foe, and it has been the fate of the right hon.
member for Buckinghamshire to have friends and
foes as numerous and as zealous as fall to the lot of
most men. To very few is he an object of in-
difference. Perhaps because he is himself disposed
to feel so keenly, and to give such intense expres-
sion to his feelings, Mr. Disraeli is continually the
object of vehement panegyric, or of as vehement
vituperation. "Few men," says Mr. Mill, "have
passed through the ordeal that he has. He has
outlived the laughter of one class of opponents, and
the malice of another is nearly exhausted, and his
influence to•day is more wide-spread and secure
than it has been at any former period of his life."
Mr. Mill, in the dedication of this work to the

electors of Buckinghamshire, declares himself to be
personally a stranger to the hero of his narrative.
He happened to hear Mr. Disraeli speak in the
House of Com'nons a short time ago, when it
occurred to him " that a sketch of his career might
do something more than point a moral and adorn a
tale." The object of the writer is to show the
young men of England—those "trustees of pos-
terity" of whom Mr, Disraeli has himself spoken so
eloquently—what may be achieved by one of them-
selves, a man of the people, upheld by a resolute
purpose. "It is said of the French army," observes
Mr. Mill, " that every soldier carries a
marshal's baton in his knapsack, and it
may with equal truth be affirmed that
every English boy has the possibility presented
to him of becoming a Cabinet Minister, provided
only that he has the capacity to attain it." The
little seven-year-old hero of Mrs. Oliphant's new
novel desires for his birthday gift to have the key
of the House of Commons. But according to the
happy simile above quoted, little Derwent was
already unconsciously possessed of that open-sesame
to distinction. Here is Mr. Mill's very vigorous
sketch of