The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONI)ON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 20, 1863

a small division across Stone River ; the Con fede-
rates fell upon it in great force, are reported to have
killed 80 and wounded 375, when Gen. NEGLEAC, who
commanded the Federal centre, came up and drove
the enemy off the field and beyond their entrench •
meats, the officers being unable to rally them.
The 31 was spent in obtaining and distribut-
ing the ammunition, of which there was a great
want in the Federal army. It was in part occa-
sioned by the splendid first success of the Con-
federates on the right, when the ammunition wag-
gons were captured, and the right wing was
actually in great danger for want of them. On
the 4th rain seems to have prevented fighting till
towards night two Federal regiments stormed the
breastwork of the enemy, killing many and making
many prisoners. This was the last act of this fierce
five days' battle, one of the hardest and most bravely
and skilfully fought of the campaign. The loss
must have been heavy on both sides, though it is
useless, as yet, to quote the numbers of killed and
wounded. Both sides made many prisoners, the
Confederates claim 4,000, captured in the successful
attack on the Confederate right on the 31st. The
Federals have gained, however, their main object ;
they have driven their enemies away from Nash-
ville. The Federals appear in one instance to have
imitated with success the Confederate cavalry
achievements. Two thousand of their cavalry
from Kentucky got into the Confederate rear,
and besides making considerable captures, they
destroyed nine miles of the railway by which
BRAGG obtained his supplies from Richmond.
STUART, however, was meanwhile returning the
compliment behind BURNSIDE, at Dumfries. The
Confederates also sustained another severe defeat
at Lexington in Tennessee, losing six cannon, many
prisoners, and 1,400 killed and wounded. One sad
fact will call forth the reprobation of all Europe.
The Confederates shot, im►nediately, all the negro
soldiers they captured !
Just, however, as we hear of the termination of
these American week-long battles in Tennessee, we
receive the accounts of another still proceeding at
the now famous position of Vicksburg. SEWARD,
indeed, informs us that a telegram from GRANT,
says that "Rebel newspapers at Grenada in Mis-
sissippi (on the railroad to Vicksburg) report that
the Yankees are in the place." This is, probably,
indeed, we may say, certainly premature. What
is certain is, that, on the 30th, the Confederates re-
port four desperate attacks on the 27th, which were
repulsed; the same we heard of, no doubt, by the
last arrival. But from Memphis we have accounts
of five days' fighting, commencing, remarkably, as
in Tennessee, on the last day of the year, and con-
tinuing till the 4th, the fighting being still going
on with vigour. Vicksburg is not only on the Mis-
sissippi, on its eastern side, ii the State of the same
name, but it has a railroad running through it from
Jackson, and continued on the opposite shore of the
river to Shreveport in the North of Louisiana.
General SHERMAN was in command of an attacking
force on the railway on the eastern side, and to have
destroyed part of the railway on the other side of
the river; probably, lest supplies should be brought
up by it. By the last accounts, carried by an
express boat to Memphis, direct from the army,
SHERMAN had forced three lines of works on the
Jackson and Vicksburg Railroad ; the firing from
the fourth line had ceased, and there were indica-
tions that it had surrendered. The gunboats were
also engaging the enemy's batteries on the other
side. All looks, therefore, as if the statement in
the Grenada Appeal, a Rebel paper, were likely
to be true soon, if it could hardly be so on the
31st, indeed, the fighting we have just mentioned
is all subsequent to that date. It would seem
likely, indeed, that between the land army,
which was wanting in the attack of last year,
and the gunboats, Vicksburg, cut off from all
supplies, must have fallen, however, bravely de-
fended ; but that Vicksburg is the key of the Missis-
sippi, and that it were better for the Confederates to
lose one hundred thousand men than give up that
advantage. Another account, however, states that
on the 2d, after severe fighting on both sides, and
taking and retaking of batteries and fortifications
several times, SHERMAN was ultimately driven
back to his first line of defence. As this account
is from a Northern source it ought to be true,
though hardly reconcileable with the contempo-
raneous or later accounts from Memphis.
General BUTLER has been rewarded for his "good
services" at New Orleans with a rather more diffi-
cult task. He has been appointed to the "chief
command of the Southern department, to include
South Carolina, Georgia, and other States." It
would appear that he was to begin with Charleston!
as an expedition of iron clads had sailed for Wil-
mington, there to destroy the direct railroad con-
nection between Charleston and Richmond. This
we may presume to have been preliminary to an
attack on the chief rebel city, by which BUTLER
was to have been placed in the same position there
as that which he so famously, or so infamously,
filled at New Orleans. He would be a first-rate
disciplinarian, in the estimation of the North, for
the Charlestonians. It was in the voyage thither
that the brave little Monitor—the Monitor to Eng-
land and Europe—went to the bottom. She proved
to be unseaworthy. Her cheapness was boasted of
at the time, but it appears to have been a dear
cheapness. We do not remember ever hearing of
such an accident to any of our ships as that which
carried the Monitor to the bottom in 45 fathoms
water. Sho leaked till the water beat the pumps,
and sunk so fast, the storm all the time dashing
the waves over her turret, that a large part of the
crew were drowned, although she was in tow of a
ship of war. She was found utterly defective in
construction as a seagoing boat. Her " between
decks" were insupportably close, and fans could not
obtain sufficient air. while the salt water easily
flowed over her, and dashed down every crevice in-
tended for the admission of air. Captain ERICSSON
may now claim for his brave little vessel the name
he gave her for a double reason—she will prove a
Monztor, not only to imitate her merits, but to
avoid her fatal defects. She speaks from the bot-
tom of the deep sea off Cape Hatteras, as well as
from the shallower and quieter waters of Hampton
Roads.

The monthly meeting of the General Committee
of the Central Relief Fund for Lancashire was held
yesterday afternoon. The details are most inte-
resting and deserve attentive study from all who
would accoaint themselves with the particulars of
this affair. The appendix to the report, which has
been furnished by Lord DERBY, is very comprehen-
sive, and reveals the intricate and difficult cases that
are brought before the committees for settlement.
The plans proposed by his lordship are very compre-
hensive and api- ear to embrace most of the knotty
points. He commences by stating that the com-
mittee have undertaken a deeply responsible task.
He explains the arduous nature of the work by
stating that the object is to distribute the alms
" that they may not place the honest and industri-
ous upon the same footing with the idle
and profligate
anmdaktihnagtth theire
publicy
liberality; by
the relief of those who have unexpended means of
their own." To carry out this principledasyetohnlietocrtiobuuar contribute
eeu tsis
oe
anything but easy, indeed, the contrary, hedged

in by difficulties. A mere list of the plans pro-
posed by Lord DERBY sufficiently illustrate the
obstacles that have to be overcome. In the first
place, he considers what are the disqualifications for
obtaining relief, and foremost it unquestionably
appears that, the relief being intended for those
who have no other resource, the possession of pro-
perty must strike an applicant off the list. Here
follow the difficulties, and cases requiring the
greatest discernment are constantly coming under
the notice of the committees. There are some
whose industry has accumulated a small sum of
money in the savings bank, others have invested in
benefit societies, and others again in cottages, for
which, however, they cannot now obtain the rents.
There ccmes also the question of small
shopkeepers dependent on any of the above.
Here Lord DERBY lays down his first rule—
" However harsh it may sound and however painful

it may be to say that before receiving relief under
such circumstances as the present, a man must be
compelled to sacrifice the accumulations of a long
life of industry, it is difficult to suggest any alter-
native." Also he states that it would be impossible
to allow the funds that have been subscribed for the
relief of destitution to be taken for t'ie payment of
sick clubs or other benefit societies. No portion of
the relief must in any case be granted for the pay-
ment of rent, and it is essential, observes his lordship,
that the committees stand firm on this point, since
a knowledge moreover, Et suspicion that any por •

tion of the funds was devoted to the payment of rent
would at once check the flow of public charity." In
dwelling on the question of modifying the rules his
lord mentioned what he thought exceptional
cases, where the holder had mortgaged his share in
any benefit societies so that at the present time he
was not deriving any actual benefit from them, and
also the class who have property in cottages, which
for the present yields them no return, in conse-
quence of their being unable to collect the rents;
or, what is still worse, in some cases they have
mortgaged them, so are in the awkward dilemma
of having to pay on the one hand without deriving
any benefit from the other. Then there comes the
mo aclshopkeeper,
whose capital consists of his
kin trade,
and
who, from the distress of his
stock
t
customers cannot obtain sufficient for subsistence.

These statements are concluded by the following
paragraph, which aptly represents the spirit which
has guided their suggestion ;

" I am aware that some of the principles laid down in this
memorandum are widely at variance with general rules;
and I am not insensible to the danger of their leading to
abuse, and encouraging too great a reliance on external aid.
But the circumstances of the time are of a wholly excep-

tional character. The first object must be to preserve the
population from absolute destitution ; the next, and hardly

less important, is to draw a broad Ihl9 between habitual
pauperism and want, the consequence
of an unforeseen
national calamity. It may be necessary, in consideration
for the poorer ratepayers, to supplement, from relief funds
the amount given to the former from the rates; but with
regard to the latter, I feel confident that the lesser of two
evils is, to err on the side of over-liberality, rather than too
great strictness ; and I am persuaded that such is the policy
which will most commend itself to the public feeling."

There is something very touching in "these
short and simple annals of the poor," and among
these numerous instances isolated cases must exist
of bitter suffering and sad regret. It is hard for
those who, by industry and integrity, have saved
what for them may appear a considerable sum, to
have it swept away from no fault of their own ; and
perhaps it will be the harder to bear from the re-
flection that others not so deserving are being as-
sisted, while they are left to support themselves out
of the sum put by for emergency. Still in general
questions like these, individual interests cannot be
be consulted ; and, as Lord DERBY truly observed,
the greatest caution must be taken not to give to
those who have any resources the relief intended

for the preservation of life. The committee are not
free agents; they are the trustees of a nation's
bounty, and must act in conformity with the obli-
gations of their heavy responsibility and weighty
obligations. The greatest credit is due to
Lord DERBY for his conduct throughout
these investigations ; he has assisted the dona-
tions in a princely spirit of liberality, but
where many might have given money, they might
not have bestowed so much time, thought, and care
on so complicated and laborious an undertaking.
It is to be trusted that this sad occasion for his ser-
vices will soon pass away, but with it cannot be
obliterated the remembrance of his conduct which
will long live in the grateful memory of the class
he has so ably and efficiently served. No better
claim can a statesman have on the respect and re-
gard of a country than when he devotes himself to
the consideration of the welfare of the industrious
classes of the community. That misfortune is not
an unmixed calamity which brings good out of evil,
and the distress in Lancashire has discovered so
much of genuine and general liberality from all parts
the couutry, so much kindness and care among the
higher ranks of the community, and, above all,
so much noble endurance and hopeful spirit among
the operatives, that we can diecern a silver
lining to the cloud that hangs so darkly over
us, When, through the blessing of Providence,
the shade is withdrawn the lessons that we have
learned in adversity, may yet profit as warnings
and encouragements, not to fall into the same errors
a
of commercial shortsightedness, and when danger
comes to have confidence in steady endurance on
the one hand, and strenuous exertion on the other,
that a
theid
thejo sufferers, joint efforts
mayof
combine those w
ho
to suffer,
ve rt and
the
w those
oret
who
of the evil, and mitigate the full force of the
calamity which, unchecked by such preventive
agencies, would have asaumed a degree of horror
that would scarcely have had a parallel in the his-
tory of nations.

SPINOZA, A KEMPIS, AND COLENSO,—Sp inoza
and the author of the " Imitation of Christ," both satisfied
this standard of criticism, that a book ought to be written
either for the few or the many. Spinoza addressed the few,
and orce for all rationalised the Bible. The author of the
"Imitation" has helped simple souls, in one generation or
another, to feel more, to grow nearer heaven, and thus to
hold a slightly higher place in the scale of civilization. But
a book like Bishop Colenzo's, which only tells the educated
few what they knew before, and which scares and agitates
the many, is a book which literary criticism altogether
condemns.—Sate, day
_Review.
THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND THE French
PRESS.—The Brussels Independttnce of the 16th
observes :—" The Temps was warned yesterday, the Revue
Nationale, a periodical publication, is so to-day. The In-
dependance was detained yesterday at the Post-office. In
view of this painful recurrence of rigour, and above all in
the absence of precise definitions of the offences which may
be committed, the non-officious press has formed a resolu-
tion to abstain henceforth from any reflection upon the
action of the Government. The Opinion .A ationale, which
has given numerous pledges of its devotion to the empire,
but which is not always in a humour to approve every-
thing, entered some time ago upon this path, the only
honourable one when securities for independence are want-
ing. As the Presse remarked yesterday, the journalist is
only responsible for the liberty which
is allowed him, and
under present circumstances silence is not dishonourable.
Outside the question of actual politics there aro sufficient
questions open to his study ; and when he shall limit him-
self to registering the acts of authority and the facts most
indispensable to history, the absence of all criticism will
only serve the better to elucidate the value o certain sys-
tematic enigmas."

PLYMOUTH, Sunday.—A collision has taken place
at the entrance of the Channel between the Minerva, from
Zapas Sulina, with barley, for Falmouth, for orders, and
the Danish schooner Solo Lodskense, from Hull, for Ma-
laga, with coals. The Dane is suppo;:ed to have sunk, Her
crew have beets sand,