The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-22 00:00:00

prospect of the speedy realisation of their hopes in
wreaking vengeance on the town where the banner
of secession was first raised does not, however, ap-
pear to have excited that degree of satisfaction in
the North which superficial observers might have
been led to expect. It would seem as if at length,
after two years and a half hard fighting, the convic-
tion was beginning to dawn on the Northern mind
that there is no necessary connection between the
demolition of a few forts or the destruction of a flou-
rishing city and the subjugation of 6,000,000 people.
Charleston may fall, but with their past experiences
Mr. Lincoln and his advisers well know that its
destruction will not render more probable the re-
alisation of that wild chimera—the restoration, in
its original integrity, of the American Union. About
this time twelve months the election for Mr.
Lincoln's successor will take place, and until then
it seems only too probable that the war will be pro-
tracted. The coming winter will not cause an ab-
solute suspension of hostilities, but, judging from
the military operations of the previous winter cam-
paigns and their results, it is not likely that the
relative positions of the belligerents will undergo
any material modification between the months of
December and March. The advantages recently
obtained by the Federals might, and doubtless
would, a year since have been turned to practical
account; but the disgust with which the large ma-
jority of the Northern population have begun to
regard the war, and the rapidly extending demorali-
sation which has of late manifested itself in the
Federal ranks, will render it impossible for the
Government to reap the fruits of their successes.
There appears, therefore, every prospect of the pro-
traction of that state of chronic warfare which has
so frequently and for such lengthened periods char-
acterised the conduct of hostilities in America. The
policy of the Confederates is so clearly defensive
that no alternative is left them but to await with
patience the attacks which may be directed against
them. The North, on the other hand, unwilling at
the same time to desist from a struggle which it
nevertheless must feel to be hopeless, and unable to
prosecute hostilities with that vigour which could
alone promise success, will doubtless content
itself with maintaining with its armies that species
of blockading which has hitherto served no other
purpose than to entail on the country all the
miseries of war, without tending in the slightest
degree to effect a cessation of hostilities. Should
the war be protracted for another year, the cir-
cumstances under which the next Presidential
election will be carried on will be of so excep-
tional a kind as to invest the struggle in which the
Northern and Southern States are, engaged with
an entirely new character. At that election the
Southern States will be entirely unrepresented ;
and although it has been urged by the supporters
of the Federal Government that the South has
hitherto owed allegiance to the candidate who ob-
tained the majority of votes at an election in which
it took a prominent part, still it can scarcely be
contended with any show of reason that the seceded
States should be bound to accept as Chief Magis-
trate an individual in whose nomination they will
be precluded from taking any share. This is a diffi-
culty of so purely technical a kind, and so easily
disposed of by the ready fiction that the Southern
population have it in their power to participate in
the election of a President, by abandoning their
present scheme of establishing an independent Go-
vernment, that it might seem scarcely worthy of
notice. But after another year's war, we are in-
clined to believe that the Northern population will
be much more anxious to discover pretexts for bring-
ing hostilities to a close than for protracting them,
and that however the next Presidential election
may terminate, whether it be in triumph of the
Republican or of the Democratic candidates, a
radical change will take place in the policy of the
Federal Government. It is perfectly intelligible
that, so long as the present administration remains
in office, the war should be pursued with more or
less vigour, and the object with which it was insti-
tuted be still declared to be attainable. The sta-
bility of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet is absolutely depen-
dent on the continuance of the war, and so long as
that Administration remains in office nothing less
than a successful invasion of the Northern States
by the Confederate forces could bring the war to a
close. But the succeeding Government will be
hampered by no such obligations as those which
press so heavily upon the present Administration.
The next President of the United States can, with-
out risk, disavow a policy which he never origi-
nated, and be at liberty to question the expediency
of prosecuting a war which he never advised. Of
the ultimate result of the American war no one can
entertain a doubt. If two years and a half have
not enabled the North to subjugate the frontier
State of Virginia, it must be idle to suppose that
the prospect of reducing to subjection the entire
Southern Confederacy is within the bounds of pos-
sibility. That the war may be continued for
another year is probable, but as, at the end of that
period, the existing condition of affairs will not in
all likelihood have undergone any material change,
there is every reason to hope that the newly-
appointed Government of the Northern States will
take an early opportunity of bringing this most
disastrous war to a termination.
HERALD.—We all remember the enthusiasm that
attended the naval review at Spithead a fe w years
ago. The sovereign, the Lords and Commons, the
Government offices, the Court, and the Legislature,
were all invited to honour the occasion. From all
parts of the country the people thronged, and
possessed Portsmouth and Southampton, and their
precincts, so that the streets were filled with a
concourse of human beings of all ranks and ages,
and of either sex, the whole night through pre-
viously to the great display. All the mishaps and
shortcomings of the railways, the inconvenience
and discomfort to which thousands upon thousands
submitted from the absence of shelter and bed, and
the vile fare which awaited the later arrivals, were
all forgiven by those who saw that imposing
national spectacle. So we can heartily sympathise
with the pleasant ovations that have attended the
visits of the Channel fleet at the various home ports,
and have but to express our wish that this compa-
rative innovation upon the rules of the service may
be repeated every year, if the squadron can but be
spared for such an agreeable duty. This friendly
intercourse between the force which is more essen-
tially the bulwark of an island than any other,
reacts upon the visitor and those whom he visits.
That love of naval adventure which inspires the
people of these islands above all other races of this
hemisphere is cherished and stimulated by the sight
of those grand war ships and the hardy tars who
man them. Jack himself, whether he wears epaulets
or not, rubs off his contempt for landsmen, and their
ways and thoughts, when he finds that they take a
pride in him, and care heartily for his welfare, and
welcome him on their home. This first visit to
Liverpool especially seems to have stirred the
hospitable Lancastrians more than any public
event, not even excepting the presence of
Royalty. No finer and more imposing sight, they
tell us, has been seen on the broad bosom of the
Mersey than the Channel fleet standing up the
stream. The whole of the docks, the landing-stages
and banks on either side, more than three miles in
extent from the mouth of the river, were thronged
the masses of people. Liverpool is even more
a maritime town than London. The great bulk of
its population is connected with the great commer-
cial marine that trades across the Atlantic, and the
labouring folk are principally dockyard artificers,
mechanics, riggers, engineers, and craftsmen, who
attend to the uses and wants of the varied and rich
navy of this Imperial port. So it is not an exagge-
ration to say that the whole town turned out to
welcome the Channel fleet. At the Town Hall the
Mayor gave a banquet to Admiral Dacres, his cap-
tains, and officers ; and the speeches on both sides
had a hearty, straightforward tone about them very
unusual in after-dinner complimentary tee's. The
guests were told that the naval service was in such
honour among the working people at Liverpool that,
if they were required, 30 sail of the line could be
manned out of the port in five days. That is seine-
thing for us here in London to be proud of and to
rejoice at. The Mayor assured the Admiral that
no such sight had been seen in his memory as the
reception of the squadron. All classes had shared
in it, and the enthusiasm had but grown greater
with the better opportunities for the townsfolk and
the sailors to meet each other. Admiral Dacres
answered in like friendly tone when the other
guests drank the health of himself and his officers.
He told his friends around him that, when he
entered the port of Liverpool it was with unfeigned
pleasure ; that when he saw the thousands and
tens of thousands of people of this large maritime
population, all sailors or connected with the sea,
and the women waving their handkerchiefs and
cheering as the fleet entered, he thought it was
a great mistake that they had not come there
betore ; and he felt from his heart as a true
Englishman, as a true English sailor, that there
had never been a better thing done than the
sending of the fleet there for the inhabitants of that
large and populous place to know them ; for he was
sere—and he was speaking with the confidence of
nearly fifty years in the service—that the more they
were known the better they would be liked. Na-
turally enough he turned to speak of his officers and
his seamen, his officers whom he commended as
having come from old English families, and his men,
who all knew their duties, and " were as good as
ever." "The times," said the gallant old gentleman,
" might be altered; our munitions of war might be
very different, the ships might be different, and the
guns different; but he thought whenever they were
tried the men would show the same glorious results
as they had ever d. oner-at least he trusted they
would." There is in this modest frankness the true
ring of the metal out of which Nelson and Coiling-
wood were made-00muirtilders to whom every one