The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TutEsa—For some months the incidents of the
American War have not been important enough to
obtain a record that could be clearly understood.
The confusion of the reports appeared to cover some
operations which brought no decided advantage to
the Federal aims, or all the success that could have
' been claimed would certainly have been made
known. But by the last accounts the conflict has
reached another stage or starting point, whence its
course must be followed with increased interest.
As if obeying some law similar to that which go-
verns the elements in a tornado, the operations of
the war, after a lapse of two years, have returned
to the exact point where the hostilities began. In
April, 1861, Fort Sumter, at the entrance of the
harbour of Charleston, was attacked by the Confe-
derates and compelled to surrender. The bombard-
ment of this island fortress was the first act of the
drama, which has since produced many incidents
more tragic, but none more important in result. It
was the echo of the cannon fired on the Federal flag
at Charleston that called the first Northern armies
into the field. Round Fort Sumter the interest of
the struggle centres again. From the Southern
journals of the Bth of April it appears that the Fe-
deral gunboats end transports had crossed the bar
which protects the entrance of Charleston Harbour
for the purpose of attacking the fort and capturing
the city itself. On the 9th inst. it was reported in
New York that the bombardment of the works had
actually commenced, and that the same rumour was
believed in Richmond may be accepted as a proof
that the attack was there considered probable. The
Federal fleet is supported by a land force, but the
troops were not to take any part in the operation
till the result of the bombardment was known. The
attacking squadron had anchored inside the bar, but
still outside the harbour, the entrance of which is
commanded by the guns of Fort Sumter, and those
of the smaller works of Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's
Island. The deep-water channel lies between them,
and across this passage the Confederate lronclads
are anchored, " waiting the attack" for which the
Federal fleet is prepared. In this attitude of grim
repose both forces were left by the latest telegrams.
How the die of war has fallen in this throw a few
days will inform us. But there is no city of the
South against which the North feels such a keen
animosity as Charleston. From this feeling an im-
portance is attached to its capture beyond its value
as a military position. Before the war began
Charleston was the centre of the deeply rooted dis-
content which at last expressed itself by the act of
secession. It was at Charleston the second Declara-
tion of Independence was published. The explosive
forces had been long accumulating throughout the
South, but there the match was applied to the train
and the mine of stored-up hatred was fired. Sour .h
Carolina led the political revolt, and at Charleston
the first blow of the war was struck. To Charles-
ton all the military reverses and disasters of the
North are traced back, as to their source ; and
throughout the conflict this Southern city has been
to the Northern States a kind of Carthage,against the
name of which they have written delenda est, if the
fortune of war should ever place such a vengeance
in their power. Richmond became important only
by having been selected as the seat of the political
Government of the Confederacy. To obtain pos-
session of Charleston now would, in Northern opi-
nion, more than compensate for all the losses in the
campaigns of Virginia. The actual agents who do
the work of war are not often so savagely tem-
pered as the passionate politicians who shape its
ends before they are won. But the last published
hope of the extreme Republicans as to the disposal
of Charleston was that it might be levelled with the
earth, the plough passed over its site, and the
ground sown with salt. The recent destruction of
a whole Southern town, after its occupation by the
Federal troops, will probably give additional
energy to the defence of Charleston, for in the
spirit the war has engendered no deed of a similar
kind can be considered impossible. Of the feeling of
the ;North the Confederate Government is per-
fectly aware, and this attack, it is stated, finds
Charleston well prepared for resistance. During
the last year it has been surrounded by defensive
works, and every point of the harbour is com-
manded by forts and batteries. The Federal fleet
has to engage these works, and the Confederate
iron-clad gunboats besides. The recent operations
on the Mississippi have not continued to the Fede-
ral river vessels the success they obtained in the
early stage of the war. When the first iron-cased
gunboats aided the movements of the troops on
shore they gained several decided successes for the
North, but since the South built vessels of the
same kind the scale has turned in its favour.
Against the Southern river forts or earthworks the
iron-cased steamers have done little, and they have
sustained some serious checks. At Vicksburg every
attack has been repulsed. Admiral Farragut nar-
rowly escaped destruction. The failure of Admiral
Porter in his attempt to reach the Yazoo River by
the Creeks supposed to lead into it proves nothing
but a singular want of caution in running his ves-
sels up 70 miles of inland water without pre-
viously ascertaining that it had no outlet. It
almost proved a trap for the entire expedition.
But, on the whole, the river navy of the North
has not maintained the reputation it had acquired.
In several cases the iron-sheathed vessels have
found it difficult or quite impossible to pass a fort
on a river bank. By the last accounts Gen. Foster,
with his troops, was surrounded at Washington, a
town on the coast of N irth Carolina, and could not
be reinforced, because the Confederates had erected
a battery on the Pamlico, five miles below the town,
which the Federal gunboats had attempted to pass
without success. As the expedition against Charles-
ton has been some time in preparation, however, the
vessels of the Federal fleet are probably the best of
their class, and they may be less vulnerable than
the river stean- ers, which appear to have acquired
caution in approaching land forts. In Charleston
harbour the Federals have to engage Fort Sumter,
a stone work of the old construction, not built
against 300 pound shot, Fort Moultrie, and batteries
of which modern science has calculated the power
of resistance, and proportioned it to the force by
which it may be assailed. Added to all these are
the Confederate iron cased steamers or batteries
afloat. It is impossible, however cold-blooded it
may seem, to contemplate a naval action of which
the issue is unknown, without considering it as an
experiment which must test the modern instruments
of war by actual battle. Between iron and wood
there is, of course, no question. But between one
iron-cased fleet and another equally shot proof, the
latter backed by stone forts and earthworks, an
engagement must produce some results which will
compel us to look through all the horrors they in-
volve for the sake of the inevitable experience. We
did not wish or compel either side in the conflict at
Charleston to incur the cost of such a terrible lesson.

DAILY NEWS.—We are brought this morning
within a single year of the tercentenary of Shaks-
peare's birth. On the 23d of April, in the year 1564,
was born, in the pleasant town of Stratford-on-
Avon, the greatest poet the world has ever seen,
and as we are accustomed in the narrower circles
of social and domestic life to celebrate the per-
sonal anniversaries of those we love and honour,
so it is perfectly natural and fitting that the birth-
day of our greatest national benefactor, the poet-
philosopher whom all Englishmen love and honour,
should receive at least a passing remembrance.
If, indeed, our recognition of the day were at all
proportionate to the benefits we have received
through the event it celebrates, scarcely any anni-
versary in our national calendar would stand higher
or be welcomed with a more sincere, grateful, and
reverent gladness. It is difficult, indeed, at this
distance of time, to imagine what our national
literature and life would have been apart from the
pervading, the elevating and refining influence of

Shakspeare's writings. They have done far more
than anything beside to mould the language, refine
the taste, fill the imagination, stimulate the intel-
lect, and stir the heart of the nation. The infiu-
epee of that one master mind, that serene and uni-
versal intellect, permeates the entire range of our
national thought and expression, and is clearly per-
ceptible in its humblest as well as highest manifes-
tations. While the homely but pregnant maxims
of the Poet's wit and wisdom have enriched our col-
loquial speech, and are heard every day in the
familiar talk of ordinary life, his delineationsof the
primal human passions, of the grander forms of cha-
racter and action, remain as perfect types and ex-
amples for the admiration and study of the most
gifted and accomplished minds. All the passions
and affections, as well as the moods and maladies of
the mind, all the humorous and tragic experiences
of life, all the typical forms of humble and heroic
character, are traced with the subtlety of Nature by
that unfaltering hand; and these multitudinous
creations of Shakspeare's genius people that world
of dramatic life which has supplied not only a
boundless field of instruction and delight, but in-
exhaustible materials for study and reflection to his
countrymen and critics in every succeeding age.
While, however, those more profound qualities of
Shakspeare's writings which fascinate the critical
student of poetry can be fully appreciated only
by the few, they are in the truest and largest
sense written for the many, end are both designed
and adapted to influence the nation at large. This
public, patriotic, and national aspect of the Poet's
labours deserves to be specially celebrb ted. He
created our national drama—a drama thoroughly
popular, and at the same time intensely poetical.
At the time Shakspeare appeared as a writer
poetry, indeed, existed, and the drama existed, but
they were almost hopelessly divorced. The stage
had emerged from the buffoonery of the "Mysteries"
and " Moralities" only to be plunged in the depths
of colloquial rant, fustian, and extravagance. On
the one hand, the poetry of the time kept itself
steadily aloof from the stage, addressed only a very
limited circle of readers, and was restricted to an
elevated sphere of ideal experience, classic fancies,
and highly-wrought expression. Shakspeare did for
poetry what Socrates is said to have done for philo-
sophy—brought it down from heaven to earth, from
the airy heights of a metaphysical and romantic
fancy to the joys and sorrows of our common
humanity, the humorous and tragical realities of
actual lite. Desiring a larger audience than the let-
tered and instructed few, he boldly spoke to the
people at large on the subjects most likely to interest
them, and having thoroughly secured their ear, the
extent of his influence in rousing the public spirit
and elevating the national character of his country-
men cannot be overrated. While the form of his
writings was thus popular, their pervading spirit
was in the highest sense noble and salutary. Con-
sidering not only the age in which he wrote, but the
general character of contemporary literature hardly
anything in the writings of Shakespeare is more re-
markable than the lofty moral spirit that pervades
them. In none of his plays is there any contusion of
the clear judgment pronounced on actions of the re-
flective reason and conscience of mankind. He has
" no innocent adulteries, no interesting incests, no
virtuous vice. He never renders that amiable which
religion and reason alike teach us to detest, nor
clothes impurity in the garb of virtue, like Beau-
mont and Fletcher. Shakespeare's fathers are roused
by ingratitude, his husbands are stung by unfaith-
fulness—in him, in short, the affections are wounded
in those points in which all may, nay, must feel."
A poet gratified with such rare and transcendent
powers, if thus exciting the passions in the interest
of virtue, is in the highest sense a national bene-
factor. There can be no question that Shakspeare
directly helped not only to purify the taste, but to
raise the tone and reform the manners of his age.
But on even broader grounds than the just delinea-
tion and judgment of individual character and action
his works have a public bearing, and his name well
deserves popular commemoration. They breathe
throughout the genuine spirit of freedom, that min-
gled love of liberty and reverence for law which is
in principle and tendency fatal to tyranny and op-
pression in every form. Everywhere he shows the
invincible respect of a great, a well-ordered and in-
dependent nature for justice and right, for indi-
vidual rights, social rights, public rights, and
everywhere he visits with scathing rebuke those
who attempt to trample them under foot, In the
widest sense, therefore, and apart from his wonder-
ful truth of individual portraiture, he is the true
poet of humanity, the poet who in spirit and pur-
pose directly and poweafully ministers to the true
freedom, moral elevation, and social progress of the
race. 'What, however, is of peculiar interest to us,
and ought to be specially remembered on his birth-
day, is the great Poet's rare simplicity of life and
manners. Amidst the toils and excitement of his
City life, brilliant associations, and literary labours,
he maintained unimpaired the freshness of his early
feeling, his quiet love of nature, his attachment to
the scenes, the pastimes, and the companions
of his youth. During the whole time of his
residence in London, we are told on good authority,
" he was wont to go to his native country once a
year ; " and having realised a competence by his
writings, he retired to Stratford to live amongst his
relations and friends, and enjoy again the rural
walks amongst the meadows and woods of War-
wickshire that had delighted him in his youth.
After enjoying for a few years the retirement he
loved and had so long looked forward to, he died
amidst his old friends, beloved as he had lived. The
example of such fresh and natural feeling, such per-
fect simplicity of life, maintained to the end by one
who holds the first place in the literature of the
world, is instructive, and may be remembered with
advantage even in our own more advanced and more
enlightened days.
POST.—When, a few days since, we directed at-
tention to the application made to the Foreign S.,nre-
tary for the appointment of mail agents to accom-
pany the vessels trading to Matamoras, we expressed
a hope that such application would not be granted.
The official reply of Earl Russell has since then
been published, refusing to comply with what,
though apparently a reasonable, was certainly an
unprecedented request. The owners of the screw
steamer Sea Queen are simply relieved from their
liability of carrying the mails, since they consider
it probable that evil disposed persons might despatch
therewith letters which, in the event of seizure,
would implicate the vessel, There can be no doubt
that the Government have exercised a sound discre-
tion in refusing to guarantee, in an indirect manner,
the security‘of a vessel which they are bound to
protect with the entire weight of their authority.
Mr. Adams has laid himself open to well-merited
censure by assuming to give a permit to an English
vessel trading between neutral ports; and we do not
see how Earl Russell could have avoided equal
blame if he had sent a mail agent with the Sea
Queen, with the ostensible object of guaranteeing
her from illegal capture. We are, however, far
from satisfied that the Government have acted
wisely in relieving the owners of the Sea Queen
from their liability to carry the mails. Assuming
that the proposed voyage is legitimate, one is com-
pelled to ask why the public should be debarred the
right of transmitting letters to the port of destina-
tion ? The Sea Queen is bound for Matamoras, a
neutral port, with which commerce is, or at least
ought to be, perfectly unrestricted. Why is the
right of despatching mails, which is incidental to
that of transmitting merchandise, to be abandoned ?
The mere circumstance that comparatively few per-
sons will be inconvenienced by the course taken by
the Government does not affect the question. It
appears to us that a great principle is at stake,
which must at all hazards be upheld. Suppose a
Federal cruiser were to seize on a English ves-
sel carrying the mails to Rio Janeiro, or to Hali-
fax, what would be thought if the Government,
pending the adjudication of a prize court on the
captured ship, w ere to relieve the contractors for
the carriage of the mails to either of these
places from their liability because a second
vessel might share the fate of the first ? The cap-
ture would in either case, ex concessis, be illegal;
and if the American prize court did not decree
adequate compensation to the owners, the Govern-
ment of this country would be bound in vindication
of its own dignity, and for the protection of its own
subjects, to make reprisals. The Peterhoff, it is
alleged, has been illegally seized ; but if so, we can-
not presume that an American prize court will not
do substantial justice, and order compensation to be
made for her wrongful capture. Still less can we
presume that the Sea Queen, which is bound on a
lawful voyage, will be captured. We are therefore
at a loss to understand why the owners of that ves-
sel should be relieved from their liability to carry
the mails simply because they are apprehensive of
a wrongful act being committed, which if unatoned
for would necessitate a war with the United States.
Wearenot desirous of going to war, tut it seems
scarcely
expedient to act as if we were afraid of
being called upon to vindicate our independence by
force of arms. Another seizure is reported, in many
respects similar to that of the Peterhoff. The
Dolphin, stated to be bound from Liverpool to
Nassau with a cargo of general merchandise, was
captured by a Federal cruiser shortly after quitting
St. Thomas's, in the West Indies, at which port she
had touched in the course of her voyage. Assuming
the statement made by the master and crew of the
vessel to be true, and the copies of the ship's mani-
fest and bills of lading to be correct, there can be
no doubt that the capture was illegal. In this
instance, however, as in that of the Peterhoff, we
suppose we must await the adjudication of a prize
court. If a cause of capture is alleged by those
who have seized the vessel, it is difficult to see how
the jurisdiction of a prize court can possibly be
ousted. In the case of the Peterhoff the Govern-
ment instructed our Minister at Washington to

demand the liberation of the vessel if no prima facie
case were made out on the part of her captors.
Such a case, however, it would seem, was estab-
liOled, or at least alleged, and the Court of Admi-
ralty had commenced an investigation into the cir-
cumstances of the capture when the last mail left
New York. It is not improbable that a similar
course will be followed in respect to the Dolphin,
and that in her case, as in that of the Peterhoff, a
prize court will determine whether or not the car
ture has been illegal.