The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-17 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This mortal/3m
This day at Two o'clock 79
__ __

Barometer-29.83.
; fresh, and fine weather.

__4l:4ll<tt
Zir

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1863,

The Emperor of AUSTRIA heading the national
movement for the unification of the Germanic
Empire ! The Archduke MAXLIILIAN preparing to
receive the Imperial purple, crown, and sceptre
won for him in Mexico by the army of NAPO-
LEON 111. The stripling King of the GREEKS,
late one of the boy-princes of Denmark, setting out
on his " grand tour" preparatory to his ascending
that uneasy throne at Athens from which the ex-
King OTHO was so unceremoniously thrust some
few months back by an abrupt revolution ! The
Russian Autocrat still wielding the scourge fiercely
over the insurgent population of his Polish pro-
vinces! The ill-advised King of PRUSSIA becoming
every day more and more estranged from the whole
of the great Confederation he formerly aspired
to lead as Chieftain instead of thus forsaking as
Renegade While such are among the more con-
spicuous contemporary incidents now transpiring in
Europe, the intelligence brought to us from the
opposite shores of the Atlantic, from the seat of war
in the North American Republic, is of the same
weary, hopeless, inconcludent character as here-
tofore.

Another great battle is—of course—said to be
imminent. Believe that who will! Again the
boasted successes of the North turn out to be, in
point of fact, so very little of successes at all that the
Federal Victor at the head of his triumphant army,
if not wholly at a standstill, proves at the very least
to be utterly powerless, so far as relates to his inter-
ference with the movements of his antagonist.
General LEE, since the battle of Gettysburg, has
gone whithersover he listed. He has carried away
with him all his booty. He has borne off with him
not only his own wounded, but the heavy guns cap-
tured from the Northern army during the recent
raid of his own troops into-Maryland and Pennsylva-
nia. He has, after deliberately and leisurely
passing the whole of his forces back into
Virginia across the Potomac, retired calmly
and without molestation of any kind from the
Shenandoah Valley, passing through the most con-
venient gap he could find in the range of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, and is so continuing his march on
Culpepper, midway between the North Fork and
the Rapidan, two of the tributarks of the Rappa-
hannock. Only then, at length, as one might sup-
pose for very shame's sake, after all the recent
boasting as to tee victorious character of the
Federal achievements at Gettysburg, only then, at
length, when LEE'S army had passed southwards
between the line of the North Fork and that of the
RApidan, does General MEADE that redoubtable
strategist, appear to have so far aroused himself
""end a corps of his pursuing (?) and victorious(?)
of the"ross the former of those two parallel branches
North Fe
IPpkahannock, that is, across the line of the
if that vet
, with a view to prevent General LEE,
e possible, from still carrying on his
movements so
this completely to his cwn satisfaction !
The result 0
tardy display of anything like
resolution on the
g,
as
of the Federal Commander-
in- Chief, bein
1574eti now learn from our advises
by the Africa, the
the
back of the Federal corps
with severe loss by -
Confederates. tb, ufantry and artillery of the
Elsewhere the tide seems again to have turned
unmistakeably against the North,
it was confidently stated bv General BANKS,
"damn°
of the Ist instant, had immediately beforeid Despatch
been seriously defeated in Louisiana 4. thatth a to ss of date
no less than six thousand of his me,
" prisoners!
The Confederate General JOIINSTONE moreover
-rs •
pears to be no more pursued by General GRAN„"
as the
1 to the captureg—thsegue of Vicksbur a-, as we
have seen, and in fact demonstrated by our fore going
remarks, that other and greater Coate:tic:rate General
LEE has been pursued all this while by his reputed
victor, as the sequel to the fierce conflict fought
on the ensanguined heights of Gettysburg. Besides
which—Fort Wagner, so far from being taken, is
actually turning the tab!es upon its assailants, by
bombarding them in their now almos.
-
purely defensive position on 111, orris Island
Reverting, however, to the chief subject of
interest in regard to this miserable war, the relative

situation of the main armies of the belligerents

respectively under the banners of the Federal and
Confederate commanders-in- Chief, it now appears

probable fiom this latest informatioa brought across

the ocean by the Africa, thac General LEE i 3

dexterously withdrawing his a:my by a flank

novement from the neighbourhoJd of Culpepper, so
a, 3 to resume his former position relatively, that is, to
li'dchmond. Whether this will really turn out to
Ile the case or not, we shall hear now. very
speedily—by our next instalments of intelligence.
'The probabilities being far more likely that
3 uch will prove to be the case, than that the
!great battle said, as usual, to be imminent, should
t urn out to have been fought in the angle between
the North Fork and the Rappahannock. As for the
i nfnriating Proclamation just issued by President
ICANCOLN, threatening the South with implacable
,?taliation for every black soldier taken prisoner
and afterwards shot by the Confederates—it

:is of a-piece with the whole of his policy. Such
retaliation is the least President LINCOLN could
clo, perhaps, in attempted defence of the unfortu-
nate negroes forcibly enrolled by his Government.
But their enrollment at all, under the circumstances
was the cruellest mistake of ell the numerous and
flagrant mistakes into which Mr. LINCOLN has
blundered since this dreadful war commenced. It
is the mistake by which the fury of war has been
already and will be henceforth increasingly in-
tensified.

oufdipon squietude
nat
odn a
innx
oi eo toy-
which dt
ht rhues many
tahneymcsaeul vs ee
ss
otfhsearetisis.
ot eome pvleartyi nhgo r
ot the
ya,s
bp euct t
voefr
yEpurraocPt
casni
saoffuaricres
subrjercotmfoarlul atpiaorntaol tohfanthke
ff
cl
nt ieosn; Iva
nh c h is
j trulyoic ga.
country the accountsof
otohtejoihpaatrivoensst, prospects
exceed e-ceed the most sanguine
glowing summer weather which we have been
has brought a blessing in its train
lately
which enjoyingthe
po poor will not be slow to appreciate. "A
bad harvest" is a word of terror to the masses. It
is a common saying that when bread is dear every-
thing is dear, and so it often unhappily proves.
We cannot be too thankful that the favourable
season has contributed so seasonable a relief to the
distress still unhappily prevalent in the North, a
relief far more valuable than the munificence of
capitalists, or the suggestions of philanthropy.
The accounts are almost universally good ; in some
parts of Norfolk the crops are said to excel those
of the last 20 years. The absence of the potato
disease is another blessing, which, added to the
good harvest, will, we hope, render food for the
million cheap and plentiful. We have obtained
these advantages, too, without suffering from the
heat, as many of our continental neighbours have
done. In Paris the thermometer has reached an
extraordinary height, marking 81 deg. in the shade
before 11 o'clock in the morning. Happily the
vintage has not suffered, as the vine is enabled to
endure long continued heat better than most trees; so
that while the trees in the parks and gardens near
Paris are scorched by the fiery atmosphere, the vine-
growers are looking forward hopefully to the fifth
good vintage cut of six. We have seen something
here of the effects of the sun in drying up
streams end ditches, and have received a sad
lesson of caution for the future. The recent ter-
rible accident near Lynn was, as is generally
known, chiefly owing to the excessive and con-
tinuous heat of the weather, which had converted
the ditch that served to exclude straying cattle
from the rails into an easy pathway for intruders.
Norfolk has had tragic proof, as well as pleasant
evidence, of the unusual season, and we trust that in
no other county may the general satisfaction be so
painfully marred. The effect of our sunbeams
have, however, been but trifling compared with the
sunshine of France, The waters of the Loire, we
learn from a provincial paper, have never previously
been so low as now. One of the principal rivers of
thQ country, giving its name to several departments,
has often desolated the neighbouring lands by
the extent of its inundations. The inhabitants
of the vicinity of Nievre have been in the habit, it
seems, of carrying the produce of the harvest across
the river in boats. But this year a marvellous
change has taken place. At the beginning of har-
vest it was found that the usual mode of transit
was impossible, owing to the river having fallen
too low. Accordingly, the goods had to be con-
veyed a circuitous route by the nearest bridge;
but before very long it appeared that the corn could
be carted across the bed of the Loire with the
greatest ease. This is not altogether a pleasant
symptom, if the dry season is to last much longer ;
but in Hungary matters have reached a more
startling extremity. The drought has produced a
dearth which is said to be very serious. A story
is told of Lower Hungary which, if true,
indicates wide-spread distress. A peasant
who owned four horses was unable to feed them
and unwilling to see them starve; he therefore took
them on to the high road and tied them to a tree in
the hope that some one would steal and feed them,
knowing that horse-stealieg was common. The
next day, on returning to the spot, he not only
found his horses still there, but with four others
brought there for the same reason. When the heat
exceeds the bounds within which it fertilises the
soil and developes its produce, it becomes a destroy-
ing agent instead of a benefactor. Further South,
however, its influence is less injurious, for the news
from Egypt tell 113 that the harvest is generally
satisfactory and superior to that of last year.
Another interesting feature in the intelligence from
Alexandria is the mention made of the cotton pros-
pects. It is said that " the considerable develop-
ment given to the cultivation of cotton in Egypt
leads to the hope that the next picking, commencing
in September, will be abundant." This is good
news for Lancashire, and may serve possibly to
encourage the faint hopes of those mournful prog-
nosticators who regard the American war as inter-
minable, and refuse to believe that cotton worth
working can be grown anywhere but in the Southern
States. " CESAR or nothing" seems tube the motto

of such objectors, y A if their memories will carry

them back some twenty years they will find that
their machinery was then of a far rougher kind
than at present, yet the cotton trade thrived as it
would again, provided a sufficient supply of any
tolerable quality were forthcoming. A staple
constantly in demand for all classes of the com-
munity cannot suddenly disappear from the

market unless its place is filled by an

efficient substitute. There is no reason why cotton

from Egypt, India, Jamaica, Queensland, Italy, and

Africa should not, with a few years' cultivation,
equal any kind of American produce. If the soil
and the climate of these places are adapted to the
cultivation of the cotton plant, which has been
abundantly proved, and the same means and care
arec employed on it which have produced such sue-
doubtless,
anxiety
results in America, why should so much
be felt as to the future ? The present,
fie'Ulte
as
sr et
oa t bloomyt:.3hrlleallw Prospectsa manly
k andel
enough, but the supplies of the
future are,
eortEkti nhge ,
tirnadoe u. r
It
twins hands.
fe a r e a
dlffi.ulty is the uncertainty
g the American
that if the American war
be
conclusion the old storyne willie be
e rd ep
foreated, and every
brought to a speedy
i
other source of supply
et
markets. Men naturally shrink
no
a costly speculation if they have f engaging in
security that
they will have a fair field for competition. If
even
a few capitalists had had sufficient :oresighetto
antk,,ipate the danger, and suli:ient spirit to gh,r.d
fvfaindt it by stimulating the, growth of cotton Else_
where, tla rcolto would haw; bccu %cry different,