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

THEIt3IO74 ETER.

This morning
This day at Two o'clock..
Barometer-29.83.
; fresh, and fine weather.

_ ?•11

Sum

movement from the neighbourhood of Culpepr )er, so
as to resume his former position relati rely, thy ,t is, to
Richmond. Whether this will really turn out to
be the case or not, we shall hear no w very
speedily—by our next instalments of int elligence.
The probabilities being far more likely tbat
such will prove to be the case, than that, the
great battle said, as usual, to be imminent, .should
turn out to have been fought in the angl.e IJetween
the North Fork and the Rappahannock. As for the
infuriating Proclamation just issued ay President
LINCOLN, threatening the South wi .th implacable
retaliation 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
do, perhaps, in attempted defence of the unfortu-
nate negroes forcibly enrolled by his Government.
But their enrollment El all, under the circumstances
was the cruellest mistake of all 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.

which thrust themselves upon Amid the many causes of dins qouuiretautdteenatniodnainnxcieotny-
templating the aspect of European
saoffuaricresotfhsearetisis
one very homely, but very p.
faction, which istrulya subject forll nationalparts of th
thanke•
fulness and rejoicing.
country the accounts of the harvest prospects
exceed the most sanguine anticipations, and the
glowing summer weather which we have been
lately has brought a blessing in its train
hi h enjoying g
ypionor will not be slow to appreciate. "A
which
ct
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 out of six. We have seen something
here of the effects of the sun in drying up
streams and 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
the 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-stealing 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 us 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 conriderable 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 tobe the motto
of such objectors, y 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 if

would again, provided a sufficient supply of any

tolerable quality were forthcoming. A staple

constantly in demand for all classes of the com

monity 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 so

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
are eizployed on it which have produced such suc-
cessful results in America, why should so much
adnouzbiettlyesbes: is
felt as to the future ? The present,
i
gvilracYk aennoctuag:buit the supplies of the
future are, hn
manly
The great dra speaking, in our own hands.
felt as to the
prospects of tl'ien ttYraidset, l that if the Ameri be b
can War heutnicserfteaainretya
brought to a speedy
conclusion the old stowill be repeated, and every
other source of suppl ry y
Men neglected for the American
peculation if the
markets. naturally shrink from engaging in
a costly sy have 110 0
securit
they will have a fair field for competition.
If even y that
a few capitalists had had sufficient foresight to
anticipate the danger, and sufficient spirit to guard
against it by stimulating the growth of cotton th3e- ,

where, tae rgAllitZ would LAW burl eery different,