The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-25 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From Correspondent of the limes.)
NEW YORK, April 10,
The long-expected attack on Cnarleston has corn
menced. The only accounts as yet received arc from
telegraphic despatches to the Richmond journals,
which are allowed to pass the Federal lines at the
Rappahannock under 11.!gs of truce. The Federal
Government at Washington denies having received
official or any other notification of the facts. It ap-
pears that on Wednesday last four of the iron-clad
Monitors entered Noah Edisto inlet, 16 miles by
Lind from the city; that a detachment of General
Hunter's army occupied Steno, and that another
portion of the iron-clads had, after one unsuccessful
attempt to cross the bar at the entrance of the har-
bour, made a second with better fortune, and an-
chored in deep water. On Thursday the bombard-
ment of Sumter was commenced by nine ironclad
Monitors, and lasted for several hcurs without visi-
ble effect on that fortress. Two of the ironclads—
the Ironsides and the Keokuk—were disabled by
the Confederate fire. The former was successfully
withdrawn out of range of the guns, and the
latter sunk on the beach off Morris Island. The
Devil, a newly-constructed machine for removing
torpedoes and other submarine obstructions and de-
fences, was also destroyed. On Friday the engage-
ment was not renewed. This news, supposing it to
be authentic, does not look very promming for the
Federals. Nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln and his Minis-
ters are represented as being full of confidence that
Charleston will be taken ; and that the great ques-
tion of ironclad ships against land defences and sub-
marine batteries and obstructions will be triumph-
antly decided in favour of the former. But the
confidence of these gentlemen proves nothing.
They are always confident, always hopeful, always
certain of speedy success, and never permit them-
selves to despair or doubt of the fortunes of that
Republic which they have so grievously misman-
aged. The Confederates, on the other hand, are re-
presented as not being at all sanguine of their ability
to defend the city against the ironclads, though
fully prepared to see it levelled with the ground
rather than surrender. Whatever be the result, the
andfall
of
musttheywillabundantlyin-
deed,fightingthatthe
Mobile
immediately share its fate, will
shouldqualities 'b ai r 1 eimms
eton immortal ta
en
humble or subdue them, or aid in any appreciable
degree to bring the war to a conclusion.
Should success attend the efforts of the Federal
Government in this direction, and the old flag float
once again over Fort Sumter, the people and
Government of Great Britain should be prepared
to receive from Mr. Seward some diplomatic in-
sults which will be hard to bear. The Govern-
went and the people of the North only await a
great victory somewhere or other, and, if it be
not at Charleston, it is hard to say where it can
be, to assume a position with regard to the de-
predations of the Alabama and the Florida which

will provoke unpleasant controversy, if nothing,
worse. The Administration makes no secret of
the fact that it is in a tad temper with Europe
but especially with England. Semi-official reports
and correspondence from Washington declare
that the relations between the United States and

Great Britain are more delicate and critical than
they have been at any time since the affair of the

Trent; that the depredatiuns of the Alabama and
the Florida are due in a greater degree to the
guilty connivance of the British Government than
to the cupidity of British speculators ; and that if

any more vessels of the same kind succeed in leay.
lag the Mereey or the Clyde, the President will
issue letters of marque and cover the ocean with
American privateers, even though the result
should be a war between the two countries. The
disclosures made by prominent members of the
have
ot f tended
the ed greatly to
Government to
abuse England. In this country, where the Irish
Con-
servative and Democratic party to Lord Lyons, and
the publication by the British Government of his
d
Lordship's despatches,
in-
crease the displeasure of Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Seward, and the word seems to have gone forth to
all the friends
andorgans
and Roman Catholic element prevails so largely,
abuse of England is always sure to be popular, and
Democrats and Republicans who agree in nothing
else unite in harmonious chorus whenever that tune
is to be played on the pipe of public opinion. At
the meeting for the relief of the distress in Ireland
—distress which the Irish-Americans as well as the
native-born Yankees persist in attributing to the
cruel oppression of the British Government, this
feeling was loudly displayed. The address of the
Knights of St. Patrick, under whose auspices the
meeting was organised, described Ireland as natu-
rally " the richest and fairest land on the earth,"
only rendered otherwise by British misgovernment.
The name of the Queen of England was received
with hisses, and when Judge Daly, one of the
speakers, was expatiating on the evils caused by
absenteeism he was interrupted by a " venerable
person," who called out in a laud voice, "Give
England a dash !" " No," said the Judge, "my
venerable friend is wrong; the time has not yet
arrived for that." The inuendo and the promise
were received with immense applause. " The
Amerielne," said Judge Mackeon, at the same
meeting, " were a charitable race, and ho would
only refer in proof of the fact to the efforts made a
few months ago for the relief of the poor of England.',
A storm of hisses immediately arose from every
part of the house, and silenced all further allusion
to the ungrateful topic. Later in the evening
General F. T. Meagher, once known in Ireland as
"Meagher of the Sword," declared that the woes of
Ireland were registered to the final chastisement of
England. The audience, both male and female,
expressed their exuberant delight by cheers and
wavings of hindkerchiefs. The press overflows
with denunciations of the English Government and
people, and with taunts at the "gross ingratitude"
of a nation which has been rescued from starvation
by American charity. One of the most violent of
these declaimers is the Hon. Robert J. Walker,
who once held the position of Secretary of the
Treasury, and aspires to hold it again, should Mr.
Chase by any chance be elected President in sue-
cession to Mr. Lincoln. This gentleman expresses
himself as follows in the Continental Monthly, of
which he is editor:—

"England is now building, in the cause of sla-
very and for the South, a great fleet of ironclad
pirate N essels, which are intended to prey on our
commerce. How long will it be before retalia-

tion on England begins, and when it begins how
will it end P Ay—how will it end P It is not to
be supposed that we can long be blinded by such a
flimsy humbug as a transfer to Southern possession
of these vessels ' for the Chinese trade !' Are the
English mad, demented, or besotted, that they sup-
pose we intend to endure such deliberate aid of our
enemies When those vessels ' for the Chinese' are
afloat, and our merchants begin to suffer, let Eng-
land beware ! We are not a people to stop and
reason nicely on legal points, when they aro en-
forced in the form of fire and death. Better for

England that she weighed the iron of that fleet
pound for pound with gold, and cast it into the sea,
than suffered it to be launched. Qui fucit per
altum, fad, per Be. England is the real criminal in
this business, for her Government could have pre-
vented it ; and to her we shall look for the responsi-
bility. All through America a spirit of fierce indig-
Aation bus been awakened at hearing of this Chinerio'