The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-24 00:00:00

TILE CIVIL WAR .IN AMERICA,

(F Yom the Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, Oct. 9.

The pc is ition of Gen. Rosencranz at Chattanooga
begins to excite) alarm. Though a thousand times
deceived by Ilia reassuring announcements of an
Adwinist rati on which will never admit a failure to
the natio aal arms until the dead officers are brought
home for burial and the facts are as patent as the
sun at n oonday, the public was contented to believe
that R.O sen cranz had not been seriously beaten, and
that, att things considered, the Confederates had got
the worst of the Battle of Chicamauga. But all this
is now admitted to be false, even by the shoddy
contrac tors and the Republican journals; and it is
feared that, if Rosencranz cannot imitate Bragg so
far as to make a skilful and successful retreat, the
capture of his whole army is not only possible but
extzemely probable. No reinforcements have
reached him from tiny quarter, and Gen. Bragg has
coo imenced to sh ell his camp in Chattanooga from
the, heights of Lookout Mountain, which commands
the position. The total defeat of the Army of the
Potomac wou?,d scarcely cause a greater flutter in
W"hington than the retreat or capture of Rosen-
cranz, for in either event the campaign in Tennessee
will be at an end for this year, and the chances of
Southern recognition by the Powers of Europe very
gree,tly increased.
It also begins to be admitted, though very reluc-
tantly, that the siege of Charleston must end in
failure. The army under Gen. Gilmore has done its
best and accomplished nothing. The ironclads and
monitors, under Admiral Dahlgren, have tried no-
thing and consequently done nothing, and both
officers are understood to have fallen under the dis-
pleasure of the Government for being in the condi-
tion of the friend of Sempronius—deserving of suc-
cess, but without being able to command it.
Thai pro-Russian furors continues to range una-
bated. The municipality, in unison with the
" ahoddy " aristocracy, are determined that all pos-
sible honours in their power to bestow shall be
showered upon the heads of the Russian officers.
Processions, dinners, balls, serenades—everything
that can administer to the curiosity of the crowd or

the joviality of the male and the frivolity of the
female sex—are to be or have been arranged, to
show how delightful it would be to the Americans
to have a friend in Europe, especially if that friend
were Russia. The study of the Abolitionist, Re-
publican, and Ministerial party, in which all the
worshippers of shoddy are delighted to enrol them.
ee',ve s, is how to make the glorification of Russia as
off evasive and insulting as may be to the British and
F reach admirals and officers in the harbour. Bat in
t his design tbey are likely to be frustrated. The
British and French officers will stand upon their
dignity, and will not consent to play " second
Addle" in any celebrations that appear to be fes-
tive, but are in reality political. The Russian
tailors swarm up Broadway, their broad Calmuck
feature/iradiant with satisfaction at the pleasure to
be obt/iined by a stroll on shore ; but not a British
or Fre neh sailor is to be seen, although there are
about 5,000 of them cooped up in the narrow limits
of their respective war ships. The journals in ac-
counting for the fact explain to the credulous Yan-
kee,B—who are delighted to believe that Europe is
one immense hotbed of antagonistic Kings and Em-
perors—that the remembrances of the war in the
Crimea are so bitter that Russians could not meet
British and French sailors in the street without an
immediate outbreak of angry passion and violent
hostility. The true state of the case is simply this
—the Federal Government is en desperately in want
of seamen whom America itself e ,-nnot supply, and

Neao if found in the persons of Irishmen and Ger-

mans are not worth having, that a British or a
French sailor cannot show himseL in public with-
out being inveigled to the nearest rum-shop by some
'amiable Federal " shark." who after having made
him drunk will offer him the handsome bounty of
'7OO d.ols, if he will desert his ship and take service
in tr.a: Federal navy. The temptation of so large a
sum of ready money is too strong for British or
French virtue, and The men of both fleets are con-
-8,-cio.ently kept to their ships with such extra in-
dulgences in their captivity as may help to reconcile
them to their isolation. Ai it is the object of the
Fethral Government to stand well with Russia and
give t,hnt Power no cause of offence, the "sharks"
are itts,traced to leave the Russian sailors alone.
So jealocs is the Administration on this point that
a Finlander who was persuaded by a relative in this
city to desert and join the Federal navy was handed
back by the Federal authorities to his captain, to
be dealt with according to Russian justice. Had
he been Englishman or a Frenchman nothing would
have been said, and all the efforts of the British
and French authorities would have been employed
in vain to discover his whereabouts.

In their intense hatred of England, and their
equally intense jealousy of France, the Americans
forget that the Russian Government is as anxious
for peace between'North and South and as much
opposed to the epirit and policy of the war as any
other Power of Europe. They forget that Baron
s
toeckl, the Russian Minister in this country, was
instructed a year ago by Prince Gortschakoff to read
to
the President and to Mr. Seward a despatch in
which occurs the following significant passage :
" The struggle which, unhappily, has arisen can
neither be indefinitely prolonged, nor lead to the
'Mal destruction of one of the parties. Sooner or
later it will be necessary to come to some settlement,
whatever it may be, which
interests nowAmeit.actually in conflict to coexist. The
political aviation
would, then, give a proof of high
tlement, beforem in
seeking in common such a set-
of
Strength
atuseless effusion of blood, a barren
squandering
acts of violence and
angth and of political riches, and
ireciprocal reprisals shall have
come to deepen
an
a 3
of the an abyss
between the two parties
to. end definitely in their
mutual exhaustion, and
the ruin, perhaps irre-
parable, of their commercial
Oar august master cannot resign
end
political power.
himself to admit
such deplorable anticipations;'
There is no ground
to believe that the Russian Government has changed
its opinions on the American since this
paragraph was penned; but it conflictit
purpose of
find
a bond of
the Administration for the moment to represent
the
Russia as its only friend, and even to
sympathy in the fact that bothe
the
reeeident are en gags a
tier din combating e and the
atioa, or a
r2ople, in rebellion against their • authority That
such a reason fora Russian alliance should and
is not
favour with any portion of the Americans -
of
this miser.
the
least singular of the many anomalies
able and unnatural conflict.
The war in the Cabinet, so long known to exist
and so freely spoken of, begins to assume shape.
It has long been known that two antagonistic forces
were at work in the Councils of the President, the
one Conservative, the other Destructive; the one
led by Mr. Seward, which desired union above all
things; the other led by Mr. Chase, which desired
nothing but the abolition of negro slavery, and
was determined to accomplish it though " the
heavens should crack." The President has swayed
to one or the other, not as circumstances might dic-
tate, but as the superior pressure brought to bear
upon him might compel. Unable to control either
Section, he was equally unable to dispense
eatvices of either leader. with the
..es The cunning and the ca-
n"' try of Mr. Seward—so like his own in substance,
but se mach . ,
superior in form—were indispensable
to him in --th
e management of
the solid bu • foreign affairs, while
tercels management
capacity of Mr. Chase and his dex-
terous
necessary
of the national finances were
collapse which Zi to prevent the great commercial
would certainly
Lincoln knows to be inevitable,
but which
skilful hand than be expedited if any less
n that of Mr. Chase were just now
to asinine the management.ooo As Mr. Lincoln's turn
of mind is naturally
tusi\elrvative, he has clung more
to Mr. Seward than
dChase, and would have
done so even if he had found no such additional rea-
son for his liking as the
labour
for
Mr. Seward has
no hopes of and does not
notoriously Presidency,
while Mr. Chase openly and
strives to
that end. While Mr. Lincoln and Aire Seward
be glad to restore the Union 'without beatingarwould
South too completely—without exterminating the
people, without effacing State lines or ating the
.reducing the
States to mere provinces and counties, and
even With-
out the abolition of negro slavery, Mr. Chase
and
his party do not value such a ueieo es that would