The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PITBLIO JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The Fourth of July, which acciden,
made the " great day " of the political history of
America, seems destined to be marked less brightly
in the military annals of the nation. In the two
successive years of war the anniversary of the Inde-
pendence of the Republic has dawned on fields of
RfirisethmAormndy,
anbattle. In 1862 the " Glorious Fourth " found the
of
dtherePstointog Gi sae," but net victorious,mac toiled in its advance on
on the bank of the James River. It was told by
President Lincoln that "it had not been beaten,'
but the ensuing months saw exhibited all the con-
sequences of defeat, and the negative assurance of
Theth dayePresihdaesnteowmaes
rpornonbdabalgyabinu, and again it saw thet a slight consolation.
hostile hosts fronting each other after a sanguinary
conflict. Last year the series of battles of that
campaign had ended; but by the last intelligence it
is evident that on the morning of the fateful day
the decisive engagement had yet to be fought. To
the point of time to which the reports are brought
down, the incidents are much clearer than any
o:lnlhi*cs'ion'ahwichco'impletely all the
details of the previous movements. From the mo-
ment General Hooker was superseded the Federal
army abandoned the line of the Rappahannock,
and, changing its front, marched northwards, and,
crossing the Potomac, placed itself between the Con-
federates and Washington. The advance was not
made au hour too Soon, and was probably only de-
layed by the divisions between the Federal Govern-
mentwhich had " 'eipaired his effis
and Hooker, and the shaken confidence of his
officers and troops,
ciency," In the short time that ha., elapsed since he
took the command General Meade has displayed
considerable activity. It was too late to press on
the rear of Lee or harass his advance. The
whole of the Confederate army had succeeded in
the northern frontier of that State
effecting a second invasion of Maryland, and had
both were alarmed without being
gathered on
and in the neighbenring State of Pennsylvania.
violent impulse of self-defence.
lr'ahnesecapitals
heffear of occupation by the enemy had
gn
attack, fell on General Meade
compared with the hasty
conditions
not excited any
rar‘Nnhrdaesthhaiisnskgttornfonoreit,prs
levies of the States Militia, must be considered
of the war have changed is apparent from the pre-
sent position of the armies and the scene of the two
veterans. But
days' hard fighting the telegrams describe. The
field of battle is due north of Washington, at Get. 1
tysburg, little more than 50 miles from the seat of
the Federal Government. To the north and west
of this locality the bulk of the Confederate
been fou d at ate army
appears to have test, R:euhly speak-
ing, both armies
have
described a circle' from the
lleppehaneock, General Lee moving in the larger
curve to his presnn P°7aticn, and General Meade
on a smaller one, beeping closer to
itself as his cen.
`,re. The battle, or the series of
battles, court .ended en the Ist of July. A corps o. '
the Fede:eal array, entering Gettysburg cn the
easter:o side of the town, passed through, and en-
coentered a part of the Confederate force, under
General Hill, to the west of it. The Confederates
were coming from the direction of Chambersburg, a
town a few miles to the west of tho spot where the
armies came upon each other. The engagement
commenced immediately, and for two hours the Fe-
deral General Reynolds held his ground. He was
then reinforced by General Howard, but both were
evidently outnumbered. They had met a portion
of the Confederate troops superior to their own.
They were outflanked on the right, and were con-
tending with this difficulty when General Ewell
came up with a force which was an army in itself,
and it is estimated at no less than 25,000 men. The
Confederates opened a cross fire of artillery, which
is described by the Federal reports as " destruc-
tive," turned both flanks, and, Reynolds' corps
giving way, Howard could not hold his ground, and
both fell back to a position south of Gettysburg—
that is, retreated. General Reynolds was killed,
General Paul also fell, and the Federal loss in this
engagement they state to have been 4,500 men,
with an "immense number of officers." The battle
was renewed in the afternoon of the 2d, south of
Gettysburg, the two corps repulsed on the previous
day having fallen back on the main body of the
Federal force. Of the second day's engagement
the Government have published portions of Gene-
ral Meade's report. He states that the Confede-
rates, " after one of the most severe conflicts of
the war, were repulsed at all points." It seems
to have been principally an engagement of ar-
tillery, the hostile batteries firing, on one point,
at the distance of two miles. The day of the 2d
was not decisive. The fighting was stopped by the
close of night, and each army occupied nearly the
came ground as when the battle commenced. Gen.
Meade thought he perceived indications that Lee
was retiring, but a reconnaissance discovered. that.
he was still "in force" on the field. There is
no
the
report, official or other, later than the
night ofl
3d. The whole result, therefore, appears to be that
the Federals in second engagement did not recovercon-
the ground they had lost in the first. But th
con-
flict must have been, as Gen. Meade describe
~s
it
.
h av it,
ey
severe. He more than once mentions the
losses his troops have sustained, and infers tha t the
Confederates must have suffered equally. The. Pro.
portion of officers killed is again unusually large.
Three Federal Generals have fallen, and four are
returned as wounded. In fact, though the Govern-
ment has seen enough of " promise" in the conflict
of the second day to justify the President in issuing
hi
an address to the n the event, his words
pu ic o
seem saddened by a sense of a loss among the troops
too heavy for the slight result their courage has
purchased. A retreat, a drawn battle, and another,
probably a greater, engagement inevitable, there
was scarcely enough of success in the achievement
of the army to enable the President to rise to the
full tone of congratulation.
POST. whiehhavejust --TheLimerick Assizes,
ter-
minate_, May, we hope, trove to mark an era in the
history of Irish crime. It is little more than a
twelvemonth since our readers were startled by the
details of what it is the fashion to term an " agra-

--

rian outrage," more base, more brutal, and more
bloody in its attendant incidents
ordinary run of such sanguinary ev the
butcheries. than
Mr.
Francis Fitzgerald, the victim upon this.. occasion of
the bloodthiesty resentthent, le
justice of revenge," and so oftenisexil the e wild
was the owneritl'd by
small farmers of Ireland,a modthees
rate property upon the borders of the two counties
of Cork and Limerick, and within sightof es
rnallech station of the Great Soffit e. th the Kil-
n and Western
Railway. Among his tenants were two b o ,els of
tern
e rt
the name of Dille.ue, "comfortable" men i
in the
Irish sense of the word, fairly educated for their
station, intelligent, and "respectable." Sums paltry
quarrel with respect to the terms ()Ca lease I-1 I.-
e
place between themselves and their landlord.' tak"
Unable
to bring him over to their own view of the question,
they quietly determined to kill him. At the same time
.from motives of fear either of the man himself,or
of the possible consequences of their intended crime,
they resolved to carry out their bloody intentions
by proxy. It speaks volumes for the state of pub-
lic opinion in the district that they had no diffi-
culty in securing the services, for a few pounds, of a
couple of ruffians who, so far from having any cause
of complaint against the man whom they undertook
so readily to murder, had never seen him in their
lives. Armed and primed with instructions by their
employers, they met Mr. Fitzgerald walkar
his own house in company with eras w neimarred
wife, accosted him, so as to make sure that he was
the right main and then and there butchered him
upon the Queen's highway. There was literally no
pretence even of concealment. The deed was done
in open day, and the assassins leisurely walked off,
leaving their victim writhing on the ground, with
his young wife hanging over him, secure that no
hand would be raised, no tongue would move, to in-
tercept their retreat. For once they were happily
misteken. One of the actual murderers, Beckham,
was captured red-handed, and underwent the penalty
of his crimes, after having been tried by a special
commission within a month of its perpetration. The
other, Walsh, wandered for some weeks a fugitive
in the mountains which divide the counties of Litre-
rick and Cork, was finally hunted down by the
police, tried at the ensuing assizes, found guilty,
and executed. The terrors of the law were brought
to bear even upon those who bad harboured him, and
another " respectable" farmer, named Cooke, paid
a heavy penalty for concealing a murderer from the
Police. It remained to discover and render amena-
ble to justice those who, in a moral point of view,
were even more guilty than the wretched instru-
ments of their vengeance. At the spring assizes of
the present year Denis Dillane, the elder of thee two
brothers, was arraigned as an accessory befor the
fact. Of all other convictions there is none which
hne
it is so difficult to obtain from an Irish jury as o
of this particular character. It is, therefore, greatly
to the credit of the Government, and especially of
the Attorney-General, by whom the prosecution
was conducted, that, without the semblance of any
attempt to strain the law, Denis Dillane was
found guilty by a mixed jury of his countrymen,
and hanged. The last scene of the tragedy has now
just closed. Michael Dillane, the second brother,
had been in custody for upwards of a year
awaiting his trial for the same offence. On
technical grounds it was considered inexpe-
dient to proceed upon the capital charge. To the
indictment upon the minor counts a stout defence
was made, without effect. He also was found guilty,
and sentenced, after an impressive warning, by Mr.
Justice Keogh to ten years' penal servitude, the
heaviest penalty which could be inflicted by law, and
which was aggravated by the refusal, under the
previous circumstances of his crime, of leave to the
culprit even to bid adieu to his friends.
HERALD.—We see no reason to doubt the gen-
uineness of the remarkable correspondence between
the King and the Crown Prince of Prussia which
we published a few days since. The Frankfort
newspaper in which it first appeared was estab-
lished to advocate the interests of Prussia in
Southern Germany. It has close relations with the
Prussian liberal party, and in the existing condition
of the Prussian press, is just the vehicle which the
Crown Prince would select—for if the correspond-
ence is genuine it was published with his authority
and by his orders—for the explanation ofhis opinions
and position. The speech he delivered at Dantzic
showed that the Prince wished that the people
should know that he was opposed to the violation
of the constitution ; and actuated by that
airdes, be
is very likely to have resolved upon giving fulle
the
explanation of the course he has taken and of
policy he intends to pursue for the future. There
is nothing in the letters themselves to throw any
doubt upon their authenticity ; and until the Prince
gives them a categorical repudiation the public may
fairly accept them as genuine. The publication is
calculated to exert a most happy influence upon the
conflict now waging in Prussia. The people have
known before that the Crown Prince did not ap-
prove the glaring violation of the constitution per-
petrated by the decree against the press, but they
will now learn that he has from the first opposed,
with as much vehemence as was consistent with
H hie
s
position, the reactionary policy of his father.
objected to the dismissal of the Auerswald Cabinet,
and was tauntingly told by the King that he had
an opportunity of enacting the usual pert of a Crown
Prince. As far as he could he resisted the subse-
quent steps' in that downward career upon which
William I. then entered. He made no
parade
of opposition, and courted no popularity by
censur-
ing his father. But Si, his influence was employed
y
to disabuse him of the prejudices and errors instilled
into him by the reactionary clique which surrounds
him. At last, on the 31st of Mey, before h
setoftitnge
out for his military tour, after the session
Landtag had been closed, but before the ordinances
were issued, the Prince addressed his father a firm
but respectful pr
fee al'
any invasion of the
'aw. It had no effect. The King signed the de-
cree, which, in one of the letters of this series, he
describes as being in accordance with the charter.
This decree determined the Prince to keep silence
DO longer. He addressed a formal protest to the
Cabinet against the decree, which he declared illes-
pl and injurious to the state and the dynasty, ad-
dressing at the same time a private remonstrance
to the King, and a day or two afterwards took the
occasion to 'Bake public his sentiments offered bhe
pro-
speech of the Burgomaster of Dantz.e.
r These
cee dings seem to have brought upon him a severe
rebuke from the King, which provoked a firm and
dignified reply, in which the Prince declares that
he owed it to his conscience and his f position to pro
.
fess in the face of the world his
c,pinin a mea-
sure which imperils his future and that of his chil-
dren, avows his determination to retract nothing,
and naake as courageous a stand for his future as the
King was making for his, but offering at the same
time to resign his commission in the army and his
place in the Council of State, and reside abroad.
The conduct of the Prince, as thus ekeiched by
himeelf, was alike prudent and hono h .
uraele It must
confirm the Prussians in their hope of a great and
a free future under his government, whilst it will
encourage them to bear with patience
his and firm
sers.ness
all the provocations of the King
and advi
Irritating as it must be to them to see their consti-
tution sharaelessly set at naught, to feel their liberty
of ',speech and of writing illeg y
all curtailed, to be
ridden roughshod over by a handful of poor and
proud lordlings
• and renegade democrats, they will
have the resolution to bear these annoyances, to
gal ground they have chosen, and
stand upon the le
refrain from any of those impatient and suicidal out-
bursts to which the soi•disan friends of lib
that terty in
this country taunt them, in theconviction he
system of illegality cannot last long, and that when it
falls law and liberty will be established upon founda-
tions which cannot be shaken. They know that the
Crown Prince willl revert to the constitution and
concur in its development as soon as he obtains
and they know that they will not have to
power'
wa long for that ; whilst his influence will be COD-
tinuit
ally directed to the end of bringing the King
back to the constitutional path. And whilst the
exposition of the Prince's feelings and purpose will
inspire the Liberals with encouragement, it will
paralyse the efforts of the reactionary party. These
men will not care to commit themselves irre-
trievably to a cause which they know can, at the
best, triumph only for a few months. They will
scorn of the
man incur the hatred of a people and the
he
man who must in a few years be their King merelyur
for the small advantages to be gained by the favour
of a monarch who, in the natural course of things,
has not long to live, and who may, for aught they
know, yield in a few days or weeks to the
remon-
strances of his wife and son. The leading principle
which actuates King William in all these
illiberal
measures has been, as he has often said, and we
have no doubt with perfect truth, his determination
to preserve the imperishable rights of the Crown for
his successors. Might not his Majesty, who as-
suredly would be glad to be on good terms with his
subjects, and is, as it is known, painfully afflicted
b y his present unpopularity, reflect that it is of
very little use taking measures to preserve rights
for
a son who has declared his repudiation of those
rights and his resolve to surrender them. The King
life and is embittering the last years of his
im-
perilling. the interests of his family to preserve for
his son privileges which the latter desires to see
abandoned. Of what avail is it for the King to
establish the Royal right to dispense wit • h the
constitution if his successor is det • ermined to aban-
don it ? His Mat. •
esty may not see the absurdity of
such an effort, but his councillors will. Much as
they
may hate liberal institutions, they love their
own safety more. Herr Von Bismark and his
col-
leagues do not confine th • eir hopes of life or even of
power to the reign of King William. iam,The emphatic
declaration of th Crown Prince .
e rown rince will soon put an
end to the uncen *.• '.
seitu'iotel regime. It will deprive
the King of th ' ' c- e instrupents necessary for the exe-
cution of la's
Iplans.