The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The most active and successful comman-
der whom the Federals possess has not been long in
gaining what seems a substantial advantage for the
Northern cause. General Grant took the comiaiand
of the Army of Tennessee a few weeks since, after
its defeat under Rosencranz. His presence has not
failed to reanimate the beaten troops, and com-
pletely to turn the fortune of the campaign. The
Federal Government, apparently roused to greater
exertions by the hopes they conceived of their new
General, have reinforced his army with men and
supplies of all kinds, having within the last month
hurried some 50,000 men to the neighbourhood of
Chattanooga. Among these have been numbers of
Western soldiers, the most zealous and the most
tfficient that are to be found in the Northern
armies. To strike a great blow before the end of
the year would be the natural desire of a Gener 1
in the circumstances of Grant, and when there is
added to this the necessity of relieving Knoxville
and saving the force under General Burneide or
his successor, it is plain that there were the strongest
inducements to active strategy. Unless the ex-
aggeration of the published accounts passes all
bounds, the attempts of the Federal General have
been rewarded with success. The battle of which
we received the news some days since is now
described as having ended in the complete rout of
General Bragg. Of the battle itself we have but
few details. It seems that even before it took place
there was an intention on the part of the Confe-
derates to fall back, for when General Grant made
a reconnaissance he found, according to his own
despatches, that the enemy was retreating towards
Chickamauga. The attack, however, may, for all
that, have been sudden and vigorous enough to pre-
vent the Confederates from retreating in good
order. They were either driven from Lookout
Mountain or found it necessary to retire, and,
from the intelligence which has now arrived, there
can be little donbt that they have fallen back in dis-
order a distance of several miles. The former ac-
counts stated that when the Confederates were
obliged to abandon Lookout Mountain they crossed
Chattanooga Creek, and took up a position to the
south of Missionary Ridge, on the course of the
Chickamauga river. We now learn that in a few
hours after General Bragg retreated in the night
eastward towards Dalton, destroying the bridges
behind him and the stores which impeded his move-
ments. Generals Sherman and Hooker advanced
in pursuit, and, crossing the Chickamauga river,
Hooker had arrived in the afternoon of the 26th at
Ringold, a place about halfway between the field
of battle and Dalton, at which Bragg may be
supposed to have halted, as it is a railway junc-
tion, and the line is necessary for the maintenance
of the blockade of Knoxville. As to the losses
of the Confederates, it may be that there is
exaggeration in the Federal accounts, but from
the statement of General Grant that their losses in
artillery would amount to 60 pieces, and from their
evidently hurried retreat, there can be little doubt
that a heavy reverse has befallen them. It has for
a long time been asserted that General Bragg did not
possess the confidence of his troops. His recent sue-
cess over General Roseneranz may have done some-
thing to revive his reputation ; but ever since that
time there has been much murmuring in his camps,
and some attempts have been made at Richmond to
obtain the substitution of a more able, or at least a
more popular commander. If the Southern army has
suffered by the continuance in command of an ineffi-
cient General, the Confederate Government will have
supported its nominee at a very great cost. The
Southern soldiers are described as demoralised and
possessed by a perfect panic, and, though this may
be only the exaggerated style current in the country
it may well be conceived that a retreat under a dis-
credited General after a disastrous battle is not likely
to have been conducted with the good order which
allows defeats to be remedied. Bat whatever may
be said of the Coe federate commander, or what-
ever explanation may be given of the details of
this battle, we think the true explanation of the
campaign is to be found in the weakness of the
Southern army. This has been the fatal disad-
vantage of the Confederates all through the war,
and they probably suffer from it now more than
ever. They have performed astonishing feats of
arms, and feats of strategy still more wonderful;
they have won victories against overpowering
forces, and have transported armies from one scene
to another so as to make a display of their strength
which has puzzled and daunted their adversaries.
But the inadequate resources of the Confederacy
have been visible on more than one occasion in the
Western war. While the comparatively well•
populated States of the Atlantic coast have sup-
plied the atmy of Virginia with reinforcements, and
enabled it to defy during three years all the power
of the Northern Government, the South-Western
States of the old Union have not had the men to
stand against the teeming North. The loss ot
Vicksburg and Port Hudson was wholly owing to
the scarcity of men, amounting almost to depopula-
tion, in the State of Mississippi ; Louisiana has not
been able to shake off the hold of Butler and
Banks ; and though the regions west of the Missis-
sippi are not overrun by the Federals, this is owing
more to their vast extent and the wildness of their
natural condition than to the resistance which their
inhabitants have made. The States of Alabama and
Mississippi, and part of Georgia, have raised the
army with which General Bragg has hitherto
checked the Federal invasion of the Cotton States,
and even threatened the reconquest of Tennessee.
This army has been to a certain extent re-
inforced during the last two months, but
the accessions have been small in comparison with
those of the Federals. General Grant's troops from
the West were a powerful force in themselves, and
the Washington Government has been diligent in
marching men from Ohio and other Western States
to the scene of war about Chattanooga. We have
little doubt that the main cause of the retreat of
General Bragg from the point where he has done so
much, and was expected to do more, has been the
belief that at present he is not in a condition to
oppose the powerful levies which have been placed
under the command of General Grant. In a few
days we shall probably learn something more ot
the intentions of the Confederate leader ; but it
would seem that if he really retreats into the
interior of Georgia, the siege or blockade of Knox-
ville must be shortly raised by General Longstreet.
With regard to the other points at which the two
parties; are opposed to each other there is little
to be said. There is no news from Charleston,
there is no news from Texas. The desperate defence
of the Southern seaport continues, and gives a fresh
proof of the capacity of land fortifications to resist
all that fleets, even of the newest construction and
the extremest power, can effect. The expedition to
texas is Frobably intended to take possession of cer-
tain points with a view to completing the biockede
by land as well as sea. To come to what was once
the chief army ot the North, we find Gen. Meade
marching on Nov. 26 in three columns towards the
Rapidan, with the intention, it is said, of crossing
that river and attacking the Confederates. The
army of Lee, said to be some 60,000 strong, is not
likely to permit an unmolested advance, and it is
possible that another battle may already have been
added to those by which the year has been distin-
guished. President Davis was with the Virginian
army, and had reviewed it ; the men would
therefore fight under the eye of the chief of the
Confederacy, and, no doubt, equal all her former

achievements. Whatever their failures, there seems
to be no shrinking on the part of any class of the
Southern people.
HERALD.—After we have grinned comically at
the Schleswig-Holstein conundrum and shrugged
our shoulders with a sardonic smile at the Congress
riddle, there is nothing like a right hearty look at
thorough English Christmas fare to make us truly
cheerful and merry. The Smithfield Cattle Show
is the most practical thing of the year. There you
see what science and sentiment can do in bringing
out first-rate beef and mutton and swine's-flesh for
a substantial dinner. 'Tie poet who cannot feed on
sirloin and stout will never have the vigour and fire
of the true bard ; and the man of abstraction or
mechanical contrivance who does not feed on solid
viands and take in a just libation of cheery liquids
is not fit to deal with the facts and figures of this
rough material world. There have been philoso-
phers who said that the souls and intellects of men
resided in their chests. Unquestionably the broad-
shouldered men—the Platos of our farms, factories,
and warehouses—are the mortals of thorough
energy. They push the world before them and
make it get on. Progress is with them and the imw-
provement of the human race. Your narr.o ,
he displey spare-ribbed creatures are only good at speculations
and dreams. Even the fair sex, when,it. yand firm
strong mind and power, present
fronts
women of his-
fronts resembling men.
no mesas models
tory were very masculine, abneadry.
Their biogra-
of feminine gentleness and
were hearty feeders—
Thedgbre
say that the days
phies, also, tell us that theyrime
thorough devotees to a p kitchen. In fur-
thoroughthose of scholastic
ofth elroanngcefaost;
souaredaragaeuemtieenitisr weaew
disputes and Aristotelian subtleties. Baconian induc-
tion and common-sense came in with the banishment
of abstinence. The English Church has kept back
enough of the penitential and rigorous discipline
to remind us all thatttizhrr iosnnlvotasa
notpro
P;ivnesnityu:swthanbte,
or desire of the senses
held in check, and regulated by
religion and wis-
dom. But the life of the 11. d •
in on or the Christian
anchorite has been exploded amongst us as a weak
perversion of the plain,
,temperate laws of Provi-
dence. We acknowledge the happy medium in
England, and glorious old Christmas is the centre
of out wise, prudent, well-grounded, and natural
social system. We have • a pride in these shows,
because they u-
.o our own, and stamp the epoch.

-
What nation of antiquity thought of a choice oz or
lamb but for sacrifice ? There was no science of
breeds, no theory of races. Dr. Darwin has not a
peg for his argument among the ancient prize cattle.
Even cur ingenious continental neighbours, or that
inventive and creative American off-shoot of our
own
,people, never dreamed of pitting
pigs, and poultry against one another in a grand
national exhibition until England had been log
before them with the masterly example. All praise
to the British farmer for his start in this most use-
ful and most honourable enterprise and career.
Amidst the various acts of modern progress this is
especially our own. Italy, France, Germany, On
kine, sheep.
the United States have had their sons of sciences,
their metaphysicans and experimental philosopher
ac
but it was allotted to England alone to produce
ti thet
domestic animals as witnesses of their prcal,
genius and solid ambition. How the Devour speak
to the skill and care of their owners ! The Herefords,
e
the short-horns the long-horns, the Nortolks, tb
Suffulks, the Scotch,' the Irish, the Welsh—dumn
beasts as they are—all discourse most exceller
bucoiics. Theocritus, Virgil, and Tasso are on Y.
poor sentimentalists compared with the eubstantia,l,
poetry of the Smithfield Cattle Ciub. But how? shal
piso"
we describe the ovine innocents—the truly
scene in the exhibition ? The amiable fat wethers'
whether among the Leicesters, or the Cotswolds, Lin'
coins, Southdowns, Hampshire, Wiltshires, Snl;
shires,Oxfords,or white faced mountains! These 00,te
charming idylls of their own, and each pen is Quite
an eclogue. It may appear hard to be poetic i
pigs, but that animal has before now bean assocathe:
with a whistle ; he is said to see the wind, and t„,,
only learned animal our travelling showmen tam
produce is unquestionably the erudite and pereeniti.
Toby. We may well suppose that there is a selleo
ment, and even a certain distinction, in this sPeci,,,,
when we see the Countess of Chesterfield only t",,.
proud to carry off her ten-pound prize, and even to
smile gratification at a "highly commended" fr°,l
the grave lips of the judges for those model pe.rkeio
which industrious housemaids might well tior,tsn
for pure white bolsters. Then the late Prince "10;
sort was eminent among his other great quelities
and
his cultivation of this useful English animate a-,it
we must felicitate Major-Gan. Hood on the der;c-h
care which he bestows on the serious chargeirgcl,
has devolved upon him, though the silver teent,l73o
the odd pounds he carries away in this eshw",;(l4o
constitute some regard for the infinite labour he ."
evidently bestowed on the proportions and
°boat
of his Windsor prodigies. We are gravely told Otto,
the Prince of Wales is not represented in this efaPot
sition, but a hint is ingeniously thrown out tho'-tor
only the heir to the Throne but his Royal ladY,,,West
one day take a pride in being among the fnarej,firs
prizeholders of the Islington Cattle Show. " real
a King-loving people, and why not the pc!
patronage descend to the sources of that o°-,0
and wholesome flesh which goes so far to ts f
out a nation of sturdy and stalwart Englisbinel)o
The present show is a credit to the energy lot
enterprise of the Smithfield Club, but it ealliee
be described as an indication of progress in ; is
breed and feeding of cattle. We know th,erm-se
here as elsewhere in the domains of human
here
exertion, an Ultima Thule—a degree of perlev,;,,se
which cannot be transcended. But this Ive'"ef
not reached. The judges even col:130°0e
a sad falling off in the quality of specimens? tee,
ought to be noted, and, where possible, corree iiio
Our agricultural competitors must not halt illoteir
meritorious and highly beneficial direction- Their
attention, skill, and energies are now more ne"ost
than ever. Unless, indeed, public report /8 rede for
fable, the amount of diseased meat consumrefel
food is truly formidable. Cautious grazing, ca,,',o-er.
and cleanly conveyance, cora petent veterinary s"„`ro'
vision, as well as the strict pursuit of health,' pro'
pagation, can only restrain and diminish snob°
which strikes at the well-being and stathins:°„ the
entire population. We are all interested P:fois
Cattle Show just at this peculiar time. The sl3fee/
demonstrate what fine specimens ought to he? will
constitute the proper standard. Our heYershefots
each take their lesson from what they stet cook'
them. Perhaps here and there an energetic coo?
or even a fair young matron or thrifty damsel
',,,ea
improve their knowledge of the essentials of 0 b the
dinner by compassing the points of the °ln't are
sheep, and the pig, as they stand before the the
y
accuratel described. At present we are all 6 005
mercy of the butchers, and history nowhere pantos
this order of men for their tender consciences
delicatelchoice.