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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Tieues.—The most active and successful comman-
der whom the Federals possess has not been long in
gaining what seems a substantial adeantetge for the
Northern cause. General Grant took the command
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
efficient 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 General
in the circumstances of Grant, and when there is
added to this the necessity of relieving Knoxville
and saving the force under General Burnside 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 suc-
cess over General Rosencranz 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 Confederate 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 army 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 bad the M3ll to
stand against the teeming North. The loss of
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 Faderals, this is owing
more to their vast extent and the wildness of their
natural condition than to the resistance which their
inhabitants have made. '.f he 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
eolief 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 probably learn something more of
the intentions shall
sof 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 eaid. 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 probably intended to take possession of cer-
tain points with a view to completing the blockade
by land as well as sea. To come to what was once
the chief army of 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. The 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 im-
provement of the human race. Your narrow,.
spare-ribbed creatures are only good at speculations
and dreams. Even the fair sex, whenetheyaeddr display
strong strong mind and power, present
women
id
of fronts resembling men. The greatby no
.means models
his-
tory were very Their biogra-
phies,tcehaeny. elners—of feminine gentleness and beauty.h hearty
f d
masculine, and
thorough devotees to
also, tell us thatathpeyrimweereki
fur-
therance of our argument, we may say that the days
of long fasts and ascetic lives were those of scholastic
disputes and Aristotelian subtleties. Baconian induc-
tion and common-sense came in with the banishment
of abstinence. The English Church has keptisei
discipline
enough of the penitential and rigorous d
to remind us all that there is not a propensity, want,
or desire of the senses which was not given us to be
held in check, and regulated by religion and wis-
dom. But the life of the Ilindoo or the Christian
anchorite has been exploded
perversion of the plain, amongst us as a weak
temperate laws of Provi-
dence. We acknowledge the happy medium in
England, and glorious old Christmas is the centre
of our wise, prudent, Well-grounded, and natural
social system.
because they are our have
ova,
apidenrdettiin theseimpthe shows,epoch.

What nation of antiquity thought of a choice ox or
lamb but for sacrifice ? There was no science of
breeds, no theory of races. Dr. D Irwin 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 nut
own people, never dreamed of pitting kine, sheep;
pigs, and poultry against one another in a gravy'
national exhibition until England had been long
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 wee!.
Amidst the various acts of modern progress this ids
especially our own. Italy, France, Germany, au
the United States have had their sous of science.'
their metapnysieans and experimental philosopher!,
but it was allotted to England alone to produce tn°,
raetieZ
domestic animals as witnesses of their p
genius and solid ambition. How the Davons speak
to tile skill and care of their owners ! The Hereforu,,.
lone-horns, short-horns, the lon-horns, the Norfolks, ta:
Suffolks, the Scotch, the Irish, the Welsh t
celleo,
beasts as they are—all discourse most ox
bucolics. Theocritus, Virgil, and Tasso are 0014
poor sentimentalists compared with the substantill
poetry of the Smithfield Cattle Club. But how sha_',
we describe the ovine innocents—the truly paste
ra'
scene in the exhibition ? The amiable fat wethers,...
whether among the Leicesters, or the Cotswolds, lin'
coins, Southdowns, Hampshire, Wiltshires, Shr°l;
shires,Oxfords,or white faced mountains! These luaito
charming idylls of their own, and each pen is quo
an eclogue. It may appear hard to be poetic tea
pigs, but that animal has before now been asset:; be
with a whistle ; he is said to see the wind, and pen
only learned animal our travelling showmen
isi
produce is unquestionably the erudite and Peteuvti.
Toby. We may well suppose that there is a acmes
ment, and even a certain distinction, in this °Peep°
when we see the Countess of Chesterfield only to
proud to carry off her ten-pound prize, and eve,Beto
smile gratification at a "highly commended" 1100
the grave lips of the judges for those model po.r,Aake
which industrious housemaids might well mist
for pure white bolsters. Then the late Prinulo for
sort was eminent among his other great qua""lood
his cultivation of this useful English at
we must felicitate Major-Gen. Hood on the ");°.cli
care which he bestows on the serious chargeiliolad
has devolved upon him, though the silver nieu,,,84.00
the odd pounds he carries away in this exh'hu,4loo
constitute some regard for the infinite labour
0b that
evidently bestowed on the proportions and 9,l"ibst
of his Windsor prodigies. We are gravely t°'"oipo'
the Prince of Wales is not represented in this,..7iot
sition, but a hint is ingeniously thrown out tro9l
only the heir to the Throne but his Royal WI „,cot
one day take a pride in being among the fe,grpore
prizeholders of the Islington Cattle Show- ";glil
a King-loving people, and why not the Leona
patronage descend to the sources of that, -tars
wholesome flesh which goes so far 'fey r
out a nation of sturdy and stalwart Englis"„7 sad
• The present show is a credit to the enerknoot
enterprise of the Smithfield Club, but it t"; 110
be described as an indication of progress no
ie
breed and feeding of cattle. We know t",,13;000
here as elsewhere in the domains of ",„"oiloa
exertion, an Ultima Thule—a degree of Perboe,
which cannot be transcended. But this w, of
sot reached. The judges even comPlu-irbie
a sad falling off in the quality of specirneee',o;ea.
ought to be noted, and, where possible, enr;',; ;hie
Our agricultural competitors must not halt Iteie,
meritorious and highly beneficial direction. adea
attention, skill, and energies are now more n: cot
than ever. Unless, indeed, public report is 013(1 for
fable, the amount of diseased meat constnUnea ere'
food is truly formidable. Cautious grazing, ',-orper
and cleanly conveyance, competent veterinary "-„to•
vision, as well as the strict pursuit of health,' 'evil
pagation, can only restrain and diminish sad the
which strikes at the well-being and stamina;; the
entire population, We are all interested —4130
Cattle Show just at this peculiar time. Thee u'vel
demonstrate what fine specimens ought to he. soil
constitute the proper standard. Our buyerLfote
each take their lesson from what they se! "000lti
them. Perhaps here and. there an energetici
or even a fair young matron or thrifty damse",o4
improve their knowledge of the essentials of 0 e the
dinner by compassing the points of the Ogren
sheep, and the pig, as they stand before them' ,:t ;be
accurately described. At present we are o" -aye.
mercy of the butchers, and history no N here Pr, too
this order of men for their tender consciences o'
delicate;choice.