The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-14 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

A general regimental order signed by Col. C.
Bingham, Deputy-A6jt.-Gen., has been issued from
the Horse Guards by order of Field-Marshal the
Duke of Cambridge, containing the following an •
nouncements :—Col. G. R. H. Kennedy to be Col.
on the staff of the army serving at Malta, while
holding the command of the Royal Artillery in that
island, vice Col. Crofton, deceased ; Brevet-Col. E.
Wodehouse, C. 8., to command the Depot Brigade,
Royal Artillery, vice Col. Kennedy ; Second-Capt.
C. L. Tredcroft appointed to the Royal Horse Artil-
lery, vice Capt. Williams. The following officers
are posted to the Depot Brigade, and will join at
the stations named on the 20th inst., for duty until
required to embark for India—viz.,Lieuts. Pratt and
Sorell, Hilsea ; Lieuts. Brinkley, 13omford, and
Graves, Shorncliffe; and Lieuts,Barker and Rowle,
Aldershott, to do duty with the 4th Brigade. The
following removals have been ordered :—Lieut.-Col.
Elgee, from Ireland to Shorncliffe; Capt. Williams,
from Dorcester to Hilsea ; Capt. Higgon, from
Ireland to Devonport ; Capt. Tredcroft, from
Devonport to Dorchester ; Capt. Gilmour, front
India to Ireland; Capt. Welch, from Woolwich to
he Isle of Wight; and Lieut. NI. Murray, Coast.
Brigade, from Carlisle to Alderney. The under-
mentioned officers are posted as follows ;—Lieut.
R. Warburton, to No. 1 battery, 24th Brigade ;
Lieut. J. R. Disney, to No. 4 battery, 25th Bri-
gade ; Lieut. E. Waller, to No. 5 battery, 25th Bri-
gade ; Lieut. C. R. Foulger, to No. 6 battery, 25th
Brigade; Riding-Master Sampson, to sth Brigade,
Royal Horse Artillery; Riding-Master &tier, to
9th Brigade; Riding-Master Barnett, to the depot
of the Horse Brigade ; Lieut. H. L, Armstrong, from.
No. 1 to No. 3 battery, 17th Brigade ; Lieut. F. L.
Weston, from No. 3 to No.l battery, 17th Brigade z
Lieut. H. W. Ferrier to 2d Brigade, and to join at
Dover on the 20th inst.; Lieut. G. S. Perry to Ist
Brigade, and to join at Sheerness on the 20th inst.;
Lieut. G. A. Ewpson to 13th Brigade, and to join
at Woolwich on the 20th inst. The following officers
are raised to increased pay:—Lieut.-Col. J. R. An-
derson, C. 8., 4th Brigade, vice Marriott, promoted ;
Lieut. C. Kirkwood, Ist Brigade, vice Gilmour, pro-
moted; Lieut. J. A.Kelso,l4th Brigade, vice Welch,
promoted. The following transfers have been sanc-
tioned—viz., Col. R. R. Kinleside, from 19th to
25th Brigade ; Col. G. R. H. Kennedy, from 2d to
3d Brigade ; Brevet-Col. W. J. Smythe, from 14th.
to 13th Brigade ; Brevet-Col. J. M. Adye,
from 13th to 14th Brigade ; Capt. F. B. Urquhart,
to H battery, 19th Brigade; Capt. F. Alexander to
7th battery, 25th Brigade ; Capt. A. R. Fuller, to
25th Brigade, as a supernumerary; Capt. J. D.
Higgon, to E battery, Bth Brigade; Second Capt.
and Adjutant J. Han w ell, to the head-quarters of
the Depot Brigade; Second Capt. W. B. Cumber-
land, to E battery, 19th Brigade; Second Capt. F.
Fitzroy, to 6th battery, 24th Brigade ; Second
Captain G. Cracklow, te 7th Battery, 24th Bri-
gade; Brevet Major W. Wilson, to the 6th bat-
tery, 25th Brigade ; Second Capt. C. Hunter, to
25th Brigade; Lieut. A. S. Heyland, to D bat-
tery, 16th Brigade; Lieut. J. F. Cooksley, to E
battery, 16th Brigade; Lieut. H. L. Jones, to H
battery, 16th Brigade; Lieut. W. S. Alexander,
to H battery, 16th Brigade; Lieut. H. Munro, to
Bth battery, 25th Brigade ; Lieut. J. H. G. Browne,
to 6th battery, 7th Brigade ; Lieut. Macartney, to
4th battery, 7th Brigade ; Lieut. F. Johnson, to 2d.
battery, 7th Brigade ; Lieut. Slessor, to C battery,
Depot Brigade ; Lieut. Egan to Ist division, Depot
Brigade ; and Lieut. Grey, to F battery, 14th Bri-
gade. The following exchanges have been sanc-
tioned :—Between Second Capt. Capt. J. R. Dyce,
of G battery, Bth Brigade, and Second Capt.R.P.L.
Welch, of Bth battery, 7th Brigade ; between Lieut.
G. E. Handcock, of G battery, and Lieut. T. H.
Trappard, of F battery, 18th Brigade. Lieut.
Collew is posted to No. 6 battery, 7th Brigade, and
is to join at Gosport on the Ist September. Lieut.
Sutton is posted, temporarily, to the Depot Brigade
and will join at Shorncliffe on the let September,
for duty with a field battery at that station.
A detachment of the Ist division of the Depot
Brigade, Royal Artillery, in the Chatham district,
numbering 40 non-commissioned officers and
gunners, will leave head-quarters this morning and
proceed to Portsmouth, under the command of Lieut.
Parry, and embark on board the
fo
irro tic
conveyance
screw y a
nt troop-
ship p
to-
ship Orontes, 500-horse w
Gibraltar. Detachments have also been placed
under orders to embark for British North America,
to augment the Royal Artillery stationed in Canada,
Nova Scotia, and Bermuda.

RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES,
M•P•-
Poor John Bull—Thoughts in a Crowd-1n FUN this
week. One Penny

NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.—
Sole Proprietor and Manson, Mr. B. Webster.
THIS EVENING, THE IRISH TIGER.
After which, at Eight o'cloek, a new drama, entitled THE
OR, TriE GHOST'S BARGAIN, in
'TAUNTED MAN ;
which will be exhibited Professor Pepper's adaptaton of
the Great Spectral Illusion. Messrs. J. L. Toole, R. Phillips,
Sefton, C..): Smith; Mrs. Alfred Mellon and Miss A. Simms.
Followed by a new Burlesque, entitled ILL-TREATED
IL TROVATORE. Messrs. Toole. P. Bedford, R. Phillips,
Ebnrne, C. J. Smith, Romer ; the Sisters Nelson, Carry and
Sara, and Miss K. Kelly.
Commence at 7.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Manager, Mr. W. H. Swanborough.
TO-NIGHT WHILE THERE'S LIFE THERE'S HOPE.
Messrs. W. H. Swanborough, Parselle, Vollaire, G. Honey;
Misses Ada Swanborough, L. Thorne, F. Hughes, Manders,
:and E. Bufton. _ _

Followed by (24th time) THE MOTTO, "I'M ALL
THEME." Dressrs. Honey, Turner, E. Danvers, Collier,
CL,fton ; Mesdames Ada Swanborough, F. Josephs, Maria
Sinapson, Wallace, and Jenny White.
To conclude with KEEP YOUR TEMPER.
Commence at 7.

TITHE THIRD EDITION OF " THE SUN,"
Containing the Latest SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,
'an be had Every Evening of
G. R. GLENIE. NEWS AGENT,
No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park.

NOTICE' TO CORRESPONDENTS. —M. Charles de
Franqueville, Auditor of the Council of State, and late
Secretary-General of the Imperial Commission of the Great
Exhibition in London, must here accept our acknowledg-
ments for his very courteous communication.

HIGH 1 VATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAy.—M.lraing, 2h. 10m.—Afternoon, 2h. 28m.
To-moßnow.-Morning, 2h. 44m.—Afternoon, 2h. 59m.

The Weather.—Sun Office, Aug. 14, 1863.

THERMOMETER.

This morning
This day at Two o'clock 7B

Barometer-29.90.

Wind—S.-E. ; moderate, and very fine weather.

EriiiCOrion '11,17C
tjj-

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1863.

Everyone remembers, of course, the little cluster
of Quaker doves flitting all the way from Liverpool
to St. Petersburg, for the express purpose of con-
verting that wily old serpent, the late Russian
Autocrat, from the error of his ways. As amusing
a piece of impertinence, though one of a totally dif-
ferent character, has just now been thrust under
our observation. A preposterous pamphlet, extend-
ing to the length of exactly six pages—one of these
six pages being the dedication and another the title-
page—lets us into the secret. It is, as one may say,
a word spoken in the strictest confidence—to the
universe. Something equivalent to a whisper
through a speaking trumpet. One of those stage
" asides" audible to a whole houseful!, in boxes,
pit and gallery, but supposed to be unheard by the
person standing close by the speaker's elbow. We
taka this atom of a pamphlet to be an expression
of the most consummate vanity, and of an effron-
tery wholly matchless of its kind. Although
the writer of it is an obscure Mr. Somebody,
whose name has never been heard of before by
the public, before whom the bearer of it may be
said to come now smirking and swaggering down
to the footlights, that name is coolly given in
its simple integrity upon the titlepage as though
it were a Duke's And again, in its simple
integrity, that is, without the prefix of any Chris-
tian name whatever, at the close of a dedica-
tion such as even a right-minded costermonger
must, one would think, perforce, with an
instinctive sense of delicacy, pronounce, upon the
instant of glancing £6t, it, to to " ovvdacious."
" Basis of a Plan for the Abolition of War"—this
astoundingly nonsensical brochure is entitled—
"By 1.-." We here purposely suppress the
avowal of the insignificant authorship. Between
the name of the writer and the title of his pamphlet
appears this utterly ridiculous paragraph, in the
middle of the title page, by way of preliminary
annoucement Submitted to Lord PALMERSTON
and Earl RUSSELL, with Mr. —'s respectful com-
pliments, on July 16, 1863, in order to obtain the
sanction of Earl GREY, Mr. ROEBUCK, Mr. BRIGHT,
and Mr, CoEDEN,before presentation to her MAJESTY
the QUEEN, and. her MAJESTY'S Ministers ; but
_it is
presumed they have come to no determination on
the subject." Better even than this, however, in its

exquisite absurdity, is the outrageous dedication,
"To the QUEEN'S Most Excellent MAJESTY"—
beginning with a sublime impertinence—" My Dear
SOVEREIGN," and signed by this human emmet as
from her MAJESTY'S " sincere friend "—then follows
the isolated surname of this " illustrious obscure."
A Bugg, calling himself Bugg, and yet affecting to
be a HOWARD—signing his homely patronymic
with a flourish, as though it were " NORFOLK," or
" SHREWSBURY " at the very least! The letterpress
embodying the proposition of this preposterous
Peacemaker extends, in straggling lines of very
large type, barely over four small pages, the gist of
it being comprised within a passage of less than
twenty lines altogether. " I want a Congress,"
says the writer, at the commencement of his revela-
tion, and these few words may be said, strictly
speaking, to contain within them the whole of his
proposition. He might far more reasonably have
said, while he was about it—" I want a
strait-waistcoat !" If anything were really
required to demonstrate the utter absur-
dity and fatuity of the peace-at-any-price
principles—that demonstration would be found
ready to hand in such nonsensical escapades as that
revealed to view in the Quaker Deputation of some
ten years since, or again at this moment in the por-
tentous folly, penned, printed, and published by
the blatant egotism of this prig of a pamphleteer.

The history of sieges forms one of the most in-
teresting chapters in military annals. It is felt,
justly so, that it requires courage of a far
higher standard, heroism of a nobler type, to sustain
each
trial unflinchingly than to turn the flight or
to lead
the forlorn hope. The days and nights of
anxious watching under the most depressing in-
fluences, with
failing ammunition and insufficient
food, the constant
presence of the enemy, the
gradual diminution of the little body of defenders,
by casualty and siekn,,,
the double siege of famine
within the walls and the toe without, all these in-
fluences combine to render a protracted siege one
of the sharpest tests of a soldier, s prowess and en-
durance. It is not surprising, therefore,
that in
most campaigns the interest centres
n the story of
a siege. Those which fill a foremost place in
history are too numerous to mention ; but the sieges
of Badajos, of Acre, of liars, and of Sebastopol ares
generation, while the Sur-
not forgotten bY this
render of Cawnpore and the defence of Lucknow
can scarcely be ranked as mere historical events, so
warmly did they enlist our syrnpathies. But if our
feelings are always enlisted on the side of the be-
siegers, such is doubly the case when their situation
is a desperate one ; and if the story of the trium-
phant repulse of the allied besiegers from the rocky
coasts of Gibraltar be a thrilling one, still more do
we pay homage to the inflexible resolution that
some two centuries earlier held the little island of
Malta against the whole power of the Turkish
force. The great civil war that !s now raging ,
before us has proved no exception to the general
rule, and for many months the names of Charleston
and. Vicksburg have been familiar as household

words among us. Every attack on Charleston has
hitherto met with ill success, and if report speaks
truly the present attempt does not seem likely to
fare much better than its predecessors. The tenure
of Vicksburg has been a harder matter, and all
eyes, American and European, have been turned to
it with eager expectation. It was felt that the key
of the Mississippi would not be surrendered without
a struggle, and we had seen enough of Southern
daring and determination to know that they would
not yield the struggle lightly. So it has proved, re-
duced to their last mule, decimated by the murderous
fire of the enemy, and heart-sick with the
weariness of hope deferred, the valiant little band
has yet contrived to defend a fortress whose
strength has been greatly over-estimated, and to
repulse a foe who had every means of success at his
command. A very interesting narrative of the for-
tunes of war, extending from the opening struggle
to the capitulation of the town, has been given by
an officer who took part in the defence. He states
that the discrepancy between the forces was very
considerable. " Our land front works consisted of
one single line of earthworks, running along a
continuous ridge from a point about a mile and a
half above Vicksburg to about the same distance
below—the curve inland increasing the extent of
line from four to five miles in all. Atwshhoierht inter-
valslight we had little redoubts or forts, in
artillery had been placed, butafteevridthenet fitrestevaenryd
second days' experience it became
one that they were rather an element of weakness
than otherwise. The enemy, who had access to all
the appliances and improvements that science has
invented to carry on modern warfare, can boast
first-class guns, the best of ammunition, and mag-
nificent artilleryman." The defenders might well
mournfully compare the enemy's lavish expendi-
ture of ammunition with their own enforced caution,
for, at the time the siege was commenced, so scanty
was the store in Vicksburg that they had but ten
percussion caps per man ; a fortnight later they
were supplied by their own prowess and by couriers
from General JOHNSTONE, but the opportunity was
lost. The besiegers had availed themselves of the
ridges surrounding Vicksburg to entrench
themselves strongly ; and, by the time
that percussion caps were no longer
a matter of anxious consideration they had provided
themselves with shelter and protection. "At the
only time when we could have annoyed and delayed
their operations," says the writer, " we dared not
fire for want of ammunition." Even worse than
the scanty stock of the means of warfare, however,
was the slender supply of food. About the 35th
day provisions grew very scarce, and anxiously did
the garrison watch for the relief that was never to
come. Mule meal was the common fare and even
dogs became in request. Bean meal was made into
coffee, long before hope was abandoned, and thus
under a scorching sun and surrounded by unburied
corpses the besieged still struggled on. For the
first two weeks General GRANT had made several
efforts to carry the place by storm, but having be-
come convinced of the hopelessness of such attempts,
after that time, he set about making regular ap-
proaches. By the 40th day his forces were at many
points within 15 feet of the enemy's works ; yet, al-
though the besiegers blew up several forts, and their
defenders with them, it was not their fate to storm
the city. General PEMBERTON, learning that the
long-hoped-for relief from General JOHNSTONE was
not forthcoming, and knowing that his famished
and wearied troops could not cut their way through
the opposing force, determined to capitulate.
Honourable terms were agreed upon, the army was
to be paroled and allowed to retire into the Confe-
deracy, and the officers were to march out with
horses, arms, and personal property. It must have
been with feelings of bitter regret that the brave
garrison surrendered the key of the Mississippi into
the hands of the enemy, after the heavy struggle,
the unflinching endurance, and the long-cherished
hopes of succour. The historian of the siege con-
soles himself by the reflection that, notwithstanding
the capture of Vicksburg, the navigation of the
river will still be so unsafe that neither passengers
nor freight will be able to travel by that route until
the navigation of the Mississippi is permitted by
the Confederates. He finds another source of satis-
faction in the courage and determination which
held the city for so long, and contrasts it with the
reckless manner in which the assault was conducted.
The old barbarity which has so often stained the
annals of Northern triumphs did not fail to show
itself here, and the utter absence of all chivalry and
humanity in their mode of conducting warfare is
painfully remarkable at the present day. The city
ties in a hollow, and as it contained neither troops
nor stores within its bounds, the place might, says
the writer we have referred to, have been just as
soon reduced if a shot had never fallen in its streets.
But Admiral PORTER thought fit to establish a
mortar battery opposite the town, and day and
night kept up a constant discharge of 13-inch shell
into the streets of the city. Many women and
children were killed, every street more or less
damaged, part of the city burnt, and worst of all the
hospitals suffered greatly. " Whether from chance or
intention I know not, but certain it is that the
yellow flag, ordinarily held so sacred in modern
war, has in this one been but the mark for the hot-
test and most deadly fire." Hundreds of sick and
wounded—Federals and Confederates alike—fell
victims to this barbarous mode of warfare, although
advantage was taken of occasional flags of truce to
represent the matter to the besieging authorities.
Such proceedings do the Northern cause more in-
jury than ten victorious sieges can do it good.
They produce a feeling of bitter indignation in
Southern minds, that disinclines them for peace or
compromise ; they call forth the reprobation of
every humane and civilised being. The North
American States have certainly the proud satisfac-
tion of having introduced several new features into
modern warfare, some of which, indeed, would seem
to have been learnt from the Indians who formerly
peopled their territories. Whatever may be the
result politically, it is certain that morally the ad-
vantage is with the besieged rather than the
besiegers ; and the writer of the narrative we have
been quoting speaks truly, when he says that the
defence will redound more to the credit of the
famished, ill-provided handful of 12,000 to 15,000
men, than the attack and reduction will do to the
130,000 assaulters, possessed of abundant supplies,
" with the most perfect artillery and ordnance that
a lavish expenditure and the most famous markets

of Europe could supply, and who for 48 days were
barred ingress by one thin line, and who only
entered at last with the consent of the garrison they
feared to assault."

If no very decided change is proposed by the
Commissioners on " Transportation and Penal Ser-
vitude," at least they have offered seNeral sugges-
tions which, if carried out, will doubtless prove of
essential service. It would not have been advisable
at once to introduce startling changes, and to make
extensive alterations, as some proposed. A gradual
infusion of new rules and regulations is the best,
especially in a case like that of a convict prison ;
otherwise the sudden move may cause the greatest
confusion, and even rouse the most lawless into a
state of sedition that may be a e
prudent difficultto q u e
tl
01 . Ie
weigh
ismatter
i
obvious) then, that it is iL
well, before beginning i.• rEmodel the