The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 13, 1863

interval of time that separates the days of the
patriarch Abraham from those of George Washing-
ton. But these one-idead Abolitionists deserve
their name, although they have not yet abolished
slavery or the negro, they have abolished the Union,
the constitution, and the writ of Habeas Corpus.
And if they and their armies be half as successful
as they hope, they will end by abolishing the peace of
the civilised world, and perhaps the existence of the
1 Federal North, as a political and military unit.

Disasters off the North-East Coast.

SHIELDS; Monday Evening.

A sad boat accident occurred upon the bar of the Tyne
this morning, by which two men met instant death. In
consequence of the recent N.E. winds a rough sea has been
breaking upon our coast during the past three or four days,
and this morning there was an awkward swell on the bar,
and, the recent heavy falls of rain having flooded the river,
a strong ebb tide was running out to sea. A number of
ships had arrived in the offing during the night, and this
morning after daylight steamboats, pilots, and foyboatmen
put off to them. About 7 o'clock this morning, the tide
being last quarter ebb, and running down strong, Edward
Rogers and Joseph Bage, foyboatmen, proceeded down the
estuary of the Tyne in a small ballast boat, with a view of
going out to sea. They were towed down the Narrows by
the Brothers steam-tug, but getting among the sea, and
being aware of their danger, they called to the steamboat-
men to cast off the towline, which they did. The poor
fellows then pulled for their lives to endeavour to find a
place of shelter in Prior's Haven, but they were too late.
As they were pulling a huge wave overlapped them and
capsized the boat. They were observed from the shore to
crawl on to the boat's bottom, and the steamboat put about
to try to save them, but durst not go near enough on
account of the broken water, and a third sea struck the poor
fellows, washed them off the boat, and drowned them.
With the usual daring coarage of Tyneside men, no sooner
was the accident seen from the shore than the William
Wake lifeboat was manned and pulled out into the raging
sea. But the lifeboat was too late; the men had disap-
peared. Roger's body was washed up on the Spar Hawk
rock about an hour after the accident, and the boat has
drifted ashore. A number of men are among the rocks
looking for the body of Bage. Rogers has left a widow and
four children, and the poor woman is far advanced in
pregnancy.

A report got about that two Hartlepool pilots, whose
coble had upset with them off the Durham coast in the
storm of last week, had been picked up by a Tyne steam-
boat and brought in here. That, unhappily, is not the case;
there is no doubt that they are drowned.
The local papers of this morning contain particulars of
the total wreck of the Energy steamboat, of Middlesborough,
in the habit of trading between that town and the Tyne :
" About half-past 7 o'clock on Saturday morning some
pilots on the Hartlepool Heugh observed a steamboat com-
ing out of the Tees, and as the tide had considerably ebbed)
and there being a heavy sea running, they concluded it was
some strange boat unacquainted with the navigation of the
river, and with their glasses eagerly watched its progress
over the bar. When crossing this dangerous point it was
evident she had struck, probably on some sunken wreck,
for she turned athwart, and the sea breaking over her a few
times she disappeared from view. At Seaton she was also
taken particular notice of, and after she sank a portion of
her mast and funnel were for a short time discernible, but
they gradually disappeared. The Seaton lifeboat was at once
equipped, manned, and taken along the sands to launch op-
posite to where the steamboat went down. She left the beach
and, after an hour's severe struggle through the turbulent
waves, came near the place where the melancholy scene
had just been witnessed, but not a vestige of the wreck was
to be seen. The fate of the poor fellows being inevitable,the
lifeboat bore away for shore. An hour after the steamboat
had sunk a quantity of wreck, washed up on the Hartlepool
rocks and the West Hartlepool sands, and a piece of taffel-
rail,' picked up at sea by a pilot-cobble, being put on board
the Thomas and Mary steamtug, was identified by Mr.
Dawson, the owner, as being part of the Energy steamboat,
of Middlesborough, the property of Mr. F. Leitch, which
Mr. Dawson had formerly
in his employ. In addition to the
crew of this steamer, it is more than probable, from the
number of vessels in the offing, that some pilots would be
on koard, as they would be unable to proceed to sea in their
own boats, The steamboat was uninsured, and is valued
from £l,OOO to £1,600."

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

DAILY NEWS.—." The great Liberal cause" of
which the Hon. Henry Cowper was the champion
at Tamworth, has gone the way of the " great Libe-
ral cause" as represented by Mr. Arthur Peel at
Coventry last week. It has been on both occasions
soundly and handsomely beaten. We hasten to as-
sure our morning and evening ministerial contem-
poraries that we are as little distressed as surprised
at these defeats. Nor, we may be allowed to add,
should we have felt the least elated at the triumph
instead of the discomfiture of the great Liberal cause,
as it was personifiel by the defeated of Coventry
and Tamworth. Believing, as we most Quixoti-
cally do, that politics should be public morality
in action, we discern a righteous logic in these
repulses, and we smile at the spectacle of personal
government perishing of inanition. For those who
have only a life interest in the " great Liberal
cause," such losses must be bitter ; but for
those who represent a principle and not a person,
and who look to what the great Liberal cause is to
be ten years hence, the recent elections at Coventry
and Tamworth point an obvious and instructive
moral. The Liberal party have been recommended
by the highest authority to seek in contented repose
the reward of past struggles, and to be thankful that
the Whigs are in office. This is no doubt excellent
advice for the satisfied ; but why should the Oppo-
sition be satisfied ? Granted that the true test of
modern Liberalism is fidelity to an aged Minister
whom nine-tenths of the Conservatives cheerfully
accept, and that modern Conservatives are only Li-
berals out of office, still there must always be a con-
siderable majority of Liberals and Conservatives out
of office, and consequently unable to rest and be
thankful.

" Love the gift is love the debt."

A Government that exists by conciliating its
opponents is apt to alienate its friends, and a Go-
vernment without a policy or a principle is at the
mercy of local and personal discontents. Coventry
having for years elected an expert and venerable
cynic who had been a zealous Reformer when to be
a Reformer was to do the dirty work for the Whigs,
has naturally chosen for its new member an old gen-
tleman who has the courage to preach and profess
what his predecessor only counselled in secret. Mr.
Ellice, it is true, was a free-trader by conviction
and in action, but what other principle did he re-
present in Parliament if not the principle of "leave
well alone ?'' Now, this is a principle which Co.
ventry is not in the best of humours to appreciate
just now; so when a young man comes down to
lecture them with the premature gravity of an ex-
hausted Whig, they prefer the old Tory, dry
and crusted, who does not taste of " the wood."
Having no principle before them to fight for, they
take to the man who is most originalin his talk, and
they admire independence, though it be indepen-
dence of common sense; and Tory talk of forty
years ago has a savour of independence in these
sterile and neutral days. The rationale of these Op-
position victories is not far to seek. Look at Tam-
worth, where the Hon. H. Cowper was announced
by his great local patron as " the popular candidate"
and the champion of " the Liberal cause." As though
his name and connection were not enough to guar-
antee this aspiring young gentleman's political in-
dependence, Sir Robert Peel, whose exalted patrio-
tism sinks the family in the party and the
party in the Government he serves, assured the
electors that he had known nothing of this name-
sake of the Chief Commissioner of Works until
Mr. Cowper came to Tamworth as a candidate ;
but that Mr. Cowper, and not Mr. John Peel, was
the truly Liberal and popular candidate, because he
was a thick-and-thin supporter of Lord Palmerston.
A very few years ago Sir Robert would have said
as much of a thick-and-thin supporter of Lord
Derby. Mr. Cowper's opponent, the Mr. John
Peel, whom Sir Robert stigmatises as a " name-
sake," but who is also a near relation of Sir Robert's,
is clearly, to judge from his speeches, as good a
Liberal as Mr. Cowper. The only difference we
can detect between them is the difference between
Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Mr. Cowper, who
has probably taken some lessons from his friend,
the Tamworth Alcibiades, speaks perhaps with
more dash and desinvolture than his rival ; but his
principles are as hopelessly mature as those of a
Patronage Secretary. On financial and economical
questions Mr. John Peel IS at least as sound a
free-trader as Mr. Cowper, for he declares himself
a faithful follower and disciple of the late Sir R.
Peel. As to church rates, Mr. Peel has a great re-
spect for those who differ from him, and would do
violence to no man's conscience, but he is a member
and sincere lover of the Church. Mr. Cowper won't
vote for total abolition, but he wishes the rate to be
abolished for dissenters. As to political reform, Mr.
Cowper does not believe the question is likely to be
agitated at present ; but ho will be ready to
vote for a moderate extension of the suffrage ; but,
at the same time, he wishes it to be extended
rather to individuals than to classes, and any bill
for admitting " a certain number of people who
ought to be recognised by the constitution" shall
" receive his earliest consideration." Mr. Peel
is an ardent lover of the British Constitution, but
desires the House of Commons "to be in practice
what it is in theory, a faithful representative of all
classes of the community." As to the American war
and foreign policy in general, both Mr. Peel and
Mr. Cowper are for neutrality and non-intervention.
As to the present Government, however, Mr. Cow-
per, as Sir Robert somewhat superfluously declares
for him, is a sure supporter of Lord Palmerston ;
whereas Mr. Peel is certified to be " a hearty and
independent well-wisher" only. That is the amount
of difference between the candidates, except indeed
that one of them bears the names of Peel, which
we are glad to find has not yet become a disad-
vantage at Tamworth, in spite of the generous
efforts of the head of the family. It may be
assumed, therefore, that the electors of Tamworth
have preferred the " independent well-wisher" of
Lord Palmerston to his thick-and-thin sup •
porter, and the near relative of the late Sir
Robert Peel to the namesake of Lord Palmerston s
Chief Commissioner of Works, though recom-
mended by the late Sir Robert Peel's namesake. In
short, at Tamworth as at Coventry, having nothing
to choose in political professions between the can-
didates, the electors stood up for their local inde-
pendence—and as local independence is itself a
principle worth fighting for, we are quite disposed
to congratulate the Tamworth electors on their
triumph.
POST.—Up to the time when the last mail left
America the victory of the Confederates at Chatta-
nooga had led to no important results. It is conceded
that on that occasion the Northern army suffered se-
verely, but nevertheless Gen. Bragg has been unable
to turn his success to any practical account. It would
seem as if the armies of the two Federations not
only in Virginia but in Tennessee were so evenly
matched that either can by entrenching its posi-
tion, render it an almost hopeless enterprise for the
other to attempt to overwhelm it. All the principal
battles in the Border States were succeeded by long
terms of inactivity, during which the opposed
armies contented themselves with sluggishly watch-
ing each other's movements. The battle:of Antie-
tam was succeeded by three months of manoeuvring
in Northern Virginia ; and when at length a vain
effort was made by Burnside to force the Confede-
rate lines at Fredericksburg., a still longer interval
elapsed before the attempt was renewed with equal
ill success by General Hooker. General Rosen-
cvanz has now entrenched himself at Chattanooga,
and the Confederates, who, having already occupied
the same position are well acquainted with its
strength, hesitate before attempting to dislodge
their worsted but still formidable opponent. Gene-
ral Burnside has not as yet been able to effect a
junction with what may not inappropriately be
termed the beleaguered army. His force still red
mains at Knoxville, although, according to the latest
rumour, no longer under his command. About a
month since it was reported that he had sent in his
resignation to the Government at Washington, and
that it had not been accepted. Now, however, we
hear that General Burnside has been relieved from
his duties, and that General Hooker, the hero of
Chancellorsville, has been appointed in his stead.
Mr. Lincoln has so frequently tried the hazardous
experiment of displacing generals at the most criti-
cal junctures, and invariably with such ill luck, that
we should have supposed he would by this time have
been convinced of its extreme danger. Whatever may
have been General Burnside's motives for resigning
some weeks since, when to all appearances entering
on a victorious campaign, we can hardly believe
that in the precarious position in which the troops
under his command are now placed he would be so
unpatriotic and, we might add, so dastardly as to
press his resignation upon the Federal Government.
Burnside is very far from being a model general, but
he is honourably distinguished in many respects
from his reputed successor, Hooker. The latter
threw up the command of the army of the Potomac
as soon as Lee entered Maryland, for no other reason
than because he believed that the Federal troops
would be unable to stem the tide of Southern inva-
sion. He therefore gladly shifted his responsibility
to the shoulders of another. We cannot believe
that Burnside could act in a similar manner. His
resignation was doubtless under consideration, and,
for some reasoes best known to themselves, the
advisers of Mr. Lincoln decided on reinstating
"fighting Joe Hooker" in an important command.
The reverses sustained in the West by the Confede-
racy have not at all events had the effect of dispirit-
ing the population of those States whose indepen-
dence was more immediately jeopardised by the fall
of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The command of
the Mississippi by the Federal gunboats, it was
rightly supposed, would have the effect of severing
in twain the western portion of the Confederacy,

and under such circumstances it was conjectured
that the States on the right bank of the river in
their isolated position would fain acknowledge the
supremacy of the established Government; In the
latter respect, however, the supporters of the Union
are doomed to disappointment. In the first place,
the isolation has proved by no means so complete as
was expected ; and secondly, the sentiments of the
population have not undergone the favourable change
which was anticipated. An address has been issued
by the Governors of Texas, Louisiana, Missouri,
and Arkansas, to the inhabitants of those States, as
also to the allied Indian nations, inciting them to
rene wed struggles in the cause of independence.
Like the great majority of Southern manifestoes,
it is couched in a very moderate tone. The fall of
Vicksburg is admitted to have seriously interrupted
the communications between the two sections of the
Confederacy, and to have thrown each of them
mainly on its own resources. The most serious
blows iofficted on the Southern States have, how-
ever, had the effect of compelling the population to
be more self-dependent than they had previously
been, and it is with an honest pride that the popu-
lation can point to the extraordinary progress which
they have made in the development of their indus-
trial resources at the same time that they have been
waging a most unequal war. The Governors of
the south-western States consequently see in the
loss of the command of the Mississippi less to regret
than they might have done at an earlier period of
hostilities. It is certainly true that in many respects
the resisting power of the Confederacy has been
much increased during the past twelve months.
Mines have been opened, and factories established,
in the Southern States, which, but for the war,
would never have been heard of. When the South
first raised its banner of independence it was com-
pelled to rely exclusively on foreign States for its
supplies of the material of war. " Now," to quote
the words of the address, " with our own manufac-
tories of cannon, arms, powder, and other munitions
of war . . with cotton as a basis for financial
measures, and with abundance of food, we are able
to conduct a vigorous defence and seize occasions
for offensive operations against the enemy." What-
ever may be the issue of the war, or whatever the
results to which, in other respects, it may give
rise, the Southern States will have gained a
material advantage if, at its conclusion, they have
learned the great lesson of self-dependence. The
political importance attached by the New York
press to the arrival of a Russian fleet in Ame
rican waters, and the warmth with which the
officers of the most despotic of autocrats have been
welcomed by the model democracy of modern
times, afford striking illustrations of the peculiar
character of American institutions. There is pro-
verbially no despotism so uncompromising as that
of a mob or its nominees, and it therefore seems
natural that the Government which has during the
past two years frittered away the liberties of the
American people should cordially fraternise with
the representatives of the Sovereign who is now,
after his own peculiar manner, reforming the con-
stitution of Poland. If any proof were wanting to
demonstrate how totally antagonistic to every notion
of constitutional government is the regime which
has now for some time been established at Washing-
ton, it would be supplied by the sympathy which is
so ostentatiously manifested by the Americans for
the Russian Government. The fact that England
and Russia are now at issue on an important matter
would in itself lead the Americans to strain a point
to do especial honour to the latter. But, indepen,
dently of this consideration, we believe that those
who have done their best to carry a war of extermi-
nation into the Statesof the Confederacy cannot but
have a fellow feeling for the Government which has
decimated the population of the kingdom of Poland.
We might have doubted whether it were possible
for the population of the Northern States further to
alienate from themselves the sympathy of Europe,
but we must admit that by thus gratuitously ap-
proving of a policy which the rest of the world con-
demns as barbarous, they have succeeded in widening
the chasm which already separated them from those
States which regard religion, humanity, and law as
something more than empty names.
TIMES.—That some men have greatness thrust
upon them has been said often enough to be believed
without a fresh example, but our foreign letters
apprise us that the limes has recently contributed
to the very unexpected elevation of an unknown
gentleman to renown and favour. It seems that a
Mr. Apel or Appel—for the heroic syllables are
ambiguously spelt—has been accepted on the scene
of the Polish insurrection as the correspondent of
this journal, and has found himself not a little in-
debted to the importance with which this imaginary
capacity invested him. Whoever he may be, or on
whatever errand he may be bound, he die actually
join one of the insurgent bands on Polish territory,
and in that company he went into battle. We may
hope that be conducted himself becomingly, but it
appears that at the end of an engagement he was
found, not metaphorically, but actually, "up a
tree." In that proverbially awkward position he
was descried by a Cossack, who endeavoured to
bring him down by a bullet, but who missed his
mark. Judiciously declining to risk a second shot,
Mr. Appel descended from his eyrie, made terms
with the Cossack below, and surrendered at discre-
tion. The predicament might have been an exceed-
ingly unpleasant one hut for his official reputation.
It is painful to think what might have become of
plain Mr. Appel, taken with arms in his hands, but
" our own correspondent" was reserved for a diffe-
rent treatment. The distinguished captive was
escorted with especial ceremony to the town of
Lublin, and there brought into the presence of the
Russian Commander, by whom, instead of being
handed over to a file of soldiers, he was invited
to dinner. That he should drink the health of
the Emperor Alexander was, under such circum-
stances, perhaps, a pardonable proceeding, but we
trust it is untrue that his politeness induced him
to abuse and malign the cause of his late comrades.
However, we have only now to say that Mr.
Apel or Appel is not, and never has been, any
correspondent of ours. No such person has any
connexion with this journal. We have no know-
ledge of the man whatever. We are muca obliged
to General Chrnstcheff for the attention which
he showed to a supposed representative of the
Times, and we ought to acknowledge, we presume,
the complimentary terms in which the "interesting"
prisoner was introduced to the notice of the Russian
public by the journals of that country, but the
simple fact is that their politeness has all been
thrown away. Whether Mr. Appel did really de-
scribe himself as our correspondent, or whether, as
we ought perhaps in charity to presume, his
actual connexion with some other employers was
magnified by popular imagination into a special
mission from the 7imes, we can but say that the
whole story is a delusion. He may be a correspon-
dent of some kind, but he is no correspondent of
ours. We are not accountable in any way whatever
for him or his doings, and the Russians must dis-
abuse themselves of the idea that they have caught
a correspondent of the limes, and impressed him by
their magnanimity and deference. Mr. Appel wiil
soon be owned by somebody, we dare say, but he is
no property of ours. We suppose we must not c9m-
plain of such accidents, but it would be well if
foreigners would be at the pains to verify such
claims as were set up on behalf of Mr. Appel. The
representatives of the 7imes in all parts of the
world are always properly accredited, and little
difficulty will be found in authenticating their posi-
tion. It is intelligible enough that pretensions
should be occasionally made to such a character
without foundation or warrant, but the imposture
could not be easily maintained. We do not say that
in the case before us there was any imposition at all.
We have as yet no exact information about the
facts, and it would not be very surprising if some
species of newspaper connexion had, in Mr. Appel's
case, been translated by rumour into a connexion
with that newspaper of which foreigners hear most.
We place the truth of the matter before the world
because we do not choose to be misrepresented, or
to allow the doings of an unknown person to be
fathered on the Times. If it is imagined either at
St. Petersburg or Warsaw that Mr. Appel was sent
into Poland by us, or that he enjoys any connexion
of any kind whatsoeeer with this journal, the idea
must be at once discarded. We have never heard
of the man until this moment. For his proceed-
ings, whatever they wey have been, he must bs
accountable either to 001119 other employers or to
'eimself alone. ..maml.ammao.ll/

THE ANNAMITE AMBASSADOBS.—A banquet,
followed by a display of fireworks, took place the
evening before last, at the residence of the Annamite Am-
bassadors, in honour of the birthday of their Sovereign.
Numerous invitations had been issued to persons in the
official world. Although females in Cochin China
hold but a secondary rank, and never sit, particularly in the
higher classes, at table with their husbands, Fhan-Tang-
Giang departed from the usual etiquette, and invited Mine.
Vann ier, the old Annamitelady,formerly married to a French
officer, and her/daughter to the banquet. They presented
themselves in splendid Annamite costume, and the ambas-
sador, feeling grateful for this mark of attention, departed
from the customs of the East, and paid them a well-turned
compliment on their politeness. Oa the company taking
their seats at table, M. Aubaret, the officer who acts as in-
terpreter, presented the first ambassador with a letter from
M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in which the hon. Minister testified
to the delegates of Tu-Duc his sympathy in the fete which
E
was then being cclebrated. The letter expressed in the most
friendly terms the desire of the French Government that the
treaty concluded at Hue, between France and the eliref
P o
Annum, might lead to a durable union between the two
t
countries. Phan-Tang Giang received the letter with every
mark of respect, holding it for a short time in both hands
over his head, and then said to the persons present, lalso
offer up the most sincere wishes for the long duration of the
friendly relations which now unite the two greatest nations
of the West and of the Eaet,"

COUNTRY MARKETS.

w. -a~--~-----

GLOUCESTER—OcT. 10.
There was a moderate show of English wheat to-day,
and, except for fine dry lots, prices were in buyers' favour .
Foreign wheat was dull, and at the currencies of the last
week. Beans and oats sold very slowly, but without any
change in value. Barley slightly declined.