The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-04 00:00:00

(From the Times' tArrespowlent.)
NEW YORK, JAN. 20.
The " sixty days" and the " ninety days', so often
predicted by the sanguine Mr, Seward and other
imaginative Americans are more van sufficient to

suppuss the rebellion and restore the Union are

- -
words that have lost their charm. No one believes

in them any more. The few who still hope, rather

than believe, that the rebellion is t&U be crushed and
the Union re-established (minus Massachusetts);

calculate that neither object. can he accomplished
while Mr. Lincoln sits in the Presidential chair.

Failing European intervention, a-popular or mili-
tary revolution, or, better than either, the reaig•

nation of Mr. Lincoln, the country must hobble
on as well as it can for two years, piling up debt and
misery as each day passes, and finding at the end of

the term that all has been done in vain, and that

the restoration of the Union is as hopeless and. the
South as hostile as ever. But while such is the

prospect as regards the relative attitute of North
and South, there are several changes which
are certain to occur in the North in " sixty "

days, and several others which are quite as certain
to occur in " ninety." In less than sixty days the
mischievous, as well as absurd, Congress now sitting

at Washington will have outlived its legal term,
and been consigned to history as the most incom-
petent, short•sighted, and reckless public body that
ever attempted to regulate the affair' ad a great na-
ninety" days, orthensidtriNkiheexialin
army, of the United States—whatever its -actual
numbers may be, whether 500,000, as military men

compute, or 800,000, as Mr. Stanton asserts—will
be reduced about one-half by the expiration of the
term of enlistment of the nine-months' men, who
rushed to receive the bounty money so liberally
. _ _ _ _

promised during last summer, when Mr. Lincoln was
so " soarer at the idea of capture in hisown capital
as to call for 600,000 men for his defence. As vo-
lunteering has entirely ceased, and the draught or
conscription has been abandoned in every State as
alike unjust and unpopular in itself, and dangerous
to enforce, Congress, during its short remaining
term, must either acquiesce in this ominous state of
affairs, or take means in conjuction with the Presi-
dent, to raise and pay a new army. How is the feat
to be accomplished ? This is one of the problems
that 60 days must solve, if it is to be solved at all,
or that, if left untouched for 90 days, must produce
resuita in conjunction with the notorious disaffection
of the Army of the Potomac, which may well cause
the most earnest and unflinching of patriots to de-

spair of the Republic.
One or two great and immediate victories of the
Federal arms would shed a cheering light upon this
dark prospect, and help to rescue the Administra-
tion from the contempt amid which it promises
to expire. Mr. Lincoln and his advisers are fully
aware of the necessity of achieving some kind of
hunger and thirst for a victory,
success.i,no w in g
thTahtetyhey must perish without one. Con-
scious of impending doom, unless Fortune or Auda-
city do something for them, they have grown reck-
less, and have planned and organized as well as
they are able a series of nisei and military expedi-
tioes to strike simultaneously both at the heart and
the extremities of the South, with the wild hope
that one out of the many may prove successful.
General Burnside leads the van. With a courage
not to be denied, but with a lack of discretion which
makes him an unsafe commander, he has again
grossed the Rappahannock, with the concurrence, I
if not at the prompting, of the President and Mr.
Stanton, and against the remonstrances of General '
Halleck and other officers. The point of crossing
originally fixed upon was 12 miles above Falmouth,
but it is probable that the actual passage has been
made both above and below that suburb. General
Lee is fully prepared to receive him, either at Fre-
dericksburg or at any other point between that city
and Richmond. People stand aghast at the teme-
rity of the movement. The army is notoriously dis-
contented and demoralised. Four months' arrears of
pay are due to it; and since it made its first on-
slaught on the impregnable heights beyond Frede-
ricksburg, it has lost at least one-third of its num-
bers by wounds, fevers, desertions, and the gradual
atrophy that usually fflicts every army which loses
confidence in its commander or its cause. The re-
sult is expected with painful anxiety. No one
either publicly or privately approves it, or looks
upon it in any other light than as an act of foolhar-
diness, approaching to eriminalty.
The next movement is more hopeful. For the
last three weeks, or longer, all the iron-clads re-
cently constructed in this port as well as in Boston
and Philadelphia, together with a fleet of wooden
gunboats and war-ships, have been despatched one
after the other to rendezvous at Port Royal, to ar-
range matters for a simultaneous attack upon Wil-
mington in North and Charleston in South Caro-
lina. A considerable military force accompanies
them. General Foster, the hero of the recent bril-
liant but bootless raids from Newbern to Kingston
and Goldsborough, is to co-operate with the naval
forces against Wilmington, and will be opposed on
the part of the Confederates by Gen. Gustavus W.
Smith, formerly of
desperate ablest oof
the destruction the many able officers in their service. Everything
portends that there will be a desperate struggle at
this place. Possibly
the struggle for the possession or
still. General Beauregard has been in the city for
two or three months ; and no resource of engineer-
ing skill has been left untried for rendering Charles-
ton impregnable. N Charleston York,w one
be ofm theoe
e- Next to the capture of Rich-
mond, the destruction
of Charleston would be the
sweetest morsel of vengeance that could fall between
the teeth of the
Abolitionists and Exterminators.
To massacre its whole
population and then burn or
rize it to the ground and strew the site with salt is
the very least punishment that their passion would
inflict. Even reasonable people, who are weary of
the war and inclined to submit 'it with the best grace
they can assume to the inevitable necessity of a
separation, are disposed to make
the capture of
Fort Sumter a sine qua non t
precede all overtures
for peace. Till the " Starsand Stripes"
float over
that peccant fortress all negotiation bitterly
dis-
tasteful to their minds. That actof expiation ac-
complished, they may listen t
of
enNaereele
to reason, but not
before.
The third expedition is that under
Gen. Banks,
operating from New Orleans, and
that under Gen.
M'Clern and, operating from Nle •
mphis, to clear the
river Mississippi. Gen. Mtelerna d' n part of the
business, under Gen. Sherman, at
Vicksburg, has
proved a disastrous failure. The attempt,
it ap-
pears, is to be immediately renewed,
in consequence
of imperative orders from the P •
resident the painful
necessities of whose position admitdelay.
Meanwhile no
Meanwhile Gen. Banks is at Baton
Rouge, prepar-
ing to attack Port Hudson. The friends of the
South predict that both attempts must fa:l, and that
neither Banks nor M'Clerna d
la has the least chance
of success, whatever price of human life they may
be willing to pay for it. The m •
ends of the North,
though not very sanguine, consider that there is a
reasonable chance of victory, if the report be true
that Gen. Grant, at the head of
the army of the
Mississippi, numbering 100,000
men, has been or-
dered to co-operate.
The fourth point of collision is i • n Southern Ten-
nessee, where General Rosecra
ns is to renew the
battle with the large Confederate army which
retired, checkmated, but not subdued, at Murfrees-
borough. The Southern army has been largely
reinforced; and both are in spirits. good
Rose-
crans has the prestige of success ;
while the Southern
army—somewhat discouraged at first by the non-
result of its last encounter with the enemy--ilas
been restored to its pristine enth •
usiasm by the ap-
pointment of General Longstreet to the command
in place of General Bragg, The army of Roseorans
is reported to be short of rations ; that of Lonistreet
is fully supplied. The struggle Will be undoubtedly