The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—On Monday, the 27th April, began the
fifth F- deral invasion of Virginia. Generals
M'Dowell, M'Clellan, Pope, and Burnside have had
their trial and their failure, their day of populari' y,
and their chill night of neglect and oblivion. It is
now the turn of Gen. Joseph Hooker, and to him his
hopeful countrymen are looking to redeem their
tnililitary fame and avenge them of their enemies.
In the opinion of Gen. Hooker himself they could
not have chosen a more fitting man. The General
has openly or covertly censured the plans of all his
predecessors, and by intimating his conviction of
their incompetence has insinuated his own far su
perior skill. The President has taken him at his
own valuation of himself, and given him the com-
mand of the chief army of the Republic, and the task
of capturing the enemy's capital. With the first
days of the early summer the army of the Potomac
enters on the campaign, and we shall shortly learn
whether the lefty criticisms of General Hooker on
others were dictated by conscious genius or only by
the restlessness of ambitious meniocritf. The army
which Gen. Hooker commands is supposed to num-
ber about 100,000 men. These, as regards the de-
tails of drill and discipline, are probably equal to
any that the Federals have had or are likely to have.
If two years are not sufficient to make an army it
is not likely to be made at all. The Rappahannock
was crossed, according to the most trustworthy ac-
counts, without any heavy loss, though one letter
speaks of two regiments es having been " cat up,"
and there is a long list of killed and wounded offi-
cers. The crossing was effected near Fredericksburg
at places called Port Royal and Kelly's Foid. In
December Gen. Burnside crossed in the same way
with equal ease, and the exploit was equally trum-
peted forth to the world. For a few days Europe
believed that a Confederate -retreat was imminent,
until the news of the Battle of Fredericksburg ex-
plained the military plans of Gen. Lee, A Federal
General has again crossed the Rappahannock, and
we must now expect the battle which is to show
how far the operation has been skilfully con-
ceived. The time must indeed be an anxious one for
the Government of Washiegton. In spite of the
alleged enthusiasm and pertinacity of the North,
the President and his advisers are aware that the
question of finding men for the vast armies neces-
sary to carry on the war is full of difficulties. The
Northern people will speak, and vote, and march
in procession, and even pay taxes for the preserva-
tion of the Union, but a period is arriving when to
make them shoulder a rifle and fight for it is beyond
the power of statesman or orator. The truth is the
fighting elements which exist in every population,
and which existed more largely in America than
anywhere else, is beginning to be exhausted, and
must be replaced by a class which has no impulse
towards soldiering, and can only be brought into
the service by force or by the temptation of exces-
sive bounties. It seems to be agreed that the
draught which was fixed for the Ist of May can-
not be enforced; and that the President, to whom
a moribund Crongress gave the power of conscrib-
ing the whole population, will no more get his
300,000 whites than the 300,000 negroes whom the
same Legislature desired him to enlist. At this
crisis the old regiments are returning in mass from
the war. The account our correspondent gives of
these men leaving the service in disgust and re-
fusing to be retained in it by any amount of boun-
ties shows a state of things highly ominous to the
Federal Government, more especially as the dis-
content seems to have taken possession of the Irish
and Germans, to whom the Governmetat must look
for most of the new blood which is to be transfused
into the service. When we remember that these
are only the first to abandon the war, and that next
month the time of the nine months' men who were
enlisted at such an extravagant cost last autumn
will begin to expire, there is goon reason to sup-
pose that if General Hooker fare no better than
his predecessors the conquest of the South will be-
come hopeless in the minds of very many who still
cling to it with ali the tenacity of pride and ambi-
tion.