The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-26 00:00:00

possession of any great amount of military genius.
And as his appointment would inspire Europe with
the idea that the war was really about to b. come a
war of extermination, and one that ought to be
stopped in the interest of outraged decency, huma-
nity, and civilisation, it is probable that he will be
kept in reserve for the invasion of Ireland, or for
some other project, that will not aid him overmuch
in his candidature for the Presidency. There re-
mains only Gen. M'Clellan. His appointment to
his old command would be alike pleasing to the
army and to the great majority of the people, but
the President having done him the injury to
dismiss him unjustly, and being supported in the
injustice by every member of his Cabinet except
Mr. Seward, it is scarcely possible even in this hour
of deadly peril that he will have the sense (to say
nothing of the magnanimity), to recall the man
whom he has endeavoured to disgrace, and whom
his party would gladly ruin. Considering all the
difficulties of the case, General Halleck will pro-
bably be offered the post of danger, and, if he accept
it will perform a patriotic and self-sacrificing act,
which will secure for him the sympathy and support
of the people.
While the dreadful battles of Chancellorsville
were in progress tens of thousands of men and
women in this and other cities were in an agony of
suspense for the fate of sons, husbands, brothers,
and lovers engaged in the strife; not a single word
of information was allowed to be communicated by
tei.egraph ; not even a list of the killed and wounded
of the first great battle of Saturday, which an en-
terprising newspaper reporter had been at the pains
to gather at great personal risk and cost. New
York was in a state of the most feverish anxiety,
and the smallest scrap of news was eagerly sought
for, and believed or disbelieved, as the political
sympathy of the hearer might incline; but nothing
authentic was allowed to be communicated. On
Wednesday, however, when the agony of suspense
was at its height, the telegraph wires brought the
news of a prize-fight for the championship of Ame-
rica between two rival pugilists, named Coburn and
M'Coole, that had taken place that morning some-
where in Pennsylvania; and immediately extra
editions of the papers were out, and delivered to
the juvenile crowds of Irish newavendors who ply
their noisy business in the streets. They speedily
made the air hideous with discordant shouts of
"Great battle on the Susquehannah !" "Great
"fight in Pennsylvania !" &c. Intense was the dis-
gust of those who purchased, unless they happened
to belong to the low and debased class who in this
country represent the Anglo-Saxon love of sport.
The Herald of the following day declared in a lead-
ing article that the people had ceased to feel any
interest in the war, "and that there was a great deal
mora excitement in New York about the Coburn and
M'Coole fight than about the fight around Frede-
ricksburg." The Tribune denounced the statement
as a base and cruel libel upon the people of New
York, but the denunciation was only partially justi-
fied by the fact. Respectable people no doubt felt no
interest whatever in the brutal details of the prize
fight, or in the fight itself ; but respectable people
are not in the majority in this city. The war has
not taken off all the " rowdy " population, even
among the young; and old "rowdies," too ancient
for the battlefield, abound at every corner, who take
delight in and make a profit out of the combats of
the ring and of the cockpit, and do their best or
worst to make the very name of sport odious to all
right-minded men. The little episode of the war is
worth recording as a trait of national character, to
be read by optimist or pessimist, with such feelings
as the cast of mind may determine.
The Republican, Abolitionist, and Ministerial
journals have not a word to say in denunciation of
the arbitrary and foolish arrest of Mr.Vallandigham.
The Democratic journals alone speak out, and they
speak out to such purpose that, were it not for the
absorbing interest created by the defeat of Hooker,
they would raise such a storm about the ears of the
Government as would convince Mr. Lincoln that
General Burnside was as unfit for civil as for mili-
tary command, and that true policy even now would
be to send him to the field in the thick of battle,
under subordination to some clearer-headed leader.
It was a grave mistake to make a martyr of such
a man as Mr. Vallandigham—the idol of his own
State, beloved in his immediate district, with
an amount of affection rarely bestowed in
America upon men in public life ; and from
his political position, as an ex-member of
Congress and Democratic Candidate for the
Governorship of Ohio, entitled to be considered the
representative man of the West, as well as the most
eloquent and fearless of the many chiefs of the
Democratic party. In the closing debates of the
last session of Congress Mr. Vallandigham and a
few other men of the same stamp, such as Mr.
Henry May, Mr. Cox, Mr. Peleton, Mr. Vortes,
and Mr. Benjamin Wood, who tacitly admitted him
to be their Parliamentary leader, blew the trumpet
of liberty with no uncertain sound; and never

omitted any fair opportunity to denounce in Beath

ing language the blunders of the Government, and
its constant attempts to destroy the freedom and

override the Constitution of the North in its blind
endeavour to subdue or exterminate the South.
There was to " Buncombe" in his speeches—none
of the exaggeration common among Western or
Northern stump orators—but sturdy common sense
and irrefutable logic, expressed in the choicest Eng-
lish, a copious flow of strong, but never coarse or
vulgar words, an ardent love of liberty, a thorough
acquaintance with the Constitution, a felicitous and

polished invective, and a power of sarcasm that

made his opponents wince with pain, all the more
acute because there was nothing in the language at
which Parliamentary or gentlemanly etiquette could
take offence, and to which none but an orator as ac-

complished as himself could venture to reply. Had
Mr. Vallandigham been an Englishman he would
have made his mark, even in so critical an assembly
as the British House of Commons, which is more
than can be said for any member of the Government
or of the Republican party, except Mr. Chas. Sum-
ner. In figure and countenance, no less than in cha-
racter of mind, he bears a striking resemblance to
the Earl of Derby, but being 15 or 20 years younger
he suggests the time when the "Rupert of Debate"
adorned the House of Commons, and fought the
war of words with Daniel O'Connell, The charge
upon which this gentleman has been arrested was
for certain expressions supposed to be treasonable,
spoken before an audience of 20,000 persons at
Mount Vernon, in Ohio. General Burnside appears
to have been lying in wait for the opportunity, for
he sent certain subordinate officers of his staff,
dressed in civilian attire, to make notes of the
speech which Mr. Vallandigham was expected to
deliver, and it was upon their information that he
proceeded to action. The indignation of the people
of Dayton, where Mr. Vallandigham resides, was so
great at the news of his arrest that they broke out
into open violence; the alarm bells were rung, the
crowd flocked into the streets, and set fire to and
demolished a newspaper office, the editor of which
had rendered himself conspicuous by opposition to
11r. Vallandigham and in support of the Govern-

went, and committed other outrages of so serious

nature as to render it necessary for General Barn

side to despatch a large body of troops from Cin,

cinnati, 60 miles distant, to preserve the peace,
Mr. Vallandigham himself was taken to Cincinnati

and ordered for immediate trial by court-martial

He refused to plead before such a tribunal, denied

its legal,
offence,iot
fyw ahni
cd demanded a
not he h
conscious,
a d committed t o
be br ou agnhyt
before a recognised civil court and a jury of his
countrymen. The case is now pending
with closed
doors, none of the evidence taken being permitted
to be published. If General Burnside hurts a hair
of this gentleman's head, there will be serious mis-
chief in the West. Men's
that re minds are volcanic in
gion, and this blundering dragoon, who lost
his wits at the battle of Fredericksburg, and never
since recovered them, will be held jointly pon-
sible with Mr. Lincoln for all the trouble
tha rest
may
ensue. In fact, Mr. Lincoln is more to blame than
General Burnside ; for, on his own bhowing, by his
famous order, No. 8, Burnside either brought false
charges against every officer under his command,"or
those officers, General Hooker included, were unfit
to be retained in the military service of the United
States. At any time such an arrest would have been
impolitic; but at present, when the great States of
Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio—the granaries of the