The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-07 00:00:00

Has been opened since Juty. 1802. It contains 700 bed-
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Dinners and breakfasts are served a la carte in the coffee-
rooms, as well as in the apartments. There is a reading-
room with the best English and foreign papers and publica-
tions, a music-room, and a drawing-room for the use of tra-
vellers without any additional charge. There are also baths,
billiard-rooms, smoking divans, post-office ; cabs, carriages,
and omnibuses going to the railway stations. The servant
speak all languages. This superb hotel, possessing all that
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most fashionable mut of Paris, is recommended to the atten-
tion of travellers.

Independently of their Two Hotels; the Compagnie Tmmo-
biliere has established an extensive Private Furnish( d House
on the Boulevard des Capucines, opposite the ROTUNDA of
the GRAND TioTEL, where Families can reside as in their
own private residences, and where they may rely upon find-
ing the utmost comfort.

Naval and Military In,

THE NAVY.
VALETTA, Dec. I.—By the arrival of her Majesty's de-
spatch vessel Psyche, Lieut.-Commander Sterne, on
Sunday last, from the Piraeus, we learn that everything
was quiet hi Greece up to the date of her departure on the
27th ult. at 2.15 p.m., and that it had been decided
that the Admiral, with the greater part of the squadron.
should leave on the 2d inst. for Malta. The ships
which are to leave are the Marlborough, 121 (bearing the
flag of the Vice• Admiral Commander-in-Chief), Capt. C.
Fellowes ; the Trafalgar, 70, Capt. T. Mason; and the St.
George, 84, Capt. the Hon, F. Egerton ; and probably the
Magicienne, 16, Capt. W. Armytage, or the Trident, 3,
Commander C. J. Balfour. These vessels are expected
here about the 9th or 10th inst. The Revenge, 73 (bearing
the flag of Rear-Admiral H. R. Yelverton, C. 13.), Capt.
the Hon. F. A. Foley ; with the Meeanee, 60, Capt. G.
Wodehouse ; and the Gibraltar, 81, Capt. J. Prevost, is to
remain :at the Piraeus for the winter. The Gibraltar,
which left Malta on the 23d ult., arrived at the Pirams on
the forenoon of the 27th. The gunboat Boxer, tender to
the Marlborough, has been turned over to the Revenge.
The King was to pay a visit to the Marlborough at 2 p.m.
on the Ist inst. (the Princess of Wales's birthday), the
programme for the occaeion being a cold collation and
general quarters. The Chanticleer, 17, Commander C.
S+ erling, sailed on Thursday for Kalamata and the
lonian Islands, and may be looked for at Malta some
time next week. The squadron had a rifle-match on
the 23d and 24th ult., when everything went off well. The
men of the Revenge, Marlborough, and Magicienne carried
off the most prizes. That which excited most interest was
a pool target, distance 200 yards, only bull's-eyes to count,
the bull's eye being only seven inches in diameter.
Twenty seven bull's eyes were made, of which the com-
mander of the Psyche made five. The following ships of
war were in the Pincus on the 27th ult.:—English--The
Marlborough, the Revenge, the Trafalgar, the Magicienne,
the Trident, and the Boxer. French—The Algesi-
ras, the Magicienne, and the Mouette. Austrian.—The
Kirka, and a despatch vessel. Italian.—The Tancredi.
Turkish.—The Broussa. At Salamis.—English—The St.
George, the: Gibraltar, and the Meeanee; also a Russian
corvette, an Austrian frigate, and a Prussian steamer.
Her Majesty's despatch vessel Caradoc, Lieut.-Commander
E. Wilkinson, which lately arrived at Malta from
Messina, for orders, left on Saturday on return to that
port, to await there the arrival of Sir Henry Bulwer, and
carry him back to Constantinople. The Icarus, 11, Com-
mander N. Salmon, V.C., was taken out of dock yesterday,
having completed the repairs necessary from her having
been run into by a French transport when on her way to this
island from Athens, as already reported. The Phoebe, 35,
Capt. A. H. Fortescue, is likely to be kept here some time
longer. Just as everything was ready for casting het new
cylinder an accident occurred to the mould, which will entail
the whole or the greater part of the preliminary work being
done over again. The Hydra, surveying vessel, Capt. T.
A. B. Spratt, C. 8., is still away at Tripoli Or its neighbour-
hood, on surveying service. Commander A. Mansell, com-
manding the Firefly, now at Corfu, has been appointed to
command the Hydra, in place of Capt. Spratt, who has
asked to be allowed to retire on the ground of declining
health. Lieut. G. R. Wilkinson, First Lieut. of the Hydra,
and lately of the Medina, succeeds Commander Mansell in
the command of the Firefly, which is expected here daily.

The Growler, Staff-Commander J. Stokes (tender to the

Hydra), is also away on surveying duty, having been sen
o examine the island said to have been thrown up on the
Cherki Rocks, near Tunis. The only men-of-war in port
are the Hibernia, receiving ship, bearing the flag of Rear-
Admiral H. T. Austin, C. 8., Commander R. B. Harvey,
the Phoebe, the Icarus, the Foxhound, and the Psyche.
The Foxhound leaves t )-day with a:mail for Greece.
On Thursday night Mr. James Stansfeld, MY., Junior
Lord of the Admiralty, accompanied by Rear admiral Lord
Clarence Edward Paget, C. 8., M.P., First Secretary, and
by Mr. H. W. H. Walker, inspector and auditor of yard
accounts, arrived at Pearse's Royal Hotel, Plymouth. On
Friday morning their lordships visited the Devonport dock-
yard, and then proceeded to Keyham steamyard, where
their attention was directed specially to the ironcased screw
steamship Royal Oak, 35, Capt. Fredk. A. Campbell, the
sides of which just below the water line are receiving a
sheathing of Hall's vitreous plates to protect the iron casing
from injury through the galvanic action of Muntz's metal
below. Lord Clarence Paget also visited the ironcased
screw steamship Prince Consort, 35, which encountered
the heavy storm early in November in St. George's Chan-
nel, and surveyed the plating of the screw steamer Ocean,
35, which duty is being performed by the artisans belong•
ing to the establishment. In the afternoon they were
conveyed by the steam tender Princess Alice to the iron
screw steamship Black Prince, 41, Capt. F. B. Wainwright,
and the iron screw steamship Defence, 16, Capt. Augustus
Phillimore in the Sound. On Saturday morning they re•
newed their visit to the dockyard. In the afternoon Lord
Clarence left by South Devon Railway for London.
The Dauntless, Capt. J. B. Dickson, stationed in the
Southampton Water, was inspected on Friday by Commo-
dore Ryder, the Controller-General of Coastguard. A
salute of nine guns was fired on the Commodore leaving
the ship.
The training ship Wellesley, 72, Capt. W. H Stewart,
C.B„ in Chatham dockyard, is to be removed from her pre-
sent moorings, opposite the Ordnance wharf, to Gillingham
reach, at the entrance to the harbour, which position will
offer great facilities for exercising the boys and lads on
board in gunnery exercise. The want of a brig for the
instruction of the lads in practical seamanship is much felt,
but the inconvenience in this respect which has been for some
time experienced will be obviated by the Lords of the Admi-
ralty directing a suitable sailing brig to be attached to the
Wellesley to be used in occasional runs to the Nore and the
Downs.
The Diamond, 27, attached to the sailing reserve squad-
ron, has been surveyed by the dockyard officials, and will
take the place of the Wellesley as the guardship at Chatham
dockyard.
The Irresistible, 68, 2,642 tons, 400-horse power, and the
Goliath, 68, 2,596 tons, 400-horse power, both attached to
the second division of the Steam Reserve squadron at
Chatham, being required for the Coastguard service, are or-
dered to be brought forward for commission as soon as the
work Snow in hand connected with the Steam Reserve
will admit. The Irresistible will be required to be com-
pleted by the end of April next, and the Goliath in June
following.• Both vessels will require to be docked for the
purpose of a thorough overhaul and repair before being
placed in commission.
On Monday a court-martial assembled at Devonport for
the trial of William Charles Mitchell, William Owens, and
Henry James, ordinary seamen, serving on board the Ma-
jestic, 80, screw, coastguard ship, at Liverpool, for deser-
tion. The prisoners pleaded guilty, and were each sentenced
to receive 36 lashes on board the Majestic, and then to be
imprisoned and kept to hard labour for six calendar months
in the naval prison at Lewes. The sentence of the Court, as
far as the flogging is concerned, was carried out on Friday
morning on board the Majestic soon after 9 o'clock, in the
presence of nearly the whole ship's company. Each man
received his 36 lashes without a murmur, one of them merely
remarking during his punishment, "Flog fair." The crime
for which they are punished is for deserting some months
ago. Seven others deserted at the same time, all of whom
shipped on board one of the American packets trading be-
tvreeri Liverpool and New York. Those punished were
captured on the return voyage. A large number of men
have deserted recently to join American ships.

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(From the correspondent of the Times)
NEW YORK, Nov. 24.
The rain we bad here on Saturday extended, as I
expected, to the battle-fields in Virginia and Ten-
nessee, and somewhat crippled the armies in their
movements. Yesterday we had vague rumours of
a contemplated advance by General Meade, and
cooked rations for ten days had actually been dis-
tributed to his troops. The intended attack on the
Rapidan had not, however, taken place up to last
evening. So far as our information goes, General
Lee is strongly posted en the southern hank of that
river, with 50,000 to 60,000 men. To dislodge him
by main force will be a tough job. We have more
rain to-day—heavy rain, and the combatants will,
in all probability, be compelled to desist fr3m their
work before it has fairly begun.
Whatever may be the fate of Burnside's army at
Knoxville, the General himself will soon be out of
the scrape. He has either been removed, or allowed
to go home on urgent private affairs, and General
Foster is on his way to take his command, and has
most likely by this time reached his destination.
Burnside had, before leaving, assured the people at
Knoxville that he felt strong enough to hold the
place. The Confederate force outside the walls
numbered, it is reckoned, 36,000 men. The sea
wall at Sumter is entirely destroyed, but the Con-
federates are, under the very fire of their enemy's
bageteorseoustresetiag newsebornh;p—rontilefences.
Some of the besiegers' Monitors have come to grief.
The people here are exulting at the results of Gene-
ral Banks's expedition to Texas, by which they
think that the designs of the French upon that vast
territory have been defeated.
So far the warlike news. Speculation is afoot
respecting the probable contents of the President's
forthcoming Message, although Washington letters
assare.us that up to the end of last week that worthy
Potentate had not yet put pen to paper. Truly, there
is enough in the position of American affairs to
puzzle even honest old Abe, in spite of his well-
known readiness in his own peculiar style of naive
and jocose composition. To say nothing of his per-
sonal aspirations and of his justifiable anxiety as to
the next general election, the position he has placed
himself in between the parties which contended for
mastery over his councils becomes sufficiently em-
barrassing now that all shuffling and quibbling
comes to an end, and the time draws near in which
the First Magistrate is expected to speak out.
It is early time as yet to calculate the chances of
Mr. Lincoln's re-election. The most formidable of
his riv is in his immediate entourage, Mr. Seeretary
Chase, is said to be willing to withdraw from fur-
ther competition by accepting the place of Chief
Justice of .the Supreme Court of the United States,
now vacant by the resignation of the superannuated
Hon. Roger B. Taney. The army, however, will
have a word to say on the subject of the new
President. Whether allowed a collective suffrage
in their camp, as lately in Ohio, or sent home by
thousands to the polls,
as in Pennsylvania and New
York, the soldiers have had the casting vote in
the recent State elections, and their voice-
-400,000 or 500,000 strong—will not fail to make
itself heard in the great contest for which parties
are already preparing themselves. An army
is a powerful electioneering engine, and there
never yet was an instance in the United States of a
civilian having a chance against a military com-
petitor, whenever this latter came into the lists
with the halo of recent success lighting up his brow.
The War-office at Washington have, indeed, in-
dustriously exerted themselves to clip the fea-
thers of any bird soaring so high as to rob
the present rulers of the sun of popular favour
by the shadow of its wide-spread wings. But
Grant, and Buell, and Banks, and Dix, and Gill-
more are not as helplessly laid on the shelf as Pope,
or Burnside, or Rosencranz. A conquering hero
there must be, if victory is ever to smile on the
Federal arms; and if any man ever came back on
the shields of
,his million of voting followers, Mr.
Lincoln must feel that even his best Joe Millers will
little avail him in retaining the chair once pressed
by such soldiers' idols as Andrew Jackson and
Zachary Taylor.
But, whatever may be the President's views as to
the trial which is to come off a twelvemonth hence,
he must feel that it behoves him to make up his
mind from this moment, and so to weigh the relative
strength and steady the drift of the different parties
as to enable him to choose the one which is to recog-
nise him as its head. Hitherto his policy has been
one of compromise. Surrounded by a Cabinet
half-black, half-blue, he cut his Presidential mantle
out of a cloth reflecting a variety of hues. His
famous Emancipation proclamation was dictated by
Abolitionist advisers. He was subsequently heard
to say " that proclamation was the greatest folly he
ever committed in his life." His answer to the
Missouri delegation, refusing to remove General
Schofield, was given in obedience to Conservative
influence, and several rabid placemen have been
recently removed, as guilty of no other offence than
ultra-Republican principles. In spite of all this the
faith of the Abolitionists in the President continues
unshaken, and now, on the first report of Mr.
Chase's honourable retirement, the hopes of the
party are again centred on old Abe, and their great
mouthpiece, Mr. Wendell Phillips, has proclaimed
in Boston that " the man who had the heart to
originate the Emancipation Proclamation ought to
remain in power at least six years longer."
However divided the President's councillors may
be, and whatever influences the Blair-Seward clique
may still exercise upon the mind of a wary but irre-
solute man like Mr. Lincoln, there is in my mind
little doubt that the Abolition cause is carrying every-
thing before it out of doors. The arming of the
negro regiments was a decisive, irretrievable step.
The President of Brown University, in Providence,
on the occasion of the departure of one of these
swarthy legions from Rhode Island, did not hesi-
tate to assert that " this war, whatever its mission
was at the outset, has now no other object than the
abolition of slavery ;" and Mr. Frederick Douglass,
the well known coloured orator, stood up for the
cause of " God and liberty," by which he meant, as
he explained, not only the emancipation of the
negroes,ic," or, but ,
in
alsooth their "initiation into the body
words, the extension of the
t
suffrage to the whole coloured race.
The continuation of the war for another year or
two will lead almost infallibly to such results.
other
poli
Abolition had a few, bold, outspoken, uncom-
promising friends in the North years ago; but it
had also a vast number of timid chilly-ehallying,
temporizing well-wishers. Had the Southerners
never fired on Fort Sumter;or:had the Confederacy
offered to come to terms after Antietam, or even
after Gettysburg, Northern Conservatism would
still have it in its power to befriend the
"peculiar institution." But the war draws to weary
lengths, slavery gives way before its iron tread,
and the North begins to feel that the quickest and
surest way to compound with the rebellion is to
trample it utterly, and to crush it and slavery—
cause and effect—once and for ever. If there ever
was a wish strongly cherished in the
Blackest Republicans,
was for an indefinite
td con
pro-
longation of the war. Sou
stancy give them all they prayed for. Th alour an e
very
heroism of the armies of the Rapidan and the
Tennessee, the very endurance of the defenders of
Sumter will, without some unforeseen intervention
of Providence, end in their self-destruction.
Already there is no doubt that slavery, to all
intents and purposes, has ceased to be in all the
Border States; it is on its last gasp in the other
invaded regions. The proportion of slaves to the
white povulation in Delaware, Maryland, West
Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri was before the
war in 1860, 469,401 to 2,780,523—i.e. one slave
to six free whites. In Old Virginia, Tennessee,
Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the lands
Inow already partly occupied by the Northerners,

tFhleoridpao r, proportion
,was
and
T 1 ,
e 6
x 0
a 5
s, 1
t9hle
rslaveswere t 01, 78 07 95 ~
09
61 43
free whitee. In North'and South Carolina, Georgie,
e rfree
ywmh iotrees tahne
hcaol fl
tuhr
ee dn
upmo pb ue
r-
-1 a slavestion was
to
s 5 4c 00 ,nss2i
d 9
silnays e 0137
ae oftcht u
at hl
lOys e 0 Su tt entueme ,
baesr
ein
d
oSouth
e wchairtoel
irnaac,e ,t
h e and
the free whites. But since the outbreak of the
war; the slaves in those territories into which the
Northerners have extended their conquests may be
looked upon as virtually lost to their owners. About
600,000 of them have been emancipated—the rest
have been driven by the Confederates themselves
into the Southern States still defended by their
arms. It is calculated that from 1.000,000 at least,
to 1,800,000 have been thus transmigrated, and by
this time the black population of North and South
Carolina, and especially Georgia. must far exceed,
and almost double, the white. You are aware that
this enormous accession of black mouths to be fed
has been quoted as one of the causes of the distress
for food under which the South is now described as
suffering, For my own part, I confess that I
doubt the distress, and incline to think that the
Confederates had, and still have, it in their power
to utilise their slaves, and turn them to the produc-
tion no less than to the consumption of breadstuffs,
always supposing that they hold the reins tightly
on their necks, and have nothing to apprehend
from attempts at servile war. This bugbear of
negro insurrection, however, has lost not a little of
its-former terror, and there is now no:doubt that,
without a great deal of pressure from without, the
black has no very earnest hankering after freedom,
and, indeed, shrinks from it, and often goes back to
his chains after a first stretching of his free limbs.
How those millions of negro bondmen may now
fare in the Carolinas or in Georgia we have no posi-
tive means to ascertain—but that freedmen in
Federal hands are not lying on a bed of roses, we
can readily assert on irrefragable Republiean evi-
dence. With all the goodwill, the ample resources,
and the unwearied activity of the Federal Govern-
ment to ameliorate the condition of the blacks in
the Mississippi valley, with all the model
plantations, schools, asylums, and charitable as-
sociations got up in their behalf, we know
that thousands of those unhappy freedmen have
died and are dying from destitution and disease;
although hitherto the Government has had to deal
with comparatively small numbers, although the
whites, with the large bulk of their slaves, have
been falling back before their conquerors. But can
any man consider without shuddering what would
be the fate of the 3,000,000 of blacks now concen-
trated in the last citadel of the Confederacy, were
this to be suddenly broken into, and the few whites,
with all their vast black flock, to be rendered incap-
able of either further resistance or retreat?
Such is, however, the aim the Abolition party in
the North have been from the beginning, and are
now more than ever driving to—the utter disorgani-
sation of the South, for without this they think the
work of emancipation cannot be completed. The
work of destruction proceeds in the meanwhile, and
before it is carried on to its full extent we may feel
assured that it must be as fatal to the black as to
the white race, and must turn the Southern region
into a charnel house and a wilderness.
Will, then, Mr. Lincoln take part with the out-
and-out Abolitionists? Is there any alternative left
for him ? It is matter of necessity for the President
to pay due attention to public opinion, and as far
as my own observation extends, it is impossible to
deny that the Abolition party has gained immense
ground since the late elections. Even in Missouri,
where Mr. Lincoln so lately snubbed the rabid Ra-
dical faction, the public voice has given a strong
utterance in support of that party. Missouri, as you
know, had through its Legislature decreed the abo-
lition of slavery on its oven territory within the
period of seven years. The oat and out Republicans,
however, are storming for immediate emancipation,
and the newly elected Legislature will obey the
popular outcry. We hear of movements in the
same sense in all the other Border States, where
slavery, indeed, had but a very feeble hold, and any
resolution the constituted bodies in those States
may come to will, for all practical purposes,
be forestalled by the dissolution of the pre-
sent social system, consequent upon the exi-
gencies of the war, and the arbitrary measures of
military rule. However unfairly and illegally the
elections may have been effected in those States,
the result will not the less have been to secure a
Republican, if not a Radical, majority, not only in
the local assemblies, but also in both Houses of Con-
gress. Every month, every day, the war is pro-
longed tolls the death knell of the peculiar institu-
tion of the South; every day adds strength to the
uncompromising Abolition party, and compels the
Democrats and the modern Republicans to resign
themselves, and acquiesce in the inevitable. Truly,
the wholesale desolation of the South, the extinction
of their State sovereignty, and their reduction to the
condition of disenfranchised territories, agreeably
to the ruthless scheme of Mr. Charles Sumner, flu
all humane persons with dismay ; but the innate
buoyancy of the American, his faith in the vitality
of his country, soon get the better of his misgivings ;
and make him jump to the flattering conclusion
that " all will be right in the end."
It would be worth while for the English press to
keep a special correspondent here simply for the
purpose of sending home daily specimens of Ameri-
can bragging. Here are " A few facts, moderately
stated," as an article in yesterday's number of the
paper most universally read in thca Union is en-
titled :
" Oar discoveries and inventions in the art of war are
changing the military and naval systems of all Europe. We
have cannon against which fortifications are as fragile as
paper, and ships which are almost impregnable to the
heaviest shot. Pulsaki and Sumter are battered down off
hand, and our Monitors shed shot as a duck sheds rain. No
European navy is of any account in comparison with our
own, and no European fortress is secure if we choose to
attack it. To take Gibraltar would be child's play to the
army and navy which have taken -Vicksburg. Our first
move in a war with England would be to anchor at Dander-
berg opposite to London and proclaim our ultimatum of
Greek fire or unconditional surrender. We have won for
ourselves the title of the Hercules of nations. We ar
cleaning our own Augean stables at present, but
we shall be ready for those of the other continent when our
services are required. Perhaps France and England will
wait to be whipped by-and-by. If so, we will accommo-
date them, and have no objection to throw a few puny
Powers like Spain into the bargain," &c.
It may be said that the writer of such rodemon-
tades is only what the Italians would call a matte
glorioso, but other papers do not write, other peePh:'
do not talk in a substantially different strain. The
language may be more guarded or less uncoarteous,
but the notion that America is to issue from the
present struggle great and mighty enough to be a
terror to " all creation" is both widespread and
deep-rooted. It was a woman who observed to me
that when the South was subdued e net a cannon
cannon
will and
should be fired in Europe without our g
pleasure."
We hear daily complaints from the owners of
merchant vessels that little more than one-third of
the trade of this country is now carried on under
the American flag ; that of 23 sailing vessels adver-
tised in one Boston paper, on Thursday, for foreign
voyages, 16 were described as foreign ships, being
ehitll British. Appeals
are made t.) Mr. Aireliep,
y
Navy, for protection to the
the Secretary for the
mercantile marine from rebel privateers. Ttie fact
is, however, that enlistment for the navy, no lees
than recruiting for the army,
has led to great scar-
city of hands for all kinds of work, by sea no less
than by lend, and neither the United States' Navy
nor the merchant marine could be manned at the
present time without the greatest efforts to inveigle
or kidnap foreign sailors.
A part of the crew bf the
Italian frigates now in this port were hardly allowed
to laud, when they were pounced upon by the land
sharks, and smuggled away, Heaven knows where,
in spite of the efforts of their officers, of the Consul,
and of the local police
to track and rescue them.

Evening.

Particulars of the encounter at Chattanooga are
this moment published, but they contain no mate-
rial addition to th© above.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Saturday Evening.
The Dublin and Kingstown Steam Packet Com-
pany have come to the resolution of giving an im-
pulse to native manufactures, so far as they can
aid that depressed branch of industry, by ordering
a uew iron steamer for their line from Messrs.
Walpole and Webb, of this city. Shipbuilding is a
trade which the spirit of combination, still che-
rished unfortunately by the Irish artisan, helped to
drive out of Dublin ; and it is to be hoped that the (
efforts now being made to revive it, and to which
the Dublin and Kingstown Steam Company afford
such practical aid, will not be defeated by a mis-
chievous system, to combat which was amongst the
most useful of the labours of O'Connell; and so
tenaciously did the trades of Dublin cling to the
delusion that combination, which was the bane of
their well-being, was the prop and guardian of
their interests, that the great agitator, at the very
time that they almost adored him as something
superhuman, used to require a guard of police to
protect him from their fury on his way home from
meetings at which he had sought to convince
them of the fatal errors of their combination policy.