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
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 whict two men met instant death. In
consequence of the recent N.E. winds a rough sea has been
breaking upon our coastduring the past three or four days,
and this morning there was an awkward swell on the bar,
and, the recent heavy fals of rain having flooded the river,
a strong ebb tide was ruining 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. Abet': 7 o'clock this morning, the tide
being last quarter ebb, ind running down strong, Edward
Rogers and Joseph Bage, foyboatmen, proceeded down the
estuary of the Tyne in $ 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 Prices 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 then off the boat, and drowned them.
With the usual daring courage of Tyneside men, no sooner
was the accident seen from the shore than the William
Wake lifeboat was raanned and pulled out into the raging
sea. But the lifeboat was too late; the men had disap-
peared. Roger's bay 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 board, 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 ott 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 personified 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 hizhest 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 cheerfally
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 ha 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 ho
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 he 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 Hou3e 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-
. cranz 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 re-
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 set in a similar manner. His
resignation was doubtless under consideration, and,
for some reasons test 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,