The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-15 00:00:00

Letter from the Southern States.

We have received a letter, dated Wilmington,
September 11, from which we make the following
extracts :
" Railway transportation is exceedingly difficult
to procure, the roads and rolling stock are in a
most miserable condition, the greatest speed attain-
able is 14 or 15 miles an hour, and the filthy state
of thase cars set aside for passengers is perfectly
distressing to our sense of order. How I sigh for
the luxury of even a second-class carriage in one of
our English railroads, and to travel at the rate of
30 or 40 miles per hour, free from any apprehension
of approaching danger. Here the case is very
different; an ordinary individual like myself is
kept in one continued fever of excitement, caused
by breaking axles, running off tracks, and inse-
cure trestle work. And then as to the oasis for
travellers, the fond-houses (I can't designate
them by the name of refreshment-rooms). I
believe the name they generally go by here
are "snack-houses." My only injunction to the
unsuspicious is never to be tempted to taste a viand
but that which is in some recognisable form.
" I have now been in the Confederacy some
months, and have had ample opportunity of form-
ing an estimate of these devoted people; and the
more I see of them the more fully persuaded am I
that the object for which they are heroically strug-
gling will eventually decide itself in their favour.
The difficulties and disadvantages under which they
labour no one, except those who have witnessed it,
can form the faintest idea of. You read and hear a
great deal about the subject, but in order to arrive
at anything like an opinion you must be amongst
and converse with them. On one thing are they
united—a unison which no private or political vari-
ance can ever mar ; and that is, a thorough and
implacable hatred to the Yankee, which will take
ages, if ever, to bury all trace of.
" I heard an instance of the humanity of these
same Christianising Abolitionists the other day,
in Charleston, from the lips of one of the niggers
captured during the assault on battery Wagner, on
the 18th July. When the regiment to which he
belonged was ordered to advance and storm the
works, the men faltered, which the commanding
general observed. At the conclusion of an exhor-
tation that they would conduct themselves as became
men with the free African blood coursing in their
veins, as a parting piece of information he said,
' Remember there are 5,000 bayonets behind you.'
The judicious motive of that arrangement elicited
the encomiums of the people of Charleston at the
time; for, as they observed, a nigger serves to stop
a bullet as well as any white man. The recent re-
verses which the Confederates have sustained has
brought some of the noblest traits in their character
into view. Simultaneous with the fall of Vicksburg
came the news of the defeat of Lee's plans in Penn•
Sylvania, and a threatened attack on the port of
Charleston ; but instead of deponding, the people
are as buoyant as ever, and as fully determined to
seal with their blood, if necessary, their devotion to
the cause."—Manchester Guardian.

EXETER HALL.—The National Choral Society
announce the commencement of their new season,
on Wednesday, Nov. 25, when Handol's Oratorio, "Judas
Maccabmus," will be performed with a band and chorus of
700. Mr. Sims Reeves has been engaged for the ten sub-
scription concerts to be given by this society, during the
forthcoming season. Mr. Santley will also sing in" Judas
Maccabseus." Conductor Mr. G. W. Martin.
STEALING MONEY. CURIOUS CHARGE OF
FELONY,—Yesterday, at Manchester, a respect-
ably dressed woman, named Mary Knowles, residing at
Bolton, was charged with stealing a purse containing 12,
from Mary Henson. The prosecutrix stated that about
three weeks ago the prisoner came to her shop, at Gerald-
street, Pendleton, and produced a grocer's pass-book, and
asked if it was hers. She replied that it was not, but that
she would be more likely to find an owner for it than the
prisoner, and she then left it with her. The prisoner
asked if she would make a cup of tea for her and a friend,
who, it was subsequently found, was her eon. The prosecu-
trix said that she did not generally make tea for strangers.
but would do so to oblige her. They had tea, and after re-
maining some time they left. After the prisoner and her
son were gone, the prosecutrix missed her purse, which she
believed she had in her pocket, and immediately instituted
inquiries respecting the prisoner. ller reside
hnce was
iascer-
tained, and a police constable apprehended er. She mme-
diately produced a puree, hich she gave to the police con-
stable, and which contained a sum of money of the same
amount as that which the prosecutrix had missed. She
said that after leaving the proaccutrix's house she found,
on arriving at the railway station, sho had another purse
besides her own in her pocket, and she did not know
to whom it belonged.—The prisoner stated that she
was a rag dealer at Bolton, and her husband, who was a
mechanic, had been in his present situation 14 years. Her
son was also a mechanic, filling a respectable situation.
She came to Manchester to make some purchases, and in
the course of the day she visited 20 or 30 shops. When
she got to the railway station she found a second purse,
which was very like her own, in her pocket, and not know-
ing from what shop she had taken it in mistake, she kept
the purse and its contents unbroken until sense inquiry
should be made about it. When she came to Manchester
she was provided with £lO, and therefore she did not want
money. Mr. Trafford said he did not believe that a purse
could have walked from one person's pocket to another
without fingers, and he should, therefore commit the pri-
soner for trial,