The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-20 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This morning
This day at Two o'clock 63

Barometer-29.15.
Wind—N.-Westerly; moderate, and cloudy.

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LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1863.

The Montgomeryshire election will take many by
surprise. The electric telegraph this morning
brings the final close of the poll, leaving Mr.
TRACY with a majority of 109, and this in spite of
the time-honoured influence and associations of the
great Conservative families of Montgomery. There
will be rejoicing, and not without reason, in the
Liberal camp; while among the ranks of the Op •
position the prominent feeling, we doubt not, will
be one general sentiment of unmitigated sur-
prise. So many recent elections had prospered
with them, that, after the successful issue at Ponte-
fract the other day, they were beginning to feel
tolerably secure at the polling-booths, and to con-
sider a contested election, especially in certain dis-
tricts, merely as a matter of form—a necessary con-
cession to the exigencies of party. They begin to
find now that they are reckoning without their host.
Many unexpected triumphs have, it is true, during
these latter months fallen to the share of the Con-
servatives, occasioned, in some instances, by a very
culpable neglect on the part of their opponents,
and occasioned very considerably also by a
general disappointment among Liberal elec-
tors at the non •fulfilment of their pledges
and promises on the part of Liberal Representatives
and Liberal Governments. Great as these defalca-
tions have been and well-deserving of some natural
retribution, the Liberals of the United Kingdom,
disappointed and disheartened though they may be,
are not disposed to play entirely into the enemy's
hands. There is still enough vitality left in the
Liberal cause—enough to scatter dismay among
the opposite ranks, if only a fitting occasion presents
itself. As an evidence of this vitality, an
evidence perceptible and tangible to all, witness
this unmistakeable triumph at Montgomery ! Here
in an old Tory stronghold, upheld by aristocratic
influences and political associations of long standing,
in the very midst of the enemy's camp, yet a Liberal
has there won the day, and by a large majority !
Take heart, then, disappointed electors of Pontefract,
and moderate your jubilations, antagonists of reform!
The men of Montgomery lave read you all a lesson.
They have set an example to their fello w-Liberals
of England, one that will not be without its effect
in coming days. The names of TRACY and Mont-
gomery will be worth a hundred votes at every
new and impending election. And while Liberal
electors are heartened on by this example, by this
new proof of the vigour and animus of Liberalism,
the chiefs of that party, the popular representatives
of that party, men chosen by Liberal electors to
carry out, and not merely to cavil about, Liberal
principles and Reform, should take the encouraging
•ntample to heart individually. Let them ask them

selves, until how long the popular patience w:

tamely suffer itself to be abused, as it has been
during these recent years, by the so-called cham-
pions and advocates of popular privileges. Let
them be warned in time. The same determined
spirit, not dead but dormant, that has yesterday
placed a Liberal in the place of a Conservative, at

Iklontgomery, will, to-morrow, if need be, place
some real Reformers and true Friends of the People
in the place of some of those Time-servers who now
bear and desecrate their name.

It is difficult for the casual observer to realise the
amount of work that must be done before the ap-
pliances of civilisation are fully brought to bear on
a wild uncultivated land; and before those dis-
coveries and improvements which modern skill and
science have made common among us are practically
applied in a rude and untried country. We look
around us and see an ample supply of water com-
munication, a perfect network of railroads, and have
at Our fingers' ends maps, charts, and directories for
°Y and every spot in the United Kingdom. Pro-
fiting by these advantages, we are apt to forget the
81°w and tedious steps by which they were gained,
and many readers will probably be startled when
they hear
of a survey going on for sixty years, and
stilt incompletel
Yet, when we remember the vast
extent of British India, and the numerous obstacles
and dangers in the way
of the surveyors, as well as
the cautious and dilatory fashion in which every
official undertaking is carried on, we shall not,
perhaps, be very much
surprised at the result.
The task of surveying demands men of skill,
science, and energy. None but Europeans can be
suffered to take charge of Such
an expedition, and
they have to encounter the dangers of hostile
tribes, the extremes of temperature, the ilifficulties
of traversing the country, and co
untless other
impediments. No less than three surveys are be-
ing carried on. simultaneously —the Trigonome-
trical,
the Revenue, and the Topographical
--at a
total expenditure of nearly £170,000 per annum
The Trigonometrical Survey, which is the chief
undertaking, has been in action since the commence_
merit of the century. It began at Cape Comorin,
and thence proceeded up the Himalayas, the alti-
tudes of which cif: Jed not the least formidable of
the obstacles to the task. Captain MONTGOMERIE
and his party succeeded, two years since, in
satisfactot ily competing the Topographical survey
of more than 12,000 square miles, a great part of
which was on the mountain tops. In some parts
the stations were 17,000 ft. high, and the highes

altitude ever gained as a point for observations
was reached, when on one occasion they were
made at a height of 20,000 ft. In these lofty ranges,
the largest glaciers yet found south of the Arctic Seas
were met. We hear of one glacier measuring 36
miles, and a junction of two forming a mass of foe
64 miles in length. The wonderful art of the

pmstographer was called on to picture these mar-
vels k•t' nature, and Amid tie Allence and Stillness of

President Davrs's address, recently issued,
appears to be spirited and yet moderate in its
tone. He says that the enemy continue a struggle
in which " our final triumph" must be inevitable.
This has long been the opinion of many lookers-on
of the struggle, but circumstances have lately
damped the hopes and darkened the expectations
of those who fancied that the end of that struggle
was near. President Davis does not deny the
adverse aspect of affairs at present, but confidently
declares his conviction of a speedy adjustment of
their difficulties, and a happy termination to their
long and arduous endeavours. " The enemy," he
observes, "elated with recent success, imagine that
temporary reverses can quell your spirit or shake
your determination. In pursuance of this idea, im-
mense masses are being collected, and thus success
is sought for by desperate plans." President DAVIS
eloquently expatiates on the full meaning of that
term. The enemy's meaning, he declares, is nothing
less " than the extermination of yourselves, your
wives, and children—to destroy what he cannot
plunder, to parcel out our homes as the spoils of
victory, to incite serNile insurrection." This is
certainly a sad picture to sketch of a war carried on
by civilised nations, but experience has proved that
it is only too true in its delineation, and that, dark
as the description may be, the reality might be even
far worse. In truth, it would be difficult to say
to what lengths a Federal army might not go it
they were excited by triumph, and desperate, to
prove that they had the power to act as they
pleased. In another passage further on, President
DAVIS alludes to the disingenuousness of the con-
duct pursued by the Federals in their declining to
enter upon any terms, or even to consider the pro-
priety of so doing. " Conscious of their inability
to prevail by legitimate means, end not daring to
make peace lest they should be hurled from power,
the men now ruling in Washington refuse
even to confer on the subject of ending outrages
disgracing the age, or listen to any suggestion for
conducting the war according to civilised usages."
That such a statement should be made, and such a
charge preferred against, a State calling itself civil-
ised is a great disgrace, and as such it will be con-
sidered by all excepting themselves. The actions
that will not bear inspection, the policy that can-
not bear the light of day, and the men who refuse
to act according to the recognised rules of honour
among combatants, are unworthy of belonging to a
people that once was so distinguished for great
qualities. The fact is that the Federal Government
is fast losing its hold, and the good opinion of those
who were once its firm adherents, and its warm
supporters. Mistakes may occur in the rule and
management of a State, and misrepresentations
be nude to a very considerable extent, but yet both
sides may "agree to differ," as it were, and carry
on their contention in an honourable style ; but the
war in America has been characterised from the
outset by a series of deliberate and desperate out•
rages on the part of the Federals. It is, therefore,
not the language of exaggeration that the President
of the Southern States adopts when he stigma•
tiaes the ruling spirit of their opponents, and
denounces the whole tenour of their actions as
unworthy of a civilised race. Often in these ad-
dresses and proclamations it is necessary to make
allowances for the excitement under which the orator
labours, and to take for granted that at least half
of the matter set before us is composed for a purpose
but in this instance it is not so, President DAVIS
is borne out by facts in all he says, hints at, and
infers. He concludes by strongly impressing upon
his hearers the necessity of self-reliance and sted-
fastness. "No alternative is left you but victory
or subjugation, and the 'utter ruin of your-
selves, your families, and your country. Vic-
tory is within your grasp ; you need but
stretch forth your hands to seize it." It would
have
been difficult to find words at ()Pee so stirring
and so impressive. He shows the danger to be

avoided, and exhorts them to use the only means of

ayertijag a downfall from whioil t4are will be no