The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-13 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This morning
This day at Two o'clock .. .. 78

Barometer-30.02.
Wind—E. ; light, and fine.

ult.
jor±m. 0,5 root.,

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1863.

The more closely these more recent events of the
American war come to be looked into, the less
apparent becomes the reason for the sudden exulta-
tion of the Federal multitude headed by their
President. Vicksburg has fallen it is true.
JOHNUTONE has retreated. LEE has withdrawn his
army from Maryland back again across the Poto-
mac. The Confederate Commander-in-Chief bas
retired indeed still further southward, having
passed through one of the convenient gaps of the
Blue Ridge on his road towards Culpepper, where,
assuming a purely defensive position, he finds the
enemy confronting him, though at a respectful dis-
tance enough. MEADE'S army of the Potomac
having returned to the old position held by them
(some timebefore MEADE assumed the chief command
with such exemplary diffidence) on the line of the
Rappahannock. Granted all this, however, the
result above specified still remains behind, now
that we begin to look through all the hazy
vapouring of the Northerners, that, as Pro-
fessor LONGFELLOW has it, "things are not
what they seem," or at any rate not precisely what
they seemed only as it were but yesterday. General
JOHNSTONE has retreated, but—he has not been
routed. His forces are not victors—but at the very
least they are not dispersed, being, on the contrary,
held admirably well together. Again, General
GRANT'S successful troops—described so very
recently as outnumbering their antagonists almost
overwhelmingly—turn out, in point of numbers, to
have been very considerably exaggerated. And
since this revision of the Federal statements as to
the relative strength of the forces respectively, at
this juncture, under the banners of GRANT and of
JOHNSTONE, it has been shrewdly calculated that
the predominance numerically must before much
longer, in the regular course of events, turn rather
in favour of the Con federate Commander. The antici-
pation, here, resting principally, it should be remem-
bered, upon the all but certainty, as we may call it,
of JOIIN STONE'S at present inadequate force being
nearly doubled by the simple exchange of the
Vicksburg garrison, now upon parole. A judicious
correspondent of one of our contemporaries main-
taining the probability of this " doubling-up" (in a
totally different sense from that intended co
recently by the Federals), this actual doubling-up
of the Confederate force under JOHNSTONE, by
reason simply of the circumstance of there being,
as the writer opportunely remarks, " a very large
number of prisoners due to the South on account."
Hence, because of these arrears alone in the striking
of the balance, this same anticipated doubling-up
of the Confederates under JOHNSTONE in the
country of the Mississippi.
Westward of that river still remain fully
thirty thousand of the Confederate forces
in arms—biding their time, perpetually on the
alert for their [next opportunity, waiting
for the close of the last deleterious warmth
of the season, waiting for the recruits certain not
to be waited for in vain. Whatever yet has oc-
curred in these recent transactions disadvantage-
ously for the Confederates—Sumter has not fallen,
neither has Savannah, nor yet, again,has Charleston
Charleston was to have fallen for a dead certainty,

and yet Charleston still obdurately holds out. Be-
sides which, turning from isolated positions to the
situation and condition of the main army of the
South under their redoubtable Chief, General LEE

—we hardly know in what terms sufficiently igno,

minions were to be described the most fitly the situa•
tion into which the Confederate Commander-in•

Chief bad been driven, and the condition to which

his main army had been redgced. Both of these

gigantic advantages being due, of cdurse,to Northern
Prowess, directed by the consummate generalship of
the new Federal Commander-in-Chief, General
MEADF,--at last, as head of the Northern
"111, that almost despaired-of desideratum, " the
gilt man in the right place." The demoralisation of
l'U'B forces, the utter discomfiture and craven flight
of that
boasted Captain of the South, were words
feebly exi,reaa.
quently to thoTg the actual state of things subse-
and the subsecq ent
ose of the great battle of Gettysburg,
hasty re-crossing of the Foto-
rote by the defeved
and almost routed Confede-
rates- This--ocoo`
tditig to the Northern flourish of
trumpets, audible onitoo
so preela teauo
so to speak,
tplainly upon the morrow,
serenade Facts, those LINCOLN'S rididiculous
afterwards Y stubborn things,
la rribl
however, showed soon
New York narratives had hte that again the
o of 4
grossly than ever, exaggemter
081Y7 even more
LEE'S
defeat at Gettysburg was it appearls 8 General
feat after all, that it turns out aide-
Ply to have been
(contrary to custom with him it iatrue)—NOvictory.
Flight there was none. Rout, as appliedto anY Porti n
o
of his valiant army, were a phrase simply ri -
diculous.
So fa from any thing whatever of that kind having
occurred, in relation to the Confederate troops under

LEE, those troops, we know now for an absolute
certainty, have been withdrawn• by their com-
mander quite deliberately, quite calmly, without
haste, or opposition of any kind, taking with them
not only the whole of the ♦ery considerable sup-
plies seized by them while in Maryland, but carry-
ing off scot-free in their train as many as fifty
pieces of the Federal artillery, captured by them
while on the other side of the Potomac !
Meantime, there is one circumstance related about
the Federate, in regard to their most recent pro-
ceedings in the conduct of this deplorable war,
there is one circumstance so novel and so
cruel of its kind, as to be (we cannot but call it)
nothing less than a most dastardly innovation. A
circumstance, it is, moreover, that has already'

twice of late called for words, of the sternest re-

probation. These remarks having reference to the
rominent pi:44ton is w Bich the negro regitnentg

were placed in the assaults made respectively by t le
Federal forces, now upon Fort Wagner, now upc in
Port Hudson. The unfortunate blacks being obvi-
ously placed in that conspicuous position, in both tho se
assaults, simply for the purpose, it would seem, of
distracting the attention of the foe from the advaric-
ing troops of the North, and of concentrating upon,
the tint appy negroes the fire of the beleagurf .;c1
garrisons! As the correspondent already alluded to,
signing himself S. in the columns of our principal
contemporary, scornfully remarks, "It is comet hing
new, in an ago like this, to drive white AME rican
conscripts at the bayonet's point to the work of
invading and destroying their fellow-caun'tly men
but, beyond this, it will remain an indelible brand
on the future history of the Northerners that they
could not fight a people of less than a fourth of
of their own numbers withon: getting negroes to
help them." Remembering what the apologists of
the North effect to regard as the origin of this
miserable war, the course thus pursued by the
North in these two most disgraceful incidents, is
one not an iota lees contemptible of its kind than if
the Yankee warriors were upon each occasion
fighting behind the shelter of so many petticoats.

If a too active and officious Gove:::
evils, as we are all ready to admit, euntothatso itsbe
questioned that there are very
serious
attending an Administration that i drawbacks
attending activenot
en to have trade and
maonuegfha.ctulret
harassedisvery no
abnyyi
constanteg inspection, and
restricted by meddlesc laws ; to be unable to
to
pass from one town eanother without wasting
the habit o I
precious hours at the bureaus
so m
of ienedhiffienrent officials;
in England a
andtru we
eg
to private enterprise, and of watching with
jealousathoriy„ that t eyeaati3 we no ,v assumption of Government
authority, e seldom complain that our con-
stitutional authorities are doing too little; or, if we
do, we are very ready to accept the usual stereotyped
reply that it is not desirable for Government to
interfere. But there are cases in which King LoG
is nearly as bad as King STORK, especially if King
LOG refuses to let other people do his work. India
may place defective legislation in the very first rank
of her national drawbacks, and the hopeless view
which so many of her statesmen persist in taking
of her capabilities and prospects has helped much to
retard their development. It is better to be too
sanguine of the fortunes of a nation than not san-
guine enough. In the one case every chance will
be given to the national fortunes, in the other the
gifts of nature are neglected and left unused. The
recent AddressZdelivered by Sir ARTHUR COTTON
to the Celcutta Chamber, shows very clearly how
muck this been the case in our vast East Indian pos-
sessions. The subject of the eminent engineer's
discourse was the connection of irrigation and
navigation with the finances of India, and his re-
velations of the perverse indifference of the Govern-
ment to so wonderful a source of health, plenty,
and capital is really marvellous. The facts he
states are uncontroverted ; the arguments he draws
from them are clear and logical; the evidence
which supports his views is open to any one's in-
spection, yet year after year the land is left waste,
alternately parched with drought and submerged
by floods, while fever, sickness, and famine prey
upon a population who might be living in health
and plenty on the produce of the land were it once
properly drained and irrigated. Some years ago
Sir ARTHUR COTTON was despatched to visit the
provinces of Cuttack and Pooree, that were endan-
gered. by the changes taking place in the great
rivers ; and having seen in Madras how cheaply
and easily districts liable to the double catastrophes
of flood and drought can be raised to proportionate
prosperity and comfort, he drew up a comparison
between Cuttack and Tanjore, showing, he says,
" the comparative results of grievous neglect and
moderate care." His report was of course tossed
aside, disregarded, or, as he says, with well-merited
satire, " The report of a man who was writing the
results of nearly forty years' practical experience,
and who supported his propositions by confirmed
results over a vast extent of country, was submitted
for the decision of a gentleman not quite oldenough
to be his son, who had never seen a weir or an im-
proved delta." Another report on the state of
the country between the Hooghly and the
Ganges was treated in a similar manner,
and the City of Palaces has been left to
suffer the ills of bad water, delayed communication,
and a fever-stricken neighbourhood. The scheme
which Sir ARTHUR COTTON proposes by which to
regulate the flow of the mighty Indian rivers is a
very simple and comparatively inexpensive one ; it
is, too, one which Nature herself is the first to faci-
litate. He proposes to construct large tanks in tha
upper basins of several rivers in which he has
reason to believe he can store any quantity of water
at a very trifling cost ; and it is important to re-
member that such tanks answer a double purpose by
supplying water in time of need and in diminishing
the floods in the country below. Those unfamiliar
with the subject are apt, says the engineer, to
suppose that works of great extent are needed to
control floods. But it is generally only the last pool
or two that does the mischief, and a flocd seldom
lasts more than a few hours at its height ; so that
a comparatively small body of water detained for a
time will divest it of its dangers. The materials for
the works are ready to our hand. The Soane alone
has water enough for a million acres in the
dry season, besides supplies from other rivers.
The money that is laid out in providing
for the passage of heavy floods through bridges in
the low country, might, says Sir ARTHUR COTTON
very justly, have been more effectually and satisfac-
torily spent in preventing the floods by storing the
water in the upper country, so that India at this mo

ment might have had large stores of Nvaterin the upper
basins of every great river, while in the dry season

a fresh and plentiful supply of one of the first ne

cessaries of life woala have been flowing through
the plains now parched and arid, while the demon

of fever would no longer find a potent agent in the

stagnant pools, from which the people are compelled
to drink, and all this without any additional ont-

[ay ! The greater part of India affords remarkable

'acilities for such a scheme in the natural basins

which only require small gorges to b© closed to con

nect them into vast water tanks. As a proof of the
comparative expense of the method proposed and
that now followed, we are told that water can be
thus stored at the rate of about half a rupee
for one thousand cubic yards ; while at
.tiliainacupbricopyearrtdiess.
present it is raised from wells in the dry
1,000 , at. a cost of from two to five rupees per
The difference between the fer-
already percolated thet earth must be well known
of fresh water, and that which has
to every agricaituris
aeltlfurnit:nhea plains south of the
thaenSgeosactie aislifnoeuncdante.hl
Allahabad, a distance of 1.:
led
adnanra
at thrown nleavcorlotsos
soutl:ltehup
for the supply of water to the miles,
thus providing
plain
west
of
the Ganges.
the mouth of the Soane and
he
almost
The profits resulting from such a chal)fgbey
incredible, but can be easily believed
have witnessed the disastrous effects of a .. odsrey:/:
son." As a proof of the value of water in India,
we learn that a gentleman had a piece of land Which
be let at six annas an acre; he dug a well thirty
Let deep, when he let the came land at six rupees ,

au acre. The Sway project is iateudc4 to irrig 4t;

two millions and a Quarter of acres, and to
bring a plentiful supply of water to Calcutta,
which by the provision of the necessary water power
Will be raised to the highest biddings. Tbis will
a.dd but little to the expense as a supplement to the
original scheme, while its advantages to Calcutta
will be incalculable. The Oade project is still
larger and less expensive from the nature of the
country. The engineers calculate that they can
readily supply eight millions of acres in this pro-
vince, so that the whole area from Rohilcund to
the Ganges and the North-Western districts of
Bengal can be irrigated and their produce brought
down to Calcutta for =port to the foreign markets
—a result equally encouraging to British enterprise
and native industry. We are not surprised from
Sir CHARLES WOOD'S general policy that while the
local authorities encourage the scheme, the Govern-
ment have as yet done absolutely nothing with these
startling facts before their eyes. The accouats
leave the subject out altogether, though their reve-
lations might convince the most sceptical. Such
perversity and inaction have been the bane of India.
old Vfi
eh:
uypr s
ph
ooNsusoleds
colonysoion ne s obf
ept he
oepl
laerdg governede
bs
yt
aacnc
Englishmen
r md i onsgt
to
would
importantree uj lud-
have submitted to such a rule, but advantage is
taken of native ignorance and indolence. Such con-
duct is the more extraordinary from its financial
effects. Sir ARTHUR COTTON, in his able and in-
teresting address, to which we shall return at an
early oppportunity, gives what may be called a
Budget of the irrigation expenditure and profit
whose," unanswerable logic of facts" does not refiec
very creditably on the India office or the Calcut
authorities.

According to all accounts affairs are progressing
most satisfactorily regarding the Congress at Frank-
fort, which is fixed to take place on the 16th of
this month. The Emperor of AUSTRIA has worked
wonders so far, and it is to be hoped that he will
go on prospering in his good work, and by uniting
divers interests and joining severed links in unity,
be may succeed in his grand design and realiee his
noble project of rehabilitating the state of Germany.
Of course there have been some contretemps to en-
counter, and some difficulties that would not be
surmounted, but that is to be expected in the
natural order of things when an important national
undertaking is set on foot, and where so many
rivalries and jealousies are perforce awakened. The
King of PRUSSIA has evidently aspired to the
honour of becoming the Marplot on this grand
decisisn, and is determined that if any progress is
made no one shall say thuc it is his fault, or that he
had any share in the plot or plan. The interview
between the Sovereigns at Gastein, from which
event so much was expected to accrue, and of
which so many beneficial results were predicted,
seems to have been a failure. Count BISMARK is
certainly King WILLIAm's evil genius, he haunts
him like a shadow, and is ever on the spot to do
away with any good impressions made by others
and to insinuate his own views in contradistinction
to the opinions of new and better advisers. The
EMPEROR, it is said, invited the KING personally
to attend the Congress. This circumstance
certainly renders the refusal the more
ungracious, and gives a more marked charac-
ter to the already too significant denial. Of course
in a verbal explanation so much mere could be said
and treated of than in a stiff and formal dispatch, and
therefore it can be from no lack of comprehension
regarding the object and intentions of the EMPEROR
that the unwise and unexpected denial was uttered.
The excuse given for the KING'S absence is most
absurd, and of course M. BISMARK figures promi-
nently as the cause. He, it is said, desires the Mi-
nisters to have a conference before the Sovereigns
do so. If the object of this unexpected alteration in
the programme be to preclude the Prussian Minister
from using any power or exercising any influence
in the deliberations that take place, and the plans
that are resolved upon, certainly the resolution to
decline the invitation is a wise one, and likely to
prove conducive to happy results. It is to be pre-
sumed that the enlightened statesman whom some
doubtless consider as a heaven-born minister pri-
vileged to make or mar the fortunes of States, and
the arbiter to rule the destinies of princes, is highly
indignant at the want of respect and reverence
which has been shown to his demands, and the
ignoring of his request by other Powers. .hut
Cesar act Nail is his motto, and since he may not
bring his skill to their counsels, and exercise his
eloquence to rule their actions, he will have nothing
to do with the affair, and uses his potent in-
fluence to bring his master to a wrong de-
cision, and thus an adverse course adopted.
It is very shortsighted, too, on the part of the KING
and his Minister not to, see the grand chance they
are throwing away so recklessly, and the glorious
opportunity that may not occur again speedily, and
perhaps never in their lifetime. If Prussia now
draws back from this conference of nations she
will lose a place she may never afterwards regain,
and forfeit the chance of giving advice and impart-
ing influence on momentous occasions. It is stated
by the Nord Zeitung that they are in a position
to declare totally devoid of foundation the
report circulated that " the CROWN PRINCE had been

summoned to Gastein for the purpose of proceeding
on a mission to the Congress of German Princes to
be held at Frankfort." It is most probable that

the denial is true, for it is to be feared that the

King of PRUSSIA is not likely to choose his son as
his representative after the serious differences that

have taken place between them on the subject o

,he changes that have been made in the constitution
of Prussia. In reality there could not be a better
envoy than the PRINCE, who appears duly impressed
with the importance of free institutions, and, so far
as can be gathered from his remarks on various
occaeions, to entertain very correct notions re-
garding the maintenance of popular rights.
However, it is not very likely, for that
very reason, that the CROWN PRINCE
Will be selected as the representative of his country,
which had better not be represented at all if the
same misguided views and mischievous policy are
to rule and actuate her Statesmen and be firmly
upheld by her King. It is said that the Emperor
of AUSTRIA is not influenced by personal desires of
ambition, but is solely actuated by the desire to
benefit Germany. It is to be hoped that this is the
case; and certainly, so far, he has shown a spirit
of firmness and an enlightened policy that do him
infinite credit. His desire to improve the condition

of Germany is the more remarkable when so much

confusion reigns in the councils of tho surrounding

states, and in some places there are raging such

strife and anarchy. In Prussia, for instance, there
is an universal feeling of discontent now rife among

he people, and liable at any fresh provocation to

entail serious consequences. Poland is in a de.
plorable state ; and the present condition of Rua.

sian affairs is rife with discord, engaged as is the

Court of St. Petersburg in disputes with nearly all
the kingdoms of Europe. It is at this critical

uncture that the Emperor of AUSTRIA seeks to

renew
restore Germany to her pristine power. The
grandson of FRANCIS the Second endeavours to
tor resigned the Imperial crown of Rome. It i©
perial
gfh
reatness that has been decaying since his grand-
Borne of the advantages and to revive the
44tecl Ulu objcet proposed by the Conference