The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-03 00:00:00

THE STATE OF THE NATION.

The frightful and unavailing sacrifice of the 10.000 heroic
Union soldiers cut down in front of the rebel redoubts
masked batteries, intrenchments, stone walls, and rifle pits
along the heights of Fredericksburg is universally regarded
as the mo=t dreadful and ominous disaster of the war. It
has shocked the public mind of the North to a state of dig.-
appointment, anguish, despair, and indignation which will
not be satisfied with explanations or apologies. It looks to
President Lincoln for redress, in a sweeping work of reform
and reconstruction. A great crime has been committed in
this Fredericksburg butchery, and a groat blunder worso
than the crime, for which a vigilant and intelligent people
cannot be mistaken in fixing the responsibility. This de-
plorable disaster, however, seems to be but the principal
item of a series of misadventures attending this " anaconda"
campaign of the War office. On the very day on which
our gallant troops were repulsed from the rebel works on
on the hills of Fredericksburg a Federal column (according
to a despatch from the rebel General Evans to Richmond)
of 15,000 men, under Gen. Foster, was repulsed at King-
ston, North Carolina, and driven back to the shelter of the
nine supporting gunboats. To the northward a Federal
column from Suffolk, a few days ago, moving towards Peters-
burg, 10,000 strong, was repulsed at the Blackwater river.
These expeditions were intended to cut certain important
rebel railroad arteries in connection with Gen, Burnside's
advance, and like it they appear to have been arrested in
the very first encounter with the enemy. To make the mat-
ter still worse, it appears that the promise of Jeff. Davis, on
his recent visit to Tennessee—that he intended to recover
that State—was no idle bit of bravado, but a promise which
he will make a bold effort to redeem. His plan, as we un-
derstand it is first to ascertain if 50,000 men can be spared for
a month or two from the rebel army of Virginia ; and, if
they can be spared, his purpose is to send them to Gen. Joe
Johnston, to advance upon Nashville, with the hope of de-
feating the army of Gen. Rosencrans, and of capturing the
important city he is guarding and its immense stores of
munitions of war and other army supplies. Let Gen. Burn-
side go into winter quarters, and we may next hear of the
loss of Nashville; let him continue in front of Fredericks-
burg, and Lee may still consider himself, behind his pro-
tecting intrenchments, strong enough to spare 50,000 men.
for Tennessee. What, then, is the obvious line of policy
suggested to the Government? Is it the policy of sending
little twopenny exploring expeditions here and there by way
of military diversions, which only excite the contempt of
the enemy, while we aro attempting the very thing which
they most desire in advancing-on Richmond byway of Frede-
ricksburg ? Evidently this programme will not do. Is Gen.
Burnside, then, to go into winter quarters, and allow the
rebels to appropriate two or three months in strengthening
their barricades along every line of approach ? We hope
not. What, then, are we to do ? Advance upon Richmond
by way of James River. Suppose it is fortified on both
banks, for the whole 26 miles from the city down to Harri-
son's Landing ; we command the river to that point by our
gunboats, and against rebel forts we can throw up Union
earthworks, and being 20 pieces of artillery to bear against
every gun of the enemy in our front. Have the rebels an
inexhaustible supply of gunpowder ? Has that question
never been suggested to the wise heads of the "War-office ?
We think it has become abundantly manifest, however,
that we have nothing to expect from the present radical and
blundering managers of this war in the Cabinet and in Con-
gress ; nothing better than great disasters and exhausting
defeats in exchange for small successes in unimportant loca-
lities. A concentration of the forces of Banks, Foster, and
Dix on the James River, with an accompanying fleet of
gunboats as a diversion in support of General Burnside,
would surely have prevented this late terrible disaster to
the finest army ever mustered on this Continent. As it is,
the country has lost all hope of a successful issue to this war
under the disorganising and demoralising influence which
have brought only disaster and disgrace upon every effort
made to reach the rebel capital. Is the nation to be saved
or lost ? That is the question which is now thrust upon
President Lincoln from every side. If he would revive the
hopes of the people in the success of their great cause, and
their confidence in his administration he has only one course
to pursue. He must reconstruct his Cabinet, reorganise his
whole system of military operations, discard the destructive
abolition malignants that surround him, and, abandoning its
unimportant extremities for a season, strike at the heart of
the rebellion.—New York _Herald.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

,P-

EXETER—JAN. 2.
Wheat very firm, at the following prices :
Wheat, white.. 6s 6d to 6s 9d I Barley.. 4s 3d to 4s 9d
Ditto red 6s 3d to 6s 6d Oats .........2s 9d to 3s Od
Flour, fine, 36s to 37s ; seconds, 34s to 35s per sack.