The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-19 00:00:00

NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

The guerillas are becoming very daring in their
attacks on our unarmed transports. For some time
past they have confined themselves to musketry fir-
ing between Port Hudson and Natchez, but on Sa-
turday last they opened upon the Julia with three
pieces of artillery. She was on her way to New
Orleans, and about half-past 3 o'clock on Saturday
afternoon was passing Hole-in-the-Wall, 16 miles
above Natchez, when 15 or 16 men showed them-
selves on the bank of the river on the east side, one
commanding her to "halt." No notice was taken of
this, the Julia still continuing down the river, when
the party fell back behind some bushes, and the next
instant three cannon shots were fired. The channel
here makes a bend, and it was necessary for the
Julia to go much nearer shore, and as she passed in
front of the battery the pieces wore discharged again.
Fifteen shots in all were fired. The Julia was struck
five times. The first shell passed through the wheel-
house; the second that struck her was a solid shot. It
passed through two bullocks and two sacks of bran,
lodging in the third, which lay next the boiler. The
third shot struck the upper deck forward of the
wheelhouse, cutting a deep hole through it, and,
glancing, passed through a barrel, the guards
of the boat, companion way, two state rooms, the
clerk's office, and passed through the vessel on the
other side, falling into the river. In the state room
it entered (No. 39) the occupant had a hairbreadth
escape. Hearing the firing, he rushed into his
room and threw himself upon the berth. The shot
took the pillow from under his head, and passed
through the mattress, throwing him with some
force against the side of the partition which sepa-
rated his room from the vessel, but doing him no
injury whatever. The fourth passed through the
hatchway and lodged in the coal. It was a 201 b.
shell, and was taken from the coal entire. The fifth
shot struck the pitman, passed through it, and,
cutting a cow's ear off, passed out on the other side
of the boat. One shell burst about ten feet from
the bow, and another near the pantry. Four solid
shot which the rebels fired after the boat was out of
range fell harmlessly into the river. The Julia was
fired upon a few miles from this place on the oppo
site bank of the river, while making the up trip a ,
few days previous, about the same time the Atlantic
was fired into. Both vessels were struck several
times by the musket balls, and two or three persons
narrowly escaped being shot. Within the last two
weeks eight or ten vessels have been fired on.—
New York Herald.

" BERLIN FOR THE LAST 500 YEARS" is the title
of a new work by A. Strechfuss.

SIGNOR COSTA'S COMING ORATORIO is on the
story of Naaman.

COLLIERS' STRIKE AT WIGAN.—The men em-
ployed at one of the pits of the Kirkless Hall Coal
Company, near Wigan, have lately struck work, in conse-
quence of a proposal to reduce their wages and to alter
the mode in which they have been accustomed to send
the coal to the surface. According- to a state meat made
at a meeting of the men a few days ago, the reduction
amounts to 2s. per score, and in addition the men are re-
quired to separate the small coal from the round, an opera-
tion which, from the nature of the seam and the workings,
adds, so the men allege, 10 or 15 per cent. to their labour.
Against this the men have struck, and in their strike they
aro supported by the lately established Miners Sick and
Provident Benefit Society. The strike has caused a con-
siderable amount of ill-feeling amongst some of the colliers
towards the Company, the principal partner in which is Mr.
John Lancaster, of Hindley Hall, and on Friday, this found
vent in the following notice which was posted at Rose
Bridge, in the township of Ince :—" This is to certify to the
miners of John Lancaster and Samuel" his brother " too,
that he may make his will, for the pistol is loaded for John
and Samuel too."

THE GIANT BALLOON—A telegraphic despatch
from Paris, dated 635 p.m. yesterday, states Monsieur
Nadar made a most successful ascent in his
giant balloon at
five o'clock, from the Champ de Mars. The Emperor, the
King of Greece, and a vast crowd witnessed the ascent.
The Champ do Mars was kept by the military. Nine ladies
and gentlemen ascended in the balloon, but it first made a
short ascension with 32 persons." A further telegram,
this day, 12.30 p.m., says—" News arrived at half-past 8
last evening that Nadar was over Compiegne, 87
miles
I from Paris. He sent a message down, All goes well,'
and continued his journey towards the North, having de-
scended near the ground to speak." This monster balloon
will be exhibited next week at the Crystal Palace.
WING MAGNANIMITY!—Much dissatisfaction,
especially in legal circles, has been expressed at the
non •interment of Lord Lyndhurst in Westminster Abbey.
The grudges engendered in politics should surely not be
allowed to extend to the grave of any man. With a like
generosity of feeling the present Liberal Government have
taken good care that neither the twice Lord Mayor Cubitt,
nor yet the present Lord Mayor Rose, should bo raised to
the Baronetcy—even at the time of the Prince of Wales
attaining his majority. And this for the reason that both
Cubitt and Rose were Tories—and, therefore, under the
Whig Taboo, even like the inanimate body of Lord Lynd-
hurst now denied a grave in Westminster Abbey I
UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE.—At Tottenham the
excreta of 10,000 inhabitants are successfully deo-
dorised, and the residua sold for purposes of fertilisation.
Why should not a similar process be adopted for utilising
the sewage of all London ? So far as we know, there is no
system of sewage utilisation that has stood the test of time
so well as this. The works were erected in 1854, by Mr.
Thomas Taylor, and after a period of nearly 10 years, the
process is continued to the satisfaction of the inhabitants
and the local Board of Health, and to the complete absolu-
tion of the River Lea from the pollutions that once upon
s time rendered it such a nuisance, that the trustees of the
river threatened the Tottenham Board with legal proceed-
ings. We feel it necessary to repeat that we do n:,t care a
fig about lligg's patent, or Taylor's works, but we do care
about the purity of the Thames and the health of the in-
labitatits of London,--city Pro:.

This was an application for release from custody. The
bankrupt was a married woman, but had been for many
years carrying on trade as a
.femme Hole, and on a former
application her releaso was refused, and an application was
made to Mr. Justice Byles, who refused to interfere, on the
ground that, as sho had held herself out to the world as a
femme sole and a trader, she had rendered herself subject to
the bankruptcy laws, and must apply to this Court.
Mr. Bdzley contended that as the debt was contracted as
a femme sole, she could not now set up as against the cre-
ditors' claim that she was a married woman ; but taking it
as a fact that she was a married woman, she could not de-
clare herself bankrupt and obtain the advantages under
the Bankruptcy Law.
Mr. E. Reed contender' that the creditor was not in a
position to oppose on that ground, as he had taken his re-
medy against the bankrupt by action, and had obtained
judgment against her, and she was taken in execution.
Her troubles arose in consequence of her having given up
her premises and trade at Stangate, under an agreement
with Mr. Boucicault, but which had not been carried out,
as, out of £l,OOO, she only received £lOO ; bat the creditor
had only taken the bill in the belief that she would receive
the £9,000,

His Honour said ho did not seo that because the
creditor took his remedy at civil law he was precluded from
I taking advantage of the bankruptcy law.
Mr. Reed said that if the law clothed a person with lia-
bility it surely gave also a power of discharge, but if Mr.
Justice Byles refused to release her on the ground that she
had held herself out to the world as a trader, and his
Honour refused it on the ground that she was not entitled to
the benefit of the bankruptcy laws, she mast remain in
prison all her life, but in a similar case (Mary Smith) Mr.
Commissioner Fane held that as the law clothed the bank-
rupt with responsibility it also conferred ite advantages.
The case was ultimately adjourned for the bankrupt to
answer affidavits that she had represented herself to be a
widow, which she denied having done.

TEE EMPRESS EUGENIE.

The Reason for Rer Majesty's Mission into
Spain.

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, HALF-PAST 4 o'CLocK.

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(Fro;n the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, Oct. 6.

The siege of the defences of Charleston has re-
commenced. General ROSEIICTaIIZ is closely belea-
guered in Chattanooga, and the army of the Poto-
mac has been deprived of abDut half of its available
strength to reinforce him. In other quarters little
is doing ; but there is sufficient uncertainty with
restrict to the three points here indicated to keep
people's minds in feverish suspense, and to operate
unfavourably on the money-market. Charleston
gives the least anxiety. The belief is that if the
Federal army and navy cannot capture they can
destroy the city, and in the worse case they can
calve the siege and leave Charleston to itself for the
winter. General Meade's position inspires more
doubt. llis army has been depleted, in the hope
rather than in the certainty that General Lee had
Aufferecl a similar diminution for the reinforcement
of Generals Joseph Johnston and Bragg. If it
should turn out, however, that Lee is in as great
force as ever upon the Rapidan, he may seize the
opportunity to attack Meade and renew the old

alarm for the safety of Washington. As regards
Rosencranz, the public is every day informed with
a loud flourish of trumpets that his position is im-
pregnable ; that his army is in the best spirits ;
that the enemy dares not attack ; that everything is
going on better than could have been expected ;
and that he will infallibly gain a great victory in
a very few days. But the more the Govern.m. e.nt
protests the more the people disbelieve ; until the
impression is hourly gaining strength that Rosen-
cranz is in a position of imminent peril.
rela-
tions between France and the Federal
i he
Government,
arising out of the turn which events have taken
in Mexico, also cause considerable inquietude,
which not even the presence of the Russian fleet
in the harbour of New York, the departure of Mr.
Mason from London in disgust, and the alleged soli-
citude of the British Government to prevent the
sailing of the Confederate rams from the Mersey
and the Clyde are sufficient to alleviate.
Another cause for discomfort has been discovered
in the defencelessness of New York and Brooklyn
against a naval attack. The ordinary entrance to
the Bay of New York is by Sandy Hook, and
through the Narrows—the route which is taken by
the Cunard and Inman steamers, and ninety-nine
out of every hundred vessels that trade with the
port. This entrance is defended at the Narrows by
Forts Hamilton and Lafayette on the right, and by
Fort Tompkins, not yet completed or mounted with
artillery, upon the left. But there is another and
equally available entrance, by way of Long Island
sound, which is not defended at all, and through
which a hostile fleet can enter with the greatest
ease. "It was only the other day," says the New
London Star of the Ist inst., "that five Russian
men-of-war of the largest class, Bonze of them draw-
ing 27 feet of water, appeared off Montauk, steamed
through the narrow passage between Fisher's and
Gall's Islands, usually called the Race, went up the
Sound, and were quietly at anchor within shelling
distance of the city of New York before any one
was aware of their presence. Had these been the
fleet of an enemy instead of a friend, the cities
and towns on the seaboard of Connecticut and
New York city itself might have been laid in
ashes." It appears that the people of the city
of New London have long been urging upon the
Government the necessity of erecting strong
fortifications at the points indicated, but hitherto
without effect. Accustomed to deal with all
sorts of jobs and jobbers, the Administration
thought that nothing but a job of greater magni-
tude than usual was intended, and, as there was
no electioneering strength to be pined by favour-
ing it, the consideration of the matter was postponed
or pooh-poohed. Perhaps, however, the prospect
of a foreign war, which never since the secession of
South Carolina appeared so imminent as now, may
indace the Federal Government to look to this un-
fastened back door before the steed be stolen.
The official organs of the Government have been
instructed to contradict the report that the failjre
of the last draught to produce soldiers—although it
produced abundance of commutation money—has
impressed Mr. Lincoln and his secretaries with the
necessity of a second conscription, in which no com-
mutation shall be allowed. The statement, which
originated in one of those violent Abolitionist jour-
nals that, " with the best of motives," are doing
their best, or worst, to drive the country to destruc-
tion, is denounced from Washington as a malicious
invention. But, if there is to be no new draught,
how is the government to be carried on ; and how
is Mr. Lincoln to continue the war ? He has not,
by 500,000, as many men as are necessary to the
safe prosecution of the task before him; and as ne-
groes cannot be got in sufficient numbers—and
white men scarcely at all—there must either be a
break down that will surprise the world, some mira-
culous interposition of Providence, or some equally
miraculous succession of strokes of good luck by sea
and land to prevent the North from exhibiting a
Spectacle of helplessness such as has rarely been
witnessed among nations. But, perhaps, the secret
of the disclaimer is not so difficult to fathom as ft
appears. For the next five or six weeks the elections
of Governors or other high officials will be in pro-
gress in the Western States, as well as in New
York and Pennsylvania, and it may therefore not be
politic on the part of the Government to incur the
unpopularityof ordering a new draught until they
are concluded. ln all probability this is the true ex-
planation Of the denial. Doubtless, if Mr. Vallan-
dighen be defeated in Ohio, Judge Woodward in
eansylvania, and the Democrats generally in New
York, where there is no election for governor this
year, the Government will take heart and allow the
rumours of a new w
troubling its conscription to be revived without
elf to contradict them. Upon the tem-
per in which they shalt be received by the press and
public will depend the future action of Mr. Lincoln
and his black Republican advisers.
But it is not only the want of soldiers but of sailors
that begins to embarrass thelExecutive. N t
daily standing all the vaunts that are aa• °
made of the
indomitable navy of the Northeeeet:ieh with its re-
sistless ironclads and monitors is, i
a ov
ever
r ay
pr
with Groat Britain, to sweep the ocean of e
that carries a hostile flag, the Administration has
the greatest difficulty in procuring seamen in sem-
cien t numbers to send even a moderate fleeutrtoopsesa.
Perhaps, in case of actual war with any European
power, especially with Great Britain, that Whiachil
pewer,
might grow into an impossibility
is now a difficulty
Ireland and Germany have offered immense numbers
of volunteers and substitutes, and sonic few Con-
scripts,
to the army; but these resources would fail
the Federal Government in a naval war. Neither
the Irish nor the Germans make good sailors, or take
so naturally to a maritime as to a military life, and
the naval force of the United States is either com-
posed of native-born Americans, or of English-
men,N Scotchmen, and Norwegians. In what
proportion the foreign stands to the native element
is not clearly known, though it is surmised by
these who, from their position and opportunities,
Ought to know, that less than one-half of the able•
bodied seamen on board American merchantmen
or ships of war are natives
couetr do not
and citizens of the
Y. As Englishmen and Scotchmen
entertain that theological hatred against the British
Government whioh animates the Dish Roman
Catholics, and have been mainly induced to enter
the Federal
service by the high wages offered, it is
probable that in case of a
war with Great Britain
the patriotism of these men would prove greater
be left to fight their own and
that the Americans would
aid as the Scandinavians sea-
battles with such small
candinay.
might afford. However
this may be, the present need of sailors to man the
fleet is urgent ; and the Federal
seriously incommoded in Government is
theca efforts
tunr which it would
gladly make, if it could, tothe Floridas and
Alabamas, which so disturbveieequanimity of the
mercantile community. It hi g been represented
to the Naval Department that considerable numbers
of willing recruits for the navy could
inducements
eprocured
among the Cape cod fishermen if proper
were held out to them at the close a the fiehing
season, the frigate Sabine, under the command
of
Commodore Ringgold, was despatched to the coast,
and arrived at Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the
Bth of September. The Commodore made known
bis mission to the seafaring population, and offered
such terms of pay, bounty, and chance of prize.

money as were thought sufficiently attractive. Ves-
sels from the cod fisheries arrived daily at Province-
town, but not a sailor volunteered to serve. The
Commodore remained a fortnight on the station,
with the same unsacccss ; and it is new reported
that the Sabine will have to be laid up for the win-
ter for want of men. No consideratises of the un-
popularity of the commander can be brought to
explain the failure, for Commodore Ringgold is not
only a good seaman, but a gentleman in the highest
sense of the word, and beloved alike by his officeis
and his crew. The steam frigate Niagara, recently
completed, and described as being ono of the very
finest ships in the world, is in the same predicament.
She lies at Charlestown, near Boston, prepared to
start in pursuit of the Alabama and the Florida, but
unable to move for want of a crew. The sailing ship
Saratogo, with a heavy battery,
which would bo use-
ful before Charleston, Mobile, or Wilmington, has
been ready for sea for three mon,rthuse,rebunitaityhbaes,baeuen
found impossible to man her. d
pcistyinhaae
similar predicament, thong
doubtless are, many other hFeadseyreatl
nwoa rp
usbhl ii
been given to the facts. The Naval Department
knows not what to do. One set of advisers, undis-
mayed by the glaring failure of the conscription,
boldly urges the Government to introduce into Con-
gress in the first week of its sitting an Act for the
~ impressment" of seamen, while another class in-
sists that many thousands of volunteers could yet
be procured if the bounty offered were increased,
and, above all, if the ordinance were repealed which
deprived the sailors of their "grog." It is asserted
that the increase of pay, to the amount of sc. per
diem, which has been granted to the sailor as a
solatium for the loss of his usual stimulant, is not
satisfactory, and that as long as this restriction upon
the free will and upon the tastes and habits of the
sea-going people is continued, so long will the Fe-
deral Government suffer for want of seamen. What-
ever remedy may be adopted, it is so uncertain in
its operation, that the Government may well be ex-
cused if it do not see the expediency of a war either
with Great Britain or France. An Impressment Act
would be odious to the people, which might not
signify much to a Government that seems deter-
mined to establish a despotism; bat it might fail in
its object, which is a contingency that no Govern-
ment can afford to despise. As for the "grog," it
is likely that the severity of the existing discipline
will be relaxed, and that "Jack" will be allowed his
coveted modicum of rum or whiskey; but whether
in the event of war with Great Britain any consider-
able number of British sailors in the present service
of the Federal Government will consent to be trai-
tore to the land of their birth admits of the gravest
doubts,
The fact seems to be that the United States, or
what may remain of them, on the conclusion of
peace, may be a great military, but never can be-
come a great naval nation. Their territory by its
very vastness is inland, and must breed an inland,
not a maritime population. It requires the sea to
beget a love of the sea. The boy that is to be a
sailor when he is a man must sport upon the shore
when he is a child ; and this can be the destiny of
but few Americans. If the coast line of the Federal
States, leaving California out of the calculation, be
measured from Norfolk in Virginia (somewhat more,
perhaps, than will be allowed after a settlement
between North and South) to the boundary line in
the Bay of Fundy, between the State of Maine and
the British colony of New Brunswick—the one in
lat. 32 deg., and the other in lat. 45 deg. 25 sec. N.,
—it will be found that the maritime population of
the Federal States only exists upon a length of
about 900 miles of coast. Compare this with the
coast line of the British isles, and it may be esti-
mated that the sailor-producing power of England
and Scotland, to say nothing of Ireland, is at least
twice as great as that of the Northern Union. Had
it not been for British sailors, the American navy,
national or mercantile, could not have been what it
is, and the "Buncome " orators of vast inland re-
gions, 1,000 miles from the sea, would have had
much less reason to boast of their ability to cope
with the greatest maritime Power that the world
has even seen or is likely to see.
A short letter addressed to the President by the
Hon. Josiah Quincy, of Boston, Massachusetts, the
only living American of any note who was born
before the Declaration of Independence, and who
was once in consequence a British subject, has ex-
cited considerable attention. The private and public
character of this venerable gentleman stand deser-
vedly high. He is in his 02d year, in full possession
of his faculties, was long a member of Congress and
of the Legislature of his native State, and has been
president of Harvard College and Mayor of Boston,
was on terms of intimacy with Washington,
Lafayette, and most of the earlier as well as later
Presidents, and is author of several works, of which
the life of his relative John Quincy Adams is the
best as well as most recent. It might be thought
that if the voice of any man in America would be
raised in favour of blessed peace it would be that of
a man so sage, so calm, so experienced, and so pat-
riotic. But it is not so. The abolition of negro
slavery, though the land should' be deluged with
blood for 50 years in the attempt to enforce it, has
such entire possession of his mind that ho has no
advice to give to the President or the people but to
fight on. He insists that compromise is impossible,
and believes that the final victory of the Federal
Government is inee itable. He, too, so far beyond
the ordinary age of passion, shares the passion of his
countrymen for extent of territory. The " Union"
is the God of his idolatry. And yet this Josiah
Quincy was the earliest dis-Unionist known, He
declared so far back as 1802 that the purchase of
Louisiana was unconstitutional—that it was fatal to
the stability of the Union, and sufficient ro justify
the secession of Massachussetts, and every other
State, if in pursuance of the Act of Congress, of the
undoubted rights of the South under the constitution
and of the solemn decision of the Supreme Court, the
officers of the Federal Executive, charged with a
legal warrant, should presume to lay hands upon a
fugitive slave on the soil of that commonwealth.
This only shows how great was the original incom-
patibility between North and South. When Aboli-
tionism was in the minority, it threatened disruption
of the Union, rather than obey a law which it did
not approve. Its maxim then, as now,
was "rule or
ruin ;" and Mr. Quincy, its oldest, if not its ablest
apostle, is powerless to emancipate himself from its
thraldom. He declares the South to be " mad;"
but, if so, he might well ask himself whether
Washington were not mad also, and all the men
who acted with him, including Josiah Quincy.
It was in this correspondence, some months ago,
that the British
existence people were first informed of the
in this country of a mysterious political
Society called the Finnian, Fenian, or Phinean
Brotherhood, whose members were all Irishmen,
and whose objectwere the invasion of Ireland and
the establishment s
of an Irish Republic. It appears
that the true name
; that
the
of this organization is the Fenian
Brotherhood
secrecy which formerly en-
veloped their proceedings
is
and
a or t
no longer to be insisted
upon, and that the "Read
Master, is one C
York, now a loyal Colonel John Centre," or Grand
_ _ah _
oney, of New
O,M
the United States, but
citizen
formerly of Dublin, n
autho-
rity of Great Britain, under Nellr against the
the cabbage-garden. In ob
edi. Smith O'Brien in
ence
numerously signed by the , to a requisition
" eentr
of the Brotherhood at Philadelphia, es ' or local chiefs
Chicago,L •
eille, and other large cities to the n
umber of 60 or
70, this functionary has convened a general
meeting
of the body to assemble at the Fenian
Hall in Chi-
cago, on the 31 of November next, to debate on
"grave and pressing m itters." It is stated that
Mr. Seward, Archbishop Hughes, and all the poli-
ticians in the Union, who are accustomed to court
the Irish vote on occasions of emergency, are well
aware of the objects of the society, and what is
highly important if it be true, that no Irishman
can obtain a commission in the Federal army
unless he can prove his affiliation to the Fenians
and his sympathy with their designs. It
is hinted that immediately on the recognition of the
Southern Confederacy by Great Britain, or on a de-
claration of war on the grievance of the Confederate
rams, the Fenians will he let loose upon Ireland, to
stir up insurrection; that the Federal Government
(if it do not in the interval tumble to pieces) will im-
mediately recognise the Irish as belligerents, and
that the shipbuilders of Boston, Brooklyn, and
Philadelphia will construct rams, monitors, and 1

iron clads to break any blockade of the Irish coast
which the British Government may establish, and
that in one way or another at least 200,000 Irish
and Irish-Americans will enrol themselves in the
enterprise, in two armies of 100,000 men each, one
under the command of the ex-rebel, General F. T.
Meagher, and the other under that of the ex-rebel
and rutn•seller, Gen. Michael Corcoran. The whole
story is narrated in one of the sensation journals of
this city, with all the magniloquent phraseology
awl magnificent bounce, bluster, braggadocio, and
exaggerationo
dwe iotehd
fh
itehevery
is
to re
receive
ey a
nothe
sf kind
attention
from people with appetites so palled and jaded with
highly seasoned "buncombe" as those of the great
bulk of the Americans. Ireland's deliverance is pro-
phecied as close at hand ; the English aristocracy is
declared to be in mortal terror of the approaching
storm, and the British Government to be ready to
yield anything
to Mr. Seward Mr. Laird's rams, or any
otheornthtahte
mquaeystiaornisoef,
rather than incur the threatened onslaught of the
terrible Fenians.