The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-22 00:00:00

there can be any mistake respecting the feet of . its
surrender. The information comes direct from
the flag officer in command of the bomb ard-
ing squadron of gun boats ; nor is there
any improbability in the statement that
6,000 prisoners and 100 guns were, captut ed,
since the place was so watched by the gunboats and
a land army under General WALLEK, that no part
of the garrison could slip off, as FLOYD and his
men did from Fort Donnelson. It was stated in
former accounts that Island No. 10 was the real
left flank of the Confederate line of defence. This
is not unlikely, since its capture, we were always
told, would leave Memphis at the mercy of the

Federals, and the Mississippi open down to New
Orleans. If all this be so, the loss of this position
will be a very severe one to the Confederates. It
may enable the Federals to turn BEAUREGARD'S
left flank, or even to co-operate with PORTER'S

flotilla, which was advancing from the Gulf on

New Orleans.

General M'CLELLAN'S army had also come within
sight of its work. It had landed—all dangers from
the Merrimac and her smaller companions having
proved imaginary. His tsrmy is reported to be very
large ; at first it was to be 80,000 men, then it
mounted to 100,000, and then again to 150,000 !
At Yorktown the Confederates had constructed
batteries two miles in length, with a

swamp in front, and cannonading without
result was going on from both sides. It is
supposed that Yorktown cannot hold out against
the immense strength both in men and artillery of
the Federals. It is said, however, to muster a
garrison of 30,000 men. M'CLELLAN is now indeed
the observed of all. He must do something to show
that he is not merely a drill sergeant, and he will
probably do it. He must rout the Confederates
and occupy Richmond, or sink his reputation to the
level of an ordinary commander. He has every-
thing he could ask to work with, except indeed an
army of veterans, but then his opponents have no
more veterans than he. We do not observe, more-
ever, that any Generals of known ability are
opposed to him. They all appear to have gone to
Corinth. •

Congress, on its part, is at last doing something.
The House of Representatives has got through with
the " monster" tax bill. It will, however, probably
have to encounter a hard fight in the Senate, where
the States are equally represented. Still more
important is it to observe that the Emancipation
Resolution is not to be allowed to lie idle, or to become
a dead letter. It was followed immediately by the
Bill for the Emanipation of the Slaves in the dis-
trict of Columbia ; bat now the House has appointed
a committee of nine to report if a plan can be pro-
posed, for the gradual emancipation of the slaves
in all the Border States, including Virginia itself.
Not content with this, the committee by a subse-
quent resolution were empowered to extend the in-
quiry to other States. It would thus appear that the
North does at length perceive, that whether they
mean to conquer or to really amalgamate the
Southern States after conquest, the one thing need-
ful is to get rid of the evil which originated the
war, and which has been the great source of almost
all other evils to the United States. It may suit
the purpose of Tory cliques here to talk about Uni-
versal Suffrage and the Ballot, as the cause of all
the political vices of America—it was really the un-
scrupulous and demoralizing practices of those
thorough aristocrats, the slaveholders, which has
corrupted the whole body politic in the States.
They were, of course, omnipotent in the South; in
the North they used the moneyed interest on the
one hand, and on the other appealed to the lowest
of the multitude. They corrupted everything—the
Presidential chair, the supreme court of justice, and
the Legislature. It is American aristocracy which
demoralised, degraded, and ruined America at home,
and made its diplomacy so hectoring, bragging,
sharping, anti ,ritb oth.r nations. Gene-
rations must pass away before the evil tone given
to American society through its Southern aristocracy
will pass away—the first step towards improvement
is, however, that which seems likely to be taken at
last—namely, to get rid of the pure absolutism,
which makes American slaveholders the illustration
of the most perfect aristocratical oligarchy the
world has yet seen. Hence the gentle accents with
which their acts are spoken of by Mr. BERESFORD
HOPE and by the Tories generally. They do not,
perhaps, like slavery, but they do naturally sympa-
thise with their fellow aristocrats, although slavery
be the basis of their position.
ier

The Volunteer Review yesterday at Brighton can
be looked back to now, by all who were in aly way
concerned in it, with complete and unalloyed satis-
faction. In the history of this great mo-ement, the
Easter Monday of 1862 will staid fo-
th conspicu-
ously. It will be coupled in recolection with the
ever memorable day when her Moll',Gracious MA-
JESTY in person reviewed in Hyde Park,as nearly
as possible, the very same number of the Ntional
Guard of England. The aggregate upon eaohocca-
sion being in point of fact some TWENTY THOtrgPiD
VOLUNTEER RIFLEMEN. Yesterday, the 25t
April, 1862, was happily quite an exceptional da,
for the season—inasmuch as it was considerably
more than a merely favourable specimen of genial
spring weather. After the late drenching days
and nights during which ST. SWITHIN and
AQUARIUS—in defiance of all the laws hitherto re-
gulating the Calendar and the Almanac—appeared
somehow to have entered into a bewildering com-
pact (a compact under the circumstances amount-
ing to nothing less than a double anachronism) to
stop the whole process of vegetation by the simple
device of drowning it, the fine weather
came at last just in the nick of time
for the review, and came, too, with a sunburst !
Corps after corps mustered at their respective
rendezvous in the metropolis—some of them at cock-
crow : and steadily, with the regularity of clock-
work, in accordance to a nicety with the previous
arrangements, marched down to the appointed ter-
minus. Thence, with admirable precision, they
were borne away together, turn by turn, in a suc-
cession of trains, down to Brighton. Arrived at
their destination, they were there in the immediate
vicinity of the Brighton Railway station, rapidly
marshalled by their officers, and with bands playing
and flags flying, marched off at once to the imme-
diate point at which each corps had its pre-arranged
resting ground. Yonder—it was in the pretty gar-
dens of that fantastic Pavilion. Yonder—it was
in the Old and North Steyne. And now again it
was further back from the seashore, in St. Peter's
Church enclosure.

A glorious gala day it proved for all Brighton
--3 day to be held long in pleasant remembrance
by thousands upon thousands of spectators,
whether mere visitors of that fashionable
watering place or habitual residents there.
It was not that London alone contributed
to this gala-day's enjoyment by sending down
\
to Brighton in swift succession from an early hour
yesterday crowds of gaily-clad holiday-makers,
11, women, and children bent upon participating
in the say's proceedings, in the conspicuous but un-
01,!rusiTe
character of admiring spectators. Nor
was it that the chief proportion of that mass of
volunteer &men was despatched also, train by
train, to Brighten free,
tae metropolis. 5.'.:0r that same great world of
Inovikcialsdistriets of the