The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-10 00:00:00

federates, besides the loss of their general. The
victory is in fact a double one. The Federalists
first repulsed a formidable attack, after a hard-
fought day; they next drove the enemy out of
their own entrenched lines. They so dispersed

them that the " residue of the Kentucky

campaign will be fought in Tennessee."

Looked at in every light, the victory is

invaluable to the North ; it cheers the money
market with the prospect of an earlier con-
clusion to the campaign ; it encourages the army
by the prestige of returned success, and it puts the
extinguisher on one favourite project of the South.
Finding themselves being gradually surrounded by
the coast and river movements of the North co-
operating with the frontier forces, the scheme advo-
cated at Richmond has been to burst through from
Kentucky into Ohio, and to create a diversion
there. Now, Kentucky seems to be at the feet
of General SCHoEPFF. As a border State,
its loyalty was divided ; the Unionists, however,
proved the strongest. The South poured in troops
to aid the Secessionists, but the battle of Mills
Spring seems to have given the military as well
as the political superiority to the Union party.
The new Secretary of War, Mr. STANTON, thus
enters on office with a happy omen, nor does he
neglect to avail himself of it. Almost his first
general order, is one of thanks to the United States
forces for a brilliant victory, accompanied by an in-
timation that the people of the United States will
rejoice to honour every officer and soldier, who
proves his courage by " charging with the bayonet,
and storming intrenehments, or in the blaze of the
The Americans in Paris are delighted,
enemies fire."
and predict that:. the South will now quickly give up
the contest ; though they acknowledge that some
financial confusion must follow. The North is not
doing much besides of an aggressive character.
Another stone fleet is reported to be already off the
second deep-water entrance to Charleston har-
bour, and General BURNSIDE'S naval expedition,
with 25,000 men, to be in Pamlico Sound; but the
great battle of Mill Spring, Kentucky, is quite
enough for one mail.
But the same mail brings us the definite particu-
lars of Mr. CHASE'S proposals. They are pretty
nearly what had been rumoured previously. The
Secretary of State is empowered to issue one
hundred millions sterling of bonds, bearing six per
cent. interest. These are the basis for an issue of
thirty millions of legal tender paper, receivable for
all purposes ; and the value of this paper is to be
retained at par, by its being convertible at pleasure
into the Government Six per Cent. Stock above
mentioned. Whoever finds he has too much paper
inconvertible into gold, will, therefore, be enabled
to convert it into a six per cent, stock which can-
not be paid off in less than twenty years. While
American Six per Cent. Stock remains, therefore, at
par, the otherwise inconvertible paper will remain
at par also. It would almost appear as if the
Government purposed to issue so much inconver-
tible paper as should drive the holders of it to in-
vest it in the six per cents. The thirty millions
they propose to issue are, it is understood, absorbed
by existing engagements. They propose to raise
also another thirty millions by taxation, but the
gravest doubts are entertained whether it be pos-
sible to get the money. If so, there seems to be
no remedy, but the inconvertible paper, which—as
few persons who supply the Government want to
invest in the funds—must rapidly depreciate in the
holders' hands. Very soon even the Government
itself must find that it will have to give two or
three dollar notes for what might be purchased for
a single silver dollar.
is to be the issue of all this ? Victory
is dawning on the North, and stone fleets,
and sea and river expeditions, are annoying
and even alarming the South. For the moment all
is exultation north of the Potomac. Will it last ?
If victory follow victory—yes. But what if one
reverse should concur with a depreciated currency,
and demand for double and treble taxes ? Would
there not then be a cry for a settlement by negotia-
tion ? Would it be rage and revenge, or,
" smart" prudence betimes ? It is astonish-
ing how coolly, at present, the Northerners look
upon their own insolvency. Even the money
market does not feel it to the extent which might
have been expected. The banks, of course, have
the greatest interest in sustaining the credit of
their debtor, the Government, and they have one
thing in their favour—" repudiation" seems to be
impossible. However heavy the debt, it will all
be due to citizens, and it seems, therefore, pretty
certain that the interest will be duly paid.

A flood of light, we take it, will have been
thrown upon the oft-discussed question of the
Military Defence of our Colonies, by the recent
manifestation of Loyalty by the Canadians. Loy-
alty or Patriotism—terms under our constitutional
system of government almost identical—has long
ago been wisely and wittily termed the Cheap
Defence of Nations. That cheap defence, we now
have been enabled to recognise, is not by any
-means restricted within the intricate variations of
the tide-line marking the seaboard of these islands.
It is a political sentiment or a political principle
treasured in the heart of every earnest Englishman.
It is a feeling diffused as far and as wide as the
bounds of our dominion. Wherever the Civis
Britannicus is to be found upon soil owning the
sway of VICTORIA, in the western or in the
eastern hemisphere, in Europe or in Asia, in Africa,
or in America, at home or away in our Australian
antipodes, there is that same vital patriotism, that
same ineradicable and enlightened loyalty, which
from the chivalric heart of the Hungarian people
nearly two hundred years ago, drew forth in the
cause of MARIA THERESA that impassioned war-
cry, ifforiamur pro Rego Nostro ! It is not ex-
travagant to say this in regard to our colonists
throughout the whole vast scope of our scattered
possessions. Enough if in testimony of this evidence
of a conscious identification of interests between the
mother country and her colonies, we point to the
majestic display of a loyalty and a patriotism of
the most unmistakeable kind, and of the most easily
recognisable unanimity manifested throughout the
Two Canadas during the late dire extremity. By
a singular coincidence, a courtly touchstone had
been applied to the mere graceful sentiment of
loyalty among the Canadians, just before the dis-
ruption of the United States, upon the occasion of
the visit to the North American Continent by the
Heir Apparent to the Throne of England. Cordial
and enthusiastic though that kindly bearing of the
Canadian people was towards his Royal Highness
the Prince of WALES when be came among them,
still, if it had been followed by no more practical
demonstration than that made in the crowded
streets and the gay ball-rooms of the towns and
cities of the Two Canadas, when the multitude
turned out in their holiday costumes to cheer the
eldest son of the reigning
Ruler of the British E So.vERBIGN, the Future
Empire—all the zeal and
fervour then displayed might have been mistaken
for a token of nothing more earnest in its way
Man a mere graceful sentiment of loyalty. The
crisis that was fated so soon to follow hard upon
that bright holiday tour of the Royal excursion
has shown, however, betimes, and showel moreover,
quite unmistakeably, that the loyalty of the Ca-
nadian is in very truth the patriotism of that