The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-25 00:00:00

STAMPED ..,.sd.

was suppressed by General Pope, from which it may
be inferred that the Confederate advantage was
much greater than Pope or the Government thinks
it at present wise to avow. Most likely the affair
was only a preliminary skirmish, though on a scale
of unusual magnitude, and the real battle, which
may decide the fate of Washington and Baltimore
and the fortunes of the South, is yet to come, or
mey be in progress at this moment. Wall-street
has taken the matter rather quietly, and gold has
neither gone up nor stocks gone down in conse-
quence. The only thing that has gone down ep-
preciably is the re potation of General Pope, who is
too much of a boaster and too little of a performer
to be a favourite of any on except of the Pia silent.
Altogether the signs and symptoms portend that
the current week will be prolific of great events,
both in Shenandoah Valley and before Richmond.
It is obviously the policy of the Confederates to
strike heavy blows at both points before either the
mercenary volunteers or the unwilling conscripts of
the North can be brought into action, that every
one anticipates a speedy catastrophe.
More than one-half of M'Clellan's army are pros-
trated by the heat of the weather (94 deg. in the
shade) unwholesome food, and bad water ; and
the Confederates know it and will profit by the
knowledge.
In the meantime a savage spirit seems to be tak-
ing possession of that portion of the Northern people
who still indulge in the vain dream of Southern
subjugation. The corruption of officials, the imbe-
cility of the Government, the inefficiency of the
generals, the divided opinions on the subject of
emancipation, the hostility of the foreign element
of the population to the further prosecution of the
war, the disinclination of the trading and profes-
sional classes to fight in their own persons, though
they are willing enough to pay others to fight for
them, and the unexpectedly long duration of the
war have each combined to produce a feeling of
exasperation that is fast assuming an aspect of blood-
thirstiness. These people not only approve every
illegal and unconstitutional act that the President
and his secretaries commit or authorise, but they
bellow lustily for confiscation and the gallows for the
mildest forms of what they consider treason. They
support and admire Butler. They have faith in Pope
—not because he is a good soldier, of which there is
no proof, but because he is truculent and vain-glori-
ous. They think Blenker a good general, because
he allowed his soldiers to pillage. They affect to
consider the charges against General Mitchel and
Colonel Turchin to be purely malicious, though
Turchin has very properly been dismissed from
the army. They inveigh against M'Clellan because
he is humane, and respects both the letter and the
spirit of the constitution. They call the President a
fool, and declare that his moderation will ruin the
country. They call for the enrolment and arming
of the negroes both in the North and the South.
They insist upon a "short shrift and a high gal-
lows for traitors great and small ; and last of all
they clamour for the infliction of the penalty of
death on all deserters from the Federal army.
Though these rabid people are in a small minority
just now, it is unhappily the tendency of revolu
tions to cast rabid minorities into the high places
of power, and to maintain them there, until they
in their turn are superseded by others more rabid
than themselves. This class has grown bolder
every day since the defeat of M'Clellan, and should
General Pope be routed or captured in the Shenan-
doah Valley, or should any other great defeat and
humiliation occur to the Federal arms, some " great
and stunning misfortune" as Mr. Wendell Phillips
calls it, such as the capture of Baltimore, Phila-
delphia, or Washington—a result which that orator
but no statesman openly declares he prays for—this
class would in all probability make a desperate
effort to supersede the President, and put General
Fremont or some other violent theorist and aboli-
tionist in his place. The whole political atmosphere
is surcharged with electricity, and the next thunder-
bolt that may be launched at the heart of the Re
public may come from a Northern, and not from a
Southern sky. The actual Government is the Go-
vernment of a minority, and it is goaded to violence
by a still smaller minority than itself. Were the
people, who in their hearts detest the war—were
the wealthy citizens who are striving to escape
from the vortex of revolution into the peaceable
haven of Europe—were the countless friends of the
old and desecrated Constitution of Washington,
Jefferson, and Hamilton to unite their incohesive
ranks, and exhibit half the courage of Mr. Wendell
Phillips and the bigots and zealots who agree with
him, the conduct of affairs would come into the
hands of the majority, and there would be peace
once more in this miserable and distracted country.
But these quiet people depend upon a European
mediation to save them. That failing, they know
not where to look for security, or even for hope.