The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-30 00:00:00

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recently taken place, that are still taking place
actually at this very moment in that direction, in
the direction, that is, of Herat ! Herat lying
geographically exactly midway between Persia,
Tartary, and Affghanistan ; or, viewing its relative
situation more minutely, being equi-distant from
Cabool, Bokhara, and Khorassan.

AHMED JAN, the present Sultan of Herat (a pro-
vince, remember, formerly owning allegiance to 1
Persia, but since 1857 completely independent), has
it appears very recently marched upon and
taken possession of Furrah—a border town,
a sort of Berwick-upon-Tweed, long in
dispute between Herat and Candahar. For-
merly Furrah belonged to Herat—latterly
it has belonged to Candahar. AHMED JAN
has recently recaptured it. And it is in regard
to to this disputed prize that several conflicts h
late taken place between the troops of the Sultan
of HERAT and those of the Sultan of CABOOL—
between the soldiers of AHMED JAN and those of
old DOST MAHOMMED. ' Not a single Persian
trooper has taken part in these late engagements.
It is wholly and entirely a dispute among the
several States of Affghanistan. Directly or indi-
rectly, the SHAH is declared to have had nothing
whatever to do with it. So that all the rumoured
notions about the Sultan of HERAT having re-
cently aggressively at the insidious
instig actedatioofn h
the Shah of PERSIA—the latter hav-
ing again been goaded on to those sinister
proceedings by the wily ambition of the
Czar of All the RUSSIAS the whole
of this elaborate conspiracy having for its
ulterior object the destruction of the British Em-
pire in the East by, as it were, striking a deadly
and poisoned shaft deep into the heel of the Anglo-
Indian ACHILLES !—All this fantastic and highly
elaborated canard now vanishes, upon the instant,
from the ken of all. It melts into thin air. The
glimmering of a war slowly (according to rumour)
advancing towards the frontiers of the Punjab,
proves, upon a moment's careful examination, to be
of no further import to us than the glinting of
the merest moonshine. The Sultan of HERAT may
with Furrah still in his possession, have corn
mended his forces to march boldly on southwards
in the direction of Candahar. The sons of old
DOST MAHOMMED may, in their turn, be advancing
from the capita; of CABOOL to intercept and
confront the invading army from Herat.
All this may possibly be stated thus quite
accurately, as the situation of affairs yonder
among the integral States of Affghanistan. Still,
admitting that it is so—accepting these warlike par-
ticulars as facts—they merely constitute one of the
very contingencies pointed out by the Treaty of
March, 1857, as suggesting friendly negotiations
between the Governmenfs of Persia and Great Bri-
tain. For everything like actual interference be-
tween the disputants we have no appreciable reason
whatever. A reason we should have certainly—and
we should then have no hesitation about acting
upon the first hint, supposing there was at any
time anything like actual threatenings of an inva-
sion from the direction of Affghanistan.

Lord PALMERSTON and his Commissioners will
read the news from America with great satisfaction.
It will seem to excuse their determination to absorb
the whole loan voted for the fortifications which
almost everyone else still believes would be so much
money sunk, in at least a most uncertain, and we
should say, a useless speculation. Five Federal gun-
boats have been repulsed from a river fortification—
Fort Darling—about seven miles below Richmond.
Amongst them was the vanquisher of the Merrimac,
the redoubtable Monitor, with others whose names,
though recent, we have seen before. But we beg
to remind the advocates of the PALMERSTON
LULL.= -ay. IP •••,/ „
hence—at Spithead, that there are extenuating cir-
cumstances for this, probably temporary failure,
which go far to invalidate its testimony in favour
of forts versus ships. Not only is it the first failure
of the kind in this war, but the causes were obvious.
The Monitor, on which so much reliance had been
placed for attacking land forts, while in-
vulnerable herself, was disqualified by being
unable to elevate her guns sufficiently. The
fort is situated on a river bluff, or
lofty hill at the bend of the river, a small in-
land Gibraltar—and the tower of the Monitor,
unlike Captain Colin' cupola, does not admit of
the requisite elevation of the guns. The most
trusted vessel of the little squadron was therefore
useless. But, even now, it is not shown that the
Monitor could not easily have passed the fort
had the river been clear.

Then the Naugatuck was unfortunate in bursting
her one hundred-pounder gun at the first fire, an
accident similar to which, it will be remembered,
sent back the Merrimac on her second cruise into
Hampton Roads. Hence there were but three
boats left to continue the now unequal battle.
What, however, should be most instructive to
Commissioners and Premiers is, that after all it
was not the forts, but the obstacles placed in the
river, which compelled the Federal squadron to
retire. We presume. no one thinks of attempting
to block the Spithead channel by any such de-
vice. In a comparatively narrow river that is
practicable ; but even the Mississippi proved
too wide to construct a barrier which the
Federal fleet could not pass. The St. James
being so much smaller, this could be done,
and the consequence was that the Fede-
ral boats were detained at the barrier with
very limited means of replying to powerful batteries.
Yet with all these advantages we have no account of
serious damage done to the Federal ships. Part of
them returned to James' Island, much lower down the
river, perhaps two-thirds of its length from Rich-
mond. The most difficult part of the story to explain
is the loss of Vs. They were all small gunboats,
yet we are told that the Federals lost eleven hundred
men, an account which, as it comes from Northern
sources, can hardly be exaggerated; we should
have supposed all their crews together could hardly
have amounted to more. Were there transports in
Company with the boats ; they, however, would
hardly have been taken into action. Neither can we
suppose that the small gunboats were used partly as
transports. Much of the loss, on the narrow river,
appears also to have been attributed to rifle pits on
shore. No mention
i
land force, and we musattaade of an
there f
ore
ea
wn
for accompanying
t
that we can see no natural explanation of the heavy
loss.

One thing, however, can be very plainly seen—
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advancing in his Lord CLYDE-like style. His
advance is now reported to be about fifteen miles
from the city. And, notwithstanding the repulse
of the gunboats much nearer the city, ho still has
them protecting both his flanks. The Pamunkey
mentioned in the telegram, in which his gunboats
were quite successful, is the continuation of the
York river along his right wing, while the St.
gunboats there, is on his left,
alnadmetsh,eweiotmh hismodore is said to be preparing mor-
tars to reduce Fort Darling itself. It cannot
probably long bold out, now that the Whole
Chesapeake feet is liberated by the destruction of
the Merrimac and Norfolk navy yard. And, if