The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-08 00:00:00

The -following letter has just been received in
London from a citizen of the State of Pennsylvania,
a gentleman of intelligence and position ; the views
he expresses are those of a large number of persons
in the North, whose political opinions exclude them
from power at the present time :
" PHILADELPHIA, APRIL 20.
" Dear George,—The papers you have sent me
are interesting, but I confess my surprise at the
change in their tone. Evidently they have lost
their former professed confidence in the Southern
power and determination to resist, and this is the
more strange because their first reasonings were
correct, as will be eventually proved. That the
press of the Northern States, controlled, as it is, by
all that is unfit and unworthy to lead and represent
a wise, a virtuous public, should have gone wild
over the succession of Federal triumphs in Ten-
nessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina which took
place in February and March, is not to be wondered
at, for it is an important feature in the policy of the
Administration to swell and magnify slight success
into magnifigent victory and metamorphose actual
defeat into favourable results; thus stimulating the
fever of excitement and frenzy of their people, in
order to smother any awakening sense of the fear-
ful course they are running, and prevent any
glimpses of the fate so surely and closely following
their mad, wild, and desperate career of ruin to the
South and ruin and disgrace to the North. But
that English papers should have so far adopted
Neev York opinions, and acted upon such question-
able authority, greatly surprises me.
" Perhaps, however, when we reflect that Euro-
peans have always looked at the South through
Yankee spectacles, and now more than ever they
are shut out from this terra incognita, with its
enormous area and quiet patriarchal agricultural
mode of life, we should be able to account for the
great ignorance of and violent prejudice against
her people and institutions. The information, too,
derived from New York correspondents of the pro-
minent English journals is strangely incorrect—
oftentimes absurdly so. For instance, a writer,
using the nomme de plume of ' Manhattan,' simply
trifles with the good sense of his readers, as by this
time, I should suppose, they have discerned. His
letters are frequently read aloud here amidst bursts
of laughter, and I have known many persons re-
fuse to believe such burlesques upon truth and
common sense should be gravely published for in-
telligent readers. True it is that the editors take
the precaution of appending a notification over
each letter denying their concurrence in or endorse-
ment of his views or statements. Yet his wild,
insane statements are seen and read in print with,
I presumes the average effect, although it is hard to
read them here with a grave face. Dr. Russell's
letters are by odds the best of all, and, while I
often differ with his opinions and deductions, espe-
cially on political subjects, his familiarity with
military affairs and talent for describing them, com-
bined with the tone and education of a gentleman
manifested by his writings, all give his correspon-
dence interest and entitle it to respect. Personal
and political prejudices, however, are still traceable
too plainly in many of his letters. That his pro-
phesies, military and political, should not have
always been sustained by events only places him in
the category with the rest of mankind ; for there is
no man who has not felt himself confounded by the
events of the past year. It has been a chaos, in
which hopes, fears, theories, and plans have been
tossed, mingled, and broken beyond present recog-
nition.
" But of real events. As foreshadowed by his
message to the Confederate Congress, President
Davis has concentrated his forces, and thus, owing
to the vast extent of territory to be defended, many
avenues of approach to the Southern States are
necessarily left open to their invaders, and slight
colliai.ons are less frequent than heretofore, when
every Federal force was watched by a correspond-
nag detachment of Confederates. On the 6th and
7th of this month the battle of Shiloh was fought,
near the Southern line of Tennessee, in which a
larger number of troops =both sides were engaged
than in any previous encounter of the war. Of
course, the Federals claimed the victory, and the
President and Secretary of War even went so far
as to issue proclamations for public thanksgiving
and prayer, but we now know that it was only by
the aid of their übiquitous and never failing "gun-
boats that the complete destruction or capture of
Major-General Grant's entire army was saved.
Thirty-eight thousand men of the very best Western
troops were driven off their chosen field, and forced
at every point to retire to the banks of the Ten-
nessee river, where, without transportation, capture
or drowning awaited them, when two gunboats,
with their superior rifled artillery, opened upon the
Confederate lines and broke their circumvention.
By the next day Gen. Buell came with 40,000 fresh
men and more boats, and Gen. Beauregard retired
steadily and deliberately, pausing :occasionally to
inflict repulse upon his foes, to his entreched camp
at Corinth, 18 miles distant. It was a bloody day
and great slaughter occurred ; we have only Federal
accounts of details, and they are sickening enough to
an American. The character of this battle, its con-
ception and execution on the part of Southern Gene-
rals and men, will best answer the weak doubtings
of their cold critics on your side of the Atlantic.
I could here gladly dwell at length upon
the career and fate cf that departed hero,
Sydney Johnston, but I refer you to President
Davis's message to Congress and the letter read
there written by Johnston a short time previous to
his death. Humanity must feel itself elevated by
the contemplation of such men and such events;
that man's soul must indeed be cold and dead who
can dwell unmoved and unimproved upon the death
and character of Albert Sydney Johnston, pictured
with ouch mournful, ea martial eloquence by his
friend, comrade, and chosen superior. But if
Si'oh, or Pittsburgh Landing, as the Federals call
their place of retreat, should not sufficiently prove
to those who do not know them (and therefore may
require proof) the intention of Southern men to be
free, perhaps the status of General M'Clellan's
' Grand Army of the Potomac' may assist in pro-
ducing conviction. On March 7th this mighty
array moved down to see the blackened ruins of
Centreville and Manassas winter quarters, Where
for eight months the Confederate forces have lain,
in what numbers we know not, but free from moles-
tation, yet threateningly near, and fatally so to
'
reconnoitring foes. By April 7th, Mq./lel hill now
in command of a single department only, is found
on the peninsula formed by the James and York
rivers, having Fertress Monroe as his base, and
attempting with a perfectly fitted army of 120,000
t 0150,000 men to march by land to Richmond. This
distance is 20 miles from his point of disembarca-
tion, his way seems positively barred ; between the
• rivers is a width of six to eight miles, and this land
is intersected by small water-courses or creeks.
Fortifications of a very formidable character, and
large forces of troops to guard them, are before him.
For two weeks he has failed to make any impres-
sion, and although rigid regulations and an iron
censorship of the telegraph and public press are
maintained, coupled witn Silence as of the grave on
the part of the Government, rumours of his frequent
reputes find their way up here. Surgeons, nurses,
Sze., are hurrying down ; skeleton regiments are
hurried forward ; hospitals are ordered of large
accommodation, and we are told' all is quiet before
Yorktown.' No mail communication, save of
examined and approved matter, is allowed; no
passes to see sick friends or bear home dead ones;
we even hear that Southern newspapers are not to
come hereafter under flags of truce. Is not the
accumulation of anxiety 'hard to be borne, and
is it not very unlike the march 'on to Richmond,
pictured to the fond hopes of the frenzied populace
so long and so often ?
- am, perhaps, incompetent
to make military criticism, but the Confederates
having control of James and York Rivers above
their lines (Glocester point being also held by them
ou the Northern side of York River) would, I be-
lieve, have eelected IVl'Clellau's position for him had
they been consulted. This may be very d
ern e end
ignorant, and may be contradicted by the results of
the week, but it is my opinion.
"The Merrimac continues the bete noir' of the
Northern marine, and, after all their vaunts of the
preparations made to destroy her, she has coolly
planted her flag for hours is tho face of their guns,