The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-20 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 12h. 10m.—Afternoon, 12h. 31m
To-MORROW.-Morning, 12h. 55m.—Afternoon, lh. 20m.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOV. 20, 1862.

It seems quite possible that the war in Vir-
ginia may yet be resumed with vigour even on
the very verge of winter. Snow is reported to
have covered the whole country from Maine to
Virginia, and even Kentucky—that is, from
the most northern States to the most
southern of the Border ones. The storm lasted
twenty-four hours, and for twenty years had not
been surpassed in violence. This was on the 6th.
The date of the telegram is on the Bth ; it tells,
however of the movement of NITLELLAN's army,
at the same time that it says the snow must have
impeded the armies' movements on both sides.
Hardly anything, indeed, can be conceived mote
obstructive of the movements of an army, with all
its artillery and baggage, than snow, especially in
the parts where the Virginian armies now are.
Snow is not only an obstruction to traffic; but, as
every one who, from the roadside, has looked into
a wood when covered with snow will remember,
it wonderfully reveals everything which, even in
winter, would not be otherwise seen. It is as ad-
verse to the secrecy desirable in military move-
ments as to the progress of men and carriages.
Yet it seems as if M'CLELLAN were really making
a steady Southern advance.
The reader must remember that the grand armies
of Virginia are no longer before 'Washington. The
inroad into Maryland changed all that. He must
carry his eye on the map about eighty miles north-
west of Washington, along the Potomac, to the
well-known Harper's Ferry, across which, princi•
pally, the Confederates retreated, and over which,
after some delay, -WCLELLAN followed them, first
with his right wing and centre, and afterwards
with his left also. Harper's Ferry is at the junc-
tion of the Shenandoah, which runs northward
along its large and fertile valley, with the Potomac.
Near the westward bank of the Shenandoah, com-
mencing at Harper's Ferry, is the long ridge of the
Blue Mountains. Along these, we are informed,
M'CLELLAN is moving ; and he is said to have occu-
pied Ashby's Gap in them, about thirty miles from
the Ferry. We may presume, therefore, that he has
control of the Manassas Gap, which is but a few
miles to the south, and through which the railway
of that name runs, which leads ultimately to Wash-
ington ; the more so, since he certainly has pos-
session of Warrenton, which communicates with
the same main railway. Indeed, we are told that all
the approaches to Manassas are in the hands of the
Federals. The position of Lee's army is uncertain.
STONEWALL JACKSON'S division, however, cannot
be far from M'CLLELLAN, as we read of his taking
up a position near, and of a slight encounter of
cavalry.

What the plan of the Federals may b
very apparent. Their main army is now sixty o
seventy miles from the capital, and hardly so near
Richmond as it would be if there, yet an advance
e i s notr
on the Southern capital in that direction has been
spoken of. There may be "strategic reasons', for
this, but what they are we cannot •perceive in this
country. Washington, and M'CLELLAN'S present
position on the Blue Mountains, with the rail-
roads connecting them, form the southern base
of a triangle, of which the Potomac and
the Blue Mountains form respectively the eastern
and western sides with H.arper's Ferry as
the Northern vortex. As the Washington
•end of the base is the nearest Richmond, it is not
move on that city should be M-
eas.).
,to see why a -

tempted at the other. No gunboats could aid in
that direction. Nor, is it easy to see how M'CLELLAN
could move a hundred miles south to Richmond, and
secure his communications all the time against
the destructive raids of STUART'S cavalry,
and STONEWALL JACKSON. On the whole we lean
to one of two suppositions. That either he is
really seeking a great battle, in the hope of giving
a brighter aspect to the Northern campaign, or that
he is planning to keep the Virginian army fully
occupied by a steady southward pressure, while the
Federals are renewing smaller attacks on different
points of the seaboard and on the rivers. An
expedition has been already organised to Texas,
which, if successful, as seems most likely, would
be of great importance. We read of another of
12,000 men, with gunboats, leaving Newbern, in
North Carolina, of which the destination is un-
known. Such is the uncertain position of military
affairs—the best, however, that we can lay before
the reader.

From the South we have no further information
at all, except that the conscription, which now in-
cludes all between 18 and 45, is becoming "very
unpopular if not odious." The Alabama, indeed,
and her destructive doings, seem to be makingmore
noise just now than the armies of the South. She
is reputed, unluckily for her, if true, to have seized
one vessel which, both ship and cargo, belonged to
British owners, and Admiral MILNE has been in-
formed of it. We can hardly think, however, that
Capt. SEMMES would be more foolhardy than Capt.
WILKES. Had it been a cargo of munitions of war
intended for the Federals, he would have either ap-
propriated or destroyed them ; but it is little lilr.lv
tnat ne would have suddenly brought on himself
English by the destruction of a British ship.
It must, however, be remembered that, while he had
no port into which to take her, he was as much
entitled to destroy a British ship carrying arms to
his enemies as the Federals who have ports to take
her into them and sell her: It would at least make
no difference to the owners of the ship whether
she were sold for the benefit of the captors or de-
stroyed by them.
The war policy does not seem to be relaxed at
Washington by the political defeat, but if any-
thing invigorated. Not only is M'CLELLAN mov-
ing southwards, in his slow and steady way, but
the ever-unpopular draughting is to be pressed at
New York. Perhaps this is a Governmental
penalty for Democratic triumphs. It will be a fair
one. The Democrats made loud complaints of the
inefficiency of the war administration, and if they
are drawn for the army in greater numbers than
they like, they will have no reason to complain.
Mr. SEWARD is reported to be making things a
little " delicate" in the relations of his Government
with Foreign Powers. We should not be
surprised at this. Since from the time of the
Prince of WALES' visit, he has frankly told us
that quarrels with Europe, with England espe-
cially, were the road to popularity in America : '
and since he has just had such a threatening inti-
mation that his popularity is waning, he may have
no objection to do things which will oompell all
Americans to back him. He has been "currying
favour" with New York merchants in the matter of
the Alabama, and instructing, he says, Mr. ADAMS
to attend to the subject here; alleging that the
Alabama has been sent out in violation of Muni-
cipal and International laws. We should say so
too. The parties to the business all did it at their
own risk. We should not move a finger for their
protection ; if they like to play for such stakes let
them. We cannot, however, afford to put on extra
police to spare the American Government trouble.
She was welcome to catch the Alabama and burn
her as soon as she was well clear of the Mersey, but

that was her business. We treat both parties alike;
we take no more trouble to stop Mr. SEWARD'S
contraband of war, than that which is owned by
the South. It is not reasonable we should be put
to expense and trouble to do either. If Mr.
SEWARD throws on us the watching of our ports,
let him withdraw Ms bullies from the blockade of
the Bermudas and the Bahamas. If he takes the
the business into his •wn hands, let him not com-
plain of us for leaving it there.

If Revolutions nowadays are not exactly accom-
plished with rosewater, they are repeatedly effected
with a very small waste indeed of gunpowder.
King after King is dismissed now—if with any
firing at all—with simply a feu de joie. A dynasty
is done away with in a day : and, when the hurly-
burly of the popular rising is all over, it is found
that the old sovereign has been driven away by
nothing more formidable than the scornful tumult
of a oharivari. It was so with Louis PHILIPPE I.
(and last) King of the French. It has been so
more recently (but a very few weeks since) with
OTHO I. (and last) King of Greece. In February,
1848, when the dethroned chief of the Orleans
Dynasty was in full flight towards the coast, with
his whiskers shaved off and his pear-shaped wig
discarded, when the poor old affrighted ex-King,
wrapped up in an old pea-jacket, was bargaining
to take boat to cross over the Channel to New-
haven—an artisan in a blouse called out, in answer
to the announcement of the King's flight, in the
midst of the hubbub in the mob-invaded Ch&mber
of Deputies, called out two cheery good-humoured
words of comment—Bon Voyage ! The significance
of the whole movement was expressed in that one
exclamation. It spoke at once of the power of the
People and of the impotence of the Sovereign.
Still more complete, still more coolly contemptuous
has been the triumph won by the insurgent Greeks
over a Monarch who has passed away from the
midst of them, at the end of thirty years of misrule,
an object less of derision than of indifference. The
rising of the multitude throughout the kingdom of
Greece is of itself enough. King OTHO, Queen
AMELIA, the Court, the whole of its " entourage''
people of some importance and of no importance are
all swept aside at a breath. They are scared away
by the mere fact of this rising. Not a shot has to be
fired. There is not even a pretence—there is, in
fact,
no single opportunity—of anything like a
hostile collision between the troops of the line and
atth the
thinesurrigsienngt
opfoptuhleatßioenv.
gantblyy
o/uSt ti'oranpial yt
8 —a nmde ainnisnt
these.all Greece—the Bavarian dynasty has passed
away. The Notice to Quit is so peremptory, that
King OTHO (for once like a man of common sense)
hesitates not a moment about taking his
departure. His MAJESTY stands not one
superfluous instant upon the order of his
going, but goes. Passing through Venice he reaches,
after an easy railway j :urney, his old ancestral
home, the Bavarian Capital, Munich—to wonder,
as he drives through the streets of that Metropolis,
from the station to the Palace, what in the name of
his ill-Fortune, the Bavarian multitude, thronging
the footpaths on either hand, to gaze at him, can
possibly mean by cheering himself and his exiled
Consort to the echo. As though they had just cora
pleted, by a signal triumph, the close of a glorious
career, instead of—in plain, homely terms—making
an egregious failure of it. Meantime, while OTHO
and AMELIA are still marvelling upon that in-
opportune Bavarian ovation that rings in their ears
like another Greek CHARIVARI—the triumphant
Revolutionists they have left behind them in Athens
are quietly going on just as usual; as coolly and)