The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-25 00:00:00

SCIENTIFIC AND ORNAMENTAL PRESENTS.

ORNAMENTS for the Drawing-room, Library,
aad Dining-room, eonsisting of a new and emgant assort-
ment ,f VASES, Figures, Groups, Candlesticks, Obelisks, Ink-
stands, wautiful inlaid Tables, Paper weights, &a, in Italian,
Alabas er, Parian, Marble, Bronze, Derbyshire Spar, &o.
Imported and manufactured by JAMES TENNANT, Mine.
ralogist to her ilaJesty, 149, Stand, W.C., London.

Mr. Tennant arranges elementary collections of ROCKS,
II INERALS, and FOSSILS, to illustrate the new edition
of Lyell's Elements of Geology; they will greatly tacilitate
the interesting study of MINERALOGY and GEOLOGY,
and can be had at 2, 5,10, 20, 50, to 100 guineas each.
PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION in GEOLOGY and MINE.
ALOG Y is given by Mr. TENNANT, at 149. Strand W.C.

NOTHING ThIPOSSIBLE.—The greatest and
most useful invention of the day, AGITA AMARELL A.
Messrs. JOHN GOSNELL and CO., 12, Three King-court,
Lombard. street, London, Perfumers to her Majesty, respect
fully offer to the public this truly marvellous fluid. which
gradually restores the human hair to its pristine hue- no
matter at what age. The Agna Amarella has none of the
properties of dyes ; it, on the contrary, is beneficial to the
system, and when the hair is once restored one application
per month will keep it in perfect colour. Price one guinea per
bottle, or in half bottles. lOs. 61. Testimonials from artistes
of the highest order, and from individuals of undoubted re-
spectability, may be seen on application. Messrs. John
(losnell and Co. have been appointed Perfumers to her Royal
Highness the Princes i of Wales.

JOHN GOSNELL and CO.'S CHERRY
TOO fn-PASTIC is greatly superior to any tooth
powder; Lives the teeth a pearl ,%hiteness, protects the
enamel from decay, and imparts a pleasant fragrance to the
the breath. Pr.ce Is. GcL-12, Three King-court, Lombard-
street, Lond-n.

ARMY CONTRACTB.
Commissariat Office, Aldershot, April 9, 1865.
TENDERS will be received at this Office, until 12 o'clock
(noon) on Wednesday, 26th April, 180, from persons who
may be willing to enter into CON T itACTS for the supply of
FLOUR (Ration and Hospital), AND MEAT,
in such quantities as may be required, from Ist June to 80th
November, 1865, for the use of her Majesty SForces stat tined
at Aldershot Camp, and within the command.
These being three distinct Contracts, separate Tenders are
required for each description of Flour and for Meat.
Forms of Tender and conditions of Contract may be ob-
tained on application at th s office, by letter addressed to the
Senior Commissariat Officer, or in person, between the hours
of ten and four o'(locr.
The renders must be properly filled up, signed, and deli-
vered at this office (under closed envelope, marked on the
outside "Tender for Army Supplies"), by thehour appointed,
and no Tender will be noticed that shall not be in compliance
with these conditions.

DR. SCOTT'S LIVER AND BILIOUS
PILLS.—A NEVER FAILING RE SlEDY.—fre-
'axed without any mercurial ingredient, from the recipe of Dr.
oott, of Bromley, Kent, will be found invaluable to all who
utTer from bilious and dyer p.amplaints, in ligestion, wind.
'palms, giddiness, dizziness of the eyes, Szo. For habitual
'ostiveness, as a family aperient medicine, and as a purifier
A the blood, they are truly excellent; mild in their opera-
Ma and grateful to the stomach, they oreate appetite, pro-
mote digestion, and strengthen the whole nervous system.
iolel by W. Lambert, 8, King William-street, Charing-cross.
London, and by most druggists, in boxes,ls. lid., and three
times the quantity in one, 2% 9d. Be sure to ask for Dr.
Scott's Bilious and Liver Pills. The genuine arc a square
green package. with " William Lambert." engraved on the
8 tamp.

LEVEL RAILWAY CRoSSlNGS.—Yesterday an in-
quiry was held by Mr. C. J. Carttar, coroner for Kent,
at the Bell Inn, Sydenham, respecting the death of Emma
Chant, aged 47 years. Tho deceased was the wife of a gar-
dener living at 5, Crown-place, Bell-green, and on Thursday
last she proceeded with a friend and two children to the
Lower Sydenham station to come up to town. It was neces-
sary for her to cross the line to get her tickets at the
booking-office. Upon coming back to her companions she
was run down by the express train and cut to pieces.
Mr. Magnus Morehen, C.E., said that he crossed just after
the deceased to get a ticket, and as ho saw a train coming
up he asked for his ticket in haste, thinking that it was the
up-train for London. The station-master who gave him the
ticket, however, said, " Oh, that is a special train ; you
must not cross." The witness immediately afterwards saw
the deceased knocked down. There was a down-train at
the platform just previously, and the deceased was pre-
vented by it from seeing the express coming along. She
began to cross as soon as the down-train moved on from
the platform. Mr. James Hyde, station-master at Lower
Sydenham, said that he had closed his window and gone
on to the platform (whence he saw the express approach-
ing) ; the deceased applied to him for a ticket, but he cau-
tioned her, saying, "Don't cross, the up-express is com-
ing." The Coroner said that a caution that an engineer
would understand would be quite unintelligible to a
woman knowing nothing about " up" and " down" ex -
presses. It was evident she imagined when the down train
moved on that the line was safe. The witness said that he
could not help that. The Coroner said that he could have
helped it. He should have seen that she did not cross. The
witness said that he had to deliver the tickets to the pas-
sengers, and he had only one junior porter (a lad of 17) to
assist him ;he could not be in two places at once. The
Coroner said that there ought to be a bridge for the cross-
ing. The witness said that would be of no use, for the
passengers all cams at the last moment for their tickets,
and they would not have time to cross the bridge ; they
would cross the metals. It would never do to offend
the passengers by refusing tickets for a minute before
trains were expected to come up. It was proved that when
deceased was already on the line a signal-man (the porter
was collecting tickets) called out to her, but she did not
hear him. The jury returned a verdict, "That deceased
was killed by a certain express train on the Mid-Kent Rail-
way, but that no person or persons nilfully caused her
death, and they recommended that a foot-bridge should be
erected to save the passengers from the danger of crossing
on the metals." The same Coroner held an inquest at the
Foresters' Tavern, Forest-hill, on the remains of John
Hayward, aged 54 years. The deceased was a porter in the
employ of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway
Company, at Forest-hill station. He had been in the com-
pany's service 23 years, but was only a week at the station
in question. On Friday last Charles Stanford, a ticket
collector, and the deceased proceeded to cross the line as a
there
on either side. The
e being a platform in the
down train was expected at the further platform. The
auonm ex, pres
and s up."
the Dover
escaped
witness stationcentre,
havingis sa w t
eo
Diwb
00l double
el one,
rnnees of er,
express
etal
coming,
and he shouted to
The deceased
Jumped deceased
on the "Make
centre haste, Dover
platform,
express, but he then jumped down on the further line of
metals, and was instantly struck and cut to pieces by
cere
another up-express, belonging to the South-Eastern Com-
pany. Stanford was in the act of jumping too when he
caught sight of the express ; he threw himsdlf down on
the platform, and thus saved his life, the engine actually
touching his trousers. There was a tunnel for passengers
at this station to cross by, but the servants of the company
always crossed on the level. The express engine did not
whistle according to the rule. The jury returned a verdict
" That deceased was killed by being run over by an express
train, and not by the wilful act of any person or persons
whatever."

THE LATE LION KILLER !—A subscription hav-
ing been sot on foot to relieve the aged mother of tho late
Jules Gerard, it has met with so much success that the
poor old lady has been enabled to quit the house of cha-
rity at Nice, and rent a small home of her own. Some
11,000 f. have been collected for the grandmother and
grandchildren.

the annals of modern warfare ; after enduring con-
version from a little country town officered by six
policemen into a frowning camp girdled with 40 miles
of earthworks and defended by tens of thousands of
men; after inscribing its name as one of the most
famous of beleaguered cities indelibly upon the page
of history ; after demanding for its reduction a
period of no less than 1,452 days, or in other words
compelling Mr. Seward 17 times to renew his 00-
day bill ; after exacting at least a quarter of a mil-
lion lives spent in assaulting or defending it ; after
adding to its beautiful cemetery 50,000 new graves;
after seeing its tobacco warehouses converted into
loathsome prisons, its manufactories creating no-
thing but war material, its ironworks changed into
cannon foundries, its public edifices into depart-
mental bureaux, its men turned into soldiers, and
women almost without exception into mourners ;
after an expenditure upon its attack and defence
of a weight of iron and lead hardly inferior to
that of every building which its streets contained
—Richmond has fallen. Nor can it be pretended
that in the mind of those who have for some
months been behind the scenes in the Confederate
capital any other feeling rises at this moment so
prominently as astonishment that Grant's multitu-
dinous hosts, with all the vast resources of the North
available at City Point, and poured into their lap
by railroads stretching along Grant's lines, should
for nearly ten months have been held at bay by Lee's
ragged veterans, shrunken in numbers, scantily sup-
plied with food or clothing, tethered down to lines in
which the winter's frost, the summer's vertical sun,
the rain, dew, or snow had, without the stimulus of
coffee or spirits, or even of adequate food, to be un-
complainingly endured, and finally, dispirited by the
thought that all the valour which had so long baffled
the army of Grant had served but to bring upon
their backs the anxiliary army of Sherman.
It is far too early in these passionate times to enter
into a disquisition accounting for the events of the
2d and 3d of April. It is obvious that the causes
which led to them must have been manifold and di-
versified, and in some cases so subtle and mysterious
as to defy human analysis. But, speaking broadly
and briefly, I believe that the failure thus far of the
insurrection may be attributed to three principal
causes—first, and most materially, to the failure of
Johnston and the Western army to keep Sherman
out of Atlanta in the same manner as Lee and the
Eastern army kept Grant out of Petersburg and
Richmond ; secondly, to the imbecility of the Con-
federate Houses of Congress ; thirdly, and finally,
to the inherent weakness of President Davis's Go-
vernment, and to the inability or indisposition
evinced by him or General Lee to assume, at any
risk, the dictatorial powers which a jealous and
short-sighted Congress denied to either, but which
are alone adapted to the successful management of
revolutions. Reserving some further reflections
upon the philosophy of this revolution for a future
occasion, I desire at once to state that, without in
the least undervaluing the admirable tenacity of
Grant, the eager, impulsive earnestness of Sherman,
the soldierly qualities of Meade, and the valour
generally of the Federal armies, it is my deliberate
conviction that Lee has been defeated more from
the rear than from the front, and that nothing
but the possession of the very highest personal attri-
buties by its commander has averted from his army
the crushing blow which, according to all human
foresight, ought to have overtaken it some six
months sooner.

I have long known that the continued tenure of
the Confederate lines around Petersburg and Rich-
mond by Lee's army was felt by Mr. Davis, by
Generals Lee and Breckinridge, and by every other
wise military head, to be a grievous blunder. But
to withdraw from those lines, with the Virginia roads
two feet deep in mud, and with Lee's artillery horses
reduced in number and weak from inanition, while
Grant commanded not only any amount of horse-
flesh, but illimitable supplies of forage to feed them,
was obviously impossible. Not only were the Con-
federate artillery horses half-starved, but the Con-
federate cavalry, from want of forage in the Rich-
mond and Petersburg lines, had almost ceased to
exist. Add to this that the shortness of ration oc-
casioned such desertions from the Confederate ranks
as have never previously been remembered ; that in
the month of February alone General Lee reported
the desertion of no less than 1,200 of his choicest
veterans, and it will be seen that the further tenure
of Richmond and Petersburg by Lee's army has
long been felt to be a question not so much of weeks
as of days. Nevertheless, Generals Lee and Long-
street, and many others of their gallant associates,
continued to maintain an undaunted front, in the
hope of some possible political turn in their favour
either at the North or in Europe, and with but faint
expectation thatif General Lee should ever be forced
from his lines he would be enabled to keep together
any such organised body of men as could be dignified,
with the name of an army. I may here mention
that if General Sheridan had been able some few
weeks ago to get across the swollen James River
between Lynchburg and Richmond, and to swoop
down upon the Danville Railroad, he would probably
have met with little or no opposition, and that the
end would have come some 40 or 50 days earlier.
Upon the afternoon of Saturday, April 1, Rich-
mond, long familiar with the sights and sounds of
war, wore its usual look of unconscious security, and
there were but few persons acquainted with the fact
that Sheridan, with some 6,000 or 8,000 cavalry,
supported by Warren's corps of infantry and artil-
lery, was at work upon General Lee's right, that
he was opposed only by a handful of Confederate
cavalry, and that momentous events were probably
at hand. It should be mentioned that for some days
prior to the opening of April Grant had been mass-
ing troops on his extreme left, near Hatcher's Run,
and that Lee had been compelled to mass corres-
pondingly on his own extreme right. But, in
addition to massing on his left, Grant had with-
drawn all his troops, save two small divisions,
from the north of James River and from the
Bermuda Hundred lines, and had placed them
opposite to General A. P. Hill's corps, at a spot
where, in the immediate neighbourhood of Peters-
burg, it was known that the Confederate lines were
weakly manned. It was not until Saturday, the Ist,
that Gen. Lee discovered that Gen. Ord and his
troops had been withdrawn from the north side, and
that he set to work also to bring Gen. Longstreet
and most of his men across the river to the south
side. My impression is that before Longstreet had
taken position near Petersburg, the Federal attack
of Sunday morning, conducted by Generals Wright
and Ord, had been successfully delivered. Be that
as it may, at 5 upon the morning of Sunday, the 2d,
the Federals swept forward in a fine broad front, and
ran fairly over A. P. Hill's weak lines of defence.
Onward, right onward, the Federals eagerly pressed,
until they got into the immediate neighbourhood of
General Lee's headquarters. I believe that in one
or two spots the Confederates, and especially
Mahone and Gordon, succeeded in re-establishing
their lines, but the fact remained that a broad belt
of the Confederate earthworks, including four or
five important forts, was in Grant's possession, and
General Lee immediately saw that the evacuation
of Petersburg, and consequently of Richmond, was
inevitable. He telegraphed at once to Richmond,
desiring that everything necessary for its instant
evacuation should be done (your readers will have
gathered that the first steps towards its evacuation
were taken two months ago), and announcing that
the enemy would probably enter and take posses-
sion the following morning at daybreak. Upon the
arrival of Gen. Lee's despatch in Richmond President
Davis was occupying his accustomed seat. during
morningservice in the Church of St. Paul's, m which
church, served by the same clergyman, the Prince. of
Wales attended divine service
_upon 91. e occasion

of his visit to Richmond, and the President was
surrounded by a congregation, of which the
fairer portion was, as usual, arrayed with an
elegance which has long been an unfailing source of
wonder to those who reflect upon Richmond's four
years of blockade. Suddenly the sexton, approach-
ing President Davis, handed to him a paper, which
was slowly perused. Rising from his seat with
singular gravity and deliberation, Mr. Davis left the
church, and immediately afterwards several promi-
ment citizens were by the same sexton summoned to
follow him. It will be believed that the excitement
among those who remained was at its highest, but
it was remarked by sly observers that the excellent
clergyman, who has endeared himself to his con-
gregation by four years of brave and hearty sym-
pathy with their trials, did not omit to make
the usual collection—possibly with the design of
impressing upon his congregation that nothing
unusual had happened, possibly to give credit
to a currency from which all felt that every
semblance of value was passing away. The congre-
gation was not slow to disperse, and quickly from
mouth to mouth flew the sad tidings that in a few
hours Richmond's long and gallant resistance would
be over. The scene that followed baffles description.
During the long afternoon and throughout the
feverish night, on horseback, in every description
of cart, carriage, and vehicle, in every hurried train
that left the city, on canal barges, skiffs, and boats,
the exodus of officials _and prominent citizens was
unintermitted. About Bin the evening President
Davis, accompanied by all the members of his
Cabinet, except General Breckenridge, started by
an express train for Danville, with a view to await
further tidings there, and thence to proceed and
form, if possible, the nucleus of a fresh Government
at Charlotte, in North Carolina. Up to the hour
of their departure from Richmond I can testify that
Mr. Davis and the three most prominent members
of his Cabinet went undauntedly forth to meet the
future, not without hope that General Lee would
be able to hold together a substantial remnant of
his army, and to effect a junction with General
Johnston. That hope, your readers are aware, has
been disappointed, nor shall I now attempt to gauge
the future history of those 10 or 11 vast provinces
which a'e still in heart as rebellious as ever, but o
which tile organised resistance seems for the mo
ment beaten down.

It will be believed that during that memorable
night there was no sleep in Richmond. In front of
every Government bureau, of every auditor's office,
around the Capitol, and upon each side of Capitol-
square, the glare of vast piles of burning papers
turned night into day. As the night wore away
the tramp of Kershaw's division, and of Custis
Lee's local Militia was heard in the streets, and it
was felt that as the last men were now withdrawn
from the north side there was no longer any-
thing to interpose between Richmond and the
enemy. As the first streak of dawn heralded the
approach of day, several tremendous explosions
seemed to shake every building in Richmond to its
foundations. As I walked up between 5 and 6 in the
morning of Monday, the 3d, to catch the early train
upon the Fredericksburg Railroad, a vast column of
dense black smoke shot into the air, a huge, rum-
bling, earthquake-like reverberation rent the ground,
and the store of gunpowder garnered in the city
magazine passed out of existence. As the eye ranged
backwards along the James River, several bright jets
of flame in the region of Pearl and Cary streets au-
gured the breaking forth of that terrible conflagration
which subsequentlyswept across the heart of the city.
As the train moved off from the Fredericksburg depot
about 6 o'clock I parted with Mr. Conolly, the mem-
ber for Donegal, who had passed a month in Rich-
mond, and was upon this eventful morning still un-
decided whether to follow Gen. Lee's army or to
strike northwards like myself. About half-an-hour
after my departure Gen. Breckenridge, one of the
last passengers who traversed the already blazing
railroad bridge over the James River, started to re-
join his colleagues. About two hours after my eyes
rested for the last time upon the dingy old Capitol
under whose shadow I have passed so many hours,
the Stars and Stripes floated in triumph from its
rebellious roof. The scene which upon that Monday
morning greeted the incoming Federals will not soon,
I imagine, be obliterated from their memory. Upon
the edge of the roaring crackling flames, larcenous
negroes, crazy Irishwomen, in a word, all the
dangerous classes of Richmond (many of them
infuriated and made reckless by whisky, of which
hundreds of barrels had been emptied into the
streets), danced, and dived into cellars and into
the open and undefended doors of warehouses,
plying their search after plunder, with the
howls of demoniacs. Thousands of hogsheads of
tobacco, and among them, I believe, the ware-
houses which contained the littench tobacco, which
has so long been a subject of diplomatic discussion
between Mr. Seward, Mr. Benjamin, and the Em-
peror's Government, added to the volume of the
flames. Never might Prospero's words, " Hell is
empty, and all the devils are here," have been more
appositely spoken. It was a scene unparalleled,
believe, even among the ghastly revelations of this
war.