The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-06 00:00:00

.MERICA,

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
• NEW YORK, March 24.
The buoyant confidence of the Northern press
and people that Sherman would carry all before
him in his march upon Raleigh has been somewhat
abated by the intelligence that each of his two ad-
vancing columns has been checked by the Confede-
rates. Richmond papers of the 22d report that
General Hardee fell upon Sherman on the 16th inst.
at a place called Averysborough, on the Cape Fear
River, halfway between Fayetteville and Raleigh,
and defeated him with great carnage. The state-
ment, however, that the Federal loss was 3,300 and
that of the Confederates only 450 looks like an exag-
geration. The other victory was achieved by Gen.
Joseph E. Johnston, apparently over General Scho-
field at Bentonville on the 19th (Sunday last.)
Since that time no news of any further 'encounters
has been received, or, if received, they have not
been communicated to the public. It is understood
that the Confederates, commanded by General Lee
in person, will make their first stand at or near
Raleigh, and that if unsuccessful in defeating and
routing Sherman they will retire upon the line of the
Roanoke, where reinforcements from Richmond can
reach Lee within a few hours. Although, therefore,
a reverse of the Federal arms is possible, and ought
to be taken into account by all who would not de-
lude themselves with over-sanguine expectations,
the Northern public, almost en masse, and as if by
universal consent, believe that the war on the part
of the Confederates is so utterly hopeless that it
only needs a magnanimous proclamation of amnesty
to all the Southern leaders to induce General Lee
to yield up his sword, and retire from the conflict
with the honours of war, and the grateful remem-
brances and admiration both of North and South.
Mr. Lincoln has gone to Fortress Monroe—some
say for the benefit of his health, and to free
himself, if only for a few days, froni the mos-
quito-like cloud of office-seekers who worry
him " nigh unto death" by their greedy importuni-
ties. Others allege that his object is to confer with
Gen. Grant on the proposition made by Mr. Jeffer-
son Davis, to the effect that Generals Lee and Grant
should hold a conference to debate, with perhaps
better results than attended the efforts of the civi-
lians who recently met on board the steamer in the
Hampton Roads, whether peace and reconciliation
be not possible at.this moment. It is likely that this
explanation of Mr. Lincoln's visit to his generalis-
simo is the true one, for the camp of an invading
army and the tent of a soldier is not the place that
a sick man would naturally select for the benefit of
his health, or the repose and refreshment of his jaded
system. It would be easier, if health alone and relief
from the toils of office were Mr. Lincoln's object, to
claim the sick man's privilege of seclusion, and shut
himself up in the inmost sanctuary of the White-
house, insensible to all comers but those of his own
family and household. For this, among many other
reasons, the general belief is that Mr. Lincoln's ob-
ject is peace, and that a new, or a renewal of an
old, proposition to the South may be every hour
expected from his pen.
The fall in gold appears to have been temporarily
arrested. The failures that have already occurred in
consequence of the great appreciation of the cur-
rency have not been anything like so numerous and
so heavy as were anticipated, but a very uneasy feel-
ing prevails, and the excitement that exists in Wall-
street is scarcely to be considered that of exhilara-
tion, but rather of a gloom that closely borders upon
fear.

At such a critical time as this undoubtedly is, both
for North and South, it is curious to see how very
loudly the Hibernian portion of the American people
are beginning to insult and to breathe vengeance
against Great Britain. No person whose business it
is to watch the tide of political life in America, and to
note the chips or the straws that are borne upon the
strong current, can fail to perceive the unusual activity
of what is called the Fenian Brotherhood, and the un-
usual importance attached to their speeches and pro-
ceedings. The ignorance of social and political
science, one of the characteristics of the Americans,
which their friend Mr. Cobden reluctantly and sor-
rowfully acknowledges, is, if possible, exceeded by
thoir ignorance of British politics generally, and of
the social condition of Ireland particularly. They
do not know, or will not acknowledge, that Irishmen
flock to America by hundreds of thousands every year
because the population is too large for the agricultu-
ral resources of a little pastoral island, better fitted
to produce cattle than corn ; and that this exodus
is perfectly intelligible and natural, and is as good,
within certain limits, for the emigrants as for the
old country which loses and the new country which
receives them. They are told by Irish exiles who
know better that Ireland is treated by Great Britain
as Venetia by Austria, or Poland by Russia, and
they believe it. They are told that the Irishman
has no political privileges, and can acquire none ;
that he is a serf, if not a slave ; and that, like the
negro on a Southern plantation, he has no rights
which his Saxon " tyrant" is bound to acknowledge,
or which he can enforce against the said tyrant, ex-
cept the sacred rights of insurrection and assassina-
tion. They are unaware that Ireland is fully repre-
sented in the British Parliament, that the members
for Irish boroughs, cities, and counties are for the
most part Irishmen, that the voters who elect them
are Irish also ; that elections are perfectly free ;
that Ireland which complains so lustily of wrong has
a representation nearly double in number to that of
Scotland, which does not complain at all ; that the
laws in Ireland are impartially administered by Irish
Judges ; and that if the grievances of Ireland were
fairly traced to their source, there would be found
but one, and that one for which the British Govern-
ment could not even here be held responsible. It is
that the people, on account of their own superabun-
dance of numbers, cannot obtain farms to cultivate
on a soil which is not only extremely limited, but
which is, moreover, from the moisture of the skies,
far better adapted to pasturage than the plough.
This grievance the Irish themselves are busily en-
gaged in curing, by voluntary expatriation to the
Western States of America, where land is cheap, and
where every man of ordinary industry and prudence
can easily secure the fee simple of a farm of 100 or
200 acres at a price scarcely more than half as much
as he would have to pay for the yearly rental of a
similar quantity of less productive land in his own
country. But all this is a fathomless mystery to the
Yankee mind. The Irish in America have a rabid
hatred of England, and as the expression of this
feeling is agreeable to Americans, because it is
thought to be an element of military strength in the
always populaF contingency of a war with Great
Britain, the Fenians are encouraged by men in
power and in high social position to extend and
complete their organisation and keep their imaginary
wrongs continually before the public. During the last
eight or ten months the Fenians have been more ram-
pant and violent than at any previous time, and that,
too, in spite of the opposition of the Roman Catholic
bishops, who have denounced the movement as
highly impolitic and dangerous. The papers in all
the Northern States overflow with reports of meet-
ings of the " Brotherhood," to whom have lately
been added a " Sisterhood," and the most urgent ap-
peals are made for money to purchase arms to be
sent to Ireland, so that when the long-wished for
invasion of the Green Isle by a hundred thousand
Fenians, under General Francis Thomas Meagher,
or some other Hibernian, shall take place, the in-
vading army shall be welcomed on the shore by a
native army at least as strong, each man with a
sword at his side, and a pike or a rifle in his
hand. At a great meeting of the Brotherhood held
on St. Patrick's-day in Philadelphia, it was enthu-
siastically resolved, " That it is now manifest:to the
wcrld that it is the deliberate purpose of the
nefarious and malignant tyrants that rule Ireland
to utterly exterminate by force and fraud the
Irish race from the face of their native land, and
to erase the name of their country from geo-
graphy." The egregious stupidity of the resolution
was no bar to its acceptance by the fools or knaves
assembled to swallow or " endorse" it, nor was the
next resolution less to the taste or the purpose of the
audience, though in one sense it was not quite so
silly as the proem of which it was the corollary__
" Resolved, That the Irish people have a right to
ye upon and to own the soil bequeathed to them by
heir sires." The British Government has never