The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-01 00:00:00

WOOL.

Since we last wrote, increased animation has been ob-
served in the biddings for colonial wool, at the public sales
now in progress. The fineness of the weather, the rise in
cotton, cotton goods as well as flax articles, including the
cheapness of money, have encouraged buyers from our own
manufacturing districts to purchase more freely, and in
some jotances a plight advance has taken place in prices.

1858. 1859. i 1860., 1861. 1862.
-
Stock this day.... 10,287 19,997:) 39.153 45.897 35,335
Price of Y.C. ..
f 5186,1 to sCs6d t 0,52501 to 47s ed to-18s Od to
—s Od 57s Od —s Od —s Od 48s 3d
Delivery last week 2,311 1,647 2,077 5,301 1,354
Ditto from June 1 22,275 16,322 23,762 28,727 18,976
Arrivals last week 1,081 1,731 2,775 2,248 915
Ditto from June 1 20,995 24,229 36,221 17,871 15.999
Price of Town .... 53s 6d 58s Cd 54s 3d 49s 3d 508 05

THE WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)

AUGUST 19.
It appears to be certain—though nothing is very
certain in this land of fiction, especially if it appears
in the newspapers, or is held forward as authentic
by the signature of a civil or military functionary,
—that 111‘Clellan has evacuated his position on the
James River, crossed the Chickahominy once again
and succeeded in reaching the York River. Whether
he has done this without material lose is the point
on which further information is needed, but on which
it is scrupulously withheld by the "War Secretary
and the military supervisor of the telegraphic lines.
Few people believe that the Confederates have been
kept in ignorance of M'Clellan's movements—which
have been in progress for three weeks—or that,
knowing them, they did not attempt to harrass his
retreating columns ; but as it is positive that he
and his army have escaped destruction, with or
without serious damage, it is only due to WClellan
to confess that he has for once done a great thing,
and to wait for further details before attempting to
apportion the degree of glory or of credit to which

he may be entitled for the achievement.

The

quiescence of the Confederates under the circum-
stances, if they were as quiescent as Mr. Stanton
would have the world believe, may be accounted
for on other suppositions than that of their in-
ability to strike a :blow. They may have desired
tosstrike a blow. They may have desired to faci-
litate the operations of their retreating foe, because
those operations might conduce to their objects
more than to his, and because, while General
Haileck was concentrating his attention on this
little business, they might have been concen-
trating theirs in another direction, and preparing to
make a final onslaught with an overwhelming force
upon General Pope in the valley of the Shenandoah.
The result of M'Ciellan's movement, whatever may
have been its success, has been to reduce the Great
Army of the Potomac to the second rank, and to
leave that of the Shenandoah in the first position,
both for danger and importance. News from the
Shenandoah may be hourly expected, and whatever
the issue of the battle may be, the battle itself will
assuredly be one which will try of what metal Pope
is made, and perhaps decide the question whether
he can fight as magnificently as he can boast.
The atmosphere of the Mississippi river does not
appear to be favourable to calm judgment and cor-
rect statement, whether the narrators of events be
Federals or Confederates. Vicksburg was captured
ten times over by the Northern flotillas and armies
(in the newspapers), though it still remains in the
hands of the Confederates, and blocks the whole
course of the Mississippi against the armies and
trade of the West. With equal untruth, Baton
Rouge has been twice or thrice taken (in the news-
papers) by the ex-Vice-President Breckinridge. The
last time the story appeared to be confirmed under
the hand of Breckinridge himself, in an official
despatch to President Davis at Richmond. But the
story was a fabrication, though whether invented
by General Breckinridge or by some forger of his
name, does not appear. Breckinridge assaulted
Baton Rouge with a large force, but General Butler
had time to send reinforcements from New Orleans,
and the Confederate General was repulsed with
heavy loss, and forced to retreat to a distance of 10
miles, to prepare for a renewal of the attempt.
It is alleged on the authority of some in this city
who are in a position to know that the movement
was in reality a feint, that its object was to dis-
tract the attention of the commander of the Federal
flotilla in the Mississippi, so as to enable the Con-
federates to pass over 20,000 head of cattle further
up the stream, that had been driven from the rich
grazing country of Opelousas, and were intended
for the subsistence of the armies of Generals Price
and Van Dorn. It is added that this movement
was perfectly successful. If this be so the failure
of Breckinridge to capture Baton Rouge is not of
so much importance as it would otherwise be. One
cause of the retreat of Breckinridge appears to have
been the mishap that befel the Confederate ram the
Arkansas, whieh got aground. Though cased in a
panoply of iron six inches thick she was destroyed
and set on fire by a wooden vessel pouring shot
into her from the opposite side of the river. If the
statement be correct these iron clad monsters are
not so invulnerable as they were thought to be
when the Merrimac destroyed the Cumberland amid
the world's wonder, and hearts of oak not quite so
useless as the first circumstances of their collision
with an iron-clad seemed to indicate. Hitherto
the Confederates have been unlucky with these
vessels. The Merrimac and the Arkansas,
after exciting vast curiosity as well as alarm,
have both perished without fulfilling the expecta-
tions that were formed of them, and left un-
proven many problems of which maritime nations
would have been pleased to watch the solution at
other expense than their own. Perhaps before this
the second Merrimac or Virginia, as she is called by
the Confederates, may have appeared on the waters
to renew the struggle, the retreat of M'Clellan from
the James River having left her at liberty to run
past Fort Darling and show the fight that may be
in her. The South has at least three other vessels
of the same kind ready or nearly ready—one at
Savannah, one at Mobile, and a third at Charles-
ton, so that there will yet be opportunities, if this
cruel war is allowed to continue, of testing iron-
clad against iron-clad,and giving England or France
the benefit of American experience in the construc-
tion of deadly warships.
The fragmentary intelligence received from time
to time from the Border States shows that the
guerilla movement is extending; and, though the
details are confused and contradictory, there is
enough cohesion in them to prove that the capture
of Richmond by the Federals either under Pope
or l‘l'Clellan, or the capture of Washington by
Stonewall Jackson and Lee, are not the only in-
cidents that ecill give gigantic proportions to the ,
struggle. If the whole of M'Clellan's army were
this day removed into Kentucky it would not be
more than sufficient to maintain order in that
State; and if Pope were in Tennessee with all,
his force he would have enough to do to retain
it in subjection. Louisiana is in a state of chroelc
rebellion. New Orleans is quiet, but only because
I of the iron hand with which Butler g a"Ps
its
th
e
neck ; and the banks of the Mississippi are
scene of outrages committed by both potties that
make one sick to read of. Bands of gorillas fire
from the shelter of the trees on the river side into
the ascending or descending war sh
cake vengeancee of the Fede-
rals, and the Federal commanders .
itdmiral Farragut's
on the first town they come to.
vessel having been fired into from the town of
on:Pjo.al of Louisiana,habitan
tstoremohvee
Donaldsville, the former
sent word on the 9th to
the women and children, ae he intended to shell the
place on the following day. He was as good as his
word. On the 10th he
fired a broadside into the
hells, and then sent a party of
Beforeshore,
theyw ho
left set
the fire
greater t o t h the
town of nine-inch shells,
severall:eras in ashes. Another party went
..jaueso.n
sailors and in
Phili Ln d a rich planter and
townpart of
fn the
to w
eapturive . 00. p ~n ry,
b,u,
`Pe
his
,a guerilla band. They did not
, , him, but the
stables, ou
vicnaaiPisiteea,:i7a°htl:oo,ooo dolsy,
furni-
ture, _
nue
rator of the incident, succeed in
house, tbuildings, and sugar refinery,
e burnt," says the
a seaman engaged
in the expedition, "21 houses, including hotels,
saw-mills &.e
1 ~destroying property to the value of
more than half a million of 11 do ars) and returned to
the fleet
without losing a man." And while the
s
Federa 1 have men enough in Louisiana to commit
such acts, but not enough to keep the peace, it is
not to be expected that the Confederates will not
retaliate whenever they have the chance, or that
the war will ;not assume a deadlier and more dis-
graceful character the longer the humanity or in-
humanity of Christendom permits it to continue.
Two prominent merchants of this city were yes-
terday arrested and committed to prison on the
treacherous testimony of their servants, who
played the part of spies and eavesdroppers. The
one for stating " that Mr. Lincoln ought to be
hung, and that 12. e would advise all his friends if
they were liable to be drangbted to leave the coun-
try and go to Cimada ;" the other for stating "that
the war was an unjust and unholy war; that God
did not approve of it; and that if he had to
fight, he would fight for, the Southern Confede•