The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-01 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR, IN AMERICA.

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(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Jan. 17.
The capture of Fort Fisher has filled the Northern
people with more than usual joy, and been unwel-
come to no true Federalist,' unless to General
Butler, who was explaining before the Committee on
Military Affairs at Washington how impossible it
was to take it, when the news arrived that the deed
was done. The naval portion of the second expedi-
tion by which the result was obtained was as strong
as the first, while the military was much stronger,
and conducted by a General who had the fate of
Butler fresh and green in his recollection to warn
him of the personal consequences of failure. The
capture of Fort Fisher does not necessarily involve
that of Wilmington-17 miles distant up the Wil-
mington or Cape Fear River—but as the Govern-
ment and General Grant have resolved upon obtain-
ing the city at any price, and will not be deterred
from their purpose by any weak considerations of
cost, it is to be presumed that an attempt will im-
mediately be made to carry its defences either by a
coup de main or the slower operations of a siege. As
the city will be attacked in front by the victorious
troops of General Terry, and in the rear by a large
co-operating force from Newberne, it will tax all
the energies, resources, and skill of the Confederate
General in command at Wilmington—supposed to
be General Bragg—to hold the city against the
powerful odds opposed to him, if not to escape with
the garrison as cleverly as Hardee did from Savan-
nah when he found the position to be tenable no
longer. The news of the fall of Fort Fisher sent
down the premium on gold from 1181 to 1141 per
cent., but the fall was not maintained, and the price
rose later in the day to 115 f.

The " peace mission" of the elder Mr. Blair to
Richmond has ended as all sensible men expected.
Mr Blair had no ;authority, no credentials, and no
public purpose. His private purpose was, it ap-
appears, to regain possession of some valuable law
papers and other documents taken from his house
at Silver Springs by the invading army of General
Early in the summer of 1864, in which object he is
stated to have been successful. As a private indi-
vidual, and not as a public functionary or an am-
bassador, he had interviews with some of the Con-
federate Ministers and other personal friends, and
learnt from them whatever they chose to communi-
cate on the great subjects of war and peace, and has
returned to Washington, in all probability, a wiser
man than when he left it. Gen. Singleton, a strong
Unionist, but a sturdy opponent of war as a means
of restoring the ancient compact between the States,
has also been allowed, rather than authorised by Mr.
Lincoln, to pass the Federal lines and proceed to
Richmond, and will in due time, if he mixes much
with influential people, make his way back, as
thoroughly convinced as Mr. Blair that the restora-
tion of the Union by negotiation is impossible as long
as the South has armies in the field or guerillas in
the mountains. Dr. Zacharie's mission, whatever
may have been its object, has been but little spoken
of ; but when he returns it will be strange if he has
anything newer or better to tell the President of the
views, wishes, and determination of the Confederate
people and leaders than he will already have learnt
from Messrs. Blair and Singleton. Wall-street has
ceased to be affected by the peace rumours that a
week ago were as thick as snow flakes in the wintry
air, and the prices of gold and stocks, instead of
vibrating to the dulcet melodies of peace and good-
will, are beginning to dance to the martial music of
the guns of Wilmington and Fort Fisher, and the
answering chorus of Petersburg and Richmond.
Meanwhile Mr. Seward continues to be bellicose
towards Canada and Great Britain, and peaceful
towards France ; while the Senate of the United
States takes a less moderate course, and seems to
think that if there is to be a foreign in addition to
the civil war, both France and England should bear
the brunt of it. Notice has been given in the Senate
of the desire of the people of the United States to
abrogate all existing treaties with Great Britain
having reference to Canada or British North
America, and Mr. Charles Sumner has even gone so
far as to introduce a Motion to terminate the com-
pact known as the Ashburton Treaty. In addition
to this manifestation of unfriendliness Mr. Seward's
passport system has proved more vexatious to the
Canadians than even he, an adept in the art of poli-
tical irritation, could have imagined. An outraged
Yankee, resident in Canada, whose operations have
been impeded and diminished by the virtual block-
ade of Canada which the system has established, has
publicly proclaimed the Secretary, in true Anierican
parlance, to be " a vindictive cuss," and such influ-
ence of a more conciliatory kind has been brought
to bear upon Mr. Seward, by the inhabitants of
Detroit; Buffalo, and other American cities on the
Lakes and in the vicinity of the St. Lawrence, as,
will, it is hoped, induce him to withdraw the order.
Such neighbours have everything to lose and nothing
to gain by these impolitic, if not barbarous, restric-
tions, more suitable to China or Japan than to
enterprising and commercial America. As a means
of preventing the incursions of such soldiers or free-
booters—whichever designation may best suit them
—as Lieut. Bennett Young and his companions, the
system is utterly worthless. In spite of all the pass-
ports which an army of gendarmes could exact from
travellers, such guerillas or robbers, if intent upon
mischief or plunder, could pass unimpeded from
Canada into the States at hundreds of places on the
St. Lawrence and the Lakes. The measure was 1
solely intended for annoyance, and has accomplished
its object, with the unexpected accompaniment of
detaching from the Federal cause the last lingering
relic of sympathy entertained for it by the Cana-
dians. It has the additional demerit of being quite
as distateful to one side of the border as to the other,
and for this reason will probably be abandoned, in
deference to American rather than to Canadian
interests.

The action of the Senate on the Mexican questior
is equally significant of ill-will towards France and
the Emperor Maximilian. An Appropriation. Bill,
for the payment of the salaries of ambassadors and
other expenses of the legations in Great Britain,
France, Spain, the European Powers generally, and
Mexico, was brought up in the usual manner, and
was about to Pass without discussion, when Senator
Wade, of Ohio, suddenly moved to amend the bill
by inserting before " Mexico" the words " the Re-
public of." The amendment was adopted nent. con.,
and the bill passed amid acclamation. This means
that if the Federal Government despatch a Minister
to Mexico, it will be to General Juarez, the late_
and the senators consider the actual---President of
the Mexican Republic, and not to the Emperor
Maximilian, the de facto, and, as all Europe consi-
ders, the de jure sovereign. The decision will place
Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward in a difficulty, and the
Senate must either reverse its vote or the Federal
Government will remain without a representative at
the Court of its southern neighbour. Perhaps, too,
the Emperor Maximilian may think it advisable, if
the North recognise President Juarez, that Mexico
should recognise President Davis, which would be a
very pretty quarrel, and one into which the North
will have thrust itself
Another border very unnecessarily.
State, Tennessee, has by the una-
nimous vote of a
popular convention, abolished
slavery, immediately and • unconditionally. As it
appears that there was
elected to the Convention,rsnot a single slaveholder
and as the interests and
wishes of the slaveholders, a class, were not in
any way set forth, the Tenas eeans cannot fairly
claim in ~his matter the praisen
they
liberality, what-
ever amount of approbation th
same criticism ap-
the score of philanthropy. Theye may arrogate on
Conventions.
plies to the recent action of the
of Maryland and Missouri, and to thaet
in Kentucky. It costs the abolitionists nothingstill
iding
their votes to remove from themselves tli but
of an institution by which they never profiteesdtgnaa
and
which the war has converted from a social into
a
party and political question. According to the
census of 1860 the total black population of these
States was 808,820, of whom 105,498 were free,
and 703,332 were slaves. The slaves in Maryland
numbered 87,189 ; in Missouri, 114,931 ; in Ten-
nessee, 275,179 ; and in Kentucky, 225,483 ; while
of the free blacks Maryland alone contained 83,942,
or nearly four times as many as Missouri, Ken-
tucky, and Tennessee combined.
The unexpected though not untimely death of