The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-17 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY.
The Canadian mail steamship Nova Scotian has
arrived with advices from Portland to the 4th.
The Inman steamship Edinburgh has also arrived.
She has brought 20 cabin and 78 steerage passen-
gers, and 385,906 dollars in specie ; her dates are
to the 4th. The Bohemian had arrived off Cape
Race.

From Washington we have, in the correspon-
dence of the New York World of the 4th, some
gossip respecting the opposing armies, and the
I alleged intentions of the English amt French Go-
vernments in regard to the blockade.
" While the expectation here is generally of an
advance of our armies of the Potomac, it is very
evident that the rebels themselves do not anticipate
it. It is known that up to the 20th December no
furloughs were granted in the Confederate army at
Centreville, but that since that time they have
been quite frequently given, and that Richmond
and other cities in the South are to-day filled with
officers and privates from the army at Manassas.
It was at one time believed that, simultaneously
with the sailing of Burnside's division, our army of
the Potomac would advance, but such is not now
the impression. It is intimated, moreover, that
when the expedition does sail it will be accom-
panied by a number of the best troops now in front
of Washington. Private letters, as well as de-
spatches, from Mr. Dayton and Mr. Adams, indicate
that an attempt will soon be made in both England
and France to induce the Governments of those
countries to raise the blockade on the ground of its
ineffectiveness. As yet no formal complaint has
been made to this Government, but it is well known
that the materials for complaint are in the hands et
those who will endeavour to use it to the detriment
of this Government. The meeting of the English
Parliament of the 18th of January will, it is under-
stood, be the signal for the opening of the whole
American question, including the effectiveness of
our blockade. Sympathisers with the Southern
Confederacy have been supplied with all the neces-
sary data, and you may expect very warm debates
and an endeavour to force the Government into a
position on this subject that will not be satisfactory
to this nation. The proposition of Mr. Stevens, on
behalf of the Committee of Ways and Means, to
declare the southern ports of entry abolished, will
not, if passed, be regarded by the foreign Powers.
It would only serve to further complicate the
matter. Having declared a blockade we are bound
to adhere to it. Should, however, our armies crush
out the rebellion in fennessee and Virginia, and
our troops obtain possession of Charleston and
Savannah and Mobile and New ()deans, Mr.
Stevens's proposition could then doubtless be en-
forced, and would be respected by foreign Powers.
But when this is done there will be no longer any
necessity for the measure proposed by that gentle-
man. Mr. Stevens's proposition for closing the
Southern ports of entry lays over, under the rule,
to the first Tuesday in February, by which time it
is hoped there will be no necessity for passing it."
General M'Clellan was convalescent, but had not
resumed his military occupations.
Her Majesty's gunboat Rinaldo left Princetown
on the evening of the 2d for Halifax, with Messrs.
Mason and Slidell on board. It blew a hurricane
the same night.
The Boston Traveller of the 2d thus announces
the departure of the Southern Commissioners :

" The departure of Slidell and Mason from Fort
Warren yesterday was conducted as quietly as pos-
sible. The garrison, with the exception of the guards
on duty, were kept from the side of the fort where
the prisoners' quarters are, and there were but few
persons upon the wharf when they embarked. The
other political prisoners, as they bade them goad
bye, congratulated them on their release. Mr. Mason
went off in good humour. Indeed, he has recently
been in good spirits, and he has borne his imprison-
ment with the air of a philosopher. Mr. Slidell was
somewhat sulky, and not at all pleased at going in
such an unostentatious manner, and in such a vessel.
He evidently expected that a steamer would come
here especially for them. Part of his ill-nature may
be owing to his health, which has not been good for
some weeks, keeping him pretty close to his room,
although he hai not called for medical aid. The tug
Starlight, with the four rebels, reached Princetown
a little before 5 p.m., and immediately proceeded to
the English sloop of war Rinaldo, and transferred
her passengers. Commander Hudson, who was in
charge of the arrangements, went with them on
board the English war vessel, and remained on board
for about 15 minutes, when he returned to the tug.
About 6 p.m. the Rinaldo got under weigh, and
proceeded on her voyage. In about two hours after.
wards a violent gale commenced, and blew all night
at Princetown with almost the violence of a hurri-

cane, but as the wind was off shore, probably the
safety of the vessel was not endangered. During
the stay of the Rinaldo at Princetown no communi-
cation was allowed with the shore, nor any beat al-
lowed to come alongside."
The disappointment of the South at the termina-
tion of the difficulty with England is expressed in
an article from the Richmond Dispatch :
"If the Yankee Government have not enacted
thi part of Ancient Pistol' to the very life, in

their emliroitment with the English Government,

then there is no such thing as imitation, and

parallel cases cannot exist in nature. When the

piratical onslaught was first made upon the British

vessel the yell of exultation which arose in Yankee-

dom resounded throughout the world. Vast meet-
ings assembled to testify their admiration of the

deed. City councils voted it unrivalled in daring
and sagacity since the days of Bayard. The press
rang with applause. The Secretary of State has-
tened with his !need of praise. The Secretary of
the Navy was not slow in approving the deed.
Congress h ailed the rising glory of the new hero, and
testified their approbation of his exploit without a

dissenting voice. The city of Boston dined and wined
him, and listened to his narrative, and made the
welking ring with its applause. The newspapers
vowed that they would see every American ship
burned, and every Yankee town and city uprooted
from the very foundation before they would shrink
from the side of Wilkes. They were determined to
back him at all hazards and t 3 the last extremity.
Never was there such defiance as they hurled at
England. Never was there so much insolence
uttered upon any one occasion. Never were such
threats heard before since the creation of the world.
The herald led the way in these demonstrations.
It was going to raise a million of men to overrun
and devour Canada. It was going to fit out 6,000
privateers to cruise against English merchandise.
It was going to confiscate 900,000,000 of English
property. It would not let England have a pound
of cotton. It would get saltpetre from the Mam-
moth Cave. If England dared to demand redress,
it was determined to raise an insurrection in Ire-
land. Never was there anything like the ribaldry,
gasconade, bully, bluster, and defiance in which the
whole Yankee race—people, press, public meetings,
Congress, Secretaries, and all—indulged. They
have been compared to the Chinese, and we think
with wonderful aptitude. But the Chinese never
swaggered in this style. And after all what has
been the result? The Yankee fire eaters
have drawn back from their first piece of live
coal presented them. The Yankee swaggerers
have been the first to eat their own words
as soon as it was ordered them. The Yankee
Congress, whieh unanimously approved Wilkes,
abandon him upon the very first intimation that it
might cost them something to hold on to him; and
Bennett, instead of eating up Canada, instead of
exciting an insurrection in Ireland, instead of fitting
out 6,000 ships to cruise against British property,
coolly advises the Yankee Government to knock
under, and, in the very spirit of Ancient Pistol,
cries All hell shall gape for this' hereafter ! Won-
derful people! wonderful press! wonderful Con-
gress ! wonderful Secretaries ! wonderful Yankee-
dom ! Certainly, the world never saw your like
before! Even Egypt, the basest of kingdoms,' is
respectable when compared to you."
The board of naval and scientific gentlemen ap-
pointed to report upon Mr. Stevens's iron steam
battery, now building at Hoboken, have furnished
their report. After an elaborate summary of her
mode of construction, armament, flotation, defen-
sive power, and cost, the committee express their
opinion in the following paragraph :
"In conclusion, we beg leave to express our
highest appreciation of the objects Mr. Stevens has
apparently had in view when planning this—the
most powerful battery, the highest speed, and the
most thorough protection of any vessel yet produced
—and our regret that the plans of the vessel as pre-
sented to us would not, in our opinion, accomplish
fully and completely the ends proposed. We look
with the deepest interest upon every addition to
the efficiency of our navy of whatever character,
and gladly hail every improvement made to any
department of it; but at the same time we cannot
recommend the expenditure of important sums of
money upon projects of more than doubtful events
when put into practical execution, and, therefore,
we do not deem it expedient to complete this vessel
upon the plans proposed."
The workmen at the New York Navy Yard, num-
bering nearly 3,000, had struck, in consequence of
the recent order of the Secretary of the Navy
requiring them to work from sunrise to sunset for
the same wages.
The Governor of the State of Maine, in his
annual Message to the Legislature, remarks :
"Upon the coast of Maine are more deep accessible
harbours, capable of being entered by ships of war of
the largest class, than can be found on the entire
coast line of the slaveholding States; and yet, since
she became a member of the Federal Union in 1820, and
although she was at that time substantially destitute of
fortifications, the appropriations of the Federal Government
for her coast protection have been less than half the amount
that was expended within ten years for the building of a
Custom-house in the single city of Charleston. For more
than 400 miles this State is separated from the British pro-
vinces of new Brunswick and Canada by a merely imaginary
line. Of the deep and bitter hostility to this country of
large numbers of the people of these provinces we have
now, unhappily, the most indubitable proofs. In view of
the present attitude of the British nation toward. the United
States, and of the feeling of the British people towards our
own, the fact will not escape attention that while the de-
fences of our State upon the seaboard have been so strangely
neglected, and not a dollar has been expended for her pro-
tection on her extended interior boundary, her best means
of defence by land has been taken from her by the
United States, and ceded to the only power in whose pos-
session it could be available to her injury; nor shall we fail
to be reminded of the memorable declaration of one of her
most distinguished chief magistrates—of him who was the
soul of all that is noble and chivalrous in human character,
and whose exceeding love for the State which he served so
faithfully will keep his memory for ever green in the hearts
of her sons. Maine,' said Enoch Lincoln, has not been
treated as she has endeavoured to deserve.' How unwise
the provision of the treaty of Washington, by which the
United States surrendered to Great Britain that portion of
the State of Maine north of the river St. Jehn, without the
possession of which she was shut out from Canada for half
the year, may now be seen not only in the fact that hereby we
opened a way for the transportation in the winter of the very
troops upon which, in the event of hostilities between the two
nations breaking out at that season of the year, she must
largely rely, whether for defence or attack, but also in the
menacing spirit encouraged by that capitulation, in which
she now takes occasion to address us. As the question of the
extent and character of the works required by the exigencies
of our situation has been considered at some length in
the communication which I had the honour to address to
the President of the United Statos on the 23d of last Octo-
ber, and which will be laid before you, I will not now oc-
cupy your time upon the subject further than to suggest
that the cost of the necessary fortifications at the exposed
points—as Eastport, Castine, Rockland, Belfast, Wiscasset,
the mouth of the Kennebec, Saco River, and other places
—will be largely reduced if we can find at some central
eligible point, within what may be termed supporting dis-
tance the indispensable conditions of a great and impreg-
nable fortress, from which all needful succour, by sea or
land, may be speedily forwarded. To those of you who
are acquainted with the position of the city of Portland the
configuration of the country surrounding it, the capacity
and natural defences of its wonderful harbour, and its ex-
tensive railway connections, its admirable adaptibility to the
purpose I have mentioned will need no elucidation. Its
natural capabilities are such that, at comparatively small
expense it may be made absolutely impregnable. From
Eastport to Galveston it is no venture to say there cannot
be found a place combining to anything like the same extent
the essential conditions of a grand military and naval sta-
tion, such as this nation should not censent longer to dis-
pense with. While Portland remains undefended no ade-
quate protection can be afforded at any practicable expense
to Boston and New York, But make it, as the plain
necessity and duty of the country require, at once the
Quebec and Halifax of the United States, from which the
thunders of their power may be launched by sea or land
at the touch of the telegraphic wire, and a most cer-

tain and practicable means of defence will have been pro-
vided for those great commercial emporiums. Within a very
brief time after the breaking out of hostilities between this
country and England—distant be the day when such an
event shall happen I—Portland, with only present means of
defence, would, there can be little doubt, be in possession of
the enemy. With a British fleet in her harbour and a
British army on her heights, the merchants of Boston and
New York will readily understand what would be the almost

certain consequences to their commerce, and the imminence

of the danger to which their own cities would be exposed.
To perfect the defences of this State there are required not
only the military works upon her coast at which I have

hinted, but the construction of military roads—railways--
for their connecticn with each other and with on? northern

boundary. Whatever sums may be expended by Maine for
its defence, and which would be for the defence of the coun-
try will be refunded by the United States, as they will be in
the nature of a loan f)r which the credit of the general Go-
vernment will be pledged. But were it certain that the
Government of the United States could so far fail in the
performance of its just obligations as to refuse to guarantee
the repayment of sush moneys as might be advanced by the
State fer its benefit, the duty of the latter would neverthe-
less remain to take care, so far as she has the power, of her
own citizens, and to project her soil from the tread of the
invader. And this duty she will not neglect, whether
there be immediate danger of a foreign war or not.
And, although we may see no such danger, recent events
admonish us that with one nation at least it will require
the utmost circumspection on our part to preserve amicable

_ .
relations. While the attitude of England towards this
country since the breaking out of the rebellion has been

marked by many exhibitions of the most positive unkind-
ness and illwill, her friendship for the rebels has been

manifested by an unbroken succession of favours, valuable
in themselves, but more valuable for the hopes encouraged
by the ostentatious manner in which they were conferred.
Indeed, such has been the force of British sympathy for
the Solv hern traitors that England refused to conclude an
arrangement into which she had invited the United States

to enter as a party vith the principal nations of Europe, la
reference to privateering, for the simple and avowed reason
that the Southern rebels would be embarrassed thereby

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