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

71ae transactions which she had denounced as essentially
Piratical, and so express has been her unfriendliness to the
United States that she has not hesitated to discover cause
of quarrel with them, even at the expense of the sudden
abandonment of a principle which she had contended for
during many generations, and the adoption of a doctrine
against whicn, when advanced by the United State,, she
had protested with all the emphasis of war. I confess,
then, I am not tree from the most serious apprehensions
in regard to our future relations with England. We
have all thought till recently that war with England
was scarcely in the category of possible events. Tnat
she would make a war which she must know this country
Would feel and history would record, was waged by her
in the interests of barbarism and wrong, and designed to
inflict an irreparable and unprovoked injury upon nation
which had bsen, in honest faith, her best friend, and as far
as the wishes of its people were concerned her truest ally,
was what the American people could not believe. So con-
fidently did they feel themselves entitled to her friendship
Plat upon the breaking out of the slaveholders's rebellion
there was not a loyal man in all the North who did not rely
With unquestioning confidence upon the warmest sympathy
and heartiest good wishes of her Government and people.
But in all this they havo been grievously disappointed,
and it is not to be denied &nit their feelings have been sorely
Wounded. They thought, that the land of the Russell's and
the Sidneys, of Charles Vox and Gladstone, of Milton and
Tennyson, would have denounced the insurrection as inex-
cusable and its motive an infamous. But, instead, they
find they sympathies of the British nation, not with the
free North fighting for the preservation of their Govern-
ment, upholding the cause of eh ilization and humanity, bu
With those who are, endeavouring to destroy that Govern-
ment in order tha'c slavery may be spread and perpetuated,
and its systems, 3aabits,institutions, and practices, strength-
ened and encouraged."
A new aft ack upon the Confederates is contem-
plated somt3where in the neighbourhood of Port
Royal, but, the particulars are not yet known. The
latest despatches from that quarter say :
"At the time the Cahawba left Commodore Dupont was
Making preparations to attack the rebels in a new quarter,
but, for obvious reasons, the details are not made public.
The frigate Wabash is in complete order, and will be used
to cover the landing of the troops. Alarge number of gun-
boats were also in readiness to take part in the contemplated
movement. General Sherman will act in conjunction with
the naval force. The defences at Hilton Head were rapidly
progressing towards completion. An intrenchment had been
built in a favourable position to protect Fort Walker against
a large invading force. General Stevens's brigade, number-
ing about 4,000 men, was still encamped at Beaufort. Gen.
Stevens had issued an order prohibiting any person from
erossing the lines unless provided with a pass. The property
of the town was protected by the troops. In a reconnais-
sance made by the Eth Maine Regiment, at a recent date,
six rebel pickets were captured."