The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-22 00:00:00

TliE SEASON ANL TilE ARMY.

Intelligence through private as well as published
channels indicates the existence of severe suffering
among the National troops, owing to the severity
of the weather. Save in exceptional instances, un-
provided with winter quarters or fuel, they are ex-
posed to-the unwholesome effects of the keen cold,
without other beds than the frozen ground, or other
covering than the regulation blanket: Their case
is not so desperately Lard, perhaps, as that of the
British army in the Crimea. They are at least sup-
plied with abundance of warm clothing, and have a
liberal Commissariat, food being the producer of
animal, if not of artificial heat ; but animal heat,
unaided by fires and the comforts of a warm bed,
escapes too rapidly to permit the resting or sleeping
soldier to retain the active vitality necessary to
uninterrupted health. The tent, invented for use
in tropical climates, is a wholly inadequate shelter
amid such rigours as the present. Its easy carriage
adapts it partially to the wants of an army in active
motion, whatever the season, but for armies at rest,
and at rest in the most inclement of winter wea-
ther, nothing could be more unsuitable. And what
forests or coal-pits could furnish heat to a host of
200,000 men, situate es is the army of the Potomac?
It is no matter of surprise, therefore, that the indi-
vidual soldier complains, and finds no consolation
in the assurance that the enemy, coming from a
region of perpetual summer, and half clad, half-fed,
and demoralised, must be suffering far more acutely
than himself. The case is not one of those where
the pains of others acts acts as an agreeable panacea
for the dissatisfied and ill at ease. But what the
army wants—not more greedily, perhaps, than the
public—is action ; and its very discomforts are the
best guarantee that action is not to be much longer
deferred. The Administration is unquestionably
realising, slowly, certainly, but quite surely, a
judicious and masterly policy. It is not desirable
that a great and in fact the decisive battle of the
war, should be fought in the neighbourhood of
Washington. The National cause has too much
to lose by repeating the ill-advised experiment
which on the 21st of July placed the National
capital, with the archives of the Government, and
the prestige secured by holding that local symbol
of sovereignty, at the mercy of the rebels, who, had
they been conscious of their opportunity, might
now be holding their Confederate pandemonium in
the Halls of Congress. Confident as it has now
every reason to be, of the superiority and capacity
of the National army, Government has no disposi-
tion to stake so large a venture as Washington
upon the accidents of battle. The rebels offer no
equal wager. The main strength of the insurgents
is upon the Potomac. They can hardly be said to
have an army elsewhere. To remove that strength
`and diminish it by compelling it to retire, is ob-
viously the only means by which the decisive
battleground shall be transferred to a safe distance,
and the odds of victory turned unmistakeably in
favour of the National arms. But were the Union
troops on the Potomac placed in winter quarters
such removal could not take place. The rebels
would at once seek similar shelter. The sufferings
of their unaccustomed soldiery would be relieved ;
the spirit of disaffection, now confessed by the Rich-
mond paper to be almost universal, would be quieted;
and with the spring their legions would start up in
readiness to renew the contest for the capital. This
of GoeunterwailthScaoltltp,
rwahetiicchabGleenraerpai!
l
gMovements are making which
result, thedity, will pipsrlecavanersrnyt.in
must compel the evacuation of the lines at Manassas
under penalty of certain arid irreparable disaster.
We have the highest reason to believe that ten days
will not elapse before retreat will present itself to
the minds of the rebel leaders as the alternative of
hazards they will never choose to encounter ; and
the retreat will be followed vigorously and without
pause by the National forces. If, as we do not be-
lieve, this retrograde movement shall ever have
pause enough to render a general engagement pos-
sible, the rebel army will be in no condition to make
a successful stand. They will hare no leisure to.
repeat elsewhere the impregnable intrenchments of
Manassas; and in the open field, and upon equal con-
ditions, they have never in a single instance held
their own against the arms of the Republic. It is
a satisfaction, therefore, to know that the distress

our brave fellows are enduring for the moment are
an unavoidable incident of a policy which must in-
sure an early end of the war, and their return to
the ease and comforts of peace. There is to be
action, and action followed by success. If for a day
exposed to the biting discomfort of frost and ill
weather, they will be less exposed, only a few days
hence, to decimation on the battle field. To advance
now would be to cover the neighbourhood of the
rebel defences with the bodies of thousands of good
and true men, needlessly slaughtered. To go into
winter quarters would be simply to postpone such
waste of life until spring. It is better to accept
the inconvenience of the moment than either dread-
ful alternative; and our men, who have endured so
long and patiently, will find the reward of their
endurance sooner than they antieipate.—New York
Times.