The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-10 00:00:00

which would have given him the command of the
whole Federal line south of the Appomattox, and
the failure of the attempt is attributed to the death
of the Confederate General, whose name we are
not told. According to General LEE'S report, his
men captured nine guns, eight mortars, and 500
prisoners, including a brigadier-General and a num-
ber of officers. Two attempts to recover the
captured works were, he says, repulsed ; but, as the
works in the rear could only have been taken at a
heavy loss, the position was abandoned, and the
guns, which could not be removed, were disabled.
The Confederate loss was not heavy, and the
troops, it is admitted by Northern correspondents,
fight with undiminished enthusiasm. LEE'S army
is also to rest, which seems to be the fashion of the
day, though not, we apprehend, for very long.
JOHNSTON'S army is also said to be in high spirits
and good condition, and the Richmond Sentinel de-
clares that SHERMAN has been forced to take up
a defensive position, which is certainly a change of
days. The tide of fortune has perhaps turned, and
it remains to be seen whether the Southern leaders
will take it at the flood. SHERMAN is evidently
compelled to rest upon his oars, which will give the
South time to drill the slaves, and thus reinforce
their armies. But if the Confederates hope to profit
by the services of the negroes they must hold out
the hope of freedom. Men, of whatever colour, are
not machines, and it is useless to expect them to
work without hope. It is mere selfishness that
shrinks from the abandonment of so-called property,
and that selfishness brings its own punishment, for

it ends, and will end, in the total loss of slaves with-
out compensation. Men will not risk life and limb
without an object, and it is as foolish as selfish to
expect that they will do so. We hope to see this
matter put on a proper footing, and since the
interior of the Carolinas to the west, nearly all
Georgia, and the country east of the Mississippi is

- -
in the hands of the Confederates, LEE will now

receive heavy reinforcements. The suspension of
the Habeas Corpus Act will empower him to im-
press white and black, and he will need all his rein-
forcements, for LINCOLN is obliged to resort to the
draught again. Volunteering has almost ceased in
New York for want of funds to pay the bounties,
which were, unfortunately for Northern patriotism,
the chief inducement. The fact is, the credit of the
North is shaken, and the new secretary, M'CuL-
LOCH, is alarmed at the aspect of affairs, as well he
may be. Should gold fall below 150 their securities
will be worthless, and money difficult to raise by-
any means. The powers give to the Southern leaders
increase the Northern uneasiness. The, Confederates
are now enabled to raise men and money within
their own territories, and this fact makes the North
anxious for peace. No doubt, the large party who
profit by war contracts, &c., are opposed to any
suspension of hostilities, but those who fill the offices
of State are beginning to see that an end must
come.

It is the Federals that are anxious
'or peace, and who disguise their anxiety under the
rumours about LEE and the military conference.
The South will not ask for peace conferences again
while the memory of the recent failure is fresh in
their recollection. The insulting demands of the
North have not been so quickly forgotten, and the
only effect of the conference at Fort Monroe has
been to redouble their energies.
The Montreal Court, we learn, has refused the
extradition of the Vermont raiders, on the ground
of their being belligerents, but has detained them on
the charge of infringing neutrality, which is a just
and sensible manner of settling a question, which
threatened some difficulty. General Dix can hardly
deny his own order, which recognised them as sol-

diers, and their re-arrest by the British authorities

is only fair.

The Duke of CAMBRIDGE presided on Friday at a
' meeting in the Royal United Service Institution,
Whitehall. Many noblemen, gentlemen, and offi-
cers assembled to hear a lecture from Captain
CHESNEY, of the Royal Military School, Sandhurst,
upon the recent campaigns of General SHERMAN in
America. The lecture was a very interesting one,
and entered fully into the suggestive subject under
notice. Captain CHESNEY observed, with great
accuracy, that the time had gone by when men
looked upon the American war as a chaos of inde-
cisive engagements. The history of the contest has
shown that the Americans can fight, and the affair
at Bull's Run was a " panic" that was not a
test of their powers, nor should it be taken as an
instance of their capabilities. The lecturer con-
sidered that President DAvis made a fatal error in
superseding JOHNSTONE and appointing HOOD. This
is, no doubt, true ; for the course pursued by the
latter was a very mistaken one, and in the summary
of the campaign tells greatly to the disadvantage
of those who proposed and carried it out. The
praise accorded to JOHNSTONE may be said to be
borne out by consideration of the difficult position
in which he was placed, even when it goes so far as
to say that his retreat in some parts "was a master-
piece of successful caution." One of the chief points
worthy of special notice in this campaign was the
dexterous manceuvre of SHERMAN, in allowing
HOOD to think he was drawing him back into
Tennessee, while all the while he was only wait-
ing to get clear of him to proceed on his march
into Georgia. Of course such a series of events
could not be given without due notice being taken
of the manner in which SHERMAN obtained his sup-
plies ; and the lecturer observed very truly that we
had reason to fear that the accounts given were
correct ones, and that the " atrocities" said to have
been committed in the Carolinas were only too
well founded on fact. The savage spirit that has
been evoked in this struggle cannot be too much
deplored ; and, indeed, more than all other cala-
mities, it may be regarded as the chief evil of this
civil war. It has shown that the intellectual and
prosperous nation needed one thing, which may be
called the one thing needful ..a spirit of Christian
feeling, and the remembrance that they were
fighting with their own race. As a brilliant mili-
tary manceuvre the campaigns of SHERMAN deserve
attention and study ; and this last achievement of
his has been the greatest exploit of the war in de-
sign and execution, although his fame has been
tarnished by the cruelties which defaced his pro
gress.

Wolverhampton on Saturday,
in the iron trade, is
ge e
tt
hi neg
labour
ttdispute
conncerenimn
worthy of notice, on account of the
elicited. eetlieng. itNhoast-
displayed, and the opinionsit h
Not-
withstanding that the question was
ed t
virtuallyo
settled, in many places the Unionists se
take great interest in considering the points
of notice -relating to the exertions which they
had made. The chairman congratulated the as-
semblage upon the appearance of things,
and said
that the termination of the lock-out found the men
more united than ever, which could not be said of
the masters. He also
advice, which, it gave them some very good
is to be hoped, they will follow.
Nothing can militate more effectively against any
future prosperity than ill-feeling and jealousy
existing between employers and
employed, d
therefore we hear with satisfaction that
-wise counsean ls
emanated from one placed in an influential position
towards many operatives. The chairman urged the
importance of not giving way to bad feelings, and
truly said that to use such language concerning ,