The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-06 00:00:00

GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Her Majesty commands us to inform you that
she has directed the estimates for the ensuing year
to be laid before you. They have been framed
with a due regard to prudent economy and to the
efficiency of the public service.
MY LORDS AND GENTAMI'N,

Her Majesty commands us to inform you that
measures for the improvement of the law will be laid
before you, and among them will be a Bill for ren-
dering the title to land more simple, and its trans-
fer more easy.

Other measures of public usefulness relating to
Great Britain and to Ireland will be submitted for
your consideration.

Her Majesty regrets that in some parts of the
United Kingdom, and in certain branches of in-
dustry, temporary causes have produced consider-
able pressure and privation; but her Majesty has
reason to believe that the general condition of the
country is sound and satisfactory.
Her Majesty confidently commends the general
interests of the nation to your wisdom and your
care; and she fervently prays that the blessing of
Almighty God may attend your deliberations, and
may guide them to the promotion of the welfare
and happiness her people.

For their own sakes, we hope it will turn out that
the Northerns have gained a real victory in Ken-
tucky. They need some encouragement after such
long preparation, such frequent mishaps, and
in prospect of such unparalleled demands on the
public credit. We may be forgiven by them if we
speak with some reserve on the authority of tele-
grams from Western Kentucky to Washington, or
even on that of a newspaper despatch from Louis-
ville, a town in the North of Kentucky, one hun-
dred and fifty miles from the scene of action, and
at which nothing better than rumours had arrived
when the despatch left. As we wish to believe the
best, however, so we are disposed to think it the
most probable; The engagement was indeed no
part of the general plan, which the Southern
papers speak of with such dread ; it was not an
arranged attempt to march on the vital parts
of the South, from one of the points of which
the North is master. It vas an isolated
attack by the Southerns, a repulse and rout of them
by the Northerns, and a capture of what must be
very valuable to the impoverished South. Still,
under present circumstances, a victory for the
North in the open field is worth far more than its
strategic results. The little battle of Maida was
of small value as a part of a campaign, but as re-
establishing the belief, which had been shaken, of
the superiority of the English to the French sol-
dier in fair conflict, its results were felt till the day
of Waterloo.

The Federals, according to the best accounts yet
received, were encamped 6,000 strong at Somerset,
under General SCHOEPFF, a Hungarian. His
Chief General, THOMAS, with a larger force, had
detached himself, to reconnoitre General ZOLLT-
COFFERS, the Confederates' position. It is re-
ported to have been a strong position,
and the commander to have had more
fire and energy than prudence. His leav-
ing his position to attack SCHOEPFF, who
be was doubtless aware had less than half the army
with him, looks like this. The account is that he
was thoroughly beaten back by SCHOEPFF,
though the latter did not think it safe to follow
him—but that the same day the two Confederate
Generals joined their forces, sat down before the
camp for the night, and next morning found that
it had been evacuated by the Confederates, all
their ammunition and stores of every kind having
been left behind. So great was their haste that
they neglected to destroy a steamer and nine
barges by which they had crossed the river, which
were, of course, all of them also seized by the Fede-
rals. At Louisville the supposition was that the rea-
son for their receiving no information was that Gen.
THOMAS was using these means of transport to
move further South, and had therefore been too
busy to write. We trust it will prove to be so.

At the centre the state of the roads is sufficient
to prevent the main army from making the long
threatened advance. Unless, indeed, the country
be in a condition to permit a pushing forward of
the whole line as far south as the capital of Vir-
ginia, nothing of political or strategical importance
would be effected. A great victory at Manassas
would, no doubt, like the one in Kentucky, do
something towards raising the spirits of the army
and of the country generally, and perhaps make
loans cheaper and inconvertible paper dearer. But
it must be a march on Richmond to give any seri-
ous shock to the Confederacy. This would involve
a departure by M'CLELLAN of a hundred miles and
more from his base of operations, and through a
hostile country. It would not seem that such an
attempt could be made till the soil was dried suffi-
ciently for artillery and troops to manoeuvre and
act freely.

The North is now in the position that she is more
likely to be beaten by army contractors, and by
want of credit, than by the forces of the South.
As the latter becomes impoverished, discontented,
and diminished, the North is in no danger of
succumbing to mere pecuniary embarrassment.
With men in plenty which she can get, and money
in plenty which she cannot get, the very abun-
dance of the former makes the deficiency of the
latter more terrible. £450,000 a-day is the lowest
estimate of the cost of the armies and fleets now
maintained in the Union—in round numbers it will
require seventy millions sterling on a favourable
computation to keep the army on foot even till mid-
summer. American soldiers cost £2OO per annum
each. It will soon be necessary to show a very
triumphant course, to sustain public confidence
under such a pecuniary drain as this; We should
not be surprised to find, that a second time political
considerations will require a great battle.

Three or Five arches for the new bridge at
Blackfriars P That is still the question. Half a
year sinno the Bridge-house Committee selected out
of an immense number of designs—designs either
for five or three arches, either for bridges of
wrought-iron or of granite—the magnificent one
sketched out, with a master•hand, by Mr. THOMAS
PAGE, whose project was certainly of the most
superb dimensions, and was proposed to
be carried out by him in the most en-
durable materials. It combined with it, this re-
markable design sketched out by Mr. PAGE, the
apparently irreconsilable advantages of being at ,