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

GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Her Majesty commands up to infcrm 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 GENTLEMEN,

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 wes 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 was 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 fore., had
detached himself, to leconnuitie General ZULLI-
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 SCHOEFFF, who
he was doubtless aware had less than half the army
with him, looks like this. The account is that he
was thoroughly beaten baik by SCHOEFFF,
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 ? That is still the question. Half a
year since tie 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, mith a master•hand, by Mr. TuomAs
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 irreconcilable advantages of being at

1862.

once the most splendid and the most economical. It
was to be a bridge costing, altogether, no more
than £245,000, being, just as nearly as might be,
about half the sum expended in building the pre-
sent ricketty old structure now demanding, for
safety's sake, its rapid removal. Mr.PAGE's bridge,
in other words, was to cost, in the construction of
it, £3 6s. per square foot of surface—the old tumble
down bridge at Blackfriars having cost at least
£3 15s. 6d. per square foot. Beyond this it was
to consist, this projected bridge of Mr. PAGE'S of only
three arches, the centre one being of the gigantic span
of 280 ft, or 40ft wider than the central arch of South-
wark-bridge. From the springing of the arch to
the crown the rise is only 20 ft, which, in a span of
such an extent, merely amounts to the most gentle
curve; so that, when seen from the river, the line
of the structure would appear almost straight. The
cornice beneath the parapet is of exceedingly bold
and handsome design, surmounted with a parapet
above of solid granite. The spandrils of the outer
iron ribs on each side were closed, but filled up with
figures in bas relief and ornamental scrollwork. The
piers were designed to form the most massive and
noble looking features of the whole. There were to
be four of then—two at the shore side arches, and
two in the river for the support of the centre arch.
Each was to be of granite, of immense size, width,
and depth, surmounted with a red granite Doric
column, 40 ft high, 23 ft in diameter at base and capi-
tal, and 18 ft diameter in the column. Each though,
built hollow, would weigh upwards of 500 tons.
Their capitals reached to the submit of the bridge,
and Mr. PAGE proposed to subsequently adorn
colossal groups of statuary." Certainly a magni-
ficent design, and, remembering what has been here
said about the small cost of it, a most desirable one
in every way. Yet, though deliberately selected by
the Bridge-house committee six months ago, the
scheme has been given the goby ever since by the
Court of Common Council, and there is a manifest
disposition evidenced there now to throw this design
aside altogether in favour of another, a scheme un-
dertaking to span the river with five arches, either
in iron or granite, at Blackfriars. We earnestly trust
that this may not be the case, but that Mr. PAGE'S
design, having been selected by reason of its
cheapness and splendour, may yet be carried out.