The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-12 00:00:00

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THE SUN.
LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 12, 1862.

• New Orleans is captured. Since both Richmond
and Washington send us substantially the
same intelligence, it would be scepticism over-
strained, to disbelieve. Our readers may be aware
that there are two approaches by water to the
city, which a glance at any map of sufficient size
will make plainer than we can do by any descrip-
tion. One of these is by the main channels of the
great river, through which it flows into the Gulf of
Mexico. On the principal of these was placed Fort
Jackson, which the Federals have been some days
furiously bombarding, till the Southerners thought
they must have exhausted their ammunition. This
fort, we aro told, with another, Fort Philip, the
Confederates still hold ; but, as if to give a much-
needed
lesson to Lord PALMERSTON and Sir G. C.
LEWIS, and to justify the opposition to sinking our
money in the Plymouth and Spithead forts, the
Federal fleet has sailed past both, and summoned
the city, they should have protected in that direc-
tion, to surrender. A summons impossible for a city
to resist, which lay on the other side of a vast em-
bankment, with the hostile fleet riding at anchor
in the river, above the roofs of the houses.
The other approach by water to the city is
through the large lake Pontchartrain at its back,
which by smaller lakes and channels is also con-
nected with the Gulf of Mexico. Fort Pike, and
the other forts which guarded these channels, seem
to have been abandoned as indefensible. New
Orleans wanted, what we shall need at Plymouth
and Spithead, not forts, which are almost innocuous
to the quickly passing gunboat, but Merrimacs and
Monitors. Had she had a few ironsides, the Federal
meet would not have passed them as easily as it did
Port Jackson. And not being fixed, if of small ser-
vice in one place, they would not have been blown
up, but withdrawn to another. Along this lake

IPassage General BUTLER, it is almost certain, had
reached the city on the side opposite the river ;
hence the place had no alternative but to treat for
surrender. The specie was, however, first carefully
0, away—to the amount, it is said, of more
mre ted t o have
than three and a half millions sterling. The cotton
and m
shouldtea b° b
destroyed rather than the Fede-
rals we:
them. The Federal
steamboats
s p
commander is said to have withdrawn his forces to
Camp Moore, eighty miles distant. There seems to
have been no motive for this when he was treating
with the municipal authorities; the time hardly
permitted such a long march ; and the probability
is that there is some telegraphic mistake of names
of persons or places. . What is as certain, as first
intelligence can well be is, that the City is in the
hands of the Federals.

The questions arise, how will the great capture
affect the war, and how will it affect Europe ?
Probably BEAUREGARD, who is at Corinth, about
four hundred miles north by the railway, and much
more by the windings of the river, will severely feel
the loss. He is reported to have strengthened him-
self much, and doubtless the troops liberated from
New Orleans will now join him. Still he is now
all but cut off from every means of communication 1
with other Confederates, and from any largo towns
which could manufacture for him the materiel of
war. The Mississippi is now closed, both north
and south. General HALLECK, directly opposed
to him, has also greatly strengthened himself and
General MucuELL, master of two hundred miles
of his western communications, presses on that
111111" He can escape only by a desperate battle
and a great victory, and bloody probably will be
the fight which 6h P.ll decide the mastery of the
South Western States. On Secession generally the
capture must operate as a heavy discouragement.
The place is not indeed of military value, but New
Orleans is the New York of the South, and its loss
must be disheartening.

,12
What its tifeet will be here, a little time vi
probably show. Already information has been
received, which appears to be of a trustworthy
character, that the Federal Government is engaged
in the consideration Gf measures for' raising, or at
least seriously modifying, the blockade. It has