The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-17 00:00:00

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NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.-
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
THIS EVENING, A PRIVATE INQUIRY: Messrs.
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To be followed by a new domestic drama, entitled DOT :
Messrs. J. L. Toole, Emery, Billington, Stephenson ; Miss
L. Keeley, Miss Woolgar, bliss H. Simms, Miss K. Kelly,
and Mrs. It Marston.
To conclude with ICI ON PARLE FRANCAISE Messrs.
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K. Bland, and Mrs. 11. Marston.

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The renowned RU3 ": ECKEL at a quarter to 11.
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Grand Selectle,f, from "La Sonnambula," by Miss Rus
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UNSW•OR /11, in his celebrated Stump Speech " Or any
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The best Comic talent in London.
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combo talent; and HENRI and PFAU on the Flying Trapeze
every evening.
Ii all, 6d. ; Balcony and Stalls, le. ; Private Boxes, 10e. tid.

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THE SUN,
LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1862.

We confess we had
Fresh American surprises!
far less idea that Yorktown would be evacuated so
soon, than that New Orleans might be captured.
Besides the descriptions given us of the present
works, the memory of Lord CORNWALLIS'S defence
to
the last against overwhelming odds by land and
by Sot, impressed on us the opinion that the position
must be a very strong one. Indeed it is but to
glance at a map, sufficiently large, to see that it
must be so. We will not, however, repeat our
descriptions. This strong position which threatened
to present to M'CLELLAN himself such difficulties
as he had witnessed before the Allies at Sebas-
topol, has been surrendered as the Southern half
of that city was, when the Malakoff had fallen.
The Confederate GORTSCHAROPTS will also speak
of the retreat, perhaps as a great success,
and so it was in the important sense that
it was accomplished without tho enemy's know_
ledge, and was therefore undisturbed by him. This,
however, necessitated the leaving behind a large
number of guns, and much military equipage.

The reasons for the evacuation we can of course
only conjecture. The Confederates may
have good
grounds, indeed, for concealing the true ones. The
most direct cause would seem to be that the arrival
Of several irou-plated gunboats from the North had
compelled the Merrimac to keep at Norfolk, and
that, delivered from the fear of her, the other Con-
federate gunboats were able to ascend the two
rivers, and to co-operate irresistibly with the forces
on land. Besides the presence of three Federal
armies in Northern Virginia, all more or less '
threatening Richmond, and perhaps able to take
the Yorktown Confederate army in the rear,
must have had its weight. The Confederate

Generals would wish to be nearer the centre of
their operations ; at Yorktown they were at one
end of their work.

The expulsion of the Confederates from York-
town, where it is repeatedly stated in the de-
spatches that the works were found to be exceed-
ing strong, can, after all, only be regarded as a
great victory. It was followed, also, by the oc-
cupation of Williamsburg, higher up the penin-
sula between the rivers, after a fierce battle, in
which one division of the Federals suffered severely,
but as the result they took a thousand prisoners,
and, it is added, a thousand wounded prisoners.
Thus far, therefore, the Federal success seems to
hare been complete. APCLELLAN, however, does
not count his work easy. He represents the Con-
federate army as larger than .kis own, and says
emphatically, "We shall have other battles to
fight, before we reach Richmond." lie also finds the
conveyance of supplies difficult, but " he would do
what he could with the force under his command."
These latter remarks are probably intended to put
his opponent, Mr. STANTON, the Secretary for War,
in the wrong with the public.

Whether the disheartening effect of the fall of
New Orleans and Baton Rouge, on the Mississippi,
had any influence in causing this retreat, it is im-
possible to say; but the movement, if expedited by
the Southern misfortunes, was yet, in all probability,
chiefly decided by military facts in Virginia itself.
The Confederates have, unquestionably, lost, both
in prestige and substantially, at New Orleans and
Yorktown. In each of these fields they are now
pushed more closely than ever; and a decisive de-
feat, in either, must be fatal to the military pro-
spects of the Confederacy. Even should they gain
a battle, or prolong the contest, by carefully keep-
ing to the defensive, still the North has shown such
strength as, It appears, the f3outh have Liu means of
resisting, except for a short time.
Meantime there are signs of some impending
change. The Federal Government itself appears to
be really concocting measures to remove the com-
mercial blockade. The policy is, probably, to throw
on the Confederates, in the eyes of Europe, the
blame of withholding the cotton. The mails to
New Orleans are also to be reorganised ; and thus,
both natives and foreign countries, are to feel the
benefit of the places being brought again under
Federal Government. All pretext for foreign
intervention, unless against the South, is
thus to be taken away. Meantime the
French Ambassador, who lately went to
Richmond, is now off to Yorktown. Why he
goes, no one really knows in one case more than in
the other; still the activity of the vivacious French-
man, whose strong desire for an amicable settle-
ment is not concealed, can but lead to the supposi-
tion that he moves about, in an unofficial way, to
further the object he is known to aim at. It may be
regarded as certain that the Federals will not treat
now, except on the basis of a reunion. If, when so
long unsuccessful, they did not despair, it is to the
last degree improbable that, after the conquest of
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and the victories
of New Orleans and Yorktown, the Government
would be allowed to treat with the rebels for any
kind of independence. The South would have to
be content with the honour of a resistance,
which has been successful far beyond anything
expected at the outset. It has shown that it can-
not be trifled with, and that under every disadvan-
tage, It may make honourable terms; but any
terms now made must be substantially a capitula-
tion. It will require, in all probability, another
important victory or two to lead to such a result.

The only reason why an early settlement of this
bloody strife betwe:n brethren in race and language
can be at all feared by Englishmen is, that it would
leave the slavery question where it stands. The
North would never forward emancipation but as a
necessary measure of war. With the exception of
a small minority, the Northerns would gladly sus-
tain slavery in the plantations; and a settlement
now would be, therefore, the perpetuation of slavery
for generations to come in many of the Southern
States. If the South resist successfully till want
of money incline the North to emancipation, then,
and then only, shall we see it adopted.

Perhaps it may be the particularly keen edge
given to their appetite for extortion by their recent
"doings" (literally) with poor " Mussoo" on his
way to and from the Great International Exhibi-
tion. Perhaps it is the fine opportunities latterly
afforded to them in the same way by those adven-
turous " Unprotected Females" who have taken to
driving hither and thither, with an admirable au-
dacity, in your genuine patent safety Hansom. It
may just perhaps be that they have latterly had
such a glut of " fares" to choose from, now that our
London streets are so over-crowded with footsore
sightseers. Whatever the reason may or may not
be—it is quite obvious that the London cabowners
are becoming more than ever litigious, and the
London cabdrivers more than ever remarkable for
their matchless combination of cool effrontery and
flagrant extortion. The members of the former
class, that is the class of the cabowners,
possess one adventurous champion of their
rights so bent upon doing battle for their
vindication that he is actually going to carry
into the Court of Queen's Bench his disputed
claim for an odd sixpence ! The problem about to
be submitted by him to the consideration of the
Lord Chief Justice being, whether or not "a Baby"
may strictly speaking be regarded a$ " a Person !"
The said infant being brought or not, according
to the decision of the Court, within the mean-
ing of the Act of Parliament referred to.
It is a nice distinction enough in itself,
and one that all the mothers of England, who have
a knowledge of its being now on the tapia, will
look for with eager curiosity. As to the cab-
drivers, considered at this moment altogether apart
from their employers, the cabowners, it will be borne
in mind, of course by all who have ever been in the
habit of engaging them, that—at their best and
under merely ordinary circumstances—they are (as
a perfectly unique set of specimens of the gnus
homo) distinguished by a variety of very interesting
peculiarities. These were some of them brought
out very vividly to view a few years back, when
the minimum fare of
" sixpence" was formally in-
augurated, in lieu of the old eightpenny mile's
worth of jangle and jolt. It will be in the recollec-

tion of most Londoners, that first of all, as the eery
earliest consequence of that unwelcome twopenny
drop to the injured race of " Cabbies"—came a very
solemn
and affecting display on their part of
Virtuous Indignation. Paterfamilias with the in-
o,an ra T.o pro
jeo:
on
n is
his w
in-
cipient gout in his toes, 11 f • •
ater amilias going shop-
ping,ay to the Great Western for
way to. the Eastern Conn-
ties for Cambridge, uyfoto-nAlldj', shtOttt—"loo-iknend.
don and South Western, say
to the right and the left, up street and down street
—sent post-haste across the square to the stand—
round the corner to the public-house—for a cab,
for any cab good, bad, or indifferent. All in vain.
The cabmen had turned sulky. They had struck.
The course pursued by them in this manner, was
followed, however, as a mere matter of course, for a
very brief interval indeed. Like all the Strikes
that ever yet have been heard of, the cab strike,
turned out to have really injured only the very class