The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-29 00:00:00

whom he finds to be more than his match.
There can be no longer any doubt that
the battle of Cedar Mountain was a substan-
tial defeat of POPE, though not perhaps a rout.
The loss of
1,500 men is confessed, 300 of them pri-
soners. As the man who confessed this is the same
who sent us the long-believed fable of his capture
of 10,000 Confederates as they were quitting Corinth,
we may judge how we ought to interpret such
a confession. It maybe put as a rule of three sum.
As General POPE'S boast of the capture of 10,000
men is to the capture of a few scot(' invalids and
stragglers, so is General POPE'S confession of the
loss of 1,500 to—what ? perhaps to five times that
number. The two commanders-in-chief fight only
on paper. General LEE writes to HALLECK
threatening retaliatory measures for General POPE'S
order. HALLECK answers that he shall not reply
to the letter because it was couched in a tone in •
suiting to the Federal Government. It seems,
however, pretty clear that the Federals have little
further chance in Northern Virginia, at least of
marching to Richmond.
What the truth may be respecting the
Federal defeats, or the contrary, near Cum-
berland Gap, it is difficult to guess. The po-
sition at the point where Virginia, Kentucky,
and Tennessee meet is a very important one; the
report which reached the North from Memphis,
now in Northern hands, of the surrender of 3,000
Federals as prisoners, is, it is now said, discredited.
It seems, however, that the Confederates are again
very strong in Eastern Tennessee, and BRAGG and
BEAUREGARD are reported to be there, at Chata-
nooga with a large army. The Governor of Ken-
tucky, who had, it will be remembered, convened
his legislature, recommends to it in his message the
almost forgotten compromise of the CRITTENDEN
resolutions. Thus, those border States which are
not, like Maryland, in full possession of the Federal
troops, are all of them still very debateable ground
between the North and the South.
The single sentence in the telegrams of yesterday
which looks better for the North, is that "recruit-
ing has much improved." Its importance depends,
however, almost as much on the causes of the im-
provement as on the increase of numbers itself.
The retained, will of course be useful, but
not men,so us ifefulifthey enlisted merely for the bare
bounty,
as if the military spirit were actually ris-
ing. At the best it will take a long time to drill
and equip the new men. They cannot become effi-
cient soldiers at once. But it makes a vast diffe-
rence whether men, like our rifle corps, are real
volunteers, or whether they are mere hirelings; the
former always learn much more quickly. The
Governor of Massachusetts State, where coloured
people are citizens, has, despite the PRESI-
DENT'S refusal to employ black regiments, or-
dered the men of colour to be included in
the draughting. Mr. LINCOLN will doubt-
less be obliged to yield to so important
a state. The time impends when the dreaded con-
scription will be enforced. On the Ist of September,
for the first time sinee the Union was formed, a
conscription will be attempted among the once
free citizens of the North. The enormous number
of 300,000 will be balloted for, besides those who
will be draughted to fill up the deficiency in the
list of the 300,000 volunteers.

Will the defeats and the retreats, the conscrip-
tion, and the taxation together, shake the resolu-
tion of the North. Soberer, somewhat, it has already
become. Will it vacillate, and then, American-
wise, turn suddenly quite round. To us, in Eng-
land, it seems as if nothing but Northern pride
could persuade to a continuation of the war. It
is impossible that Washington itself, which has so
often trembled for fear of a Southern advance,
should now dream of the conquest of the South.
Both the unanimity of the South and its strength,
under every disadvantage, present a very different
appearance from what they did last April twelve-
months. We have all learned something since
then. In justification of the supposition of so many
of us in England, that the North would easily con-
quer the South, it must be remembered that we
could not suppose the North would throw over-
board its greatest advantage. We did not count
on the unchristian folly and madness of Northern
negro-hatred being so strong that it would rather
lose battles, and see its white sons slaughtered by
thousands, than base the war, on their side, on eman-
cipation of the slave, just as the South made slavery
the corner stone of the republic. The North will
now be beaten—we fear thoroughly beaten—but it
will be because it deserves it. We speak of the
people more than the Government. Mr. LINCOLN
would go as far, probably, as the abolitionists, if the
people were with him ; but they are not, they hate
the negro in their midst. They wish to chain him
to the South. They dread—a needless fear—his
emigration to the North. To have made him free
in his own climate would have been to keep him
securely there. But that day is past. They have
left the negro to maintain by his labour the white
men who fought, to keep him in bondage, against
the men who would not offer him escape from it ;
the North must now yield therefore, virtually van-
quished by the slaves it would not free; for it is
the slaves who have proved to the south, the
" Sinews of War."

If there actually has not been all along, if there
is not still at this moment, a certain complicity be-
tween GARIBALDI and the RATTAZZI Cabinet—the
latter have at length, without doubt, found out to
their cost, and by a bitter experience, the old
proverbial danger of playing with edged tools!
Ever since the success of that miserable, and as it
is proving, fatal Court intrigue which ousted the
inflexible RICASOLI from power to place RATTAZZI
in his stead at the head of the Italian Government
—the latter (that is RATTAZZI) has been sedulously
and systematically encouraging GARIBALDI, until
very recently, in his endeavour to organise,
throughout all Italy a national army--apart from
the Royal army, in aid of the loyal army—a
l'qular gathering, north, south, east and west, of
thecs
upon corps of Rifle Volunteers. For
e,mq..
ostensibly of promoting this popular
moveulest, the
IT. ermil, of Caprera
s island home by the wast.A.TTsAtiZinZ;
amdoniniendistrZil.ouial ;
his for
after month, m d '
in order that he might
traverse the Peninsul bpi end to end, wherever
the Royal standards
..
..VieCT:iyEliby3lAhliisUEcLomwinegre,
flying, to rouse the yostv,
_.,
I°°rde, both spoken and
nationst a n and unmistakably
fast
the time for
o.re an
very
eatrhneethat
wanrdittefintwmorodrse, thbayt
,m,
ao
cr
te i
on ~plainly
was promisedi
n
approaching ! Is not all this a thing absolutely
notorious P Why—even during the sPring of thin
year, GARIBALDI, before he quitted that little
rocky Island of Caprera, that all his truest friends
are wishing now most devoutly had remained for
a little longer his residence --- GARIBALDI, we
3ay, before he quitted Caprera, at a sinister hint from
RATTAZZI and his colleagues, could hardly have
spoken more plainly than he did about another armed
rising in Italy being very imminent! Yet—after
this, after he bad spoken and written repeatedly
to this effezt, GARIBALDI was lured once more
into publicity
.by the new Franco-Italian Prime
Minister, and encouraged in every way to in-
flame by his words and by his presence the