The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-08 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1862.

Military matters move on slowly yet in America.
Long letters, and long columns in American news-
papers, give us accounts of few movements of much
importance on either side. The capture of a small
city en the Gulf of Mexico, on tha coast of Florida,
and the departure of the few soldiers from that un-
impoetant State, with the hitherto unsuccessful
bombardment of Fort Jackson, at the entrance of
the Mississippi, is all we hear of from the far South.
04 the Mississippi itself Commodore FOOTE is Still
busy hammering away at Fort Pill!‘w, as he used
to be at Island No. 10, before he so cleverly carried
a ship canal across its swampy junction- with the
mainland. Fort Pillow, is, however, a far stronger
place than the island. As to the Generals of the
two great rival armies of th-: West, they both
s..4tned very quiet, baying probably, enough to
to make good their losses. Of HALLECIi,
&AN'', and BUELL, We are told that

they are consolidating their forces ; of BEAU-
REGARD, that he is strongly fortifying his position
at Corinth. Very discrepant are the acc-,unts of

the numbers under his command. The intercepted

dispatch, in which he complains of having but
35,009 men, is now said to be a forgery of the

newspaper in which it appeared. A more trust-
worthy paper, read to the Southern Congress, from

S. A. JOHNSTON, who was killed in the battle,

and was said to be their best General, deplores,
however, the smallness and inadequacy of their
force, and shows how this compelled him to fall
back while endeavouring by every artifice to make
the Federals believe that he led a formidable army.
But the Eastern armies are now the object of
chief attention, both in America and Europe—that
under M'CLELLAN especially, If BANKS from the
north-west of Virginia, and M'DOWELL from
the north, can continue their advance, they
will soon be near Richmond, and DAVIS
must withdraw troops from Yorktown to
protect the capital. But they will both,
probably, be afraid of any bold movement. York-
town is now said to be the place where the great

question is to be settled. The numbers and flower
of the Southern troops are doubtless concentrated
there. It is become the Sebastopol of the struggle.
We should not be surprised if it bring about the
same results. MTLELLAN, with his vast supe-
riority in artillery, may prove for the hundredth
time that the attack, if persisted in, will overcome

the defence. But Yorktown, like Sebastopol, can-
not be inveet2d on all sides. When the first series
of works are taken, M'CLELLAN, too, may find a
Northern side presenting to him only fresh difficul-
ties. The second series of works, aLove- Yorktown,
and across the same narrow part of the Peninsula,
is now in process of construction; and the very
slaves Nom the adjoining counties, whose bondage
the President refused to break, are now employed
in large gangs to construct the earthworks which
are to stop M'CLELLAN a second rime, &lonia toe
Confederates be driven from Yorktown. This is a
righteous retribution. Slave-work will leave the
Confederate soldiers fresh for military duty. We
imagine there has been a great deal of this during
the war.

General M'CLELLAN is said to have spoken
at first of " taking the place in a day or two." This
is so far out of the question that the only attack he
has yet made on a small outwork with a small party
has been a complete—indeed, disastrous—failure.
What, however, probably embarrasses him as
much as anything is the fear of the Merrimac.
But for her, indeed, the redoubtable little MDnitor
would certainly advance from her watching station
and shell the Confederates' works with impunity
from the river. The Merrimac appears to have in-
jured herself very seriously by the bursting of her
great gun ; still the Federals never know when she
may be refitted, and resume her destructive and
deadly pranks. Some of the Southern papers say
that the North has a few more iron-plated vessels
quickly coming round to Hampton Roads, and they
urge the Merrimac to bestir herself before they
arrive. It is abundantly clear, therefore, that both
sides are beginning to dread the operations of each
other's ironsides, almost as much as a whole army of
men. Notwithstanding Lord PALMERSTON'S sneering
reply to Mr. ELPHINSTONE'S question on Tuesday
night, we can see, from the fears of the Americans,
that if the North had but a few more Ironsides,
they would pay no attention to the forts which de-
fend Norfolk Navy Yard, that they would enter the
harbour and destroy the dockyards and everything
in them. While, on the other hand, if the
South had but a second Merrimac, they would rely
more on her to defend the Dockyards than on all
the forts which protect the entrance. Fort
Pulaski has just given us also an illustration
of the worth of forts against modern artillery. The
Parrott guns sent their shot completely through,
and soon breached its very strongly built walls.
Lord PALMERSTON will do well to spare the nation
an investment of its money in what will certainly

prove almost pure waste.
The political news is of some interest. The Pre-
sident has aivar. secretary for

aziTocaguilt6ViNit2qt Uet.litLNPla YfirtUesY tilC
less important to him than the General's. A similar
intimation a 'little sooner -would probably have
saved Mr. RUSSELL from being recalled from the
army after he had accepted the General's invitation.
M. MERCIER'S visit to Richmond continues to be the
subject of much curiosity and speculation. As he
went after a long interview with Mr. SEWARD and
Mr, LINCOLN, and every facility was afforded
him for his journey, there is probably little of
importance in it. The Senate has ratified the
treaty with England for the suppression of the
slave trade, which is said to be on the basis of the
mutual right of search, One of the most singular
facts is that a petition has been presented in the
Senate, from a number of free coloured persons,
praying for colonisation of the free negroes in some
tropical part of America, under the protection of
the Feneral Government. As this is the pet scheme
of the PRESIDENT, a strong suspicion naturally
arises that the petition may have been of his
prompting. His most earnest political friends,
also, are all advocates of the Negro Colonisation
Scheme. The negroes are to be formed into a black
republic, which is to be a kind of outlying Central
America, trusting to the great Republic.
On the whole, there does not appear to be the
slightest symptom of yielding on either side. The
North advances, though but slowly, in its Anti-
slavery legislation—the President's famous resolu-
tion, the emancipation of slaves in Columbia, the
conclusion of a treaty for the suppression of the
slave trade, the opening of diplomatic relations
with the Black Republicans of Hayti and Liberia,
all show to the South that, with no goodwill to
abolition, the North is politically compelled to lean 1,
towards it. Meanwhile the preparations for war are
unabated ; the South also showing no signs of yield-
ing. It fights everywhere, whether successful or not,
and retires but slowly. It floods the country on
the banks of the Mississippi, and sacrifices its plan-
tations to hinder the advance of the enemy.
Every where men submit to conscription, the ladies
to privation and to manual labour for the army,
and even the unemancipated slaves are found a
valuable help in the war. The day of settlement
must be very distant, if war or conquest be its only
conditions.

Is the VLADIKA of Montenegro to draw and to
sheathe his sword precisely when he pleases Is
the Sultan Caliph, AZDUL AZIZ, to be allowed
no redress whatever ? Are two of the leading
Powers of the world—France and Russia—to be
be countenanced by the rest of Christendom in the
development of that extraordinary policy which
their diplomatic representatives at Constantinople
are just now bringing to light in the glare of the
contest still raging upon the frontier-line dividing
Turkey from Montenegro P According to the
COW'S° understood to have been already taken by
tiie Russian Anababstulor to the councils of the
Sublime Porte—according to the identical course
which it was believed there, if we can accept as reli-
able the statements so confidently put forth is our
last advices from the Levant, the Government of
the Czar ALEXANDER, and that also of his Majesty
the Emperor NAPOLEON, havePr(Posed to observe
without interference the inviteion of the SULTAN'S