The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-11 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Jan. 27.

The " sensation" of the day, which has thrown
into temporary insignificance all other events of
war or peace, is the cession, reported from San
Francisco, of Lower California and the provinces of
Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua to the
Emperor of the French, in trust for the repayment
by Mexico of the &poises incurred in establishing
the throne of the Emperor Maximilian. The an-
nouncement that this new and rich territory is to be
governed, on behalf of Napoleon 111., by ex-Senator
Gwin, of California, a native of the State of Missis-
sippi, and one of the warmest friends and best
known advocates of Southern independence, has
strongly impressed the public mind with the belief
that an alliance between the two Emperors on the
one hand and the Government of Mr. Jefferson
Davis on the other is a main condition of the
arrangement, and that the recognition of the
Southern Confederacy by the Great Powers of
Europe will follow as a matter of course, if it do not
take place simultaneously with the action of the
French Emperor. It is asserted by many that the
facts have been long known to Mr. Lincoln and
Mr. Seward, and that they are alone sufficient to
account for the two missions of Mr. Blair to Rich-
mond—charged with the duty of ascertaining from
Mr. Davis what terms, if any, he is prepared to
make with the Federal Government if the latter will
take the initiative in recognition. It is hinted that
a slight concession on the subject of slavery, pro-
mising a gradual emancipation, or the establish-
ment of a system of serfage, such as that inaugu-
rated by General Banks in Louisiana would recon-
cile the main body of the Republican party to
" accept the situation ;" that an export duty of 10
cents per pound on cotton would satisfy the manu-
facturing interests of New England ; and that if
Mr. Davis would break with his French friends, and
enter into an alliance offensive and defensive with
the North in vindication of the Monroe doc-
trine, he would gratify the ambitious lust of empire
entertained as vividly by the North as by the South,
and bring the whole strength of the Democratic
party to acquiesce in separation. The consequences
predicted are no less than the annexation of the
whole of Mexico, including Senator Gwin's Vice-
royalty, to the South, and the whole of British
America to the North. Such is the dream of the mo-
ment ; such is the hallucination which has taken
temporary possession of the American mind, and
which causes steady people to assert in public places
that it is a neck and neck race at this hour between
Napoleon 111. and Mr. Lincoln who shall first make
terms with Mr. Jefferson Davis. Whether the re-
turn of Mr. Blair from Richmond bearing the news
that the South refuses to treat, except after uncon-
ditional recognition of its independence, will change
the tone of the public mind remains to be seen.
The political dissensions in the Southern capital,
as reported both in the journals that support and in
those that oppose the Administration of Mr. Davis,
also attract unusual attention. Some observers see
nothing in the attacks made upon Mr. Davis but a
proof that the Southern people are so weary of the
war that they are anxious to make peace upon no
other terms than these of a general amnesty and a
repeal of the Confiscation Acts ; while others, better
informed, or drawing more correct conclusions from
the study of human nature and of the lessons of
history, see in the animosities expressed against Mr.
Davis and in the forthcoming appointment of Gen.
Lee to the supreme control of the armies of the Re-
public nothing but a determination on the part of
the South to carry on the war with renewed vigour,
to centralise power for the better organisation of
victory, and to allow no man, however great and
able, or however eminent in character and previous
service, to stand in the way of the accomplish-
ment of the national purpose, if from any cause,
real or imaginary, he have forfeited the once
implicit confidence of the people. The restora-
tion of General Joseph E. Johnston to the com-
mand of the Army of the Tennessee, contrary to the
advice and wish of the President, marks not alone
the diminished respect of the Confederate Congress
for the military judgment of Mr. Davis, but shows
to what cause the public opinion of the South attri-
butes the recent reverses which have befallen .their
arms. In like manner, the resignation of several
members of the Cabinet is to be accepted as a proof,
not of discouragement, but of the inauguration of a
more vigorous or, at all events, of a more popular
system ; and if, as the indications seem to prefigure,
Mr. Davis will cordially accept the position in which
a temporary want of success,—if not an error of
judgment in the removal of General Johnston—has,
perhaps, undeservedly, but not unnaturally, placed
him, and act in thorough military subordination to
General Lee, it is probable that such energy will
be infused into the heart of the Southern people as
will speedily enable them to achieve a victory suffi-
ceent to overbalance their late losses, and bring upon
the North a renewal of the cold fit of despondency
which it suffered in the early days of the Chicago
Convention, when the war was pronounced to be a
failure, and the whole tendency of Northern opinion
was towards peace and conciliation.

As General Lee some time ago declared himself
to be in favour of arming the negroes and reward-
ing their faithful service with freedom for them-
selves and families, it is safe to calculate, now that
he is about to assume the rank of Generalissimo of
the Confederacy, that he will continue of the same
opinion, and represent through the proper agency
to Congress the necessity or expediency of taking
measures in accordance with his views. The oppo-
sition which may be made by such slaveowners as
maintain that their slaves should not be taken
from them by their own Government without
compensation need not stand in the way of the
project, for if the Northern Government and
people, in their extreme need of . men to re-
plenish their armies, are willing to pay bounty
money of 1,000 - dollars ahead for fair-skinned
Germans and Irishmen, and almost as much for
dark-skinned Africans, to fight their battles, the
South can find means to buy the manumission, at
the same rate, of such ablebodied slaves as their
masters may not be disposed to lose upon lower
terms. If there be no question of prejudice to re-
move or conciliate, the political and financial impe-
diments in the way of the arming of the slaves will
not be of a kind to try very severely the statesman-
ship of Mr. Davis and the military genius of Gen.
Lee. Mrs. Foote, the wife of the Confederate repre-
sentative, arrested with her husband while attempt-
ing to pass the Northern lines, and who was subse-
quently permitted to continue her journey to Wash-
ington, where she was hospitably received and enter-
tained by Mr. Seward, is reported to have assured
that gentleman that the South would have at least
200,000 ablebodied black troops embodied, drilled,
and disciplined before the month of May, and to
have expressed her conviction, which she shares with
the great majority of the Southern people, that they
will make good and faithful soldiers. llowever that
may be, the question of a Northern conscription
seems almost as difficult of solution as that of the
replenishment of the Southern armies. On the 15th
of February, less than three weeks from the present
time, Mr. Lincoln has proclaimed that measures
must be adopted to provide him with 300,000 men.
Little has been done in any of the States to furnish
them by voluntary enlistment. High bounties have
been offered, but scarcely a man has presented him-
self to receive them, except soldiers whose term
of service has expired, an occasional negro, and
batches of newly arrived emigrants, who either left
Europe for this special purpo.se,
or were inveigled,
stupefied with drink, and robbed by the bounty-
brokers of Castle-garden and the Battery. It is
publicly notified and lamented that not 100 men a
week arc recruited in New York, notwithstanding
all the efforts made and all the inducements offered
sinee the last proclamation was offered. A feeling
of anxiety for the consequences of a forced conscrip-
tion in this troublesome city, filled with a foreign
and unruly class accustomed to the discontents of
the Old-World, and tainted with the Communistic
and Socialist ideas of the Red Republicans of Paris
and Germany, begins to prevail, and has within the
last two days been strengthened by the unwelcome
notification that all the naval recruitments, and some
others hitherto credited to the city of New York are
to be credited to the State at large. The city has

hitherto done so well that, according to the calcula-
tion of the authorities, it would require little more
than 4,000 men to complete its quota. But if the
naval recruits are to be credited to the State it will
require upwards of 20,000 instead of 4,000 men to
free the city from its liability; and 20,000 men, at
1,000 dollars each—supposing they can be bought
on those terms, or any other—will cost the real estate
of Manhattan Island the very considerable sum of 20
millions of dollars, to be borrowed on the security
of the rates and taxes. Already rents are enormously
high in consequence of the burdens upon house pro-
perty and the depreciation of the currency—so high
that the working classes are compelled to " pig
together" (the phrase is but too apt) in human styes
called " tenement houses," where they sleep 12 or 20
in a room, without regard to the comforts or the de-
cencies of humanity. An increase of the debt of the
city to the extent of 20 millions would tend not
only to intensify this evil as respects the poor, but
would add to the discontent of the professional and
middle classes, who find it difficult to keep house at
present prices, though in the enjoyment of incomes
which in most parts of Europe, and even in England,
would be considered affluent. If after all the efforts
made to provide a volunteer army it be resolved, as
the least of two evils, to attempt the enforcement of
the draught, the Administration may perhaps regret
that it quarrelled prematurely with Major-General
Butler, or may even be induced to go the length of
re-appointing him to the military dictatorship of
this city during the perilous operation. It is in-
structive to note in connexion with this subject
how indignant both the Democratic and the Repub-
lican papers are against 3vlr. Fenton, the new Go-
vernor' of New York, for not having done as well as
Governor Seymour in prociiring an abatement on the
calls, and, on the contrary, how grateful the people
are to every official who makes out a good case for
the diminution of the quota in his district, and
what praises are showered upon him for his public
spirit. It may be public spirit in a certain sense ;
but it is not the public spirit which will carry the
war to a successful termination, or which need im-
press the Southern people very strongly with the
patriotic or military ardour of their opponents.

The war news promises a revival of interest. The
sudden dash made by the Confederate flotilla in the
James River upon the Federal war ships and tran-
sports, which they drove down to Fortress Monroe
as so many wolves would have driven a flock of
sheep, and the immediate appointment of Admiral
Farragut to command in the river, betokens that
the Confederates beleaguered in Richmond are
meditating and have commenced the perpetration of
mischief. The Confederates lost one of their small
gunboats, the Drury, carrying two guns, which ran
aground, and was blown up to prevent her capture
by the enemy ; but no information has yet been per-
mitted to pass over the wires of the extent of damage
done by this naval raid to the fleets of the North.
That the emergency was as great as it was sudden
may be surmised from the haste with which Admiral
Farragut was notified by telegraph to proceed to the
scene of danger, as well as by the silence which the
telegraphic censorship at Washington has imposed
upon the press. Yesterday afternoon a variety of
wild rumours were in circulation in regard to the
matter, which later in the day received an addition
of unpleasantness from another quarter in the
announcement that General Terry had marched
against Wilmington and suddenly found himself in
presence of a vastly superior force, by which he was
attacked and forced to retreat with heavy loss.
It is• confidently asserted by the friends of the
Government that both Wilmington and Charleston
will be in Federal possession within a few days,
and as confidently maintained, by the friends of the
South, that, however galling to Southern pride the
loss of those cities may be, the result upon the for-
tune of the war will not in any case be prejudicial,
but may be of service to the Confederacy.

General Butler and Admiral Porter continue their
controversy on the failure of the former to capture
Fort Fisher, and the. Admiral gives the General the
lie direct in as courteous and Parliamentary a man-
ner as it is possible to employ in statements which
amount to an asseveration that a man says the thing
which is not. Gen. Butler is by far the better logi-
cian of the two, and the Admiral will infallibly get
the worst of the discussion if he do not make haste
to close. His own despatch, in which his friends say
he " excoriates" the fallen Butler, is a singularly
pompous and egotistical document, and that in
which he details to the Secretary of the Navy the
results of his own operations, after he was relieved
of the assistance of his military "'friend" from
Lowell, cannot fairly be designated by any other
epithet, unless that of " vulgar" be added to the
number. He states that in every fort he captured he
found one or more " Armstrong guns," marked with
the "broad arrow," from which he draws the in-
ference that they were once the property of the
British Government, and thinks it " would be in-
teresting to know how they came into forts used by
Southern rebels." He also states that he is " almost
afraid" to mention the amount of provisions, stores,
and clothing which he has captured, and which have
come from England into what he calls " rebeldom."
He adds, as a matter likely to be of peculiar interest
to Mr. Welles, and if not to him to the American
people, that in a blockade-runner called the Char-
lotte, which was seized in attempting to rip the
blockade into Wilmington, ignorant that the Cape
Fear River had changed masters, " were five Eng-
lish passengers, one an English army officer, who
had all come over, as they expxe,ssed it, on a lark,'
and were making themselves particularly jolly' in
the cabin on their champagne." It is obvious that
the gallant Admiral should confine himself to fight-
ing, and learn to write as little and as seldom as
possible. Generals Grant and Sherman are models
in this respect, which he and other Federal officers
would do well to imitate. .

A LAND SLlP.—About half a mile to the north of
the Fyvie station on the Aberdeen and Turiff Rail-
way, there is an embankment of about 70 feet high, close by
the turnpike road, where the line crosses the " Lownie
Burn." The heavy fall of rain and sleet during last week,
accompanied with partial frost, had so impregnated the em-
bankment with moisture that on Thursday it was observed
to be giving way on the side next the turnpike road. In
order to relieve it a little, the surfacemen laboured through-
out the whole of Friday night shifting the rails a little to
the opposite side ; but on Saturday forenoon the west side
of the embankment also gave evidence that it was about to
move, and about half-past 12 (noon) a huge mass of the
slope moved down, leaving the sleepers clear in some
parts half across the line, and about 36 yards in length.
A mass of earth slipping over the mouth of the culvert,
the water was effectually dammed, and the burn being
swollen by the rains, a lake was speedily accumulating.
A boat was procured from Fyvie Castle with the view of
facilitating a clearance, but was found to be of little service.
The telegraph at Fyvie station was hard at work, and a
number of the surfacemen from other portions of the line,
and some of the officials from Aberdeen, rapidly arrived.
They laboured hard until past 11 p.m. endeavouring to reach
the culvert through the face of the embankment, when the
men retired a few yards to partake of refreshments. By this
time the waters had risen to a height of nearly 12 feet, and
formed a fine lake, covering from 2 to 3 acres of ground.
Ere the men had resumed work, a few gurgles were heard,
then the mighty rush and roar, joined with the cheers and
hurrahs of the workmen, clearly told that the waters had
forced their way. The impetuous torrent, on emerging at
the opposite end, swept down a few yards of the turnpike
bridge and tore up some trees by the root. Fortunately, as
much of the turnpike bridge remains as will suffice for
traffic on the road, but a few yards more would have isolated
north and south for a time. Passenger traffic is still carried
on, one engine runningfrom Banff and another from Inver-
amsay, meeting at the place where the interruption has
occurred. Great efforts will be made to have matters put
right as speedily as possibly, but traffic in goods must for a
time be partly deranged. It will, be observed that till the
breach be closed the late train leaving Inveramsay at 8 30
is discontinued.—Banff hire Journal.
BitEAKFAST BEVER,A.GE.—Homcelpathic practitioners,
and the medical profession generally, recommend cocoa
as being the most healthful of all beverages. When the doc-
trine of homeopathy was first introduced into this country,
there were to be obt fined no preparations of cocoa either at-
tractive to the taste or acceptable to the stomach ; the nut
was either supplied is the crude state, or so unskilfully
manufactured as to obtain little notice. J. Epps, of London,
Homeopathic Chemist, was induced in the year 1839 to turn
his attention to this subject, and at length succeeded, with
the assistance of elaborate machinery, in being the first
to produce an article pure in its composition, and so refined
by the perfect trituration it receives in the process it passes
thro ,gh, as to be most acceptable to the delicate stomach.
For general use Epps's Cocoa is distinguished as an invigo-
rating, grateful breakfast beverage, possessing a most deli-
cious aroma. Dr. Hassa;l, in his work, "Food and its
Adirlteratio .s," says —" Cocoa contains a great variety of im-
portant nutritive principles—every ingrediqut necessary to
the growth and sustenance of the body." Again: "As a
nutritive, cocoa stands very much higher than either coffee
or tea." Directions—Two teaspoonfuls of the powder in a
breakfast cup, filled up with boiling water or milk. Secured
la tin-lined Vb., lb., and Ilb. labelled packets, and sold by
all grocers, confectioners, and chemists.—[ADVT.]