The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-01 00:00:00

PRICE.

STAN:

is regarded with hearty disappointment upon both
sides. The generals in command—Generals Bragg
and Buell—are universally condemned by their re-
spective parties. General Buell has been deposed
by the Federals, in favour of General Rosecrana.
Loud murmurs arc heard in this city against Gen.
Bragg. That an abler successor worili bc., very de•
sirable cannot be denied, but where he can be found
it is difficult to say. Perhaps the greatest satisfac-
tion would be felt if General Joe Johnston were ap-
pointed in General Bragg's place, but, although
General Johnston is here, and appears to have won-
derfully recovered from his wounds, it is doubtful
if his health is strong enough yet to enable him to
take the field. The presence of so many of the
leading generals in Richmond at this moment is
significant. In reference to Kentucky it is idle
to deny that there has been more disappointment
here at her disloyalty to the South than at the
apathy of Maryland. It is considered incredible
that a State whose interests and senti-
ments all gravitate southwards should
still
cling to the Union, when the Union is hopeless
at the"
and discredited, and should, in a vain effort after
neutrality, subject, her, fields to devastation
hands Of both armies. The condition of Kentucky,
if the war lasts next year, will be appalling. On the i
other hand, if she had heartily thrown in her lot
this autumn with the South it is doubtful whether
any attempt to carry the war further would have
been made by the North. But in Kentucky and
Maryland material censiderations, wealth and com-
fort, have outweighed all other influences. In the
first it will be seen whether a less shortsighted
policy, though more hazardous at the outset, would
not eventually have proved much safer; in the
second it must be remembered that scarce enough
encouragement was extended to the first effort of
the Confederacy in Maryland'a behalf to justify any
similar attempt in the future. It is hard to expect
that a State which, like Virginia, has borne the
heat and burden of the war, which has laid bare
her bosom to the smiter and submitted to sacrifices
hardly paralleled on earth, should look with patience
upon the lukewarm zeal of other rich and powerful
States, and accept their lip service as equal to her
heart's blood. In the annals of the Old Dominion
there will be no loftier page than that which tells
how month after month the war which established
the independence of the South was fought on her
willing soil, how Lee and Jackson and Stuart and a
hundred others were among her chosen sons, and
how upon every battlefield rivers of the best blood
of Virginia were freely shed rather than abandon
the title to independence which finds its expression
in her fierce motto of " Sze Senzper Tyrannis."
But if, as is asserted, the efforts of Gen. Bragg in
Kentucky have resulted only in the capture of a
large amount of plunder, it is believed that his
army, now falling back into Tennessee, will be able
to give a good account of Nashville, and to rescue
that unhappy city from the miseries of Federal do-
mination, of which it has drained the cup to the
dregs, For a long time past it has been the policy
of the Confederates to intercept all supplies from
entering the city, and thus to starve out the Fede-
ral garrison, consisting, it is said, of 7,000 men.
This policy has been met by foraging parties on the
part of the Federals, thrown out on every side of
Nashville, by which every living animal and every-
thing of value has been ruthlessly seized, and
Southern exasperation has been bitterly kindled
against the Yankees of Nashville, who, in addition
to seizing all manner of supplies, are said to have
possessed themselves of jewels, ornaments, and silk
dresses to an enormous extent. All these incidents
have grievously inflamed tto Confederates against
them, and it seema, probable that, although baffled
in Kentucky, General Bragg's army or a small por-
tion of it will make short work with the garrison at
Nashville, and either compel them to a surrender,
such as took place at Harper's Ferry, or to a pre-
cipitate flight. It is strange it should be fancied that
the tenure of such cities as Nashville and New Or-
leans by tyrants like Butler should be calculated to
awaken sentiments of affection in heat ts estranged.
Upon a recent day, no less than 15,000 persons went
to a place in New Orleans, appointed by General
Butler, and solemnly swore that they were enemies
to the United States, and registered their property
for him to work his will upon.
In one respect there need be little anxiety enter-
tained in Europe about the pompous proclamation
in which President Lincoln announces that after the
Ist of January next all slaves in the States then in
rebellion shall be set free. From the very first
dawn of this war that proclamation has been prac-
tically enforced. There remains no power to en-
force it in January, 1863, which was not invoked
and employed in January, 1862. Wherever the
United States' forces have been quartered during
this war the eager desire of officers and men ap-
pears to have been to "run off" the slave popula-
tion. Again and again rations have been served out
to large bodies of runaway negroes; for instance there
were 2,000 runaways lately assembled and fed by
the Federal Government at Harper's Ferry. This
circumstance only renders more certain the original
impression entertained with respect to this procla-
mation, that it was esteemed as of no importance
on this continent, and was put forth only to catch
English and French approbation. But in the South
such is the exasperation against the Yankee, so
low is the estimate of his acts and intentions
that it is almost universally believed that the un-
fortunate African runaway will be secretly sold by
the Federal Government in Cuba. In confirmation
of this theory it is remarked that a crippled, or aged,
or useless negro is never tempted into freedom by
the Federal troops. But it must be confessed that
the very lowest estimates of Yankee' morality are
justified by the experiences of this war. As an
amusing instance of the popular Southern creed as
to the mingled canting hypocrisy and knavery of
the Yankee, it is asserted that in the wallet of a
Federal soldier recently killed in the fight at Poca-
taligo, near Charleston, was discovered the 70th
Psalm, neatly written out in the soldier's own
hand, and wrapped in a five-dollar Confederate
note, which proved to be counterfeit.
It is remarked, after the experience of eighteen
months of warfare, that the smooth bore rifle is gene-
rally preferred by the Southern soldiers to the
Enfield or Springfielst, The Confederates do not
believe in long shots, and seldom Ere until within
two hundred yards of their
etnee riynfi At this
ed musket is to
dis-
tance the constant tendencyof h
throw its ball too high. islt asserted that in the
battles around this town traces of the musket balls
fired by the Confederates indicate an average height
the ground, whereas the
of from 3ft. to 6ft. above g
ehis theire earliest
e opponents'st boyhood
heads. The
has, almost without exception, been accustomed to
Federal bullets range at a height of from 6ft. to 9ft.
There is not a question that the vast majority of the
Federal buellestos
the use utghoern
highr
from above
of firearms and to life in the saddle, The
value of these two accomplishments cannot be over-
,
estimated in such a war as this. At this moment
rumours have reached us that Gen. M'Clellan
give
a
way to Gen. Hooker. That such may be the
case is ardently desired by Southern Generals.
Gen. Hooker is known t t
qualities which were also possessed by Gen. Pope.
With such an army
as th is to
0 oe brave and rash,
at of Gen. M'Clellan rash-
ness is almost certain to lead to crushing disaster.
It is most creditable
to the Confederacy to remark
how, under all the pressure of their circumstances,
public liberty has never been sacrified, the
Habeas Co" pus
-pus Act never suspended. As an in-
stance, I - may mention that there are two journals
published daily in this town, which animadvert
upon the President and his Cabinet, and upon the
Governor of Virginia, in language which could
scarcely be surpassed by the IVeto York Rerald. It
has been held better to put up with the inewavA:
'llene° of their strictures, and with 0--
...J.e apparent
manifestations of dissensi^- •
North than s* _...0. thus exhibited to the
,
.0 suppress '1- or interfere with the free-
- -
lerance
. .um of the press. But one effect of this to

A considerable degree of excitement has prevailed
during the laSt few days in the vicinity of the Vic-
toria Docks, in consequence of a report of a
brutal murder on the person of Arthur Merton,
aged 21 years, a porter at the Tidal Basin Station
of the North Woolwich line of the Great Eastern
Railway, by a number of mariners alleged to be-
long to the screw collier steam-ship James Dixon,
the property of Messrs. Cory and Sons, coal merch-
ants. It appeared that the deceased went into the
Victoria Dock Hotel on Monday nightlast, and after
leaving that place he was attacked bi' a numb pr of
sailors in a drunken condition, who maltreated him
and his companion, whom they kicked, and ifter
leaving deceased in an insensible state, he was dis-
covered by the police, who removed him ; but de-
ceased never rallied, and died on the following morn-
ing at eleven o'clock.
The Coroner for the district, Mr. C. C. Lewis,
opened an inquiry at the Victoria Dock Hotel, Vic-
toria Dock road, Essex, upon the body of deceased,
and after the identity was .proved on Wednesday
the proceedings Were adjourned until Saturday,
morning at eleven o'clock, when the following im-
portant evidence was adduced
Edward Lowe stated that ho knew the deceased,
and ho went to the Dock
ni ht in House Tavern on the
g question with Thomas Dyson. They re-
mained there until half-past eleven o'clock,
they left. Dyson and witness when
ed they saw Mitchell and other sailorswalk , who on, wh®n
struck him
and Dyson. He then saw Mitchell run after Dyson,
exclaiming,one, and I will do for
" I have done for
another." Mitchell then approached witness and
struck him. Witness saw the deceased lying on the
ground and heard a man named Hewett say, "Go
it George, give it, to the --...." At the police sta-
tion Mitchell offered witness money not to appear to
press the charge.
Thomas Dyson, railway porter, deposed that he
and deceased left duty at five minutes to ten o'clock
' that night, and repaired to the Dock House Tavern,
and, after remaining there until 20 minutes to 12,
wayproceededleftAlitocnheltlhsetirruckwitness, home
exclaiming,
but just
at hf
teeyr they
"I know you." Witness replied, " If you do know
me you need not strike me." Shortly afterwards he
saw deceased lying on the giound. The police were
called, and deceased was taken home. Witness re-
mained with him all night, but he never recovered
his senses or his speech, and expired next morning.
James Wallis, a police-officer in the service of the
Great Eastern Railway Company, said that on Mon-
day night, shortly before 11 o'clock, be was alarmed
by a cry of " Police !" He proceeded to the spot
from whence the sound issued, and found deceased
upon the ground lying by the side of a lamp- post
Mitchell was by thedeceased, and witness distinctly
saw him kick the deceased twice on the head as he
lay upon the ground. Witness was only about 10 or
12 yards from him, and clearly saw
Mitchell use his
foot. When Mitchell was in the act of kicking de-
ceased, the man Hewett 'said, " Let the have it,
George." When witness reached deceased he was
quite insensible. Witness assisted in carrying de-
ceased home, and he was quite insensible until death.
Mr. J. Morris, surgeon, stated that he was called
to the deceased, and made a post mortem examina-
tion of the body, in conjunction with Dr. Mugliston.
The immediate cause of death was effusion of blood
on the surface of the brain, produced by fracture of
the skull and rupture of the bloodvessels of tl-8
brain, which must have been produced by a violent
fall or
received blacwocidentally. He did not believe the injuries were
After some remarks from the learned coroner he
suggested another adjournment, as several important
witnesses were absent on board the James Dixon,
which would be in the docks again in a, week's time.
The proceedings were accordingladjourned.B
y
The two men, Mit-,
• %len and Hewett, were brought
up at Ilford Petty Ses " sions, on Saturday, before a
full bench of county magistrates, on the charge of
causing the deceased's death ; but after the exami•
nation
ande for of several witnesses, the, prisoners were• re-
fordmd a week, and were again conveyed to I/-
Gaol.

THE LONDON COAL TRADE.--A scheme by which
it is proposed to substitute the present drops of the Great
Northern Railway, with a much more advantageous plan
for sacking, is now engaging the attention of the leading
colliery owners of South Yorkshire, inasmuch as its adop-
tion would be a' tended with many advantages to them. By
the authority of the directors of the South Yorkshire Rail.
way a model of the plan has been exhibited at their offices,
Ilaligate, Doncaster, and on Saturday last several of the
directors and the officials inspected it, Mr. Plimsoll, a gentleman intimately connected with the coal trade, ex-
plained its working, and it seems that the fall of coals ft:ein
the waggons is now so great as to cause a deterioration in
value in sonic kinds of coal of at least 14 or 15 par cent.,
but the proposal now umde would reduce it to only three or
four, and in the case of other descriptions still lower. It is
intended that each quality shall occupy a particular line of
railway, and the delivery will be direct from the trucks to
the sacks down a screen separated in the middle, by which
means the filling will take place in two sacks at once. As
each truck is emptied it will, by means of an easily revolv-
ing turntable, run under a shed to a line setapart for empty
waggons, and thus much of the inconvenience that mow
ed t}_leir approobffwvy,oaattlaln°daaf
arises would be obviated. The delivery could go on ft-xlmy
waggons on each line, and when emptied be readily re-
moved.buateelblt
teukhaisantcti hdnwsegmao
waggons
000
nna
demand,
lse
wouldv futblhauetnbccoehot ivabeilfemd ad-
pressobset
The eolliely managers and propriet.rs have ex-
state as when loaded
at the pits, the breakage which occurs at all the rausir,y
de-
tained
ntt
deliveredai egdiensa
tonLo dfot
whichnhs ede
consumer onsumer in the same
depots in London being avoided.