The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-18 00:00:00

mes draws a contrast between this fight in day-light
and his action with the Hatteras at night, when he
saved all the crew of the vessel he sank. The author,
however, sneeringly adds, that he acquitted Commo-
dore Winslow of any intention of permitting the
men to drown, or even of gross negligence, which
would be almost as criminal. "It was his judgment
which was in fault." This relieves us from the dis-
cussion of the facts whether the sailors were left to
perish, as he thus acquits Commodore 'Winslow of
intentional wrong. As a rule Admiral Semmes gives
a true version ; therefore it is not his facts, but his
fancies, which we call in question. Dropping, then,
the latter charge, we may observe with reference to
the former that the Kearsarge had been sent to the
English Channel to destroy a vessel its Govern-
ment regarded as little better than a pirate. That
cruiser was known to be well built, well fitted,
armed and manned, and commanded by a brave
and skilful officer. It was therefore the business
of the captain of the Kea large to lose no op-
portunity of protecting his ship and qualifying
her for an encounter with so formidable an ad-
versary. Admiral Semntnes insinuates that the
boarding which covered the iron cables was in-
' tended to disguise the fact that the vessel was,
in a measure, ironclad. Bac a sailor will see a
dozen reasons why such boarding should be used—
for sightliness, cleanliness, for speed, and the better
security of the fixing; the wash of the waves against
the iron chains could not fail to retard speed, un-
less thus cased. Semmes used all sorts of devices
to deceive the vessels he captured, and his answer
when the Hatteras hailed, even after there was any
necessity for such disguise, was an untruth. Yet
he "howls a hurricane" over the chivalry of the
Yankee who allowed him to leave the protection of
Cherbourg to pit his wooden ship against an iron-
clad. Winslow ought, he thinks, either to have
stripped off his chain armour, or to have told him
he wore such a coat. The sense of this is some-
thing like his insisting upon a f rigate, which had over-
hauled him, casting away her strength in excess of
his, that he might have the opportunity of fighting
on equal terms; or as if the captain of the Ariel had
requested him, when captured, to put half the Ala-
bama guns into her, that they might have a fair fight.
The charge is, in fact, supremely ridiculous ; the
two vessels were not unfairly matched, the Kear-
sarge being a shade the stronger, but this strength
the skill and foresight of Winslow bad increased by
means equally open to Semmes. As usual in the
tale of the vanquished, (the coat of mail notwith-
standing,) but for a trivial accident, Semmes would
have sunk the Kearsarge in thirty minutes, as he had
lodged a shell in her sternposts which did not ex-
plode. Then he comes out roundly in abuse of the
chief Vandal, W. 11. Seward ; and at last settles
down into a hearty good cry over his ship, sobbing
"No one but a seaman can realize the blow." It
does not occur to him that he furnished himself
with many opportunities of seeing it realized in
other skippers. Finally, however, he bethinks him
" that she is safe from the polluting touch of the
hated Yankee," and he dries his eyes and is com-
forted. But while he was whining "great rejoic-
ing was had in Yankeedorn when it was known that
the Alabama had been beaten. Shouts of triumph
rent the air, and bonfires lighted every hill. But
along with the rejoicing there went up a howl of
disappointed rage that I had escaped being made a
prisoner." Here, then, was another source of com-
fort. It was natural that, after this gallant fight,
Semmes should be kindly received in England, as
was the Kearsarge. It was au action almost within
sight of the island, which must appeal to the heart
of a naval people, but it is passing strange that a
sister of the Prime Minister, a Miss Gladstone, should
be one of the earliest in the field with a long letter
of sympathy, appeals to noble influences, and offers
of aid. Her brother thought Mr. Davis had made
a nation, and perhaps she thought she had caught
a lion and a hero. The Sumter had been run into
Gibraltar and so closely blockaded that she had been
sold, and as a cattle ship was afterwards lost in the
North Sea. Semmes having thus got rid of his
two vessels thought of retiring, but he could not
keep away from action—if not at sea, at least on
shore ; so, reckless of danger, he went back to the
Confederate States, though " the very mention of
my name had as yet some such effect upon the
Yankee Government as the shaking of a red flag
has before the blood-shot eyes of an infuriated
bull." After reaching Richmond towards the end
of Januai y, 1865, he was promoted Rear-Admiral,
and appointed to the command of the James River
fleet. What he saw of the country through which
he had passed showed him that the days of his cause
were numbered, and this conviction was written in
the manner of all the leaders with whom he came
into contact. His fleet consisted of three iron-clads
and five wooden gunboats, but he soon found that
the sailors were as much demoralized as the soldiers,
and the latter were deserting in companies. Sher-
man, about this time, was at Columbia, South
Carolina. " The Puritan was at last in the city of
the cavalier. The man of ruder habits and coarser
civilization was in the presence of the more refined
gentleman, whom he had envied and hated for
generations. The ignoble passions of race-hatred
and revenge were gratified, and Massachusetts,
through the agency of a brutal and debauched
soldiery, had pat her foot upon the neck of prostrate
South Carolina ! This was a humiliation indeed.
The coarse man of mills and manufactories had
at last found entrance as a master into the
halls of the South Carolina planter !" The last
days at Richmond and the final collapse of
the Confederacy are fairly and graphically de-
scribed, but the Admiral can never touch on the
North, its leaders, and their motives without de-
scending into abuse. The murder of President Lin-
coln to him looked " like a just retribution, that he
should be cut off in the midst of the hosannas that
were being shouted in his ears for all the destruc-
tion and ruin he had wrought upon twelve millions
of people." Not bad this, considering that one-
third were the slaves he had emancipated. " With-
out any warrant for his conduct he had made a war
of rapine and lust against eleven sovereign States,
whose only provocation had been that they had
made an effort to preserve the liberties which had
been handed down to them by their fathers. These
States had not sought war, but peace; and they had
found at the hands of Abraham Lincoln—destruc-
tion. As a Christian it was my duty to say, Lord !
have mercy upon his soul ; but the devil will surely
take care of his memory." He then gives a sketch
of the career of Andrew Johnson, against whom he
evidently entertains the bitterest feelings of dislike.
The fight between the President and Congress he
designates as the falling out of thieves, both ac-
tuated by low motives, and regardless of the means
by which they accomplished their objects. Both he
considered equally unconstitutional in the course
pursued, being mere usurpers, and thus his book •
ends. Every ship he touched was sunk or burnt,
alike whether under his command, or the vessels of
the enemy with which he came in contact ; and the
destruction of the fleet placed under his com-
mand in the James River was his last act as a
sailor, and fitly heralded the collapse of the Con-
federate Government.

E. G. Randall, Postmaster at Portland, Oregon,
has been sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for robbing
the mails.

It is a pity that the Spectator should mar a good
article by such blunders as stating Mr. Jenckes to be the
United States Senator from Rhode Island, and of
the bill which has given him such prominence as hav-
ing been introduced into the Senate Chamber. Mr. Jenekes
is the Representative from Rhode Island in Congress, and
has never sat in the Senate, and the bill was reported to
the House from the Joint Select Committee on Retrench-
ment, May 14, 1868. In the same article the Spectator
alludes to Mr. Welles as Special Revenue Commissioner,
though it is the Secretary of the Navy who thus spells
his name, while the Commissioner of the Treasury is
David A. Welk

Weston, the pedestrian, arrived at Hillsboro'
Bridge, New Hampshire, Jan. 2t3, twenty-one miles from
Concord, and was immediately to walk from it to Keene.
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