The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-25 00:00:00

more than one expedition along the coast, and this
must divert and distract the attention of the
Southerns, and divide their forces. The sea forms,
of course, such a base of operations as the South
cannot affect with their few privateers ; but it has
the defect that any movement from it will be with
a hostile country on both flanks. To attack Charles-
ton can hardly be the intention. Five rivers, be-
sides vast tracts of marsh and swamp—the rice
district—lie between Beaufort and that city,
and seem to preclude the idea of any
assault being intended by the present force. Its
object, doubtless is, to encamp where it is and to
become the basis of some future operations. The
islands on the coast are healthy, though the coast a
little way in is far from being so; the army can
therefore remain there with safety, entailing on the
enemy the necessity of watching it ; or can receive
reinforcements for any purpose which is desired.

To all Europe the one means which seems to be
open to sure success is the one which Mr. LIN-
COLN and the North will probably not take.
The slaves are very numerous along the coast
of South Carolina; they form a considerable ma-
jority of the population there, being engaged in
the cultivation of rice, and they ought to be the
reinforcements on which the North relies. It
would be easy to give the South there an illus-
tration of what the North can do in regard to these
contrabands of war. Even now the army is autho-
rised to employ them if they come in, in squads, or
simply for military services, though a general
rising and arming of these rightful enemies of the
South is explicitly prohibited. If the army but
understands that it is to work this kind of qualified
emancipation, it may effect a great deal. Indeed,
so far as we can see, the success of the expedition,
that is, the impression it must ultimately produce
on the South, depends very much on the impression
it produces on the slaves.
The military news is at present of little import-
ance. In Missouri the generals who have superseded
FREMONT appear to be threatened by greater num-
bers than their own, probably, however, not so
well equipped, and a battle seems to be impend-
ing near the spot where poor LYON fell—Spring-
field—which seems to be the Manassas of Missouri.
The Southerners, as we gather from many accounts,
manage, notwithstanding the blockade, to carry on
a pretty vigorous trade quite within sight of the
squadrons. And the Bermuda is reported to have
run the blockade again with a large return cargo of
cotton for Liverpool. Indeed, the North is finding
out that to blockade some two thousand miles of
coast against the smuggler will be more and more
impracticable the longer the war last. The higher
the prices offered for cotton freights, and the
greater the demand in the South for sea-borne
goods, the more difficult will any preventive ser-
vice the North can arrange, being also almost ex-
clusively a sea service, find it, to defeat the nimble
movements of the smuggler. England could never
entirely do it along her own coast while duties
were very high. NAPOLEON could not keep us out
of the Continent, not even keep our sugar from
the teaeups of his own officers, and we have never
yet beaten the slaver. The Federalists will not be
more successful. Of course smuggling will all be at
the risk of individuals, but daring men will always
be found allured almost as much by the risk, as by
the hope of profit. Our Government will preserve
its decided neutrality. We are pleased to see that
it has decided in the case of the Nashville, the pri-
vateer which came red-handed into Southampton,
to give her no aid in fitting out as a ship of war.
This is as it ought to be.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
gave his decision last Friday on the de-
monstration made by the Cadets at the Royal
Military Academy at Woolwich some short
time since. Under the peculiar circumstances
of the case it was impossible for the General
Commanding-in-Chief to pass over a breach of dis-
cipline of so extensive a nature, and the rustication
of ten of the Cadets, two for two terms, and eight
others to one term, is, not considering the martinet
regulations of the institutions to which they belong,
a very severe punishment. But the question is,
are not the authorities at the Horse Guards respon-
sible for this outbreak. Was it not owing to the
wilful disregard of just complaints, by these whose
duty it was to see that absurd, obsolete rules
formed for school boys, should be modified and
altered to suit the requirements of young men.
Red-tapism has been gradually receding from its
strongholds in public offices, but with a pertinacity
worthy of a better cause, step by step has been
contested, and when public opinion has been too
strong for it to hold its own in our dockyards and
civil service, at least the Royal Military Academy
at Woolwich might hold out for a time. What
mattered it that boys of fourteen and fifteen were
replaced by young men of twenty years and more,
or that those who joined the academy had passed
through a searching examination, and proved them-
selves to be men of superior attainments. Rules had
been laid down in olden times, and like those of
the Medes and Persians, might not be altered. It
is true that in our convict prisons the medical
hoard requires that the food of housebreakers and
their fellows be of good quality, and that a certain
variety is necessary for the preservation of health ;
but then these men had distinguished themselves,
and have deserved well of their country. If they
have not rendered any particular service to the state
they have rendered it incumbent on the Govern.
ment to look well to their safe custody ; and such
being the case, a humane public have insisted that
their case shall not be aggravated by the brutal
neglect of those in authority over them, and their
complaints are considered by a Board of Directors.
If such be the case with our felons, is it too much to
claim consideration for the reasonable-remonstrance
of gentlemen against regulations equally unjust and
absurd, which not only restrict the freedom of
action naturally expected by those who have ar-
rived at man's estate, but which when strictly
carried out might perhaps make a good drill
sergeant, but not an efficient office. The
Duke of CAMBRIDGE, in giving judgment,
did not take into consideration that the emeute
did not take place until all remonstrance had
failed. The old martinet rule was maintained and
driven to desperation by the unreasonable be-
habiour of the authorities as a last resource, and
the only means of obtaining justice the Cadets had
to appeal to public sympathy, and to do this they
had to place themselves
in a false position, and by
the passing of a sentence upon them for a dereliction
which necessity compelled them to commit,
ofto duty,
expose the maladministration of the military
authorities. The Duke of CAMBRIDGE, in his de-
cision, makes the following remark
•, The Duke has decided that the general tenour of com-
plaints made by the cadets is groundless and frivolous; and
that they have committed acts which, in boys of more ten. i
der years, would be visited with the castigation they de-
served, but which were not to be excused in gentlemen of
more mature age. He wished them to understand that no
amount of scientific knowledge would be of use, to make
them efficient officers, unless they learnt to subject them-
selves to discipline; that their coming to the Royal Mili-
tary Academy was a voluntary act on their part, and they
must consequently submit to tl c ,rules in force at the time
*
of their *Omission. He finally expressed his regret that be
should be obliged to visit with yam..qhmeat those who should,
by their influence and example, have prevented their juniors