The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-18 00:00:00

Tlll AST-DAY. IN THE STATE&

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
RACINE, WISCONSIN, SEPT. 26.
The Confederate States had their day of prayer
and fasting and humiliation more than three
months ego, and on Thursday, the 13th of June, the
bishop and pastors of all the various congregations
in the South were praying for success in the com-
ing contest with their bitter enemies and oppres-
sors, and using very much the same language before
the throne of Heaven as the preachers of the North
indulged in to-day. The religious union of the
States is ruptured rather on the question of slavery
than on the States' rights, and even the Roman
Catholic Church exhibits a schism on that point in
its smooth and varnished surface, and shows the
Bishop of New York and the Bishop of New Orleans
engaged in open controversy. I cannot answer for
the mode in which the day was observed in other
parts of the Union, but I know that in Chicago,
through which I was passing at the date prefixed to
this portion of my letter, the injunctions to close
the shops were not altogether attended to, although
the churches were tolerably well attended, and the
observance marked with decorum. The small edifice
which serves as the Protestant Episcopal Church
was nearly filled by a respectable congregation, of
whom the majority were as usual women ; and the
Bishop of Illinois, in a subtle and rather dramatic
course, seemed to indicate to his hearers, that the
rebellion was a sin against Heaven, the consequences
of which were only to be averted by the individual
repentance of the nation as Christians. Nor did he
spare those sins of the United States, and at one
allusion to those who sought to make fortunes out
of their [country's misery by exorbitant profits and
charges on contracts many a glance was exchanged
among his auditors. The adaptation of our Liturgy
to republican institutions and persons offers some
difficulties, and it excites a curious train of thought
to hear the prayer for the Queen used in behalf of a
President who goes out of office at the end of four
years, but who is followed by the entreaties of the
Episcopal Church for his eternal welfare to the end
of his life. The occasion was improved by a de-
mand for an eleemosynary contribution for the
Home Guard—that is, for the bishop's clergy cud
missionaries. But men's thought and words were
far more occupied by,General Fremont and the Pre-
sident than by the fast day, if one may judge from
the conversation of all men. On the whole, the
majority of the people here, so far as I can judge,
support the General and condemn the President's
letter, and even the President himself sometimes, in
unsparing language. " Strange," they say, " that
he could think it expedient to exhibit such solici-
tude about the rights of the slaveholders, when he
had not a word to say in reference to a much more
serious matter—viz., the threats of General Fre-
mont towards such white people as he may find in
rebellion." The German, or, as it is oddly styled
by the Americans hereabout, the Dutch population,
is with Fremont to a man, and they are a most
powerful and important element in the fighting and
voting powers of the State of Illinois. To them this
is indeed a rebellion, and they carry out tho doc-
trine of the Government at Washington (on which,
however, it does not presume to act) that the Con-
federates are rebels, and should be treated accord-
ingly, while the Government only ventures to con-
sider Mr. Davis and his friends as rebels, and will
not yield on that point even for the sake of the
Federal prisoners in his hands, while they gratify
their pique by refusing styles and titles and their
military or civil ranks to the chiefs and officers of
the Government at Richmond. The democrats, of
course, arc irritated and indignant, and declare Fre-
mont ought to be removed immediately. Continual
accusations are made against him in the newspapers,
which are only of consequence as indicative of the
designs of those they serve, which are to drive him
out of the service. He is accused of waste and extra-
vagance in his contracts, of personal inaccessibility
and hauteur, of dilatoriness and neglect of duty,
which has led to the loss of Lexington, and of many
other offences. He replies that he has no money,
and is therefore obliged to procure necessaries for
the public service on credit, and in competition with
the Governors of various State., ~,,...,quently
at higher rates ; that he is constantly thwarted and
impeded by demands for troops ; that he sees his
regimeuta taken away from him by orders from

Washington and sent all over the country, just as
he hai got them into order, and that his subor-
dinates have failed to obey his instructions. As
to inaccessibility, Lord help the man who refuses
to see everybody who thinks he would like to
see him out in this part of the world Is not a
general a public servant, the property of citizen
A, who wants to see if the general's hair is gray,
or only grizzled ? Is he not the property of
citizen B, who wants to get a contract for gun-
boats made of indiarubber, or of D, who has a
letter to him, and wants a situation on the gene-
ral's staff either as aide-de-camp or coachman ?
Pro hac vice, each citizen represents the whole
republic, and is very angy if he cannot monopo-
lise all the time of his servant. Perhaps Gen.
Fremont finds he cannot do his work and attend
to all comers on these terms. Never shall I for-
get what I saw Mr. Chase go through one fine
day in his bureau soon after my arrival at Wash-
ington. The places in his gift were in the course
of distribution, and on calling on him I found
the passages of the Treasury leading to his apart-
ments blocked up by an eager crowd of all sorts
and conditions of men, who were continually send-
ing in cards or slips of paper by the messengers
at the doors. I was admitted, as Mr. Chase had
been good enough to invite me to call upon kim,
and, accordingly, when the doors were thrown
open I had an opportunity of witnessing the
eager rush, the solicitations, the pressuie, and
obstinacy of the army of applicants who besieked
the good-humoured but resolute, sagacious, .and
unbending Minister. To shake hands warmly
with every man of them, from the banker who
had come to offer millions to the rough dweller
on distant seashores who aspired to the care of a
lighthouse, to be civil and sympathising with
every man, to listen with both ears; to remember
all faces and all names and all handwritings, and all
recommendees—these are no easy matters, but I
am bound to say Mr. Chase did them courteously and
well, although he was assisted to some extent by an
apt secretary who headed off the hungriest and most
tenacious of the pack, and carried them off one by
one into some back room, as a spider hurries off a
fly to the inner darkness. This, however, is part
of the duty of a public man in America, and any
departure from it is certain to be resented and to
make one unpopular. Gen. Fremont is taking a
sure way to stop all cavilling; he is marching on
the enemy, and if he is victorious all will be for•
given and forgotten, and he will become a danger-
ous rival to Gen. M'Clellan for future honours and
power in the State. He has published a letter which
will give English readers some idea of the things
to which a public man is exposed in America, and
of the consequences of the rash, reckless, and often-
times malicious statements which are sent forth to
the world by the newspapers, without a care or a
thought of the damage they do, or of their authen-
ticity or truth.

"We pray very hard in Illinois to-day, sir," said
a gentleman to me, " because it's very awkward to
have these Confederates coming up on our flank
here ; they are now in a line with Quincy and
Hannibal, and if Fremont does not stop them we
have only our prayers to trust to." Another gentle-
man, one of the Judges, remarked, with. some
truth, "I fear we never would have had this day of
prayer and humiliation at all, only for the battle of
Bull's Run." It is obvious that, instead of going
down the Mississippi just now, General Fremont
is going up the Missouri, and it remains to be seen
whether he will succeed in driving the Confederates
out of the north-west of Missouri. Before he left
St. Louis yesterday (27th) he authorised another
innovation on the policy of the Government by ex-
ichanging a Confederate prisoner in his hands for a
Federal colonel. Jefferson city, the capital of Mis-
souri, 125 miles west of St. Louis, will be the new
base of his operation. Lexington is 100 miles as
the crow flies to the north-west of Jefferson, but it
is considerably farther by the river, which is about
!half a mile wide, and flows rapidly. The rail
,road will enable Fremont to collect his troops
speedily, but his forces are inferior in numbers to
the Confederates, who are said to have concen-
ltrated the corps of Price, Rains, and APCuI/ough
'to oppose him, and if he is beaten, his position and
that of Missouri, as far as its Federal relations are
concerned, appear hopeless. At the other side of the
'Missouri river there is a railroad, only 40 miles
away, which leads to Hannibal and Quincy, and
thence across the river to the Illinois railways ; and,
looking at the map merely, it seems feasible for
'the Confederates, as they are in light marching
'order and have little or no baggage, to make a dash
at it, even after defeat, which would effect a most
,powerful diversion. Their forges are estimated at
25,000 men. Fremont has under him less than
120,000, and he cannot take all of these from St.
Louis; indeed, there is already an outcry from the
'Western States that their troops are taken away for
the purposes of the Eastern and Northern States,
and that they are left without adequate defence;
and there seems to be a disposition to localise the
contingents of each State, possibly because people
are becoming ignorantly impatient of the inactivity
of the large armies gathered around Washington.
Few of the States, except the smaller and more
populous of the New England group, have turned
out such a proportion of men as might be expected
from the number of voters, and one journalist here
brays forth a terrible blast on his organ, and calls
on the residue to drill diligently. For what think
you ? In order that they may be able to fight their
fellow-countrymen at the end of the war in case the
successful and pampered legions should wish to
serve the purpose of their military leaders, and
take more power than they have a right to claim!
It will be observed that lowa is to raise its con tin-
gent without recourse to draughting, as Secretary
Cameron wishes to rely on the loyalty of the people ;
but I hear that there is a considerable peace party
in the State likely to carry their doctrines into prac-
tical effect. It was my intention to have visited St.
Louis before my return to Washington, and to have
witnessed some of the operations down the Mississippi
had the expedition been ready to start, but the intel-
ligence from the capital indicates the possibility of ac-
tive operations and I return thither on Monday (30th)
there being no train to-morrow. It would be use-
less to follow General Fremont to the Far West, as
no one can tell where he will move to, and it would
take at least 3!; days to send a letter from Jefferson
to New York, and still more to Boston, for the
steamers, while the telegraph would convey the
practical results of his movements with some trust-
worthiness up to a few hours of their departure.
Those operations are most important, but the theatre
ate folrireatshhei ncgutrotna
curtain
s s larger,raiseaand
once i
more thereforefor t
he returnter
b-
rible drama a battle. If the hostile armies could
only move up here, all their infantry, cavalry, and
artillery might manoeuvre splendidly on these mag-
nificent prairies—regular fighting grounds and war
carpets, and all that they would need would be
generals capable of handling such masses of men.
It is scarcely necessary to observe that there is not
anything like the numbers on either side which the
New York journals state, and that the totals fall far
short of the very round numbers of the romantic
Alnaschars.

I have two anecdotes of two peers, who might be
said to come under the description of half-witted. In their
case, the same sort of dry Scottish humour came out under
the cloak of mental disease. A Scottish nobleman of the
last century had been a soldier the greater part of his life,
but was obliged to come home on account of aberration of
mind, superinduced by hereditary propensity. Desirous of
putting him under due restraint, and, at the same time, of
amt ?verseer;
engaging his mind in his favourite pursuit, his friend
cured a Sergeant Briggs to be his
and to render the
~eptaule as a companion, they
_ Juni to the old earl as Colonel Briggs. Being
asked how he liked the colonel, the earl answered, " Very
well ; he is a sensible man, and a good soldier, but
.12e
smells damnably of the Itabert,"—Beininiscoccs of ~)'cotodi.4l.o
.41.0 and Character.

Her Mejesty's screw frigate
horse power, Capt. Maguire,
Rear-Admiral J. Hope, C. 8., Commander-in-Chief
Watson, and sailed from7:aitbdhyao
in the East Indies and China, was put out of com-
mission' yesterday at the Nore, and her crew, num-
bering,
mfol-
lowinger
about 400 seamen and marines, paid off.
were awarded
The Chesapeake was commissioned at Chatham on
the 21st of July,
snl:BsWAdmiralty for I
gland she has seen in great deal
n hobe
ffiryl;ete
rhi
of the same year. During the four years she has
been absent fromrEn tfft porthe latei
yesterdayn thest Commodoreuh
of active service in the Red Sea and the Chinese
silver medals
wag service
and good conduct :—Thomas Riggs, qUaffermaster
Thomas Dukes, captain of the forecastle; and Ed.
ward Hickman, chief gunner's mate. Nearly the
andwat er
s .
petty
gratuities °
whole of the crew are continuous service men, they
have been granted eight weeks' run ashore, after
which they will join the flagship at
,any of the
naval ports. In order to prevent the seamen, seve-
ral of whom had considerable sums in their pos-
session, landing at Sheerness or Chatham, and
losing their cash, one Of the Medway Company's
steamers was placed alongside the Chesapeake, and
conveyed the entire crew to the Strood station,
whence they were conveyed to London by
the South-Eastern Railway. The Chesapeake
is to be placed in the steam reserve ordinary at
Chatham ; but in consequence of the injuries she re-
ceived to her keel by running on a sunken rock in
the Red Sea, she will require very extensive repairs.
The screw steamship Conqueror, 99, Capt. E. S.
Sotheby, C. 8., one of the Channel fleet, was placed
yesterday afternoon in the Queen's dock at Beyham
-steamyard- for the purpose of overhauling her valves
and aperture to discover the cause of the leakage aft.
• The sere* steam corvette Orestes, 21, Capt. A: H.
Gardner, in Plymouth Sound, had steam up and cat
and fish teakles 'overhauled yesterday afternoon,
preparatory to sailing for the Cape of Good Hope.

The Eclipse, 4, screw steam Bloop, 700 tons, left
her moorings in Sheerness harbour, and proceeded
to the measured mile off Maplin Sand, for the trial
of her engines previously to their being passed over
to the Government authorities by the contractors.
The vessel is fitted with horizontal air-pump trunk
engines, 200-horse nominal power. Sfte was tried at
full and half boiler power, with the' following re-
sults :—With full boiler power she attained an ave-
rage speed of 104 knots ; revolutions, 98 ; pressure
of steam, 20 ; vacuum, 25 ; draught of water aft, 10
ft. 8 in. ; forward; 8 ft. With half-boiler power she
attained a speed of 9.274 knots, 76 revolutions. She
was also tried at turning the circle, which she ac-
complished in 4 min. 5 sec., and the half circle in 2
min. 30 sec. Common screw pitch, 16 ft.; diameter,
11 ft. During the trial, which lasted_seven hours,
the Eclipse was under the command of eapt. Schom-
berg, chief of the steam reserve at Sheerness. Mr.
W. Price, inspector of machinery afloat, with Mr. S.
Townsend, foreman of engineers, Sheerness dock-
yard, was in attendance-on the part of Government.
Mr. Brown, foreman to Messrs. R. Napier and Son,
of Glasgow, had charge of the engines, and repre-
sented his employers. The trial was very satisfac-
tory, but would have been much more so lad it not
been for the foulness of the bottom of the ship.

The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :--Lieut. C. Mitchell to the
Excellent ; Mr. H. Izod and Mr. W. E. Miller, sub-
lieuts., to the Conqueror; John T. Hariis, first class
assist.-engineer, supernumerary in the Indus, ccn-
firmed ; Peter M. Knight, first-class assist-engi-
neer, to the Dotterel; and James J. Finch, second-
class assist.-engineer, to the Industry.