The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-22 00:00:00

walking over daily more than once to visit General
M'Clellan's quarters. Pray do not think I de-
sire to insinuate that the General is in any way

( From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 7.
A year ago we believed, on the faith of What we
were told, that the United States possessed the
greatest, and, above all, the cheapest military:orga-
nisation in the world. A million of armed
demcreeen
could be called forth in a moment by a simple
of Congress on a national emergency. But we now
see that a military organisation may be very large
without being great, and very cheap without being
economical. Efficiency and certainty of action are
the tests of the strength of that which is the im-
personation of the force of nations, and in propor-
tion to the numbers of the mass possessed of such
qualities is its power. Now, the Northern States
have 'a population quite capable of yielding a force
of a million of men, without any remarkable pres-
sure, But, though they have twice as many in-
habitants as the Slave States, it is, to my mind,
very doubtful whether there are at this moment as
many men arrayed to fight for the Union as there
are fighting against it. Human nature requires
something more solid than abstractions to depend
upon, and, after all that can be said about the
beauties and advantages of the Union, the idea
of it is an abstraction compared to the actual mate-
rialism of the independence of the tenure of peculiar
property, of the free trade and freedom from heavy
tariffs, for which the Confederates are contending.
" Uncle Sam" is more tangible than the Union.
He is a paymaster-general, and his rates of pay
are high, but he does not succeed in getting what
he needs except for his sea service, which is fed by
the commercial marine, now in a state of great de-
pression, except the transport trade and the char-
tered fleets. It is very possible my computations
and estimates are erroneous, but I am very much
disposed to question -whether, at the present mo-
ment, there are 350,000 men in the military service
of the Federalist Government. I am, however,
equally prepared to admit that they will soon reach
a figure not far short of that voted by Congress, for
I believe, from what I have recently seen and
heard, that there is a war feeling among the people
of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois,
and Wisconsin, stimulated by lavish expenditure
and founded on national sentiment, that will
speedily furnish that and even a larger number of
men, strong and physically capable of soldiering,
however ;deficient many of them may be in the
spirit of obedience and discipline. There is one thing
which to any ,person aecustomcd to see regular
troops is most striking. There is an utter want of
what our officers call" smartness" about the Ameri-
can citizen soldiery—that indefinable something
which makes a man button his coat, cut his hair,
keep his clothes clean, hold himself erect, and walk
with a brisk, elastic, yet rigid, regularity " right in
front." But of this, which is a bigger matter than
it looks, more by and by. Fighting is a very essen-
tial point of a soldier's business, but to be effective
it must be done with regularity end in concert .by
all the fighting men when they are ordered to do so.
The Americans will do their fighting individually
as well as any men. It remains to be seen in
what fashion they will execute their cam-
paigning. It is quite certain that an army
of 50,000 regular infantry, with proper complements
of artillery and cavalry, would be much more
manageable than the heterogeneous mass now col-
lected round Washington, nor could a capable gene-
ral find any difficulty in marching with such a force
to Richmond, despite the admitted courage of the
enormous levies under Beauregard, Johnston, and
the new Confederate General Smith—whilom Street
Commissioner of New York. Those familiar with
the Indian mutiny must recollect many instances
of the superiority of the Sepoy or Sowar in single
combat to the regular soldier, but there is scarcely
one instance of these Sepoys in the aggregate ever
standing in the open to meet our infantry, and I
am certain there is none in which the Sowars, who
individually showed such good swordsmanship,
quickness, dash, and bravery, ever waited for a
charge of our cavalry. They were brave men who
had lost their discipline because they had lost their
officers. Nations, like the man himself, would
sometimes be rather surprised if they had the gift
of seeing themselves as they are seen by others.
Here we have the Northern States gloating over
their numbers and comparing the rolls of their
armies with those of the famous leaders every foot's
pace of whom cut deep into the earth 'and left its
mark for all time. Not one seems to perceive that
if Marlborough, Old Fritz, Wellington, or Napo-
leon won great victories with such inferior armies,
the great army, which is doing nothing except pre-
paring to fight, must be either commanded by in-
ferior officers, or composed of different materials, or
destitute of some qualities those other armies and
their leaders possessed. There is and there has
been a very great improvement in this army since
Washington saw itself deluged by its united de-
fenders on the memorable morning of July 22, but
the work to be done is still enormous before these
battalions can be regarded as an effective machine
which will not fall to pieces when set to its work.
The " army," nevertheless, if victorious, is master of
the hour, and whoever is its master will hold the
United States in the hollow of his ha nd. This re-
mark may be deniedor ridiculed, but time will prove
its truth. All the North wants now is a leader
who will win victories, who will get a Southern cot.
ton port, enable it to recover its losses, and place
the South prostrate at its feet. The man who de-
serves best of the United States is he whom troops
will follow in the field from the Potomac to the
Gulf of Mexico. Long-sighted, pale-faced men of
thought hope the end will not be evil ; but the men
of action will for the time, and many a year to come
wield at will this fierce democracy and rule overt ll
their caucuses, conventions, resolutions, and pt-
forms. Who shall dispute the will of the man who
has 500,000 men under his control for the next three
years to come, who has saved the United States, or
is preparing, as their best man, to do so ? Why,
it was whispered the other day that General Fre-
mont, if he were ordered to do so, would not resign
until he had beaten Price ; and there was no dis-
approval expressed of any such conduct on his part,
" If he whips Price," said one in reference to the
rumour that he was superseded, "I should like to
see either the President or Simon Cameron ven-
turing to displace Fremont."
POLITICAL INTRIGUES.
So rapidly and surely is the power of the " army"
a naet
being felt that all eyes are turned upon it, and the
politicians
oin its
are struggling savagely to get places of
command
military greaeneke se.
tepTehnedy
ilne
faavnettrhyeti re
eptliaetef.
o rms
d k
The
men, however, have their eye on them. The
gentlemen who desire to go among the troops for
political purposes, and get, for example, the votes of
the natives of Pennsylvania on the State nomina-
tions, have had anything but an easy time of it in
reference
et
fooi
epr
tatrshi sgeeusi tetogr
greouf sests
the
bneyt ol
we Vbhbiircyghi
fornmiiaTioj
treabranything
.
ood contracts are to be obtained. " I hope,
part," said a person at Pittsburgh to me,
seemola
cast
ent y
prefer-
ment seiTrdhge
pyple good, and my trade was never better !"
do our
,
(6 th,.;s war will last for the next 10 years; it will
;ou see," quoth an officer who had been
articles in the American press.
"Ouralkin gfin o
fingers
e rta"Waittill
not long enough to reach New
talking of
are
York just yet, but we'll be able to put our thumbs
on the throats of these gentry before long. You'll
see whether the press or the army, by which I mean
the two services,will govern this country in te is re,
The animosity to the p
markable, and th e eoliticians of the press -
thelection Reformmanagi would have been de-
the Carlton and
lighted to
hear the way in which a recent exposure
-ng committees of
determined in this country was re-
elections are
all military coterie a few evenings
f the peculiar pecuniary apparatus by which State
ceived by a small
ago. d the Army to PO Nr. Lincoln
tween *tate au
It is significant enough of the relations be-

he state.

- -
desirous that the chief of the State should adopt

that course, or that he would consider it beneath
him to wait on the Executive, instead of the

Executive waiting upon him. Young as he is,
and suddenly elevated to, such a giddy height,
he is perfectly modest, unassuming, and uninflated,
though quite self-possessed, calm, self-respecting,
and reticent. But his reticence is very severely
taxed, for the President desires to know all things.
" And hang me, if I were McClellan, if I'd tell him
or any man my plans." The great abyss which
lies between the Sovereign and the subject in our
deluded and ridiculous old countries does not exist
over here, and the President and the General stand

very much on the same plane. The private soldier
saunters into the drawingrooms of the White-house
on reception nights and shakes hands with Mr.
President as affably as if he were not a Sovereign
and President maker. lam bound to add, the
private soldier in his hodden gray behaves himself
perfectly. There can be no snobbishness about a
man's manners when he is as great as any one in
the room, and cannot try to be greater if he would.
It would astonish us very much if a monarch, visit-
ing one of his own generals in war time, were to be
told he could not see him, as the general had come
home tired and was gone to bed ; but in this coun-

try such a thing would be perfectly natural, and
it would not, if it occurred, be fair to infer that the
general intended the least disrespect to the head of

GENERALS M'CLELLAN AND EEAUREGARD.

When I had the pleasure of conversing with
General M'Clellan for the first time he asked me
several questions with evident interest and friendly
curiosity—not unusual on the part of generals in
reference to their antagonists—respecting General
Beauregard. In his case there was all the more
reason for such inquiries in the fact that they were
old fellow students and class mates. To my mind
there is something of resemblance between the men.
Both are below the middle height. They are both
squarely built, and famed for muscular power since
their college days. Beauregard indeed is lean and
thin ribbed ; M'Clellan is full and round, with a
Napoleonic tendency to embonpoint,s übduea by inces-
sant exercise. Beauregard sleeps little; M'Clellan's
temperament requires a full share of rest ; both are
spare and Spartan in diet,- studious, quite. Beau-
regard is rather saturnine, and, if not melancholic,
is of a grim gaiety ; M'Clellan is genial even in his
reserve. , The density of the hair, the squareness of
the jaw, the firmness and regularity of the teeth,
and the outlines of the features are points of simi-
larity in both, which would be more striking if
Beauregard were not of the true Louisianian Creole
tint, while M'Clellan is fair complexioned. Beaure-
gard has a dark, dull student's eye, the dulness of
which arises, however, from its formation, for it is
full of fire, and its glances are quick and searching.
M'Clellan has a deep clear eye, into which you can
look far and deep, while you feel it searches far and
deep into you. Beauregard has something of pre-
tension in his manner—not hauteur, but a folding-
armed, meditative sort of air, which seems to say,
" Don't disturb me ; I'm thinking of military move-
ments." M'Clellan seems to be always at leisure;
but you feel at the same time you ought not to in-
trude too much upon him, even when you seek in
vain for the grounds of that impression in anything
that he is doing or saying. Beauregard is more
subtle, crafty, and astute; M'Clellan is more com-
prehensive, more learned, more impressionable.
Beauregard is a thorough soldier; M'Clellan may
prove he is a great general. The former only looks
to military consequences, and disregards popular
manifestations ; the latter respects the opinions of
the outer world, and sees political as well as military
results in what he orders. They are both the crea-
tures of accident, so far as their present positions are
concerned. It remains to be seen if either can con-
trol the current of events, and if in either the artil-
leryman or the cavalry officer of the old United
States' army there is the stuff around which history
is moulded, such as that of which the artilleryman of
Brienne or the leader of the Ironsides was made.

PROBABLE CONDITIONS OF PEACE.
There is in the heat and passion of this fight no
regard for the future, no consideration of the results
of success or of failure. Not a man has thought of
the future of the army of 500,000 men, of the mili-

tary chiefs, of the army of contractors, and, above
- -

all, of the fighting populations and rival generals
who will arise in the course of the contest—no, not

any more is there a man who has considered, if the
South gains and the North loses the battle, what
are to be the boundaries, what the frontier lines, and
what the relations along them, between the two na-
tions separated thenceforth and for ever. It is now
some months since I visited the United States. It
was my misfortune to be obliged to see that the
Union was gone for ever—my greater misfortune to
say so. It is nothing to that, if to-morrow the North
sweeps every Confederate battalion into the sea, and
seizes on every foot of Confederate soil. The Union
—the old Union of the 34 States—the old principles
of the Union arc all equally gone, and gone for ever.
Who can say he is glad of it ? What country, even
. that which has been most insulted and most

wronged and outraged by the insolence, intemper-
ance, prejudice, and violence of her statesmen, has
said, or can say, " God be praised for it?" If the
Americans would only believe that England can
afford to see them great and prosperous without
envy, and that our whole national life is not a
feverish solicitude about America and her institu-

lions, WC might get on remarkably well, even if the
republic split in two. The rankest Tory will admit
he felt a rough-edged sort of pleasure at the sight
of the great experiment which his Saxon cousins
were so nearly running into an aqua vitce, but
which threatens now to end in a caput mortuum.
No one can rejoice—in spite of many inducements
to be glad—that the American Republic, which
was at one time the
44 •-• blessed bark on misery's darkening sea"

on which were embarked the hopes and fears of so
many thousands of the Old World, should go down
in storm and darkness in the ocean of an unfathom-
able future. But the man who says to the crew--going—pray do not tempt
regarded by them as an enemy
;hMatinrdagwiehgerbeary;,ouis arreeg
bitter and false to the end. Even if he sympathises
with the sufferings of the devoted Unionists who see
in an unsuccessful termination to the present con-
flict the end of all their glorious anticipations, he is
as a publican and sinner should he not admit that
human happiness and greatness, science, social im-
provement, good government, and religion have
sunk for ever with the wreck of the United States.
There will be always inducement in cheap land, an
easy tenure, homestead laws, density of population,
and force of competition at home, the desire of ad-
venture and change, political discontent and consi-
derations of police in Europe, to render America a
land of promise for many years to come, and fre-
quently a land of fulfilment, to the denizens of the
Old World. The tapir can never be an elephant,
nor the puma hope to pass itself off as the king of
beasts ; and De Tocqueville was, no doubt, right
when he said that if the American people were
transported to Europe they could not exist without
considerably altering their laws. And yet there was,
and is, so much of what is really good and whole-
some in American Democracy that it must be a
source of regret if it be broken up into discordant
States, however inevitable the process may be in
accordance with the teachings of history and philo-
sophy. The American Northern Continent would, if
republics, larger than fully peopled, contain four or five great kingdoms
o
anyhernrelildea
übliciswmhiacrhchevinegr
held together (as equal in all its parts) for a hun-
drro d years. But
e the Northern
backwards in its way to freedom. There
and journals in the North which are people
speak of holding
the Southern States as so many dependent territories
if they will not return to tl Union, They think