The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17, 1861.

flUßlrr, Mayor.—A COMMON COUNCIL.
N--) holden in the Chamber of the Guildhall of the City of
London, n Monday, the 16th day of December, 18;11.

Resolved unanimously,— •
That this Court has received. with feelings of profound
sorrow the melancholy intelligence of the lamented decease
ul his Royal II igh,!ess Prince Albert, the Consort of her Most
-Gracious Majesty the Queen. -
That this Court sincerely offers to her Most Gracious Ma-
jesty and to every member of the Royal family, its deep sym-
pathy and condolence upon the irreparable loss her Majesty,
her lilustrions family, and the 'nation at large has sustained.
That ill's Court in rec trdhr its high itdintrath.n of the dis-
tinguished virtues of the late Prince Consort-, of his constant
solicitude lbr the protection of British interests, and his en-
couragement of educati,n, art and science, desires to express
the deepest feeling of loyalty and ;Mellon for the person of
her Mt.jesty, with the earnest prayer that under Divine Pro-
vidence her Majesty's lite may long be spared, and be b!essed
with tranquillity and resignation under her Majesty's most
afflicting bereavement. WOODTHORPE.

CIOMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS' SCHOOLS,
vv PINNEW,,, POSTPONEMENT OF DINNER,---In
cousequence.ofintlaunented decease of his Royal I tiOtness
thel,ritwe Consort, the Patron of this Institution, and of the
Ptino*of his Royailliff,ltness being fixed for Monday, the
23d hist.; the ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL, appointed to
be held on that day, under the presidency vi WESTERN
WOOD, Esq., 31. P., is Postponed.
A. F. FOSTER, Secretary.
16th December, IF6I.

ing some risk in the operation, why did they not
make an attempt to cut in on the flying garrisons
as they were retreating over the deep water pas-
sages which separate the islands tley occupied
from other islands adjacent to the main land?
Something must be risked to gain success. Why,
up to this moment, are the bridges of the railway
between Charleston and Savannah untouched and
in the hands of the enemy ? The Gnnhahee and
the Coosawatchee, deep, sluggish- streams, are
spanned a few miles above Beaufort by long trestle
bridges, easily destroyed ; but the enemy have been
permitted, hitherto, to use the int:incase facilities of
the railroad between these important points un-
molested. The troops are suffering from fever and
want of proper clothing and stores ; but the weather
has as yet been singularly propitious tc soldiers in
camp. Row they will behave when, it ever, they
enter the State, may not be mistaken, it their past
acts are taken in evidence, for, crediting the blacks
with as immense amount of misoief during the
first moments of their licence, there is no doubt a
good deal of plundering took place'"on the part of
the soldiery in the early excitement of landing—
and indeed who can wonder, when the rev; chap-
lain
who preached to the Roundhead Regiment of
Pennsylvania—a sort of men who are described as
admirable for piety and sobriety—described South
Carolina in his sermon, Sunday week, as " this
accursed State in which we worship God ?"
Gen. Sherman has been instructed by the War
a Department not only to acceptt t services of
negroes but to employ them on th rtifications. '
He is further enjoined to seizt_all the crops, an&
"sapgfitt`on which he can larhik liands7nneto-
send to New York its dearly loved cotton, to be
sold for the benefit of Government. The latter
course would seem to imply that the Government
had abandoned the idea of making Beaufort a cot-
ton port, principally because they cannot get cot-
ton there, perhaps ; but at the slime time the sop
to New York which is its due for the support given
to the Federal Government by the merchants and
people of the city. Very soon the ports to be
blockaded in the South will be reduced to some
half dozen, for the stone ships, of "Rat-hole squad-
ron," will very effectually stop up many of the
inlets of ports which were places of considerable
traffic along the Eastern coast: It is proposed to
visit the places where the vessels are sunk from
time to time, in order to see that no attempt is
made to clear away the obstructions. The favourite
idea of the North is to choke the South with its
own cotton and put it under a condenser. Calibogu©
Sound, between the Southern extremity of Hilton
Island and Dawfusky Island, can be stopped by
sinking two or three vessels, and a similar opera-
tion will close up the entrances to Savannah
through the islands. Thus the exit for 400,000
bales, which was the usual export of the city in the
year, representing a value of nearly four millions
sterling at ordinary prices, will be effectually
checked. Fernandina, and Beaufort, in North
Carolina, are threatened, and an expedition is fit-
ting out against the former port from the fleet and
men at Port Royal, which will probably seize upon
some spot near the port, the approach to which is
defended by Fort,Clinch, and whatever other works
the Confederates may have had time to prepare.
Jeffersonville, up the St. John's River in Florida,
St. Augustine, Darien, Brunswick, are all of im-
portance, and the vast system of inland lagunes
and river outlets which extends along the coasts is
remarkable for the facility with which the solitary
channels of deep water can be found and destroyed
by sinking vessels in them—a pleasant coast for
the restoration of commerce. By land in the West
the progress of the Federalists has not been rapid,
but the Confederate General Price gives signs of
distress in Missouri, in the characteristic proclama-
tion in which he calls on the State for 50,000 men.
The Federal General Buell is represented to be
nuirriirprWaratßnirir the invasion of Tennessee,
with the design of attacking Nashville, the new
capital of the Confederate Government, but the idea
is in a crude state as yet, and there are long marches
and some hard fighting possibly, before the project
can be accomplished. The contingent of State
volunteers from the people of Kentucky to the Fede-
ral armies in her territory is said to amount to
25,000, in addition to which 9 regiments from Illi-
nois, 16 from Indiana, 17 from Ohio, 6 from Penn-
sylvania, 1 from Michigan, 3 from Wisconson, and
2 from Minnesota, have been poured into the State.
Eastern Tennessee has been left to secession and
itself.

DECEMBER 2.

It may be permitted to me to use the first per-
sonal pronoun in stating my individual impressions
and experience, which are the base of all the little
knowledge I pretend to possess, in reference to the
phases which are changing from day to day in the
course of the contest that is going on in North
America between the people of the Northern and of
the Southern parts of that which was once the
United States. A few days ago I saw a review of
the regular force of infantry, cavalry, and artillery
oatside the Capitol. The American journals de-
scribed it as a fine sight, and, in their usual style,
dashed recklessly at the figures, and evinced their
customary indifference to arithmetical accuracy. A
farce of some 1,100 infantry, 1,800 sabres, and 42
guns, was magnified into a corps of 9,000 men,
with adequate proportions of artillery and cavalry,
and many adjectives that could be applied to an
army in a high state of excellence were lavished
upon the display ; but after all it was not satisfac-
tory, and gave another proof that some fair data of
comparison are necessary to enable men to appre-
ciate the value of demonstrations of the kind. It is
true that, as compared with the average of volun-
teer reviews, there was reason to place the regu-
lars in a high position, and the jealousy which
exists on the part of the people towards a
regular had its exponent in the way in
which some journals spoke of the occasion and its
incidents. But, after all, volunteer regiments here
could march as well if not better ; the men were not
so fine personally, their movements were loose
without being active. Nevertheless, any one accus-
tomed to soldiering, while finding fault with many
things, judged by a European standard, would in-
finitely prefer risking an engagement with such a
force opposed to equal numbers to taking three
times as many volunteers into the field against the
same enemy. The difference lay in the officers, in
the readiness of the men, and in the air and service-
marched past. As
theyable looktook ogfrotluiendtrtoooptsheasletfht they
rig
ht there was no
noise in the ranks of the advancing sections. The
artillery were clean and neat, the cavalry had no
wild abandon of hair and op
up; the infantry wore
deficient in straps and setting opened
gloves and buttoned their coats. But though this
praise, great as it was, of the journals
collars, though
as
NNVV so, the
n no means what it would have been had the
troops been volunteers. In fact, in the regular army
the press and the politicians recognise a powerful
enemy, whom they do not seek to flatter, because
they know it cannot be cajoled. Soon after that
review took place I rode to Great Palls with some
officers of Gen. M.Clellan's staff. Numerous as the
facts have been which have come to my knowledge
respecting the irregularity and lax discipline of the
volunteer army, I could scarcely have imagined
such a state of things existed in any military body
as I found at this post. It must be known that it
is in front of the enemy at an important position,
so close that the men of the outposts on both sides
frequently talk to each other across the river,
which here rushes through a wild, rocky gorge
over and through layers of rock and disjointed
strata, ab )ve which are high, rugged banks, covered
with forest trees. Here in a few wooden houses
and shanties were stationed the small post, consist-
ing of two companies of a Pennsylvanian regiment.
The men were wandering about the banks or were
seated in the dismantled buildings, amid log fires,
the very incarnation of indifference, listlessness,
and unsoldierly mess. In one of these houses,

which resembled a two-storied wooden barn,
blotehed with imperfect whitewash, and stripped
of the outside planking, fig that we could see into
the interior, where the listless soldiers were trying
to kill the day with fusty newspapers and stale
politics, there was an inner and better protected
range of rooms, dedicated to the diffusion of spirits at
a long deal counter, thronged with thirsty customers
in uniform, who affected to be interested i❑ the pur-
chase of bread and candles. Inside this was another
room, containing_ a bed, a stove, a table, a well-
bespattered floor, chairs of uncertain pedal forma-
tions, and three or may be four children, fat, blue-
eyed, cock-nosed, red-cheeked—in short, of Milesian
aspect, and, as we soon found, of Milesian nomen-
clature. We were invited to enter by a gentle-
man with looped up and beplumed hat, whose
shoulder straps marked him as a captain—a tall
black man, with great jaws and deep nether lip,
and when we had gone in the rites of hospitality
were duly honoured by the prodUction of a jug of
water, glasses, and a bottle of spirits which must
have been very high, as they assuredly were very
young. And then our captain told us his story. It
was, in fact, that he was in a state of mutiny, which
he did not understand, and in a condition of arrest,
under which he was' indignant. He had spent a
lot of money in raising ,his company. He had
been in a three months' regiment under Patterson,
and when it broke up he went home, and got up
another company in his town. Well, there was
another captain of the regiment at t.'. same post,
'rho was his senior, antitthis,man :'► ommanded
h to act unddr the, ordeza of the 'Heidi .of the
guard. A 'pretty- 04,igg,. judged.--

him darned first. " Say damn, captain, and ease
your feelings,"observed an affable orderly sergeant,
who sympathised witii his superior's woes. Had
not he worked hardt to get his company into
order ? And here was this puppy going to make
little 'of him before his men. " But I have written
to four people about it—to the General, to the
Adjutant-General, ito General M'Clellan, and the
Secretary of War"—these were, I think, his referees
—" and I've told them, if they don't explain the
matter in three days, I won't consider myself under
arrest any longer. The idea of being under a
fellow like that ! Why, I could whip six fellows like
him any day ! I'll be d—d but I'll go home, and
all my company will follow ; and I can tell you we
can whip any four companies they can send against
us from hereabouts, I know !" " Aye, that we can,"
murmured the orderly sergeant, approvingly. The
wrongs of this injured centurion did not strike us
as forcibly as he expected. " Would you, captain,
serve as a lieutenant, or under the orders of a lieu-
tenant ?" " Certainly, if I was ordered to do so by
my superior," replied one of my companions ; " I
could get my remedy for the wrong afterwards.'
" Well, then, I won't, if all the Generals in the
world told me. One of them volunteers who knows
nothing about fighting, but goes by his book of
regulations ! No, Sir-r." In the course of conver-
sation it came out that this gentleman had been a
traveller for a boot and shoe warehouse in New York,
and had even crossed the isthmus in the pursuit of
his calling, long before the days of railroads. As
an indication of the manner in which he enforced
discipline among his men, we heard casually that a
short time before, in the room over our heads, he
had shot one of his company who had drawn a
knife (" I can show you the knife now," interpolated
the orderly) on a sergeant engaged in arresting
him for bad conduct. The man died in two hours.
The act of the captain has been formally approved
by the Commander-in-Chief. But discipline was
by no means perfect, notwithstanding, for as we
passed the lock of the canal to get down to the
Great Falls the captain pointed out the spot where
one of his men had been drowned a few evenings
previously: He had, it appears, been on duty as
sentry on the lock, which, is only a few hundred
yards from the enemy's pickets, and feeling
sire to smoke a pipe, he had walked away from his
post to the nearest fire to light it, and on his return
fell into the canal, and was not missed for several
hours. The enemy often entered into conversation,
we are told, with the Federalists. Once, indeed,
an officer of the Confederates came across the river
and dined in the hou;se which is the headquarters
of the post, and quietly went back again. Whether
his dinner disagreed with him or not, it is certain
that shortly afterwards a battery of artillery ap-
peared on the opposite bank and riddled the house
with shot. Now, it is in such laxity of discipline,
and in such ignorance of military practice and of
the laws of war that the great difficulties of General
M'Clellan in the management of this army are to
be found. Here was a post which could not be de-
pended on for doing its duty, and yet it is only some
10 miles from Washington, and it had in its charge
the head of the aqueduct which is to supply the city
with water, and important roads into Maryland and
on the flank of the capital. There may be other cases
of similar inefficiency of which General M'Clellan
will never hear, but he may suspect their existence.
No doubt these men would fight well, but in all pro-
bability their want of confidence in their officers,
their lack of discipline, or the disputes between the
captains would paralyse their courage.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
TUESDAY AFTERNOON, DEC. 3.

The mail for New York closes in an hour, and I
have but little time to make any comments on the
Message of the President, which I have just heard
read in the Senate. It was listened to with profound
attention and in decorous silence, and as soon as the
clerk had come to the end Mr. Hale moved the ad-
journment till to-morrow. The galleries were
crowded, and on the whole there was an appearance
of greater interest'on the part of the public than I
have yet seen evinced in the proceedings of Con-
gress. The senators' chairs were often without oc-
cupants, as the gaps left by the Secessionists in the
rows have been further widened since last session,
and not more than 36 or 37 senators were present,
but the Republicans mustered strong, and on the left
of the Speaker there was a strong muster of mem-
bers. A day of bright sunshine, tempered rather
overmuch by a bitter, frosty wind, tempted many
strangers to the lobbies, but there was no pressure
nor inconvenience in any part of the vast pile of the
Capitol. The impression produced by the Message
in the Senate was satisfactory. Mr. Sumner and
his friends are delighted at the recommendation
to recognise the independence and sovereignty of
Hayti and Liberia, for which they have long been
contending, and an American charge d'affaires will
be brought into official contact with the authorities
of the despised race which 5s not admitted in the
United States to the rights of citizenship. The slave
question is delicately alluded to and dealt with in
the Message, but the President is obliged to point
out that, by virtue of the act of Congress of August
6, 1861, " the legal claims of certain persons to the
labour and service of certain other persons have
become forfeited," and, as those "certain other per-
sons" must be provided for in some way, the Con-
gress is recommended to accept them from the States
which may throw over the claims of these people to
reciprocal duties from their former masters, accord-
ing to some mode of valuation, in lieu of direct
taxes, in which case the "certain other persons.'
shall become free. Here comes the most important
proposition in respect to the condition of such people.
The President declares that there is an expediency,
amounting to an absolute necessity, to appropriate
money for the purchase of territory wherein the
blacks thus liberated shall be settled in colonies ;
and he suggests that such free coloured people as
are already in the States should be included in
that colonisation scheme, in case they are willing
to go. It is quite certain the North will have none
of them. Emancipation must be followed by expul-
sion, after the absorption of a proportion of negroes
in domestic service in the North; and if the colonisa-
tion is not effected by the voluntary act of the free
blacks, no doubt there will be an amount of influ-
ence brought to boar against them which will force

them to yield to the process. But Mr. Lincol
deprecates " radical and extreme measures," and h
.
is.u4Fstood to have resisted most essergeticallk
the ptepositions of some of his Cabinet to make
an overt declaration in faa;our of :unconditional
Abolition. " The Union," however, " must be
preserved, andlence all indispensable means must
be employed." Bo that Abolition may be forced
upon the PiesidentAr.44 made to appear in-
dispensable. ---However, as4ke-eause of-the Union
is stated .to be advancing steadily and certainly
southward, tit
,measure may be averted. The
tone The i.letsage, indeed, iti hoped}„ and Mr.
Linea ="dteerveaftom his co-nutty-Men tEetcridit due
to those who' in. trying circunistaticei 'do 'not. despair
of the commonwealth. He does not •&el and+ doubt
that the -Union will be restorCd-7-that is,
.in other
words, that the Southern States will be subjugated
by the North, and that the rebellion-will be crushed ;
and, with the fact that the United States, with a
pop ion of 20,000,000, are pngaged-in deadly
con
it
o reconeile a population of 8,000,000 to the
bless - egitheir government, and hitherto without
avail, Cailineoln lookxfprward with confidence to
the -time (not: 'bey.ondt-ihe; lifetime, as he says, of
those now living) when,4,4449Ripies -of govern-
ment - which hive not boiontabrfOktand for 70 odd
years without several sev_e_eonvulsions,
and with one tremendous .diagnistion which may
be final and fatal, will be abdeiStid by no less than
250,001,000 people livingundbione-ynion on the
conti i , of lierth America. The onlithing which
distur , the. tone of cheerfulness ;4d hope that
charactekises the, document is the stitiVoo the tiatffigu
smatitions of ite -Cakinetot-Mia.....laitminsl'ekt*Alstes
Governments of certain nations, which may not be
able to resist the temptations to interference offered
by disloyal citizens and "the counsels of seeming
expediency and ungenerous ambition." It is strange
that the President should seem to impute to the
lowest national motives the conduct of those na-
tions who have given no " patronage or encourage-
ment" to those disloyal citizens. Mr. Lincoln says
they get "less than they expected." Surely he
might have admitted they had received none at all.
" Moral, social, and treaty obligations" may be
interpreted differently by the advisers of foreign
nations, and it does not appear that they could
be much b!amed if they acted " solely and sel-
fishly for the most speedy restoration of com-
merce," provided their acts were compatible with
honour and good 'faith, with self-respect, and with
the law which the United States declare is their
final test—the law of self-preservation. While
the inlets and harbours of the coast are being
blocked up by the Federal vessels, while the fields
are lying uncultivated, the cotton unpicked, the
slaves, whenever they can, indulging in saturnalia
—it is rather hard to believe/with the President,
that the co-operation of foreign nations with the
United States in these avocations and occurrences
would tend to the most speedy restoration of com-
merce ; still less, if, as Mr. Lincoln puts it, " the
United States could dare to believe that foreign
nations are actuated by no higher principle," that
there could be any sound argument'- to show they
would not have advanced it, and many other na-
tional interests, by recognition and interference,
had not the moral and social obligations been sup-
posed to favour an honest neutrality.- As to treaty
obligations, the United States,'not we, have disre-
garded them, and we have accepted the exigencies
of their position as an excuse for the infraction. It
may be quite true, as the President says, foreign
nations have perceived that the effort for disunion
has caused the interruption of commerce, but in the
main that has been because the North would not
allow secession and free trade. None can blame
them if they fight for power. But they will not
admit they are doing so; at d, with our experience
of American politicians, it is difficult to believe that
" onnspzaraation," such as the _ UnillStates,
--07 promises more durable peace, and-more extensive,
valuable, and reliable commerce, than can the same
nation broken into hostile fragments." If the one
great nation is uniformly hostile, if its commercial
code is highly protective, if its commercial rivalry
is close and bitter, it requires some facility in ac-
cepting Presidential propositions to admit that a
foreign nation would not get on better with the
fragments than with the whole, either in the way of
war or commerce. Lest we might be tempted, how-
ever, by the disloyal citizens and cotton, Mr. Lin-
coln recommends adequate and ample defences on
every side, and the seacoast line and the great
lakes and rivers are pointed out as objects of
the attention of Congress. To fortify and im-
prove the harbours, &c., and to speedily estab-
lish depots of arms and munitions along the lines,
are the means suggested, and it may be added
that before the President's Message came out at all
a commission of United States officers had been in-
specting and reporting on the condition of the fron-
tier and seacoast lines, and suggesting works of de-
fence. The correspondence with foreign Powers
which was moved for and promised last Session is
now submitted with what are called " reservations"
and the world will be enabled to judge, if the reser-
vations are not very extensive, how far Mr. Lincoln
is justified in claiming for Mr. Seward the practice
of prudence and liberality, and the averting causes
of irritation, in his dealing with the Government of
Great Britain. Compensation is to be made for the
illegal detention of the British ship Perthshire by
the United States steamer Massachusetts, and the
President remarks that " justice requires weshould
commit no belligerent act not founded on strict
right as sanctioned by public law." But he does not
allude to the arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell—a
matter so important that he could not have omitted
it if there were not weighty reasons for concluding
that it were better passed over in silence. Perhaps
if the President imagined it was an act founded on
strict right and sanctioned by public law he would
have said more about it, and have had a pleasant
paragraph about Captain Wilkes, who is described
in a New York journal as " the great interpreter of
international law," It is expected that the confisca-
tion and slavery resolutions will produce a very
animated debate on the 10th in the House of Repre-
sentatives, and it is further stated that unless an
advance of the Federal troops take place into Vir-
ginia very speedily the sittings of Congress will be
highly perturbed. All attempts of M'Clellan to find
an unguarded spot in the enemy's line have been
unsuccessful, and although I have great deference
for the opinion of American officers who know the
country, and who say a winter campaign is practi-
cable, I must be permitted to state that the condi-
tion of the roads and camps at this early period of
winter induces me to arrive at an opposite conclu-
sion, founded on some experience in observing the
operations of armies in the field. There is smaller
chance of such operations being successfully con-
ducted when winter arrives in all its severity; and
that which would be almost impossible for a highly
disciplined and well organised army to effect will be
quite bepond the capability of the forces which are
assembled here at present, giving them full credit
i for courage, zeal, and endurance.

REINFORCEMENTS FOR CANADA.- SOUTHAMPTON,
Saturday —The steamships Adriatic, Parana, and Magda-
lena are rapidly progressing in-their equipment for sea, and
will all sail the latter end of next week. According to pre-
sent arrangements the Adriatic, which is a fine vessel of
3,760 registered tonnage and 1,200 horse power, and will be
co wmanded by Capt. G. C. Nicholson, an officer well known
in the transport service, having commanded the despatch
steamer Telegraph during the Crimean war, will embark
her troops on Thursday morning. She takes out the Gre-
nadier Guards, with Gen. Lord F. Paulet and his staff.
This steamer will take 1,300 men and 72 officers, making
with her crew a total of 1,600 souls on board. The Parana,
Capt. Sawyer, will carry out 1,000 men and 39 officers of
Scots Fusilier Guards, who are expected to embark on
Thursday morning, and she will immediately go out of
dock into the river. The Magdalena, Captain Woolwarn,
will take 900 men and 39 officers of, it is believed, the 16th
Foot, who will embark on Saturday. The Parana is 3,200
tons and 800 horse power, and the Ntsgdalerta 2,980 tons
and 800 horse power,