The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-27 00:00:00

CIIA.I2LESZON AND BULL'S BAY.

Reliable news from " Seeessia" being scarce, we
have read with interest a letter in a Scottish con-
temporary, the Edinburgh Daily Review, from a
special correspondent in the Southern States. This
gentleman, writing from Charleston, South Caro-
line, draws a gloomy picture of the stagnation in
that once busy harbour. But at the same time he
give us an idea of the way in which the enterprising
citizens of the Palmetto State contrive to mitigate
in some degree the inconvenience of the blockade.
He tells how, under the guidance of a friendly cot-
ton planter, he made a night journey to a point on
the coast, of which he only indicates the position,
but which can be no other than the Bull's Bay
named by the New York papers as a probable des-
tination of the powerful squadron of war vessels and
transports that is now said to be engaged against
Port Royal.
Embarking with the mystery of a conspirator on
board a small steam-tug laden with the most ex-
plosive and combustible goods, this witness for the
press is carried down the dreary estuary of the
Ashley and Cooper rivers, passing a few dark and
rakish privateers and one or two unfinished ships
intended for the Confederate navy. Steaming boldly
for the open sea, he and his friend glide by Forts
Sumter and Moultrie, which, together with the new
1.341. th-vrvi Iso and batteries on shore, appear to make
of Charleston a miniature Cronstadt. Creeping
along the coast with their hearts ill at ease, for the
lights of the blockading frigate shine at no great
distance, and the breakers are unpleasantly near, the
adventurous voyagers at length get into quiet
water in a narrow sound below a IoAT reedy islet
and the mainland. They make but slow progress,
for the tug has a couple of scows in tow, with heavy
cargoes of cotton and turpentine, and the channel
being of no great depth. these are constantly stick-
ing hard and fast upon sand-banks.
There shoot forth, however, from secluded creeks

lid inlets, lurking boats, by th© aid of which tho

tug is sent forward before the unfriendly dawn can
reveal her position to the Federal man-of-war. The
little expedition thus reaches in safety the secluded
spot where the unconquerable genius of trade has
opened a new outlet for the produce of the South.
The scene is thus described :
It was broad daylight when we emerged from this reed-
fringed creek upon a space of open water, skirted by broad
rice fields dotted hero and there with square antiquated
houses and contiguous collections of negro huts. But re-
bellion had made this quiet bay a busy focus of industry,
and as we panted up to a new wharf along and near which
26 vessels were lying, and I saw the desperate traffic carried
on in utter defiance of the blockade, I gave the Southerners
credit for greater energy than I had believed possible.
Among the ships I observed the notorious privateer Sumter,
which had arrived the day before with a prize laden with
valuable silks and wines, two other privateers, and a cap-
tured Boston clipper, which was being cut down and
pierced for guns. The other vessels were either prizes or
merchant-men, owned in Liverpool or New York, which
having brought in cargoes of foreign goods and munitions
of war, were being loaded with race, cotton, and turpentine.
Nearly all the cotton, it was stated, would find its way to
New England. Five ships, I was told, had sailed during
the night. It was from this harbour that Mr. Slidell and
his friends sailei for Cuba, on their way to Europe, and
until its whereabouts is discovered, and the mouths of these
inlets effectually closed with stones or sunk lighters, the
blockade is a mere sham, and the trade with Charleston vir-

tually open.
In the course of a tour through the adjoining
States, the special correspondent found other ports
where a thriving import and export business ap-
peared to be carried on, without the slightest con-
cealment or chance of interruption. At Wilmington,
North Carolina, no hostile squadron had ever
troubled the repose of the prosperous and contented
merchants, the embouchure of Cape Fear River
having apparently been overlooked by the official
geographers of Washington.
Their negligence is, however, very excusable,
and it is to be hoped that the Federal Government
will soon have the good sense to acknowledge that
in attempting to enforce a blockade from the
Chesapeake to Matamoros, along a coast line of
nearly three thousand miles, they have undertaken
a task which even the combined navies of the world
would have considerable difficulty in accomplishing.
The smuggler has invariably proved himself more
than a match for the coast-guard, and there are no
risks which men are not willing to run for the sake
of high profits_ Napoleon the First, in his day of
most undisputed power, was unable to exclude
English manufactured goods from the continent of
Europe, although every harbour and frontier port
where an entry could be effected was supposed to
be jealously guarded by a military force. Our bad
success with the slavers on the coast of Africa, and
in the neighbourhood of Havana, shows that the
war steamer is as powerless as the Custom-house
officer to control the operations of Demand and
Supply, and teaches us that, whether it be for good
or evil, commerce will be carried on, in spite of the
most vigorous and persevering efforts to put an end
to it.
No doubt it may be easy for the United States'
Government to take possession of Bull's Bay, and
of a dozen other points on the Southern coast, but
it must always remain an impossibility to guard
every one of the thousand lagoons and inlets that
admit the waters of the Atlantic into sequestered
nooks and corners which can by a little labour be
brought into communication with the great depots
of trade. The entrances to those harbours are
generally protected by long, straggling chains of
islands, and dangerous reefs and sand-banks, well
known to the pilots of the locality, but insuperable
barriers to a stranger attempting to make hostile
descent. Meanwhile, with every gale that blows
from the north-east, the blockading squadron must
of necessity provide for its own safety by standing
out to sea, and leave the coast clear to the watchful
smuggle.—Examiner.

ARRIVAL
THEVonAislimLoFentwas te
cßEßMUDAtheLiverpool(S.S.) Yesterday
Exchange
in consequence of the following announcement being posted
imnuthheßanßsetwsroom :—" The Bermuda has arrived at Havre
with 1,780 bales of cotton." This is the same vessel which
ran the Savannah blockade some months ago, with a cargo
of supplies for the Confederates from Liverpool. The
arrivals of the Nashville and the Bermuda show clearly
that the blockade is anything but efficient off Savannah,
and it was confidently stated yesterday that the Bermuda
is not the only vessel which has run the blockade within
the last mouth.