The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-08 00:00:00

The Federalists seem specially unfortunate in
their attacks, and we can hardly wonder they are
so slow to make the forward movement in the
centre, when every attempt elsewhere is almost
certainly followed by defeat. The affair at Ed-
ward's Ferry seems, in point of losses, to have been
only second to the more disastrous one at Bull's
Run. Rout, a deadly rout was the result; panic
there was in the proper sense none, for the flight
was from a danger bat too real and pressing.
One shudders indeed at the account of native
Americans shooting down from the top of
a bluff upon their brethren plunging into the strong
current of the Potomac to escape from their deadly
fire. In none of the encounters have the Cainite
character of the war stood out more painfully than
in this murderous attack and repulse.
As usual the Federalists seem to have gone for-
ward in utter ignorance of what force was in the
neighbourhood with() other side the river. Very singu-
lar is it in this war, how much better the Confederates
seem to be aware of what is doing in the Federalist
camp, what their numbers are and so forth, than
vice versa. It is as if the inhabitants north of the
Thames could not learn what was going on at Nor-
wood, with all the facilities of one language and
of pre-ezisting friendly relations. It seems evi-
dent that the Marylanders so strongly sympathise
with the rebels that the South can obtain all the
information they need, while the North knows
nothing South of the lines covered by its troops;
even withia range of their glasses, hills and woods
effectually cover bodies of troops superior in num-
bers to their own. The South is evidently best
served by voluntary scouts._

The bait which' induced the Federals to cross
the river appears to have been the report, by a
scouting party of their own, of a small Confede-
rate force on the other side the river which might
be easily captured. It was thought that 300 men,
with a reserve force of 100, might effect the cap-
ture. Even for this attempt the means of crossing
tl e powerful stream were absurdly insufficient—
utterly so should they have to recross in haste.
They had only one boat, holding sixteen persons,
and two holding four:or five each; and that though
a:canal close at hand could furnish all the boats
required. The expected small body of Confede-
rates was not found, bat while the Federals, who
had crossed, were waiting orders, they were
attacked, and fell back on the reserve party of 100.
By two o'clock in the afternoon greater num-
bers of Federals crossed, Colonel BAKER taking
the command, and his force numbering about
1,800 men. They had one rifled cannon and two
mountain howitzers, all of which were lost in
the engagement. But what strikes us most is
the want of strategic skill. There was, we
are told, no want of courage, unless it were
on the part of some of those in command.
The enemy had no artillery but muskets only, yet
they so placed themselves, and the others were 60
placed, that old Brown Bess was a deadly weapon.
The field was bordered on three sides by " thick
woods,"and from these in front of the Federal lines—
which therefore seems to have marched on a wood—
a severe fire was opened. " The cannoniers and
artillery horses attached to the field pieces were all
shot down at this opening discharge, and the infantry
suffered heavily. The guns managed to fire only
about half a dozen rounds. Only occasional
glimpses of the enemy were obtained, while the
enemy's fire was directed, though only musketry,
with fearful precision." "As each new line was
formed the rebel volleys would seem to meet them
and separate them, as if by lightning strokes, into
broken and scattered groups." It was a " con-
centrated fire" from thick woods, rendering reta-
liation impossible. It reminds us of scenes north
of the Potomac, in which WASHINGTON, when a
loyal BIN ect of GEORGE 111., was a sharer.

At four o'clock poor BARER was killed. By six
o'clock the case was utterly hopeless. Colonel LEE
to avert further slaughter, determined to surrender.
But the orders became confused. One Federal
detachment rallied several times and fired ; and, it
is said, inconsistently enough with the story of the
enemy being invisible, that a bayonet charge on the
unseen enemy might still have saved the day !
Was the charge to be against trees, or had the
enemy become visible ? However, all was over.
Organisation was abandoned. Each company acted
separately. All that could strip and swim made boats
of their bodies and oars of their hands, for
courage ornneegloefetthheadfenwot
boatsproi sunkide fromdthem over-
crowding crowding ; of
retreat. o
men drowned
cowonnefdedtehraemtessewlvheos
otroowgedtedawtahye
from the fire of the

banks—the river was as full of human bodies as
once the Scamander itself, and in this miserable
way nearly half a little army of brave fellows
perished. What confidence will Northern troops
now have in their officers ; and what is an army
but a mob without such confidence P It is not
wonderful that M'CLELLAN holds back. What
little reliance can he place in his subordinate !

The letter of the Emperor of AUSTRIA to the
Minister whom he has entrusted with carrying out
the Imperial Revolution in Hungary, is a studied
insult to the nation. All Europe has witnessed
and applauded the dignified, peaceful, and con-
sistent manner in which the Hungarians maintained
their claims. Even those, if such there were, who
thought them in the wrong, thought thein in the
right, so far as their conduct as citizens was con-
cerned. The Italian duchies, after the flight of
their petty despots, did not win for themselves more
universal approbation than the Hungarians have
done by their abstinence from anything bordering
on violence. The whole of their offence, even in
the Imperial eyes, can amount to no more than
this, they refused to do acts which they held to be
illegal. They did not resist, did not fight, did
not shed blood, did not even assemble in
overpowering numbers, they merely declined to
do what they declared to be illegal. To a nation
in this position the young HAPSBURG of the
hour speaks thus in an autograph. letter, one there-
fore showing his personal views and feelings :
" The disloyalty of the Hungarian municipalities,
and the resistance, bordering on insurrection, to the
measures taken by the Government for the main-
tenance of public order, menace that order in a most
dangerous manner, without the authorities being
able to safely administer the penal law. The pub-
lic duty and the will of the EMPEROR requires that
he should raise strong barriers against these ex-
cesses, and restore things to a state of order."
Thus the advisers of his MAJESTY, so famed for
their supposed ability, have managed to commit
their Sovereign to war to the knife with Hungary.
This preamble is indeed appropriate to the practi-
cal conclusion of the letter, but it is not needful for
us to point out that the preamble itsalf is an un-
qualified lie. The preamble might truth-
fully have run as follows :—" Ever since
1849, the soldiers of the CZAR, and the
treachery of the Hungarian leader GEORGY, hav-
ing placed the kingdom of Hungary at my feet, I
have reigned there without Hungarian leave; I gave
them a constitution and cancelled it ; I adminis-
tered everything directly as a military Sovereign,
having suppressed all legal Government. After the
battle of Solferino, I determined to govern Hungary
not indeed legally, but somewhat more liberally.
My liberality extended to making it a municipality
instead of a kingdom. The Hungarians would not
accept my gracious concessions—they denied that
they were legal ; they required me to govern ac-
cording to the constitution which my ancestors,
under the Pragmatic Sanction, the basis of my
claim to the throne, acknowledged till 1848. Ido
not choose to be a legal King, Ido not choose to
have a legal diet ; I do not choose to levy taxes and
levy soldiers legally. I reign over Hungary by the
right divine of the sword of NICHOLAS, and of
PASKIEWITCH ; I shall order what I please in Hun-
gary, Croatia, and Transylvania, and I will be
obeyed, or I will shoot you—"
Now, this would have been truthful, and not more
than truthful ; a fit preamble to what follows, which
runs thus—" All the existing authorities in the
comitats, districts, and communes are abolished,
and Count FORGACH is ordered to select persons to
replace them, and to take care that the administra-
tion of public affairs in Hungary suffers no interrup-
tion. All persons charged with crimes against
public order and safety shall be tried by military
tribunals. In conclusion the EMPEROR expresses
an earnest wish that he may soon be enabled, by the
re-establishment of public order, to proceed to the
solution of the pending differences, and in future
maintain entire the concessions he has granted to
Hungary."
Even in the close of this, where his words
look like good will, the insult is but prolonged.
The weak-minded despot talks of his " concessions"
to Hungary ; though they repudiate with scorn the
idea of concessions. Their steady demand is,
rights, not concessions. They acknowledge
no power to concede in a man who is
merely a political robber.. _Restoration, indeed,
they might accept, for by force of arms, by the
bandits law, he holds in possession the powers
which belong to the nation, but not the most illi-
terate Hungarian would hear of a " concession"
from FRANCIS JOSEPH.

A long dark future is now before Europe in
regard to Austria. She will, if she can, persist in
her old headstrong policy, trusting to the luck
which has so often saved her in extremities. She
will hazard all for dear despotism. She has a noble
nation willing to be her powerful ally, unier a
personal union beneath the same crown ; she per-
sists in trying to enforce. amalgamation. She
might be strong by constitutional legality; she
prefers to be weak by despotic lawlessness. She
might govern with perfect ease through a Diet
and regular authorities ; she supersedes them by a
military governor, military officials, and courts
martial. She might be encouraging the Hungarians
in peaceful industry, and in a course to enrich her
impoverished Exchequer ; she is arming to drive
them to bloody rebellion, that she may have a pre-
tence to revel in executions and confiscations.
But Hungary, we trust, will continue her hitherto
well-advised course. Her day will come. We
believe the Hungarians have made up their mind to
this, and will disappoint their bloody-minded
oppressor. The Hungarians know that they are un-
armed ; and we fear they have not forgotten that a
British ship took from Galatz the arms sent for them.
Let them, however, but persevere. All will be done
that Jesuit ingenuity can devise to torture and to
harass them ; but a few years of suffering, how-
ever galling, will vex their despot Ruler far more
than insurrection could do. They have already the
sympathy of all free Europe, and we begin to hope
that even Lord Jourt RUSSELL and the Tories them-
selves will give up their pet. They must see that
a strong Austria is now an absurdity. A free
Hungary is the only strong kingdom possible in
South-Eastern Europe,

"Nil Darpan"—we have for a long while past
learnt, through the overland mail—has been driv-
ing her MAJESTY'S lieges in India nearly crazy
with delight. Nil Darpan ! And what in the
name of Fortune is NIL DARPAN ? A humourist
has but just now asked very facetiously—" Is it a
place or a person, or something to eat ?" Just as
in "Hard Times," it may be remembered by the
admirers of Mrs. SPARSIT, whenever that remark•
able female spoke of herself as " a Powler," people
were in the habit of wondering whether it was a
creed, or a locality, or a profession !
Bat—....
sourceone
forus all,y
ofveellietasemyeonftstoolutthioenA.
siaTthiciss
might
g very extraordinarydifferent, indeed, some
have imagined it to be)—a
drink, a kind of largesse, or an institution. For
example—lt proves to be in no
way another title

Lth 'qty
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4

THE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, NOV. 8, 1861.