The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-24 00:00:00

about, and, by the last accounts, was going off into
Eastern Tennessee. " Parson Bi ownlow," .who
has been making a considerable local sensation by
his gallant main -(nance of Union sentiments amid
a hostile population, and by the courageous writing
of his ournal, has now burst out upon the fighting
world, and is said—not that I at all believe
it—to have gained a victory over the Con-
federates with a guerilla of the loyal moun-
taineers of East Tennessee. If the railway which
passes through this part of the State, and on to
Knoxviile to Richmond, fall into the hands of the
Federalists it will prove a great blow to them, and
should Parson Brownlow have made any demon-
stration against it he will draw on himself the
attentions of half a dozen Confederate Generals in
the neighbourhood. General Nelson has gone out
suddenly after winning a great victory from no
enemy in particular, but he may be revived at any
moment. It is wonderful how heroes blaze up here,
then go out for a time like a burnt-out cracker, and
suddenly burst out again when everyone thought
there was no life left in them. There are any num-
ber of forgotten heroes in all parts of the States at
present. It is very aggravating not to be able to
pursue a remarkable event or person to the end of
the chapter, but in America it so happens that a
sustained interest in anything for a month is not
reached without some enormous effort. I am unable,
for instance, to say what has become of that little
controversy between General Smith and General
Wallace at Paducah, nor have I grounds for firm
faith in any victories gained in East Tennessee, nor
can I at all make out how the fight between Brown
and Bragg at Pensacola either began or ended. No
one seems to care, but it is assumed that the enemy
were " pretty badly whipped." To the earnest,
self-sacrificing thousands who regard this war as the
holiest and best in which man ever drew a sword,
the conduct of affairs must be most discouraging
and irritating. There are myriads of people who
literally worship the Union, and who would gladly
lay down their lives for that political " idea."
But they have no opportunity. They have left pro-
fessions, trades, and pleasant homes to go out and
fight, and, as they stand in the front of the battle,
they feel the ground for which they are striving
crumbling under their feet. There are hundreds of
men in the Northern armies, like James Wadsworth,
General Sprague, and General Butterfield, who have
abandoned ease and comfort to set an example in
person of devotion to—well, not their country so
mach as to—the Union, or, as Earl Russell styled
it " Power." And the Union was assuredly power.

It was power for the slaveholder, power for slavery,
power for democratic institutions to affront the
world. Without the Union the Northern States
would be cabined and confined within the Canadian
lakes and Virginia, and no reasonable human being
can object to their refusal to submit to such a fate.
To be deprived of the Mississippi would be to have
the main artery torn from the heart. Are they not
justified in striking for life at the hand which is
stretched out for the purpose ? But it is beyond
conception that, all things being so, the war is car-
ried on as if it were intended to irritate to madness
rather than induce " surrender to force of erns."
God and Nature may not, indeed, have put the
Black into the hands of the Northerners any more
than the Indian was placed at our disposal by the
same Power in the American war. But here are
all the horrors without any of the results of
war. Conquest over the South may mean great
ruin to the North, but at least it would be a
proof of strength given in the achieving of the re-
sult ; now all the cost of armaments, prodigious and
profuse, is endured without any actual operation in
esse to realise the Northern Idea. That it may at
last be attained I cannot hesitate to admit, but the
realisation will be terrible to victor and vanquished
alike. The question of the fate of that which is
not yet in the power of the North already distracts
and convulses the country before the battle has
been fought at all. It is not, indeed, unlikely that
General M'Clellan may be averse to a great battle,
on the mere grounds of aversion to bloodshed, and
the hope of success by milder means ; and the
smaller operations of war may encourage him to re-
sist the suggestions which are to my knowledge
made to him for an attack upon the enemy. Mag-
nificent weather is lost, and no sign of an advance
is visible. There are impatient senators and ant),
Congressmen, but no one dares open his lips who
remembers the result of the " On to Richmond ! "
cry of June and July last. The expeditions, and
the news of others about to be, amuse the people
for the time, but the pressure of taxation will soon
render them irritable in their clamours for peace or
victory. As yet the war has not pressed hardly
on the bulk of the people. 600,000 of the people
are amply paid and well fed, and to them are
joined hundreds of thousands who are employed in
civil work about the army. The noble army of con-
tractors and sutlers is making a fortune, and
the theory that the country cannot be losing any-
thing because all the money is spent in it finds uni-
versal acceptance. There are large frauds under-
stood to have been detected in commissariat trans-
actions recently. No doubt greater may be undis-
covered. Many persons have already made large
fortunes very honestly. Fraud seems somewhat
superfluous where prices are so remunerative and
examiners so lenient. " All is quiet along our lines."
The river blockade still continues. No man of-war,
except a tiny gunboat, has passed up or down in
front of the enemy for weeks. Mr. Sickles is still at
work on board the Pensacola, which lies motionless
off Alexandria. Reviews go on daily, and are for the
most part satisfactory in all that relates to the
marching of the men, but I never chance to see a
decent battalion drill or any formations except of
the most rudimentary kind, and I much doubt if
there are half-a-dozen regiments here which could
form square with steadiness and rapidity against a
charge of cavalry. The officers are still causes of
anxiety in the volunteer regiments from the large
cities, though it is said that nearly 400 have been
cleared out of the army since General M.Clellan
commenced the eliminating process. The weather
is wonderful—positively warm. The bluebottles
think it is summer, and are buzzing about merrily,
and people are eating ices in the confectioner's.

THIS DAY'S MARKETS.

HAY MARKETS.

- -
SMITHFIELD.—Meadow hay, £2 5s to £5 ; clover, £3 108
to £5 12s 6d ; and straw, £1 lOs to £1 18s Od per load.
A moderate demand.
CUMBERLAND.—Meadow hay, £2 5s to £5 Os; clover
do., £3 lOs to £5 15s; and straw, £1 00s to £1 18s per load.
Trade steady.
WHITECHAPEL.—Meadow hay, £2 5s to £5 Os; clover,
£3 108 to £5 15s Od; and straw,' £1 lOs to kl 184 per load.
A. steady trade.

•"% . •
.11
. .