The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-20 00:00:00

,'Hi.r-57177FNN
N.EW.SPAP.ER
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ic,lsOi
„.: esei '• • e seteeeelaisle
aolv @eiaa. , witieh has obtained in Europe in estr7-'176;,.-t. e;;;4),
( .
. essasess
conflict will not soon be resented espy 'roar
<
• nence dan insulting affectatin of indaerence
. ,
e • -
I that which Atnericanse regard
as the greatest c0n-
.4110 . test the world Las ever seen. No one can ho
honestly indifferent to the results, for they must
affect Europe, just as any great disturbance in anS.
State must produce an impression on the rest of
the world. It is useless to say that we are not jea-
lous of the grandeur and glory of the United States,
for the national vanity would regard the thing as
impossible. It is, indeed, impossible to regard with
indifference the fight which has such enormous in-
terests and great principles involved in the issue,
but it is unfortunate for the 'United States that it
has by turns affronted nearly every Government, in
Europe, and left to itself only the natural sympa-
thies of the peoples for those who appear betbre
them as the friends of liberty. There is one thing
to be said about civil wars—they do not last long.
It is probable that the exce,ptionalism," if one
may use the word, on which the Americans rather
pride themselves, will not prevail ia the case of the
struggle between North and South. Each of the
contending parties, however, believes it is sure. to
win. The voices from the South are, to he sure,
rather deadened, and those of the North are swollen •
and blown out through penny trumpets and brass
whistles, but there is still reason to think that. both
are bent on '‘‘ leaving it out." And, indeed, the
North must do so, even if separation comes, for
there would not and could not be an honourable.
peace if it followed an unaveuged defeat. in a con
test wherein the victors had announced beforehand
that their opponents were destitute of courage and
manhood. It would not be possible for the North
to live on terms of decent amity with the South if
the leaders on both sides were to agree to a peace
to-morrow. The violence and triumphant jubila-
tion of the conquerors would render it a mere ar-
mistice of short duration. Those who can see the
reconstruction of the great Republic in the warring
elements of this great convulsion must believe in
some new atomic theory, and in some novel che-
mistry of political affinities.
A I passed the State Department the other day,
I observed on the ground great columns of marble
in wooden coffin-like cases lying by the road side ;
near the White House there was similar food for
Above the unfinished dome of the Capitol
rises a great machinery of saffoldage and leverage,
motionless and lifeless, and around the very build-
ing in which Senator and Representative keep high
debate, lie the vast fragments which at some future
day are meant to supplement arch and dome—the
idea of a conception not yet brought into being.
There are, then, two sorts of ruins—those of the
thing which has been, and those of the thing which
is not yet, and may never be at all. It was strange
to see that all the effect of the work of years could
be produced by the materials of work unaecom-
plished. The public buildings of 'Washington are
surrounded before they are completed by the evi-
dences of what they must be when they shall have
been destroyed. Before the Republic has finished
its temples the worship-of the deities to whom they
are erected is assailed by terrible heresies. The
Capitol can never see within its dome the Senators
and Deputies of the Union, of which it seems no
inapt type in its aspiring incompleteness. Can any
even of the Powers most menaced and affronted by
the Republic rejoice in its researches among the
fragments ? Certainly England has not by word
or deed within her borders exhibited a trace of the
passions attributed to her by many bitter enemies.
The reports industriously circulated in some
American journals that Great Britain has de-
manded, or solicited, the establishment of a free
port for the exit of cotton are untrue. There is no
foundation whatever for such statements, which are
prepared by the same people who originate the
stories of Admiral Milne's despatches and views in
reference to the blockade. The indifference to
foreign politics which has marked the proceedings
of the Congress has been a suitable commentary on
the mode in which American affairs have been
treated in Europe. Mr. Sumner was severely re-
buked for alluding to the probable effects of the
increase of the Morrill Tariff on the sentiments of
Franc.: and England ; as if the Senate regarded
such an allusion as a confession of weakness or an
indecent introduction of an unsuitable element of
consideration. The bill confiscating the property
of rebels passed after a division of 60 to 48, not-
withstanding the energetic and argumentative op-,
position of Mr. Breckinridge and others ; and I send
elsewhere some reflections on the mode in which it
will be carried into effect. Congress adjourns to-
morrow till the sth of December, unless summoned
by the President at an earlier day. Members of
Congress are the first to touch the nice new paper
money. On receiving their salaries they were pre-
sented with 50 dollars in gold and with 250 dollars
in the Treasury notes as payment for the month .
They did not like it. The brokers charge 5 per
cent. discount, although the Government pays 6
per cent. interest on the two-year notes, so that
there is a loss to the original holder of 81 per cent.
per annum if he submits to the discount. These,
however, are very trifling matters in consideration
of that which is to come. There is a rumour of an
attack on Cairo. It can only succeed in consequence
of incapacity and cowardice on the part of the de-
fenders.

PR1CE....... . 4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

will appear from another order issued in support of
the former :

" GENERAL ORDERS (No. 1).

" Head-quarters, City Guard, Provost-Marshal's
office, Washington, Aug. 2.

" The following regulations for the Provost Guard of
this city are published for the guidance of officers command-
ing guards and patrols, and for the information of all con-
cerned :, •

"In pursur.nce to instructions from Major-General
M'Clellan, it is directed that all officers frequenting the
streets or hotels of the city without written permits to be
absent from their regiments or stations, setting forth the
object of the visit, approved by their brigade commanders,
shall be arrested and sent to their regiments or stations by
any officer commanding a patrol who may observe them.
" Any soldier found absent from his company without a
'written permit from the commander of his brigade, and
all soldiers found in the streets, hotels, or other places in
the city after 9 o'clock p.m., shall be arrested and confined
for trial and punishment. All prisoners will be taken to
the central guardhouse of the city, where they will be
turned over to the officer commanding the guard at that
station, who shall detain them in custody until otherwise
ordered.

" It shall be the constant purpose of all officers command-
ing guards or patrols to keep the city under vigilant obser-
vation, day and night,' to the end that the public peace may
not be in any way disturbed, nor the citizens molested in
their persons or property by any person in the service of
the United States.

"Reports containing the time and places of all arrests,
with the names of persons arrested, together with such
other information as may be deemed important to the pub-
lic service, will be made and handed in to this office at 9
o'clock a.m. daily.

"A. PonTrn, Colonel 16th Infantry, United
" States' Army, Provost-Marshal."

The citizen soldiery were astonished and were
indignant, but they were nevertheless arrested and
" blackholed," and I confess it gave me infinite
satisfaction to observe the very salutary results
of the process. The Sanitary Commission, with
considerable boldness, publish certain recommenda-
tions ftr the improvement of the discipline of
the army, which is indeed "in need of change for
the better. They ascribe the difficulties which they
meet in carrying out reforms to lack of discipline,
which thus injures the health of the army. General
Lana, who commands the Spanish troops in Cuba,
has been over here on a tour, and he expressed to me
his profound astonishment at the state of things
visible in the camps at the other side of the Poto-
mac. He was here, however, at a bad time—just
after the flight from Manassas. His criticisms, how-
ever, on lazy sentries, on slovenly and ill-equipped
troops, on dirty arms and accoutrements, were just.
Above all, he was amazed that in an army of re-
cruits there was no drill or exercise to be seen.
Company drill is not much attended to; the batta-
lion drill is of the most elementary character; and
indeed, with the exception of the skirmishing at
Cairo, I have never seen anything but ordinary ad-
vance in line, or marching past at stow time, or at
the double in columns of companies or of subdivi-
sions, and such common movements. This generally
results from the ignorance of the officers as much
as from the incompetency of the rank and file.
General M'Clellan is talking about brigade drills
and field days, and there is some nonsense attri-
buted to him about drilling by trumpet, which
means, I presume, that he is about to have more at-
tention paid to bugle notes in giving orders than is
at present the case. The new levies, as far as I can
judge, are not equal to the departed three-months
men, and the camps are certainly not as well filled.
Tilde are about 24 battalions of infantry of all
sorts, and eight squadrons of cavalry in the capital,
and around it on the left bank of the Potomac, up to
the chain bridge. There are some 30 battalions
across the river and some 700 sabres, the whole force
being probably under 45,000 men, not including
Banks's column at Harper's Ferry, or the commands
of Gen. Butler and of Gen. Dix, at Baltimore. Of
the 49 guns which INl'Dowell's army took into the
field, 25 remain in the hands of the enemy, and
there is some deficiency in artillery, which Govern-
ment is doing its best to supply. Gen. M'Dowell,
I am glad to say, remains in command of the troops
at Arlington, although serious accusations have been
made against him in the papers, most, if not all, of
which were quite unfounded. What could
he do with the materials he had, except, as the Pre-
sident said, "drive the locomotive as he found it ?"
Granted bravery, heroism, devotion, and all that
kind of thing, what could be expected of a regiment
thus described in a New York paper ?
" In one of our regiments, while the Colonel was on trial
for drunkenness, the Major lay drunk in his tent, and the
Lieut.-Colonel was so intoxicated at evening drill that he
had to stagger up to the Adjutant, and request him to give
the orders."

ruins.

The President is now vested with most extraordi-
nary powers, such as were never heard of before,
except under a virtual despotism, because by a re-
cent bill he is enabled to dismiss officers at pleasure,
without giving a Court of Inquiry. But the evil
was enormous. Every where is the same story. At
Newport the troops have been in a state of
mutiny; officers have shot soldiers in self-defence.
Demoralisation prevailed largely in Butler's force,
and the men have burned down part of the pretty
village of Hampton. The day before yesterday a
soldier shot a comrade in the street, close to the
spot where I was standing—one of many similar
cases. The officers may not be responsible for all
this, but they are to be blamed fur a good deal of
the disorder. As a treat for Prince Napoleon, who
is passing his -time here very quietly, the Wash-
ington papers propose that he should be invited
to review the army by General M'Clellan, but I do
not think he will be asked to do anything of the
kind. A few months hence the suggestion would
be less distasteful. Apropos of the Prince, it may
be worth mentioning that when the President en-
tertained him the other evening at the White House
the band treated him no less than twice to the
" Marseillaise." Lord Lyons, M. Mercier, and all
the Ministers were present, but, owing to some un-
explained reason, the Chevalier Bertinatti, Minister
of the King of Italy, was not invited, which is all
the more curious on account of the Prince's con-
nexion with the House of Savoy. On Sunday the
French Minister, M. Mercier, gave a dinner at his
house, where the Prince is residing, to the Cabinet
Ministers, at which Lord Lyons and the foreign re-
presentatives were present, as well as Mr. Sumner
and other distinguished persons. The vapid air of
the capital is scarcely ruffled by the Prince's presence.
As a proof of the grand fibs which are manufactured
here, and of the way in which they succeed, it may
be mentioned that Gen. Scott was deceived by the
statement that Confederate troops had desecrated
Mount Vernon so far that he issued an order, not
remarkable for excellence of composition, though
full of feeling, calling on the United States troops
to respect the place in case they should be called
on to occupy the grounds. The Confederates were
never there at all, and Lady Georgina Fane and a
lady who is travelling with her had no difficulty in
going and returning recently under the escort of a
British subject. The tendency, or rather the habit,
of saying the thing which is not, and of putting
out of all proportion to the truth the thing that is,
has been so developed by the war that one of the
most respectable journals in the city gravely and
seriously lectures the whole nation on its indiffer-
ence to truth and its inveterate love of exaggera-
tion in language which would be resented with
acrimony if it were used by a stranger. Criticism
is always resented by the criticised unless it be all
sugar and treacle, and of all people the most diffi-
cult to please are those who are vain, irritable, un-
fortunate, and conceited. The voices which come
from the other side of the Atlantic cannot be agree-
able to a race above all thing emulous of military
prestige. " Optat ephippia bos." He will get
them and have to pay for them presently, but in
what will President M'Clellan differ from Napoleon
111. except in tenure of office ? The United States
army and navy will be made worthy of the young
Republic, and in their hearts men rejoice at the
prospects of a strong Government, which must come,
though they cannot see how, out of the
present
;conflict. the lam not quite certain that silence)

AN INCIDENT OF MANASSAS.

Soon it came our turn to charge. As we rose to
our feet and advanced, a long cheer went up from
the men which could be heard above the boom of
the cannon and the roar of the musketry. we
moved slowly and steadily at first, for the way
was extremely uneven, and it was difficult to pre-
serve the regularity of the line. On nearing the
valley
weleybnet downtween s us
s thean hudthrraneiobate of iron
'we found it
every
side.
Numbers of our
men
difficulty that we
iron swept by
nras,keadndbyithawttaeeriewith enoe
little
could close up the line so as to charge effectively.
charged up the hill with was
Confederates Soon
e gull ul l
until passed, and our men
brow of the hill, and
of
smupeninewe appeared above the
renewed vigour. The
then poured such a volley
peculiar
upon us as decimated
fell the regiment in an instant.
forward on their faces with a
motion,. as a wave falls forward
on a beach. Captain Brown being in advance, and
seeing the Confederates running from their guns to
the cover of the trees, rushed
forward, waving his
sword, shouting, "Now, boys, rally." Scarcely
were the words from his lips when a rifle-bullet
pierced him through the neck ; at the same instant
a cannon ball entered his side, and he fell to the
earth, pinned as it were to the ground. Some of
his men tried to take his watch, by order of the
lieutenants, but found it buried in his vitals. He
died bravely and as he had wished, having often
expressed the hope that he might never survive
the defeat of the regiment. Captain Shilling-
law was shot through both knees, and immedi-
ately after one of his men, lifting him up—
for he was lying on his face--found him dead,
with his beard dabbled with blood from a wound
in the head. At this time the storm of battle re-
doubled, the regiment wavered, then fell back and
retreated slowly, still firing at every
lost several of its best offices.A step, 'having
general retreat
commenced. Some members of the sth company
and the Staten Islanders of company 10 made a gal-
lant stand behind a fallen tree, Where they kept up
an obstinate defence for some time. To our asto-
nishment, however, we
saw the ;stars grad stripes
waving from the battery, and an officer, in uniform
like that of the Ohio regi
()
invents, cried tit, " Cease
firing, you're killing your own men ;" We rallied
once more, and on some of our :men breasting the
hill again, the flag disappeared, the. Confederate
flag waved in • Its place, and another dßath-stOrm of
bullets poured up
attack,on us ; and the regivient not being
for sudden fell haok in disorder.
Colonel Cameron, who had succeeded in rallying
the men twice, seemed paralysed at this new reverse
—the sword which he had been waving dropped
from his hand—he stood a momui it looking at the
retreating mass, some of the men still obstinately
firing; and on one of his lieutene, tits
.coming down
from the front of the battery to
ask advice about
the wounded officers, he turned
suddenly toward
him, faced the battery, and . she same instant a
Minie bullet pierced his breast,. He fell without a
groan. After his fall the ro at became complete.
The fatal cry of "same qua pent" seemed commu-
nicated from regiment to reg
,iment ; and night saw
the disheartened army in fn 11 retreat towards Fort
Corcoran.—New York Tim es.

IMMENSE LARCH.--Thy 3re is a larch at the upper
end of Loch Kindar which i it six feet from the ground
girths 8 feet 8 inches. This is a good size, although there
may be many in the Stewg,r try larger,—.Dti mfrios Courior