The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-24 00:00:00

The Federal reinforcements which by the last
accounts had left for Cape Hatteras were not an
hour too soon ; putting together the telegrams
which have already reached us, it would appear
that the Confederates had been already partially
successful when the reinforcements arrived. They
had crossed over from the mainland to the long
narrow island on which the forts at Cape Hatteras
are placed, and had already compelled an encamp-
ment of Federal troops to retreat, we presume to
the fort, leaving behind them fifty prisoners; these
we may suppose to be rebel prisoners, with whom
they did not wish, to be incumbered in a retreat to
the felt

While however the Confederates were engaged
in the attack on the forts, the Federal steamers
Montebello and Susquehannah arrived, and began
shelling them. The numbers on each side are
generally found afterwards to be exaggerations ;
but we are told that the Confederates had six
steamboats, no doubt transports merely, with 3,000
men on board of them, and that by the sinking of
three of them under the fire 700 men perished.
Another account says simply that two of the Con-
federate vessels were sunk. All that may be taken
for certain is, that though the Federals hold the
Hatteras Inlet and the Cape, the Confederates are
bold and strong yet on the land side of Pamlico
Sound. By the last accounts they had sent out
from Roanoke Inlet, further north, three steamers,
and had captured the Federal ship of war Fanny,
with 150,000 dollars worth of stores for troops on
board. And now they have attempted, though
with signal want of success, to retake the forts.
BEAUREGARD must have many men to spare.

Of some part of the other naval accounts we
hardly know what to make. The leaving of a
large naval expedition for the South, consisting of
20 ships, with an unknown destination, is a distinct
and probable statement, and the telegraph of the
12th from New York mentions the precise time of
the day. We may, therefore, expect, before long,
to hear something of its performances. But
what are we to make of the telegrams three days
later from New York to Cape Race, brought by
the Edinburgh ? They tell us of a naval rout of
the blockading squadron at New Orleans, by a
fleet of Confederate gunboats; and, that after a
sharp fight, one Federal vessel was sunk, and the
rest driven ashore ! The telegram of the 12th from
New York was, that " New Orleans is now
effectually biocidad," that of the 15th to
Cape Race, appears to tell us that this
blockading squadron is now effectually dis-
posed of. This second
account reached New
York from Norfolk, which
with the navy yard,
must be still in the hands of the Virginians; it is,
therefore, a Southern account, not that we know of
the less likely to be true. It cannot is any case be
the heavy vessels which were in the
PI, on the
blockade service, but must, if the telegram
be correct, be some detachment of smaller
vessels which were watching New Orleans
on the Missisippi itself, which have been
so effectually dealt with. Our cotton consumers
must not, however, begin to hope for shipments
thence, for we are also informed that the Go-
vernor of Louisiana has forbidden the entry
of cotton into New Orleans, either by
steamer or railroad. At present the South i 3
anxious to keep its cotton at home. it desires to
punish Massachusetts and still more to compel
France and England to break the blockade to sup-
ply their looms. A pretty plain proof that if we
recognised the South, it wonld, relying on King
Cotton, soon become as insolent to us as the North
has been.

The military positions remain much as they
were. The Vederals have made some cautious ad-

vances opposite Washington, of no importance
however, so far as we can perceive. The Confede-
rates were slowly retiring before them, but until the
Federals begin again to approach Manassas Junc-
tion, if they venture to do so, we need not expect a
battle; from 'which indeed both sides seem equally
to shrink, as well indeed each may. The attack-
ing party must fight at great disadvantage, and
neither seems disposed to risk it. At present the
Confederates are not within sight of the Federal
position at Louisville, in front of Washington.
In Western Virginia the Confederates are
also reported to be retiring. In Missouri
we can discover nothing certain. By the
last accounts PRTCE was running before FREMONT
into Arkansas. Now we hear of him as waiting
for reinforcements to attack Jefferson city itself
Thus the best we can say of the war is, that it
wriggles along the whole line, from Cape Hat-
teras in the East, to Lexington in the West.
Advance, it does not—not visibly at least.

Lord JOHN MANNERS has taken a leaf out of the
book of his right hon. friend and colleague the
member for Buckinghamshire. He closes his last
political speech, almost one might call it " political
Man ifesto,"with one of those epigrammatic sentences
flavoured with the acidity of sarcasm that leave a
more or less lasting relish upon the palate of the
general public. " However, for a time," said his
Lordship, " unprineipled combinations may place
in office heterogeneous politicians, those time-
honoured institutions of our land [Lord JOHN
MANNERS is referring to Church and State]
will not be handed without a struggle,
and a successful struggle, to philosophical
pedants or to the more avowed inroads
of political demagogues." The sentence might
really have been uttered by Mr. DISRAELI himself.
One would have deemed it more likely to have
sounded to us from the direction of Bucks, than
from that of Leicestershire. It is a significant cir-
cumstance, we cannot but think, when a gentle-
hearted and almost unimpassioned politician, like
this accomplished younger son of the late Duke of
RUTLAND, is incited to the utterance of taunts and
gibes as galling as those compress edwithin the narrow
compass of his recent harangue to his constituents,
at the great Conservative Demonstration which
took place at Leicester on Tuesday last. It tells
its own tale. It speaks of the confidence infused
into the heart of Conservatism. It reveals also the
latent determination there to overthrow the
" powers that be" upon the very first opportunity.
Not that we believe, for an instant, that there is
any intention whatever, among the Chiefs of the
Opposition, to adventure upon any deliberate move-
ment next session, with a view to the ousting from
office of the " heterogeneous politicians" now making
up the rank and file of her MAJESTY'S Government.
Under the very appropriate leadership, by the way,
of the noble lord who, among all our living states-
men, is least embarrassed by what are called
(evidently a mere phrase in his estimation)
"principles." The Opposition, we are satisfied,
have no systematic design whatever of struggling
for power in 1862 with the present Administra-
tion. Supposing there should be any change of
Ministry at all, after the meeting of Parliament
in February, that change will be brought about
more by failure on the side of the Government
than by any successful antagonism on the part of
the Opposition. In fact, the Conservative party
learnt a good deal last session, as to the superior
wisdom of a course apparently no other than one
simply apathetic. Whenever they undertook any-
thing at all in the shape of an attack, direct or
indirect, upon the Ministry, they found to
their cost that their so doing rallied round
the Cabinet those very heterogeneous politicians
who were otherwise in a fair way of being estranged
from each other preliminary to their disband-
ment. Ever since the Opposition has adopted the
laissez faire, the laissez alter system, they have found
everything, in their own interests, tending directly
and indirectly to the good. Has a Liberal seat
become vacant, there has been a local contest set on
foot at once, resulting almost invariably in the
return of the Conservative candidate. We remem-
ber how this occurred during the sitting of Parlia-
ment within this last twelvemonth. We remember
that it occurred so often that the small difference there
was between the aggregate on the side of the Govern-
ment and the aggregate on the side of the Oppo-
sition gradually faded out of view as a difference
in favour of the Liberals, until at last it even
began to glimmer out in a ghostly manner almost
as a difference in favour of the Conservatives !
At the close of the late session at least the fears
of the Liberals and the hopes of the Conservatives
said as much pretty confidently.

Recollect for a moment how the two Great
Parties actually stood in regard to each other in
numbers, at the moment when Lord DERBY'S
Cabinet fell to piecee, and when Viscount PAL-
MERSTON assumed the reins of Government.
Is it clearly enough borne in recollection how
small was the majority that led to that transference
of power from the hands of the Conservatives to
those of the Liberal Coalition. The division that
threw out Lord DERBY'S Reform Bill, and with it
Lord DERBY'S Government, was a division in one
of the largest Houses known for years and years
past down at Westminster. And the clear majority
in that largest house within the recollection of the
present generation, was a clear majority of—how
many ? Of "thirteen !" That is to say—had but
seven of those members who took part in this
momentous division by voting with the majority—
voted with the minority instead of with the
majority, the tables would have been turned ! The
Conservatives, instead of being defeated, as they
were, by a clear majority of thirteen in a House of
638, in that sitting of the Commons on the night
of Friday, the 10th of June, 1859, would, by that
transference of seven votes, have been in a majority
of ONE ! Seven votes only making that
difference ! Recollect, since then, how many
more than seven votes have been gained to
the Conservative Opposition from Liberal
constituents ! Recollect how the Government
side has lost, how the Opposition side has gained in
this manner at Leicester, in the county of Cork, in
the southern division of Lancashire, and elsewhere !
No wonder—remembering these things—that the
Tories are becoming heartened as to the future!
But how has it all come about that the tables, in
this age of table-turning, have been turned so very
surprisingly ? Is it not visible at a glance through
the records of the last session of Parliament ? The
constituencies have, in the instances glanced at,
rcmeoturnnleodn
sIo:t becauseinsteadioes they
love ofL ibo ere Toryismals t o the
more,Hous but House of
simply because they love Liberalism (that is, the very
dubious Liberalism of Lord PALMERSTON'S Coalition)
less ! They have turned this directly against the
Government through sheer indignation at the
Ministerial falsification of so many fair promises.
The Administration that came in to do so much
has done just nothing in the way of good, and
wholesome, and comprehensive Reforms. The
Cabinet that was formed with the avowed design
of reforming the existing system of popular re-
presentation upon a scale, and with a tact and
adroitness far beyond anything attempted in that
Government, has
way by th; late Tory-Reforming

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THE SUN.
LONDON, THURSDAY, OCT. 24, 1861.