The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-10 00:00:00

The blockade appears to be efficient. A con-
siderable number of prizes are already announced ;
and New Orleans itself is at last closed to trade.
The correspondent of a contemporary gives us a
very interesting sketch of the blockade of another
port—Pensacola, the port of Florida, where there is
a navy yard and forts, which, he says, have cost the
Federal Government above £6,000,000Q. This alone
might fairly account for the unwillingness of Mr.

LINCOLN to part with it lightly. The Yard is pro-
'tected against a properly foreign enemy by forts
on the mainland, and also by the now much heard
of Fort Pickens. Those on the mainland are old
and inefficient; Fort Pickens, on the long, narrow
sand bank, or island, Santa Rosa, is strong, and
reminded the writer of a Sebastopol fort. It is
also backed by the presence of a considerable Fede-

ral squadron. The channel is so narrow that the
forts entirely command it, and Fort Pickens, it is

said, could easily knock down those on shore. On

the other hand, General BRAGG appears to

- -
have erected, skilfully, powerful batteries on

coast, and the works at the Navy

enable him to cast shot and shell to destroy
who built it. At present the hostile officers

very civil to each other. They seemed to

fight cniefly by practical jokes, such as compelling

£50,000 worth of provisions to go up the Alabama

river to Montgomery, four or five hundred miles,
and to come back by railway to Pensacola, when

the commander of the squadron could as easily
have seized them all. Such things, and. permitting
the enemy to erect, without disturbance, under the

muzzles of the guns of both fleet and fort, the bat-
teries which are to be used against both, are cer-
tainly an unique mode of carrying on war. A
few bloody encounters will soon put art end to all
such hesitating lenience. By the last accounts the

rebels have abandoned all intention of attacking
Fort Pickens.

On Wednesday evening a Festival of a deeply
interesting character will be presided over by the
right hon. gentleman the member for Buckingham-
shire. The occasion, however, is one of a purely
philanthropical character. We would premise this
for the information of several among our brother
Editors in Paris, the redacteurs of those imperial
organs who recognised a political manifesto in the
graceful tribute offered to H.R.H. the Jane D'Atr-
MALE, as Chairman of the Literary Fund Banquet
—so regarding it simply (in every sense sim-
ply) because that touching and eloquent tribute
was offered to the exiled Prince by the right hon.
gentleman the leader of her MAJESTY'S Opposition.
Our brother journalists over in Paris, quite losing
sight for the moment, it would seem, of three facts
as sufficiently obvioas in themselves as thefollowing,
as sufficiently obvious, that is, to all of us here in
England—Firstly, that the Literary Fund Institu-
tion is in no respect whatever a political establish-
ment. [Even Mr. DICKENS will:allow that much
—earnestly though he has striven to reform it from
its foundation upwards as an institution urgently
requiring rehabilitation !] Secondly, that the Due
D'A tJMALE was there in the chair at theLiteraryFund
Banquet, not at all in his capacity as an Orleanist,
but solely in his capacity as an exiled Prince dis

anguished by his many rare accomplishments.
Thirdly and lastly, that the Right Hon. BENJAMIN
DISRAELI was known to the world as an eminent
Novelist before he had ever dreamt,;perhaps (though
of this the readers of even his maiden romance
" Vivian Grey" may be doubtful), before he had ever
dreamed, perhaps, of becoming an eminent States-
man. The imperial redacteurs at Paris, in their
strictures upon Mr. 1/Blum's recent speech at
the Literary Fund Banquet—recognizing in that
right hon. gentleman—not the celebrated author of
Coningsby, of Sybil, and of Contrini Fleming, but
exclusively the member for Bucks, and the Leader
of the Great Tory Party, the front ranks of which
are filled up
for the most part by the country gen-
tlemen of England.
Premising therefore that the banquet over which
Mr. DxspAELT
Is about to preside as Chairman is
in no way a merely
political demonstration—being
far beyond that, an earnest effort in the interests
would here add briefly that it
of philanthropy—we
is a banquet given upon the oCeasion.of the first
anniversary (the advertisements erroneously print it
the second enniversary)
of the foundation (in 1860)

prove to ha re been. baseless. From tiu South we
cannot easily obtain definite information ; it has
probably no wish to furnish the world with any,
and hardly any means to do so if it had. It has
not only no postal communication with Europe,
but it has none with the States through whom all
American news has to reach us. Hence we rarely
get anything more specific than that "it is re-
ported that the Secessionists are throwing up
earthworks at Manassas ;" or, " it is reported that
large numbers of Confederate are troops at Rich-
mond." One telegram, however, boldly says that,
" 10,000 Southern troops are at Harper's Ferry,"
and the " report" in this case is made to apply
to the Federal troops which were to :make a move
to cut them off from Richmond.
From the North, however, both of its doings
within its own lines and in the South, the informa-
tion is, much of it, more categorical. They can
tell us what the enemy are actually doing close to
them—as at Harper's Ferry and Alexandria—at
which latter place, as well as near the former, the
belligerents seem to be face to face ; though the
telegrams relating to Alexandria are a little con-
flicting and obscure. This place is, it will be re-
membered, a few miles south of Washington, on
the other side of the Potomac, and is on the rail-
road which connects the Virginian lines with
Washington. Our readers must not forget, if they
wish to observe the effect of movements en either
side, that Harper's Ferry is the western extremity
of the attack and defence; Washington and Alexan-
dria the centre ; that from thence the Potomac
and the Bay of Chesapeake bends down to the
South and East, till we find General BUTLER on
the extreme East and South, relatively to Harper's
Ferry and the centre. Richmond, the capital of
Virginia, lies, as it were, in the centre of the arch
roughly formed by these places and the line of the
Potomac, and is probably made the chief centre of
the assembling of the Secession troops, because
from thence any part of the line can be most
easily reached. It is to Richmond, we read, that
the forces go, and from thence that reinforcements
are expected at Alexandria or Harper's Ferry.
As all our news comes direct from the Nortb, we
must suppose that the accounts are as favourable
to it as they can be ; though we have not observed
any tendency to exaggeration. The war excite-
ment and enlisting continue as vigorously as ever ;
which is more than might have been expected.
The onward movement has not been much ; an
" important movement on Western Virginia, where
the people are Unionists," is spoken of, also the
" taking possession of Grafton in Western Vir-
ginia." A report at New York on the 28th that the
Federal troops had actually marched on Harper's
Ferry was not confirmed by telegrams from Halifax
' on the 30th; only that large bodies of Pennsylvanian
troops were moved in that direction. For the rest
the North was strengthening the defences on the
Potomac. General BUTLER had captured Hampton,
the town adjacent to fort Monroe, and was waiting
reinforcements, which are leaving New York for
him, before he attacked Norfolk, where the Navy
yard is situated.