The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-22 00:00:00

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ing> or service after a turn in Italy
said to me the other day, " Why, sir, I've seen offi-
cers of cavalry here who don't know how to get
upon a horse, to sit him, or to get down when they
are on. They don't know how to draw their swords
or return them when drawn." But the gunner was
rather a Zoilus. To have so many officers with
some idea of their duty is the marvel.
SITUATION OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS.
The more I look at the situation the more the
difficulties of Gen. M'Clellan's position grew upon
me. He has not sufficient troops, considering their
inexperience, to divide his army just now into two
bodies—one to proceed against the enemy, the
other adequate to hold the works round Washing-
ton, and to make them quite safe in case of a re-
verse or a regular assault. It is quite certain that
the Confederates have fallen back
,upon Manassas,
and are there in very great force. It is just close
enough to Washington to render it impossible for
M'Clellan to move an army out on either flank with-
out bringing on an action which must lead him to
face the old position of the Confederates from Bull's
Run and Manassas to the hills on their left, covering
the approaches to Richmond. Although the Mary-
landers may be discontented, there would be no
manifest inconsistency in Beauregard remaining
still and inviting attack, whereas the programme of
the North must be carried out by offensive opera.
tions by an invading army. Sooner or later
M'Clellan must begin to move, and I think that in
eight :or ten days from this time he will make a
demonstration to feel the force of the enemy, which
may lead to a general action, or may decide him to
try the fortune of war by changing his position and
operating in another quarter. An English subject
who has just arrived from Richmond says that there
has been a good deal of sickness among the troops,
but that they are rapidly recovering, that food is
plentiful, and that the men are well clad, in the best
spirits, and perfectly confident of victory. The talk
in the army indicated an advance against Newport
News, and against Fortress Monroe from Hampton.
The latter must prove a tremendous blunder.
Nothing short of a siege can reduce the work. The
Norfolk navy-yard was a scene of great activity ;
all the sunken vessels had been raised, and nearly
all were fit for service, and it was expected they
would run past the fortress and get out to sea, where
they may operate a serious diversion. Certainly, if
they do, the United States' officers must have lost
the art of "keeping a bright lookout, for which they
are not undistinguished. The escape of the steamer
Bermuda from Savannah, if true, is another instance
of the weakness of the blockading power or of the
neglect of the officers. Her cargo was invaluable
to the Confederates; among other necessaries were
70 tons of gunpowder, the supplies of which, owing
to the want of sulphur, were very short in their
army.

PRICE. ,4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

mass, but utterly destructive to your peace if you
want to drive in a priv ate carriage. The stuff out
of which an aristocracy could be formed does not
exist to any extent ; the Upper Ten Thousand with
all their graces, wealth, and luxury—their accom-
plishments of good breeding—do not desire to and
could not march in the mail of Hove ands, Lindsays,
or the Montmorencis. So far Republicanism is safe.
We do not either fear, hate, or envy it; but we look
militarywith m u much
despotism.anxiety
to it and to constitutional liberty
INsreoerethdaatmitadgoeeshansetbbececnomdoene
a
by the suppression
ofall
by
and
the by
treatises the
in
lettres de cac7tet of women and babbling
Seces-
sionists newspaperswe.
ea incarcH
eration i opne
pen
underin
all
than
the newspapers of England. In some measure
apropos of this matter, let me say that on Saturday
a gentleman, who informed me ho was special cor-
respondent for one of your contemporaries, waited
upon me in some degree of trepidation and made
the following statement :—He had been at Rich-
mond with the Confederates, but a short time ago
came up here by way of fortress Munroe under a
flag of truce. Having a letter to General Scott,
he obtained a pass to visit the lines acrose the
Potomac, and had availed himself of it on the
previous day. Before he was out of bed in
the morning an officer entered his room, and
stated he had come by the authority of
General Porter, the Provost Marshal, to demand
the pass which he had received from General Scott.
The gentleman refused to surrender it unless on an
order from the General who had given it, or to
some officer cf similar rank. "In that case my
orders are to take you to the Provost-Marshal im-
mediately." And as soon as he was dressed he was
driven over there in charge of the officer who, on
entering the room, sat down at a table and com-
menced writing. Seeing his own name on the
paper, and entertaining infirm views relative to
the liberty of the subject, my informant became ap-
prehensive of some mischief, and throwing down
General Scott's pass on the table walked out to the
English Legation, where he was advised to apply
to General Scott himself. He did not distinctly
state what occurred there, but said, from what he
heard, he felt it was his best plan to leave the coup.
try, and he had got his passport, and would proceed
to New York for a passage in the Persia, which
will I hope take this letter. I hope I am not doing
the gentleman in question any injustice in saying I
fear he was conscious of having done something
which could not be justified by a strict neutrality,
and I certainly heard, before I saw him, from an
English gentleman stopping at the same hotel, that
he made himself conspicuous by the boldness with
which he spoke in favour of secession. He ac
counted for his easy surrender of his pass by saying
ho feared imprisonment, or that the authorities
might have opened his letters. I must say, as far as
my personal experience goes, that if a writer main-
tains a strict neutrality he may express his opinions
with freedom so far as the respectable portion of the
American public is concerned, and the irritation
sometimes caused by free criticism is overcome by
the reflection that their expression is intended for
the people of another country, and that if it be in
any sense objectionable to Americans it is only, as
Mr. Seward pointed out, rendered so by the journals
which republish the letters. When your corre-
spondent was made the subject of a petty prose-
cution by an informer in Illinois, the people in
court offered to pay the small fine inflicted for
an offence 'against a statute never before: put
in force in that State, and all the papers
which have noticed the affair have characterised the
prosecution as paltry, contemptible, and malignant.
There arc strange things in the Legislative enact-
ments of the different States, distinctly enunciated
as principles, which by their opposition and contra-
dictory natures force one to admire the chance
cohesion which hitherto has prevented collision and
~,....iff.a the Supreme Court to arbitrate without
serious difficulty. When I first came to the United
states of North America one of the States had just
passed a law abrogating the punishment of death
for any offence whatever; another State had passed
at the same time an Act adding the offence of horse
stealing to the list of crimes punished by death.
The seizure of contractors and putting them in
prison on the ground that they have tried to cheat
the Government, the refusal to liberate or try them,
and the menaces uttered in public departments re-
specting Fort M'Henry and Fort Lafayette, are not
wholesome symptoms. Had the gentleman I refer
to been the subject of an " arrestation" under the
Reign of Terror, he could not have been more agi-
tated, and he firmly believed that he could be car-
ried off, impounded, carcere duro, and no questions
asked or answered, without the smallest trouble. It
is only in troublous times in despotisms or republics
such things can be. But the rage for arrests is now
diminished, and several prisoners have been let go
free. If the charges were made public it might be
found they were all rightfully seized, and that the
Government had not acted harshly or unjustly.
The Count of Paris and the Duke of Chartres may
study these phenomena at their leisure, for as aides
to General M'Clellan they have not much to do at
present. They continue to be great favourites, and
the American public here show good taste in not
running needlessly after the young Princes. They
have been received at some of the Ministers' houses
incognito, but they do not go much into society.
There is an idea here that the Government of France
is far more favourably disposed towards the Union
than that of Great Britain, in spite of the absence
of a shadow of proof ; but the observations of M.
F. Pisani (who accompanies Prince Napoleon) in
the Opinion Nationale may make some people doubt
the fact. They have already succeeded in causing
some little annoyance among the State officers, just
as the inner circle itself was somewhat agitated
by a little contretemps connected with Court eti-
quette between Mrs. Lincoln and the Princess
Clotilde at New York. The identity of action on
American matters between France and England is
not regarded with favour, and people take pleasure
in suggesting that England really directs the com-
mon policy.

NATAL EXPEDITION TO NORTH CAROLINA.
The expedition which will sail soon after the de-
spatch of this letter will proceed from the Northern
ports and from Annapolis to rendezvous off the coast
of North Carolina. The force from this place will
consist, as I informed you, of 4,500 men, under Bri-
gadier-General Egbert Viele, formerly in the United
States' regular army, and a subaltern officer of the
Mexican war, and the regiments composing it are
already on their way to Annapolis. The rest of
the force will consist of 9,500 men, divided into two
brigades, the whole directed by General Sherman.
The regiments of Viele's brigade are fine-looking,
strong men, tolerably well uniformed. Of the
military knowledge of their commanding officers
take two examples. On the arrival of the briga-
dier in his camp a colonel sent to him to say, " ho
would give him a review of his regiment to-
morrow." When one of the regiments was pre-
paring to march to the railway terminus for Anna-
polis the colonel of another sent to the brigadier to
ask him if he might be permitted "to escort the
—th to the depot with his own regiment." The
superior officers, however, know their work, and
Savannah, Mobile, Fernandina, and Pensacola may
well feel uneasy and hurry on their fortifications.
Wherever the eye rests there is the din of prepara-
tion for war. All over the vast continent moulds
arc running lead and iron, forges are blazing, ham-
mers clanging on anvils, the ploughshare taking
the shape of the sword. The Hatteras affair has
aroused the South to their danger—they are throw-
ing up earthworks and batteries, and drilling their
Coastguards all along the seaboard. The report
that the Federalists had taken Mississippi City,
between Mobile and New Orleans, is not confirmed,
but New Orleans need not fear just yet, nor cam the
expedition be intended to do more than prepare,
by the occupation of points on the coast, for the
operations of larger forces later in the year.
From St. Louis I hear that General Fremont is
certain he will beat Price if he overtakes him, but
the latter is a sort of Tantia Topee—he has great
numbers of cavalry and no baggage ; the expedition
down the Mississippi must wait.
THE ARMY AT WASHINGTON.
The approach to Washington by rail just now
presents a very picturesque, but, to a patriot, a
mournful sight. All through Maryland the bridges
on the railways are guarded by little camps. And
as the noise of the train is heard the men rush out
of the tents to the line awaiting their shower of
newspapers which is let fall by the passengers, and
every drop of which is the object of a friendly
scramble. As the train draws nearer to the capital
these camps increase in number and in size till the
white canvass frosts every knoll, and gleams
through every woodland and glade now colouring
with the glorious tint of the autumnal foliage.
Monster trains are passed, and the soldiers inside
rend the air with yells and shrill cheers. Poor
fellows, they must be glad of any excuse for a little
outbreak in the monotony of journeys in rough
vans over the jumping roads for hundreds of miles
from distant States. The fields are filled with dark
lines of infantry at drill; heavy trucks, laden with
guns and munitions of• war, block up the sidings,
and look sulkily out of their secluded shunting
places. On the undulating ground, from which all
traces of forest and grove are fast vanishing, are
visible immense packs of horses ; commissariat
camps, long lines of white tilted waggons, cities of
mules, and columns of dust seam the sky and mark
the march or evolutions of armed men. Strains of
music are heard as the unfinished dome of the
Capitol and the spires of the city rise in view, and
long standing lines of tents wind in and out as if
encompassing the place in their arms till they fade
away in the distance. The air pulsates with the
flash of arms in the sunlight, and now and then the
booming of guns makes the heart beat with a live-
lier throb, till one remembers that the Federalists
do lot mind firing salutes in war time, though con-
trary to usual military practice, and that they are
obliged to exercise their artillerymen, or that the
indefatigable Dahlgren is at his work in the navy-
yard. No one can doubt the enthusiasm of the
people at present. From Racine, through Chicago,
at Pittsburg, Harrisburg, in Ohio, Indiana, Penn-
sylvania, the scene along the road was the same—
men drilling, companies arriving and departing,
regiments moving off in the trains from the dim-
eyed mourners who filled the station, Union flags
flying from staff and steeple, advertisements on the
walls offering various inducements in rival corps—
boys and children dressed in uniform, and shoulder-
ing mimic muskets—three-fourths of the passengers
in every train wear some sign or token that for the
time they are soldiers. One fine old man, in a blue
cavalry jacket with yellow braid, attracted my
like a gentleman. I heard his story. 1
• had seen no
been in the army, as I had imagined,
began he learnt cavalry
service, but when the war.b
attention, as he was in a private's dressicanhdadlonoelNceedr
strong Union spec
village to go to the war. At last they said, " Why
go ?" " I am 65 years of age," he said,
don't you
and beyond my time." But al last one day he
drill of a soldier
speeches,
n eh! s
annedi neighbourhood. I:re d.
people 1-1 e
o:
fandies
‘,Now, boys, I'm going, and I have sent
osaffidt,o my sons to clear the way before me." But
with all this zeal there is a great lack of knowledge
and of efficiency. Lest it might be said I write
with a prejudiced and jaundiced eye, I will quote a
description of the appearance of the troops from the
ngftt
New York Irzbune of yesterday, and'to the accu-
racy and justness of the writer I bear
shthi the fullest
testimony. l,e it
testimony. Tie says that, being in 'Washington,
has struck him that there is an utter want of uni-
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