, 1861-12-13


An English Opinion Of Affair." In
America.
[From the London Spectator, November 16T |
The Americans are learning like every other |
race, like the French before Valmy, that bat
ties are won By training for battles, that moth
ing will compensate for discipline, that en- |
tllusiasm will no more stay defeat than pa |
arc learning their lesson well. Outside tile |
actual camp every fact yet lsccrtained 1as |
been thoroughly creditab1e to their endurance. |
The North has been beaten for months, which |
in their excitement have been equal to years,
and the Northern army is greater, better |
more strictly -A5.ae5ieaA than it was when |
the war began. Defeat, so fur from cowiny
thc people, is bringing them fast to the ranks,
to the exclusion Of the Irish and Germans,
whose fight VIC quote to prove the Americans
towards. Bad rs the army under Mcclellan |
which throngel tho spirit shops Of Washing
ion after the openin. Of the campaign The
people behind the army show no sign either Of
fear or hesitation. The wretched rogues
whom Americans call politicians, and whom
universal suffrage threw to the top, may clam
ter for peaccablc separation, and be, as usual,
consistent iu contempt for the national hon
or; but the people, tue silent millions,
whose voice raised after Sumter, so suddenly
SLlltQ Lie pDStEitE IlDt, euuA5 IQ VI
wcariness. Unless We utterly misread all the
information which reaches us, so far from be-
ing coWcd, they arc rising up to That temper
in which men are at once inaccessible to rea-
Eou, and invincible. They arc finding men,
and they are finding money! in spite Of scfcn
tific demonstrations that neither can be pro-
cured Fcttcrcd and crampcd By an impotent
institution, led by men OF the cilibrc Of the
directors Of some rotten railway board, with
no great soldier in their ranks, and no great
E4n ffSI.G- cft
adhering, in spite of fortune, to the cause they
believe to be that Of their country. What
there is to desplsc III such course is not visi-
bic to our eyes, nor is the wisdom Of contempt
plain to men who remember, that these were
the English opinions Of France between 1883
and the accession Of Carnot to power; that
Fraucc then, as America now, was pronounced,
and pronounced by Burke, power paralyzed
for extyrnal warfare. Her army was gone, her
recruits had their heads shaved for cowardice,
regretted he had not stayed there. The Amer
lean people offer any amount Of power, sub
! nit to tile extinction of every prejudice, and
of far too many rights, let the State Govern
ments go, let The press 60, let trade go, let
eTerythinE Co. except what they @ regard "a, as
| prorement is Just as manifest. Leesburg WIS
Il defeat like Bull Pun, but Of very different
| kind. At Bull Run the mass fed from the
| enemy no man saw, and with no pursuer at
| hand; at Leesburg the tirst slaughter was
| effected with rerolyers; the Fedcrals
marched up under withering fire till faces
| cbuid be disccrncd, and when fairly and
| honestly thrashed by superior numbers and
! gencralship, turned again and again on the
| foe. That they had no means Of retreat, e1-
| cept swimming, Was surely no fault Of theirs,
and the audacity which advances to action
! without thought Of the means Of retiring, Is
not exactly the spirit Of which soldiers cannot
be made. The Want Of competent officers is
| still terrible evil, more especially as it is
scarcely felt In the Confederate army, but
! courage to give commissions to picked pri-
Yates out OF the regular ranks. They may not
make good officers, it is true, but they will
act admirably the part which the nor-commis-
stoned act in the British urmy, and thcv will
at least obey orders promptly and With intelli t
gcnce. So again with the navy. We Ill re-
mark, and with justice, TINT the men sent In
the expedition which las just started arc prob
ably I'll too raw. We all, perhaps, have dc.
cided that 81 vessels do not, and cannot, carry
an army of fifty thousand men: But they d.
enough. It is just this the Federal Govern
ment, with navy gone, and its army unofdccred
has. i'll three months, 60 repaired Its strength
that it can send, in 4 tleet as large as it eycl
possessed, an invading force as strong as tt
| whole regular army, and regard that cxcrtior
of strength as tit only to create diversion
The expedition will probably do very little
ior, as re SAD, II Is composed oi laH men
tut lis fal1nrc WILL only lead 10 otner am
stronger efforts. Inc Amerlcans nave IN war
like affairs every ming to learn. Ihc Popala,
ignorance as dlSpayed oy- TIC editors, Is a.
most inconceiSablc, bnt LESSONS are readll,
learnt when the penalty OF 1hla5c Is dealh
lhe training Wonle oe more iaplo "ere u
chiefs Of the nation more competent to dlrec
it, but it proceeds IN spite Of all ORA" backs
and the tirst competent man Who nses to In
top w11l ind an INSTRUMENT really emc1ent ~
ready made to his hnnd The very instant tn
lesson is learnt, the struggle 1s reduced to ttu
military conditions, aud the power which ca;
} dispose Of the largest force and raise the aaIg
est revenue mnel' N me ena' Eh N 1ac 3ete nete
%1n SO 1as as % a1etate tslns III 70 cana aa
me po51er stasesl 70 occuPy az eI5a,.ns1 ,s: re-:
me Msslsslppi, 70 Iestsdce aat soa.m mitni I'LL
ne smailes! na.ait t, niuss, ana ~ ,iss go go
=, II ezists' "'tnln an 1"passaole oar11es
res9 s'oohs o as,,+ nc th;a ;s nrobah,e tb;s vca
~ w SnSn .4:ii - - -. -, - ~ - sts ;e.s,st;a
Inc Noltn nas st ~ y. tna ~ ~ H. ~ nrcrcs,
wh;e1, ran Weld it's enormous ,uuterid, stIn
be beaten into the temper which turns to di
: ciptine as It's resource. 1ne army NH poss
NY nanter i ~ ;naraaa a1i d;sconIcnt r;th !,