The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1863-09-21

movement. he can at once make himself master
Of the position. Our cosvespoadsos 4 New
bern. N. c.. advises - - lasEs and very
mysterious increase Of The rebel fbrces N that
Stale. We suspect that this increase "a from
the army Of Lee, and en- roste to Georgia. We
have great confidence in the skill and sagacity
Of General Meade; but we cannot forget how
Joe Johnston slipped out Of tue Shenandoah
valley. nor how Beaaregard slipped away from
Corinth nor the consequences which followed
at Bull run and at Richmond.
Now IL the time for action. II he h not in
Richmond before December, experience has
shown thai General Meade will be eubargoed
in the muddy son Of Virginia till Nay In the
meantime the late conjectures Of . probable
treaty of alliance, Offensive and defensive, be-
tween JEFF Davis and Loais Napoleon sre be-
ginning to assume the shape Of positive and cir.
cunstantial statements. Thus II IL al length
announced that, for the equivalent Of Texas,
Alexander H. Stephens, the so-called vice Pre-
sident Of the so-called Confederate States, has
secured from Louis Napoleon tho promise of his
armed cooperation, to the extent Of three hun
dred thousand men. in behalf Of tho indepen-
dence Of said confederacy. And why not
What h Texas to JEFF. Davis or TO his confede-
racy while we hold the Mississippi! And what
Is Mexico to Napoleon with the Union restored.
And why is it that, with the armies Of the
rebellion defeated, routed and retreating on
every side, their leading newspaper organs
should still be as defiant and confident Of the
final result a. ever, IL they do not confidently
count upon rescue by Napoleon, with the con-
sent of England! How ID Napoleon to back out
Of Mexico without disgrace! How can he hold
Mexico without a bargain with Davis, including
Texas!
Let Bragg and Johnston be sufficiently
strengthened from Lee to overthrow the army
Of Rosecrans, and let this disaster be the conse-
quence of this conjunction, and We may expect
il to be accepted by Louis Napoleon as sufi-
cient justification for armed intervention in
support of Davis. At all events, with Rose
Grams down in Georgia. between the great rebel
Army OF Virginia and two or three armies con-
centrating in his front, his success. and the
speedy success of the Union cause depend
upon the superior fighting qualities of his
troops and the Army Of the Potomac. The
news which we publish this morning from
is Of the most cheering character,
and the telegraph to-day may bring dispatches
telling Of decisive victory Of Rosecrans over
Johnston and Bragg.
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN OuR ARMy.-The
English journals cannot conceal their mort
fcation at the fact that the young men Of
Ireland prefer coming out to enlist in our army
to remaining to garner the harvests Of their
revilers and oppressors. The consequence is
that their unusually abundant crops will this
year be partially lost from the want Of hands
to gather them in The English have them
selves to thank for this. Although Catholic
disabilities have been nominally removed. they
are still, as regards the English army, practi
cally in force. The Irish soldier, but especially
the Catholic, has no chance OF promotion 10 IT,
His religion is an effect,,al bar to his advance
ment, and there are but few instances Of the
brave Iriahmen who have fought the battles Of
England on 80 many bloody fields being raised
from the ranks. Here the case is different. Our
constitution recognizes no religious disabilities.
and the Roman Catholic, the Universalist and
the Jew stand upon the same footing as the Pro.
testant. So little is even prejudice allowed to
with the religious rights of the Anne.
rican citizen that II was only the other day, in
q dispute for precedence between the ministers
Of different persuasions, one Of our military
commanders decided in favor of rabbi on
the ground that the Jewish was the most ancient
Of the creeds.
Is it extraordinary, then, that Irishmen who
have natural taste for the military career
should prefer a service In which there are nei
Their national nor religious obstacles to their ad-
They have seen many OF their own
since the commencement o! the
war, rise from the humblest to the highest posi-
tons in our army And so far is Catholicism
from being barrier to the promo
ton Of the deserving soldier that
four of our most important military de.
partments are commanded by Roman Catho-
lics-namely, South Carolina, by General Gill
more; North Carolina aud Eastern Virginia, by
General Foster; the Army Of the Cumberland,
by General Rosecrsns. and the Army of the
Potomac, by General Meade. These distln
guishsd officers set an example in their per-
sonal habits which we wish was more generally
initiated. Before Gen. Gilmore went to South
Carolina he might have been seen regularly
receiving the sacrament ut the Roman Catholic
church OF ST. Peters, Brooklyn; and one OF
the first acts Of General Rosecrans after the
success of his brilliant strategical operations
in Tennessee was to have a high mass cele-
brated in Cincinnati in devout thankfulness for
the favor accorded TO his efforts by an all
ruling Providence. With such facts before
them Il is not surprising that young Irishmen
should be eager to embrace military career in
this country. They are the only recruiting
agents that the United States has employed at