The Sun. — 1863-08-05 (London, England)

LEE—this boasted conqueror of LEE, this vaunted victor over his Confederate troops, this last great Discovery of President LINCOLN as a Strategist, General MEADE, has been adroitly lured across the Potomac by General LEE, under the mistaken idea that the latter with his whole armament was in full retreat upon Culpepper. Acting upon this erroneous impression, General MEADE, as we know, recently conveyed the whole of his army across the River Potomac, close by Harper's Ferry, thence moving confidently along the south-east incline of the Blue Ridge Mountain Range, bent upon intercepting General LEE'S supposed flight down the Shenandoah Valley, and upon thus actually cutting, him off fromßichmond ! A " strategic movement " admirably well thought of in itself. Only—that in the very act of effecting it, in the most brilliant manner imaginable, General NIEADE awakens to the recognition suddenly, at lest, of the unwelcome truth that his wily antagonist is in no way disposed to retreat at all ! That, in poiat of fact, his recent delay since crossing the river boundaryline from Maryland into Virginia, is attributable simply to his fixed determination to carry away not only the whole of the vast amount of plunder gathered together by him both in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but, with that plunder, the whole of the new crops reaped and collected in the Shenandoah Valley. Nay, General MEADE not only has opened his eyes at length to the discovery of this, as the actual secret of his arch foe's recent and (until now) most illusory course of proceedings, but, in common with many of the best informed, both in the Governmental capital and at his own headquarters, he begins to have serious doubts whether it may not really prove to be ultimately the case, as it is now confidently stated to be—viz., that General LEE, so far from meditating any retreat, is seriously preparing for a new and more audacious invasion of the North, for a new raid into Maryland, for a bold descent upon Washington! Tae statement that such is the intention of the Confederate Commander-in-Chief, moreover, is now being not thus merely and vaguely generalised, but is resolving itself into the specific announcement that LEE proposes forthwith to cross the Blue Ridge in an advance upon his intending pursuers (!) somewhere about either Chester or Thornton Gap. However this may be in respect to the next possible transformation in the aspect of the campaign, the situation distinctly occasioned already by the belligerents was, when our last advices left the opposite shores of the Atlantic, per the Jura, was threatened such as we have described it ! Tae biter with being bitten. The assailant was gathering up his resources with a view to act a little more prudent lY upon the defensive I And, meanwhile, on the other side of the Potomac, to the northeast of that river, the draft was being resolutely resisted by the citizens of Maryland. Wherever an enrolling officer had established his quarters for the time rary habitat had beeit feta being, his tempo "81Y attacked by the people, and in several instances burnt to the ground by the assailants. had been actually revolt Yet, with all this upon their hands, with rife amongst them, with killing, at any rate the killing of negroes, come to be looked upon as u accomplished during the progress of a 0 Street murder if with their debt approximating on the istult. to riot, no less fearful an aggregate than 200,000000 dollars, with the Confederate army net flying in hot haste down the Shenandoah Val'ey' but coolly biding its time in the Upper Potomac for a fresh invasion of Maryland—the Federals, in spite of all this, as we began 143-intimating, Would really and seriously appLar to think that they have not by any means as yet had enough of it. Tney are striving to have still more upon their hands, to thrust additional irons into the fire, to light the old metaphorical candle at both ends! The candle here not inaptly typifying that late " shining light" the Republic of the United States ! To light the candle at both ends—besides continuing industriously to melt it quite effectually in twain in the middle ! What in effect was still the persistent clamour of the redoubtable New York Herald just prior to the Jura leaving Quebec upon the 25th ultimo? Why, nothing less than that President LINCOLN should at length be urged most strene ously to secure the sympathetic co-operation of ill the men, not only in the North but also eien