Dr. Hayes Artic Expedition

OCTOBER 26, 1861.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

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(Previous Page) appreciation, because it seemed only the beginning of a good thing which was not completed, and because of the capture of the Fanny, which seemed to indicate something like treachery. But the affair of Saturday week was an ample vindication of the pluck and skill of our naval officers. It was managed by a Lieutenant, and was a disastrous blow for the rebels.

Coming in force to recapture the forts, supported by sloops and steamers, they land and are marching over the sands, driving a regiment of loyal men before them. Suddenly the Monticello steamed around Cape Hatteras, and approaching the low shore opened a fatal fire. The stricken and appalled enemy turned and fled—but the ship moved steadily along their flank, pouring in the deadly hail of shot and shell. The fated traitors took refuge in a wood; but the fiery storm smote them there, and they ran wildly to the beach. Their own ships tried to return the fire ; but it fell among themselves, and they desisted. As they struggled at the boats they were still within range, and two of the boats were sunk by the terrible cannonade. The rout and slaughter are pitiful to hear of. But the victory was complete, and the lesson most tragically solemn.

Will they learn it ? Will they see in those sad four hours upon the fatal sand spit the work and the fate that lie before them ? Do they suppose that the hand which fell upon them there so heavily is likely to be weakened as months pass ? When the expeditions have sailed — when the American navy is nibbling at their shores and the army is driving them back—when universal apprehension breeds a panic that no law of any Confederate Congress can control—when the whole world, and even reluctant England, turn their backs, and this people who have resolved upon a certain result are more and more doggedly setting themselves to the work—then Lieutenant Braine's performance at Cape Hatteras will be seen to be but a promise and a symbol.

A FRIEND INDEED.

THERE is one newspaper which, during the bitter difficulties of the last six months, has been no less forcible and eloquent in stating and defending the cause of this nation than faithful to the great principle of constitutional liberty. Its course has endeared it to every patriotic American, and the name of the London News will be as much honored by our children as that of the London Times will be despised. Waywardness of opinion and profound ignorance are always to be expected of the Times, as any attentive reader of the paper for the last dozen years knows ; but such deliberate, reckless, and malignant slander as has marked its course toward us was more than even that paper had prepared us to anticipate.

The London News has done us the inestimable service of fighting our battle where it would tell. What might be said in our journals in reply to the Times and kindred prints could only be known to the English public through the representations which they might choose to make. But the News has sturdily stood our friend. And as, in the older day, Edmund Burke was never so eloquent as when he spoke for justice in America, so the News, which is always able, was never so brilliant and powerful as in its advocacy of American civil liberty, assailed by traitors at home and by the foes of liberty every where.

The latest and most striking illustration of the faithful friendship of the London News is the following. The London Times, speaking of the Russian letter, says :

" We shall be curious to see how this well-meant intervention will be received in the United States, for as yet nothing can be gathered as to the substance of Mr. Seward's short dispatch. Were we to argue from the treatment to which England has been exposed, we should have been little sanguine as to the result. Every thing we have done or omitted to do, every thing we have said or not said, has been subjected to the same coarse misrepresentation and the same unprovoked abuse. The press of the United States has never been weary of attributing to us designs which we never entertained—the recognition of the Southern States, the harboring their privateers, the breaking the blockade, and then of announcing that, terrified by their threats and insults, we had reluctantly given up our nefarious projects. If the same measure be meted out to the Emperor as to us, he will receive a very ungracious acknowledgment for his well meant intervention. We are, however, sanguine enough to believe that this will not be the case, and that we should be doing injustice to the people of the States if we should assume that the treatment which England receives at their hands is a fair measure of their courtesy to foreign nations. On the contrary, we have reason to believe that we stand in the United States on the footing of the least favored people of the earth."

To this the London News answers :

" If any European counsel could have been of use to the United States, it would have been that of his Imperial Majesty. Other sovereigns have doubtless ardently desired an opportunity of expressing to the Government and people of America the concern with which they are spectators of their trials. In the case of the English Government this was manifestly impossible, if from no other cause from the mean and base passions which found prominent expression in our newspapers from the beginning of the American troubles, which have provided a malignant and unfailing commentary on every phase of their development, and in the light of which every official manifestation would be judged."

THE RETURN OF DR. HAYES.

DR. HAYES'S Arctic expedition has returned, after an absence of fifteen months. The explorers were unable to penetrate much beyond the eightieth degree of latitude, and the detailed results of the voyage are yet to be known. Probably it has added little to our previous knowledge ; for the course of the expedition was not unusual, nor did it reach so remote a point as some others. But the romance and the heroism are always the same, and every voyage does us the great service of destroying the terror which invests the silent world of ice. The Hayes's expedition is saddened upon its return by the death of two of its members. In Mr. August Sontag we lose an artist and an enthusiast. His name was not unfamiliar to those who know any thing of our artists ; and he entered with great ardor into the Arctic scheme in which he has perished. Whether he has left many sketches of northern

scenery we have as yet no means of knowing. But the Doctor will doubtless prepare a volume of his adventures, and it will be naturally illustrated by such drawings as Sontag may have made.

The Arctic enthusiasm has doubtless died away for the present, both here and in England. It is periodical rather than persistent, like so many other great undertakings. Moreover, the alienation of national feeling; which will be the inevitable result of the conduct of England toward us in our dark day, will for many a year prevent any hearty co-operation in arduous enterprises, as it will sadly chill the friendly relations which ought always to exist between England and America, and which, by our action, would never have been interrupted.

THE LAST STROKE OF THE BELL.

A GENTLEMAN who recently made his way to the North from the South was stopped in Nashville to procure a permit. He was taken before a Vigilance Committee of rebels, whose chairman was John Bell, the late " Union" candidate, by distinction, for President of the United States. Mr. Bell was desirous that the permit should be granted at once, but the Committee were not so courteous, and it was only after a close examination and due deliberation that it was granted.

There is something so pitiful in the position of this man that charity would keep silence, but that true national honor demands that the lesson of his example shall not be lost upon the young and aspiring men of this country. By " Union" Mr. Bell meant precisely what Mr. Stephens meant—the dominance of his section. The Chairman of the Convention which nominated him called the great question which was the real issue of the last election—namely, the extension and confirmation of the power of Slavery in the National Government—" a miserable abstraction." The Chairman differed in his views from the ablest men of all parties in the country. So little of a miserable abstraction was it, that it was vital enough to imperil the very existence of the Government.

If by "Union" Mr. Bell had meant the nation, the Government, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws at every cost, against Jeff Davis, and Howell Cobb, and all the army and navy officers who might be false to their flag, and were trying to ruin the Government for the benefit of slavery, as well as against those who could not conscientiously treat as criminals men whose only crime was the misfortune of being born—if this had been the Union he meant, he would have stood upon ground where he could stand just as firmly to-day.

But Mr. Bell's doctrine was Mr. Buchanan's-that the Union existed by sufferance ; that it was very naughty to break it up, but it could not lawfully help itself if the effort should be made. Suppose he had been elected President—where would this nation be to-day?

The moral is, that every man should clearly understand that there can be but two grounds: either the absolute unity of the nation and the unconditional supremacy of its Government in all national affairs, or the absolute independent supremacy of the State governments. Between the two there is no halting. The position which Kentucky hoped to hold was really Jeff Davis's position. He thought that it was better for Mississippi to go out, but absolutely by right of her own will, not by any national permission. So the citizens of Kentucky thought that it was better for her to stay in, not because she had no more right to secede from the nation than the city of Louisville has the right to secede from Kentucky, but by right of her own sovereign will. It is an error from which they seem to have nobly recovered. There can not be two sovereignties. Some of the attributes of sovereignty—such as the taking of life, for instance, are retained by the States ; but the great, final, imperial powers of sovereignty have been delegated by the people of the States to the national Government : and when that Government is destroyed, they do not necessarily revert to the States, but to any number of people any where who can succeed in organizing and maintaining a new Government.

Mr. Bell has fallen as few public men fall. Deserted by his old friends, despised by his new, the man who was pointed to us as the special representative of patriotism, and, therefore, worthiest to be President of the United States, hastens to traitors, who suspect him, and disappears from the history of his country, the inefficient leader of a gang who seek their country's dishonor and destruction.

"GREAT EXPECTATIONS."

MR. DICKENS'S admirable tale "Great Expectations," which was introduced to the American public in the columns of Harper's Weekly, has been dramatized by Mr. Aiken, and is now being played at Barnum's Museum. It is an effective play, and is having a good run. Plays based on Mr. Dickens's stories are sure to contain nothing which can offend the most fastidious taste or the nicest sense of morality.

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

VERY LIKE A WHALE.—They had better have stuck to the name of Leviathan for the Great Eastern, for it seems that the Shareholders are doomed to blubber.

A BRUTE.—Our cynical friend Snodgrass, whose antipathy to learned ladies is only to be equaled by his admiration for ignorant ones, declares that the preference which strong-minded women show for blue stockings arises entirely from the fact of their requiring less washing than white ones.

TO BE PARTED WITH, for the veriest trifle, a LONG ESTABLISHED COLD, of a sonorous, deep-toned quality. The advertiser can highly recommend it, as it has been in his possession now for the last three years, and has never left him, either day or night, for a single minute. The only motive for parting with it, is because the owner has recently joined a Choral Society, and he finds that his fellow-students strongly object to his practicing with them. Six dozen boxes of cough lozenges will be thrown in, as a doueeur, with the above. Immediate possession can be had, and a month's trial allowed for approval. Letters to be addressed to " A. BARKER, ESQ., care of the Secretary of the Tonic Sol-Fallal-de-Riddle-ol Association."

ANECDOTES FROM PARIS.
BY OUR TRAVELING COLLECTOR.

The fascinating Miss ****, being taken to the Hippodrome, inquired the meaning of the incessant cry, by the riders, " Houp la !" She was informed that it merely meant " Come up." This young lady is one of the few who never forget any thing, not even themselves. Next day, the fille de chambre at the hotel *** was at least as much surprised as delighted at hearing a sweet voice, from an upper landing, cry, " Julie, Julie, s'il vous plait, houp la !"

A London artist passing the shop of M. Hautcoeur, Rue de Rivoli, publisher of engravings, remarked that you would naturally go there for High Art.

The same unfortunate Cockney, having heard that horse-flesh is eaten at certain Parisian hotels, evinced the utmost horror when, looking over a carte at Vefour's, he came to the hors d'oeuvres. He says that a saddle of mutton is the nearest approach he can bear to equestrian viands.

In all the Roman Catholic churches are now put up trunks inscribed "Le Denier de S. Pierre." But as every body passes them, Brown says that we are all deniers of St. Peter. Observe the joke—"denier," one who denies.

"I see a paragraph, mon ami," said the spirituel Vicomte de ***** to an English friend, "I see a paragraph in one of your papers about worms in the eyes of geese." " Yes," said his English friend. "Well, mon ami, I do not know about that; but I think men who sit dangling a line in a muddy river all day are geese in the eyes of worms." " Ha, ha, not bad !" said his English friend.

L'Argent fait Peur is the title of a new Parisian piece. Seeing the name on a bill, Jones remarked, "Ah! don't it? When I saw my first white hair I thought I should a-dropped!" " Who cares?" said his friend Robinson.

SECESSION.

BY CAESAR.

What fun dis here Sumcession am,

For ebbery niXXer, Pompey!—Yas, Sar! Massar sumcede from Uncle Sam :

'Pose you and me sumcede from Massar.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

ADVANCE OF THE UNION ARMY.

THE Union army in front of Washington is now in possession of all the points lately occupied by the rebels—namely, Lewinsville, Munson's, Miner's, Upton's, Mason's, Taylor's, and Maxwell's hills, from which positions the enemy have retreated without showing fight. No rebels are visible within six miles of our front. The late heavy rains have swollen the Upper Potomac to fifteen feet above a fordable depth, thus rendering all movements of either army across the river impossible.

THE GRAND ARMY TO BE DIVIDED INTO CORPS D'ARMEE.

It is now understood that the army of the Potomac is to be at once divided into corps d'armee, each encamping from 30,000 to 50,000 men. Some opposition has been made to this plan by the older Generals, but the counsels of McClellan, strenuously urged, have prevailed.

AFFAIRS IN KENTUCKY.

The accounts of Buckner's strength are found to have been much exaggerated. Many of his men are understood to be without arms and shoes, and but few of them are uniformed. Zollicoffer, who recently invaded the State from Tennessee by way of the Cumberland Gap, is known to have returned to his position at the Gap—his original purpose probably being only the procurement of supplies in the section of country invaded by him. On the other hand, the National forces are rapidly increasing, not only by the accession of regiments from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, but by the enlistment of the Kentuckians themselves, who, now that the occasion calls for prompt action, are flocking to the National standard by thousands. An instance of the spirit which animates them may be found in a skirmish briefly noticed in the papers, which took place near Hillsborough, in Fleming County, ninety-one miles east of Frankfort, a day or two ago. A body of three hundred rebels were attacked by fifty Home Guards, who completely routed them, and captured a number of Enfield rifles, sabres, pistols, and other articles of war.

RETIREMENT OF GENERAL ANDERSON.

The Louisville journals publish the documents referring to the retirement of General Anderson from the command of the Cumberland Department, and the appointment of General Sherman in his place. General Anderson deeply regrets that he is compelled to relinquish his post ; but his feeble health renders it necessary for him to do so, and the selection of his successor, made on his own recommendation, gives him great satisfaction.

AFFAIRS IN MISSOURI.

General Fremont has advanced from Jefferson City toward Lexington. A scout has just arrived at Jefferson City, from Springfield, and reported at head-quarters that there were only 1000 rebels at that place. He also learned that Ben McCulloch was at Camp Jackson, with only 150 men, waiting for reinforcements from Arkansas. A large party of McCulloch's force, who were with him at the battle of Wilson's Creek, were with General Price at Lexington, and the rest are with General Hardee. Ben McCulloch expects to join General Price at Sac River about the 20th instant, and the combined forces then expect to march on Jefferson City. This information was credited at the Missouri capital.

AFFAIRS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

The position of General Rosecrans in Western Virginia is ascertained to be at Mountain Cave, twenty-five miles from Gauley, in a very strong position. He had recently advanced ten miles further, as far as Little Sewall, but subsequently fell back in order to draw out the rebels, who were strongly posted at Big Sewall, and induce them to give battle, but they declined the invitation. General Reynolds reports that the rebels under General Lee, in front of his position, have been driven back as far as Greenbrier Springs, twenty miles beyond their late rendezvous. They had destroyed nearly all their camp equipage, and left their wagons in the hands of our troops on the Huntersville Road upon their retreat.

ACTION ON SANTA ROSA ISLAND.

A New Orleans dispatch, contained in a copy of the Norfolk Day Book, which has by some means reached Baltimore, states that on the night of the 8th inst., detachments from several Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama regiments, effected a landing on Santa Rosa Island, drove in Wilson's pickets, and shortly afterward engaged the entire regiment. The Zouaves are credited with having fought with great bravery, and the rebels admit a loss of forty killed and about double that number wounded. Indeed, the dispatch indirectly indicates that the rebels eventually got the worst of the fight, although they claim to have spiked the guns of the Zouaves, destroyed all their camp equipage, and committed great slaughter among them.

THE SOUTHERN BLOCKADE.

Dispatches from the Gulf squadron state that the whole line of coast, from Galveston to the Florida reefs, is in a perfect state of blockade, and the garrison at Fort Pickens is in a position to attack Pensacola and the adjoining forts of M'Rea and Barrancas.

CONDITION OF NEW ORLEANS.

The Government has secured a rendezvous on Ship Island, and one or two other points in the vicinity of the city, where troops can be easily landed, and where depots for provisions and ammunition can be securely placed; and besides the regular blockading force, there are at the entrances to the Mississippi River two United States sloops of war, a large propeller gun-boat, the steamer Water Witch, an armed schooner, and a pilot-boat, all of which are ready for active operations. It is reported that the Government is erecting batteries on the sand spit which commands the mouth of the Mississippi.

NO COTTON TO BE TAKEN TO NEW ORLEANS.

The fear of a descent upon New Orleans, and the desire to keep cotton out of the hands of the Yankees, have induced Governor Moore, of Louisiana, to issue a proclamation prohibiting the landing of any of the staple at that city after the 10th inst. He gives notice that, after that date, no cotton must be brought within the lines embracing that section of the State between the fortifications above Carrollton and those below the city, and extending back to Lake Pontchartrain. All steamboats, or other water-craft, arriving within the prescribed limits, will be escorted by an armed force above the point indicated, whether the quantity of cotton carried by them be large or small ; and measures will be taken to prevent a violation of the rule by the railroads.

WHAT THE REBELS WANT.

The Richmond Examiner, an organ of the Rebel Government, says:

"Southern independence is already achieved; but the war can not be closed until we shall have reconquered the Southern territory which was basely surrendered to the invader by Southern traitors. Until we shall have planted our banners along the natural confines of our country, the war must go on. Had this territory not been basely relinquished, the war would have already been ended. All the life, and treasure, and sickness, and suffering, which it shall henceforth cost our country, will be upon the souls of the base men who betrayed their native soil, their homes, and hearth-stones, to the invader.

"It is idle to think of peace until we shall have reconquered the surrendered country lying south of the boundary we have defined. Geographically, politically, and strategically, Kentucky is a part of the South, which she can not afford to surrender to Northern control and jurisdiction. We can not afford to have imaginary boundary lines with the Yankee,. The line of Kentucky and Tennessee is too intangible to mark the separation between North and South. Without a bold, natural line of separation like the great Ohio River, the border population of the South would be as completely demoralized through all future time as experience has proved it to have been during the events of the last five months."

THE "BERMUDA" AT SAVANNAH.

We have important information by way of Washington concerning the Bermuda, which so recently ran the blockade and entered Savannah. She is an iron-clad vessel of fifteen hundred tons burden; sailing from Liverpool on the 18th of August, she reached Savannah on the 16th of September. Her cargo contained 18 rifled cannon of 32 and 42 pounds; 2 Lancaster guns of 168 pounds weight; powder, shot, and shells for this ordnance; 6500 Enfield rifles; from 200,000 to 300,000 cartriges; 6000 pairs of army shoes; 20,000 blankets; 180 barrels of gunpowder; a large quantity of morphine, quinine, and other medical stores. The cargo cost $1,000,000. The vessel is now fitting out as a pirate, to prey on the returning California steamers. It is said that Commander Totten is to have charge of her; also that two more iron-clad steam frigates are expected at Savannah from England by the 15th of the present month.

THE INDIANS FOR THE UNION.

Later intelligence from the Cherokee Nation contradicts the former statements relative to John Ross, who with 8000 Indians had declared himself for the Union. A skirmish had taken place already between the revolted Indians and Ross's body-guard.

CANNONADING AT CHARLESTON.

The Charleston Mercury of the 25th ult. says that, late on the evening of the 24th, the blockading steamer Vandalia having ventured nearer than usual to the harbor, the batteries of both forts opened upon her. For a time she replied with spirit, but the distance being very great, the firing soon ceased, and the steamer retired beyond range.

RETURN OF THE LAST POLAR EXPEDITION.

A dispatch from Halifax announces the arrival there of the Polar Expedition, under Dr. Hayes, which left the United States some two years ago. Two of the party have died during their absence, but the rest are well. The expedition spent last winter at Port Foulke, near Alexander, and proceeded during the last summer with dogs and sledges as high as lat. 81 35'.

ACTIVITY OF COMMERCE AT THIS PORT.

 From September 1 to 9th inst. inclusive, there have been 520 sail of vessels arrived from foreign ports at this port. During the same time there have been 559 clearances, also for foreign ports, of which 32 were for Liverpool, 11 for London, and 62 for Havre. There are now 35 sail up and loading for the port of Havre alone—all of which are loading breadstuffs.

RAILROAD COMPETITION.

A Washington correspondent writes : "Secretary Cameron is anxious to reopen the Baltimore and Ohio road, as, being a heavy owner in the Northern Central, he is charged with conniving at the disability of the rival road. Although the charge is unjust, he is anxious to avoid the semblance of any thing wrong or selfish, and will, it is said, insist upon the opening of the western road it the earliest practicable moment for government purposes. The moment the beef of Western Virginia and the salt provisions of the great West can come here by the way of Wheeling and Cumberland, prices will diminish. Every thing is obliged to pass over the Northern Central road, and such is the competition upon that line among shippers of goods, that not unfrequently a hundred dollars is paid for an immediate chance to forward goods—not to the company, but to a shipper whose name stands first on the books."

FOREIGN NEWS.

ENGLAND.

THE INTERVENTION IN MEXICO.

THE London Times having announced that the three allied Powers contemplated an invasion of the soil of Mexico, the Government organ—the London Post—contradicts the statement, and repeats the assertion that a grand naval demonstration against the republic, and the sequestration of the customs revenues to payment of the debts, is all that is contemplated by England, France, and Spain. The treaty was not signed at the latest moment, and the Paris Patrie states that Napoleon had some hesitation in doing so. A French war ship had been, however, ordered from Brest to the Gulf of Mexico. The London Times says that President Lincoln approves of the intended demonstration.

ITALY.

AFFAIRS IN ITALY.

From Italy we again have rumors regarding the precarious condition of the Pope's health. At Bologna turbulent demonstrations had taken place, caused by the high price of provisions. Several arrests had been made, and precautionary measures had been adopted. In a circular, addressed by Count Ricasoli to the Italian Consular Agents, he states that the national flag of Italy covers 800,000 tons of shipping, manned by 100,000 sailors.

CHINA.

OUR SQUADRON COMING HOME.

The United States squadron on the China coast is on its way home, with the exception of one small vessel, which had gone to Shanghai to overhaul a schooner which was fitting out, it was said, as a rebel privateer in that port.

CANADA.

ARREST OF COLONEL RANKIN.

Colonel Rankin, member of the Provincial Parliament, has been arrested for enlisting recruits for the American army. The offense urged against him in the complainant's affidavit is, that he has agreed to accept a military commission to enter into the service of the United States, and that he has induced divers of the Queen's lieges to enlist in the same service. This offense is said to be in violation of the Canadian statute known as "The Foreign Enlistment Act."