Meade has been appointed a major-general in the regular army, to date from the 10th of August last.

The immediate presence of the Lieutenant-General, who is commander-in-chief of all our armies, has caused the world sometimes, nay most of the time, to forget that from the crossing of the Rapidan to the present moment, General Meade has been the commander of the Army of the Potomac, its chief in every bloody battle, and has been unsparing, heroic, and self-sacrificing in his labors and service. We rejoice at this promotion; it is his due; it calls public attention to his real high position; it silences all cavils, and adds another chaplet to the crown whose laurels were plucked at Gettysburg.

FOREIGN AND INTERNATIONAL.

Mexico is at length declared pacificated. Maximilian is a fixture. If she is satisfied with this almost bloodless submission, she deserves nothing better; we have no more sympathy to waste upon her.

The capture of the Florida, about which our President maintains a dignified silence in his message, has given rise to a correspondence between the Brazilian Secretary of State, and our Minister, General Webb. Blaming Brazil-as well as France and England-for recognizing the rebels as belligerents, our ambassador accepts the fact, and half promises restitution. The accidental destruction of the Florida-for of course it was accidental-does not complicate the question in reality, while it certainly renders any restitution we may deem it proper to make less painful to us.

An English nobleman without a title has been visiting us, and deserves public recognition and thanks. We mean Goldwin Smith, Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. He has clearer, more practical, more philosophic views of the war and of American slavery, than any man who has written upon it.

Lord Lyons has left Washington, ostensibly on the score of his health. But the sale of his wines, horses, &c., seems to indicate no intention of return.

The application of Lord Wharncliffe to our Government to permit the distribution of the money realized by the Anglo-Rebel Bazaar, among the Southern prisoners, was made through our minister, Mr. Adams. It has called forth an able and trenchant letter from Mr. Seward. The New York Herald thus presents the correspondence:

"Lord Wharncliffe informs Mr. Adams that the Liverpool Bazaar produced about seventeen thousand pounds, and asks permission for an accredited agent to visit the military prisous within the Northern States and distribute aid to their inmates. He denies that any political aid is aimed at, or any imputation that rebel prisoners are deprived of such attentions as the ordinary rules enjoin. He says:—

"The issues of the great contest will not be determined by individual suffering, be it greater or less, and you, whose family name is interwoven with American history, cannot view with indifference the sufferings of American citizens, whatever their State or opinions.'

"Mr. Adams replied that it has never been the desire of the Government to treat with unnecessary or vindictive severity any of the misguided individual parties in this deplorable rebellion who have fallen into its hands in the regular course of the war, and that he should greatly rejoice if the effects of such sympathy could be extended to ministering to their mental ailment as well as their bodily suffering, thus contributing to put an end to a struggle which otherwise is too likely to be only procrastinated by their English sympathizers.

VOL. III-6

"Mr. Seward replies as follows to the application received through Mr. Adams:

666

"DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 1864. “'SIR-I have received your dispatch of the 18th of November, No. 807, together with the papers therein mentioned, viz., a copy of a letter which was addressed to you on the 12th of November last by Lord Wharncliffe, and a copy of your answer to that letter. You will now inform Lord Wharncliffe that permission for an agent of the committee described by him to visit the insurgents detained in the military prisons of the United States, and to distribute among them seventeen thousand pounds of British gold, is disallowed. Here it is expected that your correspondence with Lord Wharncliffe will end. That correspondence will necessarily become public. On reading it, the American public will be well aware that while the United States have ample means for the support of prisoners as well as for every other exigency of the war in which they are engaged, the insurgents who have blindly rushed into that condition, are suffering no privations that appeal for relief to charity, either at home or abroad. The American people will be likely to reflect that the sum thus insidiously tendered in the name of humanity, constitutes no large portion of the profits which its contributors may be justly supposed to have derived from the insurgents, by exchanging with them arms and munitions of war for the coveted productions of immoral and enervating slave labor. Nor will any portion of the American people be disposed to regard the sum thus ostentatiously offered for the relief of captured insurgents, as a too generous equivalent for the devastation and dissolution which a civil war, promoted and protracted by British subjects, has spread throughout the States, which before were eminently prosperous and happy. Finally, in view of this last officious intervention in our domestic affairs, the American people can hardly fail to recall the warning of the Father of our Country, directed against two great and intimately connected public dangers, namely, sectional faction and foreign intrigue. I do not think the insurgents have become debased, although they have sadly wandered from the ways of loyalty and patriotism. I think that, in common with all our countrymen, they will rejoice in being saved by their considerate and loyal Government from the grave insult which Lord Wharncliffe and his associates, in their zeal for the overthrow of the United States, have prepared for the victims of this unnatural and hopeless rebellion. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD.'"

CORRESPONDENCE.

A NEW GUN.

[Translated from the "Militär Zeitung."]

THE Darmstadt "Universal Military Journal" contained in the first number of the current volume a correspondence dated New York, that stated, at some expense of words, that the Parrott gun, which has proved so excellent at the bombardment of Fort Sumter and on several other occasions, was not an original idea, but an invention of Mr. Lindner, and that the merits of that gentleman, who through his inventions was about to reform, or rather had already reformed the whole system of artillery, had never been recognized or rewarded as they deserved. We might doubt whether this letter was really written in New York, though the humbug might require the acknowledgment of a Barnum himself.

Even though the "Military Journal" should publish the communications sent to it, without entering into a strict investigation of their truth and justice, yet it is scarcely to be blamed therefor, since there is not always time for such investiga. tions, and in a case like the present, where the subject in question was one almost

unknown in Europe, an examination was not possible, and the Darmstadt "Military Journal" naturally accepted the communication in good faith.

But since we happen to possess a somewhat closer acquaintance with the subject, we cannot forbear, while we reprint the letter at length, adding some explanatory notes, hoping to do a favor to that considerable portion of our readers who have been mystified by the correspondence.

The letter is as follows:

"NEW YORK, December 6, 1863,

"The Parrott cannon is not the discovery of Mr. Robert Parrott, of New Hampshire, but of Mr. Edward Lindner, of Berlin.* Lindner urged Parrott, some years ago, to make the attempt to strengthen cast-iron cannon by an iron ring forged to the breech t Parrott said very decidedly that this would be an impossibility, for such a ring would never be solid to the cast iron; and he declined to make the attempt. A year after this interview, Parrott took out his patent, which set forth especially, that he strengthened the breech of his cannon by an iron ring, exactly as Lindner had suggested to him.§ This fact was related to me by Lindner himself, and I have no reason to doubt, indeed I steadfastly believe that Parrott played him a trick, Lindner's last invention, however, far surpasses the Parrott, and every other gun. This cannon is breech loading, is cast altogether 'in the block,' then drilled and rifled, and is in every respect of remarkable construction.** Lindner made a 12-pounder of this description at his own expense, which I myself proved about a year ago at Manchester, N. H. The trial was favorable beyond all expectation; and a marked distinction of this cannon is the prevention of the recoil, which makes it peculiarly fitted for sea-service.‡‡ This gun was exhibited at West

We must confess that the correspondent does not long leave us in doubt as to his drift. ✦ Even were this statement true, Mr. Lindner would have no right to lay claim to the Parrott invention, for the peculiarity of that invention lies in something very different from the strengthening of the breech through an iron ring. Besides this gun-ring is not an original idea of Lindner's, for it has been used many times, in many places, first in Belgium, then in England, Spain, Russia, and, if we do not mistake, by way of experiment on some Austrian naval guns.

If Lindner really did make this proposal, Parrott was certainly not bound on that account to accede to it, since he believed in the propriety of the construction of his own cannon and the ammunition belonging to it, and he was not disposed to allow his work to be improved (?) by others who were probably totally ignorant of his invention.

§ We have already remarked, how little the gun-ring proves, and how far Mr. Lindner is from a right of priority in its invention.

Perhaps there would have been yet more to hear from Parrott's rival, if we had heard less in praise of his system, but the correspondent should have the more considered the "audiatur et altera pars."

We wish Mr. Lindner, for his own sake, a favorable result to this attempt, and that his gun may not be brought to trial and then prove a miserable fiasco (as may have happened not long ago!) but we wish, at this moment, that the Prussian artillery were furnished with the corresponding number of Parrott one hundred or two hundred pounders (which have been already proved) during the attack on the fortifications at Düppel, and we could then prove that much depends not only on the practice of arms, but also on the system. It should not be difficult to decide, whether the fault at Missunde, where seventy-four cannon of different calibre (but none over twenty-four pounds) were used, is due to the practice or to the system (and perhaps to the size of the calibres).

** This is more than unlikely, since Mr. Lindner ascribed the peculiarity and the consequent excellence of the Parrott gun only to the iron ring already mentioned, and appears to have no opinion of the arrangement of the rifling and the shot, or at least ignores it entirely.

We know how easy it is, to calculate the effect produced by the tests so as to obtain results at once dazzling and deceptive. Is it only private individuals who so mislead their customers, or do official corporations deceive their commissioners and themselves by showy productions and illusions?

This seeming advantage may be bought very dear by the early destruction of the gun-car

Point, tried by an authorized commission, and submitted to many tests.* The commission pronounced itself entirely in favor of this new invention, which is not an improvement on those already in existence, but the embodiment of an original idea.t That the Lindner gun was not accepted by the United States Government, may be ascribed to the fact that Parrott and Dahlgren combined to keep up the market value of their own productions. Lindner's offer, to compete with Dahlgren and Parrott, was civilly declined, § and he was allowed to retire with his cannon.[ although it is the best, the most original, the most complete, and the most serviceable production of the new knowledge of artillery."

If the Lindner cannon is really "the best, the most original, the most complete, and the most serviceable production of the new knowledge of artillery" (we see the New York (?) correspondent knows how to lay the colors on thickly), then Mr. Lindner would only have to congratulate himself, and we are convinced that the representatives of the science of artillery would everywhere give the greatest pains to the examination of so superior an invention, and would grant it the fullest recognition.

We have only to remark, in addition, that in the course of the present war the Americans have had sufficient occasion to know and value the worth of superior arms, and especially to discriminate the good from the bad, and it is not to be believed that they would throw away good and useful weapons to replace them by useless and expensive ones.

PIEDMONT.

[From our own Correspondent.]

TURIN, March 4.

THE Army Register for the year 1864 gives the following statistics with relation to the corps of officers in the Piedmontese Army:

officers of all grades, besides the corresponding Sanitary Corps, the medical branch the chaplains, the military intendancy, and a host of military employés.

riage. In Schleswig, where the firing was on soft ground, and the recoil was consequently prevented, many evil consequences ensued.

*After these many tests, it is still possible that the fitness of the gun was but partially proved and judged. After all, as far as we know, we cannot believe that Mr. Lindner has hit the right nail on the head, and that the conditions that attach to the breech-loading system where small arms are concerned, can be more easily fulfilled in a cannon, where great rapidity of firing is required.

+ This originality can only be shown in the arrangement of the breech, and whether this arrangement have a practical value, can only be ascertained by continuous trial. The arrangement of the lock of the Lindner gun is besides no particularly favorable sign for the originality of the

gun.

The practical Americans are certainly much too wise not to find out the most serviceable.

§ Probably they despised the easy victory that might and must have been theirs in a contest with Mr. Lindner.

Under the present circumstances, while so much money is spent in America on munitions of war, this dismissal might be considered significant.

PERSONAL ITEMS.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT arrived in New York November 19th, and remained until the 21st, when he returned to the front.

Brigadier-Generals Rufus Ingalls and Henry J. Hunt have been brevetted as major-generals of volunteers. Major Biddle, aide to General Meade, has received the brevet of colonel.

Major-General W. S. Hancock has been relieved from the command of the Second Corps, at his own request, and has been assigned to the command of the new veteran "First Corps," now being organized, with head-quarters in Washington. Major-General A. A. Humphreys assumed command of the Second Corps November 26th.

Major-General D. N. Couch has been transferred from the Department of the Susquehanna, and ordered to report to Major-General Thomas at Nashville.

Major-General George Cadwalader succeeds General Couch in command of the Department of the Susquehanna.

Major-General Q. A. Gillmore has been ordered to report to Major-General Canby, to perform an inspection tour of the defences and fortifications in the West. Major-General N. J. T. Dana has been appointed to the command of the District of West Tennessee and Vicksburg, with head-quarters at Vicksburg.

Major-General C. C. Washburne has been assigned to the command of the Post and District of Vicksburg, with its present limits.

Major-General F. Steele has been relieved from the command of the Seventh Army Corps and the Department of Arkansas, and ordered to report to General Canby. Major-General J. J. Reynolds succeeds him in command.

Major-General Alexander McDowell McCook has been ordered to report to MajorGeneral Sheridan, and left Dayton, Ohio, November 29, to do so.

Major-General John Newton is in command at Key West.

Major-General P. H. Sheridan has been elected an associate member of the United States Sanitary Commission.

Major-General Emory has been assigned to the permanent command of the Nineteenth Corps.

Major-General T. F. Meagher has reported for duty to Major-General Steedman at Chattanooga.

Major-General W. S. Rosecrans was relieved from the command of the Department of Missouri December 6th, and Major-General G. M. Dodge has been appointed to the command in his stead.

Major-General William B. Franklin is ordered as president of a retiring board at Wilmington, Del.

Major-General W. F. Smith is temporarily ordered to New Orleans.

Brigadier-General Egan has been made major-general for services before Peters

burg.

Brevet Major-General S. G. Burbridge has been relieved from the command in Kentucky, and Maj.-Gen. George Stoneman has been appointed in his stead.

Brevet Major-General M. C. Meigs has been assigned to duty according to his brevet, to date from July 5, 1864.