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Lyttelton Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1092, 29 April 1863, Page 3

Onu measure, says a Paris letter, to insure harmony in the Senate, has been taken. It seems beyond a doubt that the Emperor has ostracised his cousin, Prince Napoleon, in order to prevent him from making a speech about Rome.

The Confederate Head-Quarters. —In visiting the head-quarters of the Confederate generals, but particularly those of General Lee, any one accustomed to see European armies in the field cannot fail to he struck with the great absence of all the pomp and circumstance of war in and around their encampments. Lee's head-quarters consisted of about seven or eight pole tents, pitched with their backs to a stake fence, upon a piece of ground so rocky that it was unpleasant to ride over it, its only recommendation being a little stream of good water which flowed close by the General's tent. In front of the tents were some three four-wheeled waggons, drawn up without any regularity, and a number of horses roamed loose about the field. The servants, who were of course slaves, and the mounted soldiers, called " couriers," who always accompany each General of Division in the field, were unprovided with tents, and slept in or under the waggon. Waggons, tents, and some of the horses were marked U. S., showing that part of that huge debt in the Nortli has gone to furnishing even tlie Confederate Generals with camp equipments. No guard or sentries were to be seen in the vicinity; no crowd of aides-de-camp loitering about, making themselves agreeable to visitors, and endeavouring to save their Generals from receiving those who have no particular business. A large farm-house stands close by, which, in any other army, would have been the General's residence pro. tem., but, as no liberties are allowed to be taken with personal property in Lee's army, he is particular in setting a good example himself. His Staff are crowded together two or three in a tent ; none are allowed to carry more baggage than a small box each, and his own kit is but very little larger. Every one who approaches him does so with marked respect, although there is none of that bowing and flourishing of forage caps which occurs in the presence of European Generals ; and while all honour him and place implicit faith in his courage and ability, those with whom he is most intimate feel for him the aflection of sons to a father. Old General Scott was correct in saying when Lee joined the Southern cause it was worth as much as the accession of 20,000 men to the " rebels." Since then every injury that it was possible to inflict the Northerners have heaped upon him. His house on the Pamunkey river was burnt to the ground and the slaves carried away —many of them by force while his residence on the Arlington Heights was not only gutted of its furniture but even the very relics of George Washington were stolen from it and paraded in triumph in the saloons of New York and Boston. Notwithstanding all these personal losses, however, when speaking of the Yankees, he neither evinced any bitterness of feeling nor gave utterance to a single violent expression, but alluded to many of his former friends and companions among them in the kindest terms. He spoke as a man proud of the victories won by his country, and confident of ultimate success, under the blessings of the Almighty, whom he glorified for past successes, and whose aid he invoked for all future operations. He regretted that his limited supply of tents and available accommodation would prevent him from putting us up, but he kindly placed at our disposal horses, or a two-horsed wagon, if we preferred it, to drive about in. Upon leaving him we drove to Bunker-hill, six miles nearer Martinsburg, at which place " Stonewall" Jackson, now of world-wide celebrity, had his head-quarters. With him we spent a most pleasant hour, and were agreeably surprised to find him very affable, having been led to expect that he was silent and almost morose. Dressed in his gray uniform, he looks the hero that he is; and his thin, compressed lips and calm glance, which meets yours unflinchingly, give evidence of that firmness and decision of character for which he is so famous. He has a broad, open forehead, from which the hair is well brushed hack; a shapely nose, straight, and rather long; thin, colourless cheeks, with only a very small allowance of whisker; a cleanly-shaven upper lip and chin; and a pair of fine grayish blue eyes, rather sunken, with overhanging brows, which intensify the keeness of his gaze, but without imparting any fierceness to it. Such are the general characteristics of his face, and I have only to add that a smile seems always lurking about his mouth when he speaks, and that, though his voice partakes slightly of that harshness which Europeans unjustly attribute to all Americans, there is much unmistakeable cordiality in his manner; and to us he talked most affectionately of England and of his brief but enjoyable sojourn there. The religious element seems strongly developed in him, and, though his conversation is perfectly free from all Puritanical cant, it is evident that he is a person who never loses sight of the fact that there is an omnipresent Deity ever presiding over the minutest occurrences of life as well as over the most important. Altogether, as one of his soldiers, said to me in talking of him, "heis a glorious fellow!" and after I left him I felt that I had at least solved the mystery of " Stonewall Bridge," and discovered why it was that it had accomplished such almost miraculous feats. With such a leader men would go anywhere and face any amount of difficulties, and, for myself, I believe that, inspired by the presence of such a man, I should be perfectly insensible to fatigue, and reckon upon success as a moral certainty. While General Lee is regarded in the light of infallible Jove, a man to be reverenced, Jackson is loved and adored with all that childlike and trustful affection which the ancients are said to have lavished upon the particular deity presiding over their affairs. The feeling of the soldiers for General Lee resembles that which Wellington's troops entertained for him—namely, a fixed and unshakeable faith in all he did, and a calm confidence of victory when serving under him. But Jackson, like Napoleon, is idolised with that intense fervour which, consisting of mingled personal attachment and devoted loyalty, causes them to meet death for his sake and bless him when dying.—Blackwood, January. The Sumter. —Accounts received at Malta on the 30th ult., from Gibraltar, state that the Confederate steamer Sumter has been sold at that place for £4000, to an English merchant, who came from Liverpool for the purpose of purchasing her. The United States' minister at Madrid has protested against the sale, which, he says, will not be respected by the Federal cruisers, as she is a Federal vessel seized by the rebels at New Orleans. Instructions have been asked from the home Government as to whether a register is to be given to her. When the packet left Gibraltar, the Sumter (now changed to the Gibraltar) was being coaled and getting a screw, preparatory to starting on her voyage to England. The new captain having steamed round the works, under British colors, was immediately chased by the Federal gunboat Ottawa, with her guns loaded and men at quarters. On perceiving the Federal vessel approaching the land within the three miles limit, the Governor, Sir William Codrington, ordered the batteries to be manned and the guns made ready for action, upon which the Ottawa sheered off. A Federal sloop of war was also at Algesiras, watching the Sumter. If a register is granted to her, she will have to be escorted to England by a British sloop of war.—Times, Jan. 5.

Spain.—lt is a matter of regret that, according as Spain advances in material prosperity, her political morality declines, and that a few of her public men seem incapable of comprehending the ordinary rules of financial probity. In an assembly where a great deal is said about chivalry and honor, a deputy, oi no great weight it is true, but still a fraction o1 the representation, stands up, and, without reference to the justice or injustice of the question, urges the Government to disregard its obligations " until such time as Gibraltar is surrendered,'' and encounters no rebuke for propounding a doctrine which would strike at the root of all private as well as public credit, The Minister of Finance merely stated, in reply, that the Government never thought of doing anything in the matter of the English certificate holders." The Minister may have his own opinion about these certificates, but he might have informed the deputy in question that when Spain, in the hour of her necessity and her danger, went to England for the means of helping her through the one and saving her from the other, there was no such stipulation as this,—" Kecollect, we shall not pay you your interest unless you restore Gibraltar to us." It is very doubtful whether such a doctrine will tend to relieve Spanish credit at home or abroad from the stigma attached to it for years in the great StockExchanges of Europe.