While Seward and Bates are coolly proposing to grant us peace on condition of unlimited submission, and the loss of our slave property, valued at the commencement of the war at only four thousand millions of dollars, and while Lincoln and Chase are proposing to make the forfeiture yet more severe, the courage of this Confederacy was never higher, its means of resistance more ample, or its determination never to affiliate with the rotten despotism on the other side of the Potomac more fixed and irrevocable. The people of the Confederacy did not enter into this war without having first maturely considered all the consequences, and thoroughly weighed all the chances of success. When they drew the sword, it was with a perfect knowledge that they were about to engage in a long, bloody, and tedious war. They knew perfectly well the strength of their enemy, and the extent of his resources. They never calculated upon uninterrupted success. They knew that in all wars it was in the habit of constantly shilling from one side to the other, and they made up their minds to persevere in spite of the fickleness of fortune. Prepared for the worst that could happen, and resolved not to be cast down by any reverse, they have in all cases stood disaster and defeat with a steady equanimity which is the wonder and admiration of the world. Commencing the struggle with all the nations of the earth opposed to them, their courage, their magnanimity, and their fortitude, have subdued the hearts of all those who at first contemplated their supposed approaching annihilation with pleasure. It is this people that Lincoln thinks he has subdued, and that Seward insults with proposals to submit because they have lost a single fortress, with its garrison, and failed to destroy their main army in a sanguinary battle in which they, nevertheless, came off victorious.

Proposals of submission are usually made to nations who have lost their last army — who are no longer able to raise an arm in their own defence — who are overrun, trodden down and kept under foot by the overwhelming force of their invaders. Is that the condition of this people at this moment? Have we no longer an armed force in the field?--Where is the army of Gen. Lee? Where is the army of Johnston? Where is the army of Bragg? Where are Beauregard, Price, Taylor, D. H. Hill, Kirby Smith? Where are the hundreds of thousands of fresh troops that the proclamation of President Davis has just summoned to the field? Where is Charleston? Have they taken that? They not only have not taken it, but they cannot take it.--Where is Richmond? Have they taken that? They have made nine and failed in every one of them. Let them make a tenth, or a twentieth, and they will fail in them all. Where is our immense interior, which they have not yet even penetrated, but which they must not only penetrate, but subdue, before they can justly consider themselves victors, entitled to dictate the terms of peace to a prostrate and conquered people?--Above all where is the spirit of the people — that spirit which constantly rises superior to every disaster — which is as buoyant under defeat as after a victory — which no more thinks of submission the day after a reverse than it thought of it the day before? As long as that spirit continues to exist no people can be considered as subjugated, and to treat them as such it in commit a forty which can draw upon the party committing it nothing more agreeable than the contempt and derision of the civilized world. Is it, then, already crushed? Are there no signs of its continued existence?--Are there any evidences of weakness — any symptoms of a collapse? It Lincoln and Seward have been able to discover any, they have keener eyesight than any man in this Confederacy.

From the evidence on the trial of the Cato conspirators in London, it appeared that two of the leaders had a vehement dispute as to which of them should have Chatsworth, the well known seat of the Duke of Devonshire, after they should have overthrown the existing Government and set up one of their own in its stead. Shakespeare has recorded a similar quarrel between Hotspur and Owen Glendower, with regard to the boundaries of their respective kingdoms, which they had not then conquered. The rope of the executioner, in the first instance, and the sword of King Henry, in the second, settled the claims of the rival potentates. In the same manner the bayonets of the Confederates will dis cse of the pretensions of Seward and his comrades dust recovered from a mortal terror, induced by- Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, the think they have won everything because the were not utterly ruined, and offer terms to a people who have half a million of men under arms, and have half a million more to take their places should they be disposed of. They remind us of nothing so strongly as the fable of the girl with her basket of eggs, which is familiar to all schoolboys.

The constancy of our people has already began to meet with its proper reward. There never was any real cause to feel dispirits, about the loss of Vicksburg. In our opinion it was a great blunder to hold that town and Port Hudson. They rendered inactive a large army which could have been better employed in the field Nevertheless, the blow was a revere one, and it staggered our people for the moment, although they never thought of submitting. But three weeks have elapsed, and the skies are already brightening. The Yankees have failed to take Charleston. Johnston is falling back to a strong position, with an army increasing in strength every day, while Grant is pursuing him with an army daily diminishing Gen. Lee is on the soil of Virginia with one of the b vest armies that ever trod the earth. On all sides the sun is emerging from the temporary cloud by which it was obscured, and doubtless it will soon put forth in meridian splendor. When it shall do so, lot us not conclude that our trials are at an end. We have a long struggle still before us, but courage and perseverance will conduct it to a glorious issue.

Into arrivals bring no confirmation of the rumor, alluded to by us a few days since, that Lord Russell has resigned. We may therefore conclude that there is no truth whatever in it, indeed, it seems to be very evident that not only the British Cabinet, but the large maturity of the British nation, are opposed to recognizing the independence of the Confederate States. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Palmerston Ministry to exist any longer. Words of encouragement, and even of flattery, we have in abundance. But no people know better than the English the vast difference between "empty prams and solid padding," to use an expression of Edmund Burke.

The Vienna report with regard to the determination of the Emperor Napoleon is hardly worthy of serious consideration. Whatever may be the designs of that personage, he is well knows to be the most inscrutable of all living statesmen, and it is not likely that he should let them escape before they had become ripe for execution. It is probable that his conversation with Messrs. Roebuck and Lind, say was designed as a feeler, after the manner of the pamphlets which he makes some one father just before he makes an important political movement. But this is a probability merely. There is little doubt that he favors the cause of the Confederacy, and, if he could obtain the concurrence of Great Britain, there is just as little that he would recognize us at once. But that consent he will not obtain, unless we should be reduced to the last extremity, of which we see no probability at present. Without the concurrence in question we are well convinced that he will not take the important step, so that we need entertain no very strong hopes from that quarter.

As we have told our people from the beginning we must fight this war out ourselves. It is vain to look for assistance elsewhere than in the valor of our soldiers, and the skill of our officers. The ridiculous cry, "cotton is king," with which we entered into it, cost more blood, and did more harm, than all the cotton that ever was raised in North America can pay for. We hope there will be no more follies of a like character; but that, having learned the value of self dependence, we will not forget it, until at least the close of the war.

In the portion of this address which we republish to-day there appears a very strange statement. It is to the effect that he, (Vallandigham) while in the Confederate States, did not meet with a single person who was not resolved to perish rather than yield to the pressure of arms, but that every person he conversed with expressed himself willing, if the Yankees would withdraw their troops, to discuss the terms of reunion. We do not know who were the persons with whom Mr. V. conversed. We are sure we have conversed with many more Southerners than he ever did, and we never heard the first yet speak in favor of reunion. He has certainly made a great mistake somehow or other.

--By M. E. Braddon--Ayres & Wade, Richmond.--We have received this work, which is written by the author of Aurora Floyd, and Lady Audley's Secret two works which have created a in literary circles in England, and have proved so popular that they have been dramatized by some dozen persons, and have had extraordinary fun on the boards of theatres there and in the United States. The present work is said to be equal to the two named. The publication of the book is executed with much neatness.

From the scene of army operations on the Northern border we have nothing new except a report which comes from Winchester, that the Federal forces are in possession of Sticker's Gap; in the Blue Ridge. This gap is the lowest one in the range of mountains through which a road passes practicable for army purposes. It is some twenty miles above Harper's Ferry. Through this gap parses the main road from Winchester to Alexandria and Washington city.

What the movements are, or where the location of Gen Lee's forces, we are not advised. It is by no means improbable, however, that they occupy a position to meet any attempts of the enemy to obstruct their line of communication. The occupation of Sticker's Gap, and no ferry at that point, will be of little consequence if Gen. Lee designs crossing the mountains. He will perhaps take the Front Royal route and fall back on the same roads over which the main body of his troops advanced, crossing the mountains at Ashby's or Chester Gaps. But we have yet no evidence that Gen. Lee regards a further retrograde movement as necessary. It may be that he will await the movements of his opponents, and, if possible to draw them into it, give them battle in the Lower Valley.

We have received the particulars of the fight at Wytheville, Va., on Saturday last, and it seems to have been one of the most remarkable engagements of the war, showing how much can be done by a little fighting towards stopping a raid. The raiding party, consisting of the 2d West Virginia cavalry and a portion of two other regiments, reached Wytheville a while before sundown on Saturday evening by the Tazewell Court House road. The force was under command of Col. Toland, the officer who commanded at the battle of Fayette Court-House last fall. In the meantime a force consisting of one hundred and twenty men, mostly citizens and conscripts, hastily gathered up at Dublin and Newbern, under command of Col. Bowyer, had arrived at the Wytheville Depot with two pieces of artillery. There being no horses in readiness for the artillery, so much delay occurred in getting it to town that the fight had commenced before it reached there, and the pieces were captured without being fired. The horses became unmanageable and ran the pieces further in the town than was intended, and into the midst of the enemy, when they were taken possession of. In the meantime the infantry force had marched up from the depot, and, together with some of the citizens of Wytheville, engaged the enemy in an irregular but most successful combat. A correspondent of the Lynchburg Republican, writing from Dublin Depot, says:

The result of this fight was that the raiders lost a Colonel (Toland), Major, and had another Colonel (Powell) mortally wounded; also, one Captain and Lieutenant killed, and seven privates and some 25 or 39 more wounded. Eighty horses were killed and wounded. Our loss was Capt. Oliver and two conscripts killed. Lt. Balley, who acted most gallantly, was badly wounded. Report says that two citizens of Wytheville were also killed.

This has proven in its results one of the most important fights with the raiders in this portion of the State. Had they not been repulsed at Wytheville and gotten alarmed by the car whistle, these raiders would have destroyed much property and done great damage to the railroad.

From Wytheville, they expected to march on to the lead mines and destroy most valuable public works there, and from thence to Dablin Depot and destroy the quartermaster and commissary stores and ordnance stores at that post, and from thence proceed to New River Bridge and burn that important bridge, and from thence return to the Ohio through Montgomery and Greenbrier counties and the Kanawha Valley.

The Yankees captured about seventy of our men — took them to Walker's Mountain, twelve miles, and there paroled them. They were forced to do this, fearing Col. McCausland's command, which was in their rear, would bag them.

The enemy remained in Wytheville only a few hours, and upon leaving set fire to the quartermaster and commissary buildings, burnt the jail and some eight or ten private residences. All report that the ladies of Wytheville acted with the greatest heroism and cheered the men in their unequal contest. Many residents were absent from the town at the time, and some of the citizens acted most gallantly on the occasion. Col. T. J. Boyd, of the Wytheville hotel, generously opened his house and freely tendered his hospitality to all who went to Wytheville to aid in its defence. He was afterwards taken prisoner. Mrs. Spiller, of Wytheville, displayed great heroism. Our men entered her dwelling house and shot the Yankees down from the windows, she encouraging them on. A few passengers on the Eastern train acted most bravely. Dr. S, of Cumberland county, (on a bridal trip,) left his bride at this post and went on to Wytheville to participate in the fight. We mention these instances to show the spirit of Close who took part in the fight.

The Yankees first made an attack on the Salt Works, but were there met by Gen. Williams's command, and changed their course.--They then proceeded to Wytheville, where their fate was such as we have mentioned.

The damage done to the railroad was little or nothing; it can be repaired in an hour. Altogether this raid has been of great benefit to this section. It has shown our people what determined resistance can do. Fight, fight, under all circumstances, should be the order when raiders invade the country; for in this case one hundred, and fifty men, commanded by fighting officers, and aided by car whistles, repulsed and finally compelled 1,300 Yankee cavalry men to abandon their programme of destruction and double quick it to Yankeedom.

Col. Robert Preston, in command of one hundred and fifty citizens of Montgomery and New River, promptly repaired to New River bridge, and were there waiting the arrival of the infamous invaders.

In the fight with the Yankee raiders at Wytheville was a Methodist preacher, who made himself quite conspicuous for gallantry. During the melee he singled out his man and fired, and at the crack of his gun the Yankee fell. Horrified at having shed human blood, the preacher rushed up to his fallen foe, and, grasping him by the hand, with tears in his eyes, implored his pardon for having shot him, and finding the man was mortally wounded fell upon his knees and offered up a solemn and fervent prayer, during which the spirit of the wounded Yankee winged its final flight to the bar of God. The incident was effecting in the extreme, and is worthy of record.

The Charleston papers, of Monday, bring us the particulars of the bloody fight there on Saturday evening. The Federals had occupied Black Island — a small spot between James's and Morris's Islands — and thrown up a battery; they had erected two or three additional batteries on Morris's Island, about one and three-quarter miles from Fort Wagner, and they had concentrated their fleet, consisting of four monitors, the Ironsides, a frigate, and four gunboats, some of which threw shell from mortars. Altogether, the circle of fire embraced not far from seventy guns. At day light these opened, first deliberately; but as the morning were on the fire increased murderously. Two monitors, two mortar boats, and the Ironsides, had by 10 o'clock formed a line nearly in front of Battery Wagner, and about noon these were joined by two additional monitors. We make up an account of the engagement from the Mercury and Courier.

From 8 o'clock until say 6 o'clock the firing was almost incessant. There was scarcely an interval that did not contain a reverberation of the heavy guns, and the shock of the rapid discharges trembling through the city called hundreds of citizens to the battery, wharves, steeples, and various look outs, where, with an interest never felt before, they looked on a contest that might decide the fate of their fair city.

The picture was one not soon to be forgotten Gray old Sumter lay like a half aroused monster midway of the scene, only occasionally speaking his part in the angry dialogue. Far in the distance were the blockaders, taking no part in the fray. To the right, on Cummings's Point, was a little mound of earth, and every now and then we could see a band of artillerists gathered around the guns, a volume of smoke, and far to the right exploding in the vicinity of the enemy's batteries its well aimed shells. Still to the right of this was Battery Wagner, clustered above which, now bursting high in air and letting loose their imprisoned deaths, now striking the sides of the work, and anon plunging into the sand on the beach, and throwing up a pillar of earth or dashing into the marsh and ricocheting across the water, could be seen the quickly succeeding shells and round shot of the enemy's guns, abreast of Battery Wagner. Scattered at short intervals were a portion of the Federal fleet, and from there we could distinctly observe almost every second the bright flashes of flame that told of the earnest purpose in which they were engaged.--Still further to the right, but concealed from view by the trees on James's Island, were the land batteries of the enemy, whose location we only knew by the heavy puffs of smoke that shot suddenly up into the air, then drifted away towards the dense clouds that had already gathered over the field of conflict.

During the whole of this bombardment, until six o'clock in the evening, our casualties, strange to say, only numbered four killed and fourteen wounded. Battery Gregg, at Cummings's Point, and Fort Sumter, taking part in the thundering chorus, were now firing with greater rapidity than at any previous time during the day. The entire horizon appeared to be lighted up with the fitful flashings of the lurid flames that shot out from monster guns on land and sea.

During this critical period the majority of our troops were driven to shorter beneath our bomb proofs and other works erected for their protection. But it was known to the officers commanding that such a demonstration on the part of the enemy was not without its object. As the shades of night began to fall the bombardment measurably relaxed. General Taliaferro, one of "Stonewall Jackson's veterans," now promptly ordered every man to the parapet, and they were hardly in their places before word was received that the columns of the enemy were advancing to the attack Cooped up as our troops had been all day, and breathing the impure air of a crowded bomb proof, the summons met with a cheerful response, and they quickly repaired to their respective positions.

The lines of the Federals, several hundred yards distant, could now be descried advancing through the gloom, bearing towards the beach, as if to make an attack on that side of Battery Wagner. It was about quarter to eight o'clock. Five minutes more and the column was plainly in sight, appearing to be seven lines deep.

Our batteries remained silent until the enemy reached the vicinity of our rifle pits, when grape and canister was thrown into their ranks with fearful precision and execution. Checked for stant only they closed up the ragged gaps in their lines and moved steadily on until within less than eighty yards.

Barely waiting for the Federals to get within a destructive range our infantry opened their fusillade, and from a fringes of fire that lined the parapet leaped forth a thousand messengers of death. Staggering under the shock, the first line seemed for a moment checked, but, pushed on by those in the rear, the whole now commenced a charge at a "double-quick." Our men could not charge back; but they gave, a Southern yell in response to the Yankee cheer, and awaited the attack. On they came over the sand hills, tripping and stumbling in the huge pits their own shells had dug, until they reached the ditch of the battery; then it was but a moment's work for those who survived our terrible fire of musketry to clamber up the sloping sides of the fortification and attempt to effect a lodgment. But the men who met them on the parapet were as desperate as themselves, and the contest that ensued was brief and bloody. The antagonists were breast to breast, and Southern rifles and Southern bayonets made short work of human life. We could stop to take no prisoners then. The parapet was lined with dead bodies, white and black, and every second, was adding to the number. It was one of those encounters in which one side or the other must quickly yield or fly: The enemy took their choice.

In less than five minutes probably, the first line had been shot, bayoneted, or were in full retreat — rolling into the ditch or dragging their bloody bodies through the sand hills on their hands and knees. But another line came, and another and another, each reinforcing its predecessor, until the battle waked hot, fierce, and bloody. Finally, however, the whole were driven back, either into the broad trench at the base of the battery, out of reach of our guns, or scampering out of view in the darkness of the night.

There was now a comparative full in the firing, but in fifteen or twenty minutes a second column of Federals filed down on the beach towards the left of the fort in much the same manner as that pursued by the first--These repeated the experiment that had just before terminated so disastrously to their companions, and, with a bravery that was worthy of a better cause, dashed upon the work. The first assault failed utterly, but with the reinforcements that joined the defeated party, they came again with such strength and impetuosity that between the extreme darkness of the night, which bad now enveloped the entire scene, the difficulty of distinguishing friend and foe, and the confusion incident to such an occasion, some two or three hundred, as is estimated effected a lodgment in the vicinity of the chambers occupied by two of our guns. Others clambered to the top of the magazine and bomb proof, while others as is said, clustered around a Federal flag flying on the ramparts. The last statement is not improbable; but the informant from whom many of the foregoing facts are gathered, states that the only colors flying from the parapet were our own battle and Confederate flags. This position the Federals held for certainly upwards of an hour. We were at first comparatively ignorant of their strength or exact location; but Gen. Taliaferro, with the cool courage for witch he is distinguished, made a close personal reconnaissance, and soon had measures perfected for driving them from the work. In the melee which followed the final arrangements of the General most of the prisoners were captured whom we have in hand. --Many escaped over the sides of the battery, but others preferred a voluntary surrender to the risk of being shot in the back.

Both the Federal land batteries and our own — Sumter and Gregg — were firing at intervals during the engagement, and during the retreat the latter greatly facilitated the "change of base"

The fight lasted from 8 until 11 P. M., and was of a desperate character throughout. The enemy's losses were very heavy. His killed and wounded must have been at least 1,500. The number of his dead left on the field and buried by us yesterday exceeded 600. Two hundred and thirty one of their wounded were in the city last night, including several negroes.

Our own losses were comparatively light. It is estimated that our killed and wounded will not exceed 100. Among these, however, were some valuable officers, such as Lieut.-Col. Simkins and Capt. Taham, of the let S. C. infantry, and Capt. Ryan, of the Charleston Battalion, killed, and Major Ramsay, of the Charleston Battalion, severely wounded.

Colonel Shaw, of Boston, who commanded the 54th Massachusetts (negro) regiment was killed on our parapet. The Lieutenant Colonel of the fame regiment surrendered his sword to Colonel Gaillard. The Major and one of the Captains were also killed. Another Lieutenant Colonel was killed just as he had mounted a bastion. Colonel H. S. Putnam, of the 7th New Hampshire, (acting as Brigadier General.) was left dead in front of our lines. Dr. Duck, of the U. S. Navy, and the Adjutant of a Connecticut regiment were captured, and a Yankee Assistant Adjutant-General was killed.

Lieut. Col. who fell shot through the breast, commanded the artillery of the post. We learn that Lieut. Col. Del Kemper, the distinguished Virginia artilleries, succeeds him. A wounded negro in to be put into every ward of the white Yankees. The latter kicked at the base alliance, but the surgeons have plainly told them that if they put themselves on a par with the negroes as soldiers the same relation must be maintained under all circumstances while they are in our hands.

--Gov. Vance, of North Carolina, made a speech in Granville county on the 14th of July. A gentleman who heard it writes:

He encouraged the people to continue their assistance in prosecuting the war until the independence of the Confederate States was established, and hoped that no Southern man would harbor the thought of a reunion with the North under any circumstances. He showed that reconstruction was impossible, and that the only, way to obtain peace was by hard fighting and a determination never to submit to the Yankee Government.

Frazer, heard and celebrated in other days as the tenor of the Seguin Opera. Troupe, died in Philadelphia last week of consumption.

Vice President Stephens was in Charleston, S. C., Saturday evening, during the fight.