The Lancaster Ledger

Northern News.

RICHMOND, December 31.—Greeley's position is defined at last. The Tribune, of Friday, concludes a long article on the disasters of the Federals, and the defeat at Fredericksburg, as follows: "We are not about to surrender in the face of a single defeat, to facts which have survived a series of disasters. The purpose of the nation will remain unshaken. War is still to be pressed—the winter campaign is to be pursued—the North will still uphold the movement and strengthen its hands. The spasm of despair has already relaxed its hold on the national heart, and the moment of doubt may cheer the rebellion, but returning resolution shall finally crush it."

New England is beginning to howl.—Wendell Phillips, in a late speech at Boston, said that eighteen months hence the West will desert the East and join her natural ally, who holds the mouth of the Mississippi. Phillips intimates if the Democracy succeeds, there is danger of an alliance among twenty States, leaving New England out in the cold.

Commenting on the speech of Phillips the New York Mercury says: "We believe that the last army that the North will ever raise and put in the field in this war, is now in the field, and that it must conquer the rebellion or fail. If it fails, then a dissolution of the old Union will be an fait accompli: and in that event, six States of New England will find themselves left alone in their glory, and we are quite as sure that no confederation of States, of which she is a part, can ever exist in peace, harmony and prosperity on this continent."