The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-01 00:00:00

T. CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(Fr•om the correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORE, Nov. 17.
W have had a gloomy and wet spell here these last
four of five days, and this may, perhaps, have
daraped the ardour of the combatants who are
preddling about in the chalky mud of Virginia.
General Meade has been in Washington, and
some of his subaltern officers with him. He

has, however, declined to attend the inaugura-
tion of the Gettysburg monument, a solemnity
in which he was entitled to head the pageant.
The position of the Southern army on the Rapi-
dan is said to be formidable, though two divisions
of Gen. Hill's corps are supposed to have marched
southward or westward. The knowing ones are
are quite confident there will be a " general deci-
sive battle" before the end of this week. Another
" decisive and bloody " battle is expected to come
off in Tennessee, Gen. Bragg is bombarding the
Federals from the heights of Look-out Mountain,
and the ground in his rear, for many miles, swarms
with reinforcements conveyed to him by the Western
and Atlantic Railway. Battles, if they occur, must
be of the Confederates' own seeking, for their posi-
tions in the mountain gorges are not of a nature to
invite the Federals' attacks. The weather, how-
ever, must have its share in military operations, and
if the rains set in the South as they have done here,
the probability is the bloodthirsty warriors will
stick in the mud till winter cools their blood. Burn-
side, always in difficulty, seems disposed to wash
his hands of his tough job in East Tennessee.
The rumour that he has resigned his command, and
that Foster is to take his place, bringing one or
more of his divisions with him, appears almost daily
in the papers to fill a paragraph in the morning, and
to make morn for another paragraph, contradicting
the first, in the evening. At Charleston w e have
firing at the rate of two shots in the minute at
night, and three or four in the daylight. Results--
after 24 hours, two men killed and one wounded,
Artillery has done its very worst against Sumter,
and what remains of it is invulnerable, " The fort
cannot be injured any further," says the bulletin.
Nothing is to be done but let it alone.
From Texas we hear that General Banks, at the
bead of his long-projected expedition, has landed
at the mouth of Rio Graude ; that Fort Brown and
Brownsville—the latter on fire, and with the Union
and Secession patties fighting in the streets—have
fallen into his hands. The presence of a Federal
army in that region, it is expected, will put an end
to the brisk contraband trade, and cut off one of
the most plentiful sources of supplies on which the
Southerns relied. It will also have the effect of a
grand demonstrations against the French in Mexico;
it will reassure Juarez' s oya ists," and awe Maxi-
milian and all contemners of the Monroe doctrine.
The grumblers here, however, complain that Banks
and his forces, instead of wasting their energies on
Rio Grande, would be better employed nearer home
against Lee's " demoralised" troops and Bragg's
"discordant and dissolving" army.
The " labour movement," as the contest between
operatives and their employers is here designated,
being in fact a labour stoppage, is going through its

natural phases, and will for the present have no

serious consequences. As it was but too easy to
foresee, labour carried the day everywhere, for its
demands were just and moderate. Henceforth, it
may be taken for granted, in every branch of in-
dustry wages will be raised 25 per cent. above the
present rates. The car-drivers in New York re-
turned to their work ou Saturday last, the direc-
tors of the several rail way companies having " made
a satisfactory compromise"—i.e., granted all they
were asked. The working men of the Uni;ed States'
navy yards in Charlestown, near Boston, have also
obtained their own terms, and, upon the same un-
derstanding., there is no doubt but the excitement
arising from the strikes will gradually, though per-
haps only temporarily, subside. " Labour" will go
on, and the "movement" will be brought to astand•
still.

The industrious classes in these North-Eastern
States had attained a well-being fully commensu-
rate with their deserts, with their thrift and so-
briety, and with the education extensively spread
among them. If there ever was a country in
which labour waa in clover, in which it was
looked up to, petted and humoured, it certainly was
this North American community; not so much
owing, perhaps, as the Americans fondly believe, to
the protection of their glorious Democratic institu-
tions as to the great fact that this country had plenty
of elbow room for all men, and that those who at

.anytime felt crowded and distressed in the cities of
the East would always find wealth and ease in the
backwoods of the West. Labour was scarce here at
all times, and as such it was, of course, prz:cious,
independent, fastidious. The rougher kind of handi-
craft, and even domestic service, was shunned by
the native American, and would long since have

.come to an end had it not beeu for the raw ma•
terial periodically imported out of the redundan

population of suffering Europe.

Democratic re

publics must needs have slaves to do their hard and
dirty work. In the South the Virginian had negroes.

In the North the New Englander had the Irish, the
German, the beasts of burden of the old world.

Even the condition of the immigrant was anything
but deplorable, as soon as he knew how to bring
his labour to the test market. Whoever conde-
scended to work in America was sure not only of
bis daily brer,d, but also of a certain amount of
deae_ent comfort; and the very hedger and ditcher
ll it in nis power to raise himself in the scale of
13:1
saige in his
canna
how ,
to strike the best bargain, how to stand
hitstigh
f:or
ra ts and interests, how to put by a penny
14avin 'fly day. I said in my last letter that the
bore gs bulks both in New York and New England
wit/less
„en dori to the prosperity of the working classes
State
ofng
:vt,tshe gloomy period of this civil war. The
1,231,066,
anaeachusetts, with a population of
male and 69,eirtzufaaufactories employing 107,781
ate savings
hands, numbered in 1861
depositors in
the depositors were 248 banks, 205,058 ; in 1862
posits in 1861 -was 4:A9.00. The amount of de-
-50,403,674 dels. ; in 1862 it was
alma .
Now, onnaa Increase in one year
of 5,015,240 dole.
compare with Massachusetts State in the Union can
by way of a sneer call the which the Americans
Still, even in New York, 4
Sttue of. the Universe,"
habitants, and 147,737 males
anWalth. 36,880,735 in-
workers in the manufactories, the
number
female
accounts in the savings bank,
was!" of open
300,511 ; in 1862, 347,184; and the arooti in 1861,
depositors in 1861, 64,083,119 doh,. ; due to
76,538,183 dols., showing au increase ie "
0,1,35,1:302,
12,393,066d015. The total amount of depo,,,itu'sr.of
the State of New York on the let of January of this
yerir was 80,393,064 dols.
With all this widely-spread and substantial well
being, however, the working classes could not
fail
to be gradually, yet inexorably, crushed by the
rapid enhancement of prices consequent upon
the waste of a ruinous war, and the use and
abuse of an all-flooding paper currency. The evil
was not very grievously felt at the outset, because
the gaps made among the already and always thin
ranks of the labourers by the recruiting of the army
Ead the effect of lessening competition, and, by in-
creasing the demand for it, of setting a higher value
upon labour. In all the common trades, in the shops,
and in domestic service, where the workman car f,
into i,nmediate and constant contact with F
Ployer, things had maintained their ow- e--
a,
'Wages had silently but incessant]-
level, and
I'
, been raisped, to keep pace with the grr
,wing price of sepd, so
rovi-
&lQ'''. But in great fact,.
and Public establisl- 'nee, in large workshops,
of the sig nsf 0- ,ments, capital took no heed
down to theo -.0 times, and labour was ground
durance, utmost event of power of en-
by e,arae `crew has now been put upon capital
ins*,:antly
anua toastrike, and the pressure has been
ranged, and
thineo i
rfolly obeyed. All may be ar-
the mutual underst:nYa'o well for the present; but
capital will h dardly last f 013 r g between
labour and
long, at least, as the eat,Bee
Nvaej length of time—so
crisis continue to act on the ch led to the present
the first place, when you raisee"awtneeitY ; for, in
enable labour to bear the burden fades in order to
also cause a further rise in prices, L hptrieeB, you
e raised
wages of labour, as a mutter of course,
enhan ee the cost of the cowmodities which are the Product

of labour; and, in the second place, any awakening
of the people to the consciousness of their grie-
vances, and of their power to redress them, lays
bare many of those social disorders to which habit
reconciles the suffering poor, but which, once
brought into light, allow society no re , t! la remedy
is propounded, when it is too often found practically
that the diagnosis of the evil is far easier than its
cure.

Thus I have said that, as a general rule, labour
in America was sure of a competent remuneration.
That rule, however, was subject to great exceptions,
and the poor working girls of New York, for in-
stance,who are now on strike, received wages which,
as the papers say, " were a burning shame to the age
we live in." Many of them had till yesterday to put
up with 2 dole. or 2 dole. 50c. a week—the same
wages most male hands earned daily, the same
wages that the poor fagged creatures were allowed
before coal, clothing, and provisions had doubled in
price. There is no doubt but relief will be granted
to these and other sufferers, but the consequence
must be a further rise in prices, a further deprecia-
tion of the currency, and the necessity for further
enhancement of wages. What results similar cir-
cumstances had in France in 1793 We all know ;
we know that high prices in provisions led
to strikes, and these to compromises with the
people, till the pretensions of the latter knew no
limits ; till, upon the first show of firmness on the
part powers,earstpvaisnsgivpe
eroepsliesteanngcaegleedd
in
npenovfinthlee linnereu,ang thd
that struggle in which, after torrents of bloodshed,
they were brought to reason.
The Americans, indeed most of them, anticipate
no such calamities for their privileged land; they
reckon upon the education of their lower classes,
upon their respect for the laws and love of order,
upon their safety-valves of emigration to the West
and immigration from Europe. The sources of their
wealth are inexhaustible, and so long as labour may
be had for hire, however high, money such as Mr.
Chase knows how to coin will be forthcoming. They
draw comparisons between the conditions of agri-
cultural France in 1793 and those of commercial
England in 1814. They are confident of their own
buoyancy as an industrial community and of their
ability to weather any storm. In the mean white
they do not consider that there is one cause of die-
organisation among them which did not work to
the same effect either in France or England in re-
volutionary and warlike times. France withdrew
millions of men from their wonted occupations,
England paid handsome bounties for her recruits;
but no country at any time pressed so many useful
members of the community into her armies, no
country ever bribed recruits at so extravagant a
price. The county of New York advertises this
very day for 30,000 volunteers, and the following
are the pecuniary inducements offered—

Dollars.
County bounty, cash down
State bounty
United States bounty for new recruits
United States, additional, to veterans re-enlisting 100
-- 477

Total 777
The largest sum, surely, ever held out as a tempta-
tion to soldiers. With such inducements to a
labourer to turn his ploughshare into a musket,
and the monthly pay, which has been raised from
10 to 20 dollars, what operative would not rather
be a soldier. The enlistment goes on very slowly
nevertheless, and the Government would certainly
be unable to raise the 300,000 men it has called tor
if the recruiting officers did not fall back upon the
Irish and German immigrants and the negroes.
The latter especially will constitute the sheet
anchor of the future American army. But in the
meanwhile there is little doubt in my mind that
these monstrous bribes paid to recruits, although
they may be insufficient for tho repletion of the
army, will not fail so to disturb and confound the
relations between labour and capital as to lead not
only to fresh strikes, but possibly to riots, agrarian
movements, and social convulsions.
Wnat in the meanwhile is the state of the American
finances? lam assured from Washington that Mr.
Chase's financial report will not be ready before the
end of this month. The Be.dget, it is said, will
foot up 1,200,000,000 dollars. The want?, of the
navy for the coming year are estimated at 100,000,000
dole., exceeding last year's expeediture by 32,000,000
dole. The Treasury is now issuing paper at the rate
of 4,000,000 dole. daily. The actual average expen-
diture daily is estimated at 2,250,000 dole., and for
the next year at 800,000,000 dole. The largest por-
tion of this sum will go to pay the interest of the Na-
tional Debt. The money-market in the meanwhile
has been very tight for the last two weeks. The
heading of all money articles in the newspapers
has uniformly been this, " The minimum rates for
leans on call to first•class borrowers in seven per
cent." Gold is to-day at 1481. Every one wonders
how it is that Mr. Chase does not avail himself of
the power vested in him to issue paper to the full
extent of his will and pleasure to prevent money
ever getting dear again. The Treasury printing
presses, it appears, cannot keep up with the daily
expenditures, and application must be frequently
made to the banks for loans, at high rates of in-
terest, of the very paper issuing from the Treasury.
From the 6th of August, 1861, to the 3d of March,
1863, Mr. Chase was at different epochs authorised
to issue 1,100,000,000 dole. of legal tender notes. He
was at the same time empowered to issue bonds and
certificates of different descriptions to the amount of
1,739,000,000 dols. Altogether, he could deluge the
country with 2,849,000,000 dole. of his paper, be-
sides 300,000,000 dols, to be put in circulation by
the means of the so-called " National Beebe,
Notwithstanding all this, the Secretary of the
Treasury has been again and again compelleu
to borrow money—his own paper money-.-at a
ruinous rate of interest. Witness the loan of the Ist
September last, when for a 60 days' accommodation
of 50,000,000 dole, he had to pay 60,000 dole. in-
terest. A great clamour of exultation was raised
a few days ago on the report being spread that
large sums of Five-Twenties had been subscribed
to, and it 'was taken as clear evidence of the
public confidence in the solidity of the Govern-
ment. Those bonds, were, however, bought
by men who wanted them merely as objects
of speculation, not for a permanent investment. Mr.
Chase had paid the agents 4 per cent. commission
for the sale of those bonds; but the late rise in the
interest of money made it very clear that the specu-
lating purchasers has only burnt their fingers, and
they now strove to rid themselves of the stock by
giving the agents 7 percent. commission to sell them
for them again. The issue of those 5-20 Bonds had
no other result than to direct the money that had
been lent to the Government on temporary loans at
5 per cent., payable in paper, into these long bonds,
bearing the interest of 6 per cent. in gold, equal to
9 per cent, in paper. The Treasury derived so little
real advantage from the transaction, so little money
came into its till, that it had, on Monday
ulas, to
Pon the banks to pay up 15,000 do';, tempo.
Lan
Slough
t ;el
riterytlotainotti..ll4
AU these
shifts
opetiausbnuariy;gi a st or, d-, ,
tarp of the
TiLts and devices of '
struggling
friends ane‘,
eoe-nerge,
vial ait...eal. e „
or the I:otitriving Secre-
have no other effect
:.Ima deeper and deeper into
top. `..pond out of which he is vainly
It may be no fault of his, for
It' iete sIIILY attribute to him rare finan-
paper money to
may be a .
confront
whether the issue
or
chore
the exigencies of the
' war was a matter
Chas© put himself or necessity; but the
dangerous expedient havingoo
t,oncee been resorted to,
which admitted neither of paulai brink of an abyss
Pause nor regression.
M r.
Nov. 18.
Enormous forces are mustering
about Chatta-
either side. While Brag .
nooga on g a reinforce-
ments occupy the fields adjoining the railway from
the South for "a line eight miles in length,,, Gen.
' Thomas with alt .
Sherman has joined Gen.hie army,
numbering, it is said, from 25,000 to 30,000 m„,.
Here certainly are materi ils for a monster engage.
be no general
ment. Probably, however, there will
the signal
encounter, unless the Confederates give
of attack.

The Ultra-Abolitionists, or Niggerhesds, as they
are here called, in antagonism to the Copperheads,
are savagely attacking Geo. Gilmore, because he
has intimated to the officers commanding coloured
troops
that the " black soldiers are only to do
‘fatigue duty," and to be kept constantly at work in
, the trenches." Gen, Gilmore will hear nothing