The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-11 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES,

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
RICHMOND, Jan. 16.
The winter creeps slowly and wearily on,
checkered by few incidents of moment, save, since
the commencement cf the new year, a spell of the
severest frost which this continent has seen since
1844. It has been accompanied by but little snow,
and there has, therefore, been every facility for
gathering in throughout Virginia, and even so far
south as Charleston, the most abundant ice crop
ever collected. Three previous summers have taught
the Southerners to appreciate the value of ice, which
in 1861 and 1862 was so scarce as to be inadequate
for the supply of their hospitals, while in 1863 there
was a sufficiency not only for the sick but also for
the wealthy families in Richmond, and for that nu-
merous class which thinks little of two or three
dollars in Confederate currency as compared with
cue of those iced drinks which are so greatly and
so naturally to the taste of Americans in the dog-
days. Thera is no doubt that the summer of 1864
will find Virginia, Northern Alabama, Northern
Georgia, and the Carolinas better supplied with ice
than they have ever been since they were thrown in
this respect on their own resources ; nor is it impos-
sible that even Montgomery, Mobile, and other ex-
treme Southern towns, which have for three sum-
mers drunk lukewarm water, may derive benefit
from the unusually cold " snap" which is now neon
us. There are few hot countries in which an army
in the field suffers so little from caloric as Virginia.
There is, it is true, an exceedingly dry and thirsty
section of the State which adjoins Warrington, and
is circumjacent to the battlefield of Manassas, but as
it happens, this section has been almost constantly
occupied by the Federal armies. Many persons in the
Confederate army still speak with horror of their
sufferings in the August of 1862, when Stonewall
Jackson and Longatreet were advancing against
Pope, and were delayed by the burning heat and
the paucity of water in this region ; nor are there
wanting Federals who will testify to their own ex-
haustion when Hooker suddenly broke up in June,
1863, and made during two or three intensely hot
days forced but futile marches to intercept General
lee's army, then on its advance into Pennsylvania.
But in the mountain regions of Virginia and
throughout the valley the finest springs of ice-cold
limestone water abound, which, added to the pro-
fuse shade afforded by the thick forests, mitigate
the intensity of the sun's rays.
Thus far it cannot be pretended that any of the
exceptional trials and hardships with which the
South has this winter been threatened have begun
to overtake Richmond. It is the universal remark
that provisions of all kinds are better and more
plentiful this winter than last. It is especially im-
possible not to be struck with the abundance of
deer which hang daily at the doors of the restaurants
and eating-houses, while there is an affluence of
wild and tame turkeys, of partridges, ducks, fish,
and oysters, which laugh all threats of starvation to
scorn. Perhaps there never yet was a country which
can so little be dragooned into terms by hunger as
these magnificent Southern States, teeming with the
richest gifts of river and forest, sparsely occupied
by a scanty population, and warmed by a bountiful
and enriching sun. There is hardly a foot of the
lower portions of the Potomac, Rappahannock,
York, or James Rivers, but is paved with oysters,
and the same can be said of Mobile Bay (more
than 30 miles long), of the rivers about Wilming-
ton, Charleston, and Savannah, and of the inlets
of Florida and Texas. There are two, and only
two, manifest perplexities with which the South
has to cope—an unreasonably depreciated currency,
and great deficiency in railroad transport. We are
promised an early improvement in the former by
the Confederate Congress—a body about whose
ability to execute a colossal task it is hard to be
sanguine ; the latter is obviously all but irremedia-
ble so long as the war lasts. But it must be patent
to Englishmen that by neither can the South ever
be coerced into accepting terms against its will.
History exhibits many instances of countries wrest-
ling in the death throes of defensive warfare under
vattly severer financial pressure than the South can
ever experience ; but where can the first instance
be cited of a country so struggling and succumbing
from impecuniosity ? In regard to facilities of rail-
road transport, they have hitherto been found suffi-
cient for Southern resistance, and they will this
Sear be rather enhanced than diminished by the
huh which will connect Danville, in Virginia, with
Greensborough, in North Carolina, and which will
be opened for traffic in a couple of months from this
time.

If any statement in a Northern journal could
awaken astonishment, it will be imagined that the
assertion credited to the Federal Admiral Lee, to
the effect that only one steamer succeeded in enter-
ing Wilmington during December, has not failed to
provoke much indignant comment here. Daring
the month in question I happened to receive two
letters from a friend who resides in Wilmington,
and who is especially interested in blockade-
r unning steamers. In one of these letters he re-
ported nine, in the other letter seven, steamers as
lying in the port at the time when he wrote. As it
is an almost unheard-of thing for a steamer to lie
in a harbour longer than from the dark of one mocn
to the dark of the next, it will be obvious how
much credence should be attached to Admiral Lee's
statement. The truth is that while the blockade of
'Wilmington is rendered vastly more stringent by
the 26 Federal vessels now lying outside the port,
it would take three times 26 vessels to verify Ad-
miral Lee's boast that but one vessel could find
ievese in a month, and half the Federal navy to
seal the harbour hermetically. The history of the
blockade-running steamers lies in a nutshell. One
successful trip in and out of -Wilmington or any other
port pays the whole cost and expense of a steamer ;
another round trip secures a handsome fortune.
There are few steamers engaged in the blockade-
running business which do not safely effect one in-
gress, while there are many which have got safely
in and out 20 times, There is comparatively no
risk or difficulty in getting out. An outgoing ves-
sel can watch her opportunity, can secure a favour-
able night, can put back if disappointed, and has
everything in her favour. On the other hand, when
attempting to run in her coal is almost exhausted,
and s'ne has in the darkness of night to hit the
mouth of a small river on a long and monotonous
lino of coast, and is compelled to push on, " hit or
miss." It will be obvious that while the chance of
entire failure, or, in other words, of capture,
during her first attempt at an ingreis is infini-
tesimal, and while the reward of two successful
round trips is go alluring, it will require more
than 26 Federal vessels and boastful representations
from Admiral Lee to check such a lucrative com-
merce. It must not be imagined that there is at
present much profit on the incoming cargo. For
months past the market has been flooded with
wines, brandies, calicoes, and medicines, and the
high prices which they fetch in Confederate paper
afford evidence only of the depreciated condition
of the currency. When this Confederate paper
is converted into sterling exchange it will be
found that there is little or no profit on the
transaction. In fact, it has for some time past been
the policy of the shrewdest blockade-
runners to
bring in little or nothing but Government goods
on freight, and to receive in payment for this
freight cotton at Wilmington, which it is frequently
hard, inconsequence of the deflciencl of railroad
transport, for private persons to obtain at that
crowded and busy port. But if a vessel fully laden
with cotton gets safely out (as they almost all do)
her profits are enormous. So long as cotton fetches
2s. a lb. and more at -Bermuda and Nassau, the
blockade will be again and again run ; nor will the
capture of two vessels out of every three which en-
gage in this trade be looked upon otherwise than as
one of its necessary incidents, certain, sooner or
later, to befall every vessel taking part in it, and
falling harmlessly upon all those who have made
one successful round trip.
It is rumoured that the Federal Government has
announced its intention hereafter to treat all British
subjects captured when attempting, either as pas-
sengers or as interested in the pecca nt vessels, to run
the blockade as though they wer o Confederates.
But there is little chance of this or any Federal
ukase deterring Englishmen fro IA running the