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

nom° of his subaltern officers with him.

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 Cxen. Hill's corps are supposed to have marched
ooilthward or westward. The knowing ones are
a•:e quite confident there will be a " general deci-
sive battle" before the end of this week. Another

4' 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 post-

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 room for another paragraph, contradicting
the first, in the evening. At Charleston we 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 w'aat remains of it is invulnerable. " The fort
cannot be injured any further," says the bulletin.
Nothing is to be done bat let it alone.
Prom Texas we hear that General Banks, at the
bead of his long-projected expedition, has landed
at the mouth of Rio Grande; that Fort Brown and
Brownsville—the latter on fire, and with the Union
.and Secession parties 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,*" loyalists," 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
1` 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 co.nseciaences. As it was but too easy to
foresee, 'tabour carried the day everywhere, for its
demanhs were just and moderate. Henceforth, it
may be taken for granted, in every branch of in-

dust ry wages will be raised 25 per cent. above the
present rates. The oar-drivers in New York re-
turned to their work ou Saturday last, the direc-
tors of the several railway companies having " made
a satisfactory compromise"—i.e., granted all they
were asked. The working men of the United 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,
hap only temporarily, subside. " Labour" will go
on, and the "movement" will be brought to a stand.
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 wea in clover, in which it was
looked up to, petted, and humoured, it certainly was
this North Ame,tican community ; not so much
owing, perhaps, us 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
any time, 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 et
all al•mes, and as such it was, of course, pricious,
in deepeedent, fastidious. The rougher kind of bandi-
orf.ift, and even domestic service, was shunned by
Vie native American, and would long since have
ome to an end had it not been for the raw ma-
terial periodically imported out of tho redundant
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 best market. Whoever conde-
scended to work in America was sure not only of
'1 daily bread, but also of a certain amount of
Ihe..
decant comfort; and the very hedger and ditcher
It in his power to raise himself in the scale of
ul:ial:Itist,11111 his- own and the world's estimation. He
71 to strike the best bargain, how to stand
on his ri
for a rainy dap, and interests, how to put by a penny
savings batatta7. I said in my last letter that the
bore witness to
in New York and New England
theprosperity of the working classes
even during the
State of :Massachusetts,
period of this civil war. The
and manufactories
with a population of
1,231,066,
a 67,7
tellraaaflactories employing 107,784
male and 69
hands, numbered in 1861
depositors in its stivioges
248,9,,u‘sanks, 205,058 ; in 1862
the depositors were
_The amount. of de-
posits in 1861 was 44,7857,,,
od dole. • in 1862 it was
50,403,674 dols.--showing an
increase in one year
of 3,018,240 dols. Now, no
State in the Union can
compare with
Massachusetts, which the
Americana
way of a sneer call the pi
" -414 of the Universe,"
Still, even in New York, a
male 8_
Rea tate with 3,880,735 in-
habitants, and 147,737 51,612 female
workers in the manufactories, the number _
1
of
_op6eln,
accounts in the savings banks was, r
i"
300,511 ;in 1862, 347,184; and the amount, dueB
119 dole.; 1t
depositors in 1861, 64,083, o• 1862,
o
76,538,183 dols., showing an increase in oneyeprof
12,393,066d015. The total amount of depaAN in
the State of New York on the let of January of thia
year 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
had 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 came
into immediate and constant contact with his em-
?layer, things had maintained their own level, and
wages
to
aes. had silently but incessantly been raised, so
teep pace with the growing price of provi-
sions,ancpuie gut in great factories, in large workshops,
establishments, capital took no heed
of the signs of
the times, and labour was ground
down to the
utmost extent of its power of en-
durance.
Thegeneral eesrterw
.. has now been put upon capital
and the pressure has been
instantly and cheerfully
obeyed. All may be ar-
ranged, and things
may
Rowell for the present ;but
the mutual understanding
capital will hardly last for any length
labour and
length of time—so
long, at least, as the causes which led
to
crisis continue to act on the column:itY;
the present
the first place, when you raise evag,,, inoder to
for, in
enable labour to bear the burden of high prices,
also cause a further rise in prices, for the end
wages of labour, as a !natter of course, enhance
the cost of the commoditieo which are the product