The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-12 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times correspondent.)
lira' YORK, April 29.
As is usual when men's minds are greatly excited,
when events that may shape the destinies of a
people are in progress, when the moral atmosphere
is surcharged with electricity, and when nobody
knows what an hour may bring forth, all sorts of
rumours are in circulation—some alarming, some
reassuring, some absurd, some contradictory, and all
perplexing. To-day brings a plenteous batch of
them from Washington, the most prominent of which
may be recorded—partly because there may be more
or less truth in them, and partly because, whether
true or false, they show the current of opinion, and
throw light upon the history of the extraordinary
crisis through which this people will have to pass
during the next three months. One is that Mr.
Lincoln despairs of renomination for the Presidency,
and favours that of Gen. Fremont ; a second, that
the Republican party, unable to unite upon Fre-
mont, Chase, Back 3, or Butler, have found a candi-
date more to the mind of the majority in Mr. Adams,
now United States Minister at the Court of St.
James's ; a third, that Mr. Chase, offended by the
appointment of Gen. Frank Blair to high military
command, apparently as a reward for his fierce at-
tack on the personal no less than on the public cha-
racter of the Secretary—whom he accuses of cor.
ruption as well as of " Secessionism"—is about to
withdraw, if he has not already withdrawn, from
the Administration ; a fourth, that General Grant
desires to strengthen the armies with which he is
prepared to march upon Richmond by the appoint-
ment of General M'Clelian to one of its divisions,
and that Mr. Lincoln, supported in his determina-
tion by Mr. Stanton and General Halleck, perempe
tority refuses, and the present and unexpected in-
action of the army is due to this among other causes
—a fifth, that Richmond will be evacuated, and
that the plan of General Lee is to seize upon
Washington, and hold it as more than an equi-
valent ; a sixth, that the Confederates have
silently and secretly constructed a formidable
navy of ironclads and rams which will in a few days
appear in the Potomac, and co-operate with Long-
street in the meditated attack upon the Federal
capital; a seventh, that difficulties have arisen with
France upon the Mexican question, and that an
alliance offensive and defensive has been signed be-
tween the Emperors Napoleon and Maximilian and
the Southern President, and that Great Britain,

Austria, Spain, Italy, and Belgium will join with
France and Mexico in recognizing the independence
of the South; an eighth, that the leaders of the De-

mocratic party in Congress have framed articles of
impeachment against Mr. Lincoln, not alone for his
abandonment of the Monroe doctrine, but for his
culpable mismanagement of the war and the affairs
of the nation during his disastrous incumbency; a
ninth, that the repulse of General Banks in Lonisi-

aua is much more ignominious than has been repre•
sented ; that half his army is lost, and the remainder
so demoralized that nothing but the appointment of
a new General and a large reinforcement, which
cannot be spared from the armies of the Potomac
or of Tennessee, will prevent the recovery by the
victorious Coafederates of the city of Orleans and
the whole of Louisiana. This is a long list—but it
would not be complote unless it were added that

serious fears are entertained, not only of a commer-
cial crisis, but of an uprising of the working classes
in this and other cities, if, contrary to the calcula-
tions and hope of the governing party, General Lee,
and not General Grant, should be the victor in the
mighty struggle that is now impending on the
Rap:den and the Potomac. These rumours, like
straws upon the storm, may all be worthless ; but
at least they show the direction of the wind. If
they come from different points of the compass,
they may also prove that the wind which blows so
freshly is a whirlwind.
The stock-market is as feverish in its own way as
the greater world of polities. The announcement
that Mr. Chase had left Washington en route for
New York ; that he had stopped at Philadelphia
to consult the bankers of that city on what was
to be or could be done to bring down the premium
on gold, or, at all events, to prevent its further rise,
caused a gentle panic 'yesterday, and unsettled
every kind of business. This morning's announce-
ment that he had only gone to Philadelphia to
have a tooth extracted, Washington not possessing
any artist sufficiently dexterous to be allowed to
operate on a jaw so illustrious, somewhat re-assured
the " bulls." It, however, displeased the " bears,"
and especially all those loyal patriots who continue
to hope against hope that greenbacks and gold can
be brought to par, that the Union can be restored,
and that the contending armies of the North and
South can shake hands, forget bygones, and join
their forces to drive the Emperor Maximilian and
the French from Mexico, and annex Canada by
two simultaneous and irresistible movements.
Congress has been seized with a fit of hard work.
The Ministerial press has asserted so often and so
angrily within the last six weeks that the sole busi-
ness of the representatives was to tax the people,
and that the people on their part were so eager and
even frantic to receive the visits of the assessor and
collector that the heavier the burden that was laid
upon them the more gratified they would be, that
the House has taken the assertion as a fact, and pro-
ceeded to act upon it. Mr. Chase, who sees a limit
to his powers of borrowing, and whose new loan
—the "ten-forties," is not received with anything

like the same favour as its predecessor, the " five
twenties," had also confirmed the opinion of the
press, it it was not he who inspired it, and told the
notabilities of the Legislature, though unofficially,
that unless 500,000,000 dole. be annually raisee, the
war must end, and a financial crisis occur, the like
of which neither this nor any other country has
ever seen. The Legislature, alarmed apparently
at the prospect, has rushed into the consideration
of a new Tax Bill, and manifested its willingness to
tax anything and everything, save and except the
stock of whisky on hand, which, doubtless for
substantial reasons, a majority of its members con-
siders too sacred a thing to be touched. Very little
discussion takes place, and all sorts of ridiculous
projects are proposed and carried with an unanimity
of ignorance which will amuse foreign nations, but
will certainly not amuse Americans when the results
become apparent. The income tax of 3 per cent. on
all incomes above 600 dole., which produced last
year considerably less than one-sixth of the estimate,
hag been raised to 5 per cent., with the notion, ap-
parently, that those who evaded the tax when it was
comparatively small will pay it cheerfully when
it is large. incomes above 10,000 dole, and under
25,000 dole. ten per cent. In vain Mr. T. Stevens,
the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means,
protested against making any distinction in the rate.
In vain he urged that to make a very rich man pay
10 per cent., while the poor or moderately rich man
only paid five, was to discourage thrift end topeni,A,
wealth as a crime. The House refused to be turned
from its purpose by his arguments, and the bill
passed through all its stages so rapidly as it it had
been the merest matter of form. On a subsequent
day Mr. Stevens, with the view either of checking
the importation of foreign luxuries, such as silks,
velvets, laces, jewellery, precious stones, shawls, &se
for the adornment of the persons of the fair ladies
whose fathers, husbands, and brothers are floating
stately argosies in a sea of paper money, and spend
ing greenbacks as if each was of no more value than
a cent., or of increasing the revenue to be paid in
gold, and thus adding to the resources of the coun-
try, moved to add 50 per cent, to the already high
duties imposed by the Morrill Tariff, such increased
duties to be levied for 60 days only. the motion
was carried by acclamation. Mr. Stevens, like many
other crack-brained philanthropists, entertains the
notion that this time at least 60 days will suffice to
nd the war, and if he can bring down the price of
gold in the interval, either by destroying the foreign
trade, or by making wealthy Americans contribute
more largely to the revenues of their own country,
by the exorbitant duty they will pay on such goods,
he will do the State essential service. But Mr.
Stevens will neither destroy the foreign trade nor
put money into the Treasury by the iccredibly
feaiisle proposal which he induced the House to
adopt. No amount of duty will check the importa-
tion of articles of feminine luxury as long as the
immense war expenditure and,the consequent issues

of paper money are continued. The greater the
cost of silks and velvets the more determined the
ladies will be to obtain them. A fashionable bon-
net already casts 50 dols., and if it were to cost
200 dole, the fair Mrs. Shoddy would not forego
the:indulgence. She already trail her long skirts,
at 20 dols. a yard, in slush and saliva of Broadway,
and she will trail them with equal pride of wealth
and absence of cleanliness if they cost 100 dole.
Daring the 60 days of this stupid tariff, importa-
tion will cease, to the loss of the revenue, bat stocks
in hand will go up, and the dry goods importers,
already the most prosperous class in the comurd-
nity, will put into their pockets the whole diffe-
rence between the old tariff and the temporary
new one. And such legislation goes in Washington
by the name of statesmanship ! Nobody laughs at
it ; nobody exposes it; and nobody thinks it of
much consequence.

But taxation, and it would seem political eco-
nomy altogether, is as new to American legislators
as to the American people. They are both as igno-
rant of taxes as that inimitable flunkey immor-
talised by Cruikshank, though less happy than
that pampered individual, they will learn all about
it to their sorrow before many months are over. At

present no attempt is made to make the new sys-
tem work smoothly. The tax-collector is a great
and important person, who will not take the trouble
to come to the tax-psyer, and who will not even con•
descend to receive through the post office, or the
hands of a special messenger, the income tax re-
turns, duly certified by the signature of the Tidbit.

The earner of income must wait upon the tax col-
lector at his office—on a day set apart for the pur-
pose by that awful functionary—who may possibly
live half a dozen miles distant ; must kick his heels

in the antechamber till the great man is ready to
receive him ; and must then and there make a return
of all his income, whencesoever derived, and
solemnly swear to its truth. Daring the first year
of the experiment there must either have been as
much perjury in America as there has been blood-
letting on the battlefield, and corruption in every

department of public affairs, or the assessors and
collectors must have grossly neglected their duties.
Whether any improvement will take place under
the new aot is a question for the future, but if the
Americans, so unaccustomed to taxation, pay an
income tax ranging from 5 to 10 per cent. without
complaint or evasion they will set an example of
self-denial and patriotism such as the world has
seldom witnessed.
Tne attempt of the Legislature of New York to
defraud the foreign creditors of the State by
paying the interest of the debt in greenbacks
meets with universal reprobation. The amount at
stake is small, and from all appearances it seems
likely that governor Seymour will convene an extra
Session at Albany, especially to reconsider whether
so wealthy and solvent a State shall commit this
paltry act of bankruptcy. In a circular ad-
dressed to the leading bankers and public men
of this city the Governor recapitulates the facts,
encloses his Messages to the Legislature, and calls
upon them to save the honour of the State by
providing, by subscription among themselves, the
balance between the interest in paper and the
interest in gold for the payment of all the State
creditors, whether domestic or foreign, adding his
conviction that the money thus advanced will be a
loan which the next Legislature, if not the present,
will hasten to repay. " If there be any faltering in
the matter," he says, " New York can claim no in-
dulgent cpinion from the world, and the State will
brand itself with dishonesty." The Governor's
energetic appeal is not likely to pass unheeded. If
it were a question of hundreds of millions, there
might be a doubt of the result, but, as it is only a
matter of a few thousands, the money will be forth-

coming, and every member of the State Legislature
who voted for the petty meanness will he a marked
man, if he ever again solicits the suffrage of his fel-
low•citizens,