The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-15 00:00:00

the tornado of shot through which they nave passed.
I have, as it happens, seen too many Confederate
battle flags which have been through every en-
counter of the war, and which (as the Northern
bullets are far more numerous than th , Southern)
have been exposed to a fiercer fir to believe in
this demonstration of Northern bloodthirstiness.
But the sight never fails "to bring the house down,"
and elicit the rapturous cheer of Broadway, which
believes in the truthfulness of the exhibition, and
makes many a secret resolve to keep far away from
the spot where such scenes are enacted.
But all things the most astonishing and bewil-
dering to the stranger fresh from Richmond is the
sons and daughters. I have hardly patience to
dwell upon the evidences of my meaning. A slave
who has run away from Richmond, and gives out
that he has escaped from President Davis, is ele-
vated into an authority, and mounts the rostrum
through the columns of the public journals. "The
Southern armies are melting away by desertion, and
Lee and Longstreet can hardly keep the field." It
will be as well to state once for all that in the spring,
summer, and autumn months the balance of
deserters is always in favour of the Confederates,
but that in the depth of winter, while inaction and
stagnation prevail, the Federals are, as it were,
tethered by their teeth to their own standards.
"North Carolina is on the eve of yielding to the
blandishments of Gen. Butler, and, headed by Go-
vernor Vance, will be back in the Union by the 4th
of next July." Am I dreaming, or did I hear a fort-
night ago from Governor Vance that he would ra-
ther fight for 20 years than consent to anything but
full, final, and irrevocable dissolution of the Union ?
" Vice-President Stephens, the ablest man in the
South, is at the point of death." Daring 16 months
in the Confederate States I have never seen and
scarcely ever heard of Vice-President Stephens.
The list of similar chimeras might be swelled to

infinity. As it was in the beginning, so it is now,
and so it will be to the end. Suppressto yen* alter-
nate with suggestio falsi : the Union must and shall
be maintained, because every man in the Northern
States so wills it, and will give his last dollar rather
than abandon the contest ! It is useless to reply
that the dollars which they are giving are " bogus ;"
that this war will be won not by those who print
fastest, but by those who shed their blood most
freely, and face self-denial with most sublime indif-
ference. " Constantly prefer a state of want to a
state of abundance," says one of the wisest writers
of all time. Behold in the contrasted aspect of two
sections the moral conveyed in this apothegm !
I could not but think, in the first instance, of
my parting conversation, a few hours before, with
President Davis ; of his calm weighty analysis of
the comparative strength of the belligerents about
to close in a fourth and deathlier grapple; of
his quiet earnest confidence ; his kindling eye,
Were it not that I remember that the deified Wash-
ington was surrounded on earth by detractors and
vilifiers—that on his right hand stood Charles Lee
fomenting by anonymous addresses discord among
the American troops, and on his left Jefferson lend-
ing his great powers to secret defamation of his
chief—l should search for special attributes in the
Southerners to account for the fact that, although
almost unanimous against the Yankee, they lack
wisdom or virtue enough to appreciate the man
whom, of all others, Providence has accepted for his
mighty task. But, in spite of their indignant re-
fusal to be gauged by the measure of other nations,
history is for the Americans the same revolution of
cycles and repetition of incidents as for every other
people on earth.
Secondly, as I looked down on 'Broadway, and
mused upon its kaleidoscopic face, I could not but
remember the reflections of one of the brightest
intellects in Richmond, as he told me, when taking
leave of him, in what garb I should find New York,
and described the scene now before me with the in-
tuition of genius, and in words which it would be
well if I could reproduce for your readers. He said,
" What delights me above all is to hear of the
wealth, the splendour, the lavish prodigality of New
York. Tiffany never had such a demand for dia-
monds, Stewart can hardly sell a shawl if it is worth
less than 1,500 dollars. Never were there such im-
ports of women's gear from Paris, of articles de luxe
from London. For all this payment in gold is in-
dispensable; the day of reckoning will come, though
it may not be yet."
It is impossible not to ask " When will that day
come ?" I own that Ido not think the end is at
hand yet. It is not necessary that I should waste
your readers' time by pointing out that a defensive
war was never yet stopped by financial destitution,
and that therefore the depreciation of the Southern
currency is of insignificant moment. But, although
in the course of the present year gold cannot but
constantly be on the rise in New York, even
although the North may gain considerable suc-
cesses, it will be long before the fabric of visionary
wealth which they are worshipping will crumble
into dust. Upon this subject no warnings from an
Englishman will be for a moment endured. I will
conclude, therefore, by quoting an extract from an
American authority, who tells his countrymen, if
they wculd but listen to him, that
" Tolluntur in altum,
" Ut lapsu graviore ruant,"
In 1855 Professor Bowen, who occupies the chair
of Moral Philosophy at Harvard College, pub-
lished a work which deservedly met with high
approbation throughout the Northern States. I
would venture to invite to this work the attention
of all those who wish to see able writing about
paper money and its delusions. Professor Bowen
points out that in 1783 the continental currency
issued by the American Congress when struggling
in the agonies of the Revolutionary War amounted
to 200,000,000 dole. in circulation, and that 500 dole,
and even 1,000 dots. in this currency was offered for
one in silver. He adds, in substance, the following
remarks:—" It must not be inferred, however, that
this rapid depreciation of the currency will seem to
impede traffic or paralyse industry. On the contrary
—at least until the depreciation has become extreme,
I say 500 for I—commerce and labour will be galva-
nized into unnatural activity, and a deceitful glow
of animation and success—like the flush of a fever
—will appear to pervade the nation. Prices rise, of
course, as rapidly as the currency falls; property
which was sold for 100 dols. to-day will command
500 dole. or 1,000 dols. to-morrow. At the same
time money is superabundant, and those who were
once too poor to buy can now easily obtain the
means of purchase. The pressure of debt is
also lessened ; obligations are cancelled by paying
back what is actually but one half, one fourth, or a
still smaller fraction of the real value which was due.
Ease in getting rid of old debts only creates a thirst
for contracting new ones. Commerce is thus stimu-
lated, while the basis on which it rests is every day
becoming less secure. A reckless spirit of specula-
tion akin to gambling in its chat acter and results
appears to have seized the greater part of the com-
munity. The circulation of continental money in
America in 1779, as we are told by a writer of that
day, was ' never more brisk and quick than when
its exchange was 500 for I.' And M. Thiers,
speaking of the depreciation of the French assignats
in 1795, says that to the horrors of famine were
added the scandals of reckless speculation and stock-
jobbing, the sale of merchandise which had no ex-
istence—as the pretended traffic was only betting on
prices—and the diffusion of a taste for luxury, dis-
sipation, and excess which is the invariable con-
comitant of sudden mutations of fortune.' . . .
Professor Bowen then explains the cause of this de-
preciation of the paper money, which he shows to be
its excessive issue and the fact that it is irredeem-
able. Speaking of a reversion from paper to specie
currency, he says—J. The immediate consequences
are in striking contrast with the results already
noticed of the first issue of paper money and its
gradual depreciation. The latter seemed to animate
industry and commerce, to relieve the pressure of
debt, and to supply abundant funds for enterprises
which must otherwise have been abandoned ; but
the former seems to carry the community back by a
cruel revulsion to worse evils than those from which
it had apparently been rescued ; it is the state of
collapse which sometimes follows the excitement
and delirium of a fever. It is now seen that the
issue of paper money is really a desperate measure,
that the relief which it promises is but temporary,
and that the prosperity which it causes is wholly
fallacious."