The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-07 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(Froin the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Dec. 22.
The assessors from all parts of the country held
by the National Government have been again in
session to counsel the Secretary of the Treasury and
the Finance Committees of the two Houses of Con-
gress on the necessary changes in the Internal Re-
venue Bill, to make it as productive as originally
estimated. The proposed amendments are nume-
rous ; and these gentlemen further advise, in order
to secure uniformity of practice and construction,
that the bill shall be entirely rewritten and codified.
Some of the proposed taxes will strike Englishmen
who are not old enough to remember the taxation
of the wars of Napoleon as very curious, not to say
harsh. Iron nails, screws, castings, forging, rivets,
rolled copper, ingots, pigs and bars, soft soap, all
manufactures of leather, all oils, all materials used
in shipbuilding, the clothes made at your tailor's,
the repairs to the same clothes which you have made
if war prices force you to be economical, the teeth
with which the dentist fills the gap that unkind
natare has ma de, the cream and water ice with
which the confectioner softens the miseries of an
American summer, bricks, cement, books (except
Bibles), umbrella stretchers, crinoline, and root beer,
are collected together into an omnibus ad valorem
bill, which cells on all citizens of the Republic to
pay tax for their good government on everything
they use or wear except the air and sunlight of
heaven. Congress does not look upon this outside
attempt at legislation with unqualified favour, and
I fancy that, in spite of the wishes of Government,
there will be no change made in
.the law till after
the Christmas holidays.
Another measure which the Administration was
equally anxious to have acted upon at once, the
Enlistment Act, will probably go over the recess,
owing to a difference of opinion as to the changes to
be made. The friends of the South—open and secret
—urge the radical change of making every man
liable within the specified age, without power of
furnishing a substitute or of commutation. While
the supporters of the Administration are strong
enough to put down any such amendment as this,
they are by no means agreed among themselves as
to what is best. Some wish to abolish the commuta-
tion clause, others to consolidate the various classes
of rolls, and it is by no means certain what shape
the differing opinions will take. Meanwhile the
effect of delay will probably be the postponement
of the draught, which had been fixed for Jsn. 5.
The TVorld of this morning furnishes a table
showing the number of votes that will be requisite
under the President's Proclamation, to enable the
"rebel" States to return to the Union—the Procla-
mation requiring a registration of but one•tenth of
the number of voters in 1860 ;
Vote in 18'0. No. required.
Alabama
Arkansas..
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
69,120 6,912
Tennessee
North Carolina ..
Texas
" Virginia and South Carolina," it says, " are not
included in this list, bec "'use the former is not men.
tioned in the proclamation, and the latter never
casts Presidential votes." This newspaper, and the
political element it represents, are opposed to the
proclamation as requiring of the Southerners a month
which will exclude msny who would otherwise be
glad to return, yet concedes the almost certainty of
the early return of the States of Louisiana, Ar-
kansas, and Tennessee ; and the probability of the
return of Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama in the
spring, should there be further military successes
with General Banks and at Mobile. It cannot be
denied that the formation and maintenance of State
Governments in the capitals of these States, on an
anti-slavery basis, and a continual participation by
any considerable number of their population in the
legislation at Washington, will have a damaging
effect upon the Southern cause, and we cannot be
surprised if the experiment is regarded with some
apprehension at Richmond. On the other hand the
pretences of the abolition papers that the procla-
mation has any effect upon the armies of Lee and
Bragg, I believe to be entirely without foundation.
I do not believe that they have lost, or are likely to
lose, a single man from this cause.
The Southern line of the electric telegraph made
a great sensation in town yesterday, by announcing
from Richmond that on the 18th inst. the armour
plated Ironsides and three Monitors, while attempt-
ing to pass the obstructions in Charleston harbour
had become entangled, and that the Monitors had
become disabled and the Ironsides would probably
have to be abandoned. This intelligence is not cre-
dited here. Oa ly last week we had from the same
source news of the destruction of the gunboat Day-
light, while this morning we learn that there was no
truth in the report. Probably before this letter
reaches you, telegraphic intelligence, either confir-
matory or explanatory of the Richmond bulletin,
will reach you. If the news is true, it is very dis-
astrous to the Federals, for it is understood that the
Confederates have ironclads at Charleston waiting
the proper moment to come out and break the block-
ade. The favour with which the Monitors are re-
garded by the Navy Department is not shared by
naval officers. Congress has called for the publica-
tion of all the reports of their behaviour in action,
and we shall soon know the whole story. Mean-
while we have in the documents accompanying the
report of the Secretary an instalment of what we
may expect when the whole truth about these ves•
eels is known. The New York Times of this more-
ing publishes an extract from the report of each
commanding officer of a Monitor at the action in
Charleston harbour. These extracts are very curi-
ous, and well worth attention. Before quoting from
them, however, let me say en passant that I had it
from a gentleman, who was in Sumter at the time,
that no damage was done to it by any shot from
these vessels. Capt, Drayton, in command of the

1)48E01C, says
"At the fourth shot from the 11-inch gun I was struck
in quick succession in the lower part of the turret by two
heavy shot, which bulged in its plates and beams, and,
forcing togetner the rails on which the 11-inch carriage
worked, rendered it wholly useless for the remainder of the
action, several hours being neces?ary to put it in working
order. Soon afterwards it was discovered that there was
something the matter with the turret itself, which could
tot be moved ; and on examination it was found that a part
of the brass ring underneath it had been broken off, and
being forced inboard had jammed. On closing this the
turret could again be moved, but for some time irregularly.
A little after a rifle shot struck the upper edge of the tur-
ret, broke all of its eleven plates, and then, glancing up-
ward, took the pilot-house, yet with such force as to make
an indentation of two and a half inches, extending nearly
the whole length of the shot. The blow was so severe as
to considerably smash in the pilot-house, bend it over, open
the plates, and squeeze out the top; so that on one side it
was lifted up three inches above the top on which it rested
exposing the inside of the pilot-house, and rendering it
likely that the next shot would take off the ton itself
entirely,"
Captain Rodgers, cf the Weehawken, says that
the deck of that vessel " was pierced so as to make
a hole through which water ran into the vessel; 38
bolts were broken in the turret and a good many in
the pilot-house." Captain Wooden " experienced
serious embarrassment in manceavring (the Mon-
tauk) in the narrow and uncertain Channel, with
the limited means of -observation afforded from the
pilot-house," and "is led to believe that Charleston
cannot be taken by the naval force now present,
and that had the atta:qc been continued it could not
have failed to have resulted in disaster." Captain
Ammen. of the Patapaco, thinks " a want of vision
one of the most serious objections to vessels of this
class, making it imprsssible to fight them advanta-
geous!y," and that " if it is proposed to batter down
forts with a 15 inch gun, then it is quite plain that
we have to come within distances at which heavy
ordnances, if employed in heavy batteries against
us, cannot fail in the end to inure and perhaps dis-
able us." Captain Rodgers, of the Catskill, " was
surprised to find, even with this severe fire, that
these vessels could be so much injured in so short a
time." Commander Fairfax, of the Nantucket, is
" convinced that although this class of vessels can
stand la very heavy fire, yet the want of more guns
will render them c,impara:i7Ay hsrmiea Erfo:e for-
mid tbla earth works and fot ts ;" and "is disap-
pot:, ted, beyond measure, at this enperimeat of
Monitors oTercotring strong forts ;" and Captain

Downes, of the Nahant, after detailing at length the
accidents to his vessel, says " it is my opinion that
four more such shots as it received would have de-
molished it." We might conclude from this mass
of concurrent testimony that the Monitors were
humbugs, if they had not since been under fire from
the same batteries without irjnry, and if the cap-
ture of the armour-plated Atalanta were a piece of
unwritten history. As it is we must wait for the
further revelations from the archives of the Navy
Department which the Congress has called for.
The same department is also experimenting upon
the use of petroleum as fuel for generating steam,
and the result is represented by the newspapers as
satisfactory, but I have had no opportunity of mak-
ing inquiries on the subject.
The news of the violent release of the captured
crew of the Chesapeake at Halifax is received in
the most good-natured manner in New York as ata
offset on British soil to the riots in July last. The
opportunity for the retort has not been lost in any
of the newspapers.

In looking over what I have written about
Congress I see that I have failed to notice that the
House has sanctioned the payment of the present
great bounties for enlistment, thus endorsing the
policy by which the Administration seek to avoid a
draught. It has also by a very large majority
(many border State members voting with the majo-
rity) authorised the continuance of the enlistment
of negro troops, so that this incisive measure may
now be regarded as the settled policy of the Go-
vernment. It can hardly be doubted that results
fatal to the Confederates must flow from it.