The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-16 00:00:00

:SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—Our readers may entertain themselves
this morning with an account of the largest trade
ever known in the world. The shop is kept by the
British nation • the customers are supplied by the
four quarters Of the globe. That the story may be
well understood we publish the whole statement of
the officers whose duty it is to inspect the books and
estimate the value of the business. Our own part
will be performed in a few plain words of introduce
tion and comment. Most nations making any pre-
tension to civilisation have traded with their neighe
bours—that is to say, they have bought what they
could not produce at home or produce insufficiency,
and sold what they produced exceptionally or
produced in excess. A few communities in all
ages have carried their trade beyond these limits,
and have bought not only for use, but for the ex-
press purpose of selling again. That is what we do
now, and this is the explanation of the first great
division in the accounts before us. We export to
foreign countries first so much of our own produce
—that is to say, the produce of Great Britain and
Ireland—as we do not want at home, and then so
much of our imports from foreign countries and our
colonies as iiee do not need for home consumption.
Besides being manufacturers, therefore, we are mer-
chants and carriers, and the account of our exports
is divided accordingly between articles produced by
ourselves and articles imported for the purpose of
exporting; while our imports are similarly classi-
fied as designed for our own use or for selling to
other. The proportions existing between the diffe-
rent branches of the account will be easily discerned.
Having premised this much, we do but request
the reader, after reflecting on the prodigious mag-
nitude of the totals, to observe the simple and
natural influences on which this immense business
depends. In its fluctuations it obeys the same laws
as the business of the commonest shop. There is
exactly the same liability to overtrading and its
consequences, exactly the same uncertainty of
speculation, exactly the same recurrence of lucky
hits and unexpected disappointments. The Com-
missioners of Customs are still surprised, if not
perplexed, to discover that the suspension of the
cotton trade really tells but little on the gross
trade of the country, though the moral now evie
dent is that such a commerce as ours does not de-
pend on any one staple or any one market. We
were under a delusion from the beginning in this
matter, and were alarmed without cause. It is
not that new Kings have succeeded Cotton, bat
that cotton was never King at al!. So long as trade
is free and intercourse unimpeded we shall find out
what the wants of the world are and supply them.
People must not only eat, drink, but be clothed,
and after that they want iron. These wants will
be found to explain and cover all the items of ex-
ports selected by the Commissioners as showing a
notable increase over last year's returns- After this
we may say that the course of trade is modified by
war and the seasons, with a considerable allowance
for legislation. War is now the most potential ele-
ment at work. The American war first deprived us
of Southern cotton, and then, as its next result,
created a new class of customers and new demands.
We have been roaming over the whole earth in
search of the material which we used to procurefrom
Charleston, but could procure no longer. Where we
found it we bought it, whatever the price ; where
we did not find it, but thought it might be pro-
duced, we offered a premium for its production.
Thus our gold has been poured into India, Egypt,
and Turkey by shiploads ; and Hindoos, Egyptians,
and Turks, enriched by our money, have spent it
afterwards in our markets. Then there are the
demands arising out of the war itself and all its
hideous work. The cannon and rifles, the swords
and bayonets, the lead, the powder, the bullets, and
the cartridges, that we have sent to America repro-
seat an entirely new trade. In fact, the trade has
been actually overdone, as any other might be. The
demand for these murderous commodities, though
still four times as large as it used to be, fell off a
little last year. Even Grant and Lee, voracious
consumers as they are, could not exhaust the stores
with which we glutted the American market the
year before last. Next to war comes the season—
that annual crisis through which we are passing at
this very moment. Let the reader look well to the
harvest prospects as we report them. The result may
govern the course of the American war more power.
fully than either Grant's obstinacy or Lee's gene.
ralship. If we have to send to America for
any considerable proportion of the corn which
we want, the price paid will help the Federal
Government, mollify the tempers of the North-
Western farmers, and perhaps enable Mr. Chase's
successor to pay his way for some time. This is a
point at which the increase of our trade ceases to be
matter of congratulation. If we import more tea,
coffee, sugar, or wine than before, it is evidence of
general prosperity ; if we import more corn, it is
evidence mainly of a bad harvest. We must have
the corn somehow, and if it is not forthcoming from
the home crop, we must buy it else where and pay
for it. The excellent harvest of last year brought
our imports from America down to a very low
figure, hut left us all the richer instead o poorer.
Legislation can, of course, be so exercised as to
control trade absolutely, but in our own country
and in the present day there is no longer room for
any very great effect. A reduction of duties on any
article naturally increases consumption. It will be
seen that in the course of the last four years two-
thirds, as nearly as, possible, of the losses anti-
cipated from the removal of Customs have been
recovered from the extension of trade. But sti

these modifications, now necessarily slight, do not
much affect the gross results. Even in the most
notable instance of recent legislation—the French
Treaty—it seems doubtful whether we have not
overrated its probable action on the national trade.
The first effect of the new intercourse was an enor•
mous jump in our exports to France; but in the
very next year, the rise, though still maintained, was
less decided, and now we find that last year a reaction
had distinctiy set in. There are two explanations
of the fact. In the original rise there was probably
something artificial or factitious—that is to say,
our on portunities had been overestimated, and we
supplied goods in excess of the real demand ; so
that a little curtailment of the trade ensued when
we discovered our mistake. But, besides this, it
is said that we have put the Frenchman on his
!nettle. He has no idea of losing hie home trade if
he can keep it, and has set himself to work under
the stimulus of competition to match the manufac-

tures of England, not without success. It is, how.-
ever, remarkable that there was a miscalculation on
the other side of the account also. On nothing was
so much reliance placed, and naturally placed, as on
the disposition of Englishmen to consume French
wines if they were but mode fairly accessible. We
entertain, as our readers know, grave doubts whe-
ther this condition has been properly fulfilled, but
as things now stand, it is certain that even the con•
sumption which was actually established is already
falling off. We did hat year import wine in largely
increased quantities, but it was wine of the old
quality, not of the new. Port and sherry carried
everything before them, and totally eclipsed the
Clarets and Burgundies of our neighbours. In fact,
the practical result of the French Treaty has been
to set everybody drinking the white wines of Spain.
But the most assuring feature, after all, in the report
before us is the breadth of the commercial basis
which these very uncertain ties disclose. It is satis-
factory to find that though things do not always
happe❑ as they were expected to happen, still we
are as well off as if they did. This broad general
result, always arrived at in some way or other, is
far better than the product of some special privilege
or monopolised manufacture. It lessens risks and
distributes liabilities. If, indeed, we could lose
such a trade as the cotton trade without feeling the
loss, we may without presumption think ourselves
safe for the future from everything but war. What
war might do no man can tell, but we think nobody
can read this report of our trade without rejoicing
that peace has been preserved through this critical
year against the manifold dangers which threatened
it.

HERALD.—Once more tha Federal army has re-
coiled from the defences of Petersburg. On the 30th
July, after nearly six weeks of inaction, General
Grant made his final effort to storm the intrench-
ments frou which he had been twice driven back ;
again he was defeated with losses exceeding in all
probability those of the former assaults. The attack
had been most carefully matured ; it was looked for-
ward to with confidence in the Federal camp ; the
secret had been well kept ; it was a surprise, and
began with a disaster to the Confederates—one
of those terrible blows which most severely try
the stamina of an army—yet it failed completely
and disgracefully. Two days before two corps
of the Federal army had been transferred to the
left bank of the James River. This move-
ment was a feint, but a clumsy one. So expe-
rienced a General as Lee must have known well
that Grant had no intention of permanently
dividing his army, and the only effect the attempted
diversion had was probably increased vigilance at
Petereburg and minute preparation for the expected
assault. The two corps crossed and recrossed the
James River, and were in their old lines on the
morning of the 30th. At daybreak the assaulting
columns were quietly
massed behind the entrench•
retents, the word was given, and a touch of the elec-
tric wire hurled into the air a commanding battery
of six guns in the Confederate position, burying in
its ruins 250 of its brave defenders. Sallying forth
from their earthworks, protected by a heavy fire of
artillery
columns streamed over the shattered redoubt and
from along the whole line, the Federal
lined the trenches right and left of it. But they
had no cover from the terrific storm of musketry
and glaPo poured on thorn from the inner line of
earthwork., and they had no alternative but ti de-

liver a new assault. The fire of the Confederate s
was too deadly. Again and again the advance wa. 5
tried and failed ; and, finally, Burnside's negro re•
giments were hurled against the entrenchments.
They broke, and it was now the turn of the Confe—
derates to charge; after a brief struggle the Federal
troops were driven out of the trenches they had
occupied, a demoralised and panicstricken mob, to
the lines they occupied before the assault. The
losses must have been severe on both sides. But
the casualties of the Federals, as the assaile.nts,
would of course far outnumber those of the S.wth-
ern army, protected during the greater part of the
engagement, and we shahnot be surprised to learn
that even the bloody failures of Spnttsylvania Court
House and the Chickahominy are insignificant in
comparison with this. The report of a second el'
tack is obviously a mistake. Grant could have been
in no position to renew the struggle, and it is Olt°
clear that if he failed on the morning of the 30th,
after the successful explosion of the mine, he had
not the slightest chance three days later. The visit
of President Lincoln, and the report of an investi-
gation into the causes of the repulse,
suggest stir
thing but a continuance of the siege of Petersburg,
and favour the rumour of the withdrawal of the
whole of Grant's arm to the neighbourhood of
Washington. The prestige of the Northern armyand the honour of the United States WOUI
have suffered less if Grant had found the courage
to confess the failure of his plan of camPaig,a
after his defeats in the Wilderness and at 6Pe"-
sylvania Court House. If President Lincoln were
working singly with a view to the extinction of then
rebellion, he would probably supersede Grant, Nylla
has certainly proved himself the greatest failure'
as regards campaigning in Virginia, the North has
yet produced, with the exception of Pope. 'Tenacity
is a good quality in a general ; but the tenseits;
which week after week launches raw troops ega,in.„Bl,
impregnable positions, defended by veterans ; la
has sacrificed 100,000 men without gaining a eirjgd
victory ; and which, long after every conditio eve
success has vanished, persists in attempts to Bell
a triumph by sacrifices at which every real soldiet
is appalled, is simple madness. It is rumoured tl)4
Meade is to retire in favour of Hooker. That wea d
be quite in accord with the policy which sneri6,,enaes
M'Ciellan. Meade is a general who beg 15—,.0
sense of responsibility. His prudence has on lue-c
than one occasion saved the army of the Petl)Tilantid
from destruction and the North from ruin ;4. —de
even in the Federal army before Petersburg A-1-'lv.
is generally acknowledged to be Grant's suPeritle
The friends of the South can only hope that 'ut
rumour atay be confirmed ; for Grant, with
Meade's counsel, will certainly destroy the last areiZ
the North can put in the field. No general
the commencement of the war has wielded eue
powers as Grant. He has absolute freedom, thehaore
polo tment of all his officers, the ordering the svM..
campaign, entire irresponsibility, the entire Oen.
dence—we might say the imbecile trust--of the LI t
coin Cabinet. On him alone does the failure the
l
and what a failure-100,000 men sacrificed, eucl;r,
defences of Richmond intact ; General Lee' keePZ
him at bay with 30,000 or 40,000 troops a t Pe fte
burg, and a Confederate corps seven rajes :„r;c.,
Washington ; an army of 120,000 men rottim.
tive on the marshes of the James River and "'"tin;
bersburg, in Pennsylvania, laid under contrih utio.e_
Baltimore and Pittsburg and Philadelphia in eg"jos:
of terror, each expecting the blow will fall upt's
herself, and quite unprepared to meet it. To Grand
strategy, and to that only, is all the humiliationead
the North to be traced; and we confess we rtion
with surprise the efforts that are made by failure
failu
of the English press to build up so obvious a
a great military reputation.