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

of labour; and, in the second place, any awakening
of the people to the consciousness of their grie-
vances, and of their power to redress them, lays
bare many of those social disorders to w 7 ch habit
reconciles the suffering poor, but which, once
brought into light, allow society no re t 1 a remedy
is propounded, when it is too often found practically
that the diagnosis of the evil is far easier than its
cure.

Thus I have said that, as a general rule, labour '
in America was sure of a competent remuneration.
That rule, however, was subject to great exceptions,
and the poor working girls of New York, for in-
stance,who are now on strike, received wages which,
as the papers say, " were a burning shame to the age
we live in." Many of them had till yesterday to put
up with 2 dols, or 2 dole. 50c. a week—the same
wages most male hands earned daily, the same
wages that the poor fagged creatures were allowed
before coal, clothing, and provisions had doubled in
price. There is no doubt but relief will be granted
to these and other sufferers, but the consequence
must be a further rise in prices, a further deprecia-
tion of the currency, and the necessity for further
enhancement of wages. What results similar cir-
cumstances had in France in 1793 we all know ;
we know that high prices in provisions led
to strikes, and these to compromises with the
people, till the pretensions of the latter knew no
limits ; till, upon the first show of firmness on the
part of the ruling powers, passive resistance led to
open violence, and the starving people engaged in
that struggle in which, after torrents of bloodshed,
theyTh
ew
Ae rme
ebrriocua
ngsh, ti
nt
do
ereeda smo no
:st of them, anticipate
nr
eoc ks uo
cnhucpaolna altihtiee se
dfuo cr a
ttihoeni r
o privileged
e i r
lo
lower
er land;cl
classes,
eesy,
upon their respect for the laws and love of order,
upon their safety-valves of emigration to the West
and immigration from Europe. The sources of their
wealth are inexhaustible, and so long as labour may
be had for hire, however high, money such as Mr.
Chase knows how to coin will be forthcoming. They
draw comparisons between the conditions of agri-

cultural France in 1793 and those of commercia

England in 1814. They are confident of their own
buoyancy as an industrial community and of their
ability to weather any storm. In the meanwhile
they do not consider that there is one cause of dis-
organisation among them which did not work to
the same effect either in France or England in re-
volutionary and warlike times. France withdrew
millions of men from their wonted occupations,
England paid handsome bounties for her recruits ;
but no country at any time pressed so many useful
members of the community into her armies, no
country ever bribed recruits at so extravagant a
price. The county of New York advertises this
very day for 30,000 volunteers, and the follow,lng
are the pecuniary inducements offered—

Dollars.
County bounty, cash down 1 4 3OO
State bounty .. 75
United States bounty for new recruits
United States, additional, to veterans re-enlisting 100
-- 477

Total 777
The largest sum, surely, ever held out as a tempta-

tion to soldiers.

With such inducements to a

labourer to turn his ploughshare into a musket,
and the monthly pay, which has been raised from
10 to 20 dollars, what operative would not rather

be a soldier. The enlistment goes on very slowly

nevertheless, and the, Government would certainly
be unable to raise, the 300,000 men it has called for

if the recruiti:ng officers did not fall back upon the
Irish and German immigrants and the negroes.

The lir,,ter especially will constitute the sheet
anctior of the future American army. But in the
Ir4eanwhile there is little doubt in my mind that

these monstrous bribes paid to recruits, although
they may be insufficient for tho repletion of the
army, will not fail so to disturb and confound the
relations between labour and capital as to lead not

only to fresh strikes, but possibly to riots, agrarian
movements, and social convulsions.
What in the meanwhile is the state of the American
finances? lam assured from Washington that Mr.
Chase's financial report will not be ready before the
end of this month. The Midget, it is said, will
foot up 1,200,000,000 dollars. The wants of the
navy for the coming year are estimated at 100,000,000
dols., exceeding last year's expenditure by 32,000,000
dols. The Treasury is now issuing paper at the rate
of 4,000,000 dols. daily. The actual average expen-
diture daily is estimated at 2,250,000 dole., and for
the next year at 800,000,000 dols. The largest por-
tion of this sum will go to pay the interest of the Na.

tional Debt. The money-market in the meanwhile
has been very tight for the last two weeks. The
heading of all money articles in the newspapers
has uniformly been this, "The minimum rates for
leans on call to first•class borrowers in seven per
cent.' Gold is to-day at 1481. Every one wonders
how it is that Mr. Chase does not avail himself of
the power vested in him to issue paper to the full

extent of his will and pleasure to prevent money
ever getting dear again. The Treasury printing
presses, it appears, cannot keep up with the daily
expenditures, and application must be frequently
made to the banks for loans, at high rates of in-
terest, of the very paper issuing from the Treasury.
From the 6th of August, 1861, to the 3d of March,
1863, Mr. Chase was at different epochs authorised

to issue 1,100,000,000 dols. of legal tender notes. He
was at the same time empowered to issue bonds and
certificates of different descriptions to the amount of

1,739,000,000 dots. Altogether, he could deluge the
country with 2,849,000,000 dols. of his paper, be-
sides 300,000,000 dols, to be put in circulation by
the means of the so-called " National Banks."
Notwithstanding all this, the Secretary of the
Treasury has been again and again compelled

to borrow money—his own paper money—at a
ruinous rate of interest. Witness the loan of the lst
September last, when for a 60 days' accommodation
of 50,000,000 dole. he had to pay 60,000 dole. in-
terest. A great clamour of exultation was raised
a few days ago on the report being spread that
large sums of Five-Twenties had been subscribed
to, and it was taken as clear evidence of the
public confidence in the solidity of the Govern-
ment. Those bonds, were, however, bought
by men who wanted them merely as objects
of speculation, not for a permanent investment. Mr.
Chase had paid the agents ,"i" per cent. commission
for the sale of those bonds; but the late rise in the
interest of money made it very clear that the specu-
lating purchasers has only burnt their fingers, and
they now strove to rid themselves of the stock by
giving the agents per cent. commission to sell them
for them again. The issue of those 5-20 Bonds had
no other result than to direct the money that had
been lent to the Government on temporary loans at
5 per cent., payable in paper, into these long bonds,
bearing the interest of 6 per cent. in gold, equal to
Per cent. in paper. The Treasury derived so little
realca advantage from the transaction, so little money
m
uto its till, that it had, on Monday last, to
11PO'l the banks to pay up 15,000 dols. tempo-
rary ihen.
All these
Shiftry of the Tr ts and devices of the contriving Secre•
than that of eiasury, in short, have no other effect
that Slough )It"l3:)aging him deeper and deeper into
struggling to ereeersPend out of which he is vainly
friends and foesecitLgEtii It may be no fault of his, for
attribute to him rare finan-
cial abilities. It may b5:3
of paper money to question whether the issue
"tlireut the exigencies of the
war Was a matter of choice
or
expedient having
onenebeessity ; but the
dangerous
Mr. Chase put himself on. the brink
resorted to,
e brink of an abyss
which admitted neither of
pause nor regression.
Nov. 18.
Enormous forces are mustering about While , Chatta-
nooga on either side,
agg a reinforce-
ments occupy the fields adjoining the railway from
the South for "a line eight miles in length:, Gen.
Sherman has joined Gen. Thomas with all his army,
numbering, it is said, from 25,000 to 30,000 run.
Here certainly are materials for a monster engage.
ment. Probably, however, there will be no general
encounter, unless the Confederates give the signal
of attack.
The Ultra-Abolitionists, or Niggerheads, as they
are here called, in antagonism to the Copperheads,
are savagely attacking Gen. Gilmore, because he
has intimated to the officers commanding coloured
troops that the " black soldiers are only to do
fatigue duty," and to be kept constantly at work in
"the trenches." Gen, Gilmore will hear nothing