The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-05 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(prom the Tines' Correspondent.)
NEW \roux, Aug. 23.
Though the military situation is anythirg but

hopeful, and the financial situation is that of a
gloom rapidly deepening into darkness, the political
situation is so much more important than either as
to almost entirely engross the attention of the pub.

ic. It is not whether Grant will take Richmond

Sherman Atlanta. or Farragut Mobile, that people
are now asking, but, who will be nominated for the
Presidency atthicago on Monday next. Mr Fessen-

den's popular loon is a proved failure ; but the ques-
tion of finance, and ninety-nine people of a hundred
are far less interested in knowing what Mr Fessen-
den will do, than in speculating upon what is likely
to be done with the currency when Mr Fessenden
and his colleagues shall be voted out of office. The
attitude of parties upon the question of an armistice
and a Convention of the States is so clearly defined
that no military success achieved between this time
and the 29th can have much effect upon the issue.
Were Grant to capture Richmond, which nobody
believes possible, it would not weaken the hands
of the mejority to be represented at Chicago which
has resolved to try whether compromise and con-
ciliation are not more likely to restore the Union
than fire and sword, Were Sherman to take At■

Tanta, which he has but slender chance of doing, it
would give Mr Lincoln and his party no stronger
hold upon the popular confidence than they possess
to-day, and would not modify the opinion of the
two igreat sections of the Democracy, that the
time has come for friendly debate on the recon-
struction of the commonwealth. The Northern
people have not lost their love for the Union. They
have simply their faith in the war as a means of
restoring it. For this reason they are in favour of
an armistice and a subsequent Convention, be•
Having, as Mr Lincoln himself is reported to have
said, that such a cessation of the strife could
not possibly be productive of evil to the Federal
cause, but would certainly be productive of good
even if the good were of no greater account than
the exhibition to the Powers of Europe of a desire
on the part of the Northern people to listen to rea-
son, and to withdraw their qaarrel from the bloody
arbitrament of battle.
It will doubtless be asked in Europe whether the
Southern States, though gladly and for obvious rea-
sons consenting to an armistice, would consent to
send delegates to the proposed Convention. I believe
I am justified in stating, as the conviction left upon

my mind after repeated conversations on that sub-
ject with tho diplomatists who have taken up their

abode on the Canadian side of the Falls of Niagara,
gentlemen who claim to possess the entire confidence
of the Confederate Government, and to represent its
views and wishes in this, and other respects,—that
every Southern State would do so on the following
terms :—First, that the Federal Government should
consider Virginia as one State and not as two, in-
asmuch as the creation of the State of Western
Virginia without the consent of all Virginia was
illegal and unconstitutional—second, that in any
State partially occupied by the Federal armies or
menaced by Federal navies, such as Louisiana,
Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, the Federal sol-
diers should possess no vote, and that the utmost
freedom of election of delegates should be guaran-
teed to all bona fide citizens; and thirdly, that in
such border States as Kentucky, Maryland, and
Missouri, where there is so strong a sympathy for
the Southern cause, that not even the most brutal
of military despotisms can repress it, the Federal
Government will re-establish civil and suspend
martial law, and allow the delegates to be elected
by the ordinary action of the people. These condi-
tions cannot be considered unreasonable. They
are founded alike upon the princip'es of the Fede-
ral and the Confederate constitutions, and
seem to be inherent in any truly Republican
form of Government. If conceded they would
give the South the representation Of 15 of th© 34
States that once comprised the Union :—namely,
Texas (1), Louisiana (2), Arkansas (3), Mis-
souri (4), Mississippi (5), Alabama (6), Georgia (7).
Florida (8), Tennessee (9), Kentucky (10), South
Carolina (11), North Carolina (12), Virginia (13),
Delaware (14), and Maryland (15). Were the North
united in purpose and rent by no political dissen7

would, for social and commercial as well as political
reasons, cast their votes with the South rather than
break off negotiations and renew a hopeless as well
as sanguinary struggle, it may be anticipated, if the
Convention shall ever meet, that the South will hold
the stronger hand, and play the winning game in
conference as in war. If New Englaad and the
sparsely peopled States of the Far West should under
such circumstances prove recalcitrant and rebelli-
ous, the Southern and Middle States would be quite
content to permit their peaceable secession, and to

recognise their independence as a separate common-
wealth. They would not mete out to the Puritans
the measure that Puritanism has meted to the South,

but would rather be rid of them than consent to be

any longer encumbered with their advice, their
assistance, their interference, or their partnership.
But though Mr Lincoln, Mr Seward, and other
influential members of the party in power look

'avourable rather than otherwise on the proposal

of an armistice, and would cheerfully adopt it

if by that means they could take the wind out
of the sails of the Democracy at Chicago, and
defeat General M'Clellan, Mr Dean Richmond,
or whomsoever msy be the nominee on the 29th,
the rank and file of Republicanism and Aboli-
tionism mistrust and denounce the project. They

bresee that a general convention, if it restored the

Union, could only do so by yielding to the South

on the question of slavery. For such a result
they are not prepared. They love the Union much,
but they hate slavery more, and are willing to
sacrifice the Union, rather than fail in securing the
emancipation of the whole negro race on this conti.
nent. They believe in the superior strength and

determination of the North and in the certain col-

lapse of the South, and prefer the extermination
of every slaveholder, male and female, and of every
alaveholder's family between Texas and Delaware,
to negotiation on any other basis than that so suc-
cinctly laid down in Mr Lincoln's letter to "whom
it may concern." A clergyman, dating his letter
from Philadelphia, breaks ground in this sense in
the columns of the Tribune, and though asserting

himself to be " a minister of the Gospel of peace,"

declares against an armistice, against a convention,
against the making of any terms, except those of
emancipation and unconditional surrender, and in
favour of war to the extremity of extermination

against what he calls the "infernal rebels." Un-
happily, there are too many in America who dese-
crate the pulpit by language and sentiments like
this to allow it to be believed that this fiery fanatic

stands alone in his wrath. The bishops, archbishops,

and leading clergy of the Episcopal and Roman

Catholic churches have in large numbers signed a

petition to the President in favour of an armistice,
but the Calvinistic, Independent, Evangelical, Uni.
tarian, Puritan, Universalist, and other Churches

and sects hold savagely aloof. Their pastors and
ministers sound the war trumpet, and raise the

war whoop was fiercely as if they were the abori-

ginal red men of the Wilderness, and had never
heard a word of that blessed Gospel of good-will

of which they profess to be both the disciples and

the preachers.
The secular wing of the ultra-Republicans and
Abolitionists is as impracticable as the clerical, and
opposes a convention, without which an armistice

would be a non sequitur, on the ground that the

"rebels" could not by the terms of the Constitu-
tion, be allowed to sit in Convention, unless they
first of all took an oath to support the said Con-
stiution, or, "in other words," says the meta-
physical Evening Post, " before a convention
could be legitimately constituted the rebels must
put themselves in a position which would vacate
entirely the need of any such body." But the Post
perverts the whole case in its anxiety for continued
war. The Constitution of the United States provides
for its own amendment, and prescribes the proceed-
ings to be adopted to that end ; but does not provide
for a separation of the sovereign States, because its
farmers did not foresee—or were not called upon to
admit the possibility of such a forcible disruption of
their own voluntary compact as that which • they
wrought successfully against their involuntary or
implied contract with the mother country. The
spirit of the Constitution is clearly in favour of a
convention to be held before differences of opinion
and antagonism of interest have produced violence
and bloodshed, and with the view of preventing
them by mutual and wise concession. But after the
violence has been done and the blood has been shed
the letter of the Constitution no longer applies; and
to this extent the Republican jurist is right in his
interpretation of the document. The truth is that
the Constitution, if not waste papers is at this mo-
provement ; and
itm forent aonperawcthicicahl niut lcloitnys.ideTrs an
heSoituuth has repudiated
the North, under Mr. Lincoln's management, has
seotnisttiatsuitdieonanwdeprreovtshdee:divninogsulr)esatiitituy which it waste. Even if the
Constitution
until Mr. Lincoln became its executive, and not the
dead letter which he and adverse circumstances have
made it, it would not be under the civil but under
the war power that a convention not foreshadowed
wi
iihn p ervade
s living
the
in that document could be summoned by Mr. Ida
ferson Davis and Mr. Lincoln in the States which
severally recognise their autboritY• The same
powers that can agree to an armistice can agree to
call a convention, for were it otherwise the war
could only end in the exhaustion of one or both of
the belligerents, or by the forcible intervention of
foreign Powers—injured in their interest and scan.
T
dalised in their Christianity by its aggravated con-
tinuance. I
oduigshfavthouer of
this Puritan
the armistice, aun
r tyitcainclergy,
philosophersand the doctrinaire
and new England may look
h
very different
feeling
w ourpkoinn classes.givs g e
s The labour.
nig t
multitude
rave been the
greatest sufferers by the war--and would loathe it
for the hardships which it has inflicted upon them,
even it were not accompanied by the
terrors of the
conscription. As an armistice would postpone the
draught for six months, if it did not render it defi-
nitively unnecessary, they are unanimous in its fa-
vour—so unanimous and so earnest that were the
project to be abandoned in consequence of a diffi-
culty or objection arising on the part either of the
South or the North, its enforcement in this city,
and perhaps elsewhere, would be far more perilous
to the public peace than if the idea had never been
promulgated. More than the want of money, which
can be supplied by the Treasury printing press at—
Washington—of course under the usual penalities
of depreciation of the currency, and the dread of
bankruptcy and repudiation—it is the want of men
that will compel the Federal Government to take
heed lest its present haughty spirit should not go
before destruction. The fighting material of the
American people is nearly exhausted, and since the
resultless and sickening butchering of Gen. Grant,
who, in the words of the New York Daily News,
has provided either a cripple or a corpse for half
the homes of the North, the little enthusiasm
that previously existed has cooled down to a very
temperate, if not to a freezing point. Federal agents
in Germany are offering as ranch as 1,000 dollars
bounty to gble bodied recruita, and are carrying on
under the thin disguise of engaging labourers for
railways in the West, a similar system in Ireland.
These and the veterans whose terms of service has
expired arc the sole sources on which the Government
can rely for so many as 50,000 men. Even the jour-
nals which vehemently support the Administration,
and which most persistently refuse to see the dark
side of things, are compelled to admit that the hearts
of the people, if not estranged from the war, are
estranged from taking any part in it. In alluding
to an advertisement calling upon the students of
Yale College residing in this city to assemble in
public meeting to devise and adopt a method of
mutual insurance against the draught, the New
York times coarse-es aud deplores that such is the

case. " Everywhere," it says, " there is a disposi-
tion to get clear of the duty. How to escape the
draught is the leading question of the day. All
devices are resorted to. The gutters are dragged
for substitutes. Traps are set in Europe. Negro
slaves, who owe the Republic nothing but curses,
are driven to the rescue. Nowhere is there to be
found a straightforward, personal response to pa-
triotic obligation. The Republic calls upon her
sons to defend her. Unless she has that defence
her destruction is inevitable." This is excellent
scolding and irrefutable truth ; but it will not cause
anybody else but an Irish or German mercenary, to
shoulder the musket. It is the great, but not the
only, difficulty which besets the Government, and
places it between the two fires of defeat by the
Southern armies, or a new civil war within its own
limits, in the attempt to enforce by violence a mea-
sure utterly odious to all its citizens, whether native
or naturalised; and which has no attractions except
to the most needy and reckless of the European
immigration. The very negroes have resolved to
steer clear of hostilities and to volunteer no more.
" At first," says one of them, named Welles Brown,
in an address to his brethren at Boston, " I desired
that coloured men should go to this war, to convince
this God-forsaken nation that black men were as
brave as white men ; but our people have been so
cheated, robbed, deceived, and outraged that I can-
not urge then to go. We have an imbecile Admi-
nistration, and the most imbecile management it is
possible to concieve." If Sambo is to fail him Mr
Lincoln is badly off indeed, and ought to be grateful
to the Chicago Convention if it give him so admi-
rable a chance of respite as the armistice will afford.

STATE OF TRADE.

BARNSLEY, Sept. 3.—The coal trade throughout

the whole of Sonth Yorkshire for the seven days

ending this day has been unusually brisk, and from
the reports which come to hand from other parts
the same activity characterises the trade elsewhere.

The demand for the metropolitan dealers, who just
now are making large inquiries for gas and Silk.

- - _
stone coals, is quite as good as last week, and rather
better than is usual at this period of the year. The

provinces are just now taking a good deal, which is
a pretty fair indication of the steady progress of
trade. Since the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lin-

coloshire Railway have worked the South York•

shire rather more coal has found its way into Lan.
cashire ; and this, added to a rapidly increasing in-
quiry for Hull, makes trade brisk. On one day
during the present week more coal wap shipped at
Keadby for Hull than at any other time since the
South Yorkshire extended its line to that port. To
Grimsby there is also a good demand.
BIRMINGHAM, 3d.—The trade of this town con-

tinues remarkably good for the time of year; the
orders through the factories are much beyond the
average, and in the foreign department business is
active, the bulk of the orders in on that account

being for South America, the West Indies, and
Canada, but there is also a steady trade to Spain and
to some of the Eastern markets. In all the principal

branches manufacturers are well engaged; there is
a steady demand for material ; the metal-rollers,
edge•tool makers, iron-wire drawers, hollow-ware
manufacturers, and tin-plate workers have amply
sufficient orders to keep their establishments in full

operation ; and it is only in very few instances that
goods are being made up for stock. The gasfitters,
and lamp and chandelier makers are gradually
getting busy.
BRADFORD, 31—Although a more cheerful tone
has pervaded the market during the week, the busi-
ness done has teen exceedingly limited. Buyers
merely supplied their actual necessities, and prices
were, if anything, rather easier. On the whole,
however, staples were firm, and showed a disposi•

tion to retain their stocks rather than make any
considerable concession in price. Prices being some-
what unsettled, the approaching Bristol fair is
looked forward to as promising to establish them.
There was considerably less doing in worsted yarns
and pieces. Spinners whose contracts are expiring
were more disposed to meet customers. The few
export buyers who appeared in the market could
operate more advantageously, especially in most
single yarns, which were much easier to buy than
two-folds and genappe, though these als) had a
Blight softening tendency. Manufacturers, espe-
cially of plain goods, were curtailing production
by stopping machinery. With the single excep-
tion of alpaca lustres, which were in good demand
all classes of goods were exceedingly sluggish and
easier to buy.
DUNDEE, 2d.—Throughout the week very little
business has been done in any department in conse-
quence of the annual holidays. To-day there was a
fair attendance at market, and a slightly improved
feeling was visible. Flax continues very difficult
to sell, excepting at lower prices, and as sellers
are unwilling to make the concession wanted, little
has been sold. Fine tow and codilla are in mode-
rate request, and bring full prices, but common will
not move. Jute is very inactive and scarcely a
transaction is reported. To sell lower prices must
be taken. The demand for yarns was rather better
than last week, all qualities being quite as firm as
they then were, and some sizes of jute rather in
favour of sellers. Orders for linens still come for-

ward t o a full extent, and manufacturers are a;

busily employed. There was rather more inquiry
for goods adapted for the American market to-day
and some pretty extensive transactions took place
in them, but at low prices. _

HALIFAX, 3d.—The demand for piece goods has
been rather slack this week, both the home trade
and the export houses operating cautiously. The
continued tightness of the money market keeps
operations rather backward, and as a good deal of
goods for the fall of the year has been purchased,
and has not yet got into the hands of the retail
dealers, the market ruled fiat. With a change of
the season an improvement in the demand may be
expected, and in the meantime manufacturers are
well employed. The carpet and damask trades are
quiet but steady. The yarn spinners are mostly
well employed, and prices are steady. Though the
local wool trade has not been very animated during
the week, prices are without material alteration.
HUDDERSFIELD, 3d.—The woollen trade, in the
warehouses as well as in the public market, has
been rather sluggish this wrek. The attendance of
buyers from the metropolis has been small, nor has
there been a full average of the usual attendance
from other places. The stocks will consequently
improve in quantity, and more goods of a season-.
able character will be forthcoming, so that pur-
chasers, for the next few markets at least, will
probably not have to complain, as some of them
lately have done, that they could not meet with what
they require, Good black doeskins and the middle
and best qualities of fancy trouserings command
ready sale, and heavy coatings of good quality and
neat pattern are not difficult to dispose of. Prices
generally are very firm. Wools keep up and the
local brokers are not overstocked. The purchases
at the late sales of colonial wools in London are
going into consumption. The quality and condition
are well spoken of.
Leens, 3D.—There has been a little improvement
in the woollen cloth trade here during the week,
more geode having been purchased both by the ex-
port houses and those in the home trade. To-day,
however,the markets in the cloth halls were scarcely
so brisk as might be expected. The attendance of
buyers was not large, and operations were slow.
The aspect of the money market and the various
statements as to the probability of some material
change being made in the affairs of America cores
bine to keep speculations in the cloth trade in
abeyance. The principal fabrics sold to-day were
tweeds, and those of good make sold readily at the
full quotations of the past month. There was a
miscellaneous demand for heavy goods and for plain
clothe, but the aggregate bulk sold was below an
average. The wool market is steady, and prices of

LEIC ESTER, 3d.—There has been a good deal of
activity in the hosiery trade during the past week.
All departments of business have been busy, except
the glove branch manufacturers, being well engaged
with orders on band. In the country districts busi-
ness is healthy. The wool market is quiet, but prices
continue very high. Yarns are very firm, and extreme
rates are realised, spinners being fully employed.

MANCHESTER, 3d.—The market has been ex-
ceedingly flat throughout the week, On Tuesday
there were some hopes of a reactio❑ consequent on
advices of diminished stocks and a considerable
rise of prices in India. The near approach,
however, of the Presidential Election in America
and the uncertainty as to how far the peace party
may influence events during the next two months
tend to paralyse the strongest nerves. Those who
wish to keep up prices, however unfavourable to the
Federals have reason to deprecate for the present
any success to their opponents which may threaten
the chances of Lincoln and stop the war, for nn•
doubtedly the prospect of such events has a tendency
to throw commercial affairs here into a state of
chaos which nobody can foresee the end of. Most
people seem to think the end of the struggle may
be near, and many heartily wish that it may be so ;
but it is feared, nevertheless, as fraught with many
serious evils, and prudent men are inclined as much
as possible to wait and lessen, rather than increase,
their risks at the present moment. Buyers are
consequently showing unusual timidity, and it is
difficult even to get offers of any magnitude. The
Indian mails seem to have bronght few orders of
an imperative character, so that very little business
(almost nothing) is doing by shippers to Bombay
and Calcutta, while buyers for others markets are
doing exceedingly little. Prices are in favour of
buyers, but generally speaking, the market retains
more firmness than might be expected under the
circumstances.

NEWCASTLE-ON.TYNE, 3d.—The high rate of in.
terest seems to be affecting the trade of the north•
eastern counties somewhat, and business has been
quieter this week. The freight market is decidedly
weaker in all its branches, and at present there is a
tolerably ample supply of tonnage in the ports, The
business done in the iron market at Middlesborough
this week is reported as limited. Prices there have
a hardening tendency, however. The demand for
iron to be used in local consumption and for exporta•
tion is very good. It is stated that the extensive
iron works of Messrs. Bolckow and Vaughan, at
Middlesborough, Easton, Shildon, and Witton Park
will become the property of a limited liability com-
pany in January. The whole of the capital required
has been subscribed, almost exclusively at Manches-
ter. Several high class iron ships have been
launched in the north-eastern ports this week. The
Dalmatia, of over 1,390 tons, and an iron screw
steamer of 1,415 tons, were launched, the first from
the building yard of Mesas Denton, Gray, and
Co., the second from the yard of Messrs Pile,
Spencer, and Co., of Hartlepool, on Thursday ; and
this afternoon Messrs Palmer Brothers, of Jarrow,
launched a magnificent steamship, the Ontario, of
over 3,000 tons, the largest iron ship built on the
Tyne, and intended for the National Company of
Liverpool.

Refusing to Attend Church.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

The Marquis Townshend presents his compli•
ments to the Editor, and begs to enclose copy of a
corrEspondence which he has had with the Home-
office on the subject of the most oppressive and
unjust sentence passed upon Isaac Watson by the
magistrates at Duffield for refusing to attend
church on Sunday.
6, Grosvenor-place, Scp,. 4, 1864.

6, Grosvenor-place, July 23, 1861.
Sir,—l beg to draw your attention to the following
statement extracted from the nixes of the 19th inst. :
" Isaac Watson, servant with Mrs llarrison, Duffield
Vold, was summoned before the Rev G. T. Clare, the
Rev IL Foord, and Mr J. Grimston, and charged by
George Lyons, Mrs Harrison's manager, with refusing to
attend church on Sunday, being requested by his mistress
to do so. The defendant was ordered to attend some place
of worship and to pay expenses."
I shall be obliged if you will cause the correctness of this
statement to be inquired into, and if you will inform me,
should it prove correct, under what act of Parliament the
the magistrate's sentence has been pronounced.—l have
the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,

TOVNSHEND.
Right Hon. Sir G. Grey, Bart., G.C.8., &c.
Whitehall, Aug. 27, 1864.
My Lord,—l am directed by Secretary Sir George Grey
to acknowledge the receipt of your letter calling attention
to the case of Isaac -Watson, lately convicted by the magis-
trates at Duffield of refusing to attend a place of worship on
Sunday, and I am to acquaint to your lordship that it ap-
pears by a report from the magistrates that the defendant
was convicted under the 4th Geo, IV., cap. 34, for disobey-
ing the orders of his employer, to whom be had hired him-
self for a year, and who desired him to attend a place of
worship once every Sunday.—l have the honour to be, my
lord, your lordship's obedient humble servant,
H. WADDINGTON.
The Marquis Townshend.