The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-09 00:00:00

THE Cl TM WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, July 26,

The whole interest of the war hassuddenly shifted
from Richmond to Atlanta. Not that people have
lost faith in General Grant, for they still believe
that he will capture the Confederate capital, some
time before Christmas, if he be left alone by Mr
Lincoln and Mr Stanton on the one hand, and by
Mr Jefferson Davis and General Lee on the other ;
but because the chances of a great victory achieved
or an overwhelming defeat to be suffered by Gen.
Sherman are more immediate. General Joseph
Johnston, the Confederate Commander, has been
superseded in his command, not because his plans
were otherwise than skilful or the best that could
be adopted with so small an army as that with
which he had to confront a formidable antagonist,
but because the Southern people and his own sub•
ordinates were of opinion that a stand ought to be
made for Atlanta, at any risk and any cost. Gene-
ral Hood, appointed to succeed him, lost not a day
it appears, in carrying out the new policy, and
attacked the Federals in their entrenchments be-
tween the city and the Chattahoochie. The con.
test was a stubborn one—as all the battles of the
Americans are—and according to the latest account
had lasted for three days with varying fortunes,
taut without decided results. The Federal Govern•
mcnt, through Mr. Stanton, though without official
despatches from General Sherman, continued to as.
Bert on Saturday last, as well as on the previous
day, that the Confederates had been driven out
out of Atlanta with great loss, and had retreated
this time there is no con-
towards Macon. Up to
firmation of this statement, but much reason to
belleee that the struggle for Atlanta is not at an
end, and that the large corps d'armee spared by
General Lee from the defences of Richmond
and Petersburg is destined either to effect a
junction with General Hood, or to fall upon Sher-
man in the rear, and place him between two fires,
from which nothing can extricate him but a skill
in retreating greater than even that possessed by
Johnston.

Though the accounts published by the Washing.
ton journals are stated to be derived from autho-
rity, it is suspicious that not a word has come from
Gen. Sherman himself, or if it has come that Mr
Stanton has not seen fit to send it to the newspapers.
The accounts, such as they are, affirm that in the
great battle of Friday, the 22d, when Gen, Hood
made his second onslaught on the Federals, the loss
of the Confederates was 7,000 killed and wounded,
and that of the Federals only 2,000. If Gen. Sherman
thus reported in an official despatch the world might
feel disposed to believe there had been great havoc
on both sides, and that the Federal commander was
cooly resorting to an old manconvre to keep up the
spirit of his army by underestimating his own losses
and exaggerating those of the enemy ; but while all
General Sherman's despatches, if he have sent any,
are withheld, and such a statement is only made on
the vague authority of the War Department, people
are disposed to believe that there is disagreeable
news behind the agreeable mask, and that when the
full truth comes to be known it will be found that
General Sherman's position is not such as the
Northern Government and people would look upon
with complacency.

Mr Fessenden, as anticipated, has appealed to the
psople for a loan. Failing to receive from the banks
of New York the accommodation he required to pay
the arrears due to the army and provide for the
daily expenses of the Government, he has asked the
people to assist him with four times as much as he
would have accepted from the banks, and issued pro-
posals for a loan of 200,000,000 dols. for three years,
bearing interest at the rate of seven and three-tenths
per cent. in " lawful money"—that is to say in
greenbacks or legal tender. The lowest sum receiv-
able is to be 50 dole., and all sums tendered are to
be multiples of 50. Although the bonds at the end
of three years are either to be paid off, in greenbacks,
or to be exchangeable into five-twenty bonds, bear.
ing 6 per cent interest, payable in gold, it is not
likely that any of this loan will he negotiated or
negotiable, in Europe, for the reason, quite indepen-
dent of any considerations of the adequacy of the
security, that the rate of interest is much too low,
calculated upon a gold standard, to tempt any one
to invest in it. Seven and three•tenths per cent in
greenbacks, with gold at a premium of 158, would
only give about £2 16s. for an investment of
£lOO sterling, and as it is not unlikely, if the
war last through the ensuing winter, that the
value of the greenbacks will be much farther depre-
ciated—it is scarcely possible that a single lover of
Republican liberty in Europe, or a single enthu-
siast in the cause of the slave in Exeter-hall, or else-
where, will add to the number of Mr. Fessenden's
creditors to the extent of a £lO note. Mr. Fessen-
den himself appears to be of the same opinion. He
says to the people whose help he solicits—" As yet
we have asked no foreign aid. Calm and self-reliant
our own means thus tar have proved adequate to
our wants. They are yet ample to meet those of the
present and the future. It still remains for a
patriotic people to furnish the needful supply.''
'With a misgiving, however, that even the patriotic
and lucre-loving people of the North may not think
more highly orsthe terms he offers than the foreigner,
to whom he will not yet make an appeal, he says,
" This is not the time for any lover of his country to
inquire as to the state of the money market, or ask
whether he can so invest his capital as to yield
him a larger return." But, under such circum-
stances, would it not be wiser and better for
the Secretary to appeal to the people—not on cora•
mercial grounds for a loan—but on patriotic grounds,
for a free-will offering of their abundance, to prevent
that "national dissolution" or " national disgrace'
which he forsees as but too probable if money be
not forthcoming. If the war is to be a holy war for
the propagation of an idea—a crusade against negro
slavery, a national uprising to preserve a large
Union, founded on military force, as something
better than a smaller Union, founded upon true
Republican liberty—why not call upon the devotees
of the doctrine to give, rather than to lend ? If the
cause be holy, let the people tax themselves for its
support. Let the rich man contribute of his super-
fluity, without asking :for any return but the
pleasant consciousness that he has aided a great
principle. Let the millionaires pour not only
their greenbacks, but their gold and silver plate
into the Treasury. Let the ladies present Mr.
Fessenden with their rings and their brace-
lets, their watches and their brooches, their dia-
monds, emeralds, and rubies, to be converted into
coin in the markets of the world, in order that the
soldiers of the crusade may be regularly paid and
abundantly rewarded, and that Unionism may
triumph, even though liberty should perish.
Among the inducements which Mr. Fessenden
offers to the people to invest in the war is the un-
doubted goodness of the security. Leaving out of
his calculations the Customs' duties, he informs the
little as well as the great capitalists whom he hopes
to persuade that " the Internal Revenue Act is a
great success, which has exceeded in efficiency the
most sanguine expectations of its authors," inasmuch
as while it yielded only 4,500,000 dols in the month of
June, 1863, it yielded about 15,000,000 dole in the car.
responding month of the present year. He adds that
under the amended law which came into operation
on the first inst. the returns have averaged about a
million a day, and expresses his belief that as the
lave becomes more familiar and is more efficiently
carried out a million a day will be the rule and not
the exception. Granting the estimates to be correct,
it will follow that no more loans must be contracted,
or that the incidence of the tax must be greatly in-
creased if the interest of the existing debt is to be
paid. The Administration only admits a proved
debt of about 1,800,000,000 dots., but as this does
not include the debt incurred during the present
year, and a whole host of outatandioee, and as yet
uninvestigated, liabilities, financiers friendly to the ,
Administration raise the total to 3.000,000,000
dole., and some not quite so friendly, but quite as
likely to be correct, to 4,000,000,000 de's. Taking
the lower estimate, and reckoning the interest,which
varies between 5 and 7 3.loths per cent., payable
6 per cent., the Federal Go.
in gold, to average
vernment has, or speedily will have, to pay, in gold,
au annual charge of 180,000,000 dole. At the
present pricy of gold—from 156 to 158 premium-_
no less than 460,000,000 dole, in greenbacks would

be required to pay the interest, thus leaving the
whole proceeds of the internal revenue deficient by
no less than 95,000,000 dole. as a security far the
existing debt. Mr. Fessenden and the Northern
people may, perhaps, imagine that the pr ice of gold
will fall. Perhaps it will ; but if it d ) not ? There
must in the latter case be either a repudiation of the
contract to pay in gold, or new loans, not only to
carry on the war, but to cover a daily augmenting
deficiency.

July 27.
Last night the town was again startled by the
details of a new irruption of the Confederates,
under Generals Early and Breckenridge, into the
valley of the Shenandoah, the defeat of the
Federals under Generals Averill and Crook, and
the retreat of those officers with the remnants of
their force to Harper's Ferry. Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Stanton, imagining, when the victorious invaders
so suddenly disappeared from before Washington,
that all danger was past, sent home the militiamen
whom they had summoned to their aid; and went
to sleep with their usual poco-curantism—or optim-
ism—believing, with Candide, that all was for the
best in this beautiful world. The result is that
Washington is again at the mercy of the Con-
federates, that there is a panic amongst the
Unionist population, secret rejoicing among those
who sympathise with the Confederates, and a
general exodus of the timid. Governor Curtin,
of Pennsylvania, has not yet found time to
appeal to New York for assistance to repel the
invaders, and Mr. Lincoln, uncertain whether the
irruption is great or small, intended for the plunder
of farmyards or for the sack of the capital, has issued
no proclamation to the loyal people, and demanded
no assistance. He is urged, however, to meet the
difficulty, whatever may be its real character, by
appointing Gen. M'Clellan to the command of the
defences of Washington, and promised if he will but
have the magnanimity to forgive a political oppo.
nent, especially one who threatens to be his success-
ful rival for the Presidency, that at least 100,000
Volunteers will respond to the magic of that name,
and make Washington safe now and for the re-
mainder of the war. If the danger be imminent it is
possible, though not probable, that Mr Lincoln will
act upon this suggestion. If called upon, M'Clellan
is too sincere a patriot, and too good a soldier, to
refuse obedience to the call. Meanwhile, the posi-
tion is, to say the least of it, humiliating to the
Federal Government, after which, 105 days since
Grant crossed the Rapidan to take Richmond sees
its own capital in much greater danger of capture
than that of the Confederates. Grant has not a
man to spare from Petersburg to assist in the de-
fence of the Shenandoah or other approaches to
Washington, while Lee is not only able to spare
from Richmond as many men as are sufficient to
make Maryland and Pennsylvania a profitable and
comparatively safe foraging ground, but to send
Longstreet with a force of 25,000 to the support of
Hood at Atlanta. And yet the friends of the Ad-
ministration persist in asserting that Grant's cam-
paign is not a failure, and that the rebellion is on
its last legs.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN.

The directors of this company have resolved to recom-
mend to the proprietors at the half-yearly general meeting
on the 18th inst. that the dividend for the half-year end-
ing June 30, 1864, be at the rate of 41 per cent, per annum
on the ordinary capital stock of the company, carrying over
a balance of £8,400.