The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-29 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From tl ,e Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, July 15.

The Confederat a army, having isalated Washing-
ton during three days from the rest of the country,
having attacked. it with a force sufficient to terrify
if not to captur e it, and having rendered it adoubta
ful matter to ;he President and his whole Cabinet
whether it wou Id be better that they should remain
at their posts, t ,21-a refuge in a gunboat, or transfer
themselves bo !Hy to New York, has disappeared as
mysteriously as it came. There can be no doubt
that commu aication between Washington, Balti-
more, and Vile North, both by rail and telegraph,
has been vas tored, but there is very considerable
doubt whether the bulk of the Confederate army is
not still in Ala-Irland. The theory of the invasion
that found mot favour yesterday, when the news
was received tb.at the Confederates had unexpectedly
avithdrawn fr.= Washington, and that a portion of
their forces had crossed the Potomac, was that the
in was a mere diversion, for the double pur-
pose of obtaining supplies and of disconcerting the
sche,mes, an d. operations of General Grant at Peters-
burg, and t: hat it had been successful in both. It
alleged t'act when General Hunter found himself
unable to capture Lyncaburg, and retreated west-
ward toss ,ards the Ohio, General Early took imme-
diate adTrantage of his mistake or misfortune, and,
at the 'need of a large force, marched up the She-
nandoa h to seize tae cut, stacked, and abundant
harvest in the valley, thence into Maryland with a
similar design, not alone upon the crops, but upon
the hr.rses and cattle, and all other available pro-
perty to be met with on his route, alarming the
Federal Government for the safety both of
Bal ti more and Washington, but having no real
ins ;ration of risking a great battle for the posses-
sky a of either. It was furthermore asserted that
ing done all he meant to do, and been successful
,
his hopes
bey ond General Early retired with his
boot .y, well aware that to attempt could be made to
cut off his retreat. To-day, however, this theory no
long ;er finds the same acceptance. It is admitted

that a considerable body of the Confederates has
cros, 3ed the Potomac at Edward's Ferry, driving
bufel. re it immense herds of cattle, and other spoils
of S 7 ar, but not that this force, whether great or

ama LI, formed the bulk of the invading army. It is
bell( ed that, in all the marchings and counter-
mar :things of the last ten days General Early's
cave dry and General Breckinridge's infantry were
alone engaged ; that their object was not only to
gather spoil, of which they stood greatly in need,
but to confuse and bewilder the Federal Government
a %nd the Northern people by the rapidity and com-
p !exity of their movements, and to threaten far
m ore than they either intended or had the means to
pet form, while the great master mind of the cam-
paig 13, General Lee, himself at the head of 40,000
or &).000 men, was quietly and effectually operating
in another direction. Whether this explanation of
the mystery be correct a few days will show. In

the meantime, the easy Northern people believe tha

the danger is over. The patient has had a yarning
of his •wrong course of Living in the shape of a very
cringe of the gout He has taken the medi-
cine ; h s feels better ; believes that there is nothing
esseotiaL!y the matter, and has recommenced his
old excE bses with renewed gusto and sense of enjoy.
mcznt.

sf3vere

After threo years of such bard fighting as the
world !las seldom seen, the situation resolves itself
in th North into the comforting knowledge
that " Washington is safe," and in the South
int o the proud boast that " Richmond is
impregnable." The " safety " of each capital
has not, however, been purchased by the same
mei ►rns. Whatever that of Richmond may have cost
the Confederates, no humiliation enters into the ac-
cou at; while the safety of Washington, if it be
assoa ed at this moment—which is more than any
one can conscientiously affirm until it is known
whore Gen. Lee is and what ho purposes doing—has
cost the Federals, in addition to men and money
(for which they care but little), very nearly all their
libezties (for which they seem to care still less),
together with that prestige and character which are
involved the fact that such an invasion as Early's
could have been made so successfully and with such
all but perfect impunity. Nor is the apathy with
which the whole movement has been regarded
throughout the North the least extraordinary part of
the business. No public meetings were called to sup-
port the Government, no fiery patriot uttered a
-word of " buncombe ;" nobody put his hand into his
pocket to purchase a recruit for the work of war,
-which he was unable to do himself, but willing to
-pay another for doing in his behalf ; no apostle of
freedom stood in the market■place, like Peter the
Hermit of old days, to call the multitude to arms;
not a preacher sounded from his pulpit the note of
alarm and urged upon his young and able-bodied
parishioners the duty of fighting, if not of dying,
for their imperilled country. Even the women for-
bore the blandishments of their smiles, and call no
eon or lover a coward for not rushing to the defence
of the capital. The tide of business and amusement
rolled on unimpeded. The war party considered the
invasion a mere foraging excursion on tho part of
a few half-famished guerillas, who were certain to
be caught and punished ; while the peace party,
continually growing in strength and courage,
made no secret of their belief that the Con-
federates were in full force, and of their hope
that they might not only capture Washington,
but that Gen. Lee might dictate the terms of final
separation from the steps of the Capitol, with Mr.
-Lincoln and his Cabinet on one side and General
Augurpn the other to ratify the articles of agree-
ment.

There is still great diversity of opinion as to the
real numbers of the invading force. From 8,000
to 60,000 are the two extremes at which they are
calculated. If they were but 8,000 they effected im-
mense results with but small means—shamed the
Federal Government, conquered a Federal General
in a pitched battle, supplied themselves with stores
sufficient to last the defenders of Richmond for 12
months, inflicting damage on the enemy to the ex-
tent of at least 10,000,000 dole., besides the plunder
which they removed, imperilled the satety of two
great border cities, and generally made the Nor-
thern people look ridiculous. If they were 60,000
strong, and only the raiding party have recrossed
the Potomm!, their work is still before them, and
startling news may yet be expected. One reason
for the belief that the smaller number was the cor-
rect one, and that all the glory of its achievement
belongs to General Early, and not to General Lee,
is to be found in the fact that during the ten days
in which the Confederates held high carnival in
Maryland and the district of Columbia Gen. Grant
did not see his way clear to make an attack upon
Petersburg or Richmond, which it is to be supposed
he would have done had General Lee removed
50,000 of his veteran troops from the defence of the
capital. But whichever hypothesis of the numbers
is to be received as most accurate, the expedition is
equally dating on the part of the South, aad equally
disPacuful to the civil and military authorities of
the North.

There was yesterday a general and rapid fall in
the price of flour, pork, provisions, and gold, not
wholly produced by the tenour of the war news, but
by the necessities of speculators,
who had held on
for peoda beyond their strength, in the expectation n
of a greater rise in gol3. than had taken place within
the previous seven days. There was something aP-
pcce,ching to a panic in almost every kind of whole'
b.%1,0) business. Gold foil 10 per cent., and produco in
a similar proportion, This morning gold fell still
lower, and closed this afternoon at 2201, or about
30 per cent. lower than at the commencement of the

here? is no impression, however' in an qia
entitled to speak with knowledr,ecr authority,
will be maintained, but a vary general be..
liet that the financial need of the Government, and
ha inevitable issue of greenbacks will lead to further
inflation. Already it appears that unforeseen diffi-
culties have arisen between fir Fessenden and the
Sate banks of New York is reference to the loan of
fif:v million tiols. which he requires for the imme-
1347rnent of the arrears due to the army. But
even supposing these difficulties, whatever they may
be, shall be got over, it is obvious :hat the loan will
do more than give rile Secretary of the Trea•
stir,: a short time for viketiOn. He will be able to
stay the d,Arratids of the morn clamorous of the na-

3 I-1

tional creditors during a period of about three weeks.
Meanwhile his current and constantly accruing lia•
bilities will have to be provided for either by a new
loan, by the incoming of revenue from taxation, or
by the issue of payer. Though he asks but 50 mils
lions just now, the unpaid requisitions upon the
Government amounted on the stla inst. to 91,814,000
dole., and will on Sept. 1, the day when his loan is
to be repaid, amount at the rate of three millions per
diem, which is a more moderate computation than
many financiers allow, to 171 millions additional.
No such sum, or even a tenth of it, can be received
from the tax collectors by the day named ; conse•
quently Mr Fessenden must resort to a new loan,
or he must print off to the ultimate dollar the
whole amount of greenbacks which Congress has
authorized the department to put into circulation.
As this last course, either with or without a Federal
victory In the battlefield,would send up the premium
on gold to a point highly damaging to Federal credit,
both in the eyes of the world and of its own people,
and as Mr. Fessenden is especially anxious that this
should not be the result of his management, there

remains but the loan. Encouraged by the success

which has attended the efforts of the Emperor of
the French, in setting aside the agony of the
banks and the great capitalists and loan-mongers,
and appealing directly to the people of all classes to
support the Government by the investment of their
small savings, a coterie of philosophers and doctris
naires, who know a great deal about the negro, but
veryiittle of the war or the spirit of the white labour-
ing population, are urging upon Mr. Feasenden the
propriety of imitating the Emperor's example.
They insist that the war is popular, that the heart
of the multitude is in it, that a sacred love of negro
freedom will impel the farmers, the traders, the
shopkeepers, and the labouring people to pour their
accumulated wealth, tiny in its driblets, but im■
manse in its volume, into the National Treasury, at
a fair rate of interest; and that by this means the
hostility of twenty Secessionist capitalists and
bankers will be more than vanquished by the
generous patriotism of the " loyal" millions. These
philosophers take their hopes for facto. They for-

get, or do not know, that the constant terror of a
forced conscription has rendered the war distasteful,
if not odious, to the class who live from day to day by
their labour or their business, and that negro eman.

cipation, though popular among ladies, clergymen,
lecturers, and philosophers, is but coldy approved by

one portion of the working classes and bitterly op-
posed by the other. They forget that the enormous
rise in the price of food, fuel, clothing, and house
rent, unaccompanied by a similar rise in wages,

aggravated as it is by the burdens of a taxation pre.
viously unknow❑ in America, and almost as onerous
as that which afflicts the Englishman, has deprived
the labouring classes of America of that surplus be-
tween expenditure and income which, before the
war, rendered the American labourer the richest and
most independent man of his class in the world. The
surplus has gone. The war has engulfed it. The
labourer lives from hand to mouth like his compeers
in the old world, and even the prudent and fortu-
nate man who four or five years ago hid amassed a
few hundred dollars and put them into the savings
bank to fructify, in order that about this time in the
ordinary course of events he might have been en-
abled to purchase and stock a farm in the bountiful
far West, and Bit with his children around him under
the shade of his own vine or fig tree, finds his dol-
lars so depreciated as to be worth but one-third of
what was their value on the day when he deposited
them. The financier or philosopher who depends on
the aid of his class to support the credit of the
Government by any other mode than the payment
of such taxes as fall upon them, and the incidence
of which they cannot avoid, will lean on a broken
reed.

There remains, then, a loan from the capitalists of
America, or a lean from the capitalists of Europe, to
extricate the Government from its present strait.
The first may be effected to a large amount, though
not perhaps at par, or within 10 per cent of it. The
second may not now appear hopeless, for it is
freely spoken of and confidently recommended ; but
as in the first place it hangs upon the issues of war
and the stability of the Union, and in the second
may be effected by the semi-repudiation of which
the States of New York and Ohio have already
been guilty, there may be many slips between
that cup and the lips of Mr. Fessenden. Yet, if all
other resources fail, greenbacks are inexhaustible
Congress has but to meet and authorise the issue of
another batch of 500,000,000 of them, and all will
again go well—for a little white. The spendthrift
will be in funds, the tailor, the jeweller, the wine
merchant, and the horse dealer will receive both
money and fresh orders ; and a great community,
acting the part of a gambler and a prodigal, will
run riot as others have done before it, and, like
others before it, will pay at the duly appointed and
inevitable time the appropriate penalty of Lank-
ruptcy and disgrace.

The Story of the Great Eastern Steamship,

(From the Builder.)

The result produced, from whatever cause, may be thus
stated :--X1,000,000 has been spent, and nothing remains
for the shareholders, original or preferential, or for the
bondholders ; for the £25,000 realised at public sale for the
ship, will be hardly sufficient to pay the preference creditors
and the law expenses. Everything available, including office
furniture, was sold before the directors disqualified them-
selves, though they did not forget to send in claims for a
halt-year's fees in arrear ; and all that is left besides the
balance of the £25,000, after paying expenses and prefer
ence claim; is £ t 5, which is in the hands of the official
liquidator. The ship has been bought for this ridicu-
lously small sum by a new company, of which three of the
late directors of the Great Ship Company are the principal
shareholders and directors, Surely this is a state of things
which deserves, nay, demands enquiry, especially just now,
when limited liability companies ale increasing in number so
rapidly ; for if the directors of a limited company can with
impunity waste all the property intrusted to their care, and
leave a large amount of debt, without anything whatever
to meet it, and without any legal responsibility or accoun-
tability, some new provisions are .most assuredly required.
No private trader in times past could waste his creditors'
property, without incurring any responsibility; and it ap
pears impossaible that when the accounts of the,company
are rendered to the Court of Chancery, some persons can
escape severe censure. The ship was designed and built
for the Eastern or Indian trade. Every appliance and
fitting was designed for a long voyage, the capacity for
cargo, the space allotted for fuel, the smallness of her power
compared with her tonnage, her size, her height between
decks, the special attention paid to ventilation, were all
considered and provided for a long and mainly tropical
voyage. But the directors into whose hand she fell, either
ignorant of the suitability of the ship for what she was in-
tended, or wedded to other views, decided upon placing her
on short voyages in northern latitudes, where the arrange-
ment applicable to tropical climates became a source of
discomfort, where her capacity for fuel was unnecessary,
where her splendid accommodation for first and second
class passengers wee useless, where her speed was not so
superior to every rival, as to give her any practical advan-
tage, and where indeed every special peculiarity in con•
strucrion, size, power, and economy of management became
rather sources of loss than of advantage. 1 will assume
that when the directors first determined to divert her from
her original destination, they believed it would be benefi-
cial to the shareholders; but on what principle or profit
they kept her on the American line, when each of the
eleven voyages produced a great loss, exclusive of the heavy
staff expenses at Liverpool and New -York, is quite unac-
countable. The system of losing by every vobyage was per-
sisted in by the directors, notwithstanding continual warn-
ings, and the actual results published 'n their balance-sheet.

A MAGISTRATE SUMMONED BY A STREET
PREACHER. —At the Birkenhead County Court, on
Tuesday, Mr Younghusband, one of the local justices of
the peace, was sued for false arrest and imprisonment by
Abraham John Dowling, a street preacher. Dowling has
on several occasions been before the police-court on various
questions connec ed with his street preaching and has come
into collision with Mr Younghusband. On Saturday, June
25, Dowling was preaching oa board one of the Woodside
ferry steamers. Some tersons complained of it as a nuisance,
and the erew of the boat appealed to Mr Younghusband as
to what they were to de. Ho directed them to take Dowling
into custody, and they accordingly did so, and detained him
until the boat returned to the Cheshire side, when he was
taken to Bridewell, but ,afterwards set at liberty. This was
the alleged false imprisonment for which the action %ma
brought. His Honour (Judge Harden) decided that the
magistrate had exceeded his power, as the bye laws of the
ferry directed that a person contravening them must be
summoned, and they only authorised the infliction of a
penalty, and not imprisonment. without a hearing. But
inasmuch as, under Jervis's Act, any magistrate proceeded
against by summons for an act done in hia magisterial cepa
city must have a month's notice of the summona before it
could be heard and decided upon, the present case must be
adj-urned until the expiry of a month from the date of the
plaintiff's summons issued under the jurisdiction of the
court. Adjourned accordingly,

The American War,

A poor victim of the American war was brought
up to the French Correctional Police on Wednes-
day. He was a poor lad, 16 years of age, whom all
human miseries seemed to have stricken. Pliny and
stinted in growth, his cadavercus and pinched feaa
tures looked smaller still under a mass of long
woolly hair. He said his name was Henry Muller.
He had been placed by somebody in the hands of
the police, and, as he had neither dwelling nor
means of existence, had been detained as a vagrant
without any place of abode. When interrogated,
he said :—The person who got me arrested is one
Perrot, a working shoemaker. He brought me to
sleep at his lodging one night, out of charity, and
he sent me away the next day because I could not
be of any use to him. That night I slept in a cab;
the following day I went to him to beg of him to
keep me with him ; it was then that he gave me
over to the police. _ _

The magistrate said—Who are you ? Where do
you come from ? Who are your parents ?

He then related as follows :—I am an American.
I have never seen my father. I came to Paris at
the age of ten with my mother, who owns two
houses in New Orleans. Three months ago she in-
formed me that she was going back to America, and
asked me if I wished to be put to school or as an
apprentice. I choose the apprenticeship. Then
my mother placed me at a photographist's, and
paid four months in advance for me-100f. in ready
money and 400 f. in bills payable at her banker's,
Mr Borde's, in the Rue Taitbout. The banker re-
fused to pay, having nothing to my mother's credit.
Then my master turned me away at the end of a
month. Since then no one will take me as I have
no papers, and also because I am too delicate.
A lady (a woman of colour) came forward.
The President—You know this lad ?
Witness—l know that his mother abandoned him
he says she is at New Orleans,
The President—You can do nothing for him ?
Witness—lt is impok,sible for me, sir. I have
two daughters, and I have retired with them to Ba-
tignolles for economy. War is raging in my country,
and I cannot return to it.

The President (to the prisor.er)—You were with
out work for two months ?

Prisoner—Yes, sir.
President—How have you lived during that time?
Prisoner—As well as I could with what people

gave me.

President—Have you sought for work
Prisoner—Yes, sir, but as I have no papers no one
will have anything to do with me.
The Procureur Lepelletier—He is a Southern, the
Consul will not give him papers, the South not
being recognised.
Witness—The poor lad is of coloured race ; he
has African blood in his veins ; they will do nothing
for him.

President—lf, in a week from this, you find some
one who would occupy himself about him, we would
adjourn the case for a week.
Witness—l have done all with that end; he is an
African ; people wont take him.
President (to tha prisoner)—And you don't know

your mother's address ?
Prisoner—No; she was with a gentleman, and
she used to say to me when I made her angry, " I
will abandon you."
The tribunal adjourned the case for a week in the
hope that the publicity given to this affair may ex-
cite in young Iguller's favour the commiseration of
charitable persons.