The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-27 00:00:00

CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE,

The directors in their report coLgratulated the
proprietors on the state of the works, and that
the bridge would be ready for public traffic
during the present autumn. The small balance
of capital which was deficient at the last hal f-
year:y meeting had been provided, and the dime.
tors were, consequently, enabled to avail themselves
of the borrowing powers of the company. The di-
rectors expressed
_their sense of the energy, skill,
and promptitude of the contractors, Messrs. Coch-
rane end Co., and the unwearied attention of the
resident engineer, Mr Airey. The report of the en-
gineers, Messrs. llawkshaw and Barlow, stated
that since the last:report the main chains, with the
suspension rods, longitudinal girders, and roadway
girders, had been completed. rho flooring of the
roadway and the hand railing were in a forward
state, the building of the tollhouses had been com-
menced, and there was every reason to expect that
the bridge would be ready for traffic in the month
of October next.

Railway Traffic Returns for the Week.
Miles Opened. Receipts.
Railways. ~,..____..,__i,..-.-...."-,,
1864. 1863. 1864. 1863.
£ £
Belfast and N, Counties 136 136 2,746 2,353
Belfast and County Down.... 49 49 783 735
Blyth and Tyne 2B 28 2,446 2,110
Bristol and Exeter l2ll 1211 7,552 7,414
Caledonian 252 'al 20,014 17,8.0
Cambrian
Cockermouth& Workington B3 81 312 376
Cork and Bandon 2O 20 357 371
Cork, Blackrock, & Passage 63 63 2.63 261
Cork and Youghal • 326 321 580 513
Cornwall 656 533 2,027 1.639
Deeside . 17 17 552 413
Dublin & Belfast Junction , 63 63 2,044 1.4>1
Dublin and Drogheda 75 75 2,284 1,897
Dublin and Meath
Dub. & Wicklow and Wextd 9ll 483 3,751 2,915
Furness, &c 5O 5u 3,416 2,'40
Glasgow & South-Western
Gt. Eastern,Nrfk.,&E.Union
Great Northern 353 363 32,709 31,871
Great North of Scotland 5B 58 1,797 2,328
Gt Northn. & Westn. (Irel.) 713 713 465 46
9t.Southn. & Westn.(lrind.) 3871 3543 8,356 9,874
Great Western 10561 10561 70,519 63,027
Hull and Hornsea ...-J. - 227 -
Inverness &Aberdeenunc lO6l 863 1,988 2,025
Inverness & Perth Junction 1191 - 3,030 -
Irish North-Western 145 145 1,698 1,777
Kent Coast 27 10 3,850 125
Lancashire & Yorkshire 403 3953 46,818 40,250
Limerick and Ennis.....
Limerick and Foynes 263 263 111 100
Llanelly 463 464 739 780
London & North-Western
London and Blackwall 5 54 2,141 2,198
London & South-Western
Lond. Brighton, &S. Coast
London, Chatham, & Dover 72 723 8,391 6 536
Do. Metropolitan Extension 115 106 2,500 1,400
Man.,Sheffleld, & Lincolnsh
Manch. S.Jun.&Altrincham 9l 91 1,487 1,307
Maryport and Carlisle
Metropolitan
Midland (incl. N.-Western) 641 541 49,574 46,115
Midland Gt.Westn. of Irind 262 2593 4,732 4,649
Monkland _ _
.. _ 713 7,9 1,739 1.565

Monmontlash. Rail. & Canal.. 44
North British, Edin., Perth

2;708 2.559

and Dundee
N-Eastern and Stock. & DarL 1095 10791 6,281 60,049
North London 9 9 3,317 3, 83
North Staffordshire 254 252 8,466 8.676
llhymney l9l 191 018 9t5
Scottish Central
Scottish North-Eastern l3B 138 6,635 6,320
Somerset and Dorset 66 39, 988 4.9
South Devon .. .. 751 751 4.707 4,226
South-Eastern 306 306 28,397 29,631
Taff Vale 57 57 5,527 5,395
Ulster _ lO5l 105 i 2 314 ,) 15 •
~.... ,"• . s

Vale of Clwyd
Vale of Neath 431 36 3,021 2.334
Waterford and Kilkenny 3l 31 442 361
Waterfbrd and Limerick 77 77 1,534 1,350
West Cornwall . 27k 27+ 894 856

W.liartlepool liarbr. &Hail 52} 52i 4,421 4.155
W'haven,Cleator,& Egrmnt 10 7 693 598
Whitchaven Junction l2 12 1,059 762
Whitehaven & Furness Jun 35 35 uB/ b 22
FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

Austrian B2B 828 35,053 32,045
Bahia and San Francisco
Belgian Eastern Junction 26 26i 319 277
Bombay, Baroda, & Cen. India 185 1854 2,638 1,94 i
Buffalo and Lake Huron l6l 1614
Detroit and Milwaukie lB9 185 4,321 3,031
Dutch Rhenish loBf 1081 7,078 6,551
Eastern Bengal
Eastern of France
East Indian

Grand Trunk of Canada lO9O 1000 .
20,557 18,437
Great Central of Belgium lB9 5,993
Great Indian Peninsula 553 495 8,350 6,327
Great Luxembourg 134 134 4,726 4,610
Great Southern of India
Great Western of Canada 345 3,5 10,032 8,667
Madras

Madrid. Saragossa &Alkali.... 650 490 18',6z0 22,313
Northern of Canada .......... 94 9k
Northern of France .. 607 697 65,7:0 62,%11
Norwegian Trunk
Ottoman ___ _. . 4£.1.i _49 . 431 346

Paris, Lyons, & Mediterrn 1805- 1713 137,',90 133,210
Paris and Orleans 1614 1491 71,229 t 5,902
Pernambuco 77i 77i 624 638
Royal Danish 69 69 --
Scinde.... ll6 105 1,093 1,935
South Austrian . .. 1527 1484 51,491 50,050
Southern of France .... 770 680 31,698 30,6, 7
Victorian lO6 195 8,39/ 7,c35
Welland . .......• • • . 25 25 422 :59
West Flanders
W. and .N.W. of France. 960 813 59,038 5 ,933

Confederate Financial Prospects and Plans.

- •

In the brilliant administration which we predict for the
new Confederate Secretary )f the Treasury, it is only j us-
tice to Mr Memminger to remember that the most danger-
ous crisis in the financial situation was actually passed
when the reins of office were transferred, and that the
measures to which the Confederacy looks hopefully for
relief were already in successful operation, These measures,
forming in the aggregate a system of unprecedented com-
prehensiveness, may be clawed under two heads. Those
by which, under the double action of compulsory funding
and rigid taxation, the redundant currency is reduced
within manageable dimensions, had already, at the date of
the late secretary's report, commenced to exert their salu-
tary effect, as is proved by the enormous excess of the
appropriations under previous estimates over the actual
expenditure of the differett departments of the Govern-
ment. The other class of measures, by which the foreign
commerce of the country is made an arm of the national
defence, have worked with even more rapid efficacy, as is
proved by the vigorous importation of Confederate cotton
into Liverpool and the present quotations of the Confe-
derate foreign loan. which even the news of a naval
defeat off Mobile cannot depress below double the mer-
chantable value of corresponding Federal securities. The
principle which underlies these measures is that the pre.
cious stores of cotton which the world outside is eager to
buy at even five times its price inside the blockade, are so
much sap and life-blood in the body politic, not only not to
be squandered, but to be rendered most efficiently available
for the public good. The Legislature reasoned that block-
ade-running was theoretically and practically a military
operation, and should be subject to the same laws. No one
dreams of supplying a camp or an army upon abstract
theories of political economy, and the Confederate country
is only a vast camp and the Confederate people a vast army.
It was a long time before the statesmen of the South, all edu-
cated in a sect militant of uncompromising free trade, could
bring themselves to acknowledge that there might be excep-
tions to their favourite rule, and that, while poison would
always be poison, it might at times be a necessary, and even
the Only, remedy of a morbid frame. The interval'ofhesita-
, lion did, much mischief. It bled the confederacy for the ad-
vantage of adventurers who, while pocketing their spoils,
claimed to be public benefactors. It placed the credit of
the Government into the hands of men without credit, and
at the mercy of firms of straw. There is in the throes of
every national crisis a brief period during which the con-
tractor orfournisseur is a patriotic hero, quickly followed
scrucial
was
a
by a reaction which denounces him with equal vehemence
as a robber. A people which entered upon war of self-de-
fence with the determination that every man's life and
every woman's jewels should be the public property, if
necessary,
fatal delusion. Where every one's devotion was exposed
to o
test,not likelysha to labour long under such a
sham
llong
g
pretensions
endure. A
to patriotism
th
t o an d
disinterestedness could not n
same
time the genius of the Southern people is so little prone to
centralisation that they were saved the er:or of falling into t
an opposite extreme, and despising the genuine aid which
private enterprise, and skill, and experience could alone
afford. A middle ground was therefore occupied and
firmly held. The discovery had been made, and was
acted upon, that if private enterprise could probably run
the blockade, a great Government with a Treasury
Department to manage the financial transactions with a
War Department to superintend transportation and
storage, with a Navy Department to select vessels and 1
crews, with an astonishingly solid credit abroad, could at
least, do the same. But, while this discovery was acted
upon, private capital and private enterprise were not dis-
couraged from the competition, provided only that a reason-
able guarantee was given that for every bale of cotton pri-
pvraateeltyjeaelxpuotratietdy.theTreusehroeusuldltbheaerebtueernnethdaatntheeqcueinvafeldenertaotef
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at b et tht
ee r
Iseuwpepal
ti e d hu
a, that r toile es ai
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us
roofp
et
ahne
tmhaerakme tasnwf
ohraeti
demption, and, it is
balance is actually
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h a
awba
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Confederate Treasury. Never has the financial condition
of a belligerent country outside its own boundaries been so
soundly prosperous—and to those who know this condi-
tion the rumours, periodically propagated by the enemy,
of another Confederate foreign war loan appear simply
ridiculous. The only time that such a loan was even
thought of, when actually offered, was that to which Mr
Memminger refers in his last report, when he says that
military reverses had rendered it impracticable, for a reason
he does not state, viz., that the three million loan was then
at a quotation at which the Confederate Government was
unwilling to discount its credit.
These principles of commercial legislation, under anoma-
lous circumstances, supported as they are by complete sue-

cess, are now, we believe, cordially approved by all claqs€s
and parties in the Confederacy. The only difference of
opinion, still giving rise to disputes, is whether the State
Government should or should not be placed on the same
footing in regard to trade as the Confederate Government.
There is much to be said on either side of this discus;tion.
Against the proposed equality there occur to us two formi-
dable objections. One, in theory, is that it xould give to
the States with seaports of their own and large stores
of cotton, like Georgia, the two Carolinas, and Alabama,
an advantage over others not so circumstanced, and
(specially over those which are wholly or in
part overrun by the enemy, like Tennessee and
Louisiana, and such an advantage is incompatible with
that solidarity of interests which makes all the States a
unit against the invader. The other object is a practical
one, and it is that greedy adventurers and speculators upon
the public necessity would have the chances in favour of a
lax application of the law increAsed in proportion as they
had to deal with 11 Governments instead of only one. Per-
haps the best way to reconcile justice and expediency with
the principles of the Confederate partnership of States,
would consist in the Confederate Government becoming the
factor and agent for the individual States in such importa-
Lions and exportations as they might reasonably require on
their separate accounts. This is what, we believe, is sub-
stantially the present practice.

The prohibition of luxuries is a necessary corollary of the
system. Sumptuary laws, such as virtually are the regula-
tions which we publish in our advertising columns, read
oddly in this 19th century, and it will be said shock the libe-
ral spirit of the age, that a nation of professed Republicans
vows to subjugate and exterminate, by fire and sword,
another materially weaker nation of Republicans, in the
name of liberty and self-government. These prohibitions,
during the struggle, mean nothing more than that every
bale of cotton which goes to pay for something the nation
does not actually need is wasted, and that every ton of ship
room filled with needless cargo excludes the same weight or
size of articles which cannot be done without. The nation's
needs are those of a workshop; when with peaco the
amenities of civilised life shall return, it will be time enough
again to buy fine linen, costly silks, and elegant furniture,
and richly-flavoured wines. There is a moral justice, too,
in this, and a few giddy and foolish persons shall not, by
an untimely ostentation, mock and insult the stoic temper
of a whole people.

We must not conclude without briefly referring to a sub.
ject in connection with Southern finances which cannot be
treated here as its importance deserves. A passage in the
report of the Secretary of War, which we publish last week,
gives us hope that the Confederate journal has it now under
deliberation to apply to its internal economy the same prin-
ciple which hae worked so well abroad. This principle is
to substitute cotton, of which there is plenty, as a standard
of values for gold, of which there is none. There is now
in the Confederacy a stock of cotton of at least three
million bales, of which probably not less than one-third is
in a condition fit for immediate exportation. Of a large
proportion of this the Government is the direct owner. If
instead of this property the Government had the value,
even at only 6d a pound, in gold, who can doubt that tho
Confederate currency would never have lost a specie basis ?
Why should not a cotton basis, equally available for pre-
sent purposes, be adopted ? Grant that the precious metals
are abstractedly immeasurably superior to a perishable com-
modity as a standard of values, But if one cannot have
what one wishes, why not make use of what one has ?
Suppose the Government, in its future disbursements at
home as well as abroad, should give promises to pay cotton
instead of promises to pay gold ? It is under any ,conceiv.
able circumstances better able to keep the former than the
latter. An order on the Government storekeeper for 100dol
of cotton at peace prices would therefore at worst be more
intrinsically valuable than an order for gold on the Treasury
to the same amount. If the experiment succeeded. the
cotton promises might be gradually exchanged for the gold
promises already issued. To give the cotton promises a
saleable value abroad, it would only be necessary to exempt
the holders from certain restrictions, whether present or
prospective, on the exportation. Already the Government
has undertaken to pay the interest on one description of its
domestic funded debt in cotton; why not extend this
expedient to the principle of its future unfunded debt ?
The plan would be condemned by a certain class of shallow
political economists, who, when they have learned the for-
mulus of the science by rote, fancy they know every pos-
sible application of its laws. But must it be necessarily
condemned, because of being exceptional and anomalous,
by the practical statesmen of a country in which everything
is at present anomalous and exceptional ?—The Index.