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

THE CIVII WAR IN AMERICA,

( Trom the correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, Nov. 17a
We Lave had a gloomy and wet spell here these last
four of five days, and this may, perhaps, have
damped the ardour of the combatants who are
paddling about in the chalky mud of Virginia.
General Meade has been in Washington, and

of labour; and, in the second place, any awakening
of the people to the consciousness of their grie-
vances, and of their power to redrass them, lays
bare many of those social disorders to which habit
reconciles the suffering poor, bat which, once
brought into light, allow society no re3t till 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 I
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 dole. or 2 dole. 60c. 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 necessitye forell further
know ;
enhancement of wages. What results similar cir-
cumstances had in France in 1793 we
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,
theyirh
ewereAmericans, brought
d m
i indeed
do reason.
ee o
no such calamities for their an
ticipate
no
and
;they
education reckon upon thepstriovfileged them,
of their lower classes,
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, ho wever 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 commercial
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 following
are the pecuniary inducements offered—

_
Dollars.
County bounty, cash down I. 300
State bounty
oll• , 7.5
United States bounty for new recruits „ .. 302
United States, additional, to veteran 4 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 recruiting officers did not fall back upon the
Irish and German immigrants and the negroes.
The latter especially will constitute the sheet
anchor of the future American army. But in the
meanwhile there is little doubt in my mind that
these monstrous bribes paid to recruits, although
they may be insufficient for the 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
dole. The Treasury is now issuing paper at the rate
of 4.000,000 dole. daily. The actual average expen-
diture daily is estimated at 2,250,000 dois., and for
the next year at 800,000,000 dole. The largest por-
tio❑ 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
loans on call to first class borrowers in seven per
cent.' Gold is to-day at 148 k. 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 dots. 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 tat

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 same 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 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 Z 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
g Per cent. in paper. The Treasury derived so little
real advantage from the transaction, so little money
came into its till, that it had, on Monday last, to
call upon the banks to pay up 15,000 dole. tempo-
rary loan.
"these shifts and devices of the contriving Secre-
tary of the Treasury,
than that of r_e•asury, in short, have no other effect
that Slough Plunging
struggling
friends and foeseciLe'l him deeper and deeper into
toe
roeerspond out of which he ie vainly
cial abilities. It may Jo It
of paper money to confront the -
t may be no fault of his, for
attribute to him rare finan-
question whether the issue
or exigencies of the
war was a matter of choice
one:ebcessity ; but the
dangerous expedient having
een resorted to,
Mr. Chase put himself on
pat..h_e_
abrink of an abyss
which admitted neither of
pause or regression.
Nov:
18.
Enormous forces are mustering about Chatta-
nooga on either side. While Bragg',
reinforce-
ments occupy the fields adjoining the railway from'
the South for "a line eight miles in length:, Goo.
Sherman has joined Gen. Thomas with all his army,
numbering, it is said, from 25,000 to 30,000 men.
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 Niggerbeads, 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