The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-22 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, July 8.
Kentucky has been declared in a stage of siege,
and the habeas corpus has been suspended through-

ont its whole extent. Mr• Lincoln has appointed a

day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, but hear=

tates to call for the 300,000 or 600,000 men so

. .
urgently needed, lest his electioneering prospects

should thereby be clouded. Gold is up at a pre.
mium of 171 yer cent., and is hourly advancing.
Grant has been fairly checkmated at Petersburg,
and has sat before it for 24 days uncertain what to
do. Sherman has gone round the Kenesaw Moun-
tain, which he failed to capture, and approached a
few miles nearer than before to the Chattacboochie
and Atlanta, and Gen. Lee has invaded Maryland,
threatens Pennsylvania, and scared all Washing-
ton, lest be should not be satisfied without captur-
ing Baltimore, and thence marching, all bat unop•

posed, through Blandenburg into the Federal capi-
tal. Such is a short summary of the situation. Yet,
strange to say, most of the Federal journals find
great comfort in it, and those which more particu-
larly make it their business to support the Admini-
stration are rampant in their exultation that things
look so bright for the loyal and so black for the rebel

cause. The suspension of law and the habeas corpus
in Kentucky is too small a matter for their conside-

ration. The day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer
will please the religions people and the " war
Christians," and will answer exactly the same pur-

pose as if it had been a day of thanksgiving. The
postponement of the draught signifies nothing,
inasmuch as recruiting goes vigorously on, and the

old soldiers are re-enlisting for the bounty. The
premium on gold looks bad, it is true; but then it
is the work of foreign speculators and unpatriotic
gamblers, who will all be brought to grief by and
by, or as soon:as Mr. Fessendenn has leisure to

look into the matter. Grant at Petersburg is in the
very place where he ought to be, and is as certain
to take Richmond, in an easily computable num-

ber of days, as he was to take Vicksburg. Sherman

is slow, but then he is sure, and is " bound" to take
Atlanta sooner or later—a fact which is proved by
the constant retreats of Johnston, who is evidently

afraid to measure swords with so redoubtable an

antagonist. As for the invasion of Maryland, it is
a mere raid of 5,000 starving cavaliers at the most,
who have gone for plunder, and will not get half as
much as they expect, and who are certain to be cut
off with their booty on their return homewards by
the combined forces of Hunter and Sigel. Indeed,
so little do these easy and happy observers of events
think of the Shenandoah movement, that they ex-

press their fear that Lee does not intend an inva.

sion, and that he has not sent men enough on the
expedition to make the capture of the whole posse
—bag and baggage, arms, ammunition, and horses
—a sufficient dangerous adventure for the Federal
army to make a brag of.

But all Americans are not so easily led astray as
to believe the rosy explanations of such public in-
structors as these without judging of the facts for
themselves. The business community has come to
the conclusion that the garbled and contradictory
reports of the state of Grant's and Sherman's
armies—and more especially of the Confederate
movement in Maryland—are not to be depended
upon ; that it is more likely that Lee with 50,000
or 60,000 men intends to raise the siege of Rich-
mond and Petersburg by an attack upon Baltimore
and Washington than that he has sent 5,000 men to
break up the Baltimore and Ohio Rail way, destroy
Federal stores and depots, impress men and horses,
and provide the destitute people and garrison of
Richmond with food. Tbey admit, without under.
standing the various reports from the startled and
terrified people of the Border, that whatever Gen.
Lee may mean, his invasion is likely to prove a
serious matter for the people of the North, and one
that will tax the military genius of Gen. Grant to
defeat or render innocuous, and that up to this time
the balance of victory since the passage of theßapidan

has been with the Confederates. It is these consider-
ations, combined with the knowledge that the new
Secretary of the Treasury is printing off greenbacks
at the rate of 2,000,000 per diem, for the payment
of the arrears due to the army and navy, which nn•
settle trade and commerce, and send up gold to a
rate that reduces the value of the paper dollar to
about ls. 6d. English money, instead of 4s. 2d., its
normal worth in times of peace, prosperity, and
specie payments.

Nor are the failure of the summer campaign and
the state of the nation,' finances the only causes of
disquietude. To these, serious enough to try the
philosophy of statesmen and the patience of the
people, have to be added the danger of a collision
between the State and Federal authorities in the
chief city and State of the Union.

The great causeof the people of New York agains
General Dix has entered into a new phase. The
general, remembering that in every civilised coun-
try where martial law has not been regularly de-
clared the civil law is paramount, surrendered to
the warrant of the city judge, and appeared to an-
swer the complaint of the district attorney, that he
had illegally, violently, and burglariously entered
and retained possession for two days of the offices
of the Nero York World and Journal of Commerce.
To give him time to prepare his defence, the c,se
was adjourned for a week, and will come on again
to-morrow for further argument. Meanwhile, Mr
Lincoln, informed either through the newspapers
or by the direct agency of the legal advisers of Gen.
Dix that the genera! had been arres.ed by civic
prcess, wrote to him not to suffer, " under any
circumstances," his personal liberty to be in-
vaded, and to plead the orders of the Commander-
in•Chief as his justification for what he had
done. In other words, Mr Lincoln has asmemed
the responsibility, and has dared Governor Sey-
mour, who is as legally and constitutionally the
executive and cnief magistrate of the State of New
York as Mr Lincoln is the chief magistrate of the
Union, to try conclusions with him on the great
and vital question, whether is a city not in a state
of siege the military or the civil law is supreme. It
seems as if Governor Seymour, aware of the impor-
tance of the issue, had determined to meet it, and,
in view of the possibility of a conflict bet wet-a the
Federal troops and the Sheriffs and other officers of
the law, has ordered the militia of the State to be
raised to the quota of 75,000 men, by a draught,
pursuant to the State law for the organisation of
the National Guard. He has at the same time di-
rected that no further steps shall be taken towards
enrolling, equipping, and despatching the 12,000
men which Mr Lincoln has called upon him to
supply for the defence of 'Washington and Mary.
land. Thus the state of affairs is eminently critical.
Gen. Dix has a noble chance, such a one as rarely
falls to the lot of an American politician. He is a
member of the Democratic party, accomplished,
gentlemanly, popular. His party—not quite agreed
upon Gen. M'Clellan, and having no other in view
—s in want of a candidate to rah against Mr Lin-
coln. Gen. Dix has but to declare that when the
military and the civil law come into collision he is
for the civil law—to plead is the matter of the
World and the Journal of Commerce that he obeyed
the order of his superior officer, but rather than
incur any future risk of becoming a bad citizen by
acting as a good soldier he has resigned his position
in the army, and he will (supposing
always that
Grant's campaign is really at an end, and that no
military successes of any importance are gained by
him or any ono else between this and Nov. 8) he
hailed with acclamation as the candidate or the
great and growing party who prefer liberty to the
Union, and the most formidable competitor that
could be run against Mr Lincoln. Governor Sey.
moue has hitherto been braver in speech than in
action. In the case of the World and Journal of
Commerce he is so clearly in the -right and Mr
Lincoln is so clearly in the wrong that the friends
of State Rights believe ho has at last mustered
up courage to make a stand. He has done it
in a way that has t-,s numb offended and surprised the
advocates of centra.iz .ti on and arbitrary power as
it has gratified the b itheoto timid but numerous
:lass who think clomiriion too dearly purchased at
he price of conslitot'tonal freedom, and who only
want a leader o. aelr.nowledged ability and boldness
o become the dot ninatit party. A short time will
,now whether Got ,ernor Seymour will maintain the
nigh pontiou he h ns assumed, whether General Dix