The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-07 00:00:00

THE POLISH QUESTION.

le Nord publishes the following as the text of
the despatch addressed by Prince Gortschakoff to
M. de Knorring, the Russian Charge d'Affaires at
Vienna, in reply to the despatch of Count de Rech-
berg, repudiating the Russian proposal of a Con-
ference between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in
regard to Poland :

" St. Petersburg, July 15.
" Count de Rechberg has addressed to the Am-
bassadors of his Imperial and Royal Apostolic Ma-
jesty, under date 19th July current, a despatch
which has been published in the Vienna news-
papers. The object of this document appears to be
to prevent all misunderstanding as to the policy of
the Cabinet of Vienna in the Polish questicn. The
Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs will permit
us to throw a similar light upon the intentions
which dictated our last overtures.

" It is not without some surprise that we have
seen Count de Rechberg allude to the possiblity of a
mental reservation on the part of the Imperial Ca-
binet. It this view is inspired by the desire of dis-
claiming all idea of a separate understanding which
might be judged incompatible with the engagements
which the CA'oinet of Vienna has contracted, and the
principle by which its conduct has been regulated,
we hasten emphatically to bear witness that no un-
derstanding whatever has existed between that Ca-
binet and our selves on the subject of these last
overture:.

" We have no mystery to make of propositions
made in entire good faith, entirely in the spirit
and letter of the Treaties of 1815, upon the basis of
which an exchange of ideas had been agreed upon ;
and which, according to our conviction, contain a
method of a pacific solution of the question conform-
able to the interests of the Kingdom of Poland.
The Imperial Cabinet had believed itself justified in
inferring, from the despatch of the 18th of June,
that the Count de Rechberg had anticipated our re-
fusal to adhere to a Conference of the eight Powers
that signed the General Act of the Congress of
Vienna, seeing that his Excellency subordinated to
the previous consent or Russia, the adhesion of the
Austrian Government to thi3 combi,ation. We
had not inferred from the despatch any approbation
of that refusal. We had seen in that reserve a sen-
timent of dignity, which in a like case the Cabinet
of Vienna would have claimed for itself, and we had
rendered justice to an equitable act. As to the view
of what the dignity of Russia called for, that was a
consideration for our august Sovereign alone ; but
it was evident that a combination which did not
seem conformable to the dignity of the country,
ought for that very reason to be considered im-
possible.

"But Count de Rechberg has thought he per-
ceived in our proposition of an understanding be-
tween the three Courts, with the view of putting
the situation of their Polish possessions, to which
the stipulations of the Treaty of 1815 apply, in
harmony with the circumstance of the moment and
the wants of the age, the idea of establishing be-
tween the Kingdom of Poland and Galicia an assi-
milation which his Excellency repudiates. We had
no thought of establishing any assimilation what-
ever. That there is a necessary solidarity be-
tween the interests of the three neighbouring
Courts and their respective Polish possessions is
attested by the historical traditions and precedents
which have created the order of things actually
existing. Facts have more than once demonstrated
how much the situation of each of the provinces
re-acts upon the condition of the others. Actual
events, and the active part which the revolutionary
elements of Galicia take in the insurrection in the
Kingdom and its ultimate object, are additional
evidence of it. The Cabinets of Austria, England,
and France have pre-supposed it in basing their
diplomatic action upon the reaction which the
troubles in the Kingdom exercise upon the posses-
sions of the neighbouring States, and thereby upon
the tranquillity of Europe.
" We were actuated by the conviction of this
solidarity in proposing an understanding destined
to bring about the necessary harmony between the
institutions which it would be a question of intro-
ducing in the Kingdom of Poland, after the pacifi-
cation of the country, and those which exist in the
Polish possessions of the neighbouring States. It
was a friendly idea, conformable to the relations of
the two Imperial Courts and their mutual interests.
We are bound to zopudiate every different inter-
pretation.
" As to the substance of our propositions, we
believe that, appreciated with the conciliatory spirit
which dictated them, and applied in good faith,
they could lead to a rational and practical solution
which would meet at once the rights and interests
of the three neighbouring Powers, the stipulations
of the Treaties of 1815, upon which rests the
general balance of power, the reasonable wishes of
the Poles, and the solicitude manifested by Europe
in favour of the tranquillity of those countries.
" We can only then regret the different impres-
sion which the instructions addressed by the Count
de Rechberg to the Ambassadors of Austria at
London and Paris gave us intimation of.

" You are authorised to give his Excellency a
reading of the present despatch. Receive, &c.,
" GORTSCHAKOFF.

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, July 24.

The tide of victory that seems to have set in so
strongly in favour of the Federal arms has begun to
alarm that very large and influential class of people
who have made, are making, or hope to make for-
tunes out of the expenditure of the war. Brokers,
speculators, and contractors on the one hand, and
dealers in and manufacturers of army and navy
stores and accoutrements on the other, together with
all the retail traders of the great cities who prosper
upon the lavish outlay of the numberless persons
who revel in their newly-acquired riches, look with
anything but complacency upon the prospects of
peace. They do not sympathise with the South, but
neither do they desire it to be so thoroughly con.
q. zered as to be unable to protract the contest for
two or three years. During this interval they hope
to consolidate and realise their gains, and either to
turn their greenbacks into gold and betake them-
-Breel:aesttoate Europe to enjoy it or to invest them in
in their own country. They know that
the
soon g':_ea_tpap
. e er balloon of credit will collapse as
war is over, and hope that before the
erasfh they will be able to snatch their
fortunes out O range of calamity. " After us the
deluge, since
it
vest let there me ust come, but during our har-
vest
and neltitidry weather." Such is their
si
would not be sorr7. For these reasons they
General Lee were to
defeat General N if
Shenandoah, or in the valley of the
re-teitaeater Maryland as an invader,
of which there seems to l
the defenders of Charleston a prospect, and if
jand toroncearatdusrethoart
annihilate the fleet of Monitito Were
bele
now seem to be too success.ffurlstlze
Sumter. Nor is the fear
gvaubersequences of
aguring Fort
.whSteadier,
peace confined to ordid
worthier, and more ceasepctable People,
the war, and believe it to have been A,v o detest
menced, wrongly conducted, and in everaglY e°4l-
- both for North and South, dreadythesefiansca a
cial convulsions that must attend its close, andn
would fain discover where safety lies. Look
where
they will, they are unable to detect any solution of
the national difficulties, except in bankruptcy and re.
pudiation. The prospect, gloomy as it is, does not
affect Americans with as much horror as it would
Europeans. They pride themselves on the courage
and elasticity of mind of their people, and on the
boundless resources of their continent. Half a mih
lion or a million of men now in possession of
r
worldly wealth, may be reduced to poverty and
destitution. But what of that ? These men can be-
gin the world again, and, if they do not, a younger
and more vigorous class will spring up to carry on
the work of trade and industry. Nobody is placed
so high above his fellows as to fall very heavily, or
to be much missed when he is gone. There are no
princely families to be ruined, and to bear with them
to oblivion the influence, the glories, and the tradi-
tions of centuries. There is no national church, with
imperial revenues, to be confiscated to the needs of
the State. There is nothing a century old of which
the destruction would create a void. 'There is no-

body in the land better than a merchant who was
poor yesterday, is rich to-day, and may bo poor
again tomorrow. Tnere is nothing, in fact, that
can be pulled down that cannot easily be set up
again, and if national bankruptcy is to ensue, let it
come, The Americans owe their money to one
another, and their dents and repudiations are a
family affair which it is scarcely the world's busi-
ness even to criticise. Such is the line of argument
adopted to rob repudiation of its terrors, and to re-
concile the minds of the people to a convulsion that
whatever evils it may bring in its train, will relieve
the next generation of the load of taxation which
it might otherwise have to bear in expiation of the
crimes and follies of the present. The men who
hold Government stocks, or have claims against the
State, do not use this language, but were their
stock sold and their claims paid, they would use it
as readily as others. American social and financial
life is at this moment a scramble. No one cares
who is ruined, so it be not himself. " Good angels
for the foremost ; the devil for the hindmost,"
is the maxim and the practice. No one who is now
making money thinks that he will be the victim
when the day of bankruptcy comes, and whoever
else may be the sufferer is not matter for his consi-
deration.
Yet the time of reckoning draws near. The irre-
pressible " piper" has to be paid, whatever may
visit
aybe
the shifts and devices by which his unwelcome
may be postponed. Mr. Chase h
ias thatbe tteteardrimbilein-
dividual in his keeping, and has, t must
managed to propitiate him with great perseverance
and success. He has not, however, admitted the
public very largely into his secrets. It is exceed-
ingly difficult for the most assiduous students of this
branch of contemporary history to make out at any
time the true condition of the Treasury, its assets
or its liabilities. No financial Minister ever before
in any country wielded such power as Mr. Chase,
or was so little trammelled in its exercise by any-
thing but his own discretion. And it must be said
in his favour that, authorised as he has been by Con-
gress to issue almost fabulous amounts of paper
money, based upon nothing but a national taxation
not yet collected, the inevitable result of which was
to raise the premium on gold to a hundred or even
two hundred per cent., he has so manipulated his
issues as to keep the premium atra moderate point.
Rather than flood the market with paper, though
fully empowered to do so, he has kept the army
without pay for six or eight months at a time, pre-
ferring to run the risk of exciting the value of the
paper dollar to 40 or 50 cent. On the Ist of this
month the sum of 100,000,000 dols. became duo to the
military and naval service, but it has not been paid
for the reason that such an amount of paper thrown
upon the market would send up the premium on gold
to a rate which might imperil other fiscal opera-
tions of the Government, or be otherwise injurious
to its credit. The great study of Mr. Chase is to
keep down the premium, and for this purpose he
has bethought himself of every imaginable expedi-
ent. He has crushed out the smaller fry
of speculators, he has surrounded transactions in
gold with every possible difficulty, and has, more-
over, contrived to keep a sufficient amount of the
metal in his own custody to revolutionise the
market at any moment, by means of his secret
agents, offering to sell in large amounts. He has
hitherto played his game with success. Unaided
by Federal victories he managed between the end
of February and the beginning of June to reduce
the premium from 76 to 45 ; and aided by the Fe-
deral victories of the last three weeks he has brought
it down to 25. It may even reach a still lower
point, if Charleston be taken ; but that he cannot'
retain it at any minimum which his wishes may
prompt, is evident to any one who carefully studies
the present financial condition, as far as it is known,
or who calculates the liabilities that will fall due
within the next few months, and which he has no
means of meeting except by loans or large issues of
paper. The following official statement, published
yesterday, is Mr. Chase's own account of his posi-
tion up to the Ist instant :

INTEREST-BEARING DEBT.
Dole.
Four per Cent. Temporary Loan, coin 5,036,037
Four per Cent. Temporary Loan.... 23,023,258

Dols.

28,059,295

Five per Cent. Temporary Loan.... 70,808,188
Five per Cent. Temporary Loan, coin 6,450
Five per Cent. Bonds, due 1865.... 3,461,000
Five per Cent. Bonds, due 1871.... 7,022,000
Five per Cent. Conds, due 174.... 20,060,000
101,297,638

Six per Cent, Bonds, due 1868 ....18,323,591
Six per Cent. Bonds, due 1881 .... 69,547,800
Six per Cent. Bonds, due 1882.... 185,684,141
Six per Cent. Treasury Notes .... 717,100
Six per Cent, Certificates of Indebt-
edness 157,092,241
-- 431,275,874
7.30 per Cent. Bonds, due Aug, 19,

1864
7.30 per Cent. Bonds, due Oct. 1, 1864 86,989,500
139,920,500

DEBT NOT BEARING INTEREST.
Dols.
Treasury Notes past due .. 39,100

Dols.
United States Notes 387,646,589
Less amount in Trea-
sury ............ 22,157,058
37(3,498,500
Fractional currency
.- 396,721,056
Total Debt, July 1, 1863, as exhibited by the
books of the Treasury Department
Total Debt, July 1, 1863, as estimated by the
Secretary in report of December, 1862 1,122,297,403

Actual Debt less than the estimated Debt by 25,023,037

RECAPITULATION.
Aggregate Debt at 4 per cent. interest
Aggregate Debt at 5 per cent. interest 101,297,638
Aggregate Debt at 6 per cent. interest 431,275,874
Aggregate Debt at 7.30 per cent, interest..., 139,920,500
Aggregate Debt without interest

Total Debt, July 1, 1363, as exhibited by the
books of the Treasury Department
Total Debt, July 1, 1863, as estimated by the
Secretary in report of December, 1862

Actual Debt less than the estimated Debt 25,023,037
An investigation of this document shows the in-
terest-bearing debt to amount to upwards of
700,000,000 dols.—at rates varying between 4 and
7 3-10ths per cent.—or a permanent annual charge
upon the resources of the country of about 40,000,000
dols. to be met by taxation. The debt not bearing
interest is the paper money already issued, popu-
larly known as " greenbacks," together with the
postage currency for fractional parts of a duller,
commencing at 5 and ending at 50 cents ; both
amounting, in round numbers, to 397,000,000 dols.
On the Ist of July last year less than
150,000,000 dollars of greenbacks were in cir-
culation, so that Mr. Chase's necessities in the
interval have compelled him to more than double
the amount of his issues of irredeemable paper. In
this respect he has not overstepped the powers con-
ferred upon him by Congress, but has fallen consi-
derably short of them, as the following tabular
statement of the sums authorised by the several
Acts of the Legislature, to which the dates are ap-
pended, will show :
Dols.
By Act of February, 1862
„ July, 1862
January, 1863
„ February, 1863
11 March, 1863
„ March, 1863 (fractional or
postage currency) .. 50,000,000
March, 1863—Legal tender
notes of 10 dole. (bearing int.) 400,000,000

1,050,000,000
Prom this it appears that Mr, Chase, having
oatvinisgsuise:
sued 397,000,000 dols., has it in his power whenever he pleases, an additional sum of
653,000,000 dole. in greenbacks or other form of
Paper money- That he will speedily be compelled
either to resort to this measure or to contract new
loans is evident. The fiscal year commences on the
Ist of July, and as Mr. Chase has not squared up
all his accounts to thlt date,inasniufith as 100,000,000
dols. are due to the army and navy, and possibly as
for
much more
subsistence to contractors for iron-clads ships and
army for the past year, it may be
assumed that the debt, which he asserts to be
25,000,000 dole. less than he anticipated, is act
It
dols. more than he calculated. It
remains to consider what are his prospects for
the year commencin on the Ist instant. The
g
last was; mindful of hi.., necessities during the
Congress which expired onthe4th

interval that was to elapse between its own retire-
ment from public lift., and the assembling of its suc-
cessor, and voted for the service of the year ending
on the Ist of July, 1864, the following sums :
Dols.
For the support of the Army
838,594,644
•• •• Navy
89,848,205
Civil and other expenses 45,612,821

Total
To meet this expenditure and to pay the interest of
the debt, Mr. Chase has no actual resources except
wlahsitchysatrhe7oC2osoto,omost;
the proceeds
of taxation—of
duties
w were
e pecdols., but which only produced 60,000,000 dols., and
which may, perhaps, produce still less in the current
re xtetl to produce
year—and the new war taxes, which were estimated
at 150,800,000 dols., or a total of 220,000,000 dols.
Supposing that taxation yields the sum anticipated,
that the Western agriculturists are in a position
and in the mood to pay income. tax ; and that the
great bulk of the commercial and professional classes
throughout the North make honest returns of their
gains, and cheerfully pay a direct tax upon them
(which is a little too much to expect of Yankee
human nature, or of British human nature either,
as Mr. Gladstone and the Income and Property Tax
Commissioners well know), Mr. Chase will have to
provide at least 753,000,000 dols. over and above
the revenues of the State for the necessities of the
Government daring the year. Should he resolve to
meet the emergency by issuing all the greenbacks
that Congress has authorised him to put into the
market, he will not only fall short of his needs by
the sum of 100,000,000 dols. (twenty millions ster-
ling), but he will send up the price of gold to a
much higher point than the maximum which it
attained this year, 76 per cent., possibly, and very
probably to 100—a state of affairs to which as a good
financier, he has the strongest repugnance. Nor is
this the whole of his difficulty, for within 12 months
he must pay off short loans, of 5 per cent., 6 per
cent., and 7 3-10ths per cent., amounting in the
aggregate to 392,000,000 dols. And these
short loans are already beginning to trouble his re-
pose. Within the last 90 days 150,000,000 dols. in
greenbacks have been funded into " Five Twenty
Bonds," an operation which has caused a rise in
the value of money from 4 and 5 to 6 and 7 per
cent. The continuance of this high rate necessarily
involves the repayment by the Secretary of all the
temporary loans which he holds at a lower rate.
Congress, however, has not left him without power
to contract new loans for the repayment of the old,
and has authorised him to issue—

Dols.
Six per Cent. Five Twenty Bonds 300,000,000
•Six per Cent. Ten Forty Bonds 500,000,000
Six per Cent. Twelvemonth Bonds (or loans
for a year)

1,100,000,000

•
It was originally the intention that these bonds
should be put up to public competition, but as the
probable discount at which they would be taken
might have been alarming in itself, and hurtful to
the prestige of the Federal Government, if com-
mented upon in Europe, Mr. Chase on his own
urgent remonstrance was authorized to sell any of
stocks at any price privately. The law approved
on the 3d of March.

The last working day of the sittings of Congress
expressly states that he may " sell them below the
" market value." If Mr. Chase desires to succeed
Mr. Lincoln in the Presidential Chair, as most people
believe, it is evident that he has it in his power to
work the finances of the country to that end ; and
that he can place chanzes of fortune in the way of
his friends and supports more brilliant than ever
before were at the disposal of a Minister. However
that may be, the task before him is herculean, if he
would avoid, as he desires to do, the inflation of the
currency, and the consequent rise in gold, and carry
on the war without a total derangement of all the
trade, commerce, and industry of the country. By
the Ist of July, 1864, let him manage as he will—
either by fresh loans at high interest, or by the
issue of paper,—the debt of the Federal Govern-
ment will greatly exceed two thousand millions of
dollars, or, at the ordinary rate of exchange, four
hundred millions of pounds sterling. This vast
sum, however, has no terrors for the American
mind. "If Great Britain owes £800,000,000 ster-
ling, are we going to break down under the weight
of one-half of that sum ? Guess not !" Such is the
substance of the reply that is invariably given,
followed very often by the consolatory reflection
that though it is possible to ruin many hundreds of
thousands of American citizens, it is utterly im-
possible to ruin the great American nation.
All the foregoing calculations are founded on the
liabilities of the past and the current year. Should
the war continue for a longer period, and not be
brought to a close by Mr. Lincoln's successor in the
Presidency (which is not likely if he be of the same
school of politics as Mr. Chase, or any other poli-
tician pledged to the emancipation of the Southern
slaves as the necessary preliminary to any recon-
struction of the Union), the financial situation would
of course be much worse. The Southern debt
would have to be added to the Northern to arrive
at the real money cost of the struggle, in which
case the fast Americans would have the right to
boast of having attained in four years a state
of indebtedness in fighting against one another
which it took slow England nearly 200 years
to incur in battles by sea and land with foreign foes
exclusively. And should the Northern Government
succeed, as it hopes, in conquering the South by
means of this enormous expenditure, it will gain
nothing but a half-ruined territory, inhabited by an
exasperated and embittered population of whites,
and a useless and pauperised population of blacks,
to keep the first of whom in subjection and the
second in bread will cost annually about as much as
was required to carry on the war. America may be
a very great and very fruitful country, with resources
all but illimitable ; but if the North can stand such
a drain upon the industry of its taxpaying people it
may claim to rank not only as the richest and most
patient, but the most heavily burdened nation on
the face of the globe. But its future prosperity will
not, under such circumstances, keep peace with the
promise of the past. The struggling workers of
Europe who have done so much to develope its re-
sources will remain at home. America will offer
them no attractions. With more of liberty and less
of taxation in the Old World, they will either re-
main in their birthplaces or betake themselves to
Australia and New Zealand—to any place that
offers a strong man a chance of freedom and sub-
sistence, and not to America, that will cea©o to offer
him either.

CONSUMPTION HOSPITAL, BROMPTON, The
quarterly court of the governors of this charity was
held yesterday at the hospital, Brompton, Mr. T. P. Beck-
worth in the chair. The minutes of the last court having
been read and confirmed, the report, which was read by the
Secretary, stated that the institution continued its course of
usefulness. The extra beds put up during the winter
months, alai increasing the hospital accommodation to 210
beds, had been vacated since the commencement of the
warm weather, the hospital having now its ordinary com-
plement, viz., 200 beds. The number of patients under
treatment was about the same as in the corresponding
quarter last year. The out-patient department still con-
tinued to do great good. During the past three months,
although the donation's had not been so numerous as the
committee wished, yet Ulu committee had been encouraged
by several liberal gifts, and amongst others might be men-
tioned the munificent contribution of £l' 000 from a lady.
The hospital had also obtained several additional annual
subscribers. Ihe number of patients admitted since the
28th of May was 178 ; discharged more or less benefitted,
153 ; died, 19; the new out-patients numbered 1,417. The
drain upon the funds of hospital, caused by the mortgage
of £9,000, rendered the acquisition of new legacies par-
ticularly acceptable. The committee begged to express
P of Armagh, the
, and to other
Btheir
pc os rodfi aLI
mthanks,
LtoichthfieeldA, raenhdbAisihaouritius
clergymen who had so ably advocated the charity. On the
motion of Mr. Dixon, seconded by the Rev. Mr. Franklin,
the report was adopted. A vote of thanks to the chairman
closed the proceedings.
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