The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-20 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA

(From the 44:recia; Correspondent of the TiN2CB.)
BALTIMORE, Aug. 7.

Whoever r rould wish to sum up at one glance all
the miseries i filleted upon the United States by the
" more than war" now raging, should come for
a few days to Baltimore, for the impression wrought
upon the min d by a society in a state of rapid de-
composition is . all the more painful, as Baltimore, by
its lively asp• et, pleasant site, lovely women, and
the mild, com, -zeous, and cordial manners of its in-
habitants, is :apt to wind itself round the stranger's
heart, and it unline him to give it the preference over
most other A merican residences.
I left \Vat iiiington on Tuesday evening, shaking
its dust from. my shoes at the station—ihe dus.; that
buries that de ad city, now hot and desolate as Sahara,
with nothity4 astir in i:, sive cnly its sea tiered
gangs of B,:i.ouin.like Union soldiers, kicking up
huge clouds. as they mercilessly urge on their worn-
out Virginian nags at a sorry canter, patrolling the
lonely streets like uneasy spirits without ap parent
errand or object, The contrast between that stag-
nant, stiflin;;, murderous atmosphere (where to less
than seven i?ersons are reported to have dropped
down dead o faunstrokes in one day, on Monday), and
the still burning-hot but breezy fled elastic air of
this well-watered " City of the Monuments," affords
immediate relief; and the intercourse with the better
classes of its inhabitants, full as they are of their
grievances, sets your heart all the harder against
the dogged, and sullen, and ruthless determination
of the Uniott men you have left behind at the seat
of Governrient, and enlists your sympathies in be-
half of the weaker side, to such an extent that you
must summon up all your sternness to be on your
guard agai!ist your own " milk of human nature,"
and look up an matters with that calm, unbiassed
judgment which befits your cffice as an impartial
observer.

A man fresh from the old countries of Europe is
not, alas, unacquainted with the import of such
words as " Ave of siege," "martial law," and the
like. He hes seen or hoard of despotic and arbitrary
government all his lifetime, has heard of Spielberg,
Castle St. lengele, Piombi, and Pozzi ; he is familiar
with the most refined and cunning engines of
tyranny. But in Austria, in Poland, at Modena, or
Naples, all these were old and long-tried contri-
vances. The police in France, in Venice, in Russia
is, or was, a strongly and thoroughly organised
system, a crushing and killing but soulless and
passionless machinery, doing its work with dull, un-
relenting steadfastness of purpose, going straight to
its goal, but actuated by no political and only very
moderate official zeal, actuated by no wanton animo-
sity against its hapless victims. The Buongoverno at
Milan or Venice had every patriot under its thumb
as completely as the metropolitan police knows the
whereabouts of every London pickpocket. It pro-
ceeded against them by order, free from rancour or
vindictiveness, and its agents, mere professionals,
were es ready to serve under a green, red, and white
as under a yellow and black banner. They were
the passive servants of every Government de facto,
which cou:%l be induced to accept their co-operation.
Fel:lobe's machine in Paris, like the guillotine,
would be as active under an Emperor as under a
Bourbon Kiev, a constitutional Orleans, Cr a repub-
lic—a keen-edged but mere mechanical instrument.
But the United States had to improvise a police as
they had eo extemporise an army. For their want
of skill and practice they had to make up by pas.
sion. They made of the police a party business ;
they set the Union men against the Seceders; they
waged war against the rebels in the city by the same
means that they employed against them in the field.
Maryland and Baltimore had before the war a
perfectly organised efficient police. Its commis-
sioners ware removed as " disloyal" men; the force
was disbanded ; the whole of the State and city
executive was re-established at the free will and
pleasure of the Central Government at Washington.
Yet even that new set of magistrates and agents of
its own creation, even those juries of its own pack-
ing, were slack in working cut the Government's
will, and the military were invested with full
powers to wage war against " disloyalty."
For nesrly two months Baltimore has been one
vast prison. On the first tidings of Lee's advance
across the Potomac Maryland was turned into a
camp, the city was beset with barricades, end none
of the citizens wereallowed to quit the town—at this
hot seam), when the whole population would have
rushed to the springs—unless ho satisfied General
Schenck of his loyalty by taking " the oath of alle-
giance." The barricades were pulled down 10 days
ago, and the citizens' movements were no longer in-
terfered with ; so that a great rush ensued to the
springs, to the country houses—anywhere out of
town, out of reach of Schenck, of the Provost-
Marshal, of Giimore-house, Fort APHenry, Fort
Warren, and the other sorrowful places where
"loyalty" is taught at so many months' imprison.
ment a lesson, and from which there is no escape
except ae the price of "an oath of allegiance.'
" Loyalty" in this country is, of course, understood
to mean attachment to the Northern or Federal
cause. New, Maryland and Baltimore are naturally
disposed to uphold the principles of Secession. The
world kn ows it ; the President and his Cabinent at
Washing ton are fully aware of the fact. Their Go-
vernment had only a small and not very reputable
party aesong this Marylandian population; it con-
sisted of those "Know-nothings'' who went by the
quainter names of "Plugsuglies,"Blood tubs,""Black
Snakes," Sec. Gen. Schenck and his soldiers are
placed hero to give if possible an emphatic denial to
the fact, to destroy it if practicable. They have
established a pretty reign of terror. They have not
the proper means,not the crafty machinery by which
such a work can be achieved. But they have given
political passion full swing; they have organised a
party into a police, a clumsy and blundering one,
indeed, as may be expected, but vicious, headlong,
fall of petty malice, vexatious, unbearable. Take a
few instances.

A gentleman gives a friendly dinner to six guests.
The party has no sooner broken up than the host is
called upon by the police to give in a list of his
lgouyeeBlttey“.,, o
s one of the number is " suspected of dis-
n the ground of the real or supposed
disaffectiou
etocf this individual, the dinner-giver is
thrown ig
tilperison. , from which he will only emerge
by takin
gentleman
of allegiance.
A rev,
be
is called upon to pay taxes for
some property
owns in Virginia beyond the rebel
lines. He ninon,
mates, and is instantly grabbed
for "disloyal la")
not to be released except
by taking " the oath;'
Confederate prisoners
the
lower
brought in from Gettys-
burg. A woman of
classes steps out upon
her balcony to look at the men
the
sullen as they pass, and, to
screen her eyes from
lift up a stocking
she was knitting. She has been 'if
to the captive rebels; ehe is hielrl"ving that " file
packed off beyond the lines self a retel and is
to Virginia,' few
steps further, another woman of
abe A -ew
pity on the thirsty wretches who
are made
class takes
still at her door. She brings out water, to stand
it first to the Union soldiers who have the
offers
in charge, then by their permission to
the prisoners
themselves. The police revoke the Petals-oners
granted by the humane soldiers; the good woman
on
granted
is taken up, and conveyed beyond the lines to vi

ginia.

An inoffensive British subject is accosted in the
b3r of his hotel by a Union soldier, who asks him to
treat him to ..MC drink. The Britisher finds the
proposal "rather cool ;" the Yankee bids him "re-
spect his uniform." "A fig for your cnifrlrtn !" says
impatient John Bull ; whoreupen he instantly finds
himscif in quod for disloyalty, and is only released
four days afterwards by the intercession of Mr.
Bernal, the British Consul, who claims him from
the authorities, when the unwittief,T offender had
already been " disposed of and diarni,,i..c:d from their
memory."

A gentleman walks into the Eutaw-house, hi':
hotel, where Ger. :Schenck has his head
avters.
One of the Staff officers of high rank asks him "How
he dares to wear the rebel colours ?" "Rebel colours!
What do you mean ? ' " Mean I Now, I'd tell you."
A couple of orderlies are summoned. The luckless
"Night is bror,2ht into the dread prt-r-seneo of Gen.
scht,rek. ,4 That, man," says the accuser, " comes
to d:spiay rcb4l coi u s uhar cur very roses." The
Iran is D.t a loi: to uLL'i.r;:tand w:reit all