The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-28 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Correspondent of the Tames.)
NEW YORK, Nov. 13.
I have nothing to add to the telegrams that pre-
cede this letter, and no comment to make upon the
intelligence they convey. Military operations are
-once more at a standstill, and the army of the Poto-
mac, after its advance to the Rapidan, seems to be
relapsing into its habitual quiet. I have seen per-
sons late from Washington who assure me that, in
spite of the jealous watchfulness of the Government,
some scrap of information will occasionally leak out
through the recipients of the tell-tale electric fluid.

From these unauthorised, yet authentic, sources I

can gather, first, that Fort Sumter is in no hurry to
strike its colours to the Federals ; second, that the

Government are by no means easy as to the position
of their army at Chattanooga. The very wreck of
the sea-wall and the rubbish heaps dug at its base
constitute, it is said, the best of curtains for the de,-

fence of Fort Sumter. New casemates have larJen
constructed behind the first line of defences and

while Gilmore's batteries and the ironclads keep

vainly furrowing and winnowing these almost pul-
verised ruins, the Confederates lie snugly hid in
their invulnerable dens and burrows, unable, in-
deed, to return their enemy's fire with correspond-
ing briskness, but ready at a moment's notice to
repel their attacks, were they at any time to attempt
a landing. As to Chattanooga, all that is known at
Washington is that the Confederates are collecting
almost all their troops for a mighty stroke in that
quarter, and it is doubtful whether Grant will have
it in his power to meet the combined onset of his
foe by a timely concentration of his now sadly dis-
jointed and partially enveloped forces. Thomas
and Burnside may be perfectly safe where they
are; the question is whether they occupy the posie
tion which their commander-in-chief might deem
desirable, and whether it is practicable to bring
them safe and sound into that position.
I spoke to you in one of my last of a plot on
Ohio, aiming at the deliverance of the Confederate
prisoners confined in some of the gaols of that State.
A contemporary effort, it appears, was to be made
by some of the Confederate refugees now residing
in Canada to rescue the prisoners of war on John-
son's Island, in Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie, with
some further prospects of attacking and destroying
Buffalo and other cities on the lakes, and to co-
operate with Morgan and the other Confederate
leaders whom it was hoped to release from durance
at Columbus. The conspiracy was detected by the
Governor-General of Canada, who, by a telegraphic
despatch to Lord Lyons, set the Washington autho-
rities on their guard. Opportune measures were
immediately taken for ordering out gunboats,
placing strong guards on board the steamers, and
othereeise putting the lake cities in a state of de-
fence .
It has been decided here to submit to the terms
for which the workmen of all classes have lately
" e truck." There was some opposition, but I find
no, where the people's demands resisted for any
le ogth of time. The working classes show them-
se Ives, as yet, by no means unreasonable, and they
a re aware they have unbounded power whenever
t: ley choose to put it forth. Nowhere else in the
orld, nor even here at any previous epoch, did
the industrial classes enjoy so universally spread
a 'well-being as they have attained in this country
before the war, and the war itself has hitherto
apparently only added to their prosperity. The
Savings-banks in New England, New York, and
thiroughout the north-east and west, have nearly
doubled their capital with the deposits of the
careful and thrifty labouring poor. Were labour
to engage in an earnest war against capital, no
doubt .the means for a prolonged struggle would
be everywhere ready at hand. But there will be
for the present no occasion for a trial of strength.
Most of the Trade Unions are coming to terms
with their employers, and the compromise almost
univrsally turns out in favour of the pretensions
of the operatives. in some instances, as was the
case with seine of the city railways, or, as we would
call them, tramway companies, the masters
have been 'beforehand with their servants, and
granted an unsolicited 25 per cent. increase of wage.
All the companies in that line of business have not
exhibited the same foresight and moderation, how-
ever, and the consequence is that the cars were not
plying in most of the avenues and great thorough-
feree either yesterday or to-day.
But, although compliance with the workmen's de-
mands is matter both of justice and necessity, it is
difficult to see -what the upshot of this momentous
social revolution may be. The rise of prices, as a
matter of course, necessitates the increase of wages;
but by gra•ating a more liberal retribution to labour
you in tur a enhance the price of all the commodities
which labour produces. There is here mutual reac-
tion between cause and effect, and the titles of the
indust ria I classes to doable wages are no more indis-
putable now than will be their claims to quadruple
wageis six months or a year hence ; for the rise of
priema at that date will infallibly have followed that
proportion. No fixed salary, it will soon be found,
tan keep pace with the exigencies of a market dis-
turbed by the action of an inflated currency. It is
found that in New York clothing sells at rates 50
per cent higher than in former years ; and hotel ac-
commodation, no unfair criterion of the value of the
first necessaries of life, board and lodging, has risen
2 dols. to 3 dole. 50c. Coal, the best anthracite coal,
"It 5 dole. 50c. to 6 dole. per ton before the war ;
it sells now at 11 dole., and it will be 25 per cent.
dealer
before the end of the week. The reasons for
„a high porices are said to be the scarcity of labour,
Lie immix f
men gone to the wars, the high wages,
strikes, and
ea
in riots—a very sanguinary one at Mauch-
iin ute 'hw mining Pennsylvania, the other day—frequent
moodistricts. The real fact is, however,
that 9
been dug fr-- to.ns of anthracite coal have already
uln the mines in the course of the pre-
sent year, and the
wilt quantity extracted before the end
of December
_obtless exceed 10,000,000 tons;
which
ywieldledany°
be 2,suin ,000 tons more than the
mines
revious year. All this,
without taking into
account the large quantities of
bituminous coals, where the me increase in pro-
duction and consumption i observable. The dearth
of coal, in the midst o
f all this abundance, is caused
by the great demands the navy' by the increased
industry,
traffic in every line of railway, and thef extension of
steam engines to
almost every branch
o
The coal mine proprietors, however ate
prices by
charged
with keeping up combinations among
themselves, and !lints are thrown out to Government
of the expediency of baffling h t eirCtipidity by
re-
moving, or at least reducing, the
import duties on
coal, so' as to allow the free competition
of the
British colliers with these niggardly starvers of the
people. I hear also loud complaints that the gee '\
companies, pleading the high price of coals, supply
the cities with an inferior quality of gas- I can
bear witness to the fact so far as New York is con-
cerned. That human avarice and stony-hearted
covetousness will conspire with any great pub
c
calamity to aggravate the miseries of a multitude
no news to men of experience; but that all the evils
now afflicting and threatening this formerly
wealthiest and happiest of communities have their
origin in the war, and in the tampering with the
currency by which an attempt was made to support
the war is also beyond a doubt. Let Mr. Chase
swell the currency by every contrivance in his
power, it will be found that man " lives not by
greenbacks alone."

A great sensation has been created throughout
the.pen Union by the fact that the Supreme Court of
the
ooxe
Pennsylvania has decided against the legality of
e
Rv„or3iption, or National Enrolment Act. The
of 1.: 1 papers and those attached to the interests
Government do not fail to observe
that only threeas
judges out of five agreed to the
decision, and, of
Copperhead these three, two belonged to the
partysnd were defeated iu the late
State elLctions. The
sentence, however, is a
legal and, for aughtan
trary, an honest one,
one knows to the eon-
weight with the people o.t an will have no slight
large.d The Americans
may have an interest in blackening the character of
the magistrates of their own choice,
with the elective system which oar
setsthemin finding
hut the whole opermion of the d""lgh
°n
faul
the h,:fnc'rt
in Penn t syivania i 6 no less, for aiith,t, 4, .
Least tem-
porarily annulled.
Adjutlnt General Thomas gives a most charming