The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-07 00:00:00

hoplessness of such an expedient hereafter. Hence
it is that the President falls back upon the old plan,
and "calls on the Governors of the different States
to raise and have enlisted 300,000 men." It is
hardly possible to believe that the proclamation was
issued in good earnest. The raising of volunteers,
or to call things by their proper name, bounty men,
was never discontinued since the first outbreak of
the war. It was never carried on with greater
alacrity than during the pangs and throes of that
barren conscription ; and we know that in the State
of New York, for instance, "the volunteer enrolment
yielded 50 per cent. more than all the machinery of
the draught!' If the tempting bait of 302 dols. for
raw recruits and 402 dohs. for veterans could be of
any avail towards repleting the army, surely the
bills stuck up outside the shop windows in all the
cities of the East and West, the huge flogs waving
all across Broadway, bearing spirited pictures of
charging cavalry; squadrons and thundering bat-
teries, and all the pomp and pageantry of war, ought
at all times to have kept the supply on a par with
the demand, but men are not to be had on any large
scale at any of the bounty rates hitherto offered, and
it is upon this conviction that the Board of Super-
visors of the city of New York propose an outlay of
2,000,000 dols., with a view to add 300 dols. to the
Government bounty—thus raising the price of sol-
diers to 602'dols. and even 702 dols. per head! It
may be questioned whether even this unheard of
liberality will be found efficient, admitting that it
may be considered expedient. The soldier's pay was
fixed at 13 dole. a month at the outbreak of the war,
i.e., at a time at which that sum had the real value
of 13 dols. in gold, but that same sum at the present
day only represents 6 dols. 50c. real value, and labour
of the lowest description commands at least 30 dole.
monthly wages throughout the country. Even with
700 dollars enlistment money the soldier's trade
is almost the poorest business a man can betake him-
self to. It is dog's work for native Americans, nor
is it clear to what extent it may continue to be at-
tractive in the eyes of foreign immigrants. The
draught in Vermont only yielded 72 conscripts and
800 substitutes : all of these latter were aliens,
most French Canadians. Of the foreign adven-
turers already acquainted with the country the most
part will be as shy of the flags as the natives them-
selves. The hopes of the recruiting officers must
needs rest on the new arrivals, and of these many
thousands can hardly come in on so short a notice.
To raise 300,000 men in two months, with the pre-
sent abundance of work and high wages, would seem
hardly practicable; and on the sth of January the
President's remedy will come into operation : " If
any State shall fail to raise the quota assigned to it,
a draught for the deficiency shall be made." A
draught, however, so long as the clause of the 300
dols. redemption be maintained, will yield money,
and not men ; and as to a bona fide conscription,
impartial, inexorable, on the Prussian principle, it
seems hardly credible that any Government would
venture on such a course in a country like this. It
takes no less than two generations to train even the
most orderly and best disciplined people to sub-
mit to the hateful yoke of a compulsory levy. In
Piedmont and Lombardy, where military service has
been organized on the present footing since the be-
ginning of the century, the yearly draught takes
place with all the regularity of clockwork; but in
the late Roman provinces, in the Marches and
Umbria, and in the island of Sicily, which were
allowed exemption from military duties by the
Papal and Neapolitan Governments, the introduc-
tion of the hated levy has met with the most
formidable difficulties, and every announcement
of a fresh conscription is the signal for the
rising of brigand bands throughout the country.
The experiment of the late draught in New York—
the 44 battalions engaged in the impressment of a
few hundred conscripts—ought to leave little hope
for a future attempt. The scheme failed even when
men had it in their power to compound with their
money for their blood; but if Mr. Lincoln were to
come upon them for their real " pound of flesh " it
is doubtful whether any force could suffice to over-
awe this city—doubtful whether any army would
be equal to the task of enforcing the law through-
out the land.
All the proclamations in the world will never
make this recruiting of the army any thing but an
affair of money. " The war," we are informed, "has
already lasted two years and six months, and in that
time we have accumulated a national debt amount-
ing to 2,000,000,000 dols." if soldiers are to be
bought at the rate of 600 to 700 dols., as the city of
New York proposes, if a competition is to arise be-
tween the Federal Government and the municipal
and State authorities as to which shall bid the higher

for the purchase of food for powder, the debt at the
close of another year will probably exceed our
powers,of calculation. So long as there is no limit
to the production of "greenbacks," and so long as
" greenbaeks " represent at least half their nominal
value, the hook may be so baited as to get a bite
here and there. " Whoever takes my paper pockets
trash," says Mr. Chase, and the army may be satis-
fied to rest on as trashy a foundation as society is
content to be based on ; but the quality of the sol-
diers to be got for so high a bribe will hardly be
found to correspond with the quantity. Nay, the
higher the price a man sets upon his blood, the lower
the moral standard that led him to bargain for it.
In the meanwhile the well-tried difficulty the
Government meet in their enlistment of white men
urges them more and more recklessly to their
scheme of the enrolment of negroes. Slaves are being
bought in Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, West
Virginia, and Missouri. Loyal owners on parting
with their property receive 300 dole, indemnity,
and the slave is assured of his freedom on the ex-
piration of his term of service ; the slaves of " dis-
loyal" masters are enlisted and emancipated at once,
without ransom. The scarcity of sailors for the

navy has induced Government to forward instruc-
tions to enlist "contrabands" for the fleet. The

'ree use of the blacks has, of course, the effect of

deterring the whites from the service; but Sambo
was, however innocent, the primary cause of all
this contest, and it id natural, and perhaps just, that
he should bear the brunt of the battle, with the

hope that he may, in some unforeseen manner, reap
the benefits of the victory.
The phenomenon of a self-styled free State rely-
ing for empire, or indeed for existence, on slaves
and mercenaries is by no means new in the world.

It was the policy of ancient Rome, the policy of
medimval Florence and of Venice. It will be a rare
luck for the United States if, unlike those States of

old, they learn in time that an army of hirelings,
white or black, may be a useful servant, but is apt
to become the most troublesome and dangerous of