The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-19 00:00:00

THE CITY C.f. WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the S, pecid‘ Correspondent of the Times.)
NEW YORK, Oct. 6.

The siege of the defences of Charleston has re-
commenced. Cieneral Rosencranz is closely belea-
guered in Chu .ttanooga, and the army of the Poto-
mac has been deprived of about half of its available
strength to -reinforce him. In other quarters little
is doing ; but there is sufficient uncertainty with
respect to the three points here indicated to keep
people's minds in feverish suspense, and to operate
unfavo-arably on the money-market. Charleston ,
givcs the least anxiety. The belief is that if the
Federal army and navy cannot capture they can
destroy the city, and in the worse case they can
raise the siege and leave Charleston to itself for the
winter. General Meade's position inspires more
doubt. His army has been depleted, in the hope
rather than in the certainty that General Lee heal
suffered a similar diminution for the reinforcement
of Generals Joseph Johnston and Bragg. If it
should turn out, however, that Lee is in as great
force as ever upon the Rapidan, he ratty seize the
opportunity to attack Meade and reeve the old
alarm for the safety of Washing'con. As regards
Roseneranz, the public is every day informed with
a loud flourish of trumpets that his position is im-
pregnable;
that his army is in the best spirits;that the enemy dares not attack ; that everything is
going on
better than could have been expected ;
and that te
will infallibly gain a great victory in
a very few days. But the more the Government
protests the more the people disbelieve ; until the
impression is hourly gaining strength that Rosen-
cranz is in a position of imminent peril. The rela-
tions between France and the Federal Government,
arising out of the turn which events have taken
in Mexico, also cause considerable inquietude,
which not even the presence of the Russian fleet
in the harbour of New York, the departure of Mr.
Mason from London in disgust, and the alleged soli-
citude of the British Government to prevent the
Emiliag of the Confederate rams from the Mersey
and the Clyde are sufficient to alleviate.
Another cause for discomfort has been discovered
in the defencelessness of New York and Brooklyn
against a naval attack. The ordinary entrance to
the Bay of New York is by Sandy Hook, and
through the Narrows—the route which is taken by
the Cunard and Inman steamers, and ninety-nine
out of every hundred vessels that trade with the
port. rills entrance is defended at the Narrows by
Forts Hamilton and Lafayette on the right, and by
Fort Tompkins, not yet completed or mounted with
artillery, upon the left. But there is another and
equally available entrance, by way of Long Island
Sound, which is not defended at all, and through
whieb a hostile fleet can enter with the greatest
ease. "It wes only the other day," says the New
London Star of the Ist inst., " that five Russian
men-cif-war o f the largest class, smile of them draw-
ing 27 feet of water, appeared off Montauk, steamed
through the narrow passage between Fisher's and
Gull's Islands, usually called the Race, went up the
Sound, a'ad were quietly at anchor within shelling
distance of the city of New York before any one
was aware of their presence. Had these been the
fleet of an enemy instead of a friend, the cities
and towns on the seaboard of Connecticut and
New York city itself might have been laid in
ashes." It appears that the people of the city
of New London have long becu urging upon the
Government the necessity of erecting strong
fortifications at the points indicated, but hitherto
withoat effect. Accustomed to deal with all
sorts of jobs and jobbers, the Administration
thought that nothing but a job of greater magni-
tude than usual was intended, and, as there was
no electioneering strength to be pined by favour-
ing it, the consideration of the matter was postponed
or pooh-poohed. Perhaps, however, the prospect
of a foreign war, which never since the secession of
South Ca':cthna appeared so imminent as now, may
induce the) Federal Government to look to this un-
fastened back door before the steed be stolen.
The official organs of the Government have been

instructiad to contradict the report that the failure

of the last draught to priducesoldiers—although it
produced abundance of commutation money—has
impressed Mr. Lincoln and his secretaries with the
necessity of a second conscription, in which no com-

mutation shall be allowed. The statement, which
originated in ono of those violent Abolitionist jour-
nals that, " with the best of motives," are doing
their best, or worst, to drive the country to destruc-
tion, is denounced from Washington as a malicious
invention. But, if there is to be no new draught,
how is the government to be carried on ; and how
is Mr. Lincoln to continue the war ? He has not,
by 500,000, as many men as are necessary to the
safe prosecution of the task before him; and as ne-
groes cannot be got in sufficient numbers—and
white men scarcely at all—there must either be a
break down that will surprise the world, some mira-
culous interposition of Providence, or some equally
miraculous succession of strokes of good luck by sea
and land to prevent the North from exhibiting a
spectncle of helplessness such as has rarely been
vita,
-ssed among nations. But, perhaps, the secret
of tb,e disclaimer is not so difficult to fathom as it
aPPasts. For the next five or six weeks the elections
of Governors or other high officials will be in pro-
gress in the sey t
es ern States, as well as in New
York;
and
Pe
nnsylvania, and it may therefore not be
politic on the part of the Government to incur the
unpopularity of ordering a new draught until they
are concluded. 'nail probability this is the true ex-
planation of the denial. Doubtless, if Mr. Vallan-
digham be defeated in Ohio, Judge Woodward in
and
Pennsylvania,
no the Democrats generally in New
York, where there is election for governor this
year, the Goeeenmentwill take heart and allow the
rumours of a new conscription to be revived without
troubling itself to contradict them. Upon the tem-
per in which they shall be •
reved by the press and
public will depend the future received
action of Mr. Lincoln
and his black Republican advisers,
But it is not only the want
of soldiers
but of sailors
that begins to embarrass the:Executive. Notwith-
standing all the vaunts that are daily made of the
indomitable navy of the North, Which with its re-
sistless ironclads and monitors is, in ease of
with Great Britain, to sweep the ocean of every
ship
war
that carries a hostile fine the Administration
the greatest difficulty in procuring seamen Ina hasi-
sf
cient numbers to send even a moderate fleet toufi'"
sea.
Perhaps, case of actual war with any European
power,
with Great
power, and especially Britain, th at which
is now a difficulty might grow into an impossibility.
Ireland and Germany have offered immense numbers
of volunteers and substitutes, and some few cone
scripts, to the army; but these resources would fail
the Federal Government in a naval war. Neither
the Irish nor the Germans make good sailors, or take
so naturally to a maritime as to a military life, and
the naval force of the United States is either com-
posed of native-born Americans, or of English-
men, Scotchmen, and Norwegians. In what
proportion the foreign stands to the native element
is not clearly known, though it is surmised by
%ate who, from their position and opportunities,
Ought to know, that less than one-half of the able-
bodied seamen on board American merchantmen
Or ships of war are natives and citizens of the
country.
As Englishmen and Scotchmen do not
entertain
that theological hatred against
Government
vhh
animates the Irish Roman
Catholics, and havelc)been mainly to enter
the British
the Federal service by induced
probable that in cage the high wages offered, it is
theasf a
the patriotism of war with Great Britain
than their cupidity, anda would prove greater
that the Americans would
men
be left to fight their own s
aid as the Scandinavians ema.battles with such small
this may be, the present need afford. However
fl. et in urgent ; and the Ecileral sellers to man the
is
seriously incommoded in the Government
efforts h*
gladly make, if it could, to capture the Floridas and
Alabarnas, which so disturb the equanimity of the
mercantile community. It having been represented -
to the Naval Department that considerable
numbers
of willieg recruits for the navy could be procured
among the Gape cod fishermen if proper inducements
were held out to them at the close of the fishing
s
season, the frigate Sabine, under the command of-
Commodore Ittnggold, was despatched to the coast,
and arrived at Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the
Bth of September. The Commodore made known
his mission to the seafaring population, and offered
rich terms eS Fey, fryvy, cirre of priz=7,-