The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-17 00:00:00

21IE CIVIL WAR IN AgIEBICA

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, DEC. 30.

The New York journals of yesterday pursue "the
roaring nightingale" line of writing. One rejoices
that Jefferson Davis will be disappointed, because
Mason and Slidell will be surrendered, if demanded,
as nothing must be allowed to prevent the prosecu-
tion of the campaign. Of course the American
people do not dread an English war—" their invin-
cible pluck would carry them through more than
two wars at once," and the foreign question is only
postponed because the nation acquiesces in the acts
of the Administration. By next summer "We shall
have in the field a million of disciplined soldiers,
and afloat a navy of 500 ships manned by 50,000
sailors of the sort that gained us Hatteras and Hilton
Head. It will be time enough then to call Spain to
account for her Mexican imbroglio and to demand
reparation of England for the manner in which, in
violation of her own proclamation, she has aided
the rebels, and insulted this country. The hour for
a foreign war is not now, but it will come." This
is refreshing and encouraging. The same journal
is kind enough to promise that the United
States will some day annex Canada to Portland
and the State of Maine, and intimates that it
will be necessary to provide work for the million
of patriots by vindicating the Monroe doctrine as
soon as the South is subdued, annexing Canada and
Cuba at one blow, conquering all the West India
Islands, and establishing a military empire " like
ancient Rome." The scribe did not know how like
it would be in all but the discipline of its troops and
in their glorious victories, "reducing the neigh-
bouring nations to her sway, but giving them also
her freedom and her power, and at the same time
allowing them to retain their own domestic institu-
tions." Cruel enough, the same sheet announces that
Mr. Chase has not got any means to carry on the
present war with the South after Jan. 15, 1862
three weeks hence. " On or about that day his ex-
chequer will be exhausted. No plan for its replen-
ishment has yet been ventilated. When Mr. Chase
was here last week he laid no project before the
banks, and they laid none before him." But there is
to be a great success. Poor air-fed, promise-imbibing
people ! " Man never is, but always to be blest.'
" The banks might then place the second 50,000,000
of 7.30 notes.' But if no victory comes? The pre-
tence of there being Union men in the South is fast
vanishing. One officer who is a prisoner in Alabama
writes :

" I have already alluded in a former letter to the
extraordinary unanimity of sentiment of the people
of the South in regard to this war; all whom I con-
versed with—and they were not a few—express ar-
dent Secession views. This dwarfish place appears
almost entirely deserted by its inhabitants ; they
having entered the army to repel (as they term us)
Lincoln's hordes,' Hessians." Indians,' and many
other silly epithets. It is time our Government
looks this fact square in the face. Our troops have
been worsted in almost every battle. The enemy
have certainly proved themselves a belligerent
Power. Therefore let the war be conducted on civi-
lised principles ; let an immediate exchange of pri-
soners be effected and I think iu less than 12 months
more we will be able to bring the Confederates back
into the Union which they are now endeavouring to
dismember."

All the prisoners are urgent for exchange, and
the pressure on the Government to yield so much
of recognition is increasing daily. The men suffer
privations, and are in need of clothing and
blankets, as well as other necessaries. And, in-
deed, no wonder, for the South cannot clothe its
own troops. The killed, wounded, and pri•
Boners in the affair at Dranesville were dressed in
cotton clothing, and this in weather which is now
keen and raw, with bitter cold winds and frost at
nights. As the war continues it requires augment-
ing faith to believe in the speedy success—in any
success in subjugating the South, for the arm of
the North will be stricken down for want of means.
The capture of Savannah and Charleston is daily
expected, and the farther the North advances the
more will it be distracted by contending views on
the negro question. The Secessionist organ in New
York, which endeavours to conceal its policy under
the cloak of immense zeal for the Union and the
Constitution, calls on the Government to arrest the
editor of the Tribune and all the leading Aboli-
tionists, and declares such an act would be of more
service than if Gen. M'Clellan won a great battle at
Manassas. Neither is very likely just at present.
The General indeed may contemplate a movement,
but his victory is by no means assured. Trusting
the defence of the outlying States to their own
people; the Confederates appear to have concentrated
an enormous force on the Potomac. Missouri has
shown how its sympathies lie in one district at least,
by destroying 100 miles of the North Missouri
Railroad, from Hudson to Warrentown, and Ken-
tucky has received less aid from the South than she
has from the North.

SATURDAY, 28th.

General M'Clellan is slowly recovering from an
attack of fever of a mild typhoid type, which has
been treated homceepathically, and was probably
much exasperated in consequence. General Marcy,
his father-in-law, and chief of his Staff, has also
been undergoing homoeopathy and an attack of
some other illness, from which he is getting better,
but neither is fit at present to direct operations.
There are no indications that the long talked of,
much expected advance is to take place very
speedily, but to the eye of faith things look pro-
mising. It is certain than Jan. 15 is approaching
rapidly, and that promises must be fulfilled. The
troops who have been sent down to points along
the coast are suffering from sickness. Those at Hat-
teras are in a miserable plight. The corps of occu-
pation at Beaufort is much reduced by sickness.
In Missouri the indefatigable Price, having been
threatened by the successes and activity of the Fede-
ral General Pope with the loss of communications, is
making a retreat once more to Arkansas, whence he
will no doubt emerge in a few days to lay waste once
more anything left to be wasted in that unhappy
province—or State. General Siegel, in the West, is
disappointed because he has not an independent
command of 20.000 men, and threatens to resign.
General Wool, in the East, is eagerly looking for
a force of 30,000 men under his orders, to operate
on the rebels from Fortress Monroe. Generalßose-
crans is here to prosecute his charges against General
Benham. General Sherman, in Kentucky, is said to
have gone mad. Brigadier-General Phelps, at Ship
Island, is excused by some organs for his proclama-
tion on the ground that he was formerly deranged.
As to the row at Paducah between General Smith
and his subordinates nothing further has come to
my knowledge; but I know that much of the time
of the authorities is occupied by settling disputes
between the higher officers. The great Mississippi
expedition, which was to have sailed at
the end of autumn, is not yet ready, inasmuch
as the troops are not properly equipped ; but the
mortar vessels and gunboats are nearly all in readi-
ness. It is believed that in a fortnight or earlier
Generals Bosecrans and Reynolds will move forward
from Romney on the right, while M'Clellan advances
on Manassas, and Burnside turns up somewhere on
the right flank of the Confederates in Virginia. The
Confederates say they desire nothing better, but
they will meet different men from the three months'
volunteers encountered at Bull's Run ; and though
they may have improved in discipline, they cannot
have effected any great alteration for the better
in their own arms and equipments.

DECEMBER 29.
The lack of ordinary political common sense—of
any sort of common sense in the comments of the
American journals on the relations of the great
Powers with the Government of the United States
is astounding. They are really open to the charge
of the Confederate paper which accuses them of
judicial blindness and insanity, The known senti-
ments of Prance are supposed to be counterbalancd
by the 41liance of Mr. W. S. O'Brien, and an Irish

rebellion is confidently reckoned on as the result of
a war with Great Britain by the "Know-nothings"
and " Native Americans." I have to rub my eyes
over and over again as I read. Here, now, is a
State official writing under a nom de plume to a
journal of position in Philadelphia, who gravely
declares that if the Government here had been as
"precipitate" as that of England we should have
had inevitable war. TIIQ President maintained a
significant reticence, and the Secretary of State
awaited the course of events; while the patriotic
press and the people were honouring Captain
Wilkes ; but the British Ministry, it appears, on the
esparto statement of their prejudiced officers, rushed
to the extreme of madness, and encouraged their
people to the most inflammatory demonstrations,
forgetting how they had encouraged the abolition
excitement by their British emissaries—Trellope,
Bank, Hall, and George Thompson and by
luxurious banquets to Mrs. Stowe, and would not
wait for the President's explanation, who had
in his significant reticence none to offer; or the
action of the Secretary of State, who was awaiting
the course of events. "Insensate pride," " drunken
rage," " hatred," "ambition," " unreasoning mad-
ness," "British tyrants," "Irish unanimity"—such
phrases and sentiments to tickle the palate of the
vulgar are used by the Philadelphia oracle, without
the smallest sense of shame, in reference to a just
and calm demand made by the British Government
for restitution and redress, with which his Govern-
ment is about to comply. While all the nations of
the world are exclaiming against the outrage, the
multitude are told that " the civilised world will
not hesitate, while applauding the magnanimous
course of the United States, to affix the lasting seal
of condemnation on the arrogant and domineering
people have found out that
proceedings of the British Government."
England dare" in this matter
"trance llowevweri,wasantdhe,,
follow a common policy and expect a concession to
therefused
e u
sed
principles
of international
test law, which cannot be
fof the indifference
without a practical
of Americans to the public opinion of Europe, they
will probably forget all these sesquipedalian words
and sentiments, and "permit Mason and Slidell to
slide." "When Lord Lyons shall send back to his
masters the moderate and dignified answer of Mr.
Seward the discomfiture of the British aristocracy
will be complete." There is a perfect lunacy here
about this "aristocracy," which is generally supposed
to be connected with large cotton manufactories, and
which is fiercely opposed by Mr. John Bright and
Mr. Cobden, who are probably regarded as country
gentlemen of the Hampden type, and by Mr. Iron-
side, who is thought, I suppose, to be connected
somehow with Oliver Cromwell, and by Mr. O'Brien
who is an uncrowned monarch of the Irish people.
MONDAY, DEC. 30.
_ _ _

arranged with Mr. Seward
for Lord
the Lyons
reception this
dfaSlidell
under the protection of the British flag. So little
confidence had the American Minister in the
oessrs.
Mason
and
obedience of the American multitude that he desired
the preparations to be made as secretly as possible,
It was, after a good deal of argument and compro-
mise, decided that a vessel under the American flag
was to proceed to Fort Warren, and there receive the
prisoners, and that then she was to repair to the
American port of Pfovincetownt where she would
trsnsfer them to a British man-of-war, in which they
would sail for Halifax. It will thus be observed that
the captives will leave the shores of the United
States under the shelter of the flag from which they
were forcibly removed. In acceding to this arrange-
ment, Lord Lyons was prompted by the desire to
spare the feelings of a people so proud and so irri-
table as our American brethren. When the refugees
are at Halifax they can act as they please, but it is
doubtful if the Admiral has a comfortable vessel to
spare for their passage te7,ngla.nd. The statement
which appear in the journalsliere do not deserve the
smallest credence, and are hazarded without the
smallest foundation. It is not true that Lord Lyons
dined with Mr. Seward on Friday last, and that the
matter was arranged there.

FRIDAY, JAN. 3.

Thesuspended their circulation
for on
order to enable their printers to
enjoy New Year's-day, have re-appeared this morn-
inge papersday in having
with some expressions of gratification at their
finding the world had been able to survive their
sbsence. It is almost ludicrous to read their la-
borious efforts to prove that the people were
quite indifferent to the surrender of Mason and
Slidell, and to watch the faces which the indifferent
people make as they swallow their "great triumph
of diplomacy," or" 111 r. Seward's New International
Law," or whatever else the fact is called. One
paper candidly admits, in a letter from Boston,
that the people were exceedingly angry, and
would have made short work of the Commis-
sioners ; or as it calls them in another place, " the
Ministers to France and E ngland," had they
fallen into their hands. It is admitted that the
country was in a state of "intense excitement"
at the capture of " the two noteriou3 rebels,"
but Mr. Seward having found out that they were
"comparatively insignificant," and that their arrest
was not legal in form, the country as suddenly
became quite resigned to the surrender. The tone
of public feeling in Great Britain is still regarded
with apprehension, and is fiercely denounced, but
the American press does not consider how entirely
its language and the acts of its Government are to
blame for the national irritation. Let them remem-
ber the writings, and speeches, and acts which
have been reported to England, mail after mail,
since the seizure, all of them justifying it, after de-
31aring the intention of the people and the Govern-
ment to sustain the act. Even as it stands it would
seem that the American Government are of opinion
the law of nations would justify them in seizing
any of our mail steamers in which any "rebel"
emissary was a passenger, or in the mail-bag of
which a "rebel" despatch could be found, and
taking her into port for condemnation. Everything
which has gone to England has been of a nature
to increase the national excitement, and it will be
great surprise to discover that the articles and
speeches and public excitement meant just nothing
at all but readiness to do whatever the Government
liked. In Great Britain we attach weight to
such manifestations. Here they mean, on their
own showing, nothing whatever so far as fo-
reign Governments are concerned, and the little
piece of information thus afforded to ns may be
useful on future occasions. There are rumours, to
which some credence should be attached, that a vast
slave conspiracy has been discovered in the South,
and that the leaders have been executed or destroyed.
It is affirmed, with alarming probability of truth,
that the negoes on Dr. Duncan's plantation, on Dr.
Mercer's, and on General Quitman's estate, have
been or are in a state of insurrection. The Demo-
cratic party wash their hands of any complicity in or
approval of such assistance from our natural allies ;
but the abolition organs for some time past have
been rebuking their leaders for a coyness and un-
willingness to encourage the slaves to emancipate
themselves, and the readiest way of procuring
emancipation is to murder their masters.

The new year opens with a general disposition on
the part of the Government and the politicians to
tax the people to carry on the war by some process
of direct taxation. Here is the new era coming.
One writer in the New York Times supposes that
that the war will impose a debt of 2,000,000,000
dols., and demands a tax large enough to pay the
interest and to keep the Government going; and in
proof that such a tax is ye) y easy states that the
valuation of real and personal estate in the United
States, according to the censuses of 1850 and 1860,
was —in 1850, 7,135,780,227 doll.; in 1860,
16,159,616,068 do's. ; increase, 9,023,835,841 dols.,
or 126 45 per cent. in the 10 years. He further
adds that the amount of personal property in the
United States, according to the last census was five
billions eighty-one millions six hundred and sixty
thousand dollars, and it is proposed to raise a re-