The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-18 00:00:00

THE

'ATES

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)
PHILADELPHIA, July 3.
In the United States the end of the month of
June always brings with it a general examination
of the Government finances. It is the end of the
fiscal year. So prompt are now the calculations of
the Treasury Department at Washington that, with
an estimate for about ten days at the end of the
year, the entire receipts and expenditures can be
given almost as soon as the year closes. During
the year just passed the expenditure of the Go-
vernment amounted to the enormous sum of
$1,200,000,000, or over $3,500,000 each day. The
receipts were, from Customs, $76,501,882 22c., a
falling off from the amount received during the
previous year of over 28 millions. From sales of
public lands, the Government received $831,439 40c.
The receipts from the internal revenue were about
$205,500,000--a large increase over the previous
year. The total receipts of the Government from all
sources were $282,833,321 42c. The deficit for the
year was $917,000,000, which was made up from
loans and mortgages on posterity. The present rate
of Government expenditure will Continue until
October 1, when a considerable retrenchment can be
effected, but the expenditure for the fiscalyear ending
June 30, 1866, will not be less than $700,000,000,
while the receipts will fall short of $300,000,000.
Loans must be resorted to for some time to come.
This statement of receipts and expenditure brings
with it several other interesting financial exhibits.
The imports at New York forll months ending June
1, 1865, were $150,271,911, a decrease of over
$65,000,000 from the first 11 months of the preced-
ing year, when the imports exceeded $215,000,000.
It is supposed by many that the large amounts of
cotton to be shipped to Europe from New Orleans
and other Southern ports will turn the current of
exchange in favour of America; but this expectation
is almost certain of disappointment. It isthe opinion
of commercial men that our imports will increase
largely, but our exports will merely increase in an
infinitesimal degree. Excepting the small cotton
crop of the South, of which enough estimates have
been made to establish its meagreness beyond possi-
bility of doubt, there is nothing the United States
can calculate upon for an increase of exports. The
recent circular of instructions issued by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, by which all the Treasury
agents are dismissed for want of further employ-
ment, will do more to bring the cotton trade back
to a free and legitimate traffic than all else that has
been said and done since the end of the war. All re-
strictions are to end at once, and every Treasury
agent is to close his account as soon as be receives
the circular of instructions. From and after July 1
the duty of receiving captured and abandoned pro-
perty in the South, with a very few exceptions, will
be discharged by the regular Customhouse officers.
These orders will do much to restore confidence in
trade, especially the cotton trade. Heretofore the
many unseen obstacles that sprang up at all
points in the way of the cotton trade frus-
trated all calculations, and the business was as
bad for all concerned in it as if the blockade had
not been raised. If cotton does not now speedily
come forward, there will be reason to apprehend
that the stock in the South has been over-estimated.
Foreign exchange has been somewhat depressed for
a day or two, but whether this was caused by the
reported insurance of heavy cotton shipments from
Southern ports for Europe, or was the result of
large purchases of Government loans to be sent to
England, cannot be determined. Other orders
from London for American loans are yet to be
filled. 103 is the price named, and the total pur-
chases made and to be made are about $1,000,000.
An interesting statement has recently been made
of the falling-off of American commerce produced
by the war. In 1860 the commercial movements of
the United States were :—lmports, $400,122,296 ;
exports, $362,163,941. Three years of war reduced
this greatly, and in 1864 we find the imports to be
$252,187,587 ; exports, $331,899,459, a decrease of
over 30 per cent. The results for 1865, when offi-
cially announced, will show an even more unsatisfac-
tory state of affairs. These exhibits, and the fact,
which has been fully demonstrated, that foreign
countries have gained in proportion to our losses,
have caused intense dissatisfaction with the present
tariff law, and already its repeal is being extensively
discussed. The Protectionists are becomi.ig seri-
ously alarmed, for the state of the public mind is
such that at the next session of Congress a strong
effort will be made to have the tariff altered and the
duties placed upon a basis into which free-trade
principles will enter largely. President Johnson's
wishes for free trade, and the absolute necessity of
avoiding prohibitory duties in order to increase the
imports and the revenue, are hastening the death of
the present tariff. Protection has been proven a
failure, and new counsels will hereafter prevail.
Each day as it passes proves more and more con-
clusively that President Johnson is in favour of
treating the South with generosity. The people
now are universally in favour of moderation. The
question is not now, " What is the best punish-
ment for traitors ?" but; " What is the easiest and
speediest mode of restoring Southern prosperity ?"
I do not believe that a single Southern leader will
be tried for treason, or, if tried, will be punished
with death. The newspapers already are outspoken
in favour of Jefferson Davis, and the general wish
seems to be to pardon all the leaders, and forget the
'war as soon as possible. President Johnson is con-
tinually in receipt of anonymous communications
urging the hanging of Mr. Davis, of which the fol-
lowing is a specimen

" T win Springs, Linn County, Kansas, June 17, 1865.
"Mr. President,—Dear Sir,—We would very respect-
fully request you to have Mr. President Davis hung, be-
cause we want him hung. If you don't bang him, there
might be a few from Kansas to do it for you. Please let us
know what you will do about it.

"Very respectfully,

" MANY CITIZENS."
The commentary of the New York Tribune, the
leading Radical Republican organ, upon this is," It
is not at all probable that Mr. Johnson will be in-
timidated by the indignant intimations of many
citizens,' or by any similar communications coming
from anonymous sources." Mr. Davis's case, in
America, is considered an extreme one, but I
scarcely believe that one-third the people of the
North are in favour of hanging him. The Govern-

rnent is resolutely opposed to taking any steps in
the matter, and he is no nearer a trial to-day than
he was when captured in Georgia. In short, Mr.
Davis is just now a huge elephant, and neither Go-
vernment nor people know what to do with him.
Could he be suddenly removed from the face of
the earth all would feel heartily relieved.
General Ewell, well known as the successor of
Stonewall Jackson, has written a letter to a friend
from his prison in Fort Warren, Boston, in which
he speaks of the manner in which he espoused the
Southern cause. lie says, on returning sick from
Arizona in the spring of 1861, he found the war just
begun, all the highest United States' army officers
resigning, and General Scott publishing in a letter
that the United States would divide into four parts,
showing that he thought all was over. A United
States' senator said he would march a Northern regi-
ment to help the South for every one sent against her,
and a California Congressman called for forcible re-

aistance to the inauguration of President Lincoln,
yet nothing was clone with any of these men. Gen.
Ewell says he took up arms with the South from a

duty, and
painful sense of by doing so he lost a fine
. .

position, for all the pay he received in four years

from the Confederate Government was not as much

as one year's pay in the old army. Now he lan-
guishes in prison, while persons who did all they
could to bring about the war are in favour in the
North and holding high office. Howell Cobb, of
Georgia, was in Macon recently, and counselled on
the part of the people a cheerful obedience to the laws
of the United States. Ile believed slavery to be dead,
and thinks the South will have a prosperous future.
President Johnson has at length issued his procla-
mation forthe reconstruction of South Carolina. It is
in all its parts similar to those already promulgated
for the other Southern States. Benjamin F. Perry
is named for provisional Governor, and he is said to
enjoy the confidence of a large portion of the people
of the State. Florida is now the only State to be
reorganised. Affairs in the South look more hope-
ful than they did some time since. In many places
the crops have been gathered, and they will for