The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENI sAG, JUNE 6, 1862.

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)

NEW YORK, MAY 23.
The present situation of military and naval affairs
in this distracted Republic may be very briefly
described. The armies of Generals Halleck and

Beauregard are within speaking distance of each

other before Corinth. Both are disinclined to com-

raence the attack, although severe skirmishes have
occurred between the outposts that might have
brought on'a general engagement had either com-

mander desired it. Beauregard has the advantage
in point of numbers and HaHeck in point of sup-
plies. For more than a fortnight the news of the
final onslaught has been hourly expected in this

city, and, every day, rumours, more or less gloomy
and circumstantial, of the defeat of the Federals
have pervaded every place of public resort both
here and in Washington. General M'Clellan is
daily diminishing the distance between his army
and the Confederate capital; but his plans of a

combined military and naval attack have been dis-
concerted by the failure of the Monitor and her

iron-clad coadjutors in the James River to pass Fort

Darling, or to approach within eight miles of Rich-

mond.

The news from the Mississippi is to the effect that
Commodore Farragut and his flotilla have ascended

the stream from New Orleans to Vicksburg, a dis-
tance of 400 miles, but as nothing is said of the
surrender or capture of Fort Adams, held by the
Confederates, 100 miles below Vicksburg, it is pro-
bable that the report is premature or unfounded.

It seems to be more certain that Commodore Davis,
who succeeded Commodore Foote in the command

of the descending flotilla after the capture of Island
No. 10, has unsuccessfully attacked Fort Pillow,
sometimes called Fort Wright, and that the Con-
federates have strongly fortified Fort Randolph, a

much more formidable position 12 miles lower down
the stream, and that the object of the two Federal

commodores is to effect a junction at Memphis.
Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston are still in poe-

session of the Southern Government. Mobile is

virtually besieged by a portion of the squadron that

captured New Orleans, and Savannah daily expects
an attack from the victors of Fort Pulaski. Charles-
ton, until the fate of the other two cities is decided,

remains unassailed.
Until within the last two or three weeks the
Federal armies were reputed to amount to 700,000
men. The grounds for this belief, on the part of the
Government, were that Mr. Chase had to provide
means for stores, rations, and daily pay for that large
number, but it appears that the real force under
M'Clellan, M'Dowell, Banks, Halleck, Mitchell,
Butler, Hunter, and others amounts to 540,000, and

that they are insufficient for the double work of
conquering the South and afterwards holding it in
military subjection. It is not five weeks since offi

cial notification was made that the ranks of the

army were full, and that no more volunteers were
required. Within the last few days the Secretary
of War has telegraphed to the Governors of all the

Northern and Western States for volunteers to
complete the roll of 700,000 men. The Governors
of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, and
other New England States have promptly responded
to the call, and promised, by telegraph, the quota
required. There is little room for doubt that all the
men asked for will be duly forthcoming. There is
so general a stagnation of all trade and business but
that dependent on the wants of the army and the
navy, and consequently so large a number of un-
employed people in the streets of the great cities,
as well as such an inflation of martial ardour in the
minds of the "rowdy" class, that the Government
could easily raise a far larger supplemental army,

especially while it continues to offer to the volunteer
such a liberal bounty as 100 dols., to be paid at the
end of the war if he survives its perils, or to his
legal representatives if he die on the field of battle
or of wounds received or disease contracted in the
service, besides the handsome pay of 50c. per diem
and rations. This payment, to say nothing of the
bounty, is about ls. a-day in excess of the sum
awarded to the British soldier, and about three
times as much as it costs the French Government

for each individual prop of the throne of the third
Napoleon. The bounty money alone of such an
army already stands at £14,000,000 sterling. It is
no wonder, under such circumstances, that the few
people who are not led away by visions of military
glory, or convinced of the necessity of " whipping"
the people of one-half of the Republic to impress
them with love of Republican institutions as admi-
nistered by the other, and with approval of a social,
political, and commercial partnership with Yankees
whom they always despised, and whom they now
hate with a bitterness unexampled in modern his-
tory, begin to share the opinion entertained by out-
side Englishmen, and everyone else who studies the
matter, that the sums to be placed to the debit of
the nation within the past year are growing with a
far too perilous rapidity, and that, next to being

"whipped" by the South, the " whipping" it on such
terms is the greatest calamity that could befall a
hitherto free and lightly-taxed people. It is true that

in the excitement of the struggle the multitude, who
have paid no taxes, and fancy they never will, do
not yet see anything to complain of, but their turn
will come when the war is over, when they will
assuredly find, as others have found before them,
that the real burden of indebtedness, though nomi-
nally to be borne by people who have something to
lose, will fall with its most crushing severity upon
those 'whose only property is the labour of their
hands,

A speech delivered this week by Mr. Vorhees, a
Democratic member of the House of Representa-
tives, attacking the policy of the Government, call-
ing for measures of conciliation, asserting that the
debt already incurred in the attempt to subjugate
the Southern people amounts to 1,500,000,000 dolls.
(X 300,000,000 sterling), and that it is daily aug-
mented by a military and naval expenditure of
3,000,000 dollars, has strongly excited the flagging
attention of the public to the question. It has also
called forth a semi-offioial contradiction from Wash-
ington, to the effect that the average expenditure of
the Government for all purposes, from the Ist of
April, 1861, to the Ist of April, 1862, has only
been 1,000,000 dollars per diem, or £73,000,000
sterling per annum. This, of itself, is a very large
sum, as every British taxpayer knows to his sor-
row ; but if the fact be as stated, it is one so con-
trary to all preconceived opinions, even of the
friends of the Government, and to many well--
known circumstances of enormous prodigality, plun-
der, and peculation which start up on every aide to
eontraeict it, that Mr. Chase would do well to issue
over his own signature, an official statement, sup-
ported by figures, in order that men of business
might test the matter by the aid of that great
and indisputable authority, Mr. Cocker. With-
out some such statement the estimate of Mr.
Vorhees will find credence, if not favour. But
debt does not seem to be considered an evil by the
war zealots, if the term of payment be remote.
"We may point proudly to the fact," says one of
the most respectable journals of this city, "that our
Government alone, of all the Governments in the
world, needs not, in even this great emergency,
appeal to strangers for pecuniary support, but gets
from its own citizens all it requires. It is surely no
small praise of popular Government that when our
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perous on paper dollars, printed off as fast as the
steam-engine can work—paper dollars that are
issued by the hundred million, and that will be
issued by the thousand million, if need be, to serve

a temporary purpose—dollars that are good while
the excitement lasts, but that will be good for
nothing to-morrow when Philip sober shall reflect
coolly on the deeds committed yesterday by Philip
drunk, and when such dollars shall be of as little
value as French assignats or shares in the Missis-
sippi bubble. _ _

The recoil from Europe of the news of M, Mer-
cier's visit to Richmond, now an old story in the
country, is the one great topic of the hour which
throws into the shade most other subjects of de-
bate. There is a good deal of affected indig-
nation in the papers at the idea that France and
.England, jointly or separately, should dare to in-
terfere in the quarrel between South and North
in any other way than to persuade the South to
lay down its arms and trust to Mr. Lincoln's
mercy ; but in that large outer world of which the
newspapers of New York do not represent the
opinion intervention on the part of France is not
looked upon with marked disfavour. If the idea
were started by England alone, the whole land would
go wild with indignation at her audacity ; but
France may do what, in the present temper of the
Americans, England must not even hint at. And
even now, at the eleventh hour, were the Federal
arms to sustain a signal reverse at Corinth or at
Richmond, the intervention of France, supported
by that of England, to end the struggle by a com-
promise which should secure the independence
of the South, and the settlement of a boundary line
to include Virginia, North Carolina, sand the other
Border States within the Northern Republic, would
be hailed with secret satisfaction by the most clear-
sighted and prudent men in the country, and by
none more than two, or it may be three, members
of the Cabinet. Negro slavery is so difficult a ques-
tion in itself, and Northern opinion is so averse
from abolishing it, or being implicated either in its
continuance or its downfall, that the very large class
of thoughtful persons who before the attack upon
Fort Sumter were desirous that the South and its
" peculiar institution" should be let go without a
struggle, and who thought that a great and free
Republic like that in the North would be happier
and more prosperous without Slave States than with
them, would come round again to their former be-
lief, forget the indignity done to the flag, and hail a
separation as the one thing most to be coveted for
the permanent advantage of both parties, and espe•
cially of the North. The current is strong against
the abolition of slavery. The sentiment or instinct
of race is more powerful than the Northern idea,
which had its root in England, where there are no
negroes, and there is no disposition among men,
whatever there may be among the women who
listen to the ministrations of the Rev. Mr. Ward
Beecher and the Rev. Dr. Cheever, either to eman-
cipate the negroes or to grant them, when free, any
rights as citizens. Even the motion of Mr. Chas.
Sumner for permitting negroes to act as postmasters
and to have charge of the United States' mails has
been summarily rejected, amid the applause of a
Congress from which all the Southern members have
retired—a very significant fact which Europe would
do well to study. But while the feeling is strong
against abolition, the sentiment is not less strong that
much might be done in the South by the interven-
tion of Europe to remedy some of the most frightful
evils of slavery as at present existing. It is urged
that predial serfdom, after the Russian fashion,
might take the place of slavery ; that the sacrament
of marriage should not be violated in the persons of
slaves by selling the husband to one master, the
wife to another, and the children to a third ; that
in no case should the negoes be sold without the
estate to which they are attached ; that the bank-
ruptcy or insolvency of the owner should free all
the slaves on the plantation ; and that the prohibi-
tion against their instruction in schools should be
removed. By some such system as this, the labour
of the negroes might still be enforced upon the cot-
ton, rice, and sugar estates, without denial of the
most sacred rights of humanity.
But the bulk of the Northern people, rabid for
the war, do not debate such questions. Their sole
cry is, "Union for the sake of Tinian !" not Union
for the sake of peace; cot Union for the sake of
liberty for the white man; and least of all Union
fur the sake of emancipation for the black, It is
this cry which betrays the real character of the
struggle. It is, in fact, what Lord Russell called it,
" a war for empire." The Northern people desire
the restoration of the old Union, even with all its
internal elements of weakness and discord, not that
they may be free and happy, but that they may be
the greatest military and naval Power in Christen-
dom ; that they may overawe Great Britain and
France, and especially Great Britain; that they may
be the arbiters of the fate of nations both in the Old
World and in the New, that not a gun may be fired
in either hemisphere without their consent. They do
not avow this in a speech or in print, but they feel
it, and know it, and, until some great reverse befall
their armies or navies, will continue to make it the
moving principle of their thoughts and aspirations.
This is the real truth of the matter, let Americans
deny it as lustily as they may.

OPENING OF THE SOUTHERN PORTS.

LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY.

At last the direct trade between Liverpool and
New Orleans has been reopened, and the pioneer
vessel, the Antoinette, a fine sloop of 800 tons,
sailed from the Mersey yesterday evening for New
Orleans—the only clearance within the past 18
months. The Antoinette had on board a full cargo
of salt. She will be succeeded by the Pole Star
and other first-class vessels, so that ere long we may
have to record a return of the activity which pre-
viously charterised the trade between this port and
New Orleans. The steamer Circassian, recently
captured by the Federal blockading fleet, cleared
from Liverpool for Havana—ostensibly—but it
was well known here, and, indeed, those in com-
mand of the vessel did not attempt to conceal
the affair, that the vessel was to run the block-
ade if she could. The statement, therefore,
that the Circassian was a trader between Bor-
deaux and Havana is incorrect. The vessel is
owned in Liverpool by a firm well known in the Medi-
terranean trade. The cargo on board the captured
vessel was estimated at about 1,000,000 dollars—a
very good day's work for the captor.
Now the trade has been re-opened, the following
instructions, just issued by the Secretary of the
Treasury at Washington, will be of interest to
shippers. The document is addressed to the Fede-
ral Collector of Customs:—
"Treasury Department, May 23.

" Sir,—ln pursuance of the provisions of the pro-
clamation of the President, modifying the blockade
of the ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New
Orleans, and of the regulations of the Secretary to
the Treasury, relating to trade with those ports, no
articles contraband of war will be permitted to
enter either of the said ports, and you will accord-
ingly refuse clearance to vessels bound for those
ports, or either of them, with any such articles
on board, until further instructions. You will
regard as contraband of war the following
articles, viz. :—Cannon, mortars, firearms, pis-
tols, bombs, grenades, &clocks, flints, matches,
powder, saltpetre, balls, bullets, pikes, swords,
su:phur, helmets, or boarding caps, sword
belts, saddles and bridles (always excepting the
quantity of said articles which may be necessary for
the defence of the ships, and of those who compose
the crew), cartridge bag material, percussion and
other caps, clothing adapted for uniforms, resin,
sailcloth of all kinds, hemp and cordage, masts, ship's
timber, tar and pitch, ardent spirits, military per-
al despatches of the
erefuse clearances
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to all vessels which, whatever the ostensible desti-
nations, are believed by you on satisfactory grounds
to be intended for ports and places in possession or
under control of the insurgents against the United

States, or that there is imminent danger that the
goods, wares, or merchandise, of whatever descrip-
tion, laden on such vessel will fall into the posses-
sion or under the control of such insurgents, and in
all cases where, in your judgment, there is ground
for apprehension that any goods, wares, or merchan-
dise shipped at your port, will be used in any way
for the aid of the insurgents or the insurrection.
You will require substantial security to be given that
such goods, wares, or merchandise shall not be trans-
ported to any place under insurrectionary control,.
and shall not be used in any way for the aid. and
comfort of such insurgents. You will be especially
careful, on application for clearances, to require
bonds with sufficient sureties, conditioned for fulfil-
ling faithfully all conditions imposed by law or de-
partmental regulations from shippers of the follow-
ing articles to the ports opened, or to any other
ports from which they may be easily, and are pro-
bably intended to be, re-shipped in aid of the exist-
ing rebellion, viz. :—Liquors of all kinds, coals,
iron, lead, copper, tin, brass, telegraph instruments,
wire, porous cups, platina, sulphuric acid, zinc, and
all other telegraph materials, marine engines, screw
propellers, paddlewheels, cylinders, cranks, shafts,
boilers, tubes for boilers, fire bars, and every article
or any other component part of an engine or boiler,
or any article whatever which is, can, or may be-
come applicable to the manufacture of marine ma-
chinery or for the armour of vessels.
" S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury."