The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-15 00:00:00

T-HE SUN.
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15, 1862.

We hardly expected to have seen so early the
beginning of the end" in the Northern States.
Our readers learned yesterday, we doubt not with
considerable surprise, that the principal Northern
banks, and the United States Treasury itself, had
suspended specie payments. To have recourse t,)
such a step so early is undoubtedly a confession of
weakness, which will be felt in the Southern States,
who had before taken, as was expected of them, the
same step ; and of course every loan market in
Europe will feel its influence on American secu-
rities. England never had recourse to such a mea-
measure till after years of heavy war expenses; the
Federal Government has made the Apostolic decla-
ration within three quarters of a year of the com-
mencement of their struggle.
Let, however, the true state of the case be acknow-
ledged. A Government which issues paper on the
security of the necessity of an internal medium of
exchange, is not, therefore, insolvent. Our own
Bank of England -issues some fourteen millions of
this kind of paper. It might, or rather the Govern-
ment might, and ought to, issue much more. So
long as the issue of paper did not exceed what was
indispensable as legal tender for domestic trade, the
notes would not depreciate. Not till depreciation
begins dots insolvency, to the extent of that depre-
ciation, take place. It Mr. CHASE issues no more
notes than the Northern States require to carry on

their internal trade, he will practically, to that
extent, enrich the country ; he will set free so much
bullion for purchases from abroad, while at home
the notes receivable for taxes, and legal tender for
all the Government needs to buy, and all that one
citizen needs to buy of another will be practically
as valuable as the dollar itself. The Banks of the
States who make a profit by issuing their own notes
may not like it any more than the Monopolist
Bank and the country banks would here. But the
country is a gainer to the extent to which taxation
is lightened. The only point to be resolutely ad-
hered to is, that not a note must be issued—when
the note would purchase less than the silver dollar.
Inconvertible paper is not the danger, but excess
of it. Mr. CHASE must avoid this. Excessive
issue is the shoal on whichmost needy Governments,
Austria, Russia, and France in her revolution, have
wrecked their Finance.

Some in America already perceive that recourse
must be promptly had to " immediate," by which,
we suppose, they mean direct taxation. Nothing
seems to be more certain. It has pleased the manu-
facturers of the North to destroy custom-house
revenue by protective legislation. Nothing remains,
therefore, but heavy assessed taxes, stamp duties,
excise, and income tax. The separate States are
already taxed pretty heavily for State purposes in
most of these ways; and there seems to be no alter-
native but putting on the screw in the direct and
odious shape of income tax. Loans will be, we sup-
pose, no longer obtainable. The resort must be there-
fore to taxation, unless Mr. CHASE should go on to
issue his notes till he has destroyed their value. This
would probably soon cure itself. The army would
mutiny if paid in depreciated paper.
We must confess, however, our suspicions that
North Americans will not bear taxation. It will
open their eyes more than anything else to the
real character of the struggle on which they have
entered. They had hoped to crush the South with-
out making the contest one for universal liberty, and
with comparative immunity from taxation. They
will find that it must be one or the other. If they
will not fight with emancipation for their chief
weapon, they must fight beneath a heavy and
rapidly increasing load of taxation. They
must make their choice freedom for the
slave, or a heavy burden for themselves; and thus
we trust they will be driven to accept justice to
the negro, as the only condition of ending an
otherwise interminable war, and escaping present
taxation such as they will have no heart to bear.
When they clearly see that they are to be mulcted
so heavily, only that slavery, the origin of the
war, may be spared—will not the universal cry be
immediate, unconditional abolition ?

All classes, all localities, have manifested the
most loyal eagerness—so soon as any voice might
be raised without indecorum—in hastening to
assure their beloved and bereaved SOVEREIGN of
the profound sympathy with which her MAJESTY'S
late affliction is regarded throughout her MAJESTY'S
empire, and by all ranks and sections of her MA-
JESTY'S subjects. Municipal corporations, learned
societies, representatives even of the different pro-
fessions—one after another these and kindred
'assemblies have anticipated by their echoes of the
national grief, those impressive resolutions to a like
effect which will now, before many more weeks
shall have elapsed, be passed with a solemn and
affecting unanimity by the two houses of the
Imperial Parliament. The London Gazette has
already—while printing in extenso the more re-
markable of these addresses of condolence—filled
up many a column with a mere catalogue of the
names of the different public bodies who have thus
evidenced their loyal sympathy with the QUEEN.
The City of London has at length taken its part
also in this melancholy procession of mourners;
pressing forward to lay the documents, expressive ol
their participation in her MAJESTY'S recent sorrow,
at the foot of the Throne. It had been wisely delayed,
this assemblage of the citizens of the metropolis,
until a few more, at least of the leaders of society,
should have returned to the capital from their holi-
day rambles either in the provinces or on the
continent. Yesterday, however, the meeting took
place according to announcement. The scene being,
as a matter of course, the Egyptian Hall at the
Mansion House—the chairman presiding over the
assemblage, the Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR,
Dignitaries of the Church, conspicuous among
them the Bishop of LONDON and the
Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral—distinguished
members of the House of Lords and of Diplo-
macy, including among them the Marquis
of SALISBURY and Viscount STRATFORD DE RED-
CLlFFE—eminent lawyers such as Lord KINGS-
DOWN and Sir HUGH CAlRNS—leading statesmen
like Mr. WALPOLE—great moneyed Chiefs of the
Commercial World like the head (in England) of
the House of ROTHSCHILD, the Governor of the
Bank of England, and a throng of the principal
merchants in this the greatest trading community
upon the globe—these and a crowd of other mis.
cellaneous citizens gathered yesterday afternoon,
eagerly, yet most sorrowfully, together in the re-
ception hall of the Mansion-house, in answer
to the summons of his lordship the Chief Magis-
trate of the City of London. And when, almost
immediately after the proceedings had been opened
by a few preliminary remarks from the LORD
MAYOR, the First Resolution had been read to the
meeting by the Lord Bishop of LGNDON—it would
hardly be extravagant to assert that not another
syllable need then have been articulated; Those
who were assembled together were but of one mind
—they were animated but with one single feeling;
namely, one of earnest solicitude to lay the
simple assurances of their loyalty and affection
before the SOVEREIGN in this hour of her anguish.
That first and really all-sufficient resolution said
everything that there was any need whatever should
be said, when it remarked—" That this meeting,
deeply deploring the irreparable loss the country
has sustained by the lamented death of his late

Royal Highness the PRINCE CONSORT, whose

powerful and well-regulated mind and great abili

ties have for more than 20 years been unceasingly
devoted to improving the condition of the humbler
classes and to the development and extension of
science and art, and to the judicious education and

training of the royal family, is of opinion that a
lasting memorial should be erected, commemorative

of his many virtues and expressive of the gratitude
of the people." How this was to be effected was
manifest to all uFon an instant's consideration.

it was to be effected, then, simply and obviously
by the erection of a suitablo monument
w:thin the limits of the City—a monument that
may attest to after times, in a fitting manner,
the love, respect, and gratitude with which the

memory of his late Royal Highness was regarded
by his own immediate contemporaries—by those
who were, therefore, the best qualified to appre-
ciate his noble, useful, and vii I nous life, and to
honour, as they were entitled to be honoured, his
many splendid personal gifts and rare accom-

plishments. As the right reverend mover of this

first and principal resolution observed, however,
while putiing it, " Doubtless, it must occur to

many that there are other ways in which the

sense of our great bereavement might be expressed.
It might not have been unnatural," said the Bishop