The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-30 00:00:00

711 E CIVIL WAR 1N AMERICA.

(From the Tunes' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, OCT. 17.
The continued rise in gold that on Wednesday
reached a premium of 371 per cent., causing an
actual depreciation of the paper dollar from 100 c.
to 621 c., has not only alarmed merchants and
bankers, but all the noisy class who clamour for
the vigorous prosecution of the war and the exter-
mination of the Southern people. If Gold %vete a
citizen of the United States who had taken the oath
of allegiance, and were amenable to civil or martial
law, his treasonable sentiments as openly ex-
pressed in Well-street, and his no less treasonable

acts in persisting to rise to a frightful premium,
when Mr. Chase commanded him to remain peace-
ably at par with green backs and other paper, would
subject him to immediate incarceration as a more
dangerous rebel than " Stonewall" Jackson. Gold
discourages enlistments. Gold condemns the Presi-
dent's proclamation of freedom to the slaves. Gold
repudiates Mr. Chase as a financier. Gold dis-

trusts the power of the Northern sullies to subju-
gate the South. Gold has no faith in the ability
of the Administration. Gold questions whether
General 111‘Clellan will ever take Richmond, or that
he can do anything better than go into winter
quarters. Gold has serious misgivings about the
solvency of the Federal Government. Gold doubts
whether the country will pay the taxes. And, to
sum up all its treason in one clause, Gold expresses
in its own irrefutable way the opinion of impartial
and unimpassioned observers in Europe and in Ame-
rica that an honourable peace on the basis of
Southern independence, though it would be a good
thing for the South, would be a much better thing
for the North, and Gold is a good logician. Sooner
or later such a peace must be the result of the war,
if the Northern people and Government are not as
utterly demented as Alexander the Great, or Charles
XII., or Napoleon Bonaparte, or any other fool of
empire who did not know when he was well off, and
ruined himself by grasping at the unattainable.
And if Gold remain obstinate it will make many
converts to these ideas before Christmas, though
not, perhaps, before ruin has overtaken the incre-
dulous,

One result of the gold panic—for such it really
amounts to—rejoices many. The contractors who
depend upon Europe for the supply of the articles
which they have bound themselves to deliver, are
checkmated by the premium. They expected to
make profits of 39, 40, 50, and even 100 per cent.
out of the needs of the nation; but, with gold vary-
ing from 35 to 371, with the prospect of a rise to 50,
their gains may turn to losses. No one will pity
them, come what will.

Pork and corn continue to be but slightly affected
by the rise, as America produces these commodities
in such vast quantities as to have in ordinary sea-
sons far more than sufficient to supply all her
wants; but almost every manufactured article and
exotic that men and women require in a civilised
country is rapidly increasing in price. House-
rent, gas, coal, and wood have gone up from
20 to 40 per cent. Coffee has trebled, and tea
almost doubled in value, as represented by paper.
Male and female apparel has reached such an
alarming price that in a few months none but
the riots will be able to pay tailors' or milliners'
bills, unless the profits of trade, the salaries of offi-
cials, and the wages of labour share in the general
inflation. A coat that in London would cost three
guineas, or four at the utmost, cost from 40 dols. to
50 dole. in New York; and a silk dress that the
most fashionable mercers in Regent-street would be
glad to dispose of for six or seven guineas is priced
in Broadway at 100 dols. A portion of this rise is
consequent upon the quasi-prohibitory tariff, but
it is the premium on gold that causes the principal
enhancement. If unchecked by a return of public
confidence, the premium will shortly reduce trade
with foreign countries to a minimum or destroy it
altogether. New Yolk and all the North have been
in the habit of making merry with what they call
the " dilapidated" condition of the wearing apparel
of Confederate soldiers ; but the day seems to be
approaching when the word " dilapidation" will
describe in better English the condition of many a
once-crowded mart of industry and emporium of
commerce in the Federal States, unless trade can be
restored to its ancient channels, and the war brought
to a satisfactory termination.
1 Gen. M'Clellan has, it appears, received orders
from Washington to advance into the Shenandoah
Valley and offer battle to General Lee at Winches.
ter, or at such other place as the Confederate Com-
mander may think it more advisable to accept. The
idea of winter quarters before or in Washington is
neither tolerable to the President nor tolerated by the
people, though Gen. M'Clellan is reported to have
declared his unreadiness, for want of men and arms,
to re-assume the offensive. The truth is that
" Stuart's raid" has alarmed the official and mili-
tary mind. It is not so much for what was done by
the daring invader as for what may be done here-
after if such is the stuff that Southern captains are
made of, that the Administration feels uneasy, and
that Wall-street shares in the discomfort. Mr.
Lincoln and his Secretaries mutt have experienced
sensations akin to those of Desdemon a when Othello
recounted his triumphs, and have formed the wish
" that Heaven had sent them such a man" as Stuart.
But a parallel hero is scarcely to be looked for in the
North. It is only when men fight for their homes
and the independence of their native land that
champions of this calibre can arise to make them-
selves a niche in that aisle of the Temple of His-
tory which is reserved for the romance of war. No
Wallace, Bruce, or William Tell—no Kossuth or
Garibaldi can arise in the Federal ranks. The
cause does not admit of such men. The Federals
may have their Alva or their Haynau in General
Butler, or their Radetzky or their Monk in General
.M'Clellan ; but the real heroes of the war, the men
whose names will live in song and story, are the
" Stonewall" Jacksons and the Stuarts. Upon a
similar tenure Washington, though so cold and u
for
the as a man, holds his lease of fame; and
the reasons that make the memory of George 111.
distasteful to after ages of Americans as well
his ownas
Englishmen will that of Abraham Lincoln excite
but little enthusiasm in the world and 1 ./2
North, and go down to the latest ages ia the South
as that of a man who was the unhaPPY instrument
m:
.of the Northone the
a
of an unhappy dispute, and wasted
against
kin-
dred people who only desired to be let at
1 energies that would have been
.ch better em-
I ployed in consolidating the "apts.
over the States and territories that still yielded it
vast wilder-
unquestioned allegiance, and over the
privilege and
ness of the West, which it was its
duty to subdue and replenish'
truth with regard to
It is difficult to arrive and Tennessee.
at
gt etntnek9
the aspect of the war
in
that daily arrive, the South
To believe the telegrams
To read these tele-
in both
subsequent letters, the dis-
is discomfited
_ tofStates.
li h
grams by the
eon to be on the other side.
comfitnre would
seem
day, and Bragg the next;
and Buell—Buell and Bragg strut
Buell is victorious
and Braga
their uponhour
the battle-field, and do as much
mischief to
eacriends, as Clown h other, and seem all the while to
be as great f
and Pantaloon in a
Christmas pantomime. As far as the truth can
be ascertained from the Conflicting and imperfect
reports that the War Department sees fit to
authorise, or the accommodating newspapers think
it prudent to publish, no decisive actions have
occurred in either State. As regards Kentucky, it
seems that if Buell and Bragg, who were fellow
students and close friends at West Point, would con-
tinue their game for many months with the greatest
possible politeness and good feeling towards each
other, and with the least possible results for their
respective Governments.
The Congressional elections in Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and some of the Western States have,
as far as the details are yet known, resulted in a
' slight gain to the Democrats. Mr. I/ allandigham,
one of the most fearless and outspoken of the
party, has paid the penalty of his too great
Courage on behalf of peace by the loss of his seat ;
but the loss has been counterbalanced on the other
side by the defeat of Mr. Grow, the Speaker of
the House of Representatives. The Republican
and Abolition journals are guilty of the dishonesty
of classifying all members of their own partyr"! I
" Unionists," and all members of the opposite Pa LY

as " Submissionists," or "Democrats," which
terms they assert to be convertible. But the
Democrats claim to be as good Unionists as the
Republicans, if not better, and insist that the
ultra-Abolitidnists are not Unionists at all for be-
lieving, as they do, that the old Constitution and
the old Union, which the Democrats seek to restore,
"was a league with death and a covenant with hell."
The timid Democrats, who dread a defeat of their
party in the State of New York, continue to urge
the withdrawal of both of the present candidates
for the cffice of Governor, and the substitution of
Gen. Dix, who, on the ground of his independent
support of the Government, would command the
support of a majority of both parties. But the old
Democratic leaders are not inclined to follow the
advice. They admit the possibility of being beaten
in the State, but are confident that they will carry
the city, and seem quite determined to go to
the polls with their whole ticket, and take the
consequences. Unfortunately for their chances,
they are divided among themselves. Though the
" Tammany " and " Alosart " factions have made
up their differences, a new schism has arisen. A
party, calling itself the " leffersonians," has
seceded from the old orgacisation, and claims the
right of privet ej ud gment. It has adopted no audible
or recognised Shibboleth. It appears to distrust the
peace party as much as it distrusts the Abolitionists
and Exterminators ; to stand on the equilibrium of
the juste milieu, and to desire nothing but the estab-
lishment of the Union—and nothing short of it--on
such terms as time, war, chance, and policy may
ultimately determine. This party bids fair to re-
ceive accretions. Many of its members not only
think the President committed a grave error in his
emancipation edict, but condemn the arbitrary ar-
rest of citizens, the suspension of the habeas corpus,
the fiscal heresies of Mr. Chase, and the general mis-
management of every branch of the public service,
which has characterised the Administration; so that
in some States, if not in New York, a fusion may
take place which will elevate to power in the next
Congress (if the war last so long) a doctrinaire ma-
jority that will neither be a match for the Northern
Abolitionists nor for the Southern Secessionists, and
that, after a bitter struggle, will be ground to atoms
between the upper and the nether millstone of these
two extremes.

The conscription for the State of New York has at
last been fixed for the 10th of November—six days
subsequent to the elections, so that the vote may
not be diminished by that of the conscripts. There
are 35,000 men still due under the two Presidential
calls between the State and the city, the quota of
the latter under the last call being estimated at about
8,000. If the lot fall upon many rich bankers and
Tnerchants, the price of substitutes will mount like
the price of gold, and raw emigrants, if hale and
hearty, when arriving at New York either from
Germany or Ireland in the few days following the
10th, will find their bone and muscle worth larger
sums to them than they ever imagined to be possible
in the old countries from which they came. The
draught has already commenced in Massachusetts ;
but in Boston, where its operation is not palateable
to the wealthy citizens, it has been adjourned on the
action of the municipality, which has raised, or is
about to raise, funds sufficient to offer every Volun-
teer necessary to fill up the quota 200 dols.,
in addition to all other bounties. Perhaps great
New York may be incited to follow the example
of little Boston. Two hundred dollars will not
buy a substitute in this city if the conscription
be enforced ; and it will be well to avoid the
draught, and procure cheap locum tenentes by a
voluntary subscription, though it amount to so large
a sum as 1,600,000 dols. Large as the amount may
be, there are scores of men in New York who would
contribute each a tenth of the money rather than
shoulder the rifle, or risk their health and lives in
the camps of General 111‘ClelIan or any other cotn-
ruander.

• General Butler still rules New Orleans with a rod
of scorpions. Not content with making every man
within his jurisdiction take the oath of allegiance to
the United States or forfeit his property, invalidate
' his whole course of business, and become a political
though not a social outlaw, he has just sentenced an
unfortunate ex-policeman to six months' imprison-
ment and hard labour, and to wear an iron chain
and a 241 b. shot attached to his leg, for the offence
of describing himself in an official document as a
supporter of the constitution of the Confederate
States. Butler has a perfect mania for rigour.
Surely if Fort Lafayette is to be permanently
made a Bastille for political prisoners whom it
is the present fashion to consign to its gloomy
walls by lettres de cachet, he ought to be ap-
pointed its governor. But perhaps he expects a
higher destiny, and reserves himself, or is reserved
by his present superiors, for the dignified, but not
enviable post of Exterminator-General of the South-
ern people. Extermination is the only logical end of
the war if the North is to be victorious, and General
Butler is so palpably the man for the work that any
other candidate would be a fool who presumed to
run against him.

The exploits of Capt. Semmes, of the Alabama,
whom the Northern journals persist in calling a
pirate, though he no more deserves the name than
Generals Lee, Stuart, " Stonewall" Jackson, or any
other commander of the Northern forces, have ex.
cited great alarm in commercial circles. The rate
of insurance on all American ocean-going vessels
has been raised 5 per cent. to-Say by the published
report of the captain's achievements, and the ccir-•
tain result will be, unless the Alabama is cut short
ir. her career, to throw all the European and a large
portion of the Asiatic trade of America into British
and other European bottoms. This prospect is the
reverse of agreeable to the shipping interest of this
port, and of all the cities of the Federal seaboard,
and a loud and rather angry demand is made upon
the government to fit out an expedition to seize the
Alabama, hang the captain, and convert the ship to
Federal uses.